Mom Street USA | 10 Holiday Experiences for Families at the Orlando Theme Parks

 It may not even be Halloween yet, but the holiday season is already on its way — and Orlando’s theme parks are gearing up with some of the most magical celebrations of the year! In this episode of Mom Street USA, we’re sharing 10 must-do holiday experiences for families across Walt Disney World, Universal Orlando, SeaWorld, and LEGOLAND Florida. From meeting Santa and the Grinch, to dazzling parades, festive food, and gingerbread displays, there’s something for everyone to enjoy.

We’ll cover both ticketed events like Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party, and free holiday offerings like the Christmas Tree Stroll at Disney Springs — so you can plan the perfect holiday trip that fits your family and your budget.

✨ Here’s what you’ll find in this episode:
🎅 Where to meet Santa at Disney, Universal, SeaWorld, and LEGOLAND
🎄 Grinchmas at Universal Islands of Adventure (plus tips for meeting the Grinch!)
🎈 Universal’s Macy’s Holiday Parade with giant balloons & characters
🦌 SeaWorld’s Christmas Celebration with Rudolph, Sesame Street friends & fireworks
🧱 LEGOLAND’s holiday shows, interactive fun, and New Year’s fireworks for kids
🍪 EPCOT’s International Festival of the Holidays — storytellers, food booths, cookie stroll & Candlelight Processional
🏰 Magic Kingdom’s Very Merry Christmas Party & all the festive extras
🎠 Disney resort gingerbread displays, trees, and holiday activities
❄️ Special extras like sleigh rides at Fort Wilderness and Capture Your Moment holiday photo sessions

Whether you’re planning your first holiday trip to Orlando or returning for another year of family traditions, this guide will help you make the most of the season.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:05):
Welcome everybody to mom Street, USA. My name is Jackie
aka Vishous Mama, and on today's episode of mom Street,
we are looking forward a bit. I know that it's
not even Halloween yet when I'm recording this. However, we
are going to talk about the holiday season in the
Orlando theme parks, so that is on the list for today. Now.

(00:25):
I know, if you heard at the end of last episode,
I mentioned that I thought we were going to have
a hub episode this week. However, our good friend Stevie
has decided that she needs to take a step back
from mom Street right now, just for some personal reasons.
So we are sending her all the love, but she
will be not joining us for a while here on
mom Street. But that's okay because we've still got lots

(00:46):
of great information for you guys today. And like I
mentioned just a few seconds ago, we are going to
be focused on the holidays, which seems a little crazy
to already be thinking that, but if you are like
me and I figure a lot of our mom Street
community is you're already looking at holidays, especially if you've
got a Disney trip, So you need to know what
is available. You need to know what's going on in

(01:08):
the Orlando area when you are going to be down
at the parks during the holiday season. So today we
are talking about ten holiday experiences for families at the
Orlando theme parks. So we are going to focus primarily
on Disney because honestly, they have the most offerings that
I can chat about, but we are going to talk

(01:28):
about some of the Orlando other Orlando theme parks as
well to give you guys just kind of a full
picture on what some of the different offerings are that
you have if you are going to be visiting the
Orlando area during the holiday season. So let's jump in
to this list. Before I give you my first one

(01:49):
on my list of ten, here, I do just want
to mention and I'll try to do my best to
clarify this as we go through that some of these
events that I'm going to talk about are free, some
of them are included with the purchase of an admission
ticket to whatever theme park it is that we're talking about.

Speaker 2 (02:07):
But then some of them are also.

Speaker 1 (02:09):
Like extra hour events that need an extra ticket for
So I will try my best to clarify that as
we go through all of these different things. Just to
make sure you know whether or not it's something you
need to budget extra for or if you're already going there,
if it's included, you just need to kind of plan
accordingly for. So the very first thing that we're going

(02:29):
to talk about when it comes to holiday experiences in
and around the Orlando Theme parks is where can I
take my kids to meet Santa?

Speaker 2 (02:39):
Right?

Speaker 1 (02:40):
That is something that a lot of families do when
they come down around the holiday season. They want to
meet the man himself. So let's talk about at the
main Orlando theme parks where you can meet Santa. So
let's start with Universal. At Universal the one of the

(03:00):
only places that you can actually see Santa, not the Grinch,
and we'll talk about the Grinch hair very shortly.

Speaker 2 (03:07):
But where you can.

Speaker 1 (03:07):
See Santa is actually on their holiday VIP tour that
they offer. So this is obviously an added expense that
you would have to plan for, but otherwise you can
only see him in their parade that they do. And
again we'll talk about this here in just a moment,
but with if you do decide to book the holiday
VIP tour, on the tour, you get a couple perks

(03:29):
along with just having that tour guide with you. You get
priority seating at the Grinch Miss Show, You get a
meet and greet with Grinch, with the Grinch and Max,
you get a special viewing area of the Macy's Parade,
and again we'll go over all this here just momentarily.
You get a meet and greet with Santa and a
viewing a special viewing area for the Hogwarts Christmas projection show,

(03:53):
along with some food and drink offerings as well. So
at Universal that is the only place that you can
actually truly do a meet and greet with Santa. Otherwise
you're going to see some other characters that we'll talk
about here momentarily when we hop to what Universal has
to offer at the holidays. At Legoland, if you're visiting
Lego Land during the holidays, they have a Lego Santa

(04:14):
meet and greet, but you will not find Santa in
a traditional sense.

Speaker 2 (04:19):
Over at Lego Land.

Speaker 1 (04:20):
If you're heading to Sea World in Orlando, you can
take their Reindeer Express train to be transported to go
visit with Santa. And again these other parks, we will
talk about what all they have to offer. I just
wanted to kind of start off with here's where you
can plan to meet Santa for this now at Disney,
you have the most opportunities to meet Santa, depending on

(04:43):
what your plans are and where you're going to be.
So a couple different places that you can see Santa
at Disney. The first is at the Very Merry Christmas Party,
which is the after hours, additional cost Christmas party that
they do at Magic Kingdom. You can meet Santa at
Jollywood Knights, which is the after hours ticketed, extra ticketed

(05:04):
event that they do at Hollywood Studios at Magic Kingdom
during normal park hours. If you've got a park ticket,
he meets in Liberty Square. If you're headed to Epcot
again and you have a park ticket for Epcot, he
will be meeting this year in Communicoor Hall, which is
a change from previous He had been meeting I believe
in the Odyssey Pavilion, but they are going to move

(05:26):
him to the Communicoor Hall space this year at Animal Kingdom.
Santa previously met in dinal Land, USA at restaurant Asaurus.
I haven't seen any official announcements from Disney where and
when and if they plan to have a Santa meet
and greet available at Animal Kingdom restaurant Asaurus is still
open despite a lot of dinal and USA being closed.

(05:50):
But I don't know whether or not they are going
to put Santa back there. With all of the construction
walls that have gone up, it's a little tricky to
navigate back over there, so we'll have to and see.
But I would anticipate Animal Kingdom having some sort of
a Santa meet and greet. We just don't know exactly
where it may be for this year at Hollywood Studios.

(06:10):
He met previously near Baseline tap House, kind of in
that area. Again, there's some construction going on over there
with the removal of Muppet Courtyard, So we'll have to
wait and see what Hollywood Studio says for that. If
you are visiting Disney Springs now the ones that I
mentioned earlier, you're gonna have to have a park ticket
for right If you're visiting Disney Springs, you don't have

(06:32):
to have a park ticket to visit Disney Springs that
you can meet Santa inside Santa's Marketplace in the Once
upon a Toy building, and they do utilize a virtual
queue for that, So that's something you're gonna want to
look into ahead of time. This, I believe will be
the third year that they're utilizing that virtual queue system
for the Santa Meet and greet there. We did it
a few years ago with our kiddos and it was

(06:53):
super fun, super easy. It was a really great meet
and greet to do. So it is a free option
that you have over at Disney Springs, and I do
just also want to mention that if you are visiting
during the holidays and the weather is warm enough and
Blizzard Beach is an option and you do plan to
go there, they do have a Santa Meet and greet
over at Blizzard Beach where you can find Santa in

(07:16):
his beach where so he will be in kind of
like a Hawaiian button down shirt and swim trunks, but
he is over at Blizzard Beach if you do plan
to head over there as well. So those are the
main places that you can find Santa in all of
the theme parks if you are planning to visit the
theme parks during the holidays. But let's jump into kind

(07:37):
of some more specifics about what each park has to offer.
So let's talk about Universal's offerings for Christmas time, and
again we're focused on family offerings and they over at
Universal Islands of Adventure do a fantastic grinch Miss event.
So this is super super good for your youngest kiddos

(07:59):
and kiddos that are attending the Universal Parks. Grinchmiss itself
is included with your regular park ticket, so if you
have valid admission for Islands of Adventure for the day,
then you will be able to experience the things that
I'm going to be talking about this year. It runs
from November twenty first through January fourth of twenty twenty six,

(08:22):
so generally speaking, that's about the range that you get
with Grinchmiss. It doesn't run quite as long as the
Disney season, which we'll talk about here in a little bit.
So there will be decorations up all across the entire
Souss Landing area of Islands of Adventure. They've got a
bunch of different offerings that they have during this time period.

(08:44):
They've got a Hula Day Spectacular live show which is
really really cute. It's basically just a retelling story of
the Grinch and it features some pretty good music in that.
If you're familiar with Mannheim Steamroller, they're very popular, well
known musical. They're not really an Orchestra. They're kind of
like a rock orchestra group, but they do a lot

(09:06):
of Christmas music and their music is featured in that show.

Speaker 2 (09:10):
The big draw here.

Speaker 1 (09:12):
Is the meet and greet with the Grinch. This is
the one that you see all over social media. It
goes viral every year people having these really hysterical, super
fun interactions with the Grinch. Now, the big thing to
keep in mind is this line gets so long, so you.

Speaker 2 (09:35):
Really need to plan accordingly.

Speaker 1 (09:37):
You have to rope drop it, you have to go
there immediately as soon as you are able to get
into the park and plan to wait for.

Speaker 2 (09:46):
A couple hours.

Speaker 1 (09:47):
Unfortunately, that's just the way that it is with that
meet and greet because it is so popular and there's
just no way that they can push that. You know
that many people through the line at each time. Now,
if you want to meet the Grinch and you're like,
we absolutely cannot wait in that line, it's just not feasible.
The other way that you could do a meet and

(10:08):
greet with the Grinch is by booking the character breakfast
that they have, So every year they offer a character
breakfast with the Grinch during that time period. It is
very limited so it is a hard reservation.

Speaker 2 (10:19):
To get and you do need a reservation in order
to go.

Speaker 1 (10:23):
So if you are able to book that, you will
have the ability to do a photo, meet and greet
with the Grinch during your meal, so that is another option,
But those are your only two ways that you're going
to be able to meet with the Grinch if you
do plan to go to Grinchmiths during this time period.
The good thing to note about this is that a

(10:43):
lot of the attractions in the sous Landing area do
not have height restrictions or they have very low height restrictions,
so it is a very very accessible area and a
very accessible experience for really young young kids, which is
really nice. I do just want to mention that along
with the Grinchmith's aspect, Universal Parks does also do a

(11:08):
Macy's Parade. So think about the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade
that you're used to seeing, you know, on your TV
that goes through New York City on Thanksgiving and Santa's
at the end of it, you know, the big balloons
and the it's kind of this big spectacle. Well, Universal
does its own version of this in the parks during

(11:30):
the holiday season, so it's a really really fun thing
to do. Now, do keep in mind that this is
over at Universal Studios. So if you remember when we
did our whole Universal breakdown, there's two main parks at
the Universal Complex, not counting Epic Universe, which is at
a separate location. So Grinchmiss is in Islands of Adventure,

(11:50):
but this parade takes place in Universal Studios. So planning wise,
you may just need to take a look at that,
depending on what tickets you have and what your plans
are for your time when you're at us. But the
description of this Macy's Parade is catch larger.

Speaker 2 (12:06):
Than life balloons floating.

Speaker 1 (12:07):
Through the streets of Universal Studios, Florida, along with appearances
by the Minions and some of your favorite characters from
DreamWorks Animations, Shrek and Madagascar. So lots of really fun
characters in that really good holiday feel because you know,
the Macy's Prede is so iconic for the holiday season.
It typically runs once a day around five thirty pm.

(12:30):
It is subject to change, you know, weather and things
can adjust that time, but typically five thirty and it's
about a thirty minute experience. So if that's something that
draws you in and makes you, you know, excited about
the holidays. Maybe figure out a way to piggyback seeing
the Macy's Parade on the evening that maybe you visit

(12:53):
the Grinch and Grinchmiths during the morning. So that is
the main offering for families over at Universal. There are
some other themed shows and things in the Harry Potter areas,
but that is the main family kind of focused activity
that you can do over at Universal for the holidays.

(13:13):
So moving on to number three of our ten holiday
experiences for families at the Universal theme parks, let's talk
about Lego Land. Lego Land is a theme park that
is not too far of a drive. Now, I will
mention that if you are planning to do some of
these other theme parks and you're staying at Disney, you're
staying at Universal, you may want to look into a

(13:35):
car rental just to help with not only car seats
and booster seats and things like that, but also these
distances are not necessarily all ones that you're going to
want to do like a lift or an uber for
so just take that into consideration depending on what your
plans are for visiting the different parks. Whenever you are
down there, but the holidays at Lego Land, they have

(13:56):
some more specific dates that they run their holiday day
events at, so for this year, December sixth, thirteenth, twentieth,
and then the twenty fourth through the thirty first, and
Lego Land is typically open ten to seven, so ten
am to seven pm. All of their holiday experiences are

(14:17):
included with your regular ticket price, so if you've already
got a ticket and are planning to go to Lego Land,
that's something that will be included. Some of the fun
things that you can see over at Lego Land, they
have a gigantic Lego Christmas Tree, so envision the big
huge theme park trees that you're thinking of and used
to seeing at some of the Disney parks or resorts.

(14:38):
They have a massive Lego Christmas Tree, which is super fun.
They also have a life size Lego reindeer sleigh that
you can see. Super fun. Now, as far as meet
and greets go, we talked about that they don't have
a traditional Santa meet and greet over here, but they
do have a Lego Santa meet and greet, So imagine

(14:59):
one of those little minifigs minifigures and Lego just life size.
So you can meet life size Lego Santa. They also
have a Lego gingerbread Man meet and greet that you
can do as well. Again, think about those minifigs and
just imagine them being life size. They have quite a
few shows that you can attend if you are headed

(15:21):
to Lego Land for the holidays. They have the Elf
Extravaganza show, which is basically just like an Elf training
Academy show, super cute. They have Festival of Flurries and
the Very Merry Mix Up, among other little shows and
entertainment all throughout the park whenever you visit there. They
also have tons of interactive holiday activities, and this is

(15:43):
super fun because they've got them kind of spread out
all over the park, so you will find different crafts
or coloring or activities like that. You also find obviously
ton of Lego building things that they can do that
is all themed around the holidays. One of the unique
things that Lego and offers at their holiday event is
they have a spot where you can write letters to Santa,

(16:04):
and they actually have a whole little mailbox area that
you can take your letters to Santa and mail them
right then and there, which is a super fun little
touch that they have. They do also have holiday food
offerings throughout the parks. Again, we don't quite have menus
for those yet, we're a little too far ahead, but
definitely keep an eye out if you are visiting Lego

(16:26):
Land for the holidays. And then just something to note
that after their kind of Christmas time has ended right
here between Christmas and New Year's from December twenty sixth
through the thirty first, they do New Year's fireworks, but
they don't do them at midnight, so they don't make

(16:46):
you have to wait with your little kiddos to do
them super late in the evening, so they do them
at an earlier time so that it's much more family
friendly if you wanted to do some fireworks over at
Lego Land. So that kind of, in a nutshell, is
the down of what Lego Land has to offer. Again,
as we're recording this a little early in the season,
we don't have all the specifics for all of these

(17:08):
events quite released yet, but make sure that you check
out their website if you are interested in finding out more.
Once we get a little bit closer, probably right after Halloween,
we'll get some more details on some of these events
that they've got going on. So another Orlando theme park
that we don't talk a ton about here on mom
Street just because I haven't been there yet and I

(17:30):
need to get there just to do some of my
own on the ground research. But that is SeaWorld. So
let's talk about SeaWorld or Orlando and what their Christmas
celebration looks like. Their celebration is select dates, so not
every day, but select dates starting November seventh all the
way through January fifth, so that is their kind of

(17:51):
timeframe for their event.

Speaker 2 (17:53):
This again, is included in.

Speaker 1 (17:55):
Your admission, So if you're planning to go to SeaWorld,
these things that I'm going to talk about are all
going to be included, except for one, which I'll talk
about here in just a moment. They do also have
a ton of really awesome special holiday ticket packages that
include things like reserved seats for the shows and some
merchandise credits and things like that, So keep that in

(18:16):
mind if you are looking to maybe add SeaWorld to
a trip that you've already got planned. Oh, definitely a
really good price point if you want to, you know,
piggyback sea World onto another trip that you may already
be taking. The nice thing about SeaWorld is they've got
a ton of really recognizable characters. So we talked about

(18:37):
the Grinch obviously, we talked about Lego Land has more
of the Lego brick, you know, minifigure kind of characters,
maybe not quite as recognizable for some kiddos. But SeaWorld
has Sesame Street ip, so they've got a ton of
Sesame Street friends that do special holiday shows and things

(18:57):
like that. They also have Rudolph from the traditional Claymation
Rank and Bass version of Rudolph if you're familiar with that,
one of my all time favorite Christmas movies. But they
also from that movie have a meet and greet with Bumble,
the Abominable Snowman from that movie, who is one of.

Speaker 2 (19:15):
My favorite characters.

Speaker 1 (19:19):
And they do also have a Santa meet and greet,
which we talked about here just a little bit ago
in this episode. So some really great meet and greets
that you can do with Sesame Street friends, Rudolf and
Bumble and Santa as well. They have quite a few shows.
They have an Elmo Christmas Wish Show, they have a
Big Bird Christmas story Time show, they have an Elf

(19:39):
story show, and then they also do have the o
Wondrous Night Show, which is more of like the traditional
Christmas Nativity type of show, if that's something that you're
interested in attending. They do have holiday fireworks. They have
a Sesame Street Christmas Parade that is specific to Christmas time.

(20:00):
They get the infamous Snope, so if you're familiar with
the snow that happens a lot on Disney property. It's
a little soapy, so people tend to refer to it
as snope, but they get that. They have tons of decorations.
They have an ice show, which is the Winter Wonderland
on Ice Show, which is fantastic. If you have seen

(20:23):
any of our good friend Kirk att walras Karp's coverage
of this event, you will know that the ice shows
that they have are just next level fantastic entertainment options.

Speaker 2 (20:33):
For that.

Speaker 1 (20:35):
They do also offer public ice skating during limited hours
of the day. Now, the ice skating is an additional charge,
so that is the only thing that I'm mentioning about
this SeaWorld event that is not automatically included with your
park ticket. So that is an additional fee that you
have to pay for that for the public ice skating.

(20:58):
If you yourself, wont to go and ice skate while
you're visiting SeaWorld. They also do have a holiday train display,
holiday food offerings, and all of their attractions and rides
are open too, So they've got a lot of really
fun attractions. They've got some great coasters, They've kind of
got a little bit of everything for every age, between
the animal attractions, the rides that they've got, all of

(21:21):
these amazing fun offerings of different characters and shows. SeaWorld
is a really, really great place that you can visit
during the holidays for almost every age. So now that
we are leaving those other theme parks, we're going to
pretty much stick to Disney for the rest of our list.

(21:43):
So let's head over to the Disney theme parks and
talk about all of the offerings that they have for
the holidays.

Speaker 2 (21:50):
Now, the really.

Speaker 1 (21:51):
Great thing about Disney at the holidays is they have
a ton of options, and they have a lot that
are free or included. It's really easy to kind to
see a little bit of everything and plan just a
whole trip around all of their holiday offerings. So let's
talk about the rest of the holiday offerings that we
can find over there, and again reminder that we're focused

(22:13):
on experiences for families. So I'm going to talk next
about Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party at Magic Kingdom. I
Am not today going to talk about the Jollywood party
over at Hollywood Studios that is geared more towards older kids, teenagers, adults, right,
So I'm just going to talk about the Very Merry

(22:34):
Christmas Party during this episode for that reasoning. Now, this
is a special ticketed event. So we've talked about Very
Merry on Mom Street before. I'm not going to go
into a ton of really specific details. If you guys
want more details, let me know. I'm happy to do
another refresher episode on Very Merry if that's something that
you guys want. But we have covered it before, so

(22:56):
feel free to hop back in our archives over on
our YouTube if you want more information about what the
offerings are over there.

Speaker 2 (23:03):
But this is a special ticketed event for this year.

Speaker 1 (23:06):
The dates run from November first through December twenty first,
and the price range in tickets ranges from about one
sixty nine up to two twenty nine per person. So again,
it is that special ticketed event. As of right now
when I'm recording this only the first date is sold
out for Very Mary. I do anticipate that changing though,

(23:29):
because even where we're at right now with Not So
Scary Halloween Party, we are more than a month out
from Halloween and it is completely sold out. So keep
an eye on that, especially if you're someone that wants
to get tickets. I would get them sooner rather than later,
so that way you don't miss out on the dates
that you want because it is not every day in
that November one through December twenty first timeframe, it's about

(23:52):
twice a week to start, and then once you get
closer to Christmas, they ramp that up to about three
to four times a week, depending on the week and
depends on the day. So you don't want to miss
out if that's something that you're really looking forward to.
A couple of the highlights about the Very Merry Christmas Party,
they have a seasonal.

Speaker 2 (24:10):
Decor all over the park.

Speaker 1 (24:12):
I'm hoping that they're going to expand some of that
again like they did with Halloween. So it used to
be that Halloween and Christmas were just kind of primarily
focused on Main Street right It was the train station
all the way through kind of the hub area of
Main Street was where we primarily saw all of the decorations. Well,
this year for Halloween they expanded.

Speaker 2 (24:34):
Some of that.

Speaker 1 (24:35):
We got pumpkins outside Winnie the Pooh, we got some
different shaped character wreaths outside in Storybook Circus area. So
I'm hoping that with Christmas and the holidays, we'll maybe
see some of that expansion happen for those decorations as well.
I think that would be super fun to see some
Christmasy touches throughout more of the park than just Main Street.

(24:56):
So we'll have to wait and see. But traditionally main
Street is the hub kind of area, the focus of
their different decorations. They do the Snope so we talked
about the Snope soap snow that they do, so they
do that on Main Street as well. There are ride
overlays so you can get Christmas music on Space Mountain,

(25:20):
you get Christmas music on the tea cups. You get
the very famous, infamous If you Will Jingle Cruise in
place of Jungle Cruise. Now that one is available during
regular park hours, the other two are not. They are
only available during the party. You also get an overlay
over at Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor as well. They do

(25:41):
have the in place of if you're familiar with Not
So Scary, they have those trick or treat stops. Well
at Very Mary they have cookies and hot chocolate and
apple cider at those locations, so that is what they
have kind of in lieu of the trick or treating,
they have those cookie stops for you. They have a
special parade that is like Mini's Very Magical Christmas Parade

(26:06):
or something like that. They have a special fireworks show,
they have a special stage show that's got some really
fun songs to it, tons of exclusive characters in exclusive
merch so it's a really really fun event. It's a
little pricey, so you definitely want to take a look
at your budget and see whether or not it fits
into what you're hoping to do. But it is a

(26:29):
very very fun event that you can take your whole
family to and everybody will find something that they enjoy
when it comes to that. Moving over to another Disney
Park and what they have to offer, let's talk about Epcot.
So Epcot does have the International Festival of the Holidays,
So this is one that is traditionally in their festival rotation.

(26:52):
So if you're familiar with they have food and one
they have Flower and Garden Festival of the Arts. This
is just included in their festival rotation for this time
of year. It is all included with your Epcot Park ticket.
So this is not a special extra event. We just
talked about very Mary that is an extra event. The
International Festival of the Holidays is not, so it is

(27:13):
included this year for twenty twenty five. It is running
November twenty eighth through December thirtieth, so just over a month,
and that's fairly typical. It usually opens after Thanksgiving, so
you will not see this festival running if you are
visiting the parks for Holidays during November, you need to

(27:34):
wait until after Thanksgiving if you plan to do this event.
A couple of fun things that they have. We mentioned
earlier that Santa does a meet and greet this year.
He is meeting in Communicoor Hall, so that is the
location that you'll find him for that. Now we don't
know if they're going to do any sort of like
a virtual queue or what the meet and greet over

(27:55):
there is going to look like, so we'll have to
wait and see kind of what they what they have
planned for that location. One of the very most popular
events during the Festival of the Holidays is the Candlelight Processional.

Speaker 2 (28:10):
This is an event.

Speaker 1 (28:11):
This is a show that happens at the pavilion in
the American or at the stage in the American Pavilion
where you typically see like the Concert Series and things
like that happen. This is the equivalent of that for
Festival of the Holidays. So Candlelight Processional is a ton
of cast members that come together and sing a bunch

(28:33):
of more traditional Christmas songs. They tell the story the
traditional we talked about, you know Sea World having that
Nativity scene as one of their shows. They tell the
traditional story from the Bible for Christmas. The big draw
with this is they have a ton of celebrity narrators,
so you will get people that are big name celebrities

(28:54):
that come and do the narration for the show and
they tell the story while the orchestra and the choir
kind of enhance it with their music. So that is
one of the biggest draws of this time of year
for the Festival of the Holidays. That is a nightly
show that they do three times a night. They do
a five o'clock, a six forty five, and an eight

(29:15):
point fifteen and that's pretty standard for those times. Now
there is a dining package you can you can also
purchase with that as well, so look into that if
that's something that you're interested in doing. Now. Aside from
Candlelight Processional, they also have these really fun holiday storytellers
around World Showcase. So nearly every country throughout World Showcase

(29:36):
will have whatever their equivalent is of like a Saint
Nick or s or a Santa type character, and they
will tell the traditional stories of Christmas time from whatever
country it is you're visiting. So in France you'll get
the French versions of those traditional stories. You know, if

(29:57):
you're visiting somewhere like Morocco for World Showcase, you're going
to get something completely different. So that is a really
really fun thing that they have in a really unique
way to kind of experience the holidays.

Speaker 2 (30:10):
Especially if you've got kiddos.

Speaker 1 (30:11):
That are you know, a lot of kids I know
learn about like Christmas around the world, or they learn
about some of.

Speaker 2 (30:17):
These types of things at school.

Speaker 1 (30:18):
Well, this is a great way to kind of enhance
that and just give them that world of view of
so many people celebrate Christmas in so many different ways,
and I think that's super fun. They or will be
obviously the Kitchen food booths, the Holiday Kitchen food booths,
so just like any other festival at Epcot, you get
those extra food booths. We don't again have menus for
those quite yet. We are a little early for that,

(30:40):
but stay tuned to Disney Parks blog for that or
through our you know, our partner in Chip and Co.
They always cover all of that as well. For the
food booths, they also do a cookie stroll, so if
you're familiar with like a Meals Fromage montage during Food
and Wine we've talked about where it's like you go

(31:00):
around to the different food boosts and you get stamps
for the different things you try, and then you get
like a little completion prize at the end.

Speaker 2 (31:07):
Well, they have the.

Speaker 1 (31:07):
Cookie Stroll for the Festival of the Holidays, so they
have a big list of different cookies from the different
food boosts you can try. Once you've tried five and
gotten the little stamp proof of purchase in your booklet,
you can get your completer cookie. Or they've done hot
chocolate packs before. They've done like a cookie mix. I
think it was last year where you could like take

(31:29):
it home and like bake the cookies together. So a
fun little thing that you can do if you want
to do a little cookie sampling throughout your family. I
think that's a really fun thing that you can do
during the festival of the holidays. Let's see if you
are into the scavenger hunts. They've got the Oloffs Magical

(31:50):
Holiday Scavenger Hunt if you're familiar with the short and
I'm gonna forget the name of it, but the Christmas
Frozen short that is on Disney Plus where Oloft goes
around looking for all the holiday traditions. That is what
this scavenger hunt is based off of. So he goes
around and you have to find where Oloft is in

(32:11):
the different countries of World Showcase and complete your scavenger
hunt with the stickers for that.

Speaker 2 (32:18):
The other big draw.

Speaker 1 (32:19):
During the holiday season is one of the most beloved
attractions at Epcot. Living with the Land gets a really
fun overlay, so they call it, I think is what
glistening greenhouses. But you can when you visit at night,
they have tons of holiday Christmas lights all over that attraction.
So it's a really fun experience to see during the

(32:42):
Holidays and something completely unique that you wouldn't you see
normally during any other time of the year. Now that
is available, you know you're gonna see. I should say,
you're going to get the most out of that experience
if you visit it after it gets dark. But keep
in mind that you will see those wait times for

(33:02):
Living with the Land Skyrocket as soon as that sun
gets anywhere close to going down, So plan accordingly, maybe
grab a lightning lane if you need to, or plan
to get in line, and just know that you may
have to wait thirty forty minutes, where Living with the
Land is typically a five to ten minute wait, So
keep that in mind if that's something that you want
to experience over at Epcot. So again, all of that

(33:25):
for the International Festival of the Holidays is included in
your Epcot ticket.

Speaker 2 (33:31):
Let's talk about.

Speaker 1 (33:33):
Something over at Disney that's actually not in a park.
So the next couple things we're actually going to talk
about don't take place inside the Disney parks, but they
do take place on Disney property. And the next one
we were just talking about scavenger hunts not that long ago.
This one kind of goes hand in hand with that,
and that is the Christmas Tree Stroll at Disney Springs.

(33:55):
So Disney Springs is open to anybody who wants to visit.
It's not something that you have to be staying on
Disney property or going to the parks or anything like that.
Anybody can visit Disney Springs and this is a free
activity that you can do. When you visit Disney Springs,
they'll have a couple different locations that they'll announce as
like your starting locations, where you will.

Speaker 2 (34:18):
Pick up a map guide and.

Speaker 1 (34:21):
A sticker sheet and you will go around and match
the stickers to the locations of the Christmas Trees. So
the trees that you will find will be themed to
all sorts of different Disney things. They've got Haunted Mansion,
They've got Disney Cruise Line, there are Disney movies that
they'll do, you know, anything and everything you could think of,

(34:44):
and there's probably.

Speaker 2 (34:46):
I didn't count.

Speaker 1 (34:47):
I should have grabbed my kiddo's one, because I know
my son still has it from when we did it
a couple of years ago. But there's like eighteen to
twenty trees all across Disney Springs.

Speaker 2 (34:58):
So it's so much fun.

Speaker 1 (35:01):
It is a ton of walking, So keep that in
mind if you've got kiddos that are maybe borderline stroller
or you're like, oh, we might not need it. Just
to go do the Christmas Tree Stroll, you will go
across the entire length of Disney Springs trying to find
these Christmas trees. So keep that in mind. When you've

(35:21):
completed your map and found the locations for all of
the trees, you can return it to a redemption location
and you get a little button that says Christmas Tree Stroll,
Disney Springs and the year I believe on it. So
just a cute little completion button prize whenever you have

(35:41):
done that. But my kids are huge into the Scavenger hunts.
They love doing them at Epcot. It's one of their
favorite things to do. They loved the Christmas Tree Stroll,
and we did break it up a little bit. We
did a few and then we would you know, grab
something to eat or you know, walk around in one
of the shops and then go back and do a
few more. And then like we met went and met

(36:03):
Santa when our time was called with our virtual queue,
which I talked about earlier with meeting Santa at Disney
Springs over in Once Upon a Toy and then we
went back and finished the rest of it, So it
was a super fun day. Some of them are hard,
you know, some of the scavenger hunts inside Epcot are
are a little more obvious than others. Right this Christmas

(36:25):
tree stroll one was tricky to kind of navigate and
find all of the trees, and a lot of them
are there's some little pockets that are kind of close together.
So it was fun for my husband and I to
participate too, and to help the kids, you know, because
some of them they needed some help on whenever we
did it. But it is a super fun, absolutely free
activity that you can do during the holidays over at

(36:47):
Disney Springs. Another free, completely free activity that you can
do at over at the Disney World Resorts now is
to look at all of the gingerbread creations that they have.
So Disney is famous for their gingerbread creations and sculptures

(37:09):
that they do during the holiday season. So I'm going
to talk about kind of the different ones that you
can go see and talk about how to get there,
because it can be a little overwhelming trying to figure
out how to get to the Disney resorts because if
you've got a car, not all of them will let
you park there, so you're better off taking Disney transportation.

(37:32):
So most of what we're going to talk about, I'm
going to mention how to get there through Disney transportation.
So let's talk about the different resorts that have gingerbread
displays and what they are. So the first one on
my list being Disney's Animal Kingdom Lodge. This one is
the hardest one to get to because you can only
get there via the Disney buses. So you could start

(37:54):
at a at a park and get to this resort.
From there, you can take a bus from resort to resort,
so that's where it gets a little bit tricky trying
to navigate. You'll see some of these other ones that
we're going to talk about are on the Skyliner line
or the monorail loop.

Speaker 2 (38:12):
This is the hardest one to.

Speaker 1 (38:13):
Get to, so it is accessible via the Disney buses,
and their gingerbread display is so cool and so adorable.
But they every year have a baby giraffe made entirely
out of gingerbread and a baby zebra made entirely out
of gingerbread, and they are just phenomenal. To see, and

(38:34):
they are life size, full size. Now you got to remember,
a baby giraffe is not, you know, full size, but
you can go see them in the lobby of Animal
Kingdom Launch and they are so special and so unique
and so fun to see. So that is a really
fun one to be able to go and visit. Now,
let's talk about some of the other ones. The next

(38:56):
too that I'm going to talk about are very close together,
So let's talk about Disney's Beach Club Resort. That is
another one that does a gingerbread display. The Beach Club
Resort is accessible a couple different ways. If you're at Epcot,
you can walk there through the International Gateway entrance and exit,

(39:16):
which is between the UK Pavilion and the France Pavilion
and World Showcase. If you are along the Skyliner, you
can take the Skyliner to Epcot and then walk there
from there because it is adjacent kind of around the
corner to the boardwalk area. So that's how you can
get there from various different places on property.

Speaker 2 (39:38):
Again, you can.

Speaker 1 (39:38):
Always take a bus to the Beach Club from a
park as well, except for Epcot, because you'll just walk there.
But if you're at Magic Kingdom, Holliway Studios or Animal Kingdom.
You can take a bus to the Beach Club from there,
but they do a gingerbread carousel and the carousel rotates
and it is phenomenal. It's amazing to see what they

(40:02):
can do with gingerbread. It is absolutely incredible. Last year's
theme so every year they do a different theme for
the carousel. Last year's theme was the Mickey version of
a Christmas Carol, so all of the horses were themed
to different characters and different things from that. The year
before was a Ductail's theme, so we found Huey, Dewey

(40:25):
and Louie and Scrooge, Uncle Scrooge and Donald on that one.
Super super fun, absolutely beautiful, magnificent to you know, stand
there and watch it rotate around. And I should mention
that at all of these locations they will have like
a little plaque somewhere that says like what all the

(40:46):
ingredients are that they use, So it'll talk about, you know,
how many tons of sugar and things like that that
they did to create them, which I think is super
fun to read and to look at and to talk
to your kids about, like, oh my gosh, did you
use they used I don't know, three dozen eggs to
make this. You know, things like that I think is
super fun. So that's at the Beach Club. Is that

(41:08):
gingerbread carousel now around the corner. Over at Disney's Boardwalk Resort,
they also have a gingerbread creation. It is typically a
house like a Gingerbread house of some sort, but it
also will typically be a miniature version of a boardwalk classic.

(41:30):
So last year they recreated the Boardwalk Deli building in Gingerbread,
and that was what their creation was for the year.
So you can I should mention also that you can
reach the Boardwalk area in the same ways that I
just mentioned for Beach Club through the International Gateway exit

(41:50):
at Epcot between the France and the UK pavilions, the
Skyliner also or again those buses that I talked about,
if you're at a different park. Again, you cannot take
Disney buses from resort to resort. You're going to have
to be at a park to get to these resorts
that we're talking about. So again, the Boardwalk Resort has
a typically a miniature version of some sort of boardwalk classic.

(42:14):
If it's not that, then it's just more of a
standard gingerbread house that you'll find over there.

Speaker 2 (42:20):
Moving on to our.

Speaker 1 (42:22):
Monorail resorts, let's talk about the gingerbread creations that they
have over there. Let's start with the Contemporary. So Disney's
Contemporary Resort can be accessed through the monorail loop, or
if you are at Magic Kingdom, you can also walk.
There's a walkway to the Contemporary. Once you go out

(42:44):
the gates, you're gonna want to go all the way
to the left and you'll find a little sign that
says like walkway to Contemporary.

Speaker 2 (42:50):
And follow that.

Speaker 1 (42:52):
But that is where you will find the Gingerbread Castle.
So this is one that if you remember, the monorail
does go through the Contemporary resort, and you can actually
look down and see it as your monorail pulls into
the building. It's on the main level. So it's a
little confusing at the Contemporary because if you're walking there

(43:15):
or taking a bus there, you actually go in underneath
what everybody considers like the main area of the Contemporary,
where like Contempo Cafe and Chef Mickey's and their Fantasia
themed gift shop is that's like the third level. I
want to say, I'm pretty sure that's right.

Speaker 2 (43:33):
Don't quote me on that.

Speaker 1 (43:34):
Apologies if that's not the right number, but I believe
that's the third level of the resort.

Speaker 2 (43:39):
So that is where you will.

Speaker 1 (43:41):
Also find this Gingerbread castle on the one far and
opposite of the chef Mickey area that you see on
that level, And every year they theme that castle a
little bit differently. One of the super fun things that
I know they do at several of the Gingerbread displays,
but I know for sure they do it here is
there are always are a number of hidden mickeys that

(44:01):
you can find in that castle display. So that was
something that my kids and I had a really fun
time standing and looking for and trying to find because
you can't get too close to it, you know, So
it's it's from afar. You have to see if you
can spot the little itty bitty tiny hidden mickeys that
they include on that one over at the Contemporary. Now,
while you're on the monorail loop, let's head over to

(44:24):
the Grand Floridian next. Now, I do, unfortunately have some
sad news for twenty twenty five. Typically, the Grand Floridian
houses the massive iconic Gingerbread house that is big enough
that there are bakery workers that are inside staffing it,

(44:47):
making all sorts of yummy treats. But unfortunately, due to
construction in twenty twenty five, they will not be having
that iconic gingerbread house, which is so sad, but it's
it's going to be okay. I'm excited for the renovations
they're doing to the lobby over there. It's going to
be really great. Look those up if you haven't seen them.

(45:07):
They're adding some really fun elements. So we don't know
for twenty twenty five what they're going to do at
the Grand Floridian. Are they going to have something smaller
in place of the traditional gingerbread house. I feel like
they have to do something. They can't just leave us
hanging and not do any sort of gingerbread house over there,

(45:28):
but that remains to be seen.

Speaker 2 (45:31):
Again. You can access.

Speaker 1 (45:33):
The Grand Floridan Resort through the monorail loop, so find
your way to either the Ticket and Transportation Center or
Magic Kingdom, hop on the monorail the resort monorail to
get you there. So those are some of the gingerbread
displays at the resorts. I do just want to mention
also that there was a gingerbread display last year at Epcot.

(45:59):
Now this would not be something that would be free
of charge to go visit. You would need to have
a park ticket for Epcot. Last year they had a
huge gingerbread Spaceship Earth over at Epcot, so it was
in Communicore Hall. They've announced that this year the Santa
Meet and greet is going to be in Communicore Hall,

(46:22):
so we'll have to see what Epcot plans for us
this year. But last year they did have like a
Spaceship Earth one complete with some little lights. Again, you
must have an Epcot park ticket if you want to
view whatever it is that they plan for this year.
It makes me wonder if maybe they're going to flip flop,

(46:42):
right because last year Santa did his meet and greet
inside the Odyssey and Communicore Hall housed the gingerbread display.
So I wonder if they're going to flip flop those two.
We'll have to wait and see what happens and see
what Disney decides to do about that. But I did
just want to mention that they do have that gingerbread
display in there as well. I do want to mention

(47:05):
something fun that you can do and We're going to
talk about Christmas trees here momentarily, but doing like a
Gingerbread tour and a Christmas Tree tour at the Disney
resorts is such a fun way to experience the holidays
over at Disney. So I think that's a really fun
way to kind of pick your highlights from each because

(47:25):
I am going to talk about some of the other
activities at the other Disney resorts here in just a moment,
but you can kind of piggyback those two together to
make a really fun day where you're just kind of
roaming all around Disney property and maybe seeing things that
you don't typically see. I know, myself included. A lot
of people that visit Disney just focus so much on
the parks that you miss a lot of the magic

(47:46):
that also happens at the resorts. So you know, spending
some time exploring the resorts is a really, really fun
way to experience the holidays over there. So that's super
fun and just a fun little SI note because as
I was reading and researching about the Gingerbread, and I
do remember I've heard this before, but you will find

(48:07):
that a lot of the structures of these displays are
reused so like the structure for the carousel, they keep
and reuse it year after year. However, what do they
do with the actual edible part. Well, the gingerbread and
anything sugary confectionery related are set out to a nearby

(48:31):
Disney Tree nursery to help feed the local bee population.
So that is so fun to get to know that
that's what they take, you know, that's where they take
all the gingerbread pieces out to the Disney Tree farm
for the bees.

Speaker 2 (48:46):
So I just think that's super fun.

Speaker 1 (48:49):
Okay, so we got through all of the gingerbread, We've
got two more things on my ten holiday experiences for
families in the Orlando Theme Park. So we're going to
stay in Disney because, like I said, the rest of
my list just ended up being Disney. But let's talk
about some of the other Christmas activities that you can

(49:09):
find at the Disney resorts. So the great thing about
the Disney resorts is that every Disney resort has some
sort of a themed Christmas tree that has decoor that
matched the theme to the resort. So, for example, if
you stay at Art of Animation during the holiday season,

(49:29):
you're going to find art, different art supplies, and drawings
on the tree. If you go over to somewhere like
let's see Caribbean Beach, you're going to find different Caribbean
dacre over on their tree. So you've got a Christmas

(49:49):
tree no matter what resort you visit, which is super fun.
I want to mention just a few resorts that kind
of have some above and beyond activities. Again, they all
have a tree, and every resort is going to have
some sort of a themed weekly activity that mashes the
holiday season. So they do movies under the stars, They're

(50:10):
probably gonna be Christmas movies. They're events, and they're different
activities that they have for the kiddos that are staying.
They are all going to be holiday themed. So they
have no shortage of holiday activities at these resorts, but
a few of them kind of go a little bit
above and beyond. So I'm going to talk about three
others here that you could maybe pair and partner with

(50:31):
some of those ones we talked about with the gingerbread earlier,
And this first one I'm going to talk about is
actually a really great one that you can pair with
some of the ones we talked about earlier.

Speaker 2 (50:39):
So earlier we talked about.

Speaker 1 (50:41):
The Beach Club and the boardwalk, Well, let's talk about
Yacht Club. Yacht Club is the sister resort to Beach
Club and it is found in that same little kind
of l shape area outside of the World Showcase exit
for International Gateway for Epcot. They have a full Christmas

(51:03):
display in their lobby that is complete with working trains
in a Christmas village. And we stumbled upon this a
couple of years ago when we did our family trip
around Thanksgiving. So my family and I went down the
week of Thanksgiving during my kids break, and we did
some of these parties, and then we just did some
resort days because we wanted to experience the Christmas trees

(51:24):
and the gingerbread and all that kind of stuff. But
this display is so much fun. It is a massive
tabletop display in their lobby area, and it's so fun
to look at all of the little figures that they
have set up and the trains. You know, they've got
multiple trains running that you can follow around. So imagine
if you're familiar with the trains near the Germany Pavilion

(51:49):
inside Epcot, but imagine that they took that, made it
Christmas and put it on a tabletop. That's what you're
gonna find over at the yacht club. So it is
a super fun place to visit, and it's walkable from
where we talked about. Getting to the yacht club or
getting to the beach club will also get you to
the yacht club, so it's skyliner or it's exiting through

(52:12):
the International Gateway at Epcot, or taking a disney bus
to one of those locations. And the nice thing is
you can hop on a disney bus start on one end.
So let's say you start on the boardwalk, then you
go over to yacht and beach club. You can hit
all three without having to take an extra transportation between them.
So that's a super fun one, especially if you've got
younger kiddos who love trains. That is the place that

(52:34):
you want to be. These other two are not quite
connected to the ones that we just talked about. However,
I will mention that there is still transportation to them
from from wherever you are in the parks, right, So
bus transportation, boat transportation, those types of things so perfect. Yes, Okay,

(53:00):
so let's talk about Wilderness Lodge. Wilderness Lodge is one
of the most iconic resorts when it comes to Christmas,
and it doesn't have anything really specific to it. It
has a fantastic tree, a massive Christmas tree, but there's

(53:22):
just something about the vibe over here and the feeling
over here because they've got big comfy rocking chairs and
tons of fireplaces and a massive Christmas tree. It's just
very christmas y and home ye, and it very much
embraces the holiday feel. Again, nothing specific other than their tree,

(53:43):
but it's just the overall vibe of the resort that
really puts you in that kind of cozy holiday feeling.
Now you can get to the Wilderness Lodge. The easiest
way to get there is by bus if you're at
a park. If you're at Magic Kingdom, they also have
a have water transportation, so you can take a boat

(54:06):
over to the Wilderness Lodge. If you are at Magic Kingdom.
If you're driving, the easiest way is going to be
to park at the Transportation and Ticket Center, take your
monorail or your ferry to Magic Kingdom, and then right
near where the boat docks for the ferry, you'll find
the boat transportation to Wilderness Lodge. You can also get

(54:27):
to the Grand Floridy and through that boat and I
totally spaced on that earlier. Thank you shout out to
Alibeth in our live chat here who reminded me that
you can take that boat over to the Grand Floridian
as well. But that is a super fun one. So
Wilderness Lodge is a fun stop if you just want
to feel that kind of Pacific Northwest cozy, pine tree

(54:50):
christmasy vibe is what you get over there. The last
one that I want to talk about is a resort
that is often confused with the Wild Lodge, and that
is the Fort Wilderness Resort. So that is a different
resort than Wilderness Lodge that we were just talking about.
This is where you will find the iconic cabins that

(55:12):
you hear a lot of people talking about when it
comes to staying on Disney property. So that is the again,
this is Fort Wilderness different than Wilderness Lodge.

Speaker 2 (55:24):
I know it's confusing. I don't know why Disney did.

Speaker 1 (55:26):
That, but we just know that they love to do
that to us. They do have transportation as far as
you can take a boat there as well from across
the Seven Seas Lagoon from Magic Kingdom, or you can
do buses if you want to get over there. But
They have a ton of really fun Christmas activities, So

(55:46):
they have a holiday campfire sing along with Chip and
Dale that they do over there. They have a holiday
golf cart parade where you the guests that stay there
can enter their golf carts. Because it is such a
vast space and they do have those cabins, you can
rent golf carts over there to transport you to and from.

(56:08):
So they have a golf cart parade where you can,
you know, dress your golf cart up in their finest
holiday attire, or you can just go and be a
spectator on that as well. The other thing to note
is that if you're doing a golf cart rental, or
you know somebody who is, or you're planning to go
over there, the guests that stay at the campsites, whether

(56:31):
it's their own campsites or the cabins, they always go
all out with their own personal decorations for the holidays.
So you are able to drive through that area and
see they've got all sorts of blow up inflatables and
huge Christmas lights displays. That's not Disney that does it
over there, that is the guests that are staying there,

(56:53):
and it's just becomes such a part of the culture
over there that people will go just to you know,
go sight seeing for the Christmas lights over during the
holidays at the campsites and things like that, So that
is super super fun. It's helpful if you've got someone
who's been over there and kind of knows their way around,

(57:15):
because it can be a little overwhelming to figure out
where to go. But if you don't know where to go,
your best case scenario would be to chat with someone
at concierge or in the lobby to kind of give
you the rundown of how it works over there. With that,
they also do sleigh rides over there with like horse
drawn carriages, which is ugh, I love it, so cute,

(57:38):
so much fun. And then they do their own personal
holiday cookie scavenger hunt over at Fort Wilderness, so that
is a super fun thing. Again, they just go above
and beyond with that feel for the holiday season and
Christmas vibes. So Fort Wilderness is a really really great

(57:59):
one to visit as well. And again, like I mentioned,
all of the Disney resorts, no matter where you stay
on property for Disney are going to have some sort
of a themed, weekly activity, weekly movie.

Speaker 2 (58:11):
They're going to have.

Speaker 1 (58:12):
Things like s'mores at the campfires, so you're still going
to be able to find holiday activities no matter what
resort you stay at. The ones that I mentioned again
just kind of have that little extra that they give
during during the holiday season. All of these activities that
I've talked about for this not only seeing the gingerbread

(58:32):
at the resorts, but also the seeing the trees at
the resorts or visiting the resorts to do some of
these experiences.

Speaker 2 (58:41):
All are free.

Speaker 1 (58:42):
Now things like the sleigh rides are going to have
an extra cost. And do keep in mind that things
like their holiday cookie scavenger hunt, those are for Fort
Wilderness guests only.

Speaker 2 (58:55):
So take a.

Speaker 1 (58:56):
Look online, do a quick Google search if you want
to know more about how all these different activities work,
because some of them do have some specific guidelines for
who can participate or how much it may cost if
you do choose to participate in those. Okay, we've got
one more on our list of ten holiday experiences for

(59:18):
families at the Orlando Theme Parks, and again we're staying
with Disney, and this one is just kind of like
a little bonus, so it's really like nine and a half,
but We're gonna call it ten because ten's a nice
round number and that makes my type a brain happy.
But something to consider during the holidays. And I'm talking
about this primarily with Disney, but I'm sure you could

(59:39):
also do something similar at the other theme parks. I
just don't all, be completely honest with you all. I
don't know as much about that. But Disney does offer
an enchanting extra Capture your Moment session. Now. This is
something that they offer year round. But the reason I
want to mention it now, and we've talked about this
before on our PhotoPass episode a few back, not too

(01:00:01):
far back in our archives there we did an episode
on character meet and greets and PhotoPass. This is something
we talked about with PhotoPass and what this Capture of
the Moment session is. It's a twenty minute photo session
in the parks. You can choose where you want to go.
They have tons of locations that you can go across
all of the Disney theme parks. It is ninety nine

(01:00:23):
dollars for your twenty minute session. But the reason that
I want to mention this is if you are visiting
during Christmas time, this is a fantastic idea to get
your Christmas your yearly Christmas photo, or take a photo
for your Christmas card that you want to send out
if you're a little earlier in the season. It is

(01:00:46):
just a fantastic idea to capture some Christmas memories or
holiday memories in the parks. I think, you know, hiring
one of these PhotoPass photographers is a phenomenal idea for
you to really capture the magic and have those those

(01:01:06):
Christmas photos available to you. So highly recommend. Again, if
it's within your budget, you can have I believe it's
up to ten people. So if you've got an extended
family trip that you're doing, that would be a really
fun thing to do as well. And they take a
little bit more time, Right, you can always get photos
with photopaths or the other photographers that are around the

(01:01:28):
theme parks, but when you do these personalized specific sessions
for your family or your travel party, they're going to
take more time with you, right, So you're going to
get a bigger variety of photos. You're going to get
more photos different poses. They're going to, you know, really
kind of work with you to get those those magical
moments captured. So again, my number nine and a half

(01:01:49):
or number ten is to consider booking something like a
Capture your Moment session. Now, I do know that this
is the only way to do professional photos inside the
Disney theme parks. I'm not sure about the other theme
parks if they are okay with photographers coming in and
doing photos for your Family's something you'll want to look

(01:02:11):
up before you look into doing that. But I know
that that is the best way at Disney to grab
those holiday photos is to do that Capture your Moment session.
So that being said, I think we at least touched
on ten really fun holiday experiences for your family at
the Orlando Theme Parks. I hope that this helps. Again,

(01:02:34):
like I said, I know it's early in the season.
People are not ready to talk about the holidays yet. However,
if you're like me and you know you've got a
holiday trip coming up, these are the things you want
to hear about. So I wanted to make sure to
get this information out to our mom Street community ahead
of time, so that way you had plenty of time
to do some research of your own and look into

(01:02:56):
and maybe book some of these little extras that you're
able to. Again, the majority of what we talked about
are included in theme park tickets or are free, so
that is a bonus as well, Especially when you've got
kids and you're heading to the theme parks around the holidays,
Saying no to them is going to be really hard,
So anything that you can find that is free or

(01:03:17):
as a low cost is always a good idea. But
thank you all so much for joining me for this
episode of mom Street USA. If you've got questions or comments,
or you want to make suggestions for future episodes, please
reach out to us at Momstreet USA at gmail dot
com and wherever you're listening to us, make sure you've

(01:03:37):
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those things are all good for us and can help
our spread and help us help more people in our
mom street community kind of get the help that they
need and get the information that they need for their
upcoming Disney theme park or you know, Disney or theme
park trip that they've got coming up. You can also

(01:03:59):
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(01:04:20):
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will see you guys next time on mom Street USA. Bye. Everyone,