*~~Official December 2016 Thread~~*

[MichiganScott]

Coming on 11/29 to CSR!

Staying until 12/9, so color me part of the December crowd

 

[cah5525]

We are taking the Christmas cruise on the 24th. Flying in from Albany, NY so... I thought I had better give myself 2 days in case of any snow delays. We will be staying at OKW 22-24. On our return, we'll be at Shades of Green until 1/6. My kids will be 13 and 14 and they prefer the cruise over Disney World and we're still on the fence when it comes to our departure from SoG. We have a little bit of time before flights are released so we may decide to just come home after the cruise! Can you believe it? Disney has become so tiring with all of the planning/waiting/crowds that my kids want the cruise but they don't care for the parks any more?! Still, I would rather relax at SoG with no parks for the week than to return to frigid NY!

 

[buska]

December 3-6 CR.

We are going December 16th-22nd!!!!! staying at SOG
only 263 days to go!

 

[Bellefan66]

We'll be there last part of Nov through first week of December. Our three kids, two spouses, one boyfriend and two toddler grandchildren are joining us. Super excited to be there with all the Christmas decorations up and cooler weather.

 

[Smbmoyers]

Finally found this thread! My trip starts November 27th and ends December 4th! I've booked wilderness lodge and it looks like 7 of us are going!

 

[pigletgirl]

8 month dance today!

 

[Kimberly9701]

I just posted this elsewhere so I'll keep it short.
Just extended out trip by one night to get the TPV that wasn't available for the post cruise dates that I wanted.
Oh well, Point Disney.
So now we'll be there til 12/4

 

[Kimberly9701]

Finally found this thread! My trip starts November 27th and ends December 4th! I've booked wilderness lodge and it looks like 7 of us are going!

Oh that will be fun!!!!
We're staying at CR but plan on doing lunch at Whispering Canyon to see the decorations at WL. The photos look beautiful at that time of year!!

 

[nicynot]

Four adults, December 1st-7th All star Music or AoA, depending on what deals may come out!
and MVMCP again!

 

[xlsm]

Wow! I got way behind!!

The first page should be updated and current now

QOTD: If you are traveling over the actual Christmas holiday, how does your family feel about missing out on Christmas at home? My kids made me promise that we'd come home in time for Christmas Day...they are not into the idea of being gone on Christmas morning.
If you WILL be home on the "real" holiday date, are you somehow incorporating your vacation into the celebration?

For us, we'll come home and greet the holiday with open (exhausted) arms, put our new ornament on the Christmas tree, and then be super lazy, LOL!!

 

[gtpoohbear]

Wow! I got way behind!!

QOTD: If you are traveling over the actual Christmas holiday, how does your family feel about missing out on Christmas at home? My kids made me promise that we'd come home in time for Christmas Day...they are not into the idea of be gone on Christmas morning.
If you WILL be home on the "real" holiday date, are you somehow incorporating your vacation into the celebration?

For us, we'll come home and greet the holiday with open (exhausted) arms, put our new ornament on the Christmas tree, and then be super lazy, LOL!!

If not for the insane crowds, I would love to spend Christmas at WDW. But, it's never an option for us. My family lives in South Florida, and our "deal" with them has always been that we visit every other Christmas. (And Thanksgiving on the other years.)

So we come a little early and sneak in some Disney too But we have to be in Naples by Christmas Eve at the very latest.

Santa always does a little last-minute Christmas shopping at WDW though, and usually fills their stockings with all sorts of Mickey Mouse rice crispy treats, cookies etc.

 

[pigletgirl]

Wow! I got way behind!!

The first page should be updated and current now

QOTD: If you are traveling over the actual Christmas holiday, how does your family feel about missing out on Christmas at home? My kids made me promise that we'd come home in time for Christmas Day...they are not into the idea of be gone on Christmas morning.
If you WILL be home on the "real" holiday date, are you somehow incorporating your vacation into the celebration?

For us, we'll come home and greet the holiday with open (exhausted) arms, put our new ornament on the Christmas tree, and then be super lazy, LOL!!

Our vacation is our Christmas. Our girls are still young enough that we knew we could get away with that. Now, on Christmas Day, Santa will come and the girls will each have a stocking to open. I'm sure the grandparents will get them something too.

For my husband and I, this is it.

 

[Smbmoyers]

Oh that will be fun!!!!
We're staying at CR but plan on doing lunch at Whispering Canyon to see the decorations at WL. The photos look beautiful at that time of year!!

I'm super duper excited! I may switch our trip dates should a fd or discount comes out to the next week. I've crunched the #s and I think fd is best for us, now it's just waiting.

 

[Kimberly9701]

I'm super duper excited! I may switch our trip dates should a fd or discount comes out to the next week. I've crunched the #s and I think fd is best for us, now it's just waiting.

Free dining was offered during the dates of my last trip.. But I chose to pass on it, take the room discount instead - which equaled $200 per night..and then added in the dining plan full price. I came out way ahead!! But-- it was only me and a 5 year old. If 4 in our room then dining may have been better.
I can't switch our dates bc we are heading to DW straight from our cruise (total surprise for my son). So I'm hoping discounts do come out for those dates!!!

 

[MichiganScott]

That's a heck of a discount, 30% off a Grand Floridian or Poly room I assume?

 

[Kimberly9701]

That's a heck of a discount, 30% off a Grand Floridian or Poly room I assume?

Poly. It was either 25 or 30% I can't remember which.

I'm hoping CR will offer something similar..but room is less than the Poly room was..I'll do the math if both are released, but I'm betting that room discount again would be my best choice.

 

[Kimberly9701]

Has anyone been during the first week of December before? I've looked at crowd calendars, but would like first hand accounts on actual crowd levels. We are will be there Saturday December 3rd-Wednesday December 7th. One night will be the Christmas party and 1 day a resort day..Disney Quest on that day. Would I be better off taking a resort day on Sunday and the party on Tuesday?

 

[BDL]

Has anyone been during the first week of December before? I've looked at crowd calendars, but would like first hand accounts on actual crowd levels. We are will be there Saturday December 3rd-Wednesday December 7th. One night will be the Christmas party and 1 day a resort day..Disney Quest on that day. Would I be better off taking a resort day on Sunday and the party on Tuesday?

I can give you our testimonial. But the earliest BDLsgal and I have been there was 12/7.

Crowds are very manageable. Even when the Pop Warner Championships are going on. They usually don't affect the crowds too much. But you may have to deal with the occasional random cheerleader outbursts. The football players have always come across as quiet, polite and focused, to us.

To start the day, if you have breakfast at your resort food court, that will be the biggest crowd you see all day. With the exception of Midway Mania. Bus stops are easier to handle, because the breakfast crowds are divided between the parks.

Then you get to the parks. Depending on the weather, the lines to enter the parks, have taken a little more time in recent years. Because colder/rainy day, means more layers/bags and more thorough searching upon entrance. But once you are through, and this is 1 of the reasons I love the parks at this time of year, you can get practically unobstructed pictures down the main "street" of the parks. And we have never waited more than 5 min for a photo pass line. And because the crowds are a little thinner at this time, the foot traffic is not obtrusive. Most people follow the traffic rules/paterns, with the occasional family sprinting in the middle to make their ADR/fast pass.

In regards to the rides, the A#1 e-ticket rides are always gonna have a stand-by line. Make sure you try to nail down your must-rides in the FP+. As for the other rides, I don't think we ever waited more than 45 min for Test Track, Space Mountain, RnR or ToT. And then the rides that are the next tier down, it usually takes longer to walk through the queue than to wait in line.

Now we get to 1 of my favorite parts... The eats. If you are doing mostly counter service, you got nothing to worry about. Split up. 1 group gets in line, the other scouts for a table or sitting spot. Table service is only just a tad bit more trickier. A lot of the places will take walk-ins (especially if they are in between regular dining hrs). But if you have your days planned and know what you want to eat and when, ADR's are the way to go. Especially, if the park offers dining combo pkg's like EPCOT (Candlelight Processional) and MGM (Fantasmic!). Those may take up a lot of the reservation times.

We always did our MVMCP (sometimes 1 of 2) on Sundays and have never had a problem. But where we differed from your plan, we use our resort day for our MVMCP night. Sleep late. Pool/jacuzzi. Maybe resort hop and take in the decorations. Maybe go to Disney Springs. Early afternoon nap. Then enter the park sometime after 4pm.

I hope this helped in some way.

 

[naf917]

We are booked 12/25 - 1/1 at SSR!

Cant wait to spend Christmas with the Mouse

 

[BDL]

*** Attention XLSM & other Dec DISers ***

Ordinarily, if I had to add to something that I had recently mentioned, I'd just edit the existing post. But this is kind of important.

I was clicking around the Pop Warner site and I found the dates of this yr's Super Bowls and cheer and dance competition. According to the site's calendar, here are the dates.

Sat Dec 3rd - Sat Dec 10th.