*~~Official December 2016 Thread~~*

[jaz0308]

I'm joining in! We are annual summer visitors (I'm a teacher). I'll be travelling with my DH, DS9 and DD6. Decided to buy annual passes to cover summer 2015 and 2016 so of course, what does a Disney crazy lady do? Plan a Christmas trip of course! LOL! We are staying at Shades of Green from 12/23-12/28. Just waiting and hoping for flights to come down at our local airport so we don't have to travel to a larger airport. So excited for this new adventure but also overwhelmed with planning a totally different kind of trip! I want to do all the things that make Christmas at WDW special...see the storytellers, holiday wishes, christmas parade at MK, planning to book a horse and carriage ride at WL and hoping to visit some holiday characters on Christmas! Im open to other suggestions and I'll be reading back through this thread to try to learn as much as I can about this particular time of year!

 

[hunterfaimly]

How old are your kids? I'm having our elf do the reveal. I bought the Cinderella castle ornament from hallmark & I'll put that with the elf with some kind of note. I'd love t do a scavenger hunt but I don't think I'm creative enough to pull that off.

12 and 7 year old girls. Right now I'm thinking of picking them up after school and just driving, not telling them where we are going, stay the night somewhere. when they wake up in the morning doing some kind of reveal before we finish the drive. The problem with a scavenger hunt/clue is I think my older daughter will figure it out first and I would like the younger daughter to figure it out first or at least at the same time. We did a surprise trip before for the older one, this is for my little one.

 

[SilSprBea]

It looks like we will be driving due to airfare still so high. I also like having our own car. It's about 18 hour drive. We will leave Friday the 16th after school drive about half way then finish Saturday the 17th. My question is: when and how to tell the kids. The trip is a gift from Santa so we need to somehow get that across. Ideas?

TIA,
Noelle

My fiends surprised their kids last year by wrapping the packed luggage under the tree. They told them when they got home from school they they were opening an early Christmas present. They opened the luggage and were told they were leaving NOW for Disney. The kids were surprised and super excited.

 

[xlsm]

Unrelated to our December trips, but just a heads up...and there's probably a thread about it already on here somewhere...Disney Parks Mom Panel selection process get started on Sept 7. HERE is the website. I'm going for it this year...not expecting anything, but you can't get picked if you don't try, right?

 

[BDL]

Since there has been a few people asking about bringing/having/shipping trees, here's a spitball idea. Maybe a pay-it-forward tree. Example, if you are staying at Pop 11/30-12/6 and have a non-expensive tree (for lack of a better term) and you see that someone on here is checking into Pop towards the end of your stay, you can hand off the tree like a relay baton. Whether $, a favor, or nothing is exchanged or not, is up to the parties. And this could take place again towards the end of the 2nd family's stay. But, the tree gets as much use as possible, a Dis-meet up would have taken place, and most importantly, kids' smiles.

Like I said, just a spitball idea.

 

[xlsm]

Since there has been a few people asking about bringing/having/shipping trees, here's a spitball idea. Maybe a pay-it-forward tree. Example, if you are staying at Pop 11/30-12/6 and have a non-expensive tree (for lack of a better term) and you see that someone on here is checking into Pop towards the end of your stay, you can hand off the tree like a relay baton. Whether $, a favor, or nothing is exchanged or not, is up to the parties. And this could take place again towards the end of the 2nd family's stay. But, the tree gets as much use as possible, a Dis-meet up would have taken place, and most importantly, kids' smiles.

Like I said, just a spitball idea.

The DVC owners do this at their various resorts...if anyone wanted to do this, they could use that model as an example. There's a thread for each DVC resort with an explanation of how the exchange works. It would be easier to do at the resorts with a lot of travelers...I think CBR and CSR look to be the busiest after a quick glance at the list on the front page.

 

[ilovetotravel1977]

We were thinking of going late January 2018, but I know my folks would love to go during Christmas season. Looking at the first 2 weeks of December 2017. According to crowd calendars, these weeks are typically low...any experienced December goers please chime in!

 

[dnllmz]

My fiends surprised their kids last year by wrapping the packed luggage under the tree. They told them when they got home from school they they were opening an early Christmas present. They opened the luggage and were told they were leaving NOW for Disney. The kids were surprised and super excited.

I love that idea!

Unrelated to our December trips, but just a heads up...and there's probably a thread about it already on here somewhere...Disney Parks Mom Panel selection process get started on Sept 7. HERE is the website. I'm going for it this year...not expecting anything, but you can't get picked if you don't try, right?

Good luck! My friend was a finalist last year but didn't make it.

Since there has been a few people asking about bringing/having/shipping trees, here's a spitball idea. Maybe a pay-it-forward tree. Example, if you are staying at Pop 11/30-12/6 and have a non-expensive tree (for lack of a better term) and you see that someone on here is checking into Pop towards the end of your stay, you can hand off the tree like a relay baton. Whether $, a favor, or nothing is exchanged or not, is up to the parties. And this could take place again towards the end of the 2nd family's stay. But, the tree gets as much use as possible, a Dis-meet up would have taken place, and most importantly, kids' smiles.

Like I said, just a spitball idea.

That's a great idea.

We were thinking of going late January 2018, but I know my folks would love to go during Christmas season. Looking at the first 2 weeks of December 2017. According to crowd calendars, these weeks are typically low...any experienced December goers please chime in!

I've never been but I'll let you know in 110 days!

 

[dnllmz]

There's a BOG lunch & dinner cancelation plus CRT dinner all for 12/12 listed in the ADR thread if anyone is looking.

 

[Jaburka]

Wishing they were for the 10th! What a jackpot

 

[SilSprBea]

Wishing they were for the 10th! What a jackpot

Seriously! All the good cancellations are never for the week I'm there, and if they are, the park days are wrong for us. Hopefully one of these days it'll be our turn to get lucky with the cancellations!

 

[Minjewmulloy]

Seriously! All the good cancellations are never for the week I'm there, and if they are, the park days are wrong for us. Hopefully one of these days it'll be our turn to get lucky with the cancellations!

I'm probably going to be posting a bunch of cancellations tomorrow for our trip that is scheduled for 12-6 through 12-10, if that helps anyone. We are more than likely going to have to change our dates because of a change in the kids christmas play at school :/ I will post on the cancellation board tomorrow!

 

[SilSprBea]

I'm probably going to be posting a bunch of cancellations tomorrow for our trip that is scheduled for 12-6 through 12-10, if that helps anyone. We are more than likely going to have to change our dates because of a change in the kids Christmas play at school :/ I will post on the cancellation board tomorrow!

Bummer about likely having to cancel your trip. Hopefully you can arrange it for another time soon. Thank you for being so kind to coordinate your cancellations with us!

 

[dnllmz]

Sorry you had to change your trip but how exciting that your kids are in a Christmas play!

I got a TP notification at 3 am for an Ohana breakfast. It's earlier than the time I need but I grabbed it just in case another doesn't come up.

 

[1437disney]

Sorry you had to change your trip but how exciting that your kids are in a Christmas play!

I got a TP notification at 3 am for an Ohana breakfast. It's earlier than the time I need but I grabbed it just in case another doesn't come up.

That gives me hope, I am searching for that one!

 

[rasadkowski]

Sorry you had to change your trip but how exciting that your kids are in a Christmas play!

I got a TP notification at 3 am for an Ohana breakfast. It's earlier than the time I need but I grabbed it just in case another doesn't come up.

That is good to hear! I haven't received s notification in a few weeks. So that is reassuring!

 

[1437disney]

I'm probably going to be posting a bunch of cancellations tomorrow for our trip that is scheduled for 12-6 through 12-10, if that helps anyone. We are more than likely going to have to change our dates because of a change in the kids christmas play at school :/ I will post on the cancellation board tomorrow!

Sorry about your trip. Hope you get to reschedule!

 

[SilSprBea]

That is good to hear! I haven't received s notification in a few weeks. So that is reassuring!

I know! I never get a notification for my own requests. Some user though keeps using my cell phone for their searches and I get tons of notifications for Epcot restaurants for August/September. Every time I see a text from TP resfinder I get so excited, but then I realize its the wrong person. I feel like for me the TP resfinder is like the boy that cried wolf! I think they just keep setting up the searches because they disappear after a "hit." Kinda looking forward to their trip coming and going so I stop getting their texts-- LOL!

 

[rasadkowski]

Oh weird! That is frustrating

I know! I never get a notification for my own requests. Some user though keeps using my cell phone for their searches and I get tons of notifications for Epcot restaurants for August/September. Every time I see a text from TP resfinder I get so excited, but then I realize its the wrong person. I feel like for me the TP resfinder is like the boy that cried wolf! I think they just keep setting up the searches because they disappear after a "hit." Kinda looking forward to their trip coming and going so I stop getting their texts-- LOL!

 

[BDFmom]

I know! I never get a notification for my own requests. Some user though keeps using my cell phone for their searches and I get tons of notifications for Epcot restaurants for August/September. Every time I see a text from TP resfinder I get so excited, but then I realize its the wrong person. I feel like for me the TP resfinder is like the boy that cried wolf! I think they just keep setting up the searches because they disappear after a "hit." Kinda looking forward to their trip coming and going so I stop getting their texts-- LOL!

How frustrating!! I think my TP is broken... it's been searching for a H&V between 11/28 and 12/5 with no notifications. It's the only ADR I'm still trying to secure.