***Official December 2017 thread!

[Rich M]

Can anyone recommend a good place to rent strollers from? Do I really need to get stroller insurance for possible theft at a Disney Park?

 

[Dan C]

We use KingdomStrollers. This will be our 3rd year in a row with them. Very happy with the strollers they have supplied. They also give a free shipping coupon for Orlando Grocery Express. We get the insurance more for possible damage than theft.

 

[bebec22]

Hello everyone, I am joining in! My mom and I just booked a trip for Christmas week on Friday! Dates are 12/27-12/31 staying at BoardWalk. We will bringing my 2 kiddos, they will be 3.5 and 21 months at time of travel.

It might seem a little crazy to book such a "last minute" trip during this time but my father passed away rather unexpectedly at the end of August and we've always wanted to visit during the holidays. I have been to WDW 15 (12 for my mom) times but never during the holidays. I am a teacher so Christmas week is our only option. While my mom is here and healthy I want to turn this into a reality! We were just there in February and I have a trip booked for April 2018 with my DH and kids so our main goal of this trip is just to immerse ourselves in all things Christmas.

I was able to book a few ADR's which was an unexpected surprise! I have:

12/28 Garden Grill 11:50
12/29 Crystal Palace 10:20
12/30 H&V 11:30

My only must-dos for this trip are seeing the Christmas parade and seeing MK at night. Does anyone know if the parade usually runs more than once during Christmas week? I was looking over some calendars from last year and it looks like it was at 12:00 and 3:30. Also, can you FP this parade? TIA!

 

[BigredNole]

2 Days until FP day. Hoping to get the FOP fastpasses at the back of our trip. That will be the first thing we go after. I will adjust everything around the day I can get them if possible. If not, we have done rope drop and will go that route if necessary.

 

[shairpdrh]

FP day today! My husband was a trooper and woke up to help me do 8 days of FP for a group of 5 (with complex rider swap schedules and differing thrill ride preferences). We got everything except 7DMT on arrival day and FOP for day 2. I got FOP for two days of a short 3 day trip in Sept so I still have hope that I can get them for some of the group.

2 Days until FP day. Hoping to get the FOP fastpasses at the back of our trip. That will be the first thing we go after. I will adjust everything around the day I can get them if possible. If not, we have done rope drop and will go that route if necessary.

Good luck! We were pretty happy with availability for the second half of our 8 day trip. We might have to resort to rope drop on our first AK day. Not sure if AM EMH that morning will make that better or worse.

 

[BlueStarryHat]

67 days until our trip and as of today we are OFFICIALLY PAID IN FULL!!!

 

[BigredNole]

67 days until our trip and as of today we are OFFICIALLY PAID IN FULL!!!

We got lucky and paid it all off when we took our Summer trip. We fell into a deal that couldn't be ignored and we had a payment from work that was unexpected which helped.

 

[lambdabeta]

Hello everyone, I am joining in! My mom and I just booked a trip for Christmas week on Friday! Dates are 12/27-12/31 staying at BoardWalk. We will bringing my 2 kiddos, they will be 3.5 and 21 months at time of travel.

It might seem a little crazy to book such a "last minute" trip during this time but my father passed away rather unexpectedly at the end of August and we've always wanted to visit during the holidays. I have been to WDW 15 (12 for my mom) times but never during the holidays. I am a teacher so Christmas week is our only option. While my mom is here and healthy I want to turn this into a reality! We were just there in February and I have a trip booked for April 2018 with my DH and kids so our main goal of this trip is just to immerse ourselves in all things Christmas.

I was able to book a few ADR's which was an unexpected surprise! I have:

12/28 Garden Grill 11:50
12/29 Crystal Palace 10:20
12/30 H&V 11:30

My only must-dos for this trip are seeing the Christmas parade and seeing MK at night. Does anyone know if the parade usually runs more than once during Christmas week? I was looking over some calendars from last year and it looks like it was at 12:00 and 3:30. Also, can you FP this parade? TIA!

Sorry for your loss. I lost my Mom in 2016. Congrats on the ADR's. I hope you all have a wonderful time.

 

[lambdabeta]

We got lucky and paid it all off when we took our Summer trip. We fell into a deal that couldn't be ignored and we had a payment from work that was unexpected which helped.

Paid my trip off last week. Now just waiting for FP's. 63 days today so FP's in 3 days. Still trying to plan which park and rides we want to go on when. So much planning, so little time.

 

[nancy155]

Setting my alarm for 4:55 am on Sunday morning! FP+ day. Thank goodness it is on a weekend so I can return to sleep! Keeping good thoughts for all that we all are able to get the FP's we want! Before we know it December will be here and Disney Magic will be upon us!

 

[Rich M]

Setting my alarm for 4:55 am on Sunday morning! FP+ day. Thank goodness it is on a weekend so I can return to sleep! Keeping good thoughts for all that we all are able to get the FP's we want! Before we know it December will be here and Disney Magic will be upon us!

Do me a favor and save a few for me. I get mine on Monday.

 

[trill2017]

My December FPs become available while I am IN DW this week. How lucky am I?? Sad part is, I probably won't get any FPs for December because I have too many dining and decoration watching plans. hmmpf.

 

[KurtC]

And not to sound stupid but by app I assume you mean on phone or iPad correct? How did it work out for you

Yes, I was using an iPad. It worked OK, but I had only practiced using the website so it took me a minute to get used to it. Since then I have used both iPhone and iPad to edit FP's. And I was very surprised how many I was able to edit later that day when our initial selections were 30-60 minutes off from our original plan.

 

[nancy155]

Do me a favor and save a few for me. I get mine on Monday.

Will do!

 

[karalecia26]

After a lot of debates back and forth and flights being so high and now coming down (by almost $250 per person) we have decided that we are going to be flying instead of driving! Our preferred flight is still a little high for us so I went with a different flight and will adjust if we can, but for now we are set! We are going to still let our kids think we are going to drive (insert evil laugh!) and surprise them when we stop at the airport instead! They will be so excited and so are we! We weren't looking forward to 24+ hours in a car!

 

[BigredNole]

My FP day is tomorrow. One thing we have decided is we are going to get late FPs for rides in the open. It is not often that we get to ride when it is dark. Most of park day decisions will revolve around getting FoP FPs. We were lucky enough to get 4 trips on it this Summer. We want to do it at least once this trip. ToT, 7DMT, BTMRR, TT, and a few others at night are always a blast.

 

[Parker Clan]

We do our fast passes on Saturday!

Any word on the Candlelight Processional readers those days that were TBA? We are going 12/7.

 

[shanew21]

Made a slight amendment to our trip. Rather than flying in the 19th at 5:50am we booked a night at Pop Century on the 18th and will fly in at 4:00. We figure it will help to get a full night's sleep then hit the parks hard on the 19th.

Plus we hit our fastpass window a day earlier

 

[Travelstovegas]

I had my FP day this past Sunday. Overall it went pretty well, but it sure felt hectic while I was doing it!
Now that I'm done with these major planning points, I feel so much more excited! Before I think the stress of planning was my main focus, and now it feels like I can sort of relax & just look forward to things. Although, plenty of packing & clothing plans to still bring to fruition! Good luck to everyone approaching FP day!

 

[shanew21]

Our 60 day mark is coming up soon since we actually arrive in Disney on 11/30. This will be my first time trying to schedule FP. Any tips on doing it in MDE or does anyone have feedback about whether they've been able to snag the FP's they want so far?

Does anyone think that the park hours will change at all from what they are listed at now for December or are they pretty much set?

Thanks!

I'd expect hours to continue to change. They just extended some of the October hours.