Christmas 2009 - advice, must sees, etc.

[kitalyn414]

We're headed to WDW the week between Xmas & NYE. There are 11 in our party, 2 grandparents, 4 parents (30-40), kids - 9, 7, 4, 18 months and 12 months. I've been once before a few years back and am gladly acting as trip planner and tour guide. My last trip was with all adults and we did a total Disney or Die plan. Since it is going to be so crowded during this visit and we have the little ones I want to try and minimize the stress for everyone. It's kind of hard to give into the fact that we aren't going to be able to see and do everything, but I'm trying!

What are the absolute, do-not-miss attractions for the kids? Any specific holiday/peak season advice?

One idea I'm throwing around is avoiding the parks altogether in the evenings and taking advantage of Grand Gatherings or doing private Illuminations/Wishes cruises. Would I be depriving my party of something special by doing that?

Oh and another question, is there any chance that the economy is going to help us crowd-wise? Would be nice to have a silver lining in that department.

 

[BradyBz12]

is there any chance that the economy is going to help us crowd-wise? Would be nice to have a silver lining in that department.

Doesn't seem to be the case so far, but who knows what the next 8 mos. will bring?

I'm sure you'll get lots of advice on strategies for this week, since it is historically THE single busiest weeks of the year, with park closures not uncommon. (also, if you tinker with the search function, you'll turn up lots of threads that talk about this time of year)

General advice always seems to be...
1. get there before rope drop
2. use AM EMH if you're staying onsite
3. have a good touring plan
4. use FPs to your advantage
5. make your ADRs as soon as possible!

Given the crowds, it will also help you to have a short list of "must do's" and realistic expectations of how much you'll be able to accomplish. Then consider everything extra as a bonus and you'll avoid disappointment.

The holiday atmosphere at WDW is just wonderful, and if you can focus on that and your group being together, and not put a ton of emphasis on "doing it all" (which isn't possible even when it's not peak season), you'll all have a much more enjoyable time.

 

[clutter]

I just posted this for someone else this morning.

#1 must do: The fireworks at MK on the 30th. Do NYE at DHS, much less crowded. (And it was crowded!)

#2 must do: EMH at 7am! Really, you can get just about all of the big stuff done by doing the am emh. (At DHS, run to Toy Story Mania, ride the ride, then get fast passes for later. Same with EE at AK. We rode 3 times by 11 am the day we went there.)

#3 tip: save the lesser line stuff for later in the day.

#4 tip: the afternoons are nuts, but the evenings aren't that bad.

#5 tip: go with the flow.

"We did it this past year. In maybe a couple of dozen trips, including spring break, I've never seen it that crowded!

That said, it really wasn't that bad, if you can get up in the morning.

We stayed at All Star Sports, which I highly recommmend for crowded times. Why? They split the resorts up in the evenings and send busses with the same frequency. We had the fastest bus service I've EVER had in disney.

Also, Disney excells in crowd control. All of the CMs (especially the bus drivers) were in in 'we're in the black' mode. As in they were totally happy to see and work with the crowds. I have no idea how they did it, but I was impressed.

I dragged my poor dd12's sorry rear into the parks by 7:15 am. This worked on a couple of levels. We did all the major rides by 10:30/11:00, which was when the crowds came. And I mean that by 11am, it was like 3pm during the summer and built from there. We hit CS places for lunch by 11:30 and had no problems. I would not eat lunch any later than that, and do the ddp so you can get a relatively stress free meal for dinner.

I would make plans for what to do in the afternoons. That was our roughest time. It was too cool to swim and without a car, it was too much of a pain to do too much wandering stuff. (We'd normally go play mini-golf, but we'd drive.) The mornings and evenings were just fine.

NYE. We actually crashed in the room all day and went to DHS around 5pm. No trouble getting in (although i heard rumors that they closed it later). We ate dinner at around 7:45 and rode rides with short lines for a while. We stood in front of the Pluto neon sign for the fireworks and were in our room by 1:15 am. Amazing. Hint: MK does the NYE fireworks on the 30th. Not too crowded and very cool!

I doubt we'll go back again at that time. Not because of the crowds. If you're expecting them, they're doable. Not fun, but doable. Mainly because I realized that I like the Christmas theme up until Christmas, and kind of felt 'over' it after. So, if we were to go again, we'd go leading up to Christmas, not after. "

p.s. we didn't plan the trip until late November, but we were able to get ADRs. Not for the biggies like Le Cellier, but we discovered a whole bunch of new (to us) restaurants: Nine Dragons, Tokyo Dining. We were able to get 50s Prime Time at DHS for NYE and Yak & Yeti, one of our favorites. And I even managed to get us OHana (they will open up either 4:00 or 4:30 to 5:00 late), but we didn't like that too much.

 

[RMulieri]

Thus far all indications indicate that the economy is having little to no outward effect on crowds .Disney may have a decrease in profits, but they are countering with great deals, bringing people in. We don't know yet what the projected deals will be for the end of the year, but if neccessary, Disney will roll them out

 

[Mouseaholic!!!]

Everyone else will give you the the standards....DH and I try to go beyond the standards.

First - be flexible. If the crowd is overwhelming - do something else.

Ideas -

Visit hotels - they are decorated for the holidays! GC even has a life-size gingerbread house. Wildie, AKL, the EPCOT resorts are all decked out. Nothing more magical than a stroll around the Beach Club and Boardwalk in the cool evening with the holiday music and decorations.

One evening - go see Bob at Riverside. He is an entertainer who is there 3 nights a week - generally Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. Shows begin at 8 pm. During the holidays his show celebrates the season. It's great for children earlier in the evening and adults closer to midnight. Warning - try to NOT be 10 Lords a Leaping!!! checkout www.yehaabob.com

Try to capture some of the holiday magic with Osborne and CP.



Once we traveled with a party of 12 - it's tough - getting through crowds and getting everyone to agree.

Two of us setup a very gentle schedule - generally one meal a day and an outline of parks to visit. We rarely spent the park time in a crowd of 12 - just couldn't happen....but we always had everyone together for at least one meal a day.


Don't over plan - all those little feet will not march in unison all the time.

 

[kitalyn414]

Thank you all so much! This is such great advice already.

I have a feeling that I'm probably the only one who is going to be wanting to get up for 7am rope drop on vacation. I've already tried explaining to them how busy it is going to be but no one seems to fully get it. I think my strategy is to just set up a schedule, and then anyone who wants to follow it can. DH, DS and I can be lined up at 6:30am, if the rest of the clan wants to mosey in at 9am, then so be it.

 

[raider97]

We're headed to WDW the week between Xmas & NYE. There are 11 in our party, 2 grandparents, 4 parents (30-40), kids - 9, 7, 4, 18 months and 12 months. I've been once before a few years back and am gladly acting as trip planner and tour guide. My last trip was with all adults and we did a total Disney or Die plan. Since it is going to be so crowded during this visit and we have the little ones I want to try and minimize the stress for everyone. It's kind of hard to give into the fact that we aren't going to be able to see and do everything, but I'm trying!

What are the absolute, do-not-miss attractions for the kids? Any specific holiday/peak season advice?

One idea I'm throwing around is avoiding the parks altogether in the evenings and taking advantage of Grand Gatherings or doing private Illuminations/Wishes cruises. Would I be depriving my party of something special by doing that?

Oh and another question, is there any chance that the economy is going to help us crowd-wise? Would be nice to have a silver lining in that department.

Don't skip all at night activities or you will miss the castle dressed up in Christmas Lights at MK, the Candelight Processional at Epcot, and the Osborne Lights at DHS.

And you all might want to check out the holiday decorations at the resorts.

I love the World at Christmastime!!! It is truly magical!! Have fun planning!!

Stephanie

 

[princess.chell]

Hey,

So for the past two years my family has gone over Christmas, getting there a few days before the 25th and leave a few days after. I'm not too good at the crowd management and the planning since I'm only 17 and my mom deals with that stuff, but must sees I can do.
In no particular order...
1. Osborn Dancing Lights at DHS. You have to see this.
2. Holiday Wishes at MK (I think they will still be showing the holiday version...not sure though)
3. Illuminations at EPCOT (I'm not exactly sure if its a special show during the holiday but my family has seen Illuminations on Xmas night for the past two years and it had an extended ending then)
4. Magic Kingdom day parade
5. the EPCOT tree lighting ceremony. The younger kids might enjoy this more than the older kids. I saw it once, two years ago, and won't see it again but it was cute.
6. the hotels. This year was the first year my mom and I had gone around to the different hotels to check out the decorations and I thought they were amazing. The adults would enjoy this more than the kids.

I hope these things help. They are my favorite part of going at the holidays.

 

[mom2rtk]

I'm not sure how you feel about seeing the Fantasmic. But I had seen it before our Christmas trip, and REALLY wanted to see the Osborne lights without big crowd issues. I wanted to be able to set up my tripod without worry of it being knocked down. So we went DURING the Fantasmic, and had a wonderfull, magical stroll through the lights, complete with awesome photos.

One tip though. Be very watchful as you go through there. Someone on a motorized wheelchair RAN OVER the tip of my shoe. It JUST MISSED my toes. A couple more inches and I probably would have had at least one broken toe!

 

[maroo]

subbing to this...we are going at Christmas and have never been during this time.

I know about the Osbourne Lights, Candlelight Processional, MVMCP, ... I am trying to think of anything else.

And I will add the stuff mentioned above!

The person with a power wheelchair in our party will try to avoid people's toes!

 

[kitalyn414]

Thanks again for the replies. I have to say that the more I read about this particular week, the more I am second-guessing this trip. I would have never chosen this week to visit, the in-laws planned the trip and then invited us along and are even paying for our room.

DS will be 11 months when we go, so I'm not sure how much he will get out of it, but I do want to bring him back when he is 5 or older. DH has never been before, and I'd hate for a bad experience to turn him off of returning to WDW.

 

[mom2rtk]

Thanks again for the replies. I have to say that the more I read about this particular week, the more I am second-guessing this trip. I would have never chosen this week to visit, the in-laws planned the trip and then invited us along and are even paying for our room.

DS will be 11 months when we go, so I'm not sure how much he will get out of it, but I do want to bring him back when he is 5 or older. DH has never been before, and I'd hate for a bad experience to turn him off of returning to WDW.

You know, you should read through the threads about the Magic Kingdom being closed on several occasions right around Easter this year. The park reached capacity on several occasion. But if you read through the threads about that time, you will see that the people who knew what they were doing had some great trips, and and did not leave disappointed.

I say go, but with the right expectations. Be prepared to hit rope drop wherever you go. Know WHICH park to do on which day (this is key!) by subscribing to Tour Guide Mike. Know which rides to do first, and know how to use fastpass. Leave the parks during the peak crowds in the afternoon. Let the baby sleep, tour the gift shops in the resorts, splash around in the pools (it might be chilly, but they ARE heated....) Then go back for some late evening magic, or a special evening meal.

You are in the right place to learn ALL of this, so I have no doubt you can have an enjoyable trip!

It is ALWAYS better to be at DISNEY than anywhere else, even if it's really busy!

 

[kitalyn414]

#1 must do: The fireworks at MK on the 30th. Do NYE at DHS, much less crowded. (And it was crowded!)

Do they show Wishes and the NYE display on the 30th?

 

[kitalyn414]

I just convinced my in-laws to reschedule this trip. We're now looking at the early weeks of December.

 

[neilsalop]

We went last december 8th thru 23rd and it was amazing, light lines in the mornings, great weather (mostly) and everywhere decorated. it did start to busy up around the 20th, but by then we'd done everything that was essential, the rest was gravy.

Coming back this time 18th thru Jan 1st and are expecting big crowds, but we don't care, we'll do what we can, book a few ADRs and go with the flow. at least there's a chance of reasonable weather over there, here we can only be promised cold and wet YUK.

 

[BradyBz12]

I just convinced my in-laws to reschedule this trip. We're now looking at the early weeks of December.

You will LOVE that time of year! Lower crowds (Far, FAR lower than Christmas week!) and all the Holiday Happenings will be in full swing. We've been this time of year the past 3 years in a row and never wait more than 20 mins for anything (well, except TSM, but that's a horse of a different color). We've even had good luck getting last minute ADRs and have walked right in for dinner at some places in DTD. Last year we were even able to walk right in for the Candlelight Processional!

Enjoy!!