*~~Official December 2016 Thread~~*

[beaded]

Poking my head in. New to the boards here.

Anyway... DH, our sons (10 & 9) and our 19 yr old niece who lives with us will be going to Disney Dec. 11-16. Never been during holiday times. Not quite sure what to expect. Part of me is thinking, "Just go because no matter what you will have fun." Then, there is this nagging planner in my head saying, "Plan it so it will all be perfect." Of course, my family members like to fly by the seat of their pants, so they get annoyed at my tendency to over plan. LOL!

I guess the good thing is that it looks like we picked pretty good dates to go. We will be staying in CBR.

We haven't told the kids yet that we are going. I am about to pop! I will never make it until December.

 

[ILoveMyKellen]

We will be going from Nov 28 - Dec 5 staying at BWV. Then we go on our very first Disney cruise (first cruise ever) from Dec 5 - 9. I'm so excited!

 

[Kimberly9701]

Poking my head in. New to the boards here.

Anyway... DH, our sons (10 & 9) and our 19 yr old niece who lives with us will be going to Disney Dec. 11-16. Never been during holiday times. Not quite sure what to expect. Part of me is thinking, "Just go because no matter what you will have fun." Then, there is this nagging planner in my head saying, "Plan it so it will all be perfect." Of course, my family members like to fly by the seat of their pants, so they get annoyed at my tendency to over plan. LOL!

I guess the good thing is that it looks like we picked pretty good dates to go. We will be staying in CBR.

We haven't told the kids yet that we are going. I am about to pop! I will never make it until December.

We will be going from Nov 28 - Dec 5 staying at BWV. Then we go on our very first Disney cruise (first cruise ever) from Dec 5 - 9. I'm so excited!

I haven't told my son either!!!! Either about the cruise or WDW! It's driving me nuts...and still have sooooo long to go!!! I haven't decided when I am going to tell him about the cruise..but the WDW portion will arrive from Santa on our last morning on the Fantasy-our first time too!

I've never planned a vacation this far out (booked the Fantasy 2 months ago, CR last month)..and I think it's driving me even more crazy than my normal 30-60 day in advance vacays!!!lol

 

[SEASONK]

Just booked All Star Sports for December 16-22. So far we have 7 adults and 5 kiddos. We have never been this close to Christmas!

 

[ckelly14]

Just booked All Star Sports for December 16-22. So far we have 7 adults and 5 kiddos. We have never been this close to Christmas!

I like that ratio- more adults than kids! Have fun!

 

[felynn]

We just booked Pop Nov 29-Dec 10. Two adults one child. First trip for husband and daughter first time for me since 1981.

 

[Rickat96]

Hello all- Transfer in from the April boards

Took a bounce back offer for December 9-16 at the French Quarter.

 

[BaxterSaysMeoww]

Just booked for December today! My boyfriend and I are staying at Pop on 12/16 - 12/22.

I've never booked a trip this far out, my birthday is tomorrow and my boyfriend booked the trip as my present, I'm so excited! Usually we book our trips like two months before so I can always start doing dining reservations right away, but this time I can't and it's driving me crazy! I guess at least this way we have more time to really decide what we want.

 

[xlsm]

I'll come back to update the traveler list in just a bit!

 

[wlogarbo]

We will be there from Dec 22nd thru the 28th at the Poly. My dad and step mom will be joining my daughter and I. The 22nd is my dad's 61st bday and his first time at Disney.

 

[SEASONK]

Just booked for December today! My boyfriend and I are staying at Pop on 12/16 - 12/22.

I've never booked a trip this far out, my birthday is tomorrow and my boyfriend booked the trip as my present, I'm so excited! Usually we book our trips like two months before so I can always start doing dining reservations right away, but this time I can't and it's driving me crazy! I guess at least this way we have more time to really decide what we want.

We have the same dates and I'm so ready to book our ADRs!

 

[xlsm]

Did anyone go for free dining this morning? We don't use the dining plan normally because it isn't a good value for us, but since we were prepared to pay full price for this trip we thought why not? My husband couldn't get through on the phone, so I booked online. We had to add a day on the front of our trip, but who's complaining about that??

Since we had planned to pay out of pocket for our dining, it's kind of fun to have this "bonus" food money.

 

[Mintycake]

Hi and welcome to all the new people who booked December! Looks like Disney just announced free dining and I missed it by a week Unfortunately we already booked our flights and to change them would cost us $600! Also, we can't use the free dining anyway since we booked our resort with my husbands TA discount. The savings from the resort are more than the savings from the DDP. We're still considering doing the DDP given the amount of character meals we're planning...and my DH does love his steak, LOL. (DD and I are vegetarian/pescatarian).

 

[xlsm]

Ok, first page is updated with our new travelers, I added a day to my ticker, so it looks like things are all caught up!

Since free dining is sure to be the topic o'the day on the boards, let's have a food related QOTD:

what are some of your FAVORITE snacks and/or meals at WDW?

For our family, we would usually say 'Ohana as our favorite meal, but we're skipping it this time, so we're sort of in flux on that subject right now.
My favorite snack would be the jalapeno pretzel (may it RIP) and frozen chai. Dole whip and school bread is also on the list...it's impossible to limit it to just one!

 

[BDL]

Did anyone go for free dining this morning? We don't use the dining plan normally because it isn't a good value for us, but since we were prepared to pay full price for this trip we thought why not? My husband couldn't get through on the phone, so I booked online. We had to add a day on the front of our trip, but who's complaining about that??

Since we had planned to pay out of pocket for our dining, it's kind of fun to have this "bonus" food money.

I did as soon as I got to work. It figures... POR FINALLY participates in the FD again, and they only do the 1st rd of it. No Dec FD. They are just lucky we love it so. Otherwise, they would be reading avery firmly worded, yet polite letter from me.

But seriously, this will affect our travel plans a bit. Could you please modify our dates to Dec 8th-16th.

Even though POR, has treated us wrong today, I still never feel more at peace than our first walk along the river after we've dropped off our bags and our vacation officially begins.

As for the dining plan, I too, do the math. And with all the combos we do (CP, F!, HDDR...), we always come out ahead money-wise. Then there is the mindless aspect of the DP's. All we gotta do is worry about tips. And like everyone else, we have snack pts left over at the end of our trip. But last trip, I actually had a good idea. With all our leftover snack pts, before we check out, we burn through them at the gift shop getting the Goofy candy, we pack them in our luggage, and then we use them as stocking stuffers for our family.

Ok, first page is updated with our new travelers, I added a day to my ticker, so it looks like things are all caught up!

Since free dining is sure to be the topic o'the day on the boards, let's have a food related QOTD:

what are some of your FAVORITE snacks and/or meals at WDW?

For our family, we would usually say 'Ohana as our favorite meal, but we're skipping it this time, so we're sort of in flux on that subject right now.
My favorite snack would be the jalapeno pretzel (may it RIP) and frozen chai. Dole whip and school bread is also on the list...it's impossible to limit it to just one!

Favorite snack: ANYTHING from Karamel Kuche
Favorite soup: Cheddar soup from Le Cellier
Favorite app: Crawfish bites from Boatwright's
Favorite entree: Grilled tenderloin from Chefs de France
Favorite dessert: Tie... Toffee pudding from Rose & Crown, and bananas foster from Boatwright's
Favorite "All you care to eat": Hoop Dee Doo Revue (the Bud lights don't hurt the cause)

 

[BaxterSaysMeoww]

We have the same dates and I'm so ready to book our ADRs!

Isn't it driving you crazy!? Lol my favorite part of planning is getting the ADR's, especially when your trying to get a hard to get one and then you finally find it, it's such a good feeling!

 

[BaxterSaysMeoww]

Did anyone go for free dining this morning? We don't use the dining plan normally because it isn't a good value for us, but since we were prepared to pay full price for this trip we thought why not? My husband couldn't get through on the phone, so I booked online. We had to add a day on the front of our trip, but who's complaining about that??

Since we had planned to pay out of pocket for our dining, it's kind of fun to have this "bonus" food money.

I was able to get free dining. This is our third December trip but our first time trying for free dining. I woke up at 5:30 am and started trying and kept getting an error message. I had to wait for the phone lines to open. Then around 7:20 am my boyfriend woke up and he got online and tried while I was on hold and of course, he got it his first try..

We always use the dining plan and this actually saved us a good bit of money and it was interesting to finally see the free dining mania.

 

[SEASONK]

Did anyone go for free dining this morning? We don't use the dining plan normally because it isn't a good value for us, but since we were prepared to pay full price for this trip we thought why not? My husband couldn't get through on the phone, so I booked online. We had to add a day on the front of our trip, but who's complaining about that??

Since we had planned to pay out of pocket for our dining, it's kind of fun to have this "bonus" food money.

My TA was able to get free dining for all 3 rooms we had. We have always used the dining plan, but was considering not getting it this year. Since we were planning buying hoppers anyways we added the dining plan again.

 

[SEASONK]

Isn't it driving you crazy!? Lol my favorite part of planning is getting the ADR's, especially when your trying to get a hard to get one and then you finally find it, it's such a good feeling!

Yes I love the excitement of booking them. We are working on our wish list now.

 

[BaxterSaysMeoww]

Yes I love the excitement of booking them. We are working on our wish list now.

I'm gonna start doing that as well. Our dining plans always change a hundred times but I think now with time to really plan before I can book anything well have an easier time finalizing everything.