Originally, we planned this trip back in the summer as a long weekend trip in December - Friday through Monday to celebrate my husband's best friend's birthday. After a little deliberation and realizing our need to defer our Princess trip to 2017, we decided to tack on two extra days and enjoy the Disney Christmas festivities as well!
Orlando airport! Although we were in Disney for Wine & Dine last fall, I felt like we only had a little tiny taste of Christmas (first week of November). Our last time to visit in December was in 2011, so this was much overdue!
Hi Orlando! We took a late Friday night flight into Orlando, met up with our friends at the airport, enjoyed a chocolate shake from the Wawa (one of the coolest gas stations ever), then crashed at our friend's house.
The next morning, Melissa and I participated in the Reindeer Run 5K through Sea World. (See recap here.)
After the race, we showered, took naps, had lunch at a yummy Mexican restaurant, then drove over to a local vineyard. Neither Jason nor I had visited a vineyard before, so this was neat to see! They were also hosting an arts and crafts fair, so we enjoyed browsing all of the booths on the grounds.
The vineyard was gorgeous!
We also stopped by to say hi to Santa on our way out! :)
For dinner that evening, we drove over to Celebration to enjoy the Christmas decor and downtown festivities. The main street included an ice skating rink and "snow" every few minutes.
Live bands also played throughout the evening.
We enjoyed seeing their setup and relaxing at Starbucks while waiting on our table to open up at the Market Street Cafe. Afterward, we drove around the town and looked at Christmas lights.
This wasn't our first time to visit Celebration - if you remember the great 5K tooth incident of 2014 with my mom, she had her tooth fixed by a dentist in Celebration and that's where we spent a good portion of one afternoon.
The following day (Sunday), we slept in and lounged around the house. Honestly, it was nice to relax and sleep!
We had tickets for Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party that evening and we wanted to check out the gingerbread house at the Grand! (Again, I hadn't seen this since 2011, so it was long overdue!)
Love this lobby at Christmas time!
The gingerbread house smelled heavenly! I always enjoy reading all of the details that go into making the gingerbread house! :)
We also loved looking at all of the little details and hidden Mickeys!
Disney at Christmas is truly the best. I just love it!!
For additional recaps of our Disney Christmas trip, check out the links below!
- Exploring Orlando Area/Grand Floridian Gingerbread House
- Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party
- The Osborne Lights
- Epcot
- Animal Kingdom
- Hollywood Studios & Magic Kingdom at night
- Beignets at Port Orleans French Quarter
Up next: Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party!
When is your favorite time to travel and visit the parks?
