Thoughts about availability in 1st week of January 2016

[Anal Annie]

So although we reallllly can't afford to plan another trip beyond this summer the wheels in my head are turning…and turning FAST!! LOL. Doing some thinking out loud here….looking for experiences from others who have gone in early January / during the marathon.

We have never been down to see the holiday lights and I am dying to go (have only been in the winter over MLK weekend which the lights are off by then). Did I hear that they may not do the Osbourne Family lights next year?? What's the latest rumor on that? Gosh that would suck that we never got to see them. Anyway, DS will be going off to college in NY in August and will have a nice long winter break next year so we won't be tied to the usual old 7-10 day HS break. That's 1 reason we've never gone down - just not enough time to squeeze in Christmas and family visits AND a trip. But so I was just looking ahead at the idea of going down on Sun., Jan. 3rd after the holiday crowds for about 5 nights, heading home on Fri., Jan 8th or maybe the 9th. The marathon stuff starts on the 7th (I think) and I wasn't sure how crowded it gets during the marathon week but figured if we overlap with it by 1 or 2 days we could handle the crowds. I mean HOW CROWDED IS IT then? My Dcousin and her family may be going too as her DH does the Goofy Challenge some years and I think he may next year again. Thought it would be fun to overlap with her for a day or so too…. ANYWAY, was looking at the idea of driving again vs flying. Found flights on US Airways for $240 pp out of National (if we only go for 5 or 6 nights we could go in carry-ons and use the metro to the airport. Driving would still be cheaper depending on gas prices this year BUT need to allow for an extra day on either end for driving….last time we drove we stopped overnight in Savannah but drove straight home - DC area roadwork and storms in Georgia & the Carolinas turned it into a 16 hour trip. We're planning to drive it again this summer but are undecided on stops & timing. Not sure what the odds are of hitting bad weather driving it in January either?

Looked at the resort availability tool becuz we always like to hop around from resort to resort each trip and I thought the "Adventure Season" would be a good time to try VGF or the new Poly while the points are lower. Of course the Poly isn't available to check yet. VGF already has at least 1 day not avail. in the studios so I know that what days ARE left will be gone by the time our 7 mo. window opens. SSR and VWL are both open….I like VWL in the winter so that's a thought. But then I was wondering if the Poly might actually be just as easy to get since there may not be that many owners in the system yet by the time my 7 mo. window opens on June 3rd?! What do you think the odds are of being able to book the Poly for that time frame? Do I need to worry about the availability at SSR too (our home resort). Should I go ahead and book there soon just to have something on hold (such a hassle to try to change then later). I am not as worried about Jan. 3rd-6th as I am the 7th and 8th with the beginning of the marathon stuff on the 7th…those dates stand the most chance of being unavailable across all resorts, right?? SSR would use the fewest points and leave us the most still available for our summer 2016 trip….could always try for the Poly then if we leave ourselves enough points. Decisions, decisions…. We have a Dec. UY so I could borrow the points now without worrying about losing them if we change our minds, right?? (This summer's trip is booked from the points we just got in Dec.)

 

[drusba]

Some things to know:

1. Marathon weekend is an extremely high DVC demand time. The weekend starts with a race Wednesday. The Thurs through Sat of the marathon weekend are the hardest to get at 7 months out. SSR should be open but I would still reserve now just in case. Poly is an unknown and I have no idea of the odds for that. For any other near park resorts (including VWL), you have a significant risk that at least Thurs and Friday will be gone before 7 months out for all room sizes, although 1BRs in some categories might have a chance. AKV has some risk of studios/2BRs being gone one or two nights and OKW the same for studios.

2. The first night you want also has some risks but likely BWV pool/garden view and BLT lake view, and potentially VWL, will be open, along with OKW and AKV. standard and savanna view.

3. Park crowds will be very large the day you arrive. They should decrease substantially on Mon and into Tuesday but will still be heavy although not unbearable during marathon weekend. A different issue during the weekend is bus travel since routes are changed as a resiult of the races and it can take longer tho get to and from a park and if you drive anywhere you can have real issues using particular roads at various times.

 

[Anal Annie]

Thanks. Guess although we are undecided yet on driving or flying we should go ahead & snag a studio at SSR sooner rather than later. Didn't think to check BLT LV….could look there as well but still stuck waiting until June to make any changes. Just chatting with Dcousin on FB today. She reserved a Treehouse for the 6th-12th and is traveling with another family….all but one of the 8 in their group will be doing at least one race. She told me about them starting in Epcot but that they're super early…she didn't mention altered traffic patterns…guess BLT would be handy for the monorail access then. Thought by Sun., Jan. 3rd most of the holiday goers would be heading home since the weekend will be over & many kids will have to go back to school on the 4th.

Do you know any scoop about the holiday lights? Do you know when the last day is that they have them on? DH was wondering if we should wait until AFTER the race but I don't want to miss the lights…that's the whole point of going.

 

[drusba]

As to the Orbourne lights, I cannot say what is happenning because I have heard the same rumor as you but have heard nothing from Disney one way or the other. As to other holiday lights, the following is typical: with New Years on Jan 1: the hotel, non park, lights are likely to be up until Jan 3 and then they will all come down overnight between Jan 3 and Jan 4, or possibly they may wait until the next night. Park lights will likely start to come down Monday or Tuesday and it takes about three days for all of them to disappear.

 

[bellablue2]

availability is already gone for popular views, e.g., akv value, bwv standard, okw grand villa hospitality house for the latter part of the week.

 

[Anal Annie]

As to the Orbourne lights, I cannot say what is happenning because I have heard the same rumor as you but have heard nothing from Disney one way or the other. As to other holiday lights, the following is typical: with New Years on Jan 1: the hotel, non park, lights are likely to be up until Jan 3 and then they will all come down overnight between Jan 3 and Jan 4, or possibly they may wait until the next night. Park lights will likely start to come down Monday or Tuesday and it takes about three days for all of them to disappear.

OH WOW! Thanks. I didn't realize they turned the lights off that early. For some reason I was thinking that they'd all be on right thru the marathon. I guess if we come on 1/3 like I'd been thinking of doing we might be disappointed then. Maybe we'd better think about coming on 1/2. SSR is still open starting on Saturday. Hummmm. Much to think about.

 

[Anal Annie]

So I tried to get some more opinions on the lights situation over on the planning & strategies board - not too many replies over there either but still sounds like if we wait for Sun. 1/3 to go down we may be disappointed. They also seemed to think most lights would remain on thru the weekend but nobody has a clue about the Osbourne Lights rumor. If we come down on Sat. that at least gives us 2 nights of possibilities to see them. I didn't really want to come on Saturday (trying to be frugal with our points and avoid leftover holiday crowds) but sounds like that is our best bet so I booked a studio at SSR for 6 nights from Sat. 1/2 - Fri. 1/8. We may cancel off a night later tho and leave on Thurs. Not sure yet that we can even DO the trip but didn't want to worry about availability issues. There is no penalty to cancel as long as we don't wait for the last minute. Have decided that if we DO go we'll just stay put at SSR as the points are reasonable. Summer 2016 plans are still wide open but staying at SSR leaves us with enough points to book a std. view Poly studio in early June of the following summer for 8 nights. We could do 9 nights if we borrow 16 points so that's reasonable too. Or we could stay somewhere else that's "cheaper" like VWL or something and have enough points for even more nights. I also found "cheap" flights ($184 round trip) that I'm watching. They're not direct and we'd have to leave later than I'd like to for the trip down BUT that's a reasonable price these days (non-stop is $50 more pp). Need to finish filing our taxes & get our refund before I do anything else tho. If I buy airfare then we HAVE to go. If I sit tight for awhile we can still cancel if we come to our senses about not really being able to afford to go. Now that we've bought our AP's it just makes them an even better value if we squeeze in another trip.

 

[Firepath]

We went the first week of January in 2014, arriving on Th 1/2 through W 1/8. I believe the last night of the Osborne lights was Tu 1/7. We stayed at VWL and all the Christmas decor was completely gone when we arrived (so sad). Most of it was still at the parks. Like Drusba noted, the crowds were heavy when we first arrived, but really cleared out over the weekend. This was our second trip during that week and we really enjoy it. The weather can be really cold at times though - a couple of days it was colder than back home in Idaho!

 

[Anal Annie]

We went the first week of January in 2014, arriving on Th 1/2 through W 1/8. I believe the last night of the Osborne lights was Tu 1/7. We stayed at VWL and all the Christmas decor was completely gone when we arrived (so sad). Most of it was still at the parks. Like Drusba noted, the crowds were heavy when we first arrived, but really cleared out over the weekend. This was our second trip during that week and we really enjoy it. The weather can be really cold at times though - a couple of days it was colder than back home in Idaho!

Oh man!! Not what I want to hear about the resorts!! I thought with DS going to college next year and the longer winter break we could surely see all the lights, even at the resorts if we went over NY weekend. I really don't want to be there over NYE with all the crowds but so I guess if we want to guarantee lights we'd have to be there then 'eh? Plus DH can't really take off time that week of New Years because he has to plan around somebody else at his work who ALWAYS takes that week off. Grrrr. I will talk to DH but short of backing it up by 1 more day I don't think there's a lot we can do. Thanks.

 

[rpcvpanama]

We were just there for Marathon Weekend this year. Most of the decorations stayed up through Marathon weekend. They do start taking down some of the resort decorations earlier than the park decorations. But, the lights/trees remained in the parks through Sunday. They also played Christmas music throughout that week. I am not sure about Osborne lights as I don't really care for it but otherwise I think you will be able to see most if not all the decorations but know that they will begin pulling them down that week at the resorts.

 

[famgel]

availability is already gone for popular views, e.g., akv value, bwv standard, okw grand villa hospitality house for the latter part of the week.

Geez just found this and just wanted to confirm that a OKW grand villa is already not available 1/2-1/10/16? We r SSR owners but was hoping to use less points! Grandsons first WDW trip! Thank you for your help! Otherwise I'll book SSR Grand for less nights!!

 

[drusba]

Geez just found this and just wanted to confirm that a OKW grand villa is already not available 1/2-1/10/16? We r SSR owners but was hoping to use less points! Grandsons first WDW trip! Thank you for your help! Otherwise I'll book SSR Grand for less nights!!

You can view current availability for any of the DVC resort rooms for the time you want by going to the official DVC member site and using the Resort Availability Tool (under Vacation Planning on first page of the site after you sign on). I would suspect that OKW GVs are still open for the time you want, except for the ones in Hospitality House booking category, but you do have a real risk that they could disappear before 7 months out for the first night you want and for two to three nights during marathon weekend.