Christmas Eve and Christmas Day reports?

[Mr. Brass Bonanza]

Can people who stayed at a Disney resort on Christmas Eve into Christmas Day report on what that was like? Did the resort do anything special for your door or in your room? What did you do about opening presents? Could you tell at the resort and in the parks it was Christmas Eve and Christmas Day?

Thanks!

[Diz-Knee]

Our family doesn’t celebrate Christmas but I can tell you our experience. We stayed in a cabin at Fort Wilderness and there was no extra perk or surprise on our door or in our room other than mousekeeping making a towel creature. We were hoping to avoid the large crowds as the shoulder to shoulder rumors at the MK made me nervous so we chose to spend Christmas Day at Animal Kingdom. To tell you the truth it was a breeze! No crazy long lines, not overly crowded. Early in the day we walked right on a few rides and waited in a few lines up to about 30 minutes later in the afternoon (safari, Festival of Lion King, Everest). Skipped a couple of rides as we are going back in May but did most of what we wanted between 9:30 and 3pm. I think we moved faster than when we’ve gone in the off-season. I figure early in the day families were still together opening gifts and arriving at the parks later and likely Animal Kingdom wasn’t the primary park of choice. As far as anything different at the park I only noticed that the cast members were all wishing us a Merry Christmas that we didn’t hear regularly after Christmas Day. Christmas Day was also our first day in the parks. Later that evening we went to Epcot and noticed a considerable difference in the crowd level. Downtown Disney on Christmas day in the evening was CROWDED and every lot was full. My guess is most of the extra Christmas activities were at Epcot and MK.

[valjane]

We were at Pop for Christmas.

While Disney no longer leaves stockings on your door like they did a few years ago, it seemed like there were some special activities going on.

On Christmas Eve, Santa was in the lobby of Pop, as was a table of free cookies and lemonade. They also had a gingerbread house competition in the food court.

On Christmas Day, we headed to Wilderness Lodge for lunch and they had treats in the lobby there as well.

Other than some special entertainment in the resorts, if you go do WDW during Christmas, it's going to look like Christmas EVERY DAY, not just on the 24th and 25th.

[Jeff]

I was at the Swan the last 2 years and nothing special on the door. A few years back, at the Poly, there was a "Mickey bag" on the door compliments of the DVC.

The Swan and Dolphin had several special things going on (story tellers, movies, etc...).

In the parks I think there was a different kind of feeling. CM's and guests seemed especially festive. Lot's of folks wearing Mickey/Santa hats. Nothing really special other than the other Christmas things already going on.

We ususally just take a few gifts or buy a few at Downtown Disney and have a "family Disney stocking" stuffed with treats. We save our gifts for when we get home. That helps give us something to look forward too and helps avoid the post WDW trip blues.

[MississippiDisneyFreak]

We were there and stayed at Pop, we got little Christmasy towel decorations from mousekeeping but nothing on the door...we didn't go into the lobby sounds like we missed out on that....the parks are all decorated and the CM were telling everyone Merry Christmas....we did the Candlelight Processional at Epcot Christmas night and we did Fantasmic Christmas Eve...and my son opened his gifts Christmas morning in our room...we took our own little tree but it was a little warm to feel really Christmasy so mom and I brought ours home to open them later