***Official December 2017 thread!

[JamieOak]

Hey everyone! Add me to the party. We are staying at BWI 11/26-12/3 after spending 11/23-11/26 at Universal. Just DH and I. We went last year same timeframe for the first time as our belated honeymoon, and now we are hooked!

I'm very behind the planning and have zero ADRs made! So if any of y'all are holding some extras you are planning to drop I hope you post here or in the dining threads.

This is probably discussed somewhere, but I've been away from the DIS for a long time except for the swagbucks and Disney gift card threads. What is going on at MK on 11/30 that it closes at 4:30pm? Is that the cast party night maybe? I'm kind of disappointed that I only have 2 MVMCP days to pick from during my dates.

Also I'm super sad to learn that Club Villain is likely not returning. At least nothing has been announced yet and it's getting kind of late. That's what brought me back to the DIS to read up on that because I wanted to make sure I scheduled around that!

 

[LongTimeLurker]

Hi everyone! As my nick says, I'm a longtime lurker who decided to join the party (I'm a cat lady but no kitty dance here!)
Travelling with my sister and her two kids (niece 21 / nephew 16), staying at ASMu 12/11-12/22 with free dining, and really worried about crowds. It's not our first time, but we've never been in WDW for Christmas...

Anyway, I've got everything I wanted for my ADRs, and I have some extra ones I'll drop once I have all my ducks in a row
I'll let you all know so someone else can grab them!
I'm also hoping for some magic on SW8 opening day

Looking forward to planning with you all!

 

[imjustafatkid]

Myself, my wife, and our 2 daughters (4 and 10) are all going to Disney from 12/9-12/15 (5 park days) and staying at All-Star Movies.

Here's our plan:

12/08: drive most of the way to Orlando and stay in a hotel somewhere close-ish (maybe 1 or 2 hours away)
12/09: check-in & hit Magic Kingdom at opening
12/10: Epcot; Candlelight Dining Reservations for Biergarten at 1:30; Candlelight Processional at 6:45.
12/11: Animal Kingdom; we are planning to eat at the new Pandora spots
12/12: Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party only. Disney Springs shopping & dining during the daytime.
12/13: Hollywood Studios; Minnie's Seasonal Dine at Hollywood & Vine Lunch at 12:55
12/14: We will let our daughters pick which park we return to. I suspect it will be Magic Kingdom
12/15: check out and drive home

Already excited about booking fast passes.

 

[DisneyDork1969]

Don't know if anyone has shared this yet...here is what is happening at WDW this December:

http://allears.net/news/top-news.htm?id=3820

 

[rasadkowski]

@DisneyMommyMichelle I think you may be able to answer this for me! So, I know that the December Cancellation thread does not allow trades on the thread. I was wondering if we could post ADR trade searches for our Dec. trips here? If not, no problem Just thought I'd ask!!! I also have no problem posting here first before the Cancellation thread when I'm planning to drop some adrs.

 

[LindsayK]

Myself, my wife, and our 2 daughters (4 and 10) are all going to Disney from 12/9-12/15 (5 park days) and staying at All-Star Movies.

Here's our plan:

12/08: drive most of the way to Orlando and stay in a hotel somewhere close-ish (maybe 1 or 2 hours away)
12/09: check-in & hit Magic Kingdom at opening
12/10: Epcot; Candlelight Dining Reservations for Biergarten at 1:30; Candlelight Processional at 6:45.
12/11: Animal Kingdom; we are planning to eat at the new Pandora spots
12/12: Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party only. Disney Springs shopping & dining during the daytime.
12/13: Hollywood Studios; Minnie's Seasonal Dine at Hollywood & Vine Lunch at 12:55
12/14: We will let our daughters pick which park we return to. I suspect it will be Magic Kingdom
12/15: check out and drive home

Already excited about booking fast passes.

This is very similar to our trip in Dec! We fly in on the 9th and plan on going to DD.
12/10- MK (during the day) AK (late afternoon/evening- going to try for a ROL dinner at TH)
12/11- Epcot (dinner at Tutto Italia w/ CP package)
12/12- AK (in the morning) MK at night for MVMCP (dinner at Ohana's before party)
12/13- HS (sleep in and head over after a mid morning breakfast at Whispering Canyon)
12/14- MK until the party and then we will decide what we want to do for that evening
12/15- Check out and head to Universal for 2 days!!

 

[Nadine Gross]

We will be there 12/6-12/10!!!
can't wait all girls trip and second for my daughter!

 

[hjbvet]

Here is our tentative game plan. Things may change as more events get announced.
We have lots of littles and are in BLT, so spending a lot of time at MK. Also, sadly, skipping HS this time.


12/9- land in Orlando around 2pm. Dinner at Chef Mickey

12/10- MK with dinner in the Castle

12/11- Epcot (in the morning- still trying to snag Garden Grill) then MK after nap time- stay late for fireworks. (contemplating returning to EPCOT instead to explore World Showcase and eat at Teppan Edo)

12/12- MK with Dinner at Jungle Navigation Co. (may be my most anticipated meal!)

12/13- AK (until nap time), Dinner at O’hana then Adults night out without kids!


12/14- sleep late, then AK in the afternoon

12/15- MK

12/16- Bon Voyage breakfast then fly out

 

[bellenbooks4me]

We are going 12/23- 1/4 (our dream vacation). Can't wait!!!

 

[hjbvet]

Have park hours for December 2017 been discussed?? Specifically I am wondering about the 8:30 Fantasmic! but the park closes at 8pm? It's every night the week I'm there. Thoughts?

 

[LongTimeLurker]

Our (my sister, 16y.o. nephew, 21y.o. niece, and yours truly) tentative plans, staying at ASMu with free Dining plan upgraded:

12/11 Land in Orlando at 8am (we're visiting Miami first, so it's a short flight), MK with lunch at CP (a family tradition, my sis loves Pooh! )

12/12 rope-drop AK, waiting for a ROL lunch package at TH, and dinner at Disney Springs

12/13 rope-drop EP I have a Candlelight Processional reservation at Chefs de France, waiting for the narrator announcement

12/14 Our only day at Universal, with a one day/park to park ticket

12/15 rope-drop HS, hoping for a special dessert event because of SW8 opening day (otherwise, we can move it to 12/16 if Disney decides to do it that day)

12/16 EP with dinner at Via Napoli

12/17 late morning in Disney Springs with brunch at Raglan Road and our first MMVCP that evening

12/18 late morning AK with dinner at Boma

12/19 MK with lunch at BOG, afternoon still undecided (either EP or AK)

12/20 EP, the same as 12/13 (CP booked with lunch)

12/21 early morning MK (I got a PPO booking at BOG for breakfast!), afternoon still undecided (either EP or AK - the park we don't visit on 12/19)

12/22 Morning still undecided, we have a flight back home at 6pm

We're planning to do some extra activities at AK, Caring for Giants -DSis loves elephants!- and/or the Evening Safari (Wild Africa Trek is too expensive for 4, unfortunately), so either 12/19 or 12/21 will be used for it. Both days I have dinner reservations at 8pm for Rose&Crown, so we can see Illuminations there one of those days.
We want to spend quite some time in EP, to see everything re Holidays around the World.
We may take one of the special MK tours too, just because I'm fearing the last 3 or 4 days of our stay will be too crowded to do anything else, so the idea is to rope-drop the first week and after that to take it easy...

Has anyone here taken the AK/MK tours? I'd appreciate your opinions.

 

[LucyBC80]

Has anyone here taken the AK/MK tours? I'd appreciate your opinions.

I'm planning to go to a couple of tours around the same time you'll be there. I've booked the Savannah Night Tour at AKL for the 6th and Caring For Giants on the 9th so I'll be able to give you feedback on those right before you arrive. I'm also doing the Yuletide Tour but that's only on the 17th so you'll probably have decided by then!

 

[disravenlaur]

Hello everyone! This will be our first time going in December for the Christmas season. So excited!! We have 2 standard rooms at AKL from the 8th through the 16th. Staying at AoA in a Nemo suite the first night we get there on the 7th. We have never stayed at either resort so we are very excited. We are also attending 2 MVMCP.

 

[Bkcarney]

I will be at Disney December 16-21! So excited because it will be my first time to ever go at Christmas time, and Christmas is my favorite time of the year! I did not get all of the ADR that I was hoping for, but I am checking everyday and maybe I'll get lucky! We still haven't decided if we are going to go to MVMCP yet, there's 7 of us so it would be a good bit extra, so deciding if it is worth it!

 

[Wild Roses]

This time we're going Nov 25th - Dec 3rd and hoping to stay at the Poly. We did MVMCP on our last trip but it was the only bad experience we had so we are going to skip it. We decided to try to do some other extras instead like maybe a dessert party or the pirates and pals fireworks voyage. We've also talked about possibly sending the kids to Lilo's playhouse but I need to research that more.

I realize this post is 6 months old, but... What did you not like about MVMCP?

 

[Wild Roses]

Joining the party! We're going Dec 4-10, and going to MVMCP on Dec 5. DH, DS19, DS7, and myself! Can't wait for our first time in Disney at Christmas!

 

[Herding_Cats]

Going to dip my toes in here. We are going to be visiting the area from Dec 23rd-Jan 5th. Staying offsite. Our first week will be with my husband's side of the family.....25 people is the number right now (almost all of them have never been to Disney and I am running point on all of the planning and reservations.) Almost all of them are only planning on going for 1 day (Magic Kingdom) because that's what their budget is going to allow, but my personal family (5 people) is discussing either a 6 day ticket or up to a 10 day ticket and doing a lot of partial days. We have Christmas Eve brunch reservations made for Chef Mickeys (yes. for 25 people.)

My family and my brother-in-law's family did the week leading up to Christmas in 2014. Magic Kingdom was INSANE on Christmas day (they were not letting more people into the parking lot...whatever phase of closure that is), so we are planning on staying at the rental that day this time.

Does anyone have experience with taking midday breaks OFFSITE between Christmas and New Year, and the 5 days AFTER New Year? I think I'll be able to talk my husband into 3 park days the first week (to escape the in-laws), but I am still trying to figure out how many days we will realistically be able to go during our second week.

 

[dnllmz]

I realize this post is 6 months old, but... What did you not like about MVMCP?

I think it was a bad day for my kids. My kids are naturally early risers and don't tend to stay up late. We had a late start that day and just hung out at DS. Got to the party at 4. It started off great, we did some rides and got in line to meet Nick and Judy fairly early. During the wait for N&J (we were in line before they came out), things started to go downhill. After we met them we went to the hub to see some of the shows and try to find a spot for parade/fireworks. It was sooo crowded. My dd4 fell asleep before the parade even started and my ds6 didn't seem to really be enjoying it. So we decided to skip it this year. I think when they are older, we'd do it again. Being able to go to the 2nd parade would be a game changer for us because it's less crowded.

Going to dip my toes in here. We are going to be visiting the area from Dec 23rd-Jan 5th. Staying offsite. Our first week will be with my husband's side of the family.....25 people is the number right now (almost all of them have never been to Disney and I am running point on all of the planning and reservations.) Almost all of them are only planning on going for 1 day (Magic Kingdom) because that's what their budget is going to allow, but my personal family (5 people) is discussing either a 6 day ticket or up to a 10 day ticket and doing a lot of partial days. We have Christmas Eve brunch reservations made for Chef Mickeys (yes. for 25 people.)

My family and my brother-in-law's family did the week leading up to Christmas in 2014. Magic Kingdom was INSANE on Christmas day (they were not letting more people into the parking lot...whatever phase of closure that is), so we are planning on staying at the rental that day this time.

Does anyone have experience with taking midday breaks OFFSITE between Christmas and New Year, and the 5 days AFTER New Year? I think I'll be able to talk my husband into 3 park days the first week (to escape the in-laws), but I am still trying to figure out how many days we will realistically be able to go during our second week.

Wow a group of 25 sounds crazy. Could be a lot of fun. I stayed offsite once but it wasn't that week. We tried to take midday breaks but it never worked out for us. My son wasn't quite 2 and we couldn't seem to make it back for nap time so we'd miss the nap window. Then we would just stay at the resort because he wasn't going to make it at night long. My son wasn't the best sleeper. Napping was always difficult.

 

[Herding_Cats]

I'm not necessarily trying to make it until naptime or whatever, but if we could get to a park at rope drop, get on rides until noon, and then go back to the rental (which is like 10min from MK, 5min from AK) until 5 or 6 and then go back for the evening shows/fireworks *I* would get to do all the things *I* want to do. We completely missed the fireworks at MK when we went and got into Fantasmic but had horrible seats (basically alllllll the way over to the left.) THIS time I want to see the MK fireworks, the Epcot fireworks or whatever kind of show that is, Fantasmic with better seats (my kids LOVED it), possibly the Star Wars laser show, and possibly Rivers of Light. Being there for 2 weeks this is obviously do-able, but I know last time that we were much more able to actually get ON rides before 12 and we won't make it from 6am wake-up to 11pm for fireworks that many days without huge meltdowns.

 

[LucyBC80]

Who else is attending one of the dessert parties? we'll be there on the 13th, plaza garden view.