Subsonic Radio

My family is planning a Disney World vacation during the Christmas season this year! We've never stayed at a Disney hotel during the holidays so I'm wondering if you have any recommendations. Which are the most festive?

Which are the most festive?

well Esmeralda, pretty much ALL of them!

We love to visit all of the Deluxe and Home away from Home resorts but all of them have something.

We stayed at Saratoga Springs during this past Christmas and really liked it, just because upstate NY and the winter season already go together. It reminded me of a Christmas we once spent in Lake George. I half expected to be snowed in Christmas morning. The CM's big yellow,winter coats add to the winter effect.

We've also done OKW for Christmas before, but it didn't have the same Holiday feel as SS, it just felt like another Disney vacation. There was really nothing Chrismassy about being in the artificial FL Keys for Christmas.

As far as decorations go, most of the resorts do a good deal of decorating (every resort has a tree), but a few have big displays such as the huge Contemporary and GF trees. There's also a nice winter train setup at the YC and gingerbread displays at various resorts. However, you don't really need to stay at those resorts to go see the displays.

If you want decorations, try going through the Ft. Wilderness campgrounds. people go ALL OUT decorating their sites. many of them look like a decorated house (with the amount of lights/blow up lawn ornaments/etc). People even decorate the golf carts with lights, ornaments, tinsel, and the like. It's really a sight to see.

each hotel offers somthing different. I stayed at the all-star music resot 2 christmas's ago and it was amazing. We also went to most of the other resorts just to look at decorations. The grand floridian does have the famous giant gingerbread house if you are interested in that. I think the least decorated hotel was the contemporary.

Decorations-wise, the Wilderness Lodge is very nice. The theme sort of fits a more Christmas-y feel too (well, if you're from somewhere where you're used to snow at Christmas, like me). There are also big lobby displays that are not to be missed in the Grand Floridian, Beach Club and Boardwalk. I personally liked the decor at Port Orleans (French Quarter) this year. The Contemporary, as yodiwan said, was barely decorated at all inside (though the tree outside was very pretty at night). In 04 when we stayed at the Polynesian in early Dec, the decorations were really nice but they seemed lackluster this year. I think some of the budgets have gone down over the years.

As others have pointed out, though, you don't need to be staying at the resort to enjoy the decorations. Part of the fun of going at Christmas for us is resort hopping to take in the sights.

Wilderness Lodge is my favorite at Christmas.

All of the deluxe resorts go all out. We love the Polynesian, it's a tropical Christmas with a view of MK. How can you go wrong?!

Wilderness Lodge I think would be the best. The Christmas celebrations in the olden days were much more traditional and less commercialized, and Wilderness Lodge would provide more of a traditional view of Christmas.

SWHorn wrote:Wilderness Lodge is my favorite at Christmas.

Agreed !!!

On the other side of this, I found the BoardWalk Inn to be a bit lacking in decorations. Across the water, the Beach and Yacht Clubs looked much more festive (though perhaps this was a grass-is-always-greener moment for me...)

most of the deluxes are good about this, but i'd recommend grand floridian if cost doesn't mean anything. the life size gingerbread house and giant Christmas tree are pretty cool:)

the poly is my favorite resort, but we didn't find much in the way of decorations this past year they had a tree and stuff....i saw a special on WDW during the holidays that showed that the poly had a whole polynesian Christmas village made out of chocolate, but we didn't see anything like that when we visited last nov/dec....

did we just miss it? or did they put it up later? anyone know?

The villages and stuff are something that is done by the chef's at that resort. Two years ago outside Boma had a huge one, this year nothing. I asked about and was told the head pastry chef at Jiko (I think it was) had been doing that one. And he was too busy this year to put it together... They thought he might do one next year because so many people had asked about it.

My impression is that Christmas/seasonal decoration is controlled at several different levels. Based on Discovery/Travel/TLC channel, there is a crew that is basically in charge of seasonal decorations year round (putting them up, taking down, planning, fixing... year round job) But they seem to do the macro decorations. Then there are teams at each resort/park that do some stuff as well on a local level. Then it seems that some areas, like restaurants, seem to be able to do things as well.

johno

The Wilderness Lodge seems to have more of a Christmas "feel" if you like more of a traditional Christmas atmosphere.

The Wilderness Lodge is absolutely gorgeous. Their decorations are absolutely beautiful but I must admit to not going to some of the other resorts during the holidays because I love Wilderness so much