*** Official January 2020 Thread ***

[absolutmey]

We're in for a super short stay Jan. 20-22nd. DS has a hockey tournament over the holiday weekend and we're going to stay on for a couple days

Already booked ASMo and Oga's for our stay! woohoo!

 

[JonathonW]

Just booked my next solo trip for the last week of January (1/25-2/2)-- my last couple trips have both been in September (2017 right after Irma, and 2018), but I really want to catch the Epcot Forever fireworks while they're running, and Festival of the Arts is the only Epcot festival I haven't been to yet (still need dates for that... hurry up, Disney ).

Staying at Port Orleans French Quarter for the third time (best Moderate on property-- and, yes, I've stayed at all of them).

Food-wise: Already booked Boma for the evening that I fly in (tradition of mine). And I'd like to check out Space 220 at Epcot, but reservations haven't opened for it yet (supposed to open "late 2019"). Not sure what else I might book dining-wise; since I go solo, I mostly tend to stick to quick service (and festival booths at Epcot), but I like to splurge on at least a couple sit-down meals while I'm there. Kind of tempted to book Oga's (was able to get some decent times to show up when I checked a little while ago), but I don't drink, so still not sure on that.

152 days to go!

 

[marij]

If you checked a while ago you'd be surprised at how few Oga reservations are available your dates. My DS, GS and myself have a reservation on Jan. 29 at 1:15 pm and are going just to see the place, not necessarily to drink. Both my DS and I feel that the cost of a drink, probably non-alcholic, is worth the cost just to see the inside of the place.

 

[Crazed4DisneyinSC]

If you checked a while ago you'd be surprised at how few Oga reservations are available your dates. My DS, GS and myself have a reservation on Jan. 29 at 1:15 pm and are going just to see the place, not necessarily to drink. Both my DS and I feel that the cost of a drink, probably non-alcholic, is worth the cost just to see the inside of the place.

Yup, this. We have Oga's reservation for 2 people on Jan 29 @ 12:25pm. Been trying for days to move it earlier to no avail. Nothing available unless I search for one person, and we don't want to split up.

Also, on the MDE app, when you search for reservations in January, times show up as early as 6:30am for Oga's Cantina. These times don't show up on the website though. Is this any indication that they may extend EEMH into January?! Oh I sure hope so!!!

 

[JonathonW]

If you checked a while ago you'd be surprised at how few Oga reservations are available your dates. My DS, GS and myself have a reservation on Jan. 29 at 1:15 pm and are going just to see the place, not necessarily to drink. Both my DS and I feel that the cost of a drink, probably non-alcholic, is worth the cost just to see the inside of the place.

"A little while ago" was about fifteen minutes before I posted... was able (still am, actually) to get a good variety of timeslots to show up in both the morning and lunchtime timeframes. But making reservations for one is different than making reservations for three or four, so it doesn't surprise me that you aren't seeing much availability.

I was looking on 1/26, because I'm not super far along in my planning but I know I'll be in the park that morning (it's HS EMH that morning).

[edit] Why not... just made the reservation. Might cancel later depending on what my plans look like once I've booked FastPasses and stuff, but at least I've managed to grab a spot while they're available.

 

[musika]

Dipping a toe in.... We have a reservation at pop jan 26-feb 1 but depends on the price of flights and tickets whether we go....3k on flights ughhh.

 

[spoohs]

After hour events have been extended! I got the Jan. 6th Magic Kingdom after hours, so excited.

 

[Crazed4DisneyinSC]

After hour events have been extended! I got the Jan. 6th Magic Kingdom after hours, so excited.

I know, so exciting! We are contemplating doing the AK one on 1/30!

 

[Zia100]

Hi, pardon my ignorance, what does it mean by after hour events? Is this different to extra magic hours?
I’m anxiously waiting for Jan discounts to open up. I could book now with Disney and adjust as discounts come in, but Costco has a great price, but no adjusts permitted after booking. I don’t really want to go down the whole travel insurance claim to account for rebooking fees etc, just want to keep it simple. But the wait it agony!

 

[JonathonW]

Hi, pardon my ignorance, what does it mean by after hour events? Is this different to extra magic hours?

Yes, After Hours events are paid, limited availability events separate from Extra Magic Hours available to resort guests.

(Unfortunately, Disney’s started preferring these sorts of paid events over free late night stuff like EMH— they’re down to two nights of evening EMH a week now; one in the Magic Kingdom and one in Epcot. At least there’s not anything like the Halloween Party to close parks early in January...)

 

[Zia100]

Yes, After Hours events are paid, limited availability events separate from Extra Magic Hours available to resort guests.

(Unfortunately, Disney’s started preferring these sorts of paid events over free late night stuff like EMH— they’re down to two nights of evening EMH a week now; one in the Magic Kingdom and one in Epcot. At least there’s not anything like the Halloween Party to close parks early in January...)

Thanks for the clarification. It’s a bummer, my family loves the magic hours at night. The calm after a hectic day, you really see the beauty of the place with all the lights etc. it’s a shame Disney is asking for more and more. It’s very expensive to keep coming back. I hope I figure out a way to keep it affordable.
Anyways, just booked a week in Jan, hopefully discounts will show up and I can get in on that!

 

[tinabina919]

I was anxiously awaiting these after hours events. I was hoping to use it as a more affordable park ticket option, wasn’t really expecting it to be more than a park ticket! Guess it will just be one Epcot day for us!

Crazy how busy our 5 days 4 night trip still is with just one 1 park day.

We are doing first nite at POLY so I want to enjoy the resort as much as I can. Plan on ordering the Twilight Feast and watching HEA from the beach.

Then on to GDT CL where I fully plan on enjoying all the lounge has to offer and exploring the new tower. Really want to eat at the new 3 Bridges Grille too.

We also plan on having dinner one night at Bull & Bear over at the Warldolf Astoria. We have seen so many amazing reviews and it’s a super short Uber ride away.

I think it will be strange being there and not going to MK, especially staying at POLY and being so close.

Now to wait for Festival of the Arts/Space 220 info!!

 

[DuskKodesh]

How have I just now found this topic? I'm in for a two-person trip for our tenth anniversary from Jan 28-Feb 3rd (Flying back early on the fourth). This will be my third trip ever and my first onsite stay (All Star Movies!) We did our ADRs the moment they dropped and got everything we were hoping for but my fastpasses fall on the morning of November 29th which is...black Friday, and I work retail. *Internal and external screaming*

I am briefing my hubs in all the things he'll need to do if I can't get a break from unloading the trucks at work XD Now just praying for discounts.

 

[Kcgaido]

We’ll be there those exact dates with a party of 7, staying at Boulder Ridge Villas. Me and DH, our son, his wife and two kids 10 and 18, plus my sister-in-law. As DVC members, DH and I have been countless times, but have never planned for this many people. I too have our ADRs all set and anxiously awaiting news of EMM.

We’ll be there with a party of 13 at the same time and at Boulder Ridge Villas! See you there!

 

[marij]

For those looking for the Epcot Festival of the Arts the dates have been announced as January 17 2020 to Feb 24 2020 but no other details yet.

 

[Lsdolphin]

Going to a conference in Orlando in January 2020 so plan to spend some time in Disney since we will be there.

I'm also going to conference the end of Jan and want to stay a few extra days at Disney.

 

[GreenTea13]

I've got reservations at Shades of Green and most of my reservations for everything else (just waiting to see if The Magic Behind Our Steam Trains Tour is going to happen). Only thing I need to do is wait for the Military Promotional Tickets to go on sale (which I've read has been announced late September the past few years). So excited!

 

[ariane37]

Joining in as we are all set now for 1/17-22! Just DH and I again, not sure if we'll be at Gran Destino or my beautiful WL but I have both on hold. We did the Festival of the Arts twice this year and really enjoyed it so looking forward to more time there next year!

 

[BurTam]

Joining in the January 2020 group! Currently have January 22-28th booked at POFQ for myself, hubby and two girls 13yrs and 10 yrs. This is a bit of a shorter trip for us so we're currently trying to decide what parks to visit. As much as it pains me to say, I think we might actually skip Epcot this time around. We were there last year in January for Festival of the Arts and had a great time but I think this time we'd rather focus on the other 3 parks. We've already booked our flights and we arrive at 10:00am on the 22nd (fingers crossed it stays that way!) so I'm hoping to maybe do a park that afternoon and then we'll have another full day at the same park plus the other 2 parks will have 2 full days each. I'm leaning towards doing HS the first half day we are there as I imagine it will be less busy on a Wednesday then as we get closer to the weekend. I have reservations at Oga's for that first afternoon so we don't have to wait until a boarding time to enter SWGE. I'm really hoping we'll be able to ride one of the SWGE rides at some point that afternoon and the second one at RD on our other day. Still trying to finalize our plans.

I haven't purchased our tickets yet as I'm from Canada and REALLY hoping for a Canadian discount ticket offer again or at least a room discount. If it doesn't come out soon, I will have to bite the bullet and purchase our tickets before the 60 day window opens up.

 

[ariane37]

Haven't bought the tickets yet but pretty sure we'll do MK DAH on the 20th and trying to decide on a tour to do with our friends We have Topolino's breakfast booked and Citricos dinner (our fave signature) and that's about as scheduled as I can handle getting this far out lol, I'm a more keep it open person. I'll decide on parks about a week before FP day!