***Official December 2017 thread!

[hodad]

Oh boy, have things changed for us now that Free Dining has dropped. We were seven but now there are now ten of us: four parents, three kids, and three grandparents.

We were going to stay off-site at Marriott's Sabal Palms from Dec 16-23, but with the free dining, we've changed our plans. In addition to the two villas at Sabal Palms, we got one room at All Star Music Dec 16-23 for Grandpa and the kids with free QS dining that we're upgrading to Deluxe Dining Plan, and we're pooling all the dining credits to split amongst the ten of us. We also rented points for one night at the Beach Club Dec 19 for the dads and the kids and one night at Poly Dec 21 for the moms and the kids, for access to the pools, convenient parking for MK, Epcot, and HS, and a place to crash after fireworks, plus the dining plan on those rooms too, bringing our dining credit total to 114, or nearly 2 per person per day.

And the crazy thing is that adding the three disney resorts with the dining plan is about $800 cheaper than if we were to pay for food out of pocket, buy magic bands, pay for parking, and just stay off-site. Thanks, Deluxe Dining Plan credit pooling loophole!

 

[BlueStarryHat]

Yesterday was SUCH a good day! Got Free Dining and saved 600 bucks, which means I can pay off the trip sooner and have more cash to treat myself and my sister. So happy!

 

[vrajewski10513]

Oh boy, have things changed for us now that Free Dining has dropped. We were seven but now there are now ten of us: four parents, three kids, and three grandparents.

We were going to stay off-site at Marriott's Sabal Palms from Dec 16-23, but with the free dining, we've changed our plans. In addition to the two villas at Sabal Palms, we got one room at All Star Music Dec 16-23 for Grandpa and the kids with free QS dining that we're upgrading to Deluxe Dining Plan, and we're pooling all the dining credits to split amongst the ten of us. We also rented points for one night at the Beach Club Dec 19 for the dads and the kids and one night at Poly Dec 21 for the moms and the kids, for access to the pools, convenient parking for MK, Epcot, and HS, and a place to crash after fireworks, plus the dining plan on those rooms too, bringing our dining credit total to 114 total.

And the crazy thing is that adding the three disney resorts with the dining plan is about $800 cheaper than if we were to pay for food out of pocket, buy magic bands, pay for parking, and just stay off-site. Thanks, Deluxe Dining Plan credit pooling loophole!

I never would have thought to work that out the way you did! Kudos to you for thinking outside of the box!

 

[pooh'smate]

Joining in. Just booked today with free dining @ POP 12/22-1/6. Now I am going to go back and read the thread. Looking for tips to help with the crowds. This will be our 4th trip but our first during a busy time.

 

[vrajewski10513]

Joining in. Just booked today with free dining @ POP 12/22-1/6. Now I am going to go back and read the thread. Looking for tips to help with the crowds. This will be our 4th trip but our first during a busy time.

There isn't really a way to work crowds the week of Christmas. It's CRAZY. Your best strategy would probably be to start as early as possible and avoid EMH.

 

[shanew21]

Joining in. Just booked today with free dining @ POP 12/22-1/6. Now I am going to go back and read the thread. Looking for tips to help with the crowds. This will be our 4th trip but our first during a busy time.

Rope drop
Set fast passes for 11-1ish
Nap or resort hop after fast passes are done
Go back into the park at night.

 

[takehertothemoon]

So glad I found this thread! We're booked Dec 3-9 at All Star Movies. Was hoping for a better resort but the Canadian dollar is so weak right now so it's not worth it! Still waiting for park hours to make any definite plans, can't wait!!

 

[disneydreamer1980]

We're booked with FD 11/26-12/6, half our trip is in nov, half in december. I guess we can join both threads! We have a res at FW cabins and one at ASMu Suites booked, still trying to decide which one to cancel. ASMu is cheaper and my kids prefer the theming there, but I want to be close to MK and it'll be nice to park right next to our cabin. Decisions, decisions! So excited about our trip, our first time with the DDP at all, let alone FD. Part of a "vacation" for us is one nice, relaxed sit down meal per day, and it'll be nice to do that without the sticker shock that comes with eating at Disney. We've done MVMCP several times before, not sure if we'll do it this year, it's getting expensive for a family this big (over $500 for MVMCP). I'm so excited to hear what you all have planned! IMHO, this is the absolute best and most magical time to visit WDW.

 

[vrajewski10513]

We're booked with FD 11/26-12/6, half our trip is in nov, half in december. I guess we can join both threads! We have a res at FW cabins and one at ASMu Suites booked, still trying to decide which one to cancel. ASMu is cheaper and my kids prefer the theming there, but I want to be close to MK and it'll be nice to park right next to our cabin. Decisions, decisions! So excited about our trip, our first time with the DDP at all, let alone FD. Part of a "vacation" for us is one nice, relaxed sit down meal per day, and it'll be nice to do that without the sticker shock that comes with eating at Disney. We've done MVMCP several times before, not sure if we'll do it this year, it's getting expensive for a family this big (over $500 for MVMCP). I'm so excited to hear what you all have planned! IMHO, this is the absolute best and most magical time to visit WDW.

IF you're going to have your own vehicle and don't have to fuss with the internal bus system Fort Wilderness is a great choice! Having your own private cabin with a nice deck is a great perk. THey also have a full kitchen, but with the free dining you probably wont get much use out of that. One downfall is there is no "master" so you'd be essentially sleeping on a pull out sofa in the living room, or sleeping on the queen in the bedroom which is shared with a set of bunk beds.

A perk of ASMu is that there are two bathrooms, which will be great in the mornings with a large family! Also, you have that real "master suite" feel with the private bedroom. The only downfall I see with ASMu is the bus sharing with the other All Star resorts.

I'm sorry I wasn't much help lol Personally I'd pretty much be choosing between the proximity of FW Cabins to MK vs. better functionality of the ASMU suite with a larger family.

EDIT: I just want to add that if you plan on taking your vehicle to the parks and don't have to fuss with buses, I would probably choose to save the money and stay at ASMu.

 

[MoBabee]

Good morning December travelers! I hope everyone trying for free dining this morning was able to get what they needed!!

We are a family of 6. 2 adults, 2 Disney adults, and 2 children. There will be 7 of us if my stepson's mom allows him to come. So we booked two CBR rooms to accommodate all 7 of us, since we don't know yet if he'll be able to join us, just yet.

On Monday I was able to secure FD at CBR but only in the pirate rooms. (We switched to DDP from QS). I took it because even with all the add-ons it would still save us $268. But I checked back at 12:34am last night and was able to upgrade both of our CBR pirate rooms to standard and we are now saving $1400!!!

 

[vrajewski10513]

We are a family of 6. 2 adults, 2 Disney adults, and 2 children. There will be 7 of us if my stepson's mom allows him to come. So we booked two CBR rooms to accommodate all 7 of us, since we don't know yet if he'll be able to join us, just yet.

On Monday I was able to secure FD at CBR but only in the pirate rooms. (We switched to DDP from QS). I took it because even with all the add-ons it would still save us $268. But I checked back at 12:34am last night and was able to upgrade both of our CBR pirate rooms to standard and we are now saving $1400!!!

Wow, that's awesome! Another example for people to not get discouraged if they don't originally get what they want. Just hang in there and hopefully something will open up for them!

 

[JennLTX]

We're booked with FD 11/26-12/6, half our trip is in nov, half in december. I guess we can join both threads! We have a res at FW cabins and one at ASMu Suites booked, still trying to decide which one to cancel. ASMu is cheaper and my kids prefer the theming there, but I want to be close to MK and it'll be nice to park right next to our cabin. Decisions, decisions! So excited about our trip, our first time with the DDP at all, let alone FD. Part of a "vacation" for us is one nice, relaxed sit down meal per day, and it'll be nice to do that without the sticker shock that comes with eating at Disney. We've done MVMCP several times before, not sure if we'll do it this year, it's getting expensive for a family this big (over $500 for MVMCP). I'm so excited to hear what you all have planned! IMHO, this is the absolute best and most magical time to visit WDW.

We're part Nov, part Dec, too. I kinda like "having" to be on multiple boards.

 

[disneydreamer1980]

IF you're going to have your own vehicle and don't have to fuss with the internal bus system Fort Wilderness is a great choice! Having your own private cabin with a nice deck is a great perk. THey also have a full kitchen, but with the free dining you probably wont get much use out of that. One downfall is there is no "master" so you'd be essentially sleeping on a pull out sofa in the living room, or sleeping on the queen in the bedroom which is shared with a set of bunk beds.

A perk of ASMu is that there are two bathrooms, which will be great in the mornings with a large family! Also, you have that real "master suite" feel with the private bedroom. The only downfall I see with ASMu is the bus sharing with the other All Star resorts.

I'm sorry I wasn't much help lol Personally I'd pretty much be choosing between the proximity of FW Cabins to MK vs. better functionality of the ASMU suite with a larger family.

EDIT: I just want to add that if you plan on taking your vehicle to the parks and don't have to fuss with buses, I would probably choose to save the money and stay at ASMu.[/

I agree with everything you said. It's so hard to choose though. I'm thinking we might go with ASMu, it's saving us $1000 over FW cabins. But it would be nice to be just a boat ride away from MK, but I'm not sure if that's worth $1000!

 

[dnllmz]

We're booked with FD 11/26-12/6, half our trip is in nov, half in december. I guess we can join both threads! We have a res at FW cabins and one at ASMu Suites booked, still trying to decide which one to cancel. ASMu is cheaper and my kids prefer the theming there, but I want to be close to MK and it'll be nice to park right next to our cabin. Decisions, decisions! So excited about our trip, our first time with the DDP at all, let alone FD. Part of a "vacation" for us is one nice, relaxed sit down meal per day, and it'll be nice to do that without the sticker shock that comes with eating at Disney. We've done MVMCP several times before, not sure if we'll do it this year, it's getting expensive for a family this big (over $500 for MVMCP). I'm so excited to hear what you all have planned! IMHO, this is the absolute best and most magical time to visit WDW.

I'm also a Nov into Dec. I'm no help with your decision. I've never stayed at either resort. I'm not doing FD but we are going to get the dining plan. It worked well for us last trip and I do like not having to worry about our meals while we're there.

 

[disneydreamer1980]

I heard that MK closes on 11/30 at 4:30 for a staff MVMCP. At first I was bummed, but I was just thinking that it would probably be a great day to go to MK because most people won't want to be there on a day it closes so early. I'll have to change our plans. Thinking we'll stay there till 4:00 then hop to another park for their nighttime entertainment. I'm happy now that I got the PH, (had to for FD) I've never PH'd before. I'm glad you all don't think I'm crazy for having plans set this early, my family thinks I'm insane!

 

[vrajewski10513]

I heard that MK closes on 11/30 at 4:30 for a staff MVMCP. At first I was bummed, but I was just thinking that it would probably be a great day to go to MK because most people won't want to be there on a day it closes so early. I'll have to change our plans. Thinking we'll stay there till 4:00 then hop to another park for their nighttime entertainment. I'm happy now that I got the PH, (had to for FD) I've never PH'd before. I'm glad you all don't think I'm crazy for having plans set this early, my family thinks I'm insane!

In general, most party days are great days to visit MK if you have parkhoppers. Most people who don't have the PH will not want to waste a whole day ticket at a park that closes early.

 

[dnllmz]

We did our MK days on party days last year and it worked pretty well. We haven't decided if we're doing park hoppers this year. That's one of the many things we really need to figure out soon. We had them last year because we booked the FD promo and never used them.

 

[disneydreamer1980]

We've never used PH, and we've been many, many times. One park per day is enough. But since we have them, due to the FD offer, we might as well use them. Hopping from Mk on party days is probably all the hopping we'll do. We spend 3 days at MK, so we'll do 2 on party days and one on the late EMH night, to do the night time entertainment. On the party days, we'll hop to HS and AK for Fantasmic and ROL.

 

[memma05]

We are officially going to be at CBR from 12/11-12/22! So excited I was able to secure free dining in our standard room and keep our gift card! I was up when FD dropped and couldn't modify but was able to call in and get through to an awesome CM who made it all work! We upgraded to the DDP which for our family of 2 adults and 3 kids is almost $600. However we will be getting the $825 gift card upon check in so we still come out way ahead ($2575) when you consider the DDP would have cost $2350 OOP without FD! I know we want to do MVMCP again this trip but trying to decide which day...thinking maybe a Tuesday won't be as busy!

 

[dnllmz]

We are officially going to be at CBR from 12/11-12/22! So excited I was able to secure free dining in our standard room and keep our gift card! I was up when FD dropped and couldn't modify but was able to call in and get through to an awesome CM who made it all work! We upgraded to the DDP which for our family of 2 adults and 3 kids is almost $600. However we will be getting the $825 gift card upon check in so we still come out way ahead ($2575) when you consider the DDP would have cost $2350 OOP without FD! I know we want to do MVMCP again this trip but trying to decide which day...thinking maybe a Tuesday won't be as busy!

That's awesome!

I'm really starting to get excited now.