***1st Week of December Thread ADR Plans, Park Hours, and dealing with Pop Warner***

[Lisa F]

We seem to be a combination of these as well. I was looking things over last night and it occurred to me that our trip was lopsided on the tail end. Very go, go, go the last couple of days. I got an ADR I had been hoping for and that forced me to switch a bunch of stuff around and now we're more balanced. Does a light bulb ever go off when you're planning and it feels like "ahhh..yes, this is right"? I second guess myself so much, but I'm feeling much better about the balance of our vacation after switching some things up. The light bulb went off. Though I suspect it'll blink on and off a time or two when it's time to add FPs to the mix! lol

EDIT: Or on? Does the light bulb go on when something clicks! lol--should have thought that through first!

it did for me. My trip just feels right but of course I am assuming that I am going to be able to get the SW fireworks dessert party I want on 12/3. If I can't it becomes more awkward a bit and hitches up for me in spots but will probably still be fine. I did start planning at around 11 months and put hours and hours into it before ADRs even opened so that might be why it feels so settled.

 

[BDFmom]

it did for me. My trip just feels right but of course I am assuming that I am going to be able to get the SW fireworks dessert party I want on 12/3. If I can't it becomes more awkward a bit and hitches up for me in spots but will probably still be fine. I did start planning at around 11 months and put hours and hours into it before ADRs even opened so that might be why it feels so settled.

It gives me great comfort knowing that I'm not the only one going over my plans .... changing and changing again.

I have left a bunch of evening options open for three reasons. 1) hoping for SW dessert 2) hoping for ROL 3) we just may want to call it an early night . I did book a couple of ADR for the 'open' nights just in case.
I'm pretty happy with all my ADRs ... So I've stopped searching, maybe

I think I have a good mixture of late nights and early mornings, except for 12/1 to 12/2. We are doing MVMCP 12/1 and the kids want MK am EMH... so we shall see. I don't want to come home from Disney exhausted and sleep deprived.

 

[Lisa F]

It gives me great comfort knowing that I'm not the only one going over my plans .... changing and changing again.

I have left a bunch of evening options open for three reasons. 1) hoping for SW dessert 2) hoping for ROL 3) we just may want to call it an early night . I did book a couple of ADR for the 'open' nights just in case.
I'm pretty happy with all my ADRs ... So I've stopped searching, maybe

I think I have a good mixture of late nights and early mornings, except for 12/1 to 12/2. We are doing MVMCP 12/1 and the kids want MK am EMH... so we shall see. I don't want to come home from Disney exhausted and sleep deprived.

you could always do EMH for a few hours and then come home and take a loooong nap

 

[Lisa F]

It gives me great comfort knowing that I'm not the only one going over my plans .... changing and changing again.

I have left a bunch of evening options open for three reasons. 1) hoping for SW dessert 2) hoping for ROL 3) we just may want to call it an early night . I did book a couple of ADR for the 'open' nights just in case.
I'm pretty happy with all my ADRs ... So I've stopped searching, maybe

I think I have a good mixture of late nights and early mornings, except for 12/1 to 12/2. We are doing MVMCP 12/1 and the kids want MK am EMH... so we shall see. I don't want to come home from Disney exhausted and sleep deprived.

only answered half. Yes I had a spreadsheet and I worked on it for months before making my ADRs. I usually make the ADRs first and then move stuff around but i knew it would be difficult with how hard it is to get ADRs lately. But I definitely put the time in!

 

[Candycane83]

only answered half. Yes I had a spreadsheet and I worked on it for months before making my ADRs. I usually make the ADRs first and then move stuff around but i knew it would be difficult with how hard it is to get ADRs lately. But I definitely put the time in!

I'm still working on my spreadsheet! LOL! Nut at least I have all my dining more or less sorted out. I still have back ups and back up for back ups because of DHS and AK! Wish they would get those hours out sooner!

 

[PolyRob]

I'm still working on my spreadsheet! LOL! Nut at least I have all my dining more or less sorted out. I still have back ups and back up for back ups because of DHS and AK! Wish they would get those hours out sooner!

I find that I will say I have all my ADRs and I am not going to change anything, but then two weeks go by and I completely shift almost everything on at least 1 day! The HS and AK uncertainty make multiple days just "tentative" plans for me. It is somewhat discouraging to have a great plan, have 1 thing changed or released, and then have to start from scratch!

If RoL is a no-go, I think my AK time will be reduced to morning EMH, with and early ADR at Sanaa. I am tired of playing these games with that park lol

 

[LBlovesM&WDW]

I usually make my ADRs and am done with it. Not this time. I have made several changes already and am hoping DHS and AK hours will come out soon, so I can stop. I'm also waiting to hear who the CP narrators will be, so I can finalize that choice as well. I wouldn't say I'm hoarding, but I have some back ups I would love to get rid of.

 

[nicynot]

Anyone notice that on the 6th you can book animal kingdom for dinner least an hour after close at 5?
Is this a normal thing? I can see if it was just Rainforest, but i have tusker house at 5:50

 

[Lisa F]

I'm still working on my spreadsheet! LOL! Nut at least I have all my dining more or less sorted out. I still have back ups and back up for back ups because of DHS and AK! Wish they would get those hours out sooner!

Neither of those are my favorite parks and I think I have given up on RoL so we are mostly doing those with hours as they are. I mean if they expand AK and RoL is at like 8pm I might be able to do it after a 5pm CA Grill Dinner maybe... and it looks like that is a possibility if they run a few shows a night as they are keeping the same pattern as the JB show then the first show is at 9pm (approximately 45 minutes after sunset) and the second show is 1.5 hours later. So sunset is at 5:30 in December. if the first show is at 6pm and the second is at 7:30 that might be doable after CA Grill with a fastpass. maybe. Not sure if an hour is enough time to get over there, park and get a seat for it. But that is probably my only shot at this point. If it's more like 7 and 8:30 it would be great but I'm not holding my breath

BTW for everyone freaking about the Touring Plans change to the crowd projection, Josh at easywdw does not seem to really think much of the way TP does its calculations and a lot of people weighed in on them being wrong as well. He does his own crowd calendars and projections. It's a bit hard to decipher and it is only out til october right now but his general info about December is spot on and still has pretty low crowds for dec 1-10 projected. For whatever it is worth. Read his latest post on crowds at AK and also the user comments that agree that TP is often very off.

 

[Lisa F]

Anyone notice that on the 6th you can book animal kingdom for dinner least an hour after close at 5?
Is this a normal thing? I can see if it was just Rainforest, but i have tusker house at 5:50

they updated their hours to close at 6 now.

 

[rasadkowski]

Neither of those are my favorite parks and I think I have given up on RoL so we are mostly doing those with hours as they are. I mean if they expand AK and RoL is at like 8pm I might be able to do it after a 5pm CA Grill Dinner maybe... and it looks like that is a possibility if they run a few shows a night as they are keeping the same pattern as the JB show then the first show is at 9pm (approximately 45 minutes after sunset) and the second show is 1.5 hours later. So sunset is at 5:30 in December. if the first show is at 6pm and the second is at 7:30 that might be doable after CA Grill with a fastpass. maybe. Not sure if an hour is enough time to get over there, park and get a seat for it. But that is probably my only shot at this point. If it's more like 7 and 8:30 it would be great but I'm not holding my breath

BTW for everyone freaking about the Touring Plans change to the crowd projection, Josh at easywdw does not seem to really think much of the way TP does its calculations and a lot of people weighed in on them being wrong as well. He does his own crowd calendars and projections. It's a bit hard to decipher and it is only out til october right now but his general info about December is spot on and still has pretty low crowds for dec 1-10 projected. For whatever it is worth. Read his latest post on crowds at AK and also the user comments that agree that TP is often very off.

I always love reading your stuff/ replies/ advice etc.

 

[Lisa F]

I'm still working on my spreadsheet! LOL! Nut at least I have all my dining more or less sorted out. I still have back ups and back up for back ups because of DHS and AK! Wish they would get those hours out sooner!

who are you calling a nut???

 

[Lisa F]

I always love reading your stuff/ replies/ advice etc.

I'm glad someone does. I think I talk too much, lol. but just too excited about my trip!

 

[nicynot]

they updated their hours to close at 6 now.

missed this!

 

[rasadkowski]

I'm glad someone does. I think I talk too much, lol. but just too excited about my trip!

I'm so excited too! It's fun reading about everyone's plans and knowledge about planning!!! So, thank you!

 

[Lisa F]

if anyone cares, this was the spreadsheet I kept (note I had about 8 versions of this with various iterations of DDP, DxDDP, OOP and which half of my trip the dining plan was attached to before I was able to book the Poly portion of my stay. Originally I planned it with poly first but that booked up).

note that I stopped using it once I had all of my ADRs made and loaded into my disney experience. TH will no longer be the RoL package, I'm hoping for SW Dessert Party that night instead. The amounts are what I'd probably order (or if more than one the lower priced options) with tax to get an idea of DDP value (column L has a running total vs. cost of DDP, as you can see it is worth it!) Um yes while it may change I do know what I am looking forward to at each and every restaurant. Is that a little weird? lol

Also note that at the time that I made my ADRs I originally kept to this hoping for the merry member mixer to be on Tuesday and keeping that my epcot day but really wanting my down day on tuesday 12/6 and my Epcot day on monday 12/5 so I switched a couple of days later when availability was still good so that is not up to date either. I'm glad I did because the mixer is on saturday or sunday or something - neither of the days I anticipated and I decided to stop stressing myself trying to plan for it.

But this gave me a good idea of costs, budget and whether it was worth it to do the DxDDP (and it is). As you can see I'm saving about $250 doing the DDP with a few snacks I picked already (but one is already gone lol) and the rest valued at $4 each. That nearly pays for all of my OOP dining the last few days.

I have a line for gratuity and a total - right now the DDP and HDDR are all paid off though, so I know with a little math how much I should bring to spend on food. Not sure if that will help anyone or make you all think I am certifiable.

 

[rasadkowski]

if anyone cares, this was the spreadsheet I kept (note I had about 8 versions of this with various iterations of DDP, DxDDP, OOP and which half of my trip the dining plan was attached to.

note that I stopped using it once I had all of my ADRs made and loaded into my disney experience. TH will no longer be the RoL package, I'm hoping for SW Dessert Party that night instead. The amounts are what I'd probably order (or if more than one the lower priced options) with tax to get an idea of DDP value. Also note that at the time that I made my ADRs I originally kept to this hoping for the merry member mixer to be on Tuesday and keeping that my epcot day but really wanting my down day on tuesday 12/6 and my Epcot day on monday 12/5 so I switched a couple of days later when availability was still good so that is not 100% true either. But this gave me a good idea of costs, budget and whether it was worth it to do the DxDDP (and it is). I have a line for gratuity and a total - right now the DDP and HDDR are all paid off though. Not sure if that will help anyone or make you all think I am certifiable.

Helps!
I did have an " idea" of which restaurants I wanted which day. Had to adjust based on availability. I could reserve 12/4.. And even though i was prepared, very little was available. I do have what I hoped for... But, after more researching/ thinking/ having too much time until the trip I've changed my mind on so much... And I still want to change several adrs now! Ones that I thought were concrete!

 

[Winniebell10]

Hi guys!!! I'm just diving back in. Looks like we've added lots of pages to our thread.....I'll go get updated. We've been on vacation for 2 weeks. Planned to not take my laptop, etc. so just checking in to the DIS on an iPhone would've been a pain. Missed you guys tons. But, the 2 week break has made the first week of December seem closer. Any new news? I'm still all good with ADRs. Waiting to do FP.

We've decided to go ahead and fly I think. We are only coming from near Atlanta, so tend to drive usually.
When we've flown before, we've never used the Disney Magical Express. Do you guys like it? Would I just add flight info to my package if we decide to use it? We're just trying to decide if we'd rather have our car. Staying at CR. I don't think we'd be using it really this trip.

 

[Lisa F]

Hi guys!!! I'm just diving back in. Looks like we've added lots of pages to our thread.....I'll go get updated. We've been on vacation for 2 weeks. Planned to not take my laptop, etc. so just checking in to the DIS on an iPhone would've been a pain. Missed you guys tons. But, the 2 week break has made the first week of December seem closer. Any new news? I'm still all good with ADRs. Waiting to do FP.

We've decided to go ahead and fly I think. We are only coming from near Atlanta, so tend to drive usually.
When we've flown before, we've never used the Disney Magical Express. Do you guys like it? Would I just add flight info to my package if we decide to use it? We're just trying to decide if we'd rather have our car. Staying at CR. I don't think we'd be using it really this trip.

you haven't missed anything as far as news or anything being released. Just a lot of banter and me talking too much, lol.

I always rent a car because I can't deal with not being in charge of my own destiny... which is shorthand for I hate to wait and I hate buses. We are splitting the stay between BWV and Poly with Epcot/HS stuff while at BWV and MK at Poly so minimal bus but we are going to AK and to DS and to dinners at resorts other than ours so the car it is.

But if you are more patient than I am you should do just fine. It's free and convenient and run like a well oiled machine. You need to leave 3 hours before your flight at a minimum I think and it can take a while to get to your resort but if you're not in a super rush it's fine.

 

[Candycane83]

who are you calling a nut???

Lol I meant to type 'but'. although I will say I am a nut!