*~~Official December 2016 Thread~~*

[yeheyprincex2]

Hooray for spontaneous trips!! We were hoping we'd find something fun yesterday when Southwest did the cheapie flight promo, but any dates we could travel anywhere we wanted to go, the rates were not the cheap ones. Boo!

I'm not sure on Pop Warner, but we've got a few on the thread who are, and I'm sure they'll chime in to help you!

xlsm, we ran into the same problem the days we want to fly were not the best price days. not terrible but DH says we can do better.

 

[xlsm]

Just did a quick search...looks like CP packages went on sale last year on 7/7 with a limited number of narrators announced at that time.

 

[xlsm]

xlsm, we ran into the same problem the days we want to fly were not the best price days. not terrible but DH says we can do better.

Yeah, we weren't looking for Disney flights, but thought it would be fun just to fly somewhere random on the cheap if we could, LOL!! I was hoping we could make something work for Milwaukee or Minneapolis in July, early August, or even October when the kids will have a Friday and Monday off for a long weekend, but nope. Luck was not on our side!

We got lucky with our December flights in terms of being able to fly out of our home airport and not drive somewhere larger, and our flight time, and cost. We were also able to use our Delta miles to get $50 off each ticket. The downside was having to fly a day earlier, which meant adding a night to our trip and the kids missing 3 days of school instead of 2. My hope is, since the dates are right around winter break at school, and because they changed the break dates from historical data (they're going a Monday and Tuesday when they'd have been out in the past), that they won't be missing anything major. Since we know so far ahead of time, we can at least let the teachers know in enough time to make arrangements for homework and/or tests.

 

[Sinderelly]

xlsm, we ran into the same problem the days we want to fly were not the best price days. not terrible but DH says we can do better.

I was hopeful for the Southwest sale too but none of our flights were any cheaper.

We modified our dates a bit. We are now going Dec 10-18 so we get an extra day of vacation! Staying off site Dec 10 and 11 then OKW Dec 12-18. The studio was not available the first two nights.

 

[Sinderelly]

Where do I find the crowd calendars?

 

[dnllmz]

Where do I find the crowd calendars?

Kenny the pirate, wdw prep school & easywdw have crowd calendars. So foes touring plans but you might need to subscribe to see it.

 

[CaraMiaBelle]

That's awesome about the December cancelled ADR thread. I'm saving that for later. I make my ADRs on Monday.



I read a few posts on different threads about TP crowd calendars being way off. I've never used the calendars before so I have no experience if they are right or not. I've been looking at Kenny's, prepschool, and waiting for Josh's to come up but I'm just going to end up relying on my TA to decide my park days. I was stressing myself out over it and couldn't make up my darn mind.

I hope Josh's comes out soon! I've been anxiously waiting! Although I guess even he can't make a call on crowds without all the HS and AK nighttime info either.

 

[jillyh]

Josh has a preliminary december calendar - not in the pulldown, but on one of the posts.

http://www.easywdw.com/easy/blog/december-2016-preliminary-disney-world-crowd-calendar/

 

[Karla07559]

Just a note on this particular day...last year we did both US/IOA in one day and we were so exhausted that I don't think we could have made it to a reservation. Now, to be fair, it was a Saturday in July (my youngest's bday), not early December. We took an uber to Royal Pacific (we had a room there to get EPs and early entry) at 6am to get to the 7am opening, and stayed til 5:30ish, took the boat back to RP, then took uber back to WL. Walking from the uber back into the Wilderness Lodge at the end of that day was so hard, LOL!! I walked inside and said, "I want an elevator, a shower, and a bed." The valet was laughing so hard.
December temps and crowds will be different, but I wanted to mention it just in case!

Thanks My SO and I are both 23 and it will be just us two for this trip. I'm hoping that, that plus hopefully nicer weather will make it possible to keep up with everything.

Since you have done both parks in a day do you mind me asking how that went? Just in terms of how much you were able to experience and did you get express passes or think they might be worth it? We are considering all our options and since we know our time there is limited we want to make the most out of it. I'm definitely a go go go type of person at theme parks and my SO has learned to just follow along and at the very least fake a smile haha.
I might look into the resort rooms for that early entry but the thought of relocating and losing magical express is holding me back.
Thanks in advance

 

[Jasmine81]

I just found this thread! We're going Dec 10-17 at CBR. Pirate room right now since that was all there was for FD at the time. May try to change it if possible. Going with DH, DD (4) and infant DD (will be 10 months). Getting anxious for ADR time! Monday morning!! Plans so far:

Akershus dinner
BOG PPO breakfast
Biergarten
Crystal Palace dinner
F! H&V dinner
Garden Grill dinner (have read some not so great reviews on this, should I change my plan?)
1900 breakfast
Tusker House (late breakfast - hoping to get to try breakfast and lunch!)

 

[BDL]

Plans so far:

Akershus dinner
BOG PPO breakfast
Biergarten
Crystal Palace dinner
F! H&V dinner
Garden Grill dinner (have read some not so great reviews on this, should I change my plan?)
1900 breakfast
Tusker House (late breakfast - hoping to get to try breakfast and lunch!)

Love your ADR's. You have a couple of our Must Do's on this list.
CP- dinner, GG- dinner and Tusker House breakfast (best all around breakfast in WDW in my opinion)

We've done Akershus Princess breakfast, and the food was a lot better than I would've thought. Never had dinner there. And we are gonna try to get the H&V Minnie dinner too.

Biergarten is an interesting 1. We've never eaten there, and we keep going back and forth about whether to book this or not. If anyone has an opinion about Biergarten, please let me know. Thanks.

ETA: Is the beginning of ADR booking at 6am EST, 7 days a week?

 

[xlsm]

Thanks My SO and I are both 23 and it will be just us two for this trip. I'm hoping that, that plus hopefully nicer weather will make it possible to keep up with everything.

Since you have done both parks in a day do you mind me asking how that went? Just in terms of how much you were able to experience and did you get express passes or think they might be worth it? We are considering all our options and since we know our time there is limited we want to make the most out of it. I'm definitely a go go go type of person at theme parks and my SO has learned to just follow along and at the very least fake a smile haha.
I might look into the resort rooms for that early entry but the thought of relocating and losing magical express is holding me back.
Thanks in advance

HERE is the start of the US/IOA section of my trip report from last year...it's not all sunshine and roses, I was pretty grumpy that day, but looking back after the fact, we had a great time!

I would 100% recommend the Express Passes, but again, I don't know crowds based on early December vs. a Saturday in July. For us, it was cheaper to get the room for the free passes and early entry than just buying one day park-to-park tickets and adding the EPs to that (the price for EP varies by day and season). We didn't stay in the room, we went back to Wilderness Lodge.

We started with the Harry Potter stuff, because it was our primary reason for even going, and my youngest and I are superfans, while my oldest is a semi-fan, and DH appreciates it, but is not into it the way I am. I wanted to do things "just like Harry", so we started in Diagon Alley. Diagon Alley is beyond words. It is the best, most realistic, most amazing and lifelike recreation of a place I have ever seen. Hogsmeade was a letdown afterward. Don't get me wrong, Hogsmeade is great, but I think if I had seen it first, I'd have enjoyed it more. (It also doesn't help that I lost my tickets and passes while in Hogsmeade, and none of the team members I talked to seemed to care and none of them offered me any help or suggestions - luckily DH found one who did! But I think this is why that area left a bad taste in my mouth - it was a very stressful time!)

The one thing I wish I had really been aware of before going was the locker situation. If you carry anything with you, many of the rides make you use lockers to store your stuff. They aren't always within the line area of the rides, so make sure you scout them out before getting in line for something and then having to go back out and put your things away. In the case of The Mummy and Men in Black, they're off to the right of the ride under a covered area. For the HP stuff, they're in a themed area, again off to the right, I'm pretty sure - I can't remember exactly.

If you think you will get any kind of motion sickness, take meds ahead of time. I never thought it would be a problem for me, but Forbidden Journey and The Simpsons in particular made me pretty sick. Many of the rides are motion simulator rides, so if either of you has any issues at all, start the medicine a day or two beforehand and throughout the day of your visit.

You can do a lot of both parks in one day. We could have done more, but we were pretty tired...it was several days into our Disney trip with early mornings and late evenings, and we had to rush around more than we normally would. We missed out on a few things, and I'd like to go back again at some point, but I feel like we got a lot done, pretty much everything on our "must do" list.

**editing to add...apparently it was a Friday, not a Saturday in July that we were there.

 

[SEASONK]

Garden Grill dinner (have read some not so great reviews on this, should I change my plan?)

I just found this thread! We're going Dec 10-17 at CBR. Pirate room right now since that was all there was for FD at the time. May try to change it if possible. Going with DH, DD (4) and infant DD (will be 10 months). Getting anxious for ADR time! Monday morning!! Plans so far:

Akershus dinner
BOG PPO breakfast
Biergarten
Crystal Palace dinner
F! H&V dinner
Garden Grill dinner (have read some not so great reviews on this, should I change my plan?)
1900 breakfast
Tusker House (late breakfast - hoping to get to try breakfast and lunch!)

We have some of the same ideas for ADRs. I have not been to Garden Grill in forever, so no advice on that one. We do hope to have dinner there this trip.
Last time we did Tusker House we had a 10:35 reservation, and they were putting the lunch food out while we were there. So we were able to try some of the lunch offerings also.

 

[Jasmine81]

Love your ADR's. You have a couple of our Must Do's on this list.
CP- dinner, GG- dinner and Tusker House breakfast (best all around breakfast in WDW in my opinion)

We've done Akershus Princess breakfast, and the food was a lot better than I would've thought. Never had dinner there. And we are gonna try to get the H&V Minnie dinner too.

Biergarten is an interesting 1. We've never eaten there, and we keep going back and forth about whether to book this or not. If anyone has an opinion about Biergarten, please let me know. Thanks.

ETA: Is the beginning of ADR booking at 6am EST, 7 days a week?

My DD loved biergarten last time we went. She was 18 months. She really liked the show, and she could go down and dance. Right up her alley. I know a lot of people have a problem with it because you get seated with other families. We've never had a problem with it. You can talk to them or not. With all the music and stuff, it's not that awkward if you don't talk.

 

[Jasmine81]

We have some of the same ideas for ADRs. I have not been to Garden Grill in forever, so no advice on that one. We do hope to have dinner there this trip.
Last time we did Tusker House we had a 10:35 reservation, and they were putting the lunch food out while we were there. So we were able to try some of the lunch offerings also.

That's the time frame I'm trying for as well. My hubby isn't big on breakfast so I'm hoping for the best of both worlds! haha I guess we'll both be trying out GG for dinner! Have you done H&V dinner? I'm a little nervous about that one as well.

 

[SEASONK]

That's the time frame I'm trying for as well. My hubby isn't big on breakfast so I'm hoping for the best of both worlds! haha I guess we'll both be trying out GG for dinner! Have you done H&V dinner? I'm a little nervous about that one as well.

I have not had dinner at Hollywood & Vine, we have had breakfast there. We are planning on a late breakfast at H&V this year, because my niece and nephew is all about the Disney Jr characters. I will say we had no complaints at the breakfast there, the food was hot, the restaurant was clean, and we had good service. I was really nervous after all the reviews about H&V.

 

[Karla07559]

HERE is the start of the US/IOA section of my trip report from last year....

Thank you so much for this. I'll definitely look into maybe a cheap room for that reason and see what the difference is in price (and like you did not actually stay there).
Another quick question what tickets did you end up purchasing, a 1 day park to park ticket?

 

[dnllmz]

I just found this thread! We're going Dec 10-17 at CBR. Pirate room right now since that was all there was for FD at the time. May try to change it if possible. Going with DH, DD (4) and infant DD (will be 10 months). Getting anxious for ADR time! Monday morning!! Plans so far:

Akershus dinner
BOG PPO breakfast
Biergarten
Crystal Palace dinner
F! H&V dinner
Garden Grill dinner (have read some not so great reviews on this, should I change my plan?)
1900 breakfast
Tusker House (late breakfast - hoping to get to try breakfast and lunch!)

Hi I'm going 10-18 but staying at Pop. Your list looks great. I have Akershus dinner, PPO BOG, and 1900 breakfast on my list too. Can't wait for ADR day Monday!

 

[MonaMN]

Thank you so much for this. I'll definitely look into maybe a cheap room for that reason and see what the difference is in price (and like you did not actually stay there).
Another quick question what tickets did you end up purchasing, a 1 day park to park ticket?

Also - please note that not all the Universal resorts offer the same perks... so check that out carefully.

 

[xlsm]

Thank you so much for this. I'll definitely look into maybe a cheap room for that reason and see what the difference is in price (and like you did not actually stay there).
Another quick question what tickets did you end up purchasing, a 1 day park to park ticket?

Yep, we had one day park to park tickets so we could ride the Hogwarts Express - no way I was missing that!! And if you want EPs without getting an onsite room, I suggest buying them sooner rather than later, if only for the fact that ours went up in price closer to arrival date, which is also part of the reason we ended up doing a room booking.
You can see how crowded it was in my pictures, but I have a feeling you won't have to deal with anything quite like that.