Press Family Walt Disney World Trip December 2025

I’m realizing that this is my first time doing a full breakdown of my family’s Walt Disney World vacation. This was my third trip to Walt Disney World this year, and first as a family of four. My husband and I had discussed options for our annual December trip, and ultimately decided that we would go to Disney to hit the proverbial “easy” button. Which sounds insane. Disney? Easy? Honestly, for us it is.

We have a 2.5 year old and a baby turning 7 months. They both require rear facing 5-point harness car seats. They both need to be in a stroller. At minimum the baby requires a pack n play or crib. Where can we go that EASILY has all these things? Disney. We traveled with just our suitcases.

Now, I know that Babyquip is an option for most of the country, and I’m not against it, but Disney is our jam so that’s where we went.

As always…this is a DETAILED recap. Read on and enjoy. I hope it gives encouragement, laughs, and inspiration.

What is at Walt Disney World Resort?

4 Theme Parks: Magic Kingdom, EPCOT, Hollywood Studios, and Animal Kingdom
2 Water Parks: Typhoon Lagoon and Blizzard Beach
- Depending on the time of year, only one is open.
Disney Springs, a shopping, dining, and entertainment district
10+ Character Dining Experiences
More than 20 resort hotels
- 4 Levels: Value, Moderate, Deluxe, Deluxe Villa (DVC)
- These hotels get special perks such as 30-minute early entry into the parks, advance Lightning Lane reservations, and advance dining reservations for the length of stay.

Why this time of year?

December is a slower time at my day job and for my husband, so we’ve been traveling during the first 3 weeks of December for about 7 years.

I have found that this time of year is perfect to go to Disney. This is our third time going to Walt Disney World in the first two weeks of December.

All of the parks and resort hotels are decorated for Christmas, and the weather is amazing. It can be sweatshirt weather one day and a pool day the next, you don’t know what you’re going to get, but it’s typically going to be great.

Crowds are typically better because it is between Thanksgiving and Christmas, and it’s before school finals and winter breaks.

Festival of the Holidays, Jollywood Nights, and Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Parties are happening, and those are great too.

Where We Stayed

We stayed at Port Orleans French Quarter. It is a Moderate Resort at Walt Disney World, and the smallest of the four Moderate level hotels. I wrote all about it here.

Pros:

Smallest of the moderate hotels
Food court
No internal bus loop
Great pool slide
Splash area for kids
Beignets at Scat Cat Café
Boat to Disney Springs
Recently refurbished

Cons

Bus only resort
We had a situation with housekeeping, but the hotel was very apologetic.
- Note: if you have littles that need naps in the afternoon, call and talk to housekeeping to make sure that you are on the schedule for the morning, or whatever schedule you need. They can’t guarantee, but they can try to make it work for you.

I always include a note from my husband on his hotel opinion – and his was “we’d stay here again.”

What We Did

Day One: Arrival

7:45 am flight to Orlando International Airport
Landed 11:05 am
Picked up checked bags
Used Away We Go transportation to get to our hotel, Port Orleans French Quarter
Room was ready when we got to the hotel
Moved in. Unpacked. Pack n play arrived within like 30 minutes of ordering, put the family down for naps.
Woke up around 4 and went to Disney Springs for the evening.
Walked around some shops. Joined the walk up list for TRex. It said it’d be 45 minutes, but we got a text within 5 saying that our table was ready.
- A trick for jumping the line here is having a Landry’s card. This works at other restaurants at Disney Springs and Landry’s restaurants across the country.
Shopped some more.
Went back to the hotel around 7 pm for bedtime.

Day 2: Hollywood Studios & Epcot

Family was up early. Hubby and kids went and got beignets from the Scat Cat Café at 7 am when they opened. So good.
Left for Hollywood Studios around 7:50 am. Not going to lie – this was a terrible time to leave. The bus stop was packed with people trying to get to the park for 8:30 am early entry. Go either earlier or later…just not at 8. Also, the Hollywood Studios bus stop at Port Orleans French Quarter is also used for Magic Kingdom, so that wasn’t helping anything.
Got to Hollywood Studios, through security and the gate, around 8:45 so we did not make rope drop.
First stop was Toy Story Mania. It was a walk-on when we got there.
Second ride was also Toy Story Mania. By this time it was 9:02 so non-resort guests were in the park, so the second time through was more like 5 minutes with an actual line.
It was now 9:15 am and Buzz Lightyear was to start meeting at 9:45 am. This was a FIVE ALARM PRIORITY for my toddler. So, I was first in line for the meet and greet. While I waited in line with the baby (and attempted to get him to nap), the toddler and husband walked around Toy Story Land and spent a good amount of time watching Slinky Dog Dash, the rollercoaster.
- Note: My son is tall enough to ride Slinky Dog Dash, but he seems to be scared of it. This is our second trip spending extended amounts of time just watching the roller coaster. Maybe later this trip or on the next one he’ll tell us he’s ready to ride. We’re letting him lead on this particular ride.
Walked over to Alien Saucers. This ride has a 32” height requirement. They will check your child 2 or 3 times before you get on the ride. Since we have the baby with us, we did rider swap for this ride and my toddler got to ride twice. He loved it.
- For those familiar with Disneyland Resort, this is the same as Mater’s Jamboree at Disney’s California Adventure.
Next we decided to try to get the baby to nap, and we walked over to Galaxy’s Edge to relax and get a blue milk.
We decided at this point that we’d like to head over to either Boardwalk or Epcot for lunch and then park hop. The plan was to walk – but my toddler requested the Skyliner as we exited the park, so we called an audible and took the Skyliner to Epcot.
Mobile Ordered from Regal Eagle, BBQ in America, while on the Skyliner. This is one of the only spots to mobile order in the world showcase, so that’s why we chose it. Plus. They have Mac and cheese for the toddler.
Ate lunch, then walked around Epcot taking in the sights, shopping, and snacking.
At some point the baby fell asleep for an hour and a half – so that was cool. Toddler never napped which was not great.
Spent time playing on the playground near Communicore Hall.
Rode the Three Caballeros in Mexico, got chips with guacamole and queso and a mango margarita from La Cantina de San Angel. Ate them on the bridge near the baby care center – underrated spot with views of the water, monorail, and spaceship earth.
Rode Journey Into Imagination with Figment, Living with the Land, and The Seas with Nemo and Friends.
Walked through Journey of Water (always have a spare change of clothes if your kid is a water baby like my toddler).
It was around 6 pm at this point, toddler hadn’t slept, and baby had crap naps, so we headed back to the hotel and mobile ordered dinner from the bus.
Fed. Showered. In bed and the kids were both asleep by 8:15 pm.

Day 3: Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom

This is a Very Merry Christmas Party day at Magic Kingdom. Early entry is at 7:30 am, park opens at 8 am, and closes at 6 pm for the party that starts at 7 pm. Party guests can enter the park as early as 4 pm – so it can get very busy around then.
Always check the app for park hours.
Got to bus stop around 7:45. Bus picked up at 8:07. Arrived and in the park around 8:35.
Rode Jingle Cruise. It was a walk-on.
Rode Aladdin’s magical carpets twice with no wait, by the time we got off this had a line.
Pirates of the Caribbean had a 5-minute wait.
Haunted Mansion showed 13 minutes, aka walk on, on the app but everyone else saw this too. Took about 15-20 minutes to get on the ride.
Snack time at aloha isle for a pineapple dole whip. Baby fell asleep on the walk over.
Decided to let baby nap and went to Tomorrowland Speedway for toddler to drive. We did rider swap so he could ride twice.
Baby woke up while brother was on the ride.
Peoplemover – waited about 10 minutes.
Ordered lunch from Casey’s Corner while in line for Peoplemover and picked it up after.
Decided it’d be best not to push our luck and walked through the gift shops and back to the bus/hotel for afternoon nap.
Animal Kingdom isn’t typically open after dark in the summer, so we opted to go after nap even though all animal experiences would be closed.
Arrived around 4:45.
Walked through the former Dino Land
Hubby used single rider line for Expedition Everest which gave my toddler the opportunity to watch. He’s obsessed with watching roller coasters. Still zero desire to ride one.
Got dinner at Yak and Yeti Local Food Cafes – a quick service.
Walked around and enjoyed Animal Kingdom.
Around 6:15 walked towards the front of the park, caught the light show on the Tree of Life, walked through the shops. Caught a bus back to the hotel.
A few notes: ride lines were LONG. Mass exodus for everyone to leave at 7 and there was a broken down bus causing a large traffic jam at the park exit. Prepare accordingly.

Day 4: Animal Kingdom and Magic Kingdom

Caught 6:50ish bus to Animal Kingdom, arrived before 7:15 am
Through security and boarded Navi River Journey at 7:30 am. It had a few technical difficulties.
Got off the ride – there was no line so hubby and I wanted to ride again, but toddler said no. We’ve been operating under “you need to try it once and if you don’t want to go on it again, we won’t”
Walked back and got in line for Kilimanjaro Safari that opened at 8. This is never open for early entry.
We were on and off the ride by 8:40 am.
Walked the Gorilla Falls Trail which is at the Safari exit/stroller pickup.
Grabbed coffee at Creature Comforts while baby napped.
Walked around Tree of Life and the Maharaja Trek. This is where the tigers are.
Walked over around 9:30/9:40 to Festival of the Lion King to park the stroller and get in line for the 10 am show.
Note: we didn’t know how the kids would do so asked to be put near an exit and on the end of the row in case we needed to make a break for it.
Kids did great and loved the show. It takes about 35 minutes (app says 40)
Walked around for a few minutes before we checked in for our 11:05 am Tusker House lunch reservation. This is character dining with Mickey, Goofy, Donald, and Daisy in their safari gear. We loved it – but it can be loud if you have anyone sensitive to sound in your group.
Finished lunch at 12:15 and headed back to the bus and hotel for quiet time.
Headed back out around 5 to Magic Kingdom with two goals: Starlight Parade at 8 pm and Happily Ever After Fireworks at 9 pm. There is another parade at 10:30 pm but we knew the kids couldn’t make it that late.
The park was busy when we got there, and people were already lining up for the 8 pm parade. I never made it past the castle and stayed on Main Street all night holding our spot for the parade and then fireworks.
We mobile ordered Casey’s for dinner (second round at Casey’s – but we wanted to save our seats). Ate it picnic style on Main St. Toddler loved it.
I hung out at our spot and made some new friends with others saving spots while husband took toddler to ride the Tomorrowland Speedway and watch “water ride” aka Tiana’s Bayou Adventure. They made it back by 7:30 pm for the parade.
Around 7:30 pm announcements were made that Main Street and near the castle were at capacity for parade viewing.
At 7:50 pm an announcement was made that all parade viewing was at capacity. I didn’t even know that was possible. Moral of the story: if watching the earlier parade is a priority – especially during party seasons – get a spot early.
Parade made it to our spot at 8:05 and was done about 8:17.
We stayed in our spot until people started filling in on Main Street and then moved to the street for fireworks. Husband and toddler went to the confectionery at this time to get snacks.
Fireworks started at 9 and last about 20 minutes.
Made a break for the bus immediately after fireworks to get the kids to bed. We got back to our room around 10.

Day 5: Off day.

Kids were up at 5:30 am. Which was in fact before the sun.
Husband got us beignets again when Scat Cat Café opened at 7 am.
Got on a bus to Hollywood Studios around 8:30 am with the goals of resort hopping and mini golf.
We had planned on walking from Hollywood Studios to Boardwalk Inn and the other Epcot area hotels, but toddler wanted to ride the Skyliner so we hopped on that instead and took that over to the Epcot Station.
Walked from the Epcot Skyliner Station to Beach Club to see their holiday decorations.
Moved on to Yacht Club.
Toddler asked to ride a boat and the boat happened to be arriving at Yacht Club, so we took it over to Boardwalk. It was a 1 minute 27 second ride according to the captain.
Walked around Boardwalk, and then over to Swan and Dolphin.
At 10 am we arrived at Fantasia Gardens Mini Golf. Some days it can get crowded and have a wait, so we like to be there at opening if possible.
There were already 3 or 4 groups on the more kid friendly course, so we opted for the Fairways Course, which is NOT EASY.
Toddler was our course marshal that kept us moving along, and we finished our round in under an hour. There was a group a few holes ahead of us and another a few behind but we never felt slowed down or rushed by either which was nice.
Toddler had seen the Swan and Dolphin playground on our walk over, so we promised we could stop on our way back. He really liked this playground, but it could definitely get hot depending on the time of day/year.
Walked back to Boardwalk Inn and mobile ordered from Boardwalk Deli. There aren’t a ton of tables to sit at, but we made the most of it by enjoying the “grass” area and having a picnic. This also allowed the baby to have some time out of the stroller and baby carrier which is hard to come by in general at Disney World.
After lunch it was nap time so we walked back to the Hollywood Studios bus station, which is about a 12 minute walk.
Had nap/quiet time in the room.
Kids woke up and we took the toddler to the pool around 4. Disney pools are heated, so they are open essentially year-round. Very rare for the hotel pools to be closed.
Grabbed dinner around 5 at the hotel food court and then caught the boat to Disney Springs because toddler wanted to go on another boat ride.
Walked around Disney Springs. Grabbed a dole whip and candy. Caught a bus back to the hotel and arrived at our room at 8 pm.
Disney hotels have an on demand content option to watch Disney stories and videos. We opted to watch a recording of the Happily Ever After fireworks before bed, toddler’s request.
Tomorrow will be another long day as it’s our last day before flying home.

Day 6: Magic Kingdom and Epcot

Magic Kingdom early entry is 7:30 am for resort guests and the park opens to general admission at 8 am.
We got the 7:10 am bus to Magic Kingdom, arrived at 7:34 am, early entry was at 7:30.
Went to Tomorrowland and rode the Tomorrowland Speedway twice. The line was so short we didn’t even bother with rider swap. If you choose this tactic – ride operations are a bit wonky first thing in the morning. They have minimal cars going and they have to be able to keep things moving so it was a bit slower than we hoped.
Next we went and tried out Dumbo for the first time. Kid loved it, so we rode again. There was literally 1 family of 2 in line after our first ride, and the operator let us go again without even getting off the ride. This is totally going to be up to the discretion of the cast member whether or not they let you stay on in these circumstances.
Asked the toddler if he wanted to ride “Goofy Coaster” and he said yes – so we ran to the line before he changed his mind. Got lucky and literally walked on, which again, helped reduce the chance of him changing his mind. He did not like it – but we are so freaking proud of him for trying.
Rode the tea cups with the kids for the first time – they enjoyed it.
Hopped over to Jingle Cruise for one more ride on it this season.
Toddler requested “carpet ride” aka Aladdin’s Magic Carpets and there was no line, so rode it.
Ordered our ornament at Ye Olde Christmas Shoppe. Made the fatal error of checking Sunday night and not Monday morning, and the hours were different. I will admit when in my personal planning things go wrong. Instead of being one of the first to order a custom ornament that day…we were given a 3 pm estimated pick-up time which totally changed the trajectory of our day.
Got a funnel cake from Sleepy Hollow.
Rode King Arthur’s Carrousel.
Watched Mickey’s Philharmagic.
Took pictures on Main Street/hub.
Caught the Monorail to Epcot.
Rode Spaceship Earth. Based on our description of the ride, toddler got the impression that it was like Buzz Lightyear Astro Blaster. It is not – and we did try to explain that – but he ended up liking it anyways.
Donald Duck ride – aka Gran Fiesta Tour with the Three Caballeros at Mexico pavilion. This was a 5 minute wait, which is the norm.
Lunch at Lotus Blossom Cafe in China pavilion. Delicious.
Walked the World Showcase with special stops at the Germany model trains and the Canada waterfall.
Grabbed a coffee at Connections Eatery, the EPCOT Starbucks location.
Diaper change at baby care center.
Toddler asked for Donald Duck ride again, and since the baby care center is near Mexico, we walked over.
Walked over to the Imagination Pavillion to ride Journey into Imagination with Figment.
Visa Cardmember meet and greet which is also at the Imagination Pavillion. This took about 25-30 minutes to get through the line, and we got to meet Minnie Mouse and Pluto.
Play at dancing fountains.
Monorail back to Magic Kingdom. Got to Magic Kingdom around 5ish.
Pick up ornaments from Ye Olde Christmas Shoppe.
Mom (me) wanted one more ride on the Peoplemover.
Toddler loves Monsters, Inc. and Mike Wazowski, so we tried Monsters Inc Laugh Floor for the first time. Toddler liked it…but he did not get the jokes.
Tomorrowland Speedway with Rider Swap (this would be rides 6 and 7 if you are keeping track)
Caught bus back to hotel around 7 for dinner, watching Happily Ever After fireworks on demand, and packing.

Day 7: Travel Home

6:30 am pickup from hotel to go to airport for 9:30 am flight
At the airport around 7:15 am
Checked bags and through security by 7:30 am. You never know what you are going to get at MCO.
There is only one tram operational for the Southwest gates, so they are very ful and it is a bit slower to get to and from the gates.
Flight boarded at 9 and we took off without issues!

Things That We Missed

Magic Kingdom Park

Almost everything in Fantasyland.
We were with an opinionated toddler. He’s all about doing the things he likes over and over. We rode Tomorrowland Speedway 7 times – that was time that could have been spent on other rides if it was a one and done trip.
Columbia Harbour House for a meal. I don’t know how we missed out on this!

EPCOT

We didn’t really get to any of the festival booths.
Did not ride any of the bigger rides – Guardians of the Galaxy, Ratatouille, or Frozen.

Hollywood Studios

Toddler did not care to do any of the shows
We only rode Toy Story Mania and Alien Swirling Saucers
This is honestly not a great park for littles unless they like shows

Animal Kingdom

Did not go on anything with a height requirement
Did not get a chance to see the new Zootopia show, the line was about 50 minutes most of the time we were there and we did not have LLMP
Satulli Canteen! We always get this for a meal, but missed it this trip as we tried some other new-to-us options.

Final Thoughts

I’m a Disney Adult raising Disney children. My toddler had the time of his life. I’m writing this blog about 3 weeks after our trip and he still talks to us about it and asks to go back. He was totally in to picking out what ride we would do next and was getting better about standing in lines and the social norms of being in a theme park. It’s fun taking the kids back each time because they are different every time we go! They have new fears, get over old fears, and make new memories.

They may not remember the exact trip but I do think that my kids grow with every trip we do – and that’s why we will always continue to travel with them.

Disney offers great discounts for booking a return trip within 7 days of checkout, and we went ahead and did that. We will be returning in 2026, at minimum, in November.

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