PART TWO *December 2012 Roll Call* Holidays, FLE & MVMCP!! A very, merry thread!

[jimjenkids]

called and requested paper rect of payment as well as an email....did it once and they have sent it everytime!....got a bit excited to get a piece of Mickey mail....the final rect for our trip showing a $0 balance due! It seems nice to get a bit of "happy" mail! after sitting and going over our plans and the 3 ADRs we have, I was a bit saddened to let one go, but only 2 of us wanted it and the majority ruled, so saddly I canceled our ADRs to the Garden Grill last night.....bein ga family of 6, even if we would have upgraded, we would have spent more OOP for tips than we wanted. my kids arent big eaters and prefer the qs.....maybe next trip, but til then I will be happy that we are going and all is paid!

[cybrkitn]

Originally Posted by ALDSMD

We have MVMCP tickets for December 6th that we got way before they announced the grandopening of Fantasyland. Do you think the grandopening is going to make the Christmas Party crazy busy or busier than it would have been? I'm probably the only person not excited about the grandopening being during their very first December trip.

I recently read about the grand opening as well. December 6th is our second day at MK with the steam train tour booked for the morning. After reading about the grand opening, I've been wondering how crowded it's gonna be. We're already leaving a little early for our ADR at Kona's.

ETA: Wow! I out of the house for about 4 hours and away from the DISboards for about 5 or so and already 4-5 pages have gone by We will have no problem hitting the 250 mark if this keeps up

[rachdd]

I just have to share this here with people who will understand...

So, a good friend of mine called me yesterday for a little help with Disney. Turns out they are surprising their two boys and going to WDW Thanksgiving week. She is aware that it is going to be crowded BUT, here is the kicker... they only have 1 ADR for a 7 day trip!

Needless to say I am going over to her house tomorrow for a little Disney Boot Camp. Hopefully she can find a couple of TS ADR's and then I am going to "school" her on CS.

Wish me and her luck!

[levenhopper]

Originally Posted by rachdd

I just have to share this here with people who will understand...

So, a good friend of mine called me yesterday for a little help with Disney. Turns out they are surprising their two boys and going to WDW Thanksgiving week. She is aware that it is going to be crowded BUT, here is the kicker... they only have 1 ADR for a 7 day trip!

Needless to say I am going over to her house tomorrow for a little Disney Boot Camp. Hopefully she can find a couple of TS ADR's and then I am going to "school" her on CS.

Wish me and her luck!

If it were me, at this point I'd be preaching that the trip will be what they make of it. If they walk in expecting to eat wherever/whenever they want, they'll be disappointed. Likewise, if they are expecting to walk straight onto every ride, they're in for a surprise. But, if they can put their expectations in the right places, they can still have an awesome trip.

Some people don't necessarily like ADRs and fully planned trips. I know we all like plans, and love working on our PTRs, but we're in the minority of people going to Disney (besides, if they didn't like planning, why would they be on the DIS, lol). Hundreds of thousands of people walk through the turnstiles every year at Disney, and I'd bet a good number of them haven't even heard of an ADR before. But, they still have a good time, and a good number of them keep going back.

And who knows, depending on the age of the boys, maybe QSs are the way to go for them. No matter what, if they have the right outlook/expectation of what will happen without ADRs, I bet they'll have a good time.

[rachdd]

Originally Posted by levenhopper

If it were me, at this point I'd be preaching that the trip will be what they make of it. If they walk in expecting to eat wherever/whenever they want, they'll be disappointed. Likewise, if they are expecting to walk straight onto every ride, they're in for a surprise. But, if they can put their expectations in the right places, they can still have an awesome trip.

Some people don't necessarily like ADRs and fully planned trips. I know we all like plans, and love working on our PTRs, but we're in the minority of people going to Disney (besides, if they didn't like planning, why would they be on the DIS, lol). Hundreds of thousands of people walk through the turnstiles every year at Disney, and I'd bet a good number of them haven't even heard of an ADR before. But, they still have a good time, and a good number of them keep going back.

And who knows, depending on the age of the boys, maybe QSs are the way to go for them. No matter what, if they have the right outlook/expectation of what will happen without ADRs, I bet they'll have a good time.

OH, I fully agree! My husband does NOT like being on to tight of a schedule so we try to keep a happy medium with my planning and his eat when I am hungry. UGH!!

With that said, and knowing this family, they will be fine with CS some of the time but they are going to want some TS meals so hopefully she will be able to find a few.

They have a good attitude about know it will be crowded so hopefully she will use a touring plan and make the most out of it.

[grrrlennyl]

Yeah, I bet if they are OK with a decent amount of counter service meals and are flexible, they'll have a great time.

That said, I am a Planner, so I am trying to nail down some of my ADRs. I'm going to do lunch at LTT, but need to wait until I figure out when we're going to 'Ohana first. However, since we are planning on going to LTT and have added CRT, I'm thinking we should ditch our ADRs at The Wave. We are already planning on paying OOP at LTT and I think doing a full meal at The Wave would be too much, given how things are shaking out. Any thoughts?

My alternate plan for the night we were supposed to go to The Wave is to do a monorail bar / cupcake crawl, ending up at the Poly for Wishes.

ETA: AHHHH! The wave just changed their menus. Hmm...the desserts look good, but they'll probably change by December, right? Maybe I'll hold off on dropping those ADRs.

[levenhopper]

Originally Posted by rachdd

OH, I fully agree! My husband does NOT like being on to tight of a schedule so we try to keep a happy medium with my planning and his eat when I am hungry. UGH!!

With that said, and knowing this family, they will be fine with CS some of the time but they are going to want some TS meals so hopefully she will be able to find a few.

They have a good attitude about know it will be crowded so hopefully she will use a touring plan and make the most out of it.

Haha. That's kinda what we are doing. Abby and I reached an understanding (for lack of a better word), where I'm making ADRs for all the meals I want (usually two per day, sometimes one, one day has three), but we're not planning what order we're doing rides or anything like that. Besides having our parks chosen and ADRs made, we're not doing any other planning.

Sorry, I didn't mean to overreact at you. I've seen a few threads on TPaS where people have friends who they find out are going to Disney without plans, and the things they say they're going to say to their friends make me worry that the friends will be scared of Disney. :/. I didn't think you'd do that, but when I saw "boot camp" I got a little worried.

[Tltorrez]

Originally Posted by levenhopper

Try calling in. Others are having that issue, but are able to book what they need when calling.

Ok, the discount was still available. It's just a website problem. So the rooms are booked.

I also rescheduled the Segway Tour. Even if FIL goes, there's no way he'll be able to do the Segway Tour. So if they go we'll cancel it all together. If they don't go, I moved it to a different day for DH and DSis. I also rebooked Cape May; that's what DS10 and I will be doing while they're on the tour. One interesting note, after all the rigamarole about the new tour changing times, now they're still booking them at 7:45. So it's an hour longer but the starting time doesn't change. So that's good news!

It's a good thing I'm organized. I now have two completely different plans with a list of what needs to be changed/ cancelled for each. I can't do much more though until I know definitively.

[Tltorrez]

Originally Posted by grrrlennyl

ETA: AHHHH! The wave just changed their menus. Hmm...the desserts look good, but they'll probably change by December, right? Maybe I'll hold off on dropping those ADRs.

As a general rule, the menu changes come twice a year - before summer and after summer. Individual restaurants may make other changes, of course. But Disney restaurants don't really change that often. So the menus coming out now will generally be the ones we get for Dec.

[grrrlennyl]

Originally Posted by Tltorrez

As a general rule, the menu changes come twice a year - before summer and after summer. Individual restaurants may make other changes, of course. But Disney restaurants don't really change that often. So the menus coming out now will generally be the ones we get for Dec.

Ah, good to know. They have a lot of "autumn blahblah" noted in their menu, so I'm thinking there may be other changes since they're sustainable or something like that. Hmm...

[cybrkitn]

Originally Posted by rachdd

I just have to share this here with people who will understand...

So, a good friend of mine called me yesterday for a little help with Disney. Turns out they are surprising their two boys and going to WDW Thanksgiving week. She is aware that it is going to be crowded BUT, here is the kicker... they only have 1 ADR for a 7 day trip!

Needless to say I am going over to her house tomorrow for a little Disney Boot Camp. Hopefully she can find a couple of TS ADR's and then I am going to "school" her on CS.

Wish me and her luck!

Are they on the DDP or QSP? If DDP, they may have a hard time getting some ADR's for some of the restaurants. We're going 11/29-12/8 and I'm already finding out that some of our choices are not available. Of course, we're also going during Pop Warner week, so that may have something to do with no availability for us.

Good luck!

[rachdd]

Originally Posted by levenhopper

Haha. That's kinda what we are doing. Abby and I reached an understanding (for lack of a better word), where I'm making ADRs for all the meals I want (usually two per day, sometimes one, one day has three), but we're not planning what order we're doing rides or anything like that. Besides having our parks chosen and ADRs made, we're not doing any other planning.

Sorry, I didn't mean to overreact at you. I've seen a few threads on TPaS where people have friends who they find out are going to Disney without plans, and the things they say they're going to say to their friends make me worry that the friends will be scared of Disney. :/. I didn't think you'd do that, but when I saw "boot camp" I got a little worried.

LOL, my husband has become a believer in all of the planning and research I do but the one thing I can't do is plan to many of his meals. I mean I can't for the life of me understand why he can't plan when he is going to be hungry at WDW!

I didn't think you were overreacting and I know exactly what you mean. By bootcamp I mean am going to sit with her and go over her best options and help her with a general plan so that they can enjoy themselves and not worry about the crowds!

[cybrkitn]

Originally Posted by Tltorrez

As a general rule, the menu changes come twice a year - before summer and after summer. Individual restaurants may make other changes, of course. But Disney restaurants don't really change that often. So the menus coming out now will generally be the ones we get for Dec.

Do you know how much of a turn-around-time there is between a restaurant changing their menu and Disney Dining updating their system/web site?

I called Disney Dining to ask about the recent change to Kona Cafe's menu and the CM I spoke with told me that she didn't see any changes. When she inquired about it, nothing was coming up . The changes are enough that it no longer appeals to us.

[Tltorrez]

Originally Posted by cybrkitn

Do you know how much of a turn-around-time there is between a restaurant changing their menu and Disney Dining updating their system/web site?

I called Disney Dining to ask about the recent change to Kona Cafe's menu and the CM I spoke with told me that she didn't see any changes. When she inquired about it, nothing was coming up . The changes are enough that it no longer appeals to us.

The turn around time on *all* the Disney website is very slow, sometimes weeks. I use this site, WDWInfo for dining menus. It shows that Kona Dinner was updated this month. Lunch and breakfast were updated in Aug.

[WedgieSock]

Originally Posted by levenhopper

Haha. That's kinda what we are doing. Abby and I reached an understanding (for lack of a better word), where I'm making ADRs for all the meals I want (usually two per day, sometimes one, one day has three), but we're not planning what order we're doing rides or anything like that. Besides having our parks chosen and ADRs made, we're not doing any other planning.

Sorry, I didn't mean to overreact at you. I've seen a few threads on TPaS where people have friends who they find out are going to Disney without plans, and the things they say they're going to say to their friends make me worry that the friends will be scared of Disney. :/. I didn't think you'd do that, but when I saw "boot camp" I got a little worried.

We're exactly the same - we plan which park which day and our ADRs then we just wing it in between. That way, even though you do have a plan, it doesn't seem like it. If that makes sense.