*** Official January 2020 Thread ***

[tinabina919]

I can’t make up my mind on the MK DAH for Jan 20! We are only doing a 4 night trip with one park day at EPCOT for Festival of the Arts.

I know it’s going to be so hard to be there and not go to MK but the 20th is our first and only night at POLY so we were planing on enjoying the resort all day, ordering the Twilight Feast and watching HEA from the beach. Help me decide!

 

[jrsharp21]

Finally got around to booking our January trip to WDW for the half marathon. I had been going back and forth between the DoubleTree Suites in the Disney Springs area or a family suite at All Star Music. With a family of four, daughter being 20 and son being 14, we finally have outgrown all staying in a normal sized room. Definitely need the extra space a suite provides. We decided on the family suite at ASM. The two bathrooms sold it for us. Plus, it's hard to beat being immersed in Disney when staying at a WDW resort. Love that feeling. So we are headed Jan. 9th through the 13th. Quick trip in for the half marathon and a couple of days at the parks.

 

[AuntDJ]

Hi All! We are there January 11-18. at POFQ. I am nervous for Marathon crowds when we are very much NOT there for the marathon The extra hour events fall oddly in our plans, but I really want to try to make one of these happen, I am leaning toward an MK one vs AK one. Thoughts? We are doing the quick dining plan this time so have only made one reservation for table service and that was artist point. I actually have two reservations for that but will prob drop the one on the 11th at 7:10. If you are interested in it, let me know and I will tell ya'll before I drop it.

I did get Oga's for one afternoon for the two of us. Neither of us drink, so it is possible I will drop that too, but I have it just in case we decide we NEED it

I am so ready for our fasspass day to roll around!

 

[bluecastle]

Thought this thread needed a bump.
How's everyone's planning going? I got an email from Touring Plans with an hours update for the studios for my dates (1st week of January). They will now be closing at 9 instead of 8. Still hoping the same thing happens for MK.

 

[bluecastle]

I can’t make up my mind on the MK DAH for Jan 20! We are only doing a 4 night trip with one park day at EPCOT for Festival of the Arts.

I know it’s going to be so hard to be there and not go to MK but the 20th is our first and only night at POLY so we were planing on enjoying the resort all day, ordering the Twilight Feast and watching HEA from the beach. Help me decide!

I don't know if you will have the energy, but can't you take the mono or boat over to MK after watching the fireworks on the beach, and enjoy DAH? Unless that doesn't make financial sense, of course.

 

[NikkiDP]

Thought this thread needed a bump.
How's everyone's planning going? I got an email from Touring Plans with an hours update for the studios for my dates (1st week of January). They will now be closing at 9 instead of 8. Still hoping the same thing happens for MK.

Wow that is great that they already adjusted hours for your trip! I wasn't expecting any movement on January hours until maybe end of November early December haha.

 

[tinabina919]

I don't know if you will have the energy, but can't you take the mono or boat over to MK after watching the fireworks on the beach, and enjoy DAH? Unless that doesn't make financial sense, of course.

Yea idk if i can justify spending that for just a few hours in MK, maybe if it was a bit later/longer.

 

[Delite]

Yea idk if i can justify spending that for just a few hours in MK, maybe if it was a bit later/longer.

Video reports show you can nearly reride 7d, they drop the chain as you exit and you walk right back into final building for loading. Plus I'd hit up pooh and Peter for back to back rides. Might start the night over at Space area or Western. Definitely ending night in 7d reride Boogaloo.

 

[MamaJessie]

Had such a nice trip a couple weeks ago, ready to start planning our January girl trip days now! Thanks for the heads up on hour changes, will update the info I had already saved.

 

[mandis77]

Thought this thread needed a bump.
How's everyone's planning going? I got an email from Touring Plans with an hours update for the studios for my dates (1st week of January). They will now be closing at 9 instead of 8. Still hoping the same thing happens for MK.

Just waiting for the special offers to be released. I'm guessing next week? I'm hoping for my trip MK's hours get moved from 8 to 9. Right now we have CRT at 7pm and HEA is at 8pm. That's cutting it close.

 

[mickey520]

First-time poster. Relied on these boards for great advice before our first trip to WDW in January 2017. Looking forward to our second trip in January 2020 (Jan 25-Feb 2). We've got a big group this time - Two kids (7 and 4), five adults, plus a birthday celebration just a couple days after my grandmother's 93rd birthday! We're staying at Yacht Club as Epcot was grandma's bucket-list trip.

Here's our touring plan at this point:

1/25 - arrive at MCO 2:45pm (possible dinner reservations @ DS or Boardwalk)
1/26 - MK - just can't convince myself to start with anything other than MK
1/27 - AK
1/28 - DHS (morning)/EP (adults only for PM EMH)
1/29 - Rest day/Tea Party for the kiddos
1/30 - EP
1/31 - MK
2/1 - Rerides at AK/MK
2/2 - Rerides at EP/DHS - depart for MCO at 2pm

My struggle is trip planning for this many different types of people. My family (2 adults, 2 kids) are go-go-go, we don't mind being in the park from RD to Fireworks, and the kids typically do well. 93 year old Grandma is going to need some rest time.

I've built a spreadsheet to try to get the rest of the crew to rank their "must do" and "won't do" attractions. Are there good tools/templates/etc. out there for this sort of thing?

Also, what's your favorite autograph book alternative? I'm not a huge fan of the idea of wandering the park with something like a photo mat, but our autograph books from 2017 just sit in a box.

 

[Zia100]

First-time poster. Relied on these boards for great advice before our first trip to WDW in January 2017. Looking forward to our second trip in January 2020 (Jan 25-Feb 2). We've got a big group this time - Two kids (7 and 4), five adults, plus a birthday celebration just a couple days after my grandmother's 93rd birthday! We're staying at Yacht Club as Epcot was grandma's bucket-list trip.

Here's our touring plan at this point:

1/25 - arrive at MCO 2:45pm (possible dinner reservations @ DS or Boardwalk)
1/26 - MK - just can't convince myself to start with anything other than MK
1/27 - AK
1/28 - DHS (morning)/EP (adults only for PM EMH)
1/29 - Rest day/Tea Party for the kiddos
1/30 - EP
1/31 - MK
2/1 - Rerides at AK/MK
2/2 - Rerides at EP/DHS - depart for MCO at 2pm

My struggle is trip planning for this many different types of people. My family (2 adults, 2 kids) are go-go-go, we don't mind being in the park from RD to Fireworks, and the kids typically do well. 93 year old Grandma is going to need some rest time.

I've built a spreadsheet to try to get the rest of the crew to rank their "must do" and "won't do" attractions. Are there good tools/templates/etc. out there for this sort of thing?

Also, what's your favorite autograph book alternative? I'm not a huge fan of the idea of wandering the park with something like a photo mat, but our autograph books from 2017 just sit in a box.

Good luck with the planning, I’m curious to see how you do. My family (2 adults, 2 kids) also would stay at the parks ALL day! We haven’t brought other family with us for the same reason as everyone has their own style.

We also did Disney in Jan 2019 and planning again, same week for 2020. So for the autograph alternative, we got craft foam sheet from the craft store. I cut it to the size of a photo frame. I drew in a rectangle “box” in the center of size 5’x7’ for our traditional family photo in front of the MK castle. I didn’t cut it out, just put a big X through it. I got some sharpie pens and just rolled up the foam sheet and put it into a ziplock. It worked great! Being foam and rolled, it didn’t crumple in the bag. Also I used a stencil to color in in the corner “2019”. The characters all knew not to sign inside the X box. We got home, I printed a family pic, cut out the X box and framed the foam. And it was an excellent reminder of that year. I hope this helped! It’s a little prep work, but it worked great for our family and again, with us staying in the park all day, I wanted it easy and stress free.

 

[mickey520]

Good luck with the planning, I’m curious to see how you do. My family (2 adults, 2 kids) also would stay at the parks ALL day! We haven’t brought other family with us for the same reason as everyone has their own style.

We also did Disney in Jan 2019 and planning again, same week for 2020. So for the autograph alternative, we got craft foam sheet from the craft store. I cut it to the size of a photo frame. I drew in a rectangle “box” in the center of size 5’x7’ for our traditional family photo in front of the MK castle. I didn’t cut it out, just put a big X through it. I got some sharpie pens and just rolled up the foam sheet and put it into a ziplock. It worked great! Being foam and rolled, it didn’t crumple in the bag. Also I used a stencil to color in in the corner “2019”. The characters all knew not to sign inside the X box. We got home, I printed a family pic, cut out the X box and framed the foam. And it was an excellent reminder of that year. I hope this helped! It’s a little prep work, but it worked great for our family and again, with us staying in the park all day, I wanted it easy and stress free.

Love that idea! Thanks!

 

[carimar]

Hi, all!
So glad I found this thread!

We are a family of 6 travelling from up north from January 1-5. It's going to be crazy crowded, I know, but it's the best we can do with DD in high school and my DH needing to work Christmas.
So far, our chaotic schedule is as follows:

1/1 driving up from visiting in-laws/parents from southern Fla. Check into DS hotel a little DS time, Head over to The Contemporary for dinner @The Wave and Pirates and Pals Fireworks Cruise
1/2 MK Day, PPO BOG, Dinner @Artist Point
1/3 UO/IoA (Thinking of doing VIP Experience)
1/4 HS for SWGE and TSL, Dinner at Sci-Fi
1/5 MK Day #2 (Hoping for a EMM- was one in 2019)
Flight at 7:30pm

Looking forward to following along and happy planning!

 

[nandojoe]

We are travelling from 24/Jan to 06/Fev (11 day at All Star Sports and 3 at Universal´s Endless Summer Resort). It´s my 8x at Orlando, but it´s the 1st time of youngest (3 years old). So happy! Last time was in 2015. We´re doing so many plans! Can believe that I´m gonna ride Test Track with him. He loooooooves car!! For this time, we are not going to rent a car. We want that our childs feel the magic since the fisrt moment at Disney Magical Express.

We are going with Disney Dinning Plan. We think it´s very worth it, not because of the value, but not having to worry about the cost of meals. Below our plans for WDW (some words are in portugueses. Sorry for that).

PS: sorry for my english!

Data	Programação	Open	Close	Breakfeast	Lunch	Dinner	Quick Credit	Table Credit
sexta-feira, 24 de janeiro de 2020	Arrive at Orlando 06:45 p.m					Hotel	1
sábado, 25 de janeiro de 2020	Shopping:WalMart/Walgrens/Outlet			Hotel	Outlet	Boma	1	1
domingo, 26 de janeiro de 2020	Chef´s Mickey at 09:20			Chef´s Mickey	Downtown	Hotel	1	1
segunda-feira, 27 de janeiro de 2020	Magic Kingdom	9	20	Room	Be Our Guest	QuickService	2
terça-feira, 28 de janeiro de 2020	Animal	9	20	Room	Tusker House	QuickService	1	1
quarta-feira, 29 de janeiro de 2020	Epcot	9	21	Room	Space220	Teppan Eddo		2
quinta-feira, 30 de janeiro de 2020	DHS	9	20	Room	Mama´s Melrose	Star Wars Land		1
sexta-feira, 31 de janeiro de 2020	Magic Kingdom	(8) 9	20	Room	Tonys	QuickService	1	1
sábado, 1 de fevereiro de 2020	Relax/Hotel/Disney Springs			Room	Almoçar no hotel	T-rex	1	1
domingo, 2 de fevereiro de 2020	Hotel/Shopping/Relax			Topolino´s Terrace	Disney Boardwalk	Story Book Dining-Wilderness Lodge		2
segunda-feira, 3 de fevereiro de 2020	DHS	9	20	Room	Sci-fi Dinner	QuickService	1	1

 

[ariane37]

Just back from Disney last night and as soon as our January travel,partners get back from THEIR current Disneyntrip we'll plan a little more Definitely bookingAH at MK on the 20th and I'm pretty sure we'll go with the Destinations Discovered tour at Epcot

 

[ThisProvincialLife]

Has anyone heard any rumors about potential discounts being offered in January? I know they usually do Play, Stay, and Dine, but since this year has been so different discount-wise, I'm just wondering. Is there a separate thread somewhere for that? Thanks!

 

[Crazed4DisneyinSC]

Has anyone heard any rumors about potential discounts being offered in January? I know they usually do Play, Stay, and Dine, but since this year has been so different discount-wise, I'm just wondering. Is there a separate thread somewhere for that? Thanks!

link to Jan discount thread:
https://www.disboards.com/threads/january-2020-discounts.3743594/

 

[dez1978]

I really need them to release an AH for Mk the last week of January...

 

[mickey520]

I really need them to release an AH for Mk the last week of January...

Watching for the same thing - we're there 1/25 to 2/2. Toyed with the idea of the AK DAH, but the MK one seems like more fun.