Mickeys Very Merry Christmas Party..any advice?

[pinkdiamonds1007]

Hi, we were thinking of checking out Mickeys Very Merry Christmas Party when we are down in DEC. But were unsure if it was worth the money or time. Our daugter is 3.5, any advice would be great. Thanks.
Nicole
sorry if this posted twice. I lost my connection and didn't see it on the boards, so thought i would try again. Sorry.
=)

[Mom to Jordan]

If your child can stay up fairly late, I think you will enjoy it. We find it to be a delightful evening. What works for us is to get a PS at LTT for around 5:30 or 5:45. On the day of the MVMCP, we do not do a park. We sleep late. do breakfast, swim and resort hop to see the decorations. About 4:00 we head over to the party, getting in on our party pass. We hit a few rides before our PS time. After eating, we are able to hang around the resturant till the party starts at 7:00. We try to be the first in line for pictures at the house of president then spend the eveing seeing shows. Ride lines are short but we spent our time doing the specail Christmas stuff. We waited for the 2nd parade and got a great spot. When DS was the age of your child, there was no way he could have stayed awaked long enough to make it worth it. If your little one will take a late nap or is a night owl anyway I say go for it!!

Jordan's mom

[Christy]

We did this last year with DDs, ages 5 & 8. I don't think I'd do it again though. Because it was our first experience going to WDW, we wanted to "do it all!" When we went to MVMCP, it was our first time going to the Magic Kingdom. It was getting dark when we got there, and we never really felt like we knew where we were going and didn't get a good sense of the park, etc. We had a difficult time getting seating at any of the shows because it seemed as though crowds of people all sort of followed one another to the various events, and unless you hit it just right (and waited in line for quite a while to be one of the first one seated), you'd miss out. Some rides we were able to walk on-so that was a plus.

Also, we stayed there until 10:30-11:00 pm, and had early PS at Cindy's castle the next morning. We were all kind of dragging (and we are night owls) that whole next day.

[aidansmom]

We had a great experience with MVMCP on a trip five years ago, so we bought tickets for our trip this past December. We were actually pretty disappointed. I was shocked at the crowds. ALL of the rides had at least 30 minute waits and there is no fast pass available, so we were pretty much out of luck, as we had our 2yo ds. Most of the Christmas shows are the ones they have during regular park hours. The only major difference is the parade, which is really special, as long as you have patience to hold a seat for an hour before hand (which we did). My husband and I really felt that we were pretty much paying for the parade, as there really wasn't much else that wasn't available during regular park hours. I don't know that we'd do it again. Hopefully you'll get some other feedback to help you with your decision. Good luck!

By the way, I don't think the lateness is really an issue, at least it wasn't for our ds, so if that's your only concern, I wouldn't worry about it too much.

[Minnie824]

We're going for the first time this year w/DDs then aged 4 and 1.5. We decided to do MVMCP even if we don't stay late. We'll try to do rides during the day, then see the christmas parade, shows, etc at night. We plan to try to stay til 10 at the absolute latest. I think its still worth the money, even if you're not there til the end.

[EthansMom]

We were considering MVMCP also for this Dec. and decided against it.

We just went down to WDW in April, and despite my best intentions of making it to all of the night shows, after going to Spectromagic and Wishes on the first day at WDW, my DS3.5 and DD1 were wiped out for a couple of days. At home, both kids usually go to bed at 8 p.m. and they just can't handle doing a half-day and a long, late evening at the parks (we stop for nap/swim breaks in the afternoons).

Plus when I looked at what we would get for the ticket price, it was basically a parade, fireworks, a photo, cookies & hot chocolate, the ability to ride the rides until midnight (which we just wouldn't be able to do), and the extra magic. We decided it would be much more magical to get our rest and be at the parks for opening time the next morning. We'll hold off on MVMCP until our kids are older and would enjoy it more.

But really each family has to decide based on itself -- if you think your daughter would enjoy it, then I say "Go for it!" If not, spend the money on something else she would enjoy.

[budbeerlady]

Hi! I wasnt going to go, the extra $100+ for the one night, but then I decieded how magical to have that be her first time at MK, we are coming 2 nights earlier and will stick to epcot and mgm for the first days. Then I plan to go back the day after MVMCP to MK again and do all the things we couldnt do the night before, etc. And we have our first character meal at LLT before the party. But we will take it easy that day and take a rest before we go in the afternoon to MVMCP. I think the exciment will keep her awake for a while past her 8pk usual bedtime. But we are going to rent a stroller just to keep her from getting too tired if there are long waits. Plus to meet santa in WDW, so cool! I just didnt tell my husband the extra costs involved and bought the tickets. We are doing the myw dining plan so I justify the price by saving money on the food end. Good luck whatever you choose.

[pirateofthecarolinas]

We laugh at my DD8 whenever we talk about MVMCP. She has slept through it the past 2 years. We ended up putting her in her brother's stroller so she could sleep. She goes to bed at 8:30 every night and she just falls asleep whenever we watch the MVMCP Parade. We have great video of her comatose as the characters go by! My 2 1/2 year old had no problems staying awake.

Lori