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

[Candycane83]

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 am looking forward to AK at night, I think. I really want to see the tree of life light up. Seems so cool. Just for that I really hope they extend hours u til 7 or 8 at least.
Great tip on touring plans and easywdw. Well honestly, I feel like all of this is really like predicting the weather. Seems very inconsistent. Better to be ready than not.

 

[Candycane83]

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!

I am actually very surprised about how low availability is for restaurants around MK that day. I have a hard time getting an early-ish Kona breakfast (was thinking I could sneak it in there but no go anyway)

 

[Candycane83]

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

I actually have my AK hours planned for 2 afternoons to evening if ever. I feel like that would be good to experience both daytime and nighttime offerings. (Even if it'll be a little more crowded if ever)

 

[Candycane83]

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.

This looks like a great spreadsheet! I have several tabs on mine with a working timetable on ADRs and fastpasses (as well as a little of how touring will look that day). Prices of meals with calculations of tax and tips are separate though. I really need to consolidate most of the information into one table I think.

 

[1437disney]

I have a 7:35am O'hana reservation for 5 on Dec. 7th to cancel. My family wants to eat there but they said not that early. I really wish my family would realize how we probably won't get another one. I am excited to go with all of them, but it getting a little annoying also.

 

[Mintycake]

Ha @Lisa F that looks like my spreadsheet!

Good advice on something that has to give with my plans. The thing is, my DD wanted to do kids clubs and pirate cruise - and DH and I rarely get time together (combo of our work schedules and no family to help with babysitting. We're sending DD to a PJ party thing for 2 1/2 hrs next Friday so we can go out for our anniversary - so we've spent $$ before we even hit a restaurant - therefore it doesn't happen often). I'm inclined to drop the kids club at the Poly but that was the one she REALLY wanted to go to (I hear it's the nicest one) and I really want to enjoy tiki stuff with DH. I think if we drop something it will be pirate cruise. We have something similar here in Toronto (the only difference is you need to go with your kid on the boat) so that might be the compromise. It would allow us to hit MK at RD that day, go back to the resort in the afternoon for a long nap, and return in the evening since the MK has EMH until midnight. It would also allow us to move our 'Ohana breakfast to a "brunch" that day (or first thing) and then we could have a sleep in the next day after the late night at MK. Then we could go over to MK the next day for around 11am and stay until we need to leave for our 1900 Park Fare reservation at 6:30.

Great to hear about what Josh at Easywdw says...I was truly freaking out about the numbers....what it showed like a 7 for Dec 7 at MK? YIKES - that better be wrong!

Also restaurants - for me the sticker shock is pretty scary. Toronto is expensive but not THAT expensive plus it's US $ for us so we have to add an extra 15% or so to that price. Also we usually cruise on vacation so there's no charge for food when we cruise as we don't do specialty restaurants. Did you guys read the thread that Tony's is actually pretty good now? Thinking of trying it.

 

[Iowamomof4]

I probably should know the answer to this but I don't. Have I totally missed out on Wishes Fireworks dessert party viewing? I was considering booking a dessert party on a non-MVMCP night so we could have a good view, but at least the plaza garden view appears to be sold out. Or have they not released it yet?

 

[Lisa F]

Ha @Lisa F that looks like my spreadsheet!

Good advice on something that has to give with my plans. The thing is, my DD wanted to do kids clubs and pirate cruise - and DH and I rarely get time together (combo of our work schedules and no family to help with babysitting. We're sending DD to a PJ party thing for 2 1/2 hrs next Friday so we can go out for our anniversary - so we've spent $$ before we even hit a restaurant - therefore it doesn't happen often). I'm inclined to drop the kids club at the Poly but that was the one she REALLY wanted to go to (I hear it's the nicest one) and I really want to enjoy tiki stuff with DH. I think if we drop something it will be pirate cruise. We have something similar here in Toronto (the only difference is you need to go with your kid on the boat) so that might be the compromise. It would allow us to hit MK at RD that day, go back to the resort in the afternoon for a long nap, and return in the evening since the MK has EMH until midnight. It would also allow us to move our 'Ohana breakfast to a "brunch" that day (or first thing) and then we could have a sleep in the next day after the late night at MK. Then we could go over to MK the next day for around 11am and stay until we need to leave for our 1900 Park Fare reservation at 6:30.

Great to hear about what Josh at Easywdw says...I was truly freaking out about the numbers....what it showed like a 7 for Dec 7 at MK? YIKES - that better be wrong!

Also restaurants - for me the sticker shock is pretty scary. Toronto is expensive but not THAT expensive plus it's US $ for us so we have to add an extra 15% or so to that price. Also we usually cruise on vacation so there's no charge for food when we cruise as we don't do specialty restaurants. Did you guys read the thread that Tony's is actually pretty good now? Thinking of trying it.

it sounds like just eliminating that one thing makes your flow SO much better. Sounds like you will be stuck doing a pirate cruise. I hear you on the babysitting thing, I try to do play dates when I can but I think the friendship where that is easy is starting to fall apart (my son's friend actually exhibited very bullying behavior toward him today and I have to have a talk with his mother about it. oh joy.)

It's not just Josh, it's a lot of people commenting too. He has a long explanation that made me glaze over about how the TP method is just not that accurate. they rely on a lot of inaccurate data collection to make their predictions apparently so I would not put TOO much stock in it. I am curious what easywdw's crowd calendar says but like Undercover Tourist, it just lists overall WDW crowds not individual parks. But the additional info is that he gives green as recommended and red as not.

But just know, any non MVMCP day at MK is going to be not recommended. There is NO way about it but if you want to do nighttime stuff at MK without the hard ticket you just have to suck up and deal. Usually parks that have morning early entry are also not recommended. Also weekends are tough at Epcot when there are events going on like F&G, F&W and CP/Holidays around the world. IMO those are the three things you have to worry about. Overall Undercover Tourist is still predicting the parks the same, around 4's overall with 5's and 6's on the weekends (and Monday for some reason). To compare the month of August is 8's for the first two weeks and then drops off as kids go back to school. Labor day weekend is actually predicted to be pretty quiet too and I am guessing that is because kids are newly back in school. As I said before, this is exactly what I expected for the week we are going from all of my years of going to WDW and following crowd patterns. The worst will be MK on non party nights and the WS will be crowded (but there is not a lot requiring waits there) but the whole thing should be entirely doable with fp+ and not terrible standby on the things that don't require fp+.

 

[Lisa F]

I probably should know the answer to this but I don't. Have I totally missed out on Wishes Fireworks dessert party viewing? I was considering booking a dessert party on a non-MVMCP night so we could have a good view, but at least the plaza garden view appears to be sold out. Or have they not released it yet?

I think a lot of the dessert parties are sold out. which is worrying people, but the capacity is only a few hundred and it is mostly filled by people "in the know" about what a great time of year this is to travel - selling 200 dessert party tickets 4 months out does not extrapolate to there being 25,000 people in the parks.

 

[Iowamomof4]

I think a lot of the dessert parties are sold out. which is worrying people, but the capacity is only a few hundred and it is mostly filled by people "in the know" about what a great time of year this is to travel - selling 200 dessert party tickets 4 months out does not extrapolate to there being 25,000 people in the parks.

Okay, thanks. The way Disney has been about releasing things (ADR's, SW dessert party, etc...) this year, I just wasn't sure if it had been opened up and subsequently booked or just not opened yet. Sounds like I missed my chance! Oh well... I'm not up for stalking the website for it.

 

[Lisa F]

Okay, thanks. The way Disney has been about releasing things (ADR's, SW dessert party, etc...) this year, I just wasn't sure if it had been opened up and subsequently booked or just not opened yet. Sounds like I missed my chance! Oh well... I'm not up for stalking the website for it.

SW dessert party has not opened past the 24th of sept. I think the wishes parties were but you should def keep checking because you are right, just because I haven't seen a report that it was unable to be booked but that doesn't mean that that's not the case.

 

[Talby]

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.

Ditto. I have done the exact same thing for the exact same reasons. Great minds, and all that. And do I ever hear you on the changing and changing again! I'm ***this*** close to having things finalized though.

 

[Talby]

I am looking forward to AK at night, I think. I really want to see the tree of life light up. Seems so cool. Just for that I really hope they extend hours u til 7 or 8 at least.
Great tip on touring plans and easywdw. Well honestly, I feel like all of this is really like predicting the weather. Seems very inconsistent. Better to be ready than not.

It does seem so cool! MK is everyone's favorite in our family, but we're spending 2 days in AK since we're celebrating my daughter's HS graduation and she's an avid animal lover. I'm crossing my fingers extra hard for extended AK hours!!

 

[Talby]

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

Me too!! Your input is so helpful to a novice like me @Lisa F. Hard to believe how anyone could not know who has been to Disney, but when I first starting planning, I had absolutely no clue about this 180 days out ADR thing, how fastpasses worked, how to devise a touring plan, etc. I had a TA for our 2013 trip. She asked many questions about preferences and then did every bit of leg work. Easy peasy. This time, that same TA booked our trip but then essentially disappeared. It was sink or swim time! Cheers to continued sharing and chatting away!

 

[Lisa F]

Me too!! Your input is so helpful to a novice like me @Lisa F. Hard to believe how anyone could not know who has been to Disney, but when I first starting planning, I had absolutely no clue about this 180 days out ADR thing, how fastpasses worked, how to devise a touring plan, etc. I had a TA for our 2013 trip. She asked many questions about preferences and then did every bit of leg work. Easy peasy. This time, that same TA booked our trip but then essentially disappeared. It was sink or swim time! Cheers to continued sharing and chatting away!

You can go and have a great time without going all zilla on it. A friend of mine went with her family and rejected my offers of help and got the dining plan and just kind of wandered around and did stuff and came back to the hotel at night for dinner (AKL) and ate at Boma every night! didn't make a single ADR, just ate at the resort. And enjoyed their trip immensely even though I was horrified (on the inside) that they ate at Boma every night!

 

[Talby]

You can go and have a great time without going all zilla on it. A friend of mine went with her family and rejected my offers of help and got the dining plan and just kind of wandered around and did stuff and came back to the hotel at night for dinner (AKL) and ate at Boma every night! didn't make a single ADR, just ate at the resort. And enjoyed their trip immensely even though I was horrified (on the inside) that they ate at Boma every night!

I think I heard the collective gasps of the uber planners as they try to process the thought of the same restaurant every night! lol In certain ways it was quite nice not to have concerned myself with a bunch of details before, but I'm definitely having a lot of fun with those details this time around and actually prefer it.

 

[Iowamomof4]

You can go and have a great time without going all zilla on it. A friend of mine went with her family and rejected my offers of help and got the dining plan and just kind of wandered around and did stuff and came back to the hotel at night for dinner (AKL) and ate at Boma every night! didn't make a single ADR, just ate at the resort. And enjoyed their trip immensely even though I was horrified (on the inside) that they ate at Boma every night!

I loved Boma, but I can't imagine eating there more than once or twice! lol

Glad they had a good time, and immensely grateful we can each plan the vacation that works best for our own traveling party!

 

[Lisa F]

I loved Boma, but I can't imagine eating there more than once or twice! lol

Glad they had a good time, and immensely grateful we can each plan the vacation that works best for our own traveling party!

I know, I totally had a horrified look on my face and said "you did WHAT?!?!?!" when she told me, lol. But at the same time people must do it and I think that might be why they rotate soups and carved items on the menu (they still do that, right?) and also rotate some items at cape may. I bet a lot of people just "eat at the resort" if it's not a character meal (I could not do the same character meal day in and day out. no way). there are so many yummy options though, i had a hard time limiting myself to 2 a day lol.

 

[Lisa F]

I think I heard the collective gasps of the uber planners as they try to process the thought of the same restaurant every night! lol In certain ways it was quite nice not to have concerned myself with a bunch of details before, but I'm definitely having a lot of fun with those details this time around and actually prefer it.

haha well planning is almost as much fun as the trip for me. It is an escape and I get to daydream about my trip. kind of like buying a lottery ticket but there actually is a payoff at the end of it, lol.

 

[Wood Nymph]

I haven't participated in this thread in a long time. It really moves fast. Anyway, we were booked at the BC for Dec 3rd to 7th and our travel agent sent an email with an offer of a free upgrade to the Grand Floridian. It turns out they have overbooked the BC and need to move some people out. DH and I jumped at the chance to stay at the Grand at Christmas time for a really low price. Now we are once again excited about our December trip. We haven't stayed at the GF since it was first opened in 1988, so it is almost like a new resort for us.