Given a decent AP discount and a desire to stay somewhere that felt more Christmasy than Old Key West had last year, we opted to stay at the Wilderness Lodge in a courtyard view room. Other than having to walk roughly fifteen miles to our room (is this a trend?), we absolutely adored the Wilderness Lodge and would (will!) stay there again in a heartbeat. I’ll post a more lengthy review soon, but in the meantime it got a solid two thumbs up from both of us.  Cast Member demeanor was a bit spotty, but I can’t say enough about the friendly Cast Members at check-in and in the Territory Lounge.

The main goals for this trip were to a) relax; b) pin trade like crazy (yes, I know, I can’t possibly be a real Disney fan/critic/obsessive and like pin trading since it’s evil/ruined WDW/really, really evil); and c) soak in as much Christmas atmosphere as possible.  I’d say we deftly accomplished the latter two goals, but work and family obligations intruded more times than we would have liked, which kind of killed the relaxation piece of the trip. That said, we still found time to take some naps, enjoy some leisurely meals, and do some contented people watching with Dole Whips in hand.

Instead of a play-by-play of our trip, here are some highlights – and lowlights – of our holiday time at WDW:

Pin trading with Scoop Sanderson. Check this item off the Disney bucket list! If you’re unfamiliar, Scoop Sanderson is a face character on the Magic Kingdom’s Main Street, USA.  We’ve looked for him on previous trips to no avail, and so were delighted to see him on the train at the Magic Kingdom opening show.  Unsure when he’d be out on Main Street to pin trade, we later saw him riding the Main Street trolley and stalked him until the trolley stopped. I went up to ask when he’d be available to trade, and it turned out he’d be available…right then! We scored a wonderfully rare artist proof pin, and highly recommend a visit with Scoop if you’re an avid pin trader.

Twice the dining pleasure.  We went into this trip with reservations for breakfast at the Kona Cafe and dinner at Via Napoli, two of our favorite restaurants. We enjoyed them so much this time that we made second reservations for each!  As I mentioned recently, CP and I have found ways to enjoy Disney dining without the expense (in both time and dollars) of eating at signature restaurants. Kona and Via Napoli are two of our favorite (relatively) affordable sit-down meals at WDW, and we will likely visit on each and every trip.

We are party people. I don’t love the cost – and I don’t love the continued trend of squeezing more money out of WDW guests – but I do love the programming at the Magic Kingdom Christmas party. We went last year and decided to go again this year, and we’ll probably go again on a future Christmas trip.  We love the parade and the fireworks, but most of all, we love interacting with Cast Members on party nights – they seem to be so much happier and more relaxed than they are during normal park hours. This may be due in part to the reduced crowds at the parties, another factor that keeps us coming back for more of these hard ticket events.  Other highlights: a photo op with Scrooge McDuck, a photo op with a very sassy Duffy (he asked me to text him for a date!), and a hilarious dance party DJ’ed by this guy, who we first saw at this year’s Halloween Party, and whose equally hilarious “Calling All the Monsters” video you must watch:

Photopass is a lot of work. We tried out Photopass for the first time in September and had a really good experience with it. For the cost, I think we came away with our money’s worth of good photos. On this trip, however, I don’t think we did quite as good of a job maximizing the value. And, with fewer days this trip, our total number of Photopass photos was much lower, which meant we didn’t come away with as many “keepers.” (It’s a good rule of thumb that you need to take 3 Photopass pictures to come away with one really good one – you may have your eyes closed, the sun might be in your eyes, or your Photopass photographer just might not be that good. As they say, go early and go often!) I won’t hesitate to do Photopass again on a longer trip, but for a trip of 5 or fewer days, I might pass.

The Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios are a Christmas Dream, Epcot…not so much. For the second year in a row I found myself really underwhelmed by the holiday decor at Epcot, my favorite WDW park.  For the second year in a row I found myself really pleased by decor in the Magic Kingdom, and especially at Hollywood Studios. If you want the best Christmas bang for your buck, stick to the Magic Kingdom – you’ll have perhaps more holiday cheer than you can handle. If you get dragged unwillingly to WDW at the holidays and want to pretend the holidays aren’t happening, head to Epcot – you’ll quickly forget that there’s anything festive going on in the world.

Merchandise is getting better…seriously. I’m the first to admit that the homogenization of park merchandise during the past few years has been shameful, a real black mark on a company known for creativity and imagination. That said, on this trip (and on the previous two or three we’ve taken) I was pleasantly surprised to see a wider selection of merchandise options. That said, while overall selection may be wider, there is still no real difference in merchandise options across property. If you want a shirt you saw in Epcot, you’re pretty much guaranteed to find it at the Magic Kingdom, the Caribbean Beach Resort, or Downtown Disney’s Once Upon a Toy. But at least the shirt you saw at Epcot is probably a much more interesting, thoughtful shirt than you could have found a few years ago. It’s a step in the right direction, and I’ll take it.

Some things are hard to ignore. And for repeat visitors like us, the uncomfortable truth is that the Disney resorts are a bigger draw than the parks. All the NextGen technology in the world won’t change the fact that new attractions – to say nothing of general park maintenance – are a rare luxury these days in Lake Buena Vista. At Epcot, for instance, I’m happy to visit my favorite rides and attractions,  but there’s no getting past the disappointments like Innoventions, an empty Wonders of Life Pavilion, and a comically outdated and out-of-touch Ellen’s Energy Adventure.  Hollywood Studios is a place we visit only for a couple of rides and a scenic stroll. Animal Kingdom may get a half-day visit from us, if that – on this trip, we didn’t visit AK at all.  The Magic Kingdom is probably in the best shape in terms of keeping things new and interesting, but with Disney officials threatening less – not more!- capital investment, I doubt even the Magic Kingdom will remain fresh for very long.

With all of this said, we enjoyed our trip very much and will likely take a trip to WDW each year at the holidays – I’m loathe to overuse this word, but it is the one time a year at Disney you can count on things feeling “magical.” If you’re at all on the fence about a holiday trip, take the plunge!

A few more photos from last month’s trip: