Just found your pre-trip report after seeing your ADR window is about to open up . . . how exciting is this!?
Okay, now I need to pay my admission fee, but I don't know anyone that bakes awesome cakes like that . . . [starts digging around for loose change] . . .
Okay, so here's what I got:
An Apple Pie:
A Camera Cake:
My Sweetie and a Mickey Premium Ice Cream Bar:
We're not having a grooms cake, but if we were, this is what it would look like:
A Dessert from Citrico's from our Planning Session trip in July:
And a Wall-E Bento:
lurkyloo said:
Whoops! I knew I'd forgotten something in my excitement. We're flying out on Dec. 8 and returning on Dec. 16, the day before the $$$ holiday rates kick in at the hotels!
Awesome! We'll be there from Dec 5th - 13th, and our wedding is on the evening of the 8th.
Christmas at Disney is soooo freakin' awesome! There is no better time to go. I took my son in December 2005 and again in December 2007 with my now DF. We couldn't imagine a better time or place to get hitched, so here we are!
beatlesblonde said:
But I have one complaint Miss Carrie, if you arrive at WDW on the 8th, how are you supposed to crash my wedding unless you arrive really early? I guess you'll have to crash my DP instead
lurkyloo said:
SOLD!!! What's on the menu? Peanut-butter chocolate marshmallow squares perhaps?!
Looks like my date twin already hit you up to crash her Dessert Party, so you probably wouldn't want to crash our Cali Grill dinner reception . . .
But lemme know if you want me to send some leftover cake to your resort . . .
lurkyloo said:
OK, first off, I did something plan-y last week!
I joined Tour Guide Mike again. I thought I didn't need TGM anymore after 5 trips, but this whole Christmas thing has thrown me for a loop, so I wanted to read his articles on the best ways to see it all.
This is despite the fact that I have a free subscription to TouringPlans.com, which came with my May vacation package. I've poked around it, and while I love the Least Expensive Ticket Calculator, I totally can't read their Crowd-Level Calendar... it is hard for my brain to process the info in that format, and it doesn't seem detailed enough to me after a few years of Tour Guide Mike.
Also, just like the Unofficial Guide's WDW guidebook, their website's format is SO reader-unfriendly... lots of dense text, few pictures or layout tricks to make info easier on the eyes and accessible to the casual reader.
Now at first I was kinda grumbling to have to pay almost full price to re-join Tour Guide Mike (he gives repeat buyers a discount, but I only qualified for the $16.95 price, not the $9.95 price). But then I realized I was doing exactly what I always laugh about when people ask if it's "worth it" to buy my Disney Weddings & Honeymoons book for $4.95 - $7.95. That's, like, the price of a Starbucks coffee drink or two to learn everything you could ever possibly want to know about planning your WDW wedding!
So I will not begrudge Mike his $16.95. May it cover his next four trips to Starbucks.
I'm right there wit'cha . . . I absolutely ADORE TGM. I've subscribed too many times to count! His advice is always very well written and usually dead on.
And I'm sure you've seen that he DID post the Least Crowded Park charts before December BEFORE your ADR window opens - even with all the stuff going on with his sister. Man, he's dedicated!
lurkyloo said:
Also, supposedly travel agents can make ADRs starting at 12:01am ET, so they have the drop on all of us - if you can find one dedicated enough to stay up that late....
And, as you now know, it looks like WE can too! I hope it wasn't a fluke . . .
lurkyloo said:
On the planning front, I've been reading up on Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party and I'm still totally on the fence. Part of me feels like we should go just because we can and we never have. But I am so not into parades, characters and stage shows, and that seems to be the only real draw besides the fireworks. Plus, it sounds like it's crazy-crowded, and I try to avoid crowds at all costs.
Cons
Not as good as
MNSSHP
Not that much different from regular night in the MK
Expensive!
I'm not into parades and shows
I'm not into characters
I'm TOTALLY not into crowds
Hot chocolate prolly watery and tongue-scorching
Cookies prolly dry
May be long lines for rides
We already have snow on Main Street after every holiday fireworks show at
Disneyland
Might be a good night to see Osbourne Lights/Candlelight Processional instead
I actually LOVE Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party . . . I've been twice before and had a GREAT time. Whether it's worth the extra $$$ is entirely up for debate but, for me, it's a no-brainer.
I'm totally not into the stage shows or the character things, either. So, when everybody else is checking out all that stuff, I'm usually riding Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Space Mountain, Haunted Mansion and Buzz Lightyear a bazillion times in a row with little-to-no waiting.
I do normally try to catch the fireworks show and the second parade. If you are AT ALL interested in seeing the Christmas Parade (which you may not be), you can only see it at a
MVMCP until all of the parties have taken place and, after that, it's a daytime parade, not an evening parade.
IF you decide to go, I would recommend you go on an "off day", like a Sunday or a Tuesday . . .TGM does a good job of recommending when you should and should not go.
We're going one night with the wedding group (on the 6th, I think). I've actually recommended it for the folks for whom theme parks is "not their thing", but who want to check out the Magic Kingdom just once while they're there. It's cheaper than a 1-day 1-park ticket (But, assuming you're an Annual Passholder, that really wouldn't be a big selling point for you)
lurkyloo said:
OK, I am waaaaaaaay too excited about this, but I just discovered, like, last week that the DIS holds these amazing private parties every year around MouseFest time, and this year's is right during our trip to WDW.
Well, today they announced what this year's party is, and luckily for latecomers like me, it's a redux of last year's PRIVATE PARTY AT
PIXAR PLACE!!!
It's after DHS closes and we get to ride Toy Story Mania as many times as we want and there will be carnival/street fair food and Woody will be there and also Sarge is leading us in from the front gate - WHEW!
And it's only 25 bucks! And there's no limit on how many people can attend! And this year they're letting us bring cameras!
So, I say if you're going to be in WDW on Dec. 12, we should all meet at the DIS party!
No park admission necessary!
When you host before- or after-hours events, they don't make your guests pay to get in.
So that means you can go, right?!
They said last year's started around 9:30 (park closed at 8pm) and went til midnight or 1am.
Rock ON! This'll be the night before we leave, but our flight's in the afternoon on Sunday, so we're totally going to try to get on the list for this one!
lurkyloo said:
Candlelight Processional at Epcot is turning into another MVMCP for me - super expensive and something I'm not even sure is worth it. I feel like we should go and we should do the dinner package so we don't have to wait in line for 2 hours, but they're changing everything up this year and it's getting even more hard to decide.
This is one where I don't know if the dinner package is worth the expense, but totally your call of course. If I can remember correctly, they try to get you to dine at wierd times (like dinner at 3:30 PM). I went in 2005 using the CP Dinner Package for LeCellier (which, at the time, was one
DDP credit - so a total bargain). The show is very lovely, but you can totally see it and hear it from outside the theater. We had an awesome time in 2007 when, on Christmas evening, we decided to run over to the World Showcase and hang out for a bit. We staked out an IllumiNations viewing spot to the right of the America Gardens Theater while the last CP of the evening was going on. (Gary Sinise was narrating) We grabbed some chicken tenders and fries from the place inside American Adventure and ate our food on a tray on top of a World Showcase trashcan. We had the camera set up on a Gorillapod and got some GREAT photos of IllumiNations!
lurkyloo said:
So according to the CM quoted in this thread, they'll be extending the Wishes fireworks dessert parties at the MK through the end of the year! Now I have one more $$ special event to shoehorn into our formerly relaxing trip.... If we can even get into it - sounds like the extended dates thru October are selling out quickly....
Ooo! I MAY want to check this out. But after the MVMCP, and our wedding reception at the Cali Grill, and a dinner at Narcoosee's at fireworks time, we may have "Wishes! overkill" if we try to cram in one of those dessert parties . . . there's only so much Jiminy Cricket one can stand during a 9-day timeframe . . .
So, anyway, look forward to seeing how your plans evolve. Best of luck with the ADR making! And, who knows? We may bump into each other at some point in December!
I know the feeling! Even after several years of using his recommendations, I still don't feel confident to make my own predictions.
And if it doesn't work (b/c people are still reporting that their +10 days are not opening up for them online) I gotta stay up to 4:30 AM or so making them on the phone! OK, I don't *have* to, but I'm freaked out about not getting the ones we want.
I'll be live-blogging and/or Tweeting it, and I hope to do a mini-Trippie in this thread afterward.
If we can even get into it - sounds like the extended dates thru October are selling out quickly.... 
What a great trip down memory lane. My DS 15 would love that tour.
I was so hoping that this was going to happen! I really hope it's true! I am making room in my dining schedule for it. Do we know when it might be definite??
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