***Official January 2023 Thread***

[ThereYouSeeHer]

Looking for some warmth: Jan. 18-24th Cabana Bay Universal/24-29th Coronado Springs/29th somewhere near Tampa Bay/30-Feb. 4th Brilliance of the Seas.

Wow! You've been added!

 

[MousetersInc]

This is it! After weeks of looking at all the angles, I made hotel reservations just now!

This is only our second trip to Orlando. First trip was in 2019, when our two daughters were 7 and 9. We did everything "the right way" for a first trip: flew (from NC), did a 6-day stay that allowed us to hit every park plus an extra day in MK and in AK, and stayed in Wilderness Lodge. We went at Spring Break, which was pretty darn busy, but we had fun anyway.

This time the girls are 11 and 13 we're into Harry Potter, so Universal is a priority, and we'd like to save money—though I'm still saving only about $1K compared to what we paid back then! Since the girls are in middle school now, I don't think it's wise to miss a week of school, so if we have to go during a school holiday, we're picking the MLK zone as one of the less-crazy holidays (we're just too wimpy for Orlando in the summer!). We get a four-day weekend, and will skip two days of school as well.

Itinerary:

• Sat 1/14: Drive. Hoping to get on the road by 7am; with 1 hour stoppage time for lunch, gas, and pee, should get into Orlando ca 5pm, in time to check into the Hard Rock Hotel (for the proximity to park and free Express Passes!), unpack, have dinner, and relax.
• Sun: Universal, prioritizing the Wizarding World. Go to Diagon Alley, ride the train to Hogsmeade. Explore all the shops, buy wands, ride Escape from Gringotts and Hagrid, etc.
• Mon: Universal, "everything else." If we wind up doing all-the-Potter on Sunday with time to kill, we'll start doing other rides then; if we want more Potter yet we can do some more on this day. Regardless, I think we'd all like to ride "the big coasters"—Velocicoaster, Hulk, etc. The 13-yr-old loves Jurassic Park, so we'll probably want to meet Blue and ride the water ride. Minions, Spiderman, Bourne... as much as we have stamina to do.
• I'm thinking lunches on these days will probably be Three Broomsticks or Leaky Cauldron, whichever is handier based on where we find ourselves. I'm tempted by the praise for Mythos, though also tempted to save money by having lunch somewhere cheaper. We love sushi, so we might head over to Orchid Lounge in Royal Pacific for dinner, or Islands restaurant (I really loved the theming of RPR! but they were sold out of standard rooms, and I've heard they're a bit cramped anyway).
• Here's where it gets crazy. Tuesday will be the "wild card." See, on Monday we will have checked out of HRH, and will be turning our sights toward Disney. I've juggled all the options—Deluxe resorts for Extended Evening Hours, cramming into a Pop Century room to save money... and eventually realized that there were ways to trade money for experience. I had started my planning under the assumption that we had to get those EEHs—but hey, look, if we're at Universal on Monday, and not taking advantage of what will probably be the Epcot EEH... and, as much as we love MK, there's nothing new there (assuming Tron doesn't open)...
• Then... oh, what about After Hours? Yes, its cost is obscene. But upgrading to a Deluxe, if you're doing it as a way to "buy into" EEH, is similar. And AH at Hollywood Studios would let us prioritize the biggest thing that wasn't there for us in spring 2019, Galaxy's Edge. I've had to reign in the number of Disney days to keep this trip under budget, and here's the kicker: AH doesn't require that you had daytime tickets to the parks that day! We're not park commandos, and starting at rope drop and going until 12:30 am might just kill us. But with AH, we can stack it at the end of a more chill day, and we've essentially bought ourselves an extra "half day" of Disney.
• Then I started comparing hotels. I assumed that, even if it's not a deluxe, it has to be a Disney property so I can get the jump on those ILL reservations at 7am; I'd be sad if we went home without riding Cosmic Rewind, and I thought it was a "get it within the first 3 seconds or you don't ride" situation. I looked at Coronado Springs, ran the numbers, saw how high they still were, swallowed hard, and looked at Pop Century. I contemplated piling into the small room, squeezing past the Murphy bed, waiting in line for the shower... I tried not to think too wistfully of the beauty of Wilderness Lodge as I looked at the garish giant plastic foosball guys and Mickey phone...
• But then this thread and a good look at thrill-data.com corrected me: No, I can go off-property and still ride CR. There are ILLs still for sale at park opening; they shouldn't even interfere with my park-hopping, as most are before noon. If I'm lucky I can land the virtual queue as backup. So hey, for $20 more than Pop Century, we can get a 2-bed 2-bath at Floridays! I know everybody has their different priorities, and some would gladly squeeze into a room and share a bathroom for the sake of theming or location. But we love our space, we love having a door between the parents and the kids, and most of all we love having at least two bathrooms in the mornings! So it's settled: the remaining 3 nights of the trip will be Floridays.
• So, we pick up with the wild card of Tuesday. The evening will be After Hours at Hollywood Studios, giving us 5.5 hours there. But the rest of the day could be:
  • "Hotel day." Sleep in, take it easy. Splash in the pool (true, Floridays is no Wyndham Bonnet Creek in the pool department, but it would still be fun).
  • Go down to Legoland. Even though much of Legoland is more aimed at younger kids, the girls love their Lego and the older one at least really wants to go just to see the models of the landmarks and the Lego Masters winning builds. We'll see.
  • Here's a twist: Right now, when I get two days of park-hopping Universal tickets, they give two more days free! We wouldn't have our free Express Passes anymore, but we could spend some more time in the Universal parks.
  • Most likely it will be some combination of all of the above. We'd better rest up, though, to make it all the way through After Hours and still be ready to rope-drop the next day! Because...
• Wednesday is a one-day park-hopping Disney ticket! We will already have taken care of HS thoroughly. The priority now is Cosmic Rewind. If all goes well, we'll snag a nice morning ILL for it and start the day at Epcot, making sure to ride Ratatouille and the one thing we somehow ran out of time for on the last trip, Test Track. We'll have lunch somewhere—Space 220 could be fun, but probably too expensive and time-consuming. We might wander off to a hotel restaurant...
• Come park-hopping time, we'll have to decide which comes next, Magic Kingdom or Animal Kingdom. The hippy, nature-loving, global-culture-loving part of me loves AK (and Flight of Passage was easily the best ride back in 2019), but I have to admit MK has more rides. We'll see. Depending on our stamina, we might simply skip a park and give this half-day to one park, or we might park-hop a second time and DO IT ALL.
• Thursday we drive back home, and I hope after all that I'm still fit to make a 9-hr drive safely! But we have to get back at a reasonable hour, because...
• Friday at 6am we wake up to go to school and work!

So there it is—I booked the hotels this morning (using a Disney card so at least we can start racking up some rewards), so we're officially going! The "happy dance" is always partly a "but also a little scared, did I make all the right choices?" dance. But I'm dancin' it!

 

[SuperNEMOfan]

The app is out until Jan 12th

Yes I know, thats our first park day

 

[SuperNEMOfan]

You can see historical park hours on Touring Plans. I'm using that as reference for my planning.

I noticed that, but hours are very different from the last time we went in January and im here for it

 

[ThereYouSeeHer]

This is it! After weeks of looking at all the angles, I made hotel reservations just now!

This is only our second trip to Orlando. First trip was in 2019, when our two daughters were 7 and 9. We did everything "the right way" for a first trip: flew (from NC), did a 6-day stay that allowed us to hit every park plus an extra day in MK and in AK, and stayed in Wilderness Lodge. We went at Spring Break, which was pretty darn busy, but we had fun anyway.

This time the girls are 11 and 13 we're into Harry Potter, so Universal is a priority, and we'd like to save money—though I'm still saving only about $1K compared to what we paid back then! Since the girls are in middle school now, I don't think it's wise to miss a week of school, so if we have to go during a school holiday, we're picking the MLK zone as one of the less-crazy holidays (we're just too wimpy for Orlando in the summer!). We get a four-day weekend, and will skip two days of school as well.

So there it is—I booked the hotels this morning (using a Disney card so at least we can start racking up some rewards), so we're officially going! The "happy dance" is always partly a "but also a little scared, did I make all the right choices?" dance. But I'm dancin' it!

Great planning! You've been added!

 

[jvalic33]

I just got some crazy news. I was told mydisneyexperience doesn't have a glitch...that secretly when they did the upgrade the other day, they put in that only people with 10day stays or more can book 60 plus 10 and that those of us with stays of less than 10 days can only book 60 plus 1 for each day of your stay, just like regular people....

I called DVC and they said they have not heard this and they think he is misnformed, however, the cast member I spoke to in tech support said it hasn't been officially announced, but I checked him and he is right, I can now book only up to 1/3 in the system. I can't book anything for 1/4.

If he is right, tomorrow I should be able to book my ressies for 1/4.

He also said that support still has the availability to book for us but that this was a change made to the app and online booking.

Curious if anyone else is finding this, please let me know.

 

[Disturbia]

I just got some crazy news. I was told mydisneyexperience doesn't have a glitch...that secretly when they did the upgrade the other day, they put in that only people with 10day stays or more can book 60 plus 10 and that those of us with stays of less than 10 days can only book 60 plus 1 for each day of your stay, just like regular people....

I called DVC and they said they have not heard this and they think he is misnformed, however, the cast member I spoke to in tech support said it hasn't been officially announced, but I checked him and he is right, I can now book only up to 1/3 in the system. I can't book anything for 1/4.

If he is right, tomorrow I should be able to book my ressies for 1/4.

He also said that support still has the availability to book for us but that this was a change made to the app and online booking.

Curious if anyone else is finding this, please let me know.

Try going to a desktop. The app does the 60+1, website doesn’t (but go to ‘my plans’ page first so the system can check off that you have a resort reservation)

 

[jvalic33]

Try going to a desktop. The app does the 60+1, website doesn’t (but go to ‘my plans’ page first so the system can check off that you have a resort reservation)

I'm on both phone and desktop. My reservation is linked. I spoke with tech support. I cleared my cache, I did everything. I can see the reservations available. It's not me.

For fun I tried table for 4, lunch Chefs de France on 1/3, it will let me book it. Table for 4 Chefs de France on 1/4...I see the availability, I select the time....I get SORRY FOR THE PAWS with a pic of Lady and the Tramp.

Yesterday, I couldn't book a single thing for 1/3.

I don't mean to sound curt but for the last 3 days I've been trying to prove to people I'm not dumb....

Also, when I logged on 1/2, only my daughter was successful and now that I look back, she was only able to book my first day. That is why she got hers to go through and none of my harder ones that I tried to book on my desktop were letting me. I was watching Topolino's times appear and disappear as I couldn't finalize my selection because I kept getting Lady and the Tramp.

 

[Disturbia]

I'm on both phone and desktop. My reservation is linked. I spoke with tech support. I cleared my cache, I did everything. I can see the reservations available. It's not me.

For fun I tried table for 4, lunch Chefs de France on 1/3, it will let me book it. Table for 4 Chefs de France on 1/4...I see the availability, I select the time....I get SORRY FOR THE PAWS with a pic of Lady and the Tramp.

Yesterday, I couldn't book a single thing for 1/3.

I don't mean to sound curt but for the last 3 days I've been trying to prove to people I'm not dumb....

Also, when I logged on 1/2, only my daughter was successful and now that I look back, she was only able to book my first day. That is why she got hers to go through and none of my harder ones that I tried to book on my desktop were letting me. I was watching Topolino's times appear and disappear as I couldn't finalize my selection because I kept getting Lady and the Tramp.

I got the Lady and the Tramp message 4 times; I had to relog in multiple times. Just keep at it and eventually it works.

You don’t need to prove anything. We all dealt with various issues. We’re all just trying to help

 

[jvalic33]

I got the Lady and the Tramp message 4 times; I had to relog in multiple times. Just keep at it and eventually it works

I hope you're right because this would be the straw for me......

 

[jvalic33]

I hope you're right because this would be the straw for me......

Also, however, according to the guy this happened only a couple days ago. That would mean your 60day window preceded this change.

 

[Disturbia]

Can you try a different time. I had one ADR that was stuck and wouldn’t cancel (STK71) and it blocked 4 hours. I believe this happened because they are linking ADRs to resort guests (giving priority to onsite guests) so the system is glitching for ADRs you’re booking at a different resort. Peak times are reserved for that resort’s guests only (we are at Poly).

 

[Disturbia]

Here is the discussion on the resort guests getting priority:

https://www.disboards.com/threads/d...ss-to-additional-dining-reservations.3899573/

 

[jvalic33]

Here is the discussion on the resort guests getting priority:

https://www.disboards.com/threads/d...ss-to-additional-dining-reservations.3899573/

Everything I try doesn't work. I had Hoop Dee Doo Ressies, booked 4pm, brought me to the next screen, entered in all my people, gave me the option for Category seating and then when I tried to go to the next screen...PAWS

What do you mean by another time? I have a lot booked through Disney Dining so I'm trying times that I don't have ressies for because we do breakfast and signature dining for dinner, so my only open Slots are lunch. I could try the 4th for Dinner because I booked boathouse through their website.

I just tried Citricos, party of 4, 9pm is available....PAWS

 

[Disturbia]

Everything I try doesn't work. I had Hoop Dee Doo Ressies, booked 4pm, brought me to the next screen, entered in all my people, gave me the option for Category seating and then when I tried to go to the next screen...PAWS

What do you mean by another time? I have a lot booked through Disney Dining so I'm trying times that I don't have ressies for because we do breakfast and signature dining for dinner, so my only open Slots are lunch. I could try the 4th for Dinner because I booked boathouse through their website.

I just tried Citricos, party of 4, 9pm is available....PAWS

So when you have multiple ADRs around the same time and if you have an ADR at a resort your not staying at. It gets flagged? So if you go to my plans you will see there will be a problem ADR that says ‘call to cancel’. If you have that then it blocks off significant time around it until or if they do another maintenance. I was told to be a no show and pay the fee and they noted that I called. The CM said it’s a magical extra that happens sometimes and even IT can’t (more like won’t) cancel. I would have to chat or call back (was on the phone for 1.5 hr) to get a refund

 

[Disturbia]

I’m guessing you booked ADRs at one of the deluxe resorts and the system flagged you.

 

[jvalic33]

Here is the discussion on the resort guests getting priority:

https://www.disboards.com/threads/d...ss-to-additional-dining-reservations.3899573/

Also, I forgot to mention, I asked the cast member who told me about the new booking window about exactly what you linked to here and he said he was aware of that...so I said to him you mean that in the same month that they gave us priority, they took it away from anyone with stays of less than 10 days.

I told him outright I didn't believe him and asked him to show me where it was official and he said it wasn't public yet.

 

[Disturbia]

I had so many issues that I chose not to change our trip to Jan (would have saved us a few thousand with the Disney Visa discount). I’m glad I didn’t

 

[jvalic33]

So when you have multiple ADRs around the same time and if you have an ADR at a resort your not staying at. It gets flagged? So if you go to my plans you will see there will be a problem ADR that says ‘call to cancel’. If you have that then it blocks off significant time around it until or if they do another maintenance. I was told to be a no show and pay the fee and they noted that I called. The CM said it’s a magical extra that happens sometimes and even IT can’t (more like won’t) cancel. I would have to chat or call back (was on the phone for 1.5 hr) to get a refund

No, I don't have multiple ADRs at the same time.

I have breakfast and Dinner only, for each day of my 7 day stay.

I'm just saying the only window open for me to test out this issue is during Lunch.

I don't stack reservations. That's not nice.

I just don't want to inadvertently cancel something that I want to keep.

 

[Disturbia]

I have breakfast and Dinner only, for each day of my 7 day stay.

I'm just saying the only window open for me to test out this issue is during Lunch.

I don't stack reservations. That's not nice.

I just don't want to inadvertently cancel something that I want to keep.

did you check your ADRs on the myplans screen?

When I try to change the second ADR that is stuck (didn’t realize when I called originally) it gives me the following error:

I’m planning on cancelling Ohana and just going to this ADR. We’re staying at Poly, I have a brunch at STK71 which didn’t have this issue.