January 2015....Let the planning begin!

[Cando86]

Thinking of planning a trip for Jan, maybe the 2nd weekend, not sure yet. I know this will be marathon weekend, has anyone been during marathon weekend? How are the crowds? And how's the weather during the first couple weeks? is it really that cold? For me, cold means below 40.

These are my concerns as well! Thinking about Jan 2 - Jan 12 and slightly worried about marathon weekend crowds and the weather. To be honest, though, I am going to be SO happy to be there no matter what!

 

[rileyroo120]

Does anyone have any input on crowds the week of MLK day? Tentatively planning a 9th birthday trip that week, but I want to make sure crowds wont be crazy.

 

[Disney4nonah]

Does anyone have any input on crowds the week of MLK day? Tentatively planning a 9th birthday trip that week, but I want to make sure crowds wont be crazy.

We show up the tuesday after MLK and the crowds do thin out quite a bit as people are leaving to go home, they raise back up slightly for the weekend. It's always been comfortable to get what you want done, for us at least.

 

[Leger13]

Thanks! it's along the lines of what i was thinking it may be. I get it, it must be hard to get that many people in and out all day but it's a hunk of money I could spend elsewhere
I'm already hoping maybe they'd let us sneak in at the end of the night to see the rooms but, i'm not holding my breath!

"Puffy Air" that's Awesome!

Yes, i think we'll see some changes to FP+ and people will be happier, somewhat.

Going to do O'hana Dinner, we've done breakfast before.
And going to do Biergarten at Epcot again, it was great for lunch.
I am thinking Mama Melrose for HS, but am ok with SciFi as we liked it there before.

I totally agree! You never know, they may let you go in at the very end of the day to look around. IDK how all that works.

LOL 'cause I know what puffy air tastes like

Definitely

We love O'hana!! I haven't had a Lapu Lapu in years. I may need to change this in Jan! We also love Mama Melrose. I've never been to Biergarten. My husband never wants to eat in Germany. He's getting more adventurous though.

 

[Turtlesoup820]

Would love to join the fun! We are tentatively planning a January 2015 trip. We just returned from a week long trip April 8-14. Our brother in law treated the whole family (8 grandkids, parents, 3 siblings and spouses) to the trip. WDW was never a destination my husband wanted to visit but now he wants to go back! I had visited previously in 2008 with my two older children and had been trying to convince him since then

I'm still a bit of a newbie so I'm hoping someone can explain. We'd like to stay on site with the dining plan. But I can't book an onsite hotel for 2015 yet? But I can start making ADRs if I have the days I want to go figured out before making any other kind of reservation? 180 days right? Because of the wide variety of kids ages we didn't do any character dining, we have the only girl in the family and she'd really like to do some princessy things this time around so I'm hoping to score the castle or Akerhaus meal.

Looking forward to joining in

Angela

 

[Leger13]

Would love to join the fun! We are tentatively planning a January 2015 trip. We just returned from a week long trip April 8-14. Our brother in law treated the whole family (8 grandkids, parents, 3 siblings and spouses) to the trip. WDW was never a destination my husband wanted to visit but now he wants to go back! I had visited previously in 2008 with my two older children and had been trying to convince him since then

I'm still a bit of a newbie so I'm hoping someone can explain. We'd like to stay on site with the dining plan. But I can't book an onsite hotel for 2015 yet? But I can start making ADRs if I have the days I want to go figured out before making any other kind of reservation? 180 days right? Because of the wide variety of kids ages we didn't do any character dining, we have the only girl in the family and she'd really like to do some princessy things this time around so I'm hoping to score the castle or Akerhaus meal.

Looking forward to joining in

Angela

Hi Angela! To answer your question the package bookings won't become available until June or July. You can book a room only reservation now though. As for booking your ADR's at the 180 day window, you have to have a room or package reservation made. I think people that don't have any kind of reservation have to wait until 80 days prior to their trip if I remember correctly. Hope that helps!

 

[pigninnie]

Hi Angela! To answer your question the package bookings won't become available until June or July. You can book a room only reservation now though. As for booking your ADR's at the 180 day window, you have to have a room or package reservation made. I think people that don't have any kind of reservation have to wait until 80 days prior to their trip if I remember correctly. Hope that helps!

anyone can make adrs 180days out. you just have to do it every day if you are off site. if you are onsite you can do 180+ 10 day (the whole trip)

 

[WDWFan06]

Hello all,


After getting into the races that we wanted I can now say we are heading down in January again. If anyone has questions/concerns about marathon weekend please feel free to ask. Looking forward to July to book!

 

[danceintherain]

Joining in!

DH just gave me the go ahead to "tentatively" book Shades of Green for a late December - early January trip. It's pretty much the only time we'll be able to go within the next year (he's completing some training, getting his masters, then plans to volunteer for a deployment ) so the trip will probably happen. We're at Shades of Green to offset the cost of being there over the "holidays," but if we can convince an extra adult to tag along to watch the kids, then we may book a night or two in a Disney owned hotel for our anniversary on the 2nd.

Right now we're booked at SoG for Dec 28-Jan 4th.
My babies are currently 3 years and 2 months. They'll be 4 years and 10 months in December. It will be DS's third trip, and our baby girl's first.
The thing I think we're all most excited about for this trip is getting DS into the Jedi Training Academy. DH is jealous, because he can't do it.

Let the planning begin!

 

[MindyLuvsMickey]

Joining in!

DH just gave me the go ahead to "tentatively" book Shades of Green for a late December - early January trip. It's pretty much the only time we'll be able to go within the next year (he's completing some training, getting his masters, then plans to volunteer for a deployment ) so the trip will probably happen. We're at Shades of Green to offset the cost of being there over the "holidays," but if we can convince an extra adult to tag along to watch the kids, then we may book a night or two in a Disney owned hotel for our anniversary on the 2nd.

Right now we're booked at SoG for Dec 28-Jan 4th.
My babies are currently 3 years and 2 months. They'll be 4 years and 10 months in December. It will be DS's third trip, and our baby girl's first.
The thing I think we're all most excited about for this trip is getting DS into the Jedi Training Academy. DH is jealous, because he can't do it.

Let the planning begin!

HEY BECCA!!! You're going to be a Snowbird again with me

 

[danceintherain]

Would love to join the fun! We are tentatively planning a January 2015 trip. We just returned from a week long trip April 8-14. Our brother in law treated the whole family (8 grandkids, parents, 3 siblings and spouses) to the trip. WDW was never a destination my husband wanted to visit but now he wants to go back! I had visited previously in 2008 with my two older children and had been trying to convince him since then

I'm still a bit of a newbie so I'm hoping someone can explain. We'd like to stay on site with the dining plan. But I can't book an onsite hotel for 2015 yet? But I can start making ADRs if I have the days I want to go figured out before making any other kind of reservation? 180 days right? Because of the wide variety of kids ages we didn't do any character dining, we have the only girl in the family and she'd really like to do some princessy things this time around so I'm hoping to score the castle or Akerhaus meal.

Looking forward to joining in

Angela

You can book a room only now, but it's not really advisable. Disney books packages and room-only reservations with separate systems, so if you choose to add tickets and a dining plan later on, you will need to cancel your old reservation and put down a new deposit.
The only case that it makes sense to go ahead and book is if your 180 day window comes up before they release package rates for next year, in which case, you would want the on-property reservation already, so you can book all your ADRs on the same day (180+10).

 

[danceintherain]

January is the Best Month to go to WDW!!!
Low Crowds and great weather.
Jan 20-28,2015 so excited. We last went in 2010 and then we decided to wait until the new Fantasyland was open in it's entirety!
It seems we are stuck on POR or POFQ, we love the area and ferry to DD. I think my poor DH thinks a value would be more kids, which is crazy as there are kids everywhere.
But if no great discounts come out we may be Valuing it!

Planning to eat at some places we haven't before, but the one i'm just having trouble with is MK, I've scoured the BOG reviews and I'm just afraid I'll work myself up and everything will be subpar there. Then i was thinking Crystal Palace Lunch. I'm torn I guess i'll just keep looking at reviews.

Anyone want to throw in a good BOG review? haha -
OH, I've requested to be added to the FB page! Thanks to whoever does that.

Also, glad FastPass+ will have some time to geet the kinks worked out, as well as go thru the busy summer season. I think it'll work out fine for us! but i love reading all the drama "it's my way"

(I apologize for the one handed typing)
I thought BOG was fine. We probably won't do it for dinner again for a while, but who knows...the only place we haven't eaten TS in the Magic Kingdom is Crystal Palace.
The biggest issue with it for me was that the only adr i could snag last year was at 9pm, so the 2 year old was cranky the whole time. I got the steak and it was good, but i prefer mashed potatoes with my steak instead of fries. my sister got a salad. Yeah its supposed to be an appy, but it was awful looking. dh got the chicken and didn't care for it, but he was having appetite problems the whole time. The desserts were good, but not spectacular.
We don't usually get the dining plan, so if we had all ordered the steak, it would have been pricey, and maybe not worth the cost, since we "could" have gone for lunch.
The photo with the Beast was great though.
If it pops up at a convenient time during our trip, I'll take it, but it's not at the top of my list.
We may skip TS at the mk this time, if we don't do crystal palace.

As of now, the only must do on our dining list is Ohana for dinner. the others will be determined by convenience and where we've eaten in the past.
Off the top of my head, I'm thinking...
Hollywood & Vine (haven't done it)
Via Napoli
Hoopdeedoo Revue
and somewhere for our anniversary...

 

[danceintherain]

Thinking of planning a trip for Jan, maybe the 2nd weekend, not sure yet. I know this will be marathon weekend, has anyone been during marathon weekend? How are the crowds? And how's the weather during the first couple weeks? is it really that cold? For me, cold means below 40.

We did marathon weekend a few years ago (2009) and I didn't notice a huge difference in the crowds in the parks over the weekend vs. during the week. They have started charging more for hotels over the weekend, and they do sell out in that respect to some degree. Also, the marathon goes through the parks, so there can be a little bit of traffic rerouting (inside and outside of the parks) but it wasn't a huge deal.

I wouldn't hesitate to go back during that time again, except DH would want to run the marathon.

HEY BECCA!!! You're going to be a Snowbird again with me

Apparently so...when's your trip?

 

[MindyLuvsMickey]

We did marathon weekend a few years ago (2009) and I didn't notice a huge difference in the crowds in the parks over the weekend vs. during the week. They have started charging more for hotels over the weekend, and they do sell out in that respect to some degree. Also, the marathon goes through the parks, so there can be a little bit of traffic rerouting (inside and outside of the parks) but it wasn't a huge deal.

I wouldn't hesitate to go back during that time again, except DH would want to run the marathon.


Apparently so...when's your trip?

We are arriving 1/9 and leaving 1/16.

 

[danceintherain]

We are arriving 1/9 and leaving 1/16.

We'll miss each other by a few days. I saw on Facebook that your DH is doing the marathon. If DH wasn't going to be in class starting the 5th, then I expect we'd postpone a bit, and he'd want to participate in one of the races.

Are you doing any of the races?

 

[MindyLuvsMickey]

I'm not. I wanted to but I'm in no condition to run. Maybe 2016

 

[GoHawks2015]

We are going Jan 28- Feb.4...We have narrowed down our hotel choices to Contemporary, Animal Kingdom Lodge and Wilderness. We need a Villa because there are 6 of us. Too many choices!

 

[danceintherain]

DH actually discussed Dining with me the other day!

Right now, I'm thinking we'll do the following:
Ohana (dinner)
Kona Cafe (lunch or breakfast - probably whenever it's the most convenient to/from the MK one day)
Teppan Edo (dinner - He was actually really excited about this one, because he's never gone to a hibachi-style restaurant before!)
Hollywood & Vine (breakfast - probably as late as possible or we'll do lunch)
Plaza (dinner)

I need to come up with somewhere special for an anniversary dinner, but that may have to wait until we know whether we'll have childcare or not. G is easy enough, because we can send him to a kid's club, but the baby won't be old enough.

 

[HollywoodTowerHotel]

We have been planning to go in January for some time now, but with the free dining offer that has just been announced for the fall, I was starting to reconsider. I have never done F&W before, but I am afraid it will be too crowded for my liking. January was awesome the last time we went even with it being MLK week.

I just wish I could start making my plans for January, but as we know, the rates are not released yet. I was looking at other threads that said free dining has not been offered in January for a while, but something called Play, Stay, and Dine has. Does anyone know what that is? Has anyone taken advantage of it in January before?

 

[WDWFan06]

We have been planning to go in January for some time now, but with the free dining offer that has just been announced for the fall, I was starting to reconsider. I have never done F&W before, but I am afraid it will be too crowded for my liking. January was awesome the last time we went even with it being MLK week.

I just wish I could start making my plans for January, but as we know, the rates are not released yet. I was looking at other threads that said free dining has not been offered in January for a while, but something called Play, Stay, and Dine has. Does anyone know what that is? Has anyone taken advantage of it in January before?

We did stay, play, and dine last January. It was a nice package and made the dining plan more affordable for us. I don't remember how much of a savings it entailed or all of the details without bringing up the paperwork. I believe it was released in October. We added it to our original reservation when it was released.