Simply stressing out over December trip in planning stages...advice appreciated!!!

[discookiemonsta]

Hello everyone! Just some background info: We are a family of 4 (2 adults/2 girls ages 6 and 9) and have been to Disney 5 times since the girls have been born. Our upcoming trip in the planning stages is in December (2nd or 3rd week) and we are hoping to stay at AoA with *cross our fingers, hoping for some pixie dust, searching for a pin every day, praying for the General Public offer to be announced* Free Dining.

We have done trips with paid dining, two trips with free dining and trips paying out of pocket, just eating mainly QS meals. I will not lie - we have been completely spoiled by Free Dining!!! We do not want to go back to eating mainly counter service. We simply cannot afford to pay for the dining plan either. So this trip hinges on us receiving Free Dining (we always pay to upgrade from the counter service plan that the Values receive)

The dates we are looking at are December 9-20 or 13-23. I have priced out each package adding MVMCP to the earlier dates and also adding a trip to Seaworld to both trips and there is only a $50 difference. I have set my mind on the 9-20 dates. I had calculated the weeks of school between the school start in September and December and concluded that the girls should get out December 7th, which would be perfect. Every year the government school calender (we do not live in the States, by the way) has the kids getting out one week later in December and in June, so having seen the school calender which says the scheduled date is the 14th, I'm pretty sure it will be the 7th, but of course at this point this is just assumption and wishful thinking by me and it could always change.

So why am I stressing out and panicking now? Well, if we check in on the 9th, our 180 date to book ADR's is in two days, this Tuesday. I have been postponing booking our trip, waiting on a free dining pin, but I don't seem to receive any Disney emails at all, for some strange reason and at this point I need to make a decision. Do I just go ahead and book the package (no dining added) and make my ADR's on Tuesday for my 'planned' trip, which could be crushed by the school system? By the time I will definitely know of the actual closing date, it will be way too late get ADR's. I'm just so confused And what about if we have to change our trip to the later dates? Since the two dates do overlap, I would be able to keep some of those earlier ADR's, right? It would only be two full days (21st and 22nd) at the end of the trip that technically would not have any ADR's made. Should I make ADR's for those days as well (it would probably only be 1 or 2 at the most if we do a Seaworld day inbetween)? I really don't want to take up unsure ADR's when so many other people are also trying get ADR's for that close to Christmas, but then again, I don't want to end up with any ADR's for our family. Just thinking about this/typing it out is making me stressed out

Oh I am so sorry this has turned into one long essay. I just really need some outsider input right now!

 

[ToddyLu]

I would go ahead and make the ADRs. You aren't taking up reservations unless your dates change and then you can cancel. It is the people that don't cancel and do 2-3 meals at one time that are a pain. AoA seems expensive to me. I would do a regular Pop room and with the money I save by not going to AoA I could maybe do the dining plan. To me the budget would rule and it seems like that is your hang-up in the planning. It is supposed to be vacation, it is such a special time of year. I would cut back on Christmas this year, stay at Pop and get the dinning plan. But that is just me. I do not think your children will care which hotel unless you bring it up--they are just thrilled to be going to Disney---and I am excited for your too.

Have a great trip.

 

[Disney_1derland]

I always make my ADR's for an upcoming trip, regardless of whether or not I think I'm going to get the dining plan. (we feel the same way you do....hard to go back to just counter service once you've had the dining plan) I also make them 3 days in either direction of our start date because we always wind up having to shift the dates by a few days. When our plans firm up, I cancel what I won't use.

I would go for it. you can always cancel them later.

 

[ToddyLu]

Do you have to go to SeaWorld this trip. There is so much to see at Dsiney during the Holidays and that just seems like an added cost you may not want. I hope you don't think I am a Grinch--just trying to give you the best advice I can in making several Dec trips at that time. Vacation should include SeaWorld if that is a dream attraction for you.

 

[discookiemonsta]

I would go ahead and make the ADRs. You aren't taking up reservations unless your dates change and then you can cancel. It is the people that don't cancel and do 2-3 meals at one time that are a pain. AoA seems expensive to me. I would do a regular Pop room and with the money I save by not going to AoA I could maybe do the dining plan. To me the budget would rule and it seems like that is your hang-up in the planning. It is supposed to be vacation, it is such a special time of year. I would cut back on Christmas this year, stay at Pop and get the dinning plan. But that is just me. I do not think your children will care which hotel unless you bring it up--they are just thrilled to be going to Disney---and I am excited for your too.

Have a great trip.

Thank you for your advice! I should have been more specific about AoA..we are planning on staying in the Little Mermaid Section (not a suite) and I did think that it would be a lot more to stay there, but as it turns out it's only a small difference between POP and AoA. Believe me, we have stayed at POP numerous times and LOVE it there and would stay there if the price difference was significant, but since the price difference is so small, we figured we'd try AoA one time. I priced out both hotels, same dates, same amount of tickets etc. and it is only $56.16 more to stay at AoA in one of the standard rooms in the LM section. Anyway, just wanted to clarify why we decided on AoA! I agree, if I was planning on booking a suite at AoA, it would definitely be worth it to stay at POP and pay for the dining plan. The dining plan would cost us about $1400 dollars and to upgrade to a suite at AoA would be about $2000 So, if that was the case, we would actually be saving money! In any case, with our family, dining would always win over a suite, and the same goes with Free Dining would always win over a room discount. It's just so much more worth it to our family

 

[discookiemonsta]

Do you have to go to SeaWorld this trip. There is so much to see at Dsiney during the Holidays and that just seems like an added cost you may not want. I hope you don't think I am a Grinch--just trying to give you the best advice I can in making several Dec trips at that time. Vacation should include SeaWorld if that is a dream attraction for you.

Thank you so much for your advice! No, technically we do not have have to go to Seaworld this trip. We have actually spent the last few years avoiding Seaworld because of the cost. I just thought it would be special this year since our trip is at Christmas time and Seaworld has completely different shows for Christmas. Also, it all depends on if we can can get the 2 days for the price of 1, or maybe even find the deal closer to the time where kids enter for free. We would be saving about $100 for our Disney tickets if we only have 7 day park tickets instead of 10 and if we go to Seaworld for two days during our trip, we would technically only pay about $170 dollars more, for 4 of us for 2 days at Seaworld. I understand that 3 extra days at Disney is a much better deal, but since we go to Disney a lot, we just thought of trying a different experience at Christmas time

 

[mmouse50]

I would go ahead and book the package and so you can make all your dining reservations on Tuesday. That way if a discount or free dining comes out you can convert your package with no problem (you may have to change resorts in case they don't offer AoA) but you will still have all of your reservations and if you are going to try for character meals then I definitely would not wait.

On the Seaworld part of the trip - go ahead and do it if that is really what you want but maybe you can put in some non-disney days - like sleeping in, relaxing and going to play putt-putt (you will have a coupon with the package) or checking out a movie (they have the movie with the meal now at DTD) or maybe going to Splitsville. Just compare the costs to the non-park things (putt-putt, movie, etc) against the Seaworld ticket and see if it is worth it. Another cool thing to check out (if you don't do the Seaworld thing and since you seem to have a car) is "ICE" a the Gaylord Resort. It is amazing. You can buy your tickets online for a savings there. So there are 2 days that you can skip the parks but you really have to look at the cost difference to see if it worth it to you.

 

[discookiemonsta]

I would go ahead and book the package and so you can make all your dining reservations on Tuesday. That way if a discount or free dining comes out you can convert your package with no problem (you may have to change resorts in case they don't offer AoA) but you will still have all of your reservations and if you are going to try for character meals then I definitely would not wait.

On the Seaworld part of the trip - go ahead and do it if that is really what you want but maybe you can put in some non-disney days - like sleeping in, relaxing and going to play putt-putt (you will have a coupon with the package) or checking out a movie (they have the movie with the meal now at DTD) or maybe going to Splitsville. Just compare the costs to the non-park things (putt-putt, movie, etc) against the Seaworld ticket and see if it is worth it. Another cool thing to check out (if you don't do the Seaworld thing and since you seem to have a car) is "ICE" a the Gaylord Resort. It is amazing. You can buy your tickets online for a savings there. So there are 2 days that you can skip the parks but you really have to look at the cost difference to see if it worth it to you.

Thank you so much for all the great advice! Yes, we are planning on quite a few character meals so that is my biggest concern regarding making ADR's as early on as possible! I have reviewed both of my date options and once I book the earlier one, if I do have to change it, it wouldn't be too difficult since the dates do overlap.

You mentioned going to a movie...I know about the movie theatre, but have not heard about the movie with a meal now at DTD. Where could I find some more info on this? Also you mentioned going to Splitsville? What exactly is that? Putt Putt does sound like a fun idea, now that the girls are older! We have never done that so that is a great idea, thanks!

I am so grateful for all of this awesome advice...keep it coming!!!

 

[mmouse50]

Splitsville is the new bowling alley thing (I don't know really what to call it) where the Virgin Megastore used to be at DTD. The AMC movie is now a movie and meal
http://www.amctheatres.com/movie-theatres/amc-downtown-disney-24-with-dine-in-theatres (don't know if the link will come across) and the info on Splitsville is on
www.Splitsvillelanes.com

If you do Putt Putt - go to the Winter/Summerland course outside of Blizzard Beach - it is really cute (Santa is an a Florida holiday) and all the holes are set up as if the elves have set up camp (travel trailers - their size), they built sandcastles, etc. It is really cute to look at

 

[KELLY]

I would have to agree skip seaworld. There is so much to do at disney that if this a budget sort of trip. I would skip that and maybe go to DTD for a meal. You may want to look into one of the dinner shows. We have gone the past 4 years with Free dining. We prefer the QSDP. We just pay Op for the couple of Ts meals we want..

Hope you get your FD.

 

[discookiemonsta]

Just an update on what we have decided...

Yesterday we found out that the 'unofficial' school calender is out and it states that school closes on Dec. 14th. Of course this is always subject to change to a week earlier, but since we have to book our ADR's ASAP we don't want to take the chance on that, not having a guarantee when we will find out about a possible change. In the meantime, my Dh and I talked about it and since he's been wanting to spend Christmas at Disney, we have decided to book our vacation starting Dec. 13th (flight leaves in the late afternoon so the girls would only be missing their school party on Friday morning) until Dec. 27th. That way we can 'possibly' take advantage of Free Dining if it is offered to the general public. We may or may not do Seaworld, depending on if we can get a good deal.

This is our plan so far:

12/13 - arrival late evening
12/14 - Epcot
12/15 - MK
12/16 - DHS
12/17 - MK
12/18 - NO PLANS 1900 Park Fare Breakfast (visit some resorts?)
12/19 - MK
12/20 - AK in the morning/afternoon - dinner at Trail's End/FW and Wagon ride
12/21 - Epcot
12/22 - NO PLANS/Seaworld?
12/23 - NO PLANS/Mini Golf/DTD?
12/24 - MK (Dinner at Crystal Palace)
12/25 - NO PLANS (Cape May Cafe Breakfast and Table Service Dinner DTD)
12/26 - Our last full day - thinking either DHS/MK or Seaworld?
12/27 - departure early morning

I know that I have a lot of park days planned back to back, early on in our trip, but I figure it would be easier to do most of the rides etc. earlier in our trip while the crowds are still lower than towards the end of our trip. That way we can just enjoy the park atmosphere around Christmas time in MK etc.

Any suggestions/advice etc? Thanks!!!