***Official Planning Thread -DECEMBER 2024 - Welcome all!***

[japanese maple]

Post Genie+ we also stopped doing 1 TS every night (got extremely stressful esp at HS) but have free dining on our upcoming trip. We do have 2 signature dining (CRT and Boathouse). QS (in park) is really good now (Pecos got updated). Resort QS food quality is going down even at deluxe resorts.

Hmmm. I'm actually excited about The Mara at AKL. Menu looks great!

 

[japanese maple]

Cake bake shop opened today!!!

We just looked at the Bakery menu. It's open until 11pm. So our first night we are going to walk over from Epcot, get a dessert from the bakery and take an Uber back to AKL! I am getting something with raspberries, just not sure which dessert!

Correction - we are getting 3 slices of cake to take back to hotel room (not to eat all at once)!
Pixie Fett birthday cake
Raspberry Champagne cake
Red Velvet cake

We'll be spending like $80 on cake! Although who knows if they run out of stuff early and then it's just gone for the day. I'm not going there so I can get some cookie that's been there all day.

 

[Disturbia]

We just looked at the Bakery menu. It's open until 11pm. So our first night we are going to walk over from Epcot, get a dessert from the bakery and take an Uber back to AKL! I am getting something with raspberries, just not sure which dessert!

Correction - we are getting 3 slices of cake to take back to hotel room (not to eat all at once)!
Pixie Fett birthday cake
Raspberry Champagne cake
Red Velvet cake

We'll be spending like $80 on cake! Although who knows if they run out of stuff early and then it's just gone for the day. I'm not going there so I can get some cookie that's been there all day.

Mint and raspberry champagne look really good. Not sure if we can pass up pumpkin chocolate. So many choices and we have a long trip.

I would stick with something that would be harder to find anywhere else. It is out of the way for us as well.

 

[Disturbia]

Hmmm. I'm actually excited about The Mara at AKL. Menu looks great!

The peanut butter brownie is awesome. The original was more rich and creamier but the Mickey one is still good. The falafel platter was my favorite (hopefully still good). They always had Erin McKenna mini brownies stocked and zebra domes (gluten free have chocolate bottoms vs cake). All the CMs are warm and welcoming. We take a cab to Boma every trip. Housekeeping can be a hit or miss.

We also love the bread service at Sanaa but we went when they had Bison Masala (a decade ago) and a trio of desserts (including a chai cream dessert that was heavenly). The bread service is still good but the curries don’t taste authentic anymore (don’t get the coconut one; it’s like boiled veggies in coconut milk). Looks like they updated the menu recently as well.

 

[PrincessGidget]

Hmmm. I'm actually excited about The Mara at AKL. Menu looks great!

It’s the best. We had Christmas breakfast there one year, complete with mimosas, then went back to our rooms (12 of us) and opened Christmas presents in the hallway under a mini tree I brought. It was one of our best Christmases ever!

 

[jenna1212]

What is your #1 character breakfast outside the parks? Considering one for our departure day (we leave in the afternoon).

 

[Disturbia]

What is your #1 character breakfast outside the parks? Considering one for our departure day (we leave in the afternoon).

Topolinos hands down. Great even without characters. We usually book check out day if we are doing 7 day trips (hard to get ADR for shorter trips). Some days they’re open till 1 pm so it could double as lunch.

 

[hsmamainva]

What is your #1 character breakfast outside the parks? Considering one for our departure day (we leave in the afternoon).

We love Chef Mickey’s! The food is great & I love the characters.

 

[Disturbia]

What’s your favorite thing at Festival of the Holidays?

Last Dec trip we couldn’t go to Epcot before the festival ended so never got to try any of the food items.

Are the booths crowded? We usually go during Food and Wine and the booths had 35-40 min waits (Jersey/Marathon weekend).

 

[mickey916]

What’s your favorite thing at Festival of the Holidays?

Last Dec trip we couldn’t go to Epcot before the festival ended so never got to try any of the food items.

Are the booths crowded? We usually go during Food and Wine and the booths had 35-40 min waits (Jersey/Marathon weekend).

We generally attend on a weekday during the first week and visit the booths earlier in the day. We haven't found long waits at all.

 

[japanese maple]

Christmas party 12/3 and 12/20 now sold out!

Jollywood Nights still going strong!

 

[OandGDisneyBoys]

Longtime reader and very infrequent poster, but I am planning our family trip (myself, DH, DS10, and DS7) for December 14-21 at Wilderness Lodge-our favorite! This thread has been making me so excited for the holiday festivities, which we have not done since 2019. Doing the 12/15 MVMCP and the 12/18 Jollywood Nights!!

 

[Disturbia]

Christmas party 12/3 and 12/20 now sold out!

Jollywood Nights still going strong!

If I could trust my airline not to change flights again I would book 12/21. Excited for those trip reports though.

 

[Princess Michele]

What is your #1 character breakfast outside the parks? Considering one for our departure day (we leave in the afternoon).

We have made 'Ohana a breakfast tradition on our departure day. The food is good (love the breakfast bread) and the characters are favorites of our family.

 

[jenna1212]

I am shocked at how easy it was this morning to get dining reservations for a party of 7. The only hiccup I had was Tony's and I had to split the party in 2.

 

[jenna1212]

We have made 'Ohana a breakfast tradition on our departure day. The food is good (love the breakfast bread) and the characters are favorites of our family.

I always wanted to try that one, just worried that getting there/back from CBR would be too difficult on a departure day.

 

[Disturbia]

I always wanted to try that one, just worried that getting there/back from CBR would be too difficult on a departure day.

You’ve stayed at CBR before? I would highly recommend taking a cab that day. The internal bus was over 20 mins late! It added to the stress. We never stayed there again after that fiasco (transporting our luggage to and from bell services to the bus pickup was just ridiculous).

 

[japanese maple]

Longtime reader and very infrequent poster, but I am planning our family trip (myself, DH, DS10, and DS7) for December 14-21 at Wilderness Lodge-our favorite! This thread has been making me so excited for the holiday festivities, which we have not done since 2019. Doing the 12/15 MVMCP and the 12/18 Jollywood Nights!!

Welcome! You are on the list.

 

[japanese maple]

11/14 sold out for MVMCP!

 

[Thoreauaway]

Successfully made all our ADRs! I've seen a few people mention this around the forum but I definitely agree that regular dining reservations are much easier to come by these days, even for top spots.

The various dining packages for week of Christmas/NYE, on the other hand, sold out at lightspeed. I was also only able to get two of us into Space 220 Lounge (well, we could get the other two in as well... but three hours apart lol).