Christmas as Disney World

While I may not always speak highly of my family (as I have to pretend to be something I am not around them) I enjoyed the trip to Disney World we took this year. While I will not show any pictures that we are in, I will share the one of "Elsa's Castle". The park was not horribly crowded and the worst crown was the Osborne family Dancing Lights area in Hollywood Studios. But other than that one spot, it was bearable for me and I have anxiety attacks in large crowds.

The new wristbands that they use make everything streamlined. If you stay in the park hotels, like we stayed at The Art of Animation in a Cars suite, it is your hotel key. It has your fastpasses which you reserve online, and your dining plan. You can even buy a picture plan in which you get any pictures taken in the park (including rides which can somehow sense your bands) for a set price. And if you set it up that way, you can link a credit card to the band for purchases or charges you make. It just make everything easier and allowed us to enjoy the vacation without worrying about keeping up with cards, fastpass tickets, etc.

Also the bands allow you to stay for the magic hours, so we went to Magic Kingdom both nights (we were only there for 2 days and nights) and stayed to 3am. During those hours you can almost walk on any ride (except for the newest ones) and the park feels almost empty. Especially the night it rained, there were so few people, it was like we had the park to ourselves just a few days before Christmas!

Probably the most magical thing was on our last night it "snowed" on Main Street as we walked towards the Castle all lit up to look like an ice castle. Coupled with the fact that pretty much everyone is in a nicer mood at Christmas, and especially at Disney World, it made for a wonderful trip!

(I was only sad that I did not get to celebrate Yule with my fiance.)