PTR - Calif.... No, no, make that, FLORIDA here we come!

[Kristin5]

MK should be the only one with emh each morning. The other parks will have them scheduled but not every day. If you head to MK emh on a day another park has them that would probably be slightly better crowd wise than the days MK is the only park with them. I would also steer clear on Christmas Day but I think you were planning DHS for that day any way, so you've already got that covered.

I was planning on DHS, but then I was told about Crystal Palace and thought it might make a nice Christmas breakfast, and then switch later to DHS for the fantasmic dinner package. Not sure if it'll work on Christmas Day though due to crowds?

 

[Kristin5]

I know I'm in the minority here, but I love HKDL It's small, but charming, and has some of the best themed areas and the best parade of all the Disney parks The hotels are beautiful too. DH and I spent 4 nights there on our honeymoon, and I wasn't ready to leave. It's not the place to go if you're only interested in rides though.

Ah, that's why I won't be able to get DH there then - he is only interested in the rides (plus he loves America, so a trip to the US will win out every time!)

 

[Kristin5]

Dang!


Page 3. I'm late to the party but I'm in for this ride.

you reminded me of DS then...he is always saying "dang it!"

 

[ssour]

I was planning on DHS, but then I was told about Crystal Palace and thought it might make a nice Christmas breakfast, and then switch later to DHS for the fantasmic dinner package. Not sure if it'll work on Christmas Day though due to crowds?

I don't think you'll get to experience an empty park on an extra magic hours day. I'm pretty sure that Magic Kingdom emh will start at 7am so you'd be looking at arriving by 6am if you want to beat the crowds into the park. If you want Pooh could you head to 1900 Park Fare at the Grand Floridian for breakfast?

 

[Kristin5]

I don't think you'll get to experience an empty park on an extra magic hours day. I'm pretty sure that Magic Kingdom emh will start at 7am so you'd be looking at arriving by 6am if you want to beat the crowds into the park. If you want Pooh could you head to 1900 Park Fare at the Grand Floridian for breakfast?

Nah, I don't think he'll really want to see Pooh, it was more a thought of a nice breakfast (something special and a bit different) for Christmas Day. I can't see that DHS has anything for breakfast, other than maybe Hollywood & Vine, which is where we want to go for dinner that night. We might just have breakfast at the hotel or AoA then. I doubt we'll want to be up extra early on Christmas either (we usually have to wake DS up!). Maybe we should look at a lunch or even brunch booking instead...

Another thing, now that they have released most room prices for next year (they haven't quite got to our mid- late December dates yet, but should in the next couple of weeks), could we book now and then, if free dining or discounts are released at a later date, can they be applied to our booking - or would we have to get a refund for the original booking and rebook? Not that I would book anything right now - I'd at least wait until we got our airfares! I'm not sure there's any great advantage in booking early anyway - after all, our comparative dates for this year are still available. But it'll be good to see the prices we can expect for next year.

 

[LivingforDisney]

If you can find and read the posts before & after free dining was released for this year, they all say don't book your stay early, cause if everyone books, then Disney has no need to offer free dining, which is true.
A lot of people had to change cause they were expecting POR to have it, and it didn't.
Also if you have already booked your accommodation, well then you have to call to have it added, and people were waiting on hold for hours and hours.
I didn't book it last year until it was released, so jumped on line and was all done in a few minutes.
But of course it is up to you.

 

[Kristin5]

Thanks, LivingforDisney, you're right, we need to give Disney an incentive to offer free dining! My initial thought was to wait to book until the offer is there, and you have confirmed it for me I will keep looking to check the prices, but otherwise will just be hoping that the free dining offer comes through next year (around May/June, I think?)

 

[Kristin5]

Well we have taken Wanderlust's advice from another thread , and looked at changing our dates to go later in December (straight after Christmas).

It will save us around $1350 overall in flights and accommodation at Orlando (though no free dining) and gets us to WDW in January instead. Means we will just miss out on Christmas decorations, but DH thinks he'd prefer lower crowds.

I have rejigged it so we go Melbourne to Denver to Washington to New York to Orlando to Melbourne, so we are in Washington and New York at the same dates I had already planned; only Denver will be later (but hopefully we will still get to see a football game as it should be the last round of the regular season) and Orlando will be later.

This is looking like a good option (I am a bit sad I'll miss out on Christmas festivities, but do think lower crowds will make for a happier holiday overall).

 

[LisaAJ]

We might be there the same time as you we chose low crowds over Christmas decs too. I can't stand large crowds.

 

[zanzibar138]

I would go for lower crowds too

 

[LivingforDisney]

I thought the airfares were expensive in Jan?
I am hoping to leave Dec 2015 just before they jack them up, kids will probably have to miss the last few days of the school year.
I know, I am worried about the crowds too, but have done a rough itinerary and if we hit the 4 parks when we first get there, we might be ok.
My trip is getting longer as I go lol.
I am thinking of staying off site on I Drive from 3oth Dec to 3rd Jan and then heading to Cabana Bay and then the cruise and then......... more planning.
Its hard to do it when I cant book flights and cruise.
All in all I think we will end up being there 5 weeks!!!

I think they usually have room discounts in Jan, you can look up previous discounts they have every year.
MIght throw in a couple of nights at AKL f they do.

 

[ssour]

Could you spend a night in Anaheim on the way over just to take in the Christmas decorations at DL?

 

[WanderlustNZ]

You already know how I feel, however, for what it's worth, I think you are making the right choice.

I get panicky in large crowds and I don't think you could pay me to tackle the WDW parks over the weeks of Xmas and New Year. I've seen pics and it's literally a wall of people. Shoulder to shoulder.

I do think the suggestion of a day at DL at the start is a good one. That way you do get to see some Xmas decos. Does DL have a Xmas party?

 

[losfp]

Does DL have a Xmas party?

I was looking into this yesterday actually. I don't believe they do. They just have decorations and fireworks for it - or you could do the holiday celebration tour.

 

[ssour]

No party in the past I don't think, which means Christmas Parade and fireworks for everyone!

 

[Kristin5]

I spoke to our travel agent and she said the airfares are only high for a couple of weeks in December (I can't remember the exact dates she said), so going from Boxing Day until 20th of Jan is $500 cheaper than leaving in mid-December. Not a huge saving really, but better than nothing. She said if we could leave before 11th of Dec, we'd save $400 per person. But it just doesn't work for us.

We talked about going to DL on the way over, but it negates any saving on airfares by having to pay accom, transfers and tickets (and the timing doesn't really work anyway).

The more I think about it, the more comfortable I am with this decision of choosing low crowds over Christmas decorations. And the timing fits really well with everything else we want to do. DH already seems a lot happier too (Wanderlust, I think he is like you and was starting to panic about the very thought of the crowds. And he hates long queues! Not sure DS would like them either).

Lisa, are you going Jan 2015 or Jan 2016?

LivingforDisney, I didn't know about room discounts in January, I will have to try and look into it.

Because we would no longer qualify for free dining, I realised that we might be best off renting DVC points for the 11 nights (we will go to a Universal hotel for the final 3 nights). So I have checked David's - AKV value studio would be $1554, AKV standard studio would be $1806 and BWV standard studio would be $1708. To compare, Pop Century would be $1354. I am not sure of the pros v cons of each of these options? At the moment, I am still leaning towards Pop Century, as it does get quite good reviews and seems ok for what we would want.

 

[WanderlustNZ]

Try not to get your hopes up with the value studios at AKV and BWV. They are some of the hardest studios to rent purely because they are the cheapest. Owners tend to book them right at the 11 month mark. Definitely not suggesting that you don't try, just be aware that it might be difficult and it's good to have a back-up plan. If you want these options, start making enquiries at about the 11.5 month mark and hopefully they will find a points holder for you on the day bookings open.

You could always do a split stay. Spend the first 6 nights at a value resort, then splash out for the last 5 nights at a DVC resort where you could take things a bit slower and spend more time at the resort.
If splashing out on a Savannah view at AKV (Jambo) is an option, I thoroughly recommend it. Oh how I loved that place.

 

[PrincessInOz]

Good luck with getting DVC. Hope you get what you want. I would also take the lower crowds.

 

[Kristin5]

Can I ask if you think it is really worth going the DVC route? Is it that much better than Pop? Has anyone stayed in both Pop and AKV?

I have heard it is difficult to book the cheaper DVC options and that we need to do it so early. Not sure I will be that organised, to be honest! And then we'd be locked in wouldn't we (ie no flexiibility)?

Pop seems a lot simpler process to book (ie just do it all directly through Disney, in combination with park tickets) and I have heard that the transportation service is good. But then I worry that, with January packages not opening until end of July, it means we would already be into the 180 ADR window before we have even booked our room package - so would we miss out on some ADR's? (Do they have to be booked exactly 180 days out, or could we wait until a bit closer?)

Also, following on from LivingforDisney's comment about room discounts in January, I have looked into it and seen that this is correct - but they usually aren't released until sometime in October. Isn't that cutting it a bit fine? I don't think we could wait that late before booking (surely we'd miss ADR's by then? And we'd have to be ready to go for FP+ too)

So many questions...

(Oh, and Wanderlust, I don't think we'd want to do a split stay during WDW time, as we are already moving across to Universal for 3 days as well, plus of course Denver, NYC and Washington - it'd be nice to put down roots somewhere for 11 nights without having to move again after a short time. If we were staying put in WDW we'd probably do it - we did it at DL last year, when we stayed at Hojos for 10 nights, then went to GCH for 4 nights, and that was fantastic! So it's not that we're against the idea of split stay, but I feel we are already sort of doing it between WDW and Universal )

 

[zanzibar138]

Can I ask if you think it is really worth going the DVC route? Is it that much better than Pop? Has anyone stayed in both Pop and AKV?

I have heard it is difficult to book the cheaper DVC options and that we need to do it so early. Not sure I will be that organised, to be honest! And then we'd be locked in wouldn't we (ie no flexiibility)?

Pop seems a lot simpler process to book (ie just do it all directly through Disney, in combination with park tickets) and I have heard that the transportation service is good. But then I worry that, with January packages not opening until end of July, it means we would already be into the 180 ADR window before we have even booked our room package - so would we miss out on some ADR's? (Do they have to be booked exactly 180 days out, or could we wait until a bit closer?)

Also, following on from LivingforDisney's comment about room discounts in January, I have looked into it and seen that this is correct - but they usually aren't released until sometime in October. Isn't that cutting it a bit fine? I don't think we could wait that late before booking (surely we'd miss ADR's by then? And we'd have to be ready to go for FP+ too)

So many questions...

I'm no expert, but I'm pretty sure you can book ADRs before you book your accommodation. You just need to know your dates.

FP+ is a different story because only onsite guests are able to book in advance as far as I know.

I'm sure one of the WDW experts will correct me if I'm wrong