Let's plan Together! Jan 2009

[danceintherain]

My sister is having a baby this year too! Except she's due the end of July, and she lives north of Atlanta, so it would be a bit of a drive for me to drop by Disney. We are however planning a trip next year.

 

[VA_mouseman]

Hoping to get some codes for Jan. 16 and 17 (Fri, Sat of the MLK weekend). Departing Sunday for a 4 night DCL cruise.

 

[sunstress]

Hi everyone! I'm so glad y'all started this thread. DH and I will be running our first marathon at Disney World in January. We're flying down on the Friday, trying to acclimatize and relax on Saturday, and then running on Sunday -- very slowly, and probably for a very long time! We then plan to spend the rest of the week limping our way around the parks. It's only my third time in the world (1977, 2002), and will be DH's first. We're thinking POP, January 9-18.

We have a lot of planning to do - these boards are a wealth of information for I'm looking forward to learning from all of you with more experience!

 

[DarthMickey]

We are planning another trip in 2009, but this time we are going to go with friends of ours. Looking at 1/25 - 2/2 at AKL. Starting the countdown....

 

[danceintherain]

Myself, my mom, and my 2 daughters who will be 10 and 6 on this trip in Feb 2009. We are going Feb 14-21. We already booked our airlines 2 weeks ago. My mom put me in charge of booking this trip. It is rather fun and interesting in doing this. We have always stayed at the Port Orleans French Quarter in the past. My mom is pretty adiment about staying there again, as she is comfortable with this place. My questions are:

1. Is it easier to call the hotel direct to make a reservation, or the WDW toll free #? I was told it was easier to call the hotel direct.

2. How can I find out if the hotel we want to stay at accepts AAA? Is there a website, or should I just ask?

I plan to book the hotel reservations tomorrow, the latest Tuesday. I am always looking for deals, as everyone else. I am new to this forum and am rather overwhelmed at what all there is. Can someone tell me about codes, dining packages, etc??

Congrats on your planning!

1. To my knowledge you cannot call the hotel directly to make reservations. Maybe I'm wrong? If you book now, you will have to make your deposit at the peak rate. This will be adjusted once the rates for next year are released.

2. You can either call your AAA travel agent, or Disney. I'm pretty sure they all accept AAA it's just a matter of whether or not the discount is offered when you're there... This is the information I pulled of the Mousesavers site
AAA and CAA Resort Hotel Discounts

American Automobile Association (AAA) and Canadian Automobile Association (CAA) members qualify for "room only" discounts almost year-round, though there are a limited number of rooms available for each date. You can generally save about 10-20% at the Disney resort hotels, depending on the season.

In general, the discounts run as follows:

*

During Value Season you can get up to 15% off at the Disney Deluxe and Disney Vacation Club resorts, or 20% off at the Value and Moderate resorts and the Ft. Wilderness campsites.
*

During Regular Season you can usually get up to 10% off at the Disney Deluxe and Disney Vacation Club resorts, or 15% off at the Value and Moderate resorts and the Ft. Wilderness campsites.
*

During Peak Season and Summer Season you can usually get up to 10% off at the Disney Deluxe and Disney Vacation Club resorts, or 15% off at the Value and Moderate resorts.
*

The only time AAA/CAA discounts don't usually apply is Holiday Season (around Christmas) at the Value and Moderate resorts.

You don't have to book AAA/CAA rates through the Auto Club. Room-only reservations with an AAA discount can be booked directly through the Disney Reservation Center at (407) W-DISNEY or a travel agent who specializes in Disney travel. Just ask if there is an AAA or CAA discount for your dates and resort.

AAA/CAA rates for all of the following year are usually released in the summer. 2008 AAA/CAA "room only" discounts were released on August 5, 2007.


I hope that helps. Good luck with your planning.

 

[ONdisney]

We are planning to go from Tues Jan 20 - Tues Jan 27. THinking about all-star family suites.

I have 1 question: What is MLK that everyone is talking about? Is this a U.S. holiday? (I'm Canadian)

 

[VA_mouseman]

I have 1 question: What is MLK that everyone is talking about? Is this a U.S. holiday? (I'm Canadian)

Martin Luther King Jr. (federal) holiday - third Monday of every January.

 

[pigltlvr]

We have our room booked for February 2-11 at Pop! Second trip for my little ones, first just the 4 of us!!

 

[crazed'boutmaryP]

Hoping to go Jan 1-5 or 6th, Taking my Dad for his 70th bday to do Richard Petty and WDW. Wishing for a good AP rate as we need two rooms or a Villa.
Afraid the crowds will be bad the 1,2,3 but I think we can work around it.
Did anybody go this year at NY's, were the days afterward bad?

 

[Bobo912]

Afraid the crowds will be bad the 1,2,3 but I think we can work around it. Did anybody go this year at NY's, were the days afterward bad?

We were at WDW from Jan 3 - 7 this year. It was very crowded from the 3rd through the 5th. We managed okay though and had a great time. Crowds dropped dramatically after that. We weren't there on New Years day, but a CM at Epcot told us MK closed for entry at 11:30 AM, AK a little later and Epcot never closed but there were at least 80,000 people there. He also said, despite the park being literally packed, everyone he saw was in a very pleasant and in a festive mood.

 

[Northern Disney Girl]

A heads up to those people staying or hoping to stay at AKL in the second half of January - According to AllearsNet, all the animals are going to be removed from the Savannah from January 15 through April 15! I just read this so anybody interested might want to check it out!

 

[Mom2apirate&princess]

Oh no! That's the whole reason we were going to stay there. Off to investigate...

 

[HillPete]

This only affects the savannah nearest the new villas (Sunset?) The other two savannahs will be fully stocked with critters!

 

[Northern Disney Girl]

Yes, Hillpete, you are correct, IT is only the sunset savannah, my apologies! I guess I did not read closely enough! Forgive me!

 

[overthemoon4mickey]

We are trying to plan a surprise trip for our DD9 and DS2 this Jan. We plan on wrapping up some sort of disney toy/stuffed animal with "SURPRISE WE ARE GOING TO DISNEY" inside the box and having them open it on Christmas morning.

Here are my questions...

1. DS will turn 3 on the 20th of Jan. If we start our trip before he turns 3 do we have to pay for him? Or do we pay for the days on our trip when he is actually 3?
2. If we go early Jan...9-18th...what do you think the crowds will be like for the marathon and also the day before MLK?
3. Do the MLK crowds last for just the day, the weekend or longer?



See you all there in January!
Becky

 

[lightningmcqueen]

We'll be in Disney at the same time (we live just outside Raleigh). We just returned from Disney and flew Southwest. As much as I love Southwest, it was a real pain since they don't have resort check-in. It took us over an hour to check in at the airport. We have two kids (they will be 5 and 3 next trip). After flying twice, we're driving next time. It's only 9 hours and an easy drive. You may want to save your money and try the drive. You can stock up on food/drinks to bring and now worry about dishing out $2.00 for a bottle of water while at the world!

 

[DarthMickey]

I thought some of you might be interested in this post I made after our January 2008 trip to WDW regarding the parks being busier for that time of year:

Link: http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1699663&page=2

We just spent a week at WDW (1/27 - 2/3) and also noticed the parks were much busier than we experienced during the same time period for the past 2 years. My wife happened to talk with a couple who had just transferred from POP to CSR (where we were staying), and they indicated that they requested the move because of the huge numbers of people staying at POP. I guess the WDW transporation wasn't prepared for these larger crowds this time of year, so the busing situation wasn't very good at the value resorts.

They said the increase in people is due to South American tourists visiting WDW in large numbers due to a favorable exchange rate of their currency against the US dollar. That explained all of the Spanish we heard as we traveled through the parks. I swear I heard more people speaking Spanish than English. We had a great time as always, but we did have to wait in lines a bit longer than usual for this time of year. I wonder if these crowd levels will be the norm for the coming years during this time period? Of course, the crowds were probably still lower than during peak season, but still there were more people than usual for an off-peak time period.

 

[danceintherain]

We are trying to plan a surprise trip for our DD9 and DS2 this Jan. We plan on wrapping up some sort of disney toy/stuffed animal with "SURPRISE WE ARE GOING TO DISNEY" inside the box and having them open it on Christmas morning.

Here are my questions...

1. DS will turn 3 on the 20th of Jan. If we start our trip before he turns 3 do we have to pay for him? Or do we pay for the days on our trip when he is actually 3?
2. If we go early Jan...9-18th...what do you think the crowds will be like for the marathon and also the day before MLK?
3. Do the MLK crowds last for just the day, the weekend or longer?



See you all there in January!
Becky

I can only answer question number one. You don't have to pay for him the entire trip.

 

[Fastman]

Getting ready to book for January Going January 3 through 10th. Little nervous about the crowds due to New Year's falling on a Thursday (extended vacations) and the marathon being the next weekend (Jan. 10 &11).

But still can't wait!!!

We are looking at going Jan 3rd - 10th as well! Most US schools start up on the 5th, so I think that should eliminate a lot of the crowds. At least, that is what I am hoping.

Anybody have access to the Touringplans crowd calendar that can shed some light on those dates please?

 

[minniebeth]

Subscribing...
My kids have a tournament in Orlando the weekend of Jan. 24th and we were looking to stay on property as a special treat.
Since it will not be my whole family attending, we want to try POP since we have a larger family and the rooms don't usually accommodate us.