***Official December 2017 thread!

[mbvisitor]

For those going the Christmas-NYE week with Park Hoppers....what is your FP+ strategy when you plan to RD?

Book FP+s for the late morning in your first park or book FP+s for the second park? I keep going back and forth on this and can't decide what to do??

 

[LucyBC80]

15 days till FP+ and then... Gosh, this last stretch before the trip is the worst, it moves so SLOW!

 

[Rich M]

Hello everyone I wanted to add us to this thread. We are going Dec 7th to Dec 13th. We are staying at CBR on free dining promo one room moved to dxDDP and one on QS. We have two rooms. We are bringing my GS for his first trip to the world. He will be 23 months. Our plans as of now are as follows:

Dec 7th - Fly in at 4:30 PM - Staying at Star Island Resort in a 3 bedroom villa for one night. Dinner at Disney Springs using Landry Card.
Dec 8th - Check in at CBR - Morning MK - Lunch at Liberty Tree - Evening HS - Late dinner at Ohana.
Dec 9th - Morning Epcot - QS lunch - Evening AK - Dinner at Yak N Yeti after ROL
Dec 10th - Morning HS - QS lunch - Evening Christmas Party at MK - BOG Dinner
Dec 11th - Morning AK - QS lunch - Evening Epcot - Dinner at Rose and Crown
Dec 12th - Morning not sure - Evening HS - Dinner at Mama Melrose, 50's Prime, or Via Napoli - Different reservations but can't decide
Dec 13th - Morning MK - BOG Pre Park - Afternoon - QS Lunch - Head for airport around 4.

We are looking forward to our trip and expect a slower trip with my GS. Can't wait to get our FP+ done.

 

[shairpdrh]

15 days till FP+ and then... Gosh, this last stretch before the trip is the worst, it moves so SLOW!

Same! Although fall tends to fly for me because it is my favorite season.

I overslept on my FP+ day for our Sept trip (I still can't believe it) and I can't do that this time! Really wish it wasn't a Monday, but I am always up early during the week so no worries there. I have such a complicated FP+ strategy this time with a mix of all ride preferences, family member who haven't been in years, and using rider switch.

 

[littlejessmarie]

I don't know if this has been asked or where to ask this. We are currently going Dec 2 to the 8th, we have been looking at availability and there is nothing what so ever. Is it possible that Disney has booked every single room for this week? I know its Pop Warner week. I just cant wrap my head around why there is availability Christmas week and not this week.

 

[Skallywag Steph]

I don't know if this has been asked or where to ask this. We are currently going Dec 2 to the 8th, we have been looking at availability and there is nothing what so ever. Is it possible that Disney has booked every single room for this week? I know its Pop Warner week. I just cant wrap my head around why there is availability Christmas week and not this week.

Ive seen this concern in several different threads so you arent the only one thinking it. I'm going the second week and there seems to be very little available then too. Free dining is going on at this time but i don't know if that's part of it. It's a little scary.

 

[LucyBC80]

I made a payment today just so we're under the $1,000 mark! We now have $900 to pay, which will be done on the 5th. I can't wait to make the 'paid in full' dance and choose our FP+ the next day knowing we don't own Disney one penny! It's getting real now!

 

[Rich M]

I made a payment today just so we're under the $1,000 mark! We now have $900 to pay, which will be done on the 5th. I can't wait to make the 'paid in full' dance and choose our FP+ the next day knowing we don't own Disney one penny! It's getting real now!

I know that feeling. I was so happy when my trip was completely paid. Now I just have to get there.

 

[JennLTX]

Ive seen this concern in several different threads so you arent the only one thinking it. I'm going the second week and there seems to be very little available then too. Free dining is going on at this time but i don't know if that's part of it. It's a little scary.

Just out of curiosity, I did a search on the dates we're there (Nov 29 - Dec 3). Sold out, according to the website. I'm a bit freaked out!!!

 

[shairpdrh]

I looked after the last set of posts about no availability and there were no options. Then looked again recently and there were rooms at almost all resorts. I wonder if there are glitches with the booking system online.

 

[Rich M]

Is there a chance that Disney is holding inventory for another promotion to be released after the current one is up?

 

[FinnsMom7]

Just out of curiosity, I did a search on the dates we're there (Nov 29 - Dec 3). Sold out, according to the website. I'm a bit freaked out!!!

I am in the same boat, Dec 8-15 I figured it's after PW week and a full week ahead of xmas rush - now there is no availability in any hotels yet xmas time has tons. Being there when busy is still better than home at work but wasn't expecting sold out hotel type crowds.

I keep thinking well CBR, CS and Pop all have construction and are missing chunks of their inventory maybe thats all.

 

[pammydw]

Just out of curiosity, I did a search on the dates we're there (Nov 29 - Dec 3). Sold out, according to the website. I'm a bit freaked out!!!

Those are our exact dates too. Staying at The Contemporary garden wing. Not looking forward to those types of crowds. I knew we might be in trouble when it was adr time and there were very limited times available. But oh well! Looking forward to fastpasses, and with dedication and checking multiple times daily,I got better times for all the ADR's we booked. Even picked up one we wanted but couldn't get at first!
Hope you enjoy you trip!

 

[JennLTX]

Those are our exact dates too. Staying at The Contemporary garden wing. Not looking forward to those types of crowds. I knew we might be in trouble when it was adr time and there were very limited times available. But oh well! Looking forward to fastpasses, and with dedication and checking multiple times daily,I got better times for all the ADR's we booked. Even picked up one we wanted but couldn't get at first!
Hope you enjoy you trip!

I did a bit more fiddling, and if we were to hypothetically check in on Sunday and check out on Thursday, there were a bunch of available resorts. My guess is we're looking at the influx of the Pop Warner folks on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

That said, according to Dave Shute at **************, Pop has more of an impact on the population of the resorts than the parks. Here's hoping it holds true!!!

 

[Astryd]

Len Testa posted the below on another message board:

Len Testa: "Checking in at Music this week with my SO, her MagicBand didn't work on the room door. So we go to the front desk. CM there checks LILO and says "Oh, it has you booked at Saratoga Springs too. This has been happening a lot." He shows me the screen before he fixes it.

Apparently there's an issue where 1 reservation will be booked at 2 hotels for the same family on the same dates. The CM says it's been going on for a while, and affects dates as far in the future as October. So if you're seeing no availability for what should be a slow period, that might be the cause. They're fixing them manually as people check in. And it's only on LILO - you can't see it on MDE. (I'm not sure how that works.)

No ETA on getting it fixed, from what I was told."


Last week, I moved my trip from 12/6-12/11 to 12/13-12/19 and I had to add the extra day to find availability. Nothing was available if I was checking out on 12/18, but if I checked out 12/19 I could get a room at All Star Movies, but none of the other value resorts. That was with or without the room only or passholder discounts.

I am also going the end of October for F&W and I had a reservation from 10/26 - 11/3. When room only discounts were announced I found a discount for All Stars for part of the trip, but not all of it, so I made a new reservation with the discount.

When I tried to change the dates for the second half of the trip, it told me no rooms were available..... But I had a room already was just trying to take days off of it. I had to call and then they still couldn't book me in the same room in the same resort for those dates? They had to have guest services change it.


Im sure the room renovations at POP and the rooms they removed for Construction as CSR and CBR are contributing to room inventory being a little tighter then normal.

 

[Rich M]

Len Testa posted the below on another message board:

Len Testa: "Checking in at Music this week with my SO, her MagicBand didn't work on the room door. So we go to the front desk. CM there checks LILO and says "Oh, it has you booked at Saratoga Springs too. This has been happening a lot." He shows me the screen before he fixes it.

Apparently there's an issue where 1 reservation will be booked at 2 hotels for the same family on the same dates. The CM says it's been going on for a while, and affects dates as far in the future as October. So if you're seeing no availability for what should be a slow period, that might be the cause. They're fixing them manually as people check in. And it's only on LILO - you can't see it on MDE. (I'm not sure how that works.)

No ETA on getting it fixed, from what I was told."


Last week, I moved my trip from 12/6-12/11 to 12/13-12/19 and I had to add the extra day to find availability. Nothing was available if I was checking out on 12/18, but if I checked out 12/19 I could get a room at All Star Movies, but none of the other value resorts. That was with or without the room only or passholder discounts.

I am also going the end of October for F&W and I had a reservation from 10/26 - 11/3. When room only discounts were announced I found a discount for All Stars for part of the trip, but not all of it, so I made a new reservation with the discount.

When I tried to change the dates for the second half of the trip, it told me no rooms were available..... But I had a room already was just trying to take days off of it. I had to call and then they still couldn't book me in the same room in the same resort for those dates? They had to have guest services change it.


Im sure the room renovations at POP and the rooms they removed for Construction as CSR and CBR are contributing to room inventory being a little tighter then normal.

I would have asked if I could go to the other resort for the same price

 

[Astryd]

I would have asked if I could go to the other resort for the same price

I would have also!

 

[PixieT78]

Len Testa posted the below on another message board:

Last week, I moved my trip from 12/6-12/11 to 12/13-12/19 and I had to add the extra day to find availability. Nothing was available if I was checking out on 12/18, but if I checked out 12/19 I could get a room at All Star Movies, but none of the other value resorts. That was with or without the room only or passholder discounts.

This happened to me too when I first booked! I had to book two extra days out in order to get the room. The CM told me if I couldn't stay the extra days to just call back and change it. I ended up doing so a few weeks later as we also changed our check in date (decided to stay at the dark side for a couple nights first) and he said he had to request it but it was done the next day (both changes). Then we decided to stay an extra day after all and I was able to modify my reservation online for the extra day, even though when I searched that day on its own, there were no preferred rooms available. Definitely seems like something weird is going on.

 

[adelaster]

This happened to me too when I first booked! I had to book two extra days out in order to get the room. The CM told me if I couldn't stay the extra days to just call back and change it. I ended up doing so a few weeks later as we also changed our check in date (decided to stay at the dark side for a couple nights first) and he said he had to request it but it was done the next day (both changes). Then we decided to stay an extra day after all and I was able to modify my reservation online for the extra day, even though when I searched that day on its own, there were no preferred rooms available. Definitely seems like something weird is going on.

My suspicion is that it has to do with the way they split out their inventory.

 

[BigredNole]

We are going 12/03 - 12/10. I know there is limited availability because we looked before going DVC rental. Based on Disney quarterly earnings reports and what TA's have been receiving, I highly doubt they were holding anything back for promotions. Disney has stated they are eliminating them. I am guessing that most of the freed up rooms are from the Pop Warner week. They have to block off tons of rooms for the event. Some teams can't afford the high rates of Disney and choose to stay elsewhere. I am guessing that those are now starting to show up.

As for crowds, it doesn't matter much. You can't control it. You can only decide if you are willing to cope with it.