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

[JamieOak]

Got here at about 9:05. Took @JamieOak 's advice and left right after parade. Didn't bother to wait to be chaperoned to TT. We were the 3rd family here and got a great table. Our choices were kind of limited due to the fact that our DS2 is asleep in stroller so we needed a table with room for stroller. Very happy I decided to keep this Dessert party. Went to Illuminations and JBJB dessert parties earlier this week and was definitely underwhelmed with the food offerings at those. The reserved viewing location for Illuminations was good but so are a hundred other locations around World Showcase.

Awesome! So glad you got a good seat and enjoyed the party. I liked the food at the Wishes dessert party better than JBJB personally.

Glad you got a great table. Some people were really pitching a fit about not having a good table at our party. @areno79 and I held down the fort for our good viewing tables. I found the dessert party to be very worth it even if I didn't have much dessert (i was still full and I don't much care for it). I liked the drinking chocolate and the chocolate covered strawberries and the cheese and crackers and fruit and probably downed a half gallon of water too. the green icing on those cupcakes is nasty, my kid's face was stained with it for a while after!

I thought it was SOOO worth it esp if you (like me) are doign the party toward the end of your trip when you're exhausted. It was worth it for the parade viewing, when we were there people were lining up on main street by 5:30 and all of the premium spots were gone by about 6!!!

I wish I could've eaten more at the Wishes dessert party. I liked almost every dessert. I could've eaten a dozen of those mint oreo things if I had room. And DH and I both loved the sipping chocolate and had at least 2 cups each. I'm going to try out some recipes for it.

 

[Lisa F]

Awesome! So glad you got a good seat and enjoyed the party. I liked the food at the Wishes dessert party better than JBJB personally.



I wish I could've eaten more at the Wishes dessert party. I liked almost every dessert. I could've eaten a dozen of those mint oreo things if I had room. And DH and I both loved the sipping chocolate and had at least 2 cups each. I'm going to try out some recipes for it.

I got a cup of it and the kid was all "what's that? can I have that?" so I gave it to him, lol. I had a few of the strawberries and I think one cannoli and then I switched over to cheese, crackers and fruit (enough with the desserts for me!). The watermelon was very good but very seedy and I enjoyed the cheese and crackers. I also took the lead from @areno79 and made a mocha half sipping chocolate half coffee. It was goood.

I barely ate anything at either party. you know people who can't walk and chew gum at the same time? that's me, haha. So if I have people to talk to I can't socialize and eat at the same time. Did not have too much trouble knocking back 3 gingerbread martinis and an angry orchard at JBJB though!

 

[Party.Of.4-NY>>>FL]

Did not have too much trouble knocking back 3 gingerbread martinis and an angry orchard at JBJB though!

Yes! The bartenders at both JBJB and Illuminations were really cool. I asked for floaters on drinks at both parties and they were happy to help. Lol.

 

[Party.Of.4-NY>>>FL]

Just want to say thanks again to all on this thread since the springtime 2016. I'm sitting here with DS2 near Soarin' while DW and DD8 are riding. This will be DD 5th ride on Soarin' this morning and it's only 10:01am. Had a PPO at Garden Grill and told our waitress we wanted to ride Soarin' after so she settled bill with me while we were still eating, went to Soarin' got rider swap, while DW and DD were riding I went to kiosks and booked SDFPs for Soarin. Did rider swap again. Still have FPs for this afternoon at FEA for DW and DD, at TT, and mission space.

If it weren't for the advice of those on this thread and other like it our trip would be going completely different. I can honestly say the ONLY line we waited more than 10 minutes on all week was to meet talking Mickey at Town Square. Everything has been either FP, SDFP, or rider swap.

I am seeing this place through my kids eyes and it is AWESOME!!! I find myself running ahead of DW and the stroller and she has to keep telling me to slow down. No waaaaaaay! We're not slowing down for nothin' !!!!

 

[Lisa F]

Just want to say thanks again to all on this thread since the springtime 2016. I'm sitting here with DS2 near Soarin' while DW and DD8 are riding. This will be DD 5th ride on Soarin' this morning and it's only 10:01am. Had a PPO at Garden Grill and told our waitress we wanted to ride Soarin' after so she settled bill with me while we were still eating, went to Soarin' got rider swap, while DW and DD were riding I went to kiosks and booked SDFPs for Soarin. Did rider swap again. Still have FPs for this afternoon over at TT, and mission space.

If it weren't for the advice of those on this thread and other like it our trip would be going completely different. I can honestly say the ONLY line we waited more than 10 minutes on all week was to meet talking Mickey at Town Square. Everything has been either FP, SDFP, or rider swap.

I am seeing this place through my kids eyes and it is AWESOME!!! I find myself running ahead of DW and the stroller and she has to keep telling me to slow down. No waaaaaaay! We're not slowing down for nothin' !!!!View attachment 210491

I could not believe how packed the parks were and SDFP made it really bearable. The one night I gave up was just because the people were wall to wall and I was so tired, decided to go back to the room rather than fight the people. We had a FP+ for peter pan and it ended up a 20 minute wait WITH the FP+, kiddo was getting antsy and I hit the wall... but I had enough FP+ and SDFP to keep me going that night ok, I was just tired and in no mood for the crowds...

This was our view of the fireworks at the poly that night so it was all good

 

[JamieOak]

I agree @Party.Of.4-NY>>>FL ....my trip would have been a lot different w/o the help of people on this thread (and the Week After Turkey Day thread). And I can confidently say that the difference would have been negative. We barely stood in any lines either.

 

[Candycane83]

Agree with everyone! This is the most wonderful thread and I'm so glad for everyone's help in making our trip much more magical than it would have been if I went in 'blind'. Certainly made a huge difference. And again, I want to thank @areno79 and @Lisa F for saving me a table at Holiday Wishes Dessert Party!!!

 

[rasadkowski]

I had a really hard first two days back home. but, I'm okay now with the excitment of Christmas and the small chance of booking another trip next year! I have nothing to compare it to, but I agree, I thought the parks were very crowded. I'm wondering if just a few days beforehand or afterwards would have made much difference.

 

[Mal6586]

I agree with y'all about the crowd. The only days that didn't seem packed to me were Wednesday the 7th at Epcot and Thursday the 8th at Animal Kingdom. I really only think Epcot didn't feel crowded to me that day was because we sort of did the park backwards that day since I don't care for Illuminations. We did World Showcase in the AM/early PM then after the 5pm CP, headed to Future World. As for AK, I figure it just wasn't busy because it's AK and it closes early. MK was packed every time we were there, and DHS was packed on Friday.

 

[areno79]

Glad you got a great table. Some people were really pitching a fit about not having a good table at our party. @areno79 and I held down the fort for our good viewing tables. I found the dessert party to be very worth it even if I didn't have much dessert (i was still full and I don't much care for it). I liked the drinking chocolate and the chocolate covered strawberries and the cheese and crackers and fruit and probably downed a half gallon of water too. the green icing on those cupcakes is nasty, my kid's face was stained with it for a while after!

I thought it was SOOO worth it esp if you (like me) are doign the party toward the end of your trip when you're exhausted. It was worth it for the parade viewing, when we were there people were lining up on main street by 5:30 and all of the premium spots were gone by about 6!!!

I think I actually liked the food better at JBJB (since I'm not a dessert person and was still full from Ohana, plus JBJB had booze), but I am still SO glad I did the Holiday Wishes dessert party. The primo parade and fireworks viewing was so totally worth it!! I definitely could have tacked on another MVMCP party if DH would have let me though. There just wasn't enough time to do everything, and for the one character we wanted to see (Scrooge McDuck) they closed the line at 11:55 so we missed him. I think like Lisa said the dessert party was great because it was towards the end of the trip when we were both tired!

 

[JamieOak]

I think I actually liked the food better at JBJB (since I'm not a dessert person and was still full from Ohana, plus JBJB had booze), but I am still SO glad I did the Holiday Wishes dessert party. The primo parade and fireworks viewing was so totally worth it!! I definitely could have tacked on another MVMCP party if DH would have let me though. There just wasn't enough time to do everything, and for the one character we wanted to see (Scrooge McDuck) they closed the line at 11:55 so we missed him. I think like Lisa said the dessert party was great because it was towards the end of the trip when we were both tired!

Agree on needing a 2nd MVMCP night! It was so much fun, but it flew by so fast. Especially with needing to be early for everything to get a spot for the parade and the fireworks. But I'm glad we did the midnight show of Mickey's Merriest on the castle stage. It also didn't help that it was halfway through the MVMCP that Brad suddenly decided that he wanted to meet characters. I even asked him multiple times before the trip if he wanted to meet characters so I could plan accordingly and he said no. But we did get to do a good bit of characters on the last half of the trip after he decided it was fun. But we only did it with FP or where there was little line.

 

[Lisa F]

I think I actually liked the food better at JBJB (since I'm not a dessert person and was still full from Ohana, plus JBJB had booze), but I am still SO glad I did the Holiday Wishes dessert party. The primo parade and fireworks viewing was so totally worth it!! I definitely could have tacked on another MVMCP party if DH would have let me though. There just wasn't enough time to do everything, and for the one character we wanted to see (Scrooge McDuck) they closed the line at 11:55 so we missed him. I think like Lisa said the dessert party was great because it was towards the end of the trip when we were both tired!

All I ate was the spinach dip and flatbreads. I tried a meatball and not my thing! I don't think I even walked around to all of the areas, i wanted to try the nitro stuff and the antipasto and the trail mix, but I was just so distracted by chit chatting. oh well. I really did it for the priority seating, not to try to eat my $69 or whatever it was worth of snacks. that is not happening even on an empty stomach! But I do kind of wish it was twice as long so I could socialize AND eat an drink more! Oh well The viewing locations were so good (I did not mind off center fireworks in the MK as a tradeoff for being able to sit because you can guarantee if we were standing my child would have tried to be laid out across me anyway with tons of whining... I think we both really enjoyed the fireworks more being able to be comfortable) and the JBJB and parade viewing were the best possible... not to mention saving 1.5-2 hours on staking out a spot for the parade. I totally would have done another if I could too... we showed up kind of late and had a 4:30-5:30 PP FP+ that we showed up for at 5:44 and we scanned green, then we had the 5:30-6:30 7DMT (which I LOVE at night) so we did that and then we got in line to see Nick and Judy right at 6:15 as they were coming out and we had about a 45 minute wait... were done by 7 and met @areno79 at the viewing area and spread our stuff out and were able to get the SotMK card and tshirt and ornament while multitasking "waiting for the parade" and probably did not actually park our butts until closer to 8. Then parade and fireworks and then rides and we did a lot of rides (though I got us stranded in adventureland forgetting the parade cuts the whole thing off and the second parade stepped off right when we wanted to go to frontierland). We did jingle cruise, pirates, BTMRR, haunted mansion and Peter Pan again because I wanted to see the standby queue without waiting 45 minutes... it is phenomenal. The show was going on as we were leaving but we were seriously exhausted so we skipped it. That doesn't sound like much but considering they are some of the longer rides and having to walk from ride to ride it's not bad for a bit over an hour. If we could have gone again we would have done rides mostly and fireworks. I am not sure the kid would have been all that interested in the parade a second time (at least he got real ticked when I suggested he watch it a second time from frontierland but it was in his way for BTMRR lol). But mostly it was nice everything being walk on. We didn't do any cookies or any of that stuff either so we'd get other snacks. I wish I had been able to plan another MVMCP rather than planning a non MVMCP night at the mk.

 

[JainaAlice]

Hope everyone's trips was great! It seemed so busy to me. We did 2 MVMCP and I'm so glad we did. My family doesn't like to watch the stage shows and my 4yo hates the noise from fireworks so we run away from them. But, we got on so many rides and had great seats for the 2nd parade on Main Street.

I'm kind of bummed about the things we missed. We didn't get a picture in front of the castle or meet Mickey. Didn't do CofP or see the Frozen show.

But we did have a lot of firsts this trip. Astro Orbitor, Peter Pan que, Hall of Presidents, speedway, eating in Cinderellas Castle, meeting some of the Princes, meeting Mexico Donald, eating at Via Napoli, Eating at Casey's, exploring Main Street, eating at Kona for breakfast and we rode a tram.

Who else did Lilos Playhouse? I know someone did, please forgive me, I can't remember. My girls LOVED it so much they wanted to go back. We had a great night Exploring Main Street and seeing Hall of Presidents, HM, and Pirates.

The Polynesian was great as always. My 4yo keeps saying "please, can we go back to Tuvalu?!"

I guess the first week of December is no longer one of the slower weeks of the year.

Even though it was busy we had a great time. That Disney depression is setting in.

 

[CynBeth]

Yes it was so hard being back at work this week. We probably won't go for a few years and miss it already. We had an amazing trip despite the crowds and were thankful we just have colds and not the stomach bug that was going around.

 

[Party.Of.4-NY>>>FL]

It seems the holiday crowds arrived today. MK was busier than we've seen all week.

Back home tomorrow and looking forward to the Christmas holiday. We did one MVMCP this year and it was stellar. It was our first party so we spent a lot of time on parade and holiday wishes which were both great. The last 1.5 hours of the party were out of this world! Empty boats falling down Splash Mountain so we walked on 4x in a row, rode a ton of other stuff with no wait, little to no wait for meet and greets (We didn't do the crazy ones like 7D, Nick&Judy, etc) overall just an awesome night. We decided if we ever return in December we will do fewer regular admission days and multiple parties instead of just one.

 

[CynBeth]

Did anyone else get a survey by e-mail asking about the resort you stayed in and a few other things from the recent trip?

 

[Party.Of.4-NY>>>FL]

Did anyone else get a survey by e-mail asking about the resort you stayed in and a few other things from the recent trip?

Yep. I haven't opened the email yet though. I have a feeling I won't get to it until after Christmas. Im quickly learning that one of the downfalls of traveling in December is an abbreviated shopping season. We've got some catching up to do!!!

 

[JamieOak]

Did anyone else get a survey by e-mail asking about the resort you stayed in and a few other things from the recent trip?

I got a survey on the resort, the Disney parks, the Wild Africa Trek, the JBJB dessert party, and a survey from my Universal resort. I did them all before I forgot.

 

[BDFmom]

We got a survey for MDE, photooass, and Yak and Yeti.

 

[SilSprBea]

I haven't logged on here in forever (it's easier to stay on FB because I use my phone a lot to get online), and I'm sorry to have missed checking in with you all these past few weeks. I can't say how thankful I am to have found this amazing group of people and to have you as my Disney planning family. I wish I'd gotten a chance to meet more of you while I was at WDW, but was really happy to get to at least meet @areno79, @Lisa F, @Mintycake and @BDFmom while down there! Our trip was so magical and the advice and support I received from all you really contributed to the magic big time. I can't say thank you enough!!!