~~**The Official January 2014 Group**~~

[OnlyDisney]

I knew that in January things would be closed for refurbishments but I guess I didn't realize how many things it would be! Could we start a list of attractions that will be closed during most of the month? This would really help with my planning! Thanks!!

AK - Festival of the Lion King - last show on or around Jan. 5th
MK - Celebrate a Dream Come True Parade - last parade on or about Jan. 4th

That's too bad about the Festival of the Lion King. It was one of my favorite moments from our last trip.

On a happier note, I logged in today and it says I can customize our MagicBands! The only color option so far is gray, but we're still 76 days out and we have 45 days to customize by Dec 3

 

[sunset7132]

Got my magical express vouchers in the mail today!!! 91 days to go!!!

Wow you got your vouchers that far out. That is awesome. We got ours at about 45.. Pixie dust

 

[Ferrentinos]

That's too bad about the Festival of the Lion King. It was one of my favorite moments from our last trip. On a happier note, I logged in today and it says I can customize our MagicBands! The only color option so far is gray, but we're still 76 days out and we have 45 days to customize by Dec 3

So exciting!!!

 

[Jen12573]

We are thinking of celebrating our 10th anniversary in WDW. DH and I love it there, and just decided yesterday that perhaps we'll go back to celebrate our little milestone. I also turn 40 on 12/5 (Walt Disney's birthday!)

We will likely be there from 1/2-1/7, staying at CSR. Our anniversary is on 1/3. Already started checking for ADRs and it seems that everything we want is available on the dates and at the times we want. I'm shocked.

Happy planning!

 

[rachlovestv]

Should I be worried that we are 80 days out and we don't have magic bands on our mydisneyexperience page yet? It shows that we have 5 day park hoppers, but that's it.

 

[nym4588]

We're 76 days out and it's not yet showing a link for customizing the bands. Right now the real problem is that only one of our park hoppers are showing as linked. I guess I'll be making a call tomorrow!

Obviously a January trip means attraction closures and I knew that going in, but my little heart broke a bit when I saw that FoTLK will be dark! Add that to Splash and Casey's...I'm afraid to see what comes next.

 

[autoracepr989]

Just found out that to help my thyroid I should go gluten free. This came from my Dr. While I'm solo it doesn't matter much to me as to if i have to wait linger for CS meals or for a chef at TS meals but I dont want to inconvenience friends that wont know whats going on with waiting the extra time for me. I already know that some easy ways around it are to request no bun & fruit instead of fries as the diet also cuts out white rice & white potatoes. I'm half thinking that I'm not going to follow the diet completely those four and a half days to the fullest.

I already dont want to talk to special diets as the one email response I got when I let the know of the TS meal we plan to do with several different allergies was a form email saying ask for a chef. They also said you will be fine ordering from the menu. The allergies are anaphylactic reactions to tree nuts & wheat. Really didn't feel like they thought it would be a big deal to these two kids to get food that they wanted on the ONLY disney trip they will more than likely get.

Sorry for the rant it just gets me that even though we're a CM family so know most if the ins & outs of WDW, they would send that kind of a reply. I didn't say that a family member was a CM in my email to them either. Just a little discouraged I guess & needed to say so to a group that will hopefully understand.

 

[HeatherLassell]

That's too bad about the Festival of the Lion King. It was one of my favorite moments from our last trip.

On a happier note, I logged in today and it says I can customize our MagicBands! The only color option so far is gray, but we're still 76 days out and we have 45 days to customize by Dec 3

Argh why am I not getting this?

Where exactly did you click to see it?

I go to my reservations and it says we all have 9 day tickets. Then when I click on each person in the party it says "This person has 0 tickets and 0 magic bands" ?

 

[STLMickeyMom]

Should I be worried that we are 80 days out and we don't have magic bands on our mydisneyexperience page yet? It shows that we have 5 day park hoppers, but that's it.

We are 78 days out and our "personalize magic bands" just showed up yesterday with a countdown of 48 days to personalize them. However, I haven't done anything with it because the only color choice right now is gray for all of us and I'm hoping the other colors will pop up in a few days. I'd think you'd get it soon.

 

[sunset7132]

Should I be worried that we are 80 days out and we don't have magic bands on our mydisneyexperience page yet? It shows that we have 5 day park hoppers, but that's it.

I got our MB 30 days out so no I wouldn't worry as of yet

 

[DizneyDogz]

Our Magic Bands are now linked too! 77 days to go 45 for Customizing. Grey is the only option for now though.....

 

[katmg]

Yep, our magic bands showed up too! Only grey right now. I ordered our tickets and I'm hoping I can link those up soon too!

I'm kind of regretting now that I split my reservation from the 2-4, 5-8 so that I could get the RO discount on the 5-8. Because now I have 2 sets of magic bands coming. It saves me a couple of hundred dollars but I'm afraid that the hassle it will cause may outweigh the money. Are there any threads that I can talk about 'split-stays' on?

 

[bjgonzo]

Just found out that to help my thyroid I should go gluten free. This came from my Dr. While I'm solo it doesn't matter much to me as to if i have to wait linger for CS meals or for a chef at TS meals but I dont want to inconvenience friends that wont know whats going on with waiting the extra time for me. I already know that some easy ways around it are to request no bun & fruit instead of fries as the diet also cuts out white rice & white potatoes. I'm half thinking that I'm not going to follow the diet completely those four and a half days to the fullest.

I already dont want to talk to special diets as the one email response I got when I let the know of the TS meal we plan to do with several different allergies was a form email saying ask for a chef. They also said you will be fine ordering from the menu. The allergies are anaphylactic reactions to tree nuts & wheat. Really didn't feel like they thought it would be a big deal to these two kids to get food that they wanted on the ONLY disney trip they will more than likely get.

Sorry for the rant it just gets me that even though we're a CM family so know most if the ins & outs of WDW, they would send that kind of a reply. I didn't say that a family member was a CM in my email to them either. Just a little discouraged I guess & needed to say so to a group that will hopefully understand.

We were GF for a year and potatoes and rice were not something we had to worry about, both of those are naturally GF. Since yours is for thyroid issues, it may be different, but as a whole both are ok to the normal GF person. We didn't eat out much, but when we did we didn't have issues find GF stuff, of course contamination is a totally separate issue and I'm glad it wasn't life threatening for us.

That is very sad that that was the reply you got, but from what I understand the individual chef at each restaurant is the best to help you. I would think your party would be very willing to accommodate you and not find it an inconvenience.

 

[nym4588]

I've been sitting on the phone waiting for tech support. At least the Disney music is entertaining me...we're on Grim Grinning Ghosts at the moment

 

[katmg]

I haven't started looking up weather yet but I have started thinking about it! I read that it is usually 50s-70s but that can vary from the 30s to the 80s. Makes packing kinda hard!

I'm already starting to think about what my kids will be wearing and I hate to have to pack everything from shorts to parkas! I'm just happy to have something else to plan before I get to do the FP+ etc.

 

[PoohBearFriends]

I haven't started looking up weather yet but I have started thinking about it! I read that it is usually 50s-70s but that can vary from the 30s to the 80s. Makes packing kinda hard!

I'm already starting to think about what my kids will be wearing and I hate to have to pack everything from shorts to parkas! I'm just happy to have something else to plan before I get to do the FP+ etc.

Last time we went in early Feb. we had the 37-75 degree variance. So pack heavy we did.

 

[mrsdrake625]

Just found out that to help my thyroid I should go gluten free. This came from my Dr. While I'm solo it doesn't matter much to me as to if i have to wait linger for CS meals or for a chef at TS meals but I dont want to inconvenience friends that wont know whats going on with waiting the extra time for me. I already know that some easy ways around it are to request no bun & fruit instead of fries as the diet also cuts out white rice & white potatoes. I'm half thinking that I'm not going to follow the diet completely those four and a half days to the fullest.

I already dont want to talk to special diets as the one email response I got when I let the know of the TS meal we plan to do with several different allergies was a form email saying ask for a chef. They also said you will be fine ordering from the menu. The allergies are anaphylactic reactions to tree nuts & wheat. Really didn't feel like they thought it would be a big deal to these two kids to get food that they wanted on the ONLY disney trip they will more than likely get.

Sorry for the rant it just gets me that even though we're a CM family so know most if the ins & outs of WDW, they would send that kind of a reply. I didn't say that a family member was a CM in my email to them either. Just a little discouraged I guess & needed to say so to a group that will hopefully understand.

I'm gluten free as well and their response was correct, you are much better off asking the chef. Suppliers and ingredients change too much for anyone to help you much ahead of time. They have an ingredient book to look at and I would have missed a few things had I not read all of the ingredients - in one case, a manager at Casey's corner caught something I missed on the menu that had gluten. I really appreciated that, made the evening a lot nicer than it would have turned out to be! I never found it to be an issue at all. Remember they deal with lots more allergies than that on a daily basis so to them, it's important but not intimidating. They can handle it. You may have interpreted that attitude as them not caring but in my experience its the opposite.

As to not following the diet... that's your choice but I would think the inconvenience of feeling badly on vacation and damaging your health would outweigh the inconvenience of asking a simple question at a restaurant. Put the allergy on your reservation and they will help you out. Not worth your health but hey, I'm not your mom! YMMV.

For reference, last few meals at disney for me were a Reuben on toasted GF bread, hot dog with a bun, one meal at kouzzina which was amazing!, Indian food at AoA which was also surprisingly good (and only $10 or so), and Mickey waffles made on a dedicated waffle iron.

 

[STLMickeyMom]

I haven't started looking up weather yet but I have started thinking about it! I read that it is usually 50s-70s but that can vary from the 30s to the 80s. Makes packing kinda hard!

I'm already starting to think about what my kids will be wearing and I hate to have to pack everything from shorts to parkas! I'm just happy to have something else to plan before I get to do the FP+ etc.

I've been thinking about the weather too. I think we're dressing in layers. Long sleeve tshirt under short sleeves and sweatshirts/jackets so we can take off/put back on as needed. The days I made skirts for the girls they are wearing leggings underneath and the other days its Capri pants--good for cold or warm days, I hope!

 

[tlseege]

Last January we wore jeans every day and then a tshirt with a zip hoodie over it. We were fine for mornings and late evenings. My daughter wears a princess dress every single day, so she wore leggings underneath and a zip hoodie over. Easy for both to be taken off when it was peak day temperatures.

 

[inkedupmomma]

with the exception of a few hot days, last year I wore jeans every day! BEST TIME ever because of that lol! My husband did jeans or shorts and sweatshirt, it was awesome!