Off site the week of Thanksgiving?

[curbsideprophet]

Anyone stayed off site the week of Thanksgiving? Would this be a crazy idea?

Possible talks of a family trip some Thanksgiving in the future (not this year). This could end up being a large group so I want to consider all our options.

[orval]

We have stayed at a Marriott Vacation Club during thanksgiving and spring break. There are several. They have 2 bed/2 bath villas or 3/3 with a full kitchen, living room, dining room. They are timeshares, but you can rent from Marriott or private owners.

They are a bit crowded but so is everything at that time. We like having the kitchen so we can eat breakfast everyday and sometimes lunch or grill dinner one day. Most are only about 15 minute drive from Disney so it is no big deal.

[curbsideprophet]

orval were you able to book decent FPs? What about dining?

[orval]

Oct 25, 2016 18:26:47 GMT -5 curbsideprophet said:

orval were you able to book decent FPs? What about dining?

We just go and relax. Did not book anything.  Still got to go on all the rides with minimal waits. We just planned our path through the parks.  We often split meals since they are huge and I am cheap.  That way we can get a snack if we want.  My kid is not into characters so those meals didn't matter to us.

[firedancer10288]

We did it last year. My parents have a timeshare in Kissimmee, they traded their summer week for thanksgiving week.

The parks were crowded, but no worse than they are when we go in August. It also wasn't hot, which made the crowds and lines much more bearable!

ETA- we got fast passes for everything we wanted. /Some weren't at the best times, but we got them. The only problem was when our initial fast passes were used, we weren't able to book more. At the time you had to go to a kiosk to book more and the lines were usually really long and the good stuff was already sold out. Now you can do it all on the app, so it might be easier.

We still booked meals 180 days out, you don't have to have a reservation to book your meals. We booked what we wanted for thanksgiving dinner (mickeys BBQ) as soon as we could. I also booked a lunch at BOG. Other meals we waited until we got our Fast passes so we knew where we would be each day.

[curbsideprophet]

Oct 27, 2016 8:04:30 GMT -5 firedancer10288 said:

We did it last year. My parents have a timeshare in Kissimmee, they traded their summer week for thanksgiving week.

The parks were crowded, but no worse than they are when we go in August. It also wasn't hot, which made the crowds and lines much more bearable!

This is good to hear! We went for a short trip this past August and it was definitely hot. Thanks!

[jlt19]

Oct 27, 2016 8:04:30 GMT -5 firedancer10288 said:

We did it last year. My parents have a timeshare in Kissimmee, they traded their summer week for thanksgiving week.

The parks were crowded, but no worse than they are when we go in August. It also wasn't hot, which made the crowds and lines much more bearable!

ETA- we got fast passes for everything we wanted. /Some weren't at the best times, but we got them. The only problem was when our initial fast passes were used, we weren't able to book more. At the time you had to go to a kiosk to book more and the lines were usually really long and the good stuff was already sold out. Now you can do it all on the app, so it might be easier.

We still booked meals 180 days out, you don't have to have a reservation to book your meals. We booked what we wanted for thanksgiving dinner (mickeys BBQ) as soon as we could. I also booked a lunch at BOG. Other meals we waited until we got our Fast passes so we knew where we would be each day.

Can you tell me what this means?

I'm VERY new to this whole Disney thing and I'm slowly starting to look into it. I don't think staying on site and having the meal plan is really for us, but I'd still like to eat a few times at the restaurants. I tried just to make TRex reservations a couple of months ago (wasn't even a Disney trip) and they wanted a CC! That shocked me.

So, you can book meals w/o the dining plan but it's not a reservation?

[curbsideprophet]

Oct 27, 2016 12:51:39 GMT -5 jlt19 said:

Oct 27, 2016 8:04:30 GMT -5 firedancer10288 said:

We did it last year. My parents have a timeshare in Kissimmee, they traded their summer week for thanksgiving week.

The parks were crowded, but no worse than they are when we go in August. It also wasn't hot, which made the crowds and lines much more bearable!

ETA- we got fast passes for everything we wanted. /Some weren't at the best times, but we got them. The only problem was when our initial fast passes were used, we weren't able to book more. At the time you had to go to a kiosk to book more and the lines were usually really long and the good stuff was already sold out. Now you can do it all on the app, so it might be easier.

We still booked meals 180 days out, you don't have to have a reservation to book your meals. We booked what we wanted for thanksgiving dinner (mickeys BBQ) as soon as we could. I also booked a lunch at BOG. Other meals we waited until we got our Fast passes so we knew where we would be each day.

Can you tell me what this means?

I'm VERY new to this whole Disney thing and I'm slowly starting to look into it. I don't think staying on site and having the meal plan is really for us, but I'd still like to eat a few times at the restaurants. I tried just to make TRex reservations a couple of months ago (wasn't even a Disney trip) and they wanted a CC! That shocked me.

So, you can book meals w/o the dining plan but it's not a reservation?

You don't need a hotel reservation or the dining plan to book advanced dining reservations (ADRs). If you stay on site you get a booking advantage of being able to book your whole trip (up to 10 days from your check in date) 180 days from check in. Staying off site you would need to book each day individually if doing it at the 180 mark.

The credit card will only be charged if you do not show up or do not cancel the ADR by the day before. A few restaurants (CRT is one) do charge the entire fee ahead of time but most do not.