2016 Walt Disney World Christmas Trip Recap – Part 1
The pace of this Walt Disney World Christmas 2016 Recap post should pick up going forward. In large part, this is because when we checked into the Grand Floridian Villas, we were notified that we had been upgraded to a 1-bedroom unit. Upgrades are exceedingly rare when using DVC points, and it usually occurs because one category is less popular than others.
We had heard this was the case with 1-BR units at Grand Floridian, but still didn’t think it was in the realm of possibilities that we’d receive anything. Again, I think Sarah almost hugged the Cast Member who checked us in. She was beyond elated, and while our room wasn’t ready this time, I think she was perfectly content camping out in the lobby waiting for that text message notification.
Instead, we headed over to the Beaches Pool Bar to eat, knowing that “getting this out of the way” meant more time to enjoy the room. We’d never dined here before and I doubt I’ll do a full review, so I’ll give you the rundown here.
Sarah ordered the Lobster Sliders served on three mini Brioche Buns (below). These were pretty good, with chunks of lobster and a decent flavor. They were, however, incredibly small. So small that I wouldn’t order them again, particularly given that $16 price.
I ordered the House-made Crab Cake Sandwich with Sweet Corn Tartar Sauce (below). Ordering an $11 crab cake sandwich from a pool bar is roughly equivalent to buying a hot dog from 7-11: you know what you’re getting yourself into, and you’ve come to terms with it. In this case, that means a high filler-to-crab rate.
Even with that, this sandwich exceeded both of our expectations (which were admittedly low). I’d order this again before the lobster sliders, but my first choice would just be to eat elsewhere.
Shortly after this, our room was ready. I’ve been hard on Grand Floridian in the past, but had slowly been coming around on the resort, thanks in large part to recent refurbishments.
Well, consider this me coming around the rest of the way. We’ve stayed in and toured a lot of Disney Vacation Club villas, and this ranks up there among the best. The balance of theme and luxury was perfect, and my initial fears that the rooms would be done on the cheap (since the outside looks like it was) were dispelled.
I’ll save further thoughts and photos for our full review, but I was really impressed. Obviously, the upgrade was part of that, but the quality of the 1-BR unit should be indicative of that found in all other rooms (just a different size) and if the studio is comparable to that, it would be among the best at Walt Disney World.
If you want to see more now–or want to watch the train-wreck that is me ad-libbing on video–we did this Facebook Live walk-through of the room:
My about-face on Grand Floridian is, admittedly, in large part based upon what we paid. We are paying a yearly cost of roughly $7 per DVC point that we own. Our 1-night stay was 17 points, or $119. While I do not believe Grand Floridian should command the $500+ rack rates that Walt Disney World charges, I think it’s justifiable as a $200-300/night resort. For a $120/night resort, consider me “very satisfied” with the experience. I realize in the future, it’s highly unlikely we’d receive an upgrade. Even for a studio, I think that price is more than fair.
If I had a time machine, I’d go back and buy more DVC points when we did. (I’d do cooler things with the time machine first…don’t worry.) Even today, we are tempted to buy more SSR or BLT points via resale. I could get behind staying at the Grand Floridian or Polynesian regularly for under $200/night!
We spent all day in that room. It was basically a day of this, on loop:
In the evening, I headed to the Polynesian and inside the main lobby of the Grand Floridian to take photos of the Christmas decorations. The Poly felt pretty sparse, and it’s disappointing to me that they haven’t taken advantage of the empty space in the lobby (now that the fountain is gone) to add an icon tree.
Grand Floridian’s lobby looked opulent, but it was a bit of a bummer the Christmas tree wasn’t up yet. I’m saving photos of both resorts for our updated Vacation Kingdom at Christmas eBook, coming tomorrow. Make sure to sign up to get the free WDW Christmas eBook, if you already haven’t.
I got up early for sunrise the next morning, and it was freezing–almost literally. It was in the 40s, and I passed many tourists shivering in shorts as they walked to the monorails and boats at the TTC.
Consider this your near-daily reminder that you should follow the advice in our Winter Packing Tips for Disney post. There are some clever things to take, some of which will help you avoid overpacking.
The next morning, we transferred to Animal Kingdom Lodge – Jambo House. There, we scored a 9-point (so, $63/night based on our costs) value studio. We had stayed at the Animal Kingdom Lodge Villas on our last visit, and I’m not sure if anything–aside from the view–was different between this unit and our last.
I love the Animal Kingdom Lodge rooms. The theme/luxury balance skews more towards theme here, but that’s totally fine by me. The rooms are still well-appointed, and don’t feel visually garish or over the top. Sarah finds them to be too dark and drab, so I suppose it’s all a matter of personal preference.
From there it was on to Disney’s Hollywood Studios…again. Because we hadn’t accomplished an adequate amount of fist-shaking at the construction walls on our first visit, we headed back to Muppet Courtyard. Actually, our prerogative this day was doing PizzeRizzo. You can read about how that went in our PizzeRizzo Review.
While I (half) joke about having to spend time in Disney’s Hollywood Studios, one high note is that Muppets Courtyard is looking “BETTER THAN EVER.” In fairness, this is 140% because the exterior of PizzeRizzo is well done, and ties together the area. It’s -50% because the fountain has been filled in as a planter (supposedly temporary). Finally, 10% is because of the Christmas decorations. (I also really like the Muppets Area Christmas BGM.)
This left us with a few hours until our dinner ADR. I’ve managed to mostly block out those unpleasant memories, but you can piece together some of our “adventures” via the following photos:
We had an ADR for the last seating at Minnie’s Holiday Dine, and Sarah went to check-in for that while I watched Jingle Bell, Jingle BAM! It did not improve with a subsequent viewing. If anything, I enjoyed it less. My viewpoint was definitely not optimal (my goal was photos), but that wouldn’t effect the “plot” or loose narrative thread.
The show lacks emotional oomph, and is downright boring in parts. Even a gratuitous use of lasers can’t save it. Also, and I realize this is a random nitpick, but does anyone know why there is the awkward mention of “Orlando” several times in the show? It felt like the dialogue was contorted to include this, as if saying the city’s name will elicit cheers from the crowd (it doesn’t).
We already covered dinner in our Minnie’s Holiday Dine Review, so I’ll skip that. When we left the restaurant, the park was nearly empty, which provided the perfect opportunity for night photos.
From DHS, we headed to Disney Springs. I already covered that experience in our Tips for Disney Springs at Christmas post, so there’s really not much else to say about that, either.
Alright, that covers days 1-3 of our recent trip. That’s an average of less than 1,000 words per day…still not exactly concise given that I glossed over a lot of what we did, but better than the 4,000 words per day average of a normal trip report. Part 2 of this post will cover our remaining days of our Walt Disney World Christmas trip. Please feel free to leave your thoughts about anything here in the comments, including whether you prefer the more concise style of this report or the typical, verbose trip reports!
Liked the post, but I still prefer living vicariously through the long ramble-y posts 😛
Nice post Tom. I might add your experience with 50 degree weather in Nov is the first I have experienced in 35+ years of living in Florida. Normally daytime highs are low 80’s at least until mid Dec. Anyone going to Disneyworld in this timeframe should always pack plenty of summer clothing, particularly shorts.
I agree with you on Ample Hills. We loved it and I don’t know why people dislike it. Even up here in Michigan, we have dairies that charge the same price for ice cream. Any place that makes it fresh almost always will. So why not pay a little more for a far superior product to Edy’s!
This may be a dumb question, but how in the heck did you score such low prices on the rooms?? Every time I look at either of them it’s at least three times the number of points you listed, then again I’m not a DVC member
This time of year (well, mid-November) is one of the lowest point seasons for Disney Vacation Club. If you Google DVC point charts, you’ll find a comparison of dates and room categories.
Tips on transferring between resorts? When leaving one resort I tend to head to a park and then later return to the next resort, which means waiting for luggage which entails a close call for fresh dinner clothes. Do you haul your own luggage directly from resort to resort perhaps utilizing Uber and accepting the time loss? Perhaps you could include your strategy in the next post,..
We have packed a day bag of necessities and then checked them in a locker at a park. I think it was $9? That might be the least amount of hassle.
Thank you, Kacie! One doesn’t want to sacrifice a pristine park morning to the altar of split stays. I suppose wrinkled trousers are closer to the unwritten dinner dress code than shorts or no trousers at all. We will splurge on a locker!
Been reading for a few years, you guys really have nailed the whole pro/con/magic/business ethos of Disney Parks. I agree on all of those.
I love your perspective, which is rare in DIS community.
Been to WDW 100x on business (and raising kids) and can share 5 years of behind the magic awesome and crass observations any time.
Keep up the great insights and op-eds.
[email protected]
Thanks for the kind words–and you’re welcome to share your crass observations here anytime!
I prefer the longer reports, with more corny jokes lol. That’s part of the reason I love your trip reports. 🙂
Is the ~$7/point your amortized cost including fees and amortization of the purchase price? That seems low off the top of my head, using $125/point purchase price/40-years + maintenance.
Yes, it is. The only thing unaccounted for is the opportunity cost of our initial investment, but that would make for a more complicated analysis.
We bought resale quite a while ago–we didn’t pay anything near $125/point.
Thanks for the clarity – a quick glance showed me that was a common price these days.
Opportunity cost would be a complicated calculation. Although at today’s savings/CD rates it’s a very small impact.
I saw a really nice opportunity cost calculation for DVC and of course can’t find the post now. But I think the basic idea was calculate your purchase price per point per year. For example $100 per point over 40 years equals $2.50 per point per year. Then plug that number into a mortgage calculator. Make your expected rate of return had you invested the money for 40 years instead of purchased DVC your “interest rate” and run the calculation for the length of time remaining on the contract. The value of that $2.50 in 40 years will give you an idea of your opportunity cost per point (which typically is in the ballpark of doubling it). Then you add that to your price per point yearly dues to figure how much you are paying per point per year all in; purchase price, opportunity cost, yearly dues.
I wouldn’t look at today’s savings or CD rates though as my expected rate of return. If you were truely going to invest your initial purchase price for 40 years then it would be more likely in mutual funds etc. A balanced index fund is going to get you conservatively 4% per year average over 40 years (after inflation is removed so you’re still looking at today’s dollars). So maybe your $7 per point comes out to $8.50 or $9 per point after factoring opportunity cost?
The actual calculation in the post I can’t find was BLT resale maybe 1 year ago and that came out to about $10-11 per point per year.
Just sat through a DVC presentation last week….$171/point!
It was great to read that you stayed at the GF! It’s without a doubt the top DVC accommodation going right now.
My only issue with DVC GF is that the rooms at the main hotel look so bad in comparison since the DVC property opened. I’m one of those people who paid full freight ($700 or so) to stay at the hotel on Valentines Day a few years ago (my family did too) and those rooms just cannot compare. I feel bad for anyone paying top dollar to stay in the hotel these days, as the bathrooms will always be 1988 tiny (unless massive construction is undertaken to expand the footprint of each room) in comparison to DVC. The shower (that shower!!) comparison alone is enough to make one laugh or cry depending on which side of the house you are staying at! Glad to be on the DVC side of this one.
The shower in the 1-BR unit really was something. We joked that you could have a party in there, it was so big. A bit overkill, in my mind, but I’d certainly take that over the tiny bathrooms at many other Walt Disney World resorts.
Tom, will you be finishing the Paris trip report? It looks like it was nearing the end but I don’t think it ended.
Never mind… Had I actually read the post before commenting I would have seen you had already mentioned it. Sorry!
While I would have loved a longer, regular-style trip report, this is certainly better than nothing! Thank you for sharing! I love hearing about your adventures and living through you and Sarah vicariously.
I can answer your Orlando question. Show director Tom Vazzana put the nods to Orlando in the show in light of the Pulse shooting. The three instances come when Santa is talking, and are intended to remind the audience that even in the darkest times, there is still good in the world, especially through the eyes of children. He also has several other references included in the show, including the couple from UP being included in the “love” montage, to symbolize his own parents.
I assume he shared that at the D23 Destination D event? It’s certainly nice sentiment, but I wonder how many minds that will register with–to me, it stuck out as awkward more than anything else.
Yep! He went through Bell/Bam scene by scene and shared thought processes and tid-bits.
I don’t disagree, I saw the show before D23, and hearing him talk I do want to see it again this season, but it doesn’t make it any less disjointed.
I also found the use of the word “Orlando” awkward. It pulled me out of being in DHS and into the real world. Also, I felt like I was being brainwashed every time I heard “Orlando”.