*~~Official December 2016 Thread~~*

[Murfee17]

So I just called to see if I could get emh days or possibly hours. No luck with the cast member I got. Did anyone call for the 10th-16th of December? I'm such an OCD planner. It's driving me crazy I might not have at least an idea of things until the day before my ADR date

 

[yeheyprincex2]

I'm not an expert by any means, but in my opinion, the only ADRs that are difficult to get are BOG, CRT and to some degree Ohana. I'm haven't been very interested in booking pre-park-opening breakfasts so some of those may be tough also. You might have to be flexible by an hour or two in each direction of your "perfect" time.

We're going in December as well - the 24th - 29th. We've been multiple times in spring/summer but never at Christmas.

One question - since we're getting there relatively 'late' during the holiday season, will we have trouble getting ADR's? My concern is that those who are getting there earlier will have booked their "+10", leaving nothing/minimal available. My DH thinks I always see half-full; I think I'm probably pretty realistic. Thoughts from the experts?

I have always had plenty of choices and get everything I want first thing in the morning on my 180 mark.

We're going in December as well - the 24th - 29th. We've been multiple times in spring/summer but never at Christmas.

One question - since we're getting there relatively 'late' during the holiday season, will we have trouble getting ADR's? My concern is that those who are getting there earlier will have booked their "+10", leaving nothing/minimal available. My DH thinks I always see half-full; I think I'm probably pretty realistic. Thoughts from the experts?

We are dealing with the same issue. But trying to make the best of it. Which is, by the way, deal with heavy crowds on a non-party day so that we can see MSEP and Wishes. Then our other MK day, go on a party day at rope drop, and enjoy the park at one of its lowest crowd levels of the year, at least until 4pm when the party folks start showing up.

AntimonyER, I like your two MK plan. We usually attend a MVMCP but DH is actually thinking about not going , hope I can convince him to go but if we don't I don't want to miss out on Wishes and so I think I will adopt you plan, glad I came across the post TIA

 

[yeheyprincex2]

Never mind, I found it online! Apparently on the 180th day before you get there, you can book 10 days in advance for all the days of your trip. Thanks, internet! I hear their online reservations go down tons and people just end up calling for ADRs.

http://wdwprepschool.com/december-at-disney-world/

 

[Blndiebby25]

The December travel agent calendar is updated to 2016. I know it will change and get updated but nice to have a general idea.

 

[Murfee17]

The December travel agent calendar is updated to 2016. I know it will change and get updated but nice to have a general idea.

Thank you! Let me now agonize over ADRs. I will attempt to work some today in between my 200 revisions of my excel planning sheet. Then when hours change months later, I'll cry or just say whatever. Good thing I think this is fun!

 

[SEASONK]

After looking at the December travel agent calendar, I rearranged some of my park days. Now I am just waiting on June 19th to make my ADRs.

 

[Corsetopia]

On the travel agent calendar here I've noticed that there aren't night hours for AK, it always closes at 5pm. Does that mean we won't get the night stuff in December? Or maybe I'm just looking at the wrong calendar.

 

[LBlovesM&WDW]

AK hours and events are up in the air, so nobody knows just yet what will actually happen. It is likely those hours will change though.

 

[BDL]

Since, we're all chomping at the bit about our ADR's, I'd like to ask those that are beginning their vacations in Nov and carrying over to Dec.; How have your ADR bookings gone? Percentage-wise, how lucky have you been getting the restaurant you wanted at the time you wanted?

Just wanna get a feel of what I have to look forward to in a week or so.

Thank you.

 

[HomeSweetDisney]

@xlsm I was one of the first ones to join your thread and now it's been ages since I've commented! We were over 400 days away when we started and now tomorrow morning I'll be making ADR's! Time flies!
Also, my dates changed, we will be arriving 11/30 and departing 12/8

 

[dnllmz]

I talked to my TA today & she helped plan my park days. Well she basically gave me a plan & it all sounded great to me. She will handle my ADRs for me. I'm not expecting to get everything but reading other people post that are booking now & having tech issues was kinda stressing me out. Whatever she doesn't get, I'll keep trying for later.

 

[MonaMN]

Since, we're all chomping at the bit about our ADR's, I'd like to ask those that are beginning their vacations in Nov and carrying over to Dec.; How have your ADR bookings gone? Percentage-wise, how lucky have you been getting the restaurant you wanted at the time you wanted?

Just wanna get a feel of what I have to look forward to in a week or so.

Thank you.

We are doing 11/26-12-3 and made ADRs on Monday. I was able to get everything I wanted, at about the times I wanted. However, I was not trying to get BOG or Akershus or any other hard to get ones. We ended up with Boma dinner, Liberty Tree Tavern lunch, Sci Fi lunch, T-Rex lunch, Yak and Yeti lunch, Garden Grill breakfast and Ohana breakfast.

Because so much - especially nighttime stuff - is still up in the air, I wanted to keep evenings free to allow for hopping as needed... so lots of lunches!

 

[Bethislucy]

On the travel agent calendar here I've noticed that there aren't night hours for AK, it always closes at 5pm. Does that mean we won't get the night stuff in December? Or maybe I'm just looking at the wrong calendar.

When I click the link it says 2015. I don't know if it's taking me somewhere different or not.

 

[MonaMN]

When I click the link it says 2015. I don't know if it's taking me somewhere different or not.

Try refreshing your browser or clearing out history, cookies, etc.

When I click on it, I see 2016.

 

[Bethislucy]

Try refreshing your browser or clearing out history, cookies, etc.

When I click on it, I see 2016.

okay I'll try that at home, my work computer is crazy locked down on stuff. Thanks

 

[xlsm]

@xlsm I was one of the first ones to join your thread and now it's been ages since I've commented! We were over 400 days away when we started and now tomorrow morning I'll be making ADR's! Time flies!
Also, my dates changed, we will be arriving 11/30 and departing 12/8

I hope making your ADRs went well!!

I'm glad you popped back in

The real fun is going to get started now! Those 400+ days seemed like an ETERNITY, so it's crazy to think we're at ADR time already.

I'll update your info later this weekend!!

 

[HomeSweetDisney]

I hope making your ADRs went well!!

I'm glad you popped back in

The real fun is going to get started now! Those 400+ days seemed like an ETERNITY, so it's crazy to think we're at ADR time already.

I'll update your info later this weekend!!

Thanks so much!

It went as well as I could hope...I got everything I wanted at pretty much the times I wanted with the exception of Garden Grill. There was zero availability on Dec 2nd for breakfast, lunch, OR dinner which I find SO weird I've been reading that Disney may be holding back some reservations on account of Candlelight Processional packages and since the dates haven't even been released for that yet I am going to keep checking back to see if anything opens up. I booked Via Napoli as a backup

It's definitely starting to feel more real now! Can't believe we are at 180 days!

 

[ValerieK]

Since, we're all chomping at the bit about our ADR's, I'd like to ask those that are beginning their vacations in Nov and carrying over to Dec.; How have your ADR bookings gone? Percentage-wise, how lucky have you been getting the restaurant you wanted at the time you wanted?

Just wanna get a feel of what I have to look forward to in a week or so.

Thank you.

We are arriving Thanksgiving day and my ADR day was last Saturday. I got everything I wanted, including the last ADR for LLT on Thanksgiving day, it was even at the time I wanted. The only ADR I am not happy with is the 8:25am Tusker house on 11/25, I would like it close to 8am, so I will keep looking for that.

There was plenty of availability for the 11/27 - 12/3 when I booked, Ive wanted to change a few things around and Im surprised at how little availability there is now for many places. It will just be DH and I and we would be happy eating at the bars for most of our trip, but I dont want to get there and things be so crowded we cant even sit at the bar to eat, so I am making sure we have an ADR and once we get there we can judge the crowds and cancel what we dont want.

I do have an 8am BOG for 2 on 12/2 Im going to cancel, if anyone wants it PM me and we can arrange a time.

 

[dnllmz]

Thanks so much!

It went as well as I could hope...I got everything I wanted at pretty much the times I wanted with the exception of Garden Grill. There was zero availability on Dec 2nd for breakfast, lunch, OR dinner which I find SO weird I've been reading that Disney may be holding back some reservations on account of Candlelight Processional packages and since the dates haven't even been released for that yet I am going to keep checking back to see if anything opens up. I booked Via Napoli as a backup

It's definitely starting to feel more real now! Can't believe we are at 180 days!

That's awesome that you got everything but GG. I'm sure that will pop up and I've read the same thing about Disney possibly holding back reservations. Either that or people are hoarding and will start to cancel once they finalize.

Here are my tentative plans:

Day 1 - Arrival Day - HS and ADR at Mama Melrose
Day 2 - MK, Pre-park BOG, & Dinner at CRT
Day 3 - Epcot, Cape May Breakfast and dinner at Akershus
Day 4 - Disney Springs, late lunch at Whispering Canyon, and MVMCP
Day 5 - AK and ADR at Yak & Yeti
Day 6 - MK and late breakfast at 1900
Day 7 - Morning do kids fav park then park hop to Epcot. ADR at Via Napoli
Day 8 - HS and dinner at Sci-Fi
Day 9 - Departure Day

We're going to try to see each park's night show but aren't sure how my littlest will be. She's an anti-napper but we're hoping she'll naturally fall asleep in a stroller. I don't think taking a mid day break for her to nap will work with her. We may give a try at least once.

 

[SweetMo]

Since, we're all chomping at the bit about our ADR's, I'd like to ask those that are beginning their vacations in Nov and carrying over to Dec.; How have your ADR bookings gone? Percentage-wise, how lucky have you been getting the restaurant you wanted at the time you wanted?

Just wanna get a feel of what I have to look forward to in a week or so.

Thank you

We are going 11/28-12/5. I was able to make ADRs for everything I needed included PPO BOG, Akershus breakfast and Ohana at firework viewing. I still want to try to get better times for a few things, but overall I'm super happy. I think I had such good luck because we're a party of 2 and had super flexible park days.

It's my sister's first trip and she doesn't understand the 180 out planning or why I'm super happy with getting certain reservations.