*** The Official December 2019 thread ***

[jcthompson2]

I think you are smart to keep the 25th open. Will you be somewhere where you can see fireworks on Christmas? I think that would be a magical way to end the holiday!

I think we’ll be able to see the MK fireworks if we’re at the resort. That’s a great idea!

 

[ashnicole]

Then I've read that we have to try Harbor House as a good Quick Service. Need suggestions for other good quick service spots. We definitely want to try and not eat hamburgers and chicken nuggets every time.

I notice you have plans for BOG lunch, which I enjoy (especially the grey stuff cupcake!).
For AK: I’ve heard good things about Satu’li Canteen, Harambe, and Yak & Yeti quick service.
MK: my favorites are Casey’s and Village Haus, mostly for atmosphere because I love eating at the corner of Main Street at Casey’s and looking out at the small world que at village haus. I also like Pecos Bill and my grandma loves seafood and said the lobster roll at Harbor House was really good!
HS: I’ve heard good things about the grilled cheese at Woody’s lunch box
EPCOT: there are so many options! I know people eat at the festival food booths. My personal favorite is La Cantina in the Mexico Pavilion and the pizza window in the Italy Pavilion.

 

[jcthompson2]

I notice you have plans for BOG lunch, which I enjoy (especially the grey stuff cupcake!).
For AK: I’ve heard good things about Satu’li Canteen, Harambe, and Yak & Yeti quick service.
MK: my favorites are Casey’s and Village Haus, mostly for atmosphere because I love eating at the corner of Main Street at Casey’s and looking out at the small world que at village haus. I also like Pecos Bill and my grandma loves seafood and said the lobster roll at Harbor House was really good!
HS: I’ve heard good things about the grilled cheese at Woody’s lunch box
EPCOT: there are so many options! I know people eat at the festival food booths. My personal favorite is La Cantina in the Mexico Pavilion and the pizza window in the Italy Pavilion.

Those sound amazing! Thanks! We’ve never done the dining plan before and always just ate where there was the shortest line. And the last time we ate anything at wow was 10 years ago. It will all be new! I’m really excited to have specific places to try!

 

[KSL]

Just made my ADRs this morning. I was worried about this and had back-up plans for my back-up plans, lol! We're a group of 6 so I thought maybe a little harder with that many, on top of wanting some places that I've read are difficult to get BoG (on a party night when we are NOT going to the party & so has a very narrow booking window), PPO Garden Grill, Artist Point, etc. I can't believe I was so lucky as to get almost everything I wanted. I had to swap nights on one set of reservations and a couple of the times are a little off of what I wanted as ideal (but not more than by about 30 minutes), so I am VERY happy and relieved to have this part of the planning done! Now I have a few months to stress about the 60-day FP+ booking window, lol.....

 

[Momof2Singers]

Has anyone purchased their MVMCP Tickets? We are aiming for Tuesday 12-17. Went last year on Sunday and Tuesday, Sunday was horrible, Tuesday was a breeze. I am waiting a little later this year, to see if After Hours are announced for HS and AK. One may overlap my Tuesday party unfortunately. I talked with CM this morning and he said right now they are alternating AK between 2 different nights. Ideal would be HS After Hours, AK After Hours, and MVMCP..then it would not matter if we do not score those hard FP's. Have been hearing FOP has not been available even later in your stay.

 

[db24]

I purchased our MVMCP from undercover tourist few days ago. We are looking at going on a Thursday. I was thinking about waiting on ordering them but I wanted to make sure I got the extra discount from undercover tourist. Plus they have a 90 day return policy on them, I think it has a 5% restock fee, but still better than most because tickets are usually non refundable.

 

[Malyficent]

Has anyone purchased their MVMCP Tickets? We are aiming for Tuesday 12-17. Went last year on Sunday and Tuesday, Sunday was horrible, Tuesday was a breeze. I am waiting a little later this year, to see if After Hours are announced for HS and AK. One may overlap my Tuesday party unfortunately. I talked with CM this morning and he said right now they are alternating AK between 2 different nights. Ideal would be HS After Hours, AK After Hours, and MVMCP..then it would not matter if we do not score those hard FP's. Have been hearing FOP has not been available even later in your stay.

I’m in the same boat, waiting on EMM and DAH dates. If I can get all three of those (EMM MK, DAH HS and DAH AK) we’ll skip MVMCP.

Oh and I did the Tuesday party that week too and it was great. No experience with the Sunday one but my friend went to the Friday party that week and said the ride lines were very long. She wasn’t impressed.

 

[twinklebug]

Has anyone purchased their MVMCP Tickets? We are aiming for Tuesday 12-17. Went last year on Sunday and Tuesday, Sunday was horrible, Tuesday was a breeze. I am waiting a little later this year, to see if After Hours are announced for HS and AK. One may overlap my Tuesday party unfortunately. I talked with CM this morning and he said right now they are alternating AK between 2 different nights. Ideal would be HS After Hours, AK After Hours, and MVMCP..then it would not matter if we do not score those hard FP's. Have been hearing FOP has not been available even later in your stay.

Did you attend the MVMCP on the Sunday at the end of the Pop Warner Week? I think that one was filled with families from the competitions just before they headed home.

 

[Momof2Singers]

I went on 12/16 Sunday and 12/18 Tuesday, not sure if they were still there, it did not seem like it was groups, just lots of families. I would really consider Thursday, but since it is the next to last, not sure how busy it would be. ALK after hours we really wanted to do but it may overlap on Tuesday's party.

 

[Momof2Singers]

I purchased our MVMCP from undercover tourist few days ago. We are looking at going on a Thursday. I was thinking about waiting on ordering them but I wanted to make sure I got the extra discount from undercover tourist. Plus they have a 90 day return policy on them, I think it has a 5% restock fee, but still better than most because tickets are usually non refundable.

How much less are the party tickets thru them?

 

[twinklebug]

I went on 12/16 Sunday and 12/18 Tuesday, not sure if they were still there, it did not seem like it was groups, just lots of families. I would really consider Thursday, but since it is the next to last, not sure how busy it would be. ALK after hours we really wanted to do but it may overlap on Tuesday's party.

Okay, that wasn't them then. Those families all cleared out by the week before. Interesting that a Sunday would have been so busy.

 

[db24]

How much less are the party tickets thru them?

After tax I saved about $10 or so per ticket for the dates we're going. Not a huge discount but I try to save where I can.

 

[Shughart]

I am so glad to be done making ADRs. Got all the places we want, but not ideal times. I already got a better time for our BOG lunch, but some of them need to be walked forward or back to be more in line to our style of eating. Hopefully we can get a couple more changed. If not, we'll deal.

I bought our MVMCP tickets. We're going on the 17th.

 

[ariane37]

I just realized our ADR day is next Monday lol and while I Know basically where we want to eat I don't know when! I just got our plans set for next week and haven't done anything for our Sept trip yet but going between Xmas and NYE is a whole other ballgame so I need to get moving!

 

[jcthompson2]

Had a great ADR day! Our Agent managed to get us every place on our list in our window of when we want to eat. The only thing now is we'll probably have to pay oop for either Le Cellier or 2 other meals if we stick to all the reservations she made. I really want to try all the places, so I think my 13 year old and I can share something ginormous at Le Cellier and be good. ☺

 

[elsbit]

Count us in from 12/20-12/29- Split stay BLT (1 night), Wilderness Lodge (5), and AKL (4).

I love split stays.... but hate it when it comes to dining reservations. Today was day # 2 getting up at 4 AM to get reservations. One more 4 am wake up to go!

We have stayed at Christmas in 2015 and it was a great experience. This time we have another kid added to the mix. We bring a small (fake) Christmas tree for our room, as I have kids who believe in the magic of Christmas. I also use this tree every year at home in our living room (big tree is in rec room). We decorate the tree with the little clear light up pirate heads (skull and hats) we got from the Pirates Cruise in December 2015. I have no idea if they still hand them out. I know it sounds like an odd tree decoration, but we all love it and it makes us remember our previous Christmas trip! I was thinking of maybe add some light up lotus flowers to it from Tiffins. A few months ago I decided I want to try to collect our magic bands and make a Christmas tree garland out of them. I regret throwing some away.If only I could convince my husband to stop getting grey.

 

[ksromack]

We have stayed at Christmas in 2015 and it was a great experience. This time we have another kid added to the mix. We bring a small (fake) Christmas tree for our room, as I have kids who believe in the magic of Christmas. I also use this tree every year at home in our living room (big tree is in rec room). We decorate the tree with the little clear light up pirate heads (skull and hats) we got from the Pirates Cruise in December 2015. I have no idea if they still hand them out. I know it sounds like an odd tree decoration, but we all love it and it makes us remember our previous Christmas trip! I was thinking of maybe add some light up lotus flowers to it from Tiffins. A few months ago I decided I want to try to collect our magic bands and make a Christmas tree garland out of them. I regret throwing some away.If only I could convince my husband to stop getting grey.

Ugh! My dh loves the grey too!

 

[jcthompson2]

What are some of the shows that everyone is trying to see? Since it's been 10 years since our last visit, I know there is so much new for us to see. Trying to make a list of some faves and must-do's.

 

[ashnicole]

What are some of the shows that everyone is trying to see? Since it's been 10 years since our last visit, I know there is so much new for us to see. Trying to make a list of some faves and must-do's.

Happily Ever After is always at the top of my list!
I’m also excited to see EPCOT forever and Rivers of Light: We Are One since those will be new to me. I do love Sunset Greetings at HS but I don’t know if we’ll make it to HS this trip.
Festival of the Lion King is one of my favorite shows in all of WDW and I watch it every time I go to AK. It’s such a beautiful show!

 

[KSL]

What's the limit to all the special holiday-themed extra experiences one family (and wallet!) can do!? I know this is entirely subjective and none of you can help me, but I'm gonna post about it anyway, in case anyone wants to chime in with opinions!

My family are DVC members and very fortunate that we've been able to take many wonderful Disney vacations (and non-Disney ones, too!). But we've never gone at the holidays and so we decided to make that our priority this year, since my eldest is already in college with my next two not far behind, and I want my mom to be there with us (and she's developing mobility issues), so this is the year. Almost guaranteed to be a once-in-a-lifetime-Disney-at-the-holidays trip. So we're trying to do all the holiday-oriented stuff and don't really even care about rides/shows that we can see on other visits. But there is SO MUCH holiday stuff to see/do! We will be able to visit each park at least once to see them all set up for holidays (décor, music, lights, etc.). We have tickets to MVMCP and will try to book a Candlelight Processional package. We're going to take an afternoon & evening to visit resorts to see their decorations. I thought that was doing great with planning for us to do all the special holiday stuff, but of course this is Disney so you can NEVER do it ALL and the more I look, the more there seems to be to do! Special holiday tours, dessert/fireworks parties, special holiday dinners, Christmas tree walk-through at DS, and probably other things I don't even know about. So how much of this do I try to do -- there's only so much time, and more importantly -- only so much money! So I'm struggling with where to draw the line on these special things. I was just reading about the Jingle Bell Jingle BAM party at DHS and thinking, "oooh, that would be awesome! what night would this fit into our plans..." when I stopped myself and thought, do we have the budget for this on top of everything else? So for now I'm NOT planning on the JBJB party (though it does sound so fun! and I'm kind of afraid of DHS this year with all the Star Wars stuff). So I guess I've found our limit. But there are still six months until the trip! Who knows what else might come up between now and then!? I need to keep in mind that I am very lucky to have such "struggles"!