MK at Phase B closure as of 11:45 UPDATE reopened at 9pm 12/31/2016

[yulilin3]

I can only imagine what it is like after the fireworks are done. Thousands of people making a bee line for the exit to wait for a few hours for a bus, monorail or ferry with tired cranky children who have never stayed up past midnight before. Wow, that sounds fun to see some fireworks.

After nye fireworks my best advice, grab a bench or a seat and wait inside the park for at least an hour and a half before attempting to leave. Traffic is at a stand still, no point waiting an hour in line when you can be sitting down

 

[yulilin3]

I'm at GF for the first time for nye, they do a balloon drop at midnight with the jazz band entertaining, and they have dance floor set up. It was nice

 

[Veera]

We were at the MK today and had a great day . We were there slightly before 8 am and went to many rides before the crowds got to be impossible. Our daughter (4) napped in the stroller for an hour in the afternoon and was happy for the rest of the evening. We were besides the Walt and Mickey statue and watched all the shows and fireworks from there. Even though it was crowded, people seemed to be on good mood and I didn't see any bad behaviour (among kids or adults). I agree the horns make a disturbing noise though . We left after the 8.15 pm Once upon a Time show and it was a slow route to get to the Main Street . People were sitting and lying on the ground and my husband had to carry the stroller and I carried our daughter at some points. The crowds were directed out behind the shops of the Main Street and from there on it was quick to walk. Didn't have to wait long for our resort bus either.

 

[supersnoop]

Wow, much later than typically reopens, isn't it?

Yes it is. Last year it reopened shortly after the 3:30 parade

It looks like it only hit phase B this year. That's not really too bad. Doesn't it usually hit phase 2 in NYE?

 

[DOOM1001]

At MK now. I've never seen lines like this. It will probably be our first and last NYE at Disney. Give me September and the heat over this any day. 50 minutes for small world and over 100 for Buzz?!? No way.

I waited 3 1/2 hours for Splash Mountain one NYE back in the days I wasnt a regular visitor.Today even a 30-40 minute wait seems obscene.

 

[DOOM1001]

Today I went to Sea World and to Universal during the day just to walk around and check out the crowds,aside from eating did absolutely nothing.Lines were long,not silly long but more than long enough.Went to Disney Springs around 8pm and as I was driving in I saw the signs saying to expect 3 hour waits to exit the garage if leaving after midnight.Since I do work tomorrow that was enough to tell me to do more of the same,just walk around,eat and split around 11pm.Got home and saw the Fantasy in the Sky fireworks from my house,I will say it must have been impressive seeing them from inside the park cause from my house you could tell it was a seriously major fireworks show.

 

[yulilin3]

It looks like it only hit phase B this year. That's not really too bad. Doesn't it usually hit phase 2 in NYE?

Last year it hit phase B as well, that was it. Traffic leaving GF wasn't bad, I left at 1:30am, only took me about 40 minutes to get home, it's usually a 20 minute drive

 

[Jennasis]

The only way I would do NYE anywhere near MK would be from the comfort of a DVC theme park view villa at BLT.

 

[CAS239]

Small world having a 50 min wait isn't that uncommon. There's been plenty of times during the summer I've walked by and saw it with a 50 min wait and wondered why in the world it ever gets to over 20 min.

Hopefully everyone that went was prepared and realized lines would be longer than any other day of the year.

Last nye at Epcot Living with the Land had a 50 min wait at around 10am, figment line was stretched outside (like it was this year), and Soarin and TT never dropped below an hour

 

[TinkLoverSam]

The only way I would do NYE anywhere near MK would be from the comfort of a DVC theme park view villa at BLT.

I checked prices a contemporary theme park view was $806 plus tax GF was about $1100 and Poly was $1200 I think

 

[Disneylover99]

We got home from Epcot at about 1:50am. Bus lines were still long pretty much everywhere at 1:30am, but we hit zero traffic on the way back to our resort. Our driver took a round about route back.

Overall, it was a great vibe. Lots of families, lots of people drinking, but we didn't encounter any drunks. Everyone was friendly despite the crowds.

Those fireworks made it all worthwhile. You really have to see them to believe them. Awesome! I would love to do this again one day.

 

[Jennasis]

I checked prices a contemporary theme park view was $806 plus tax GF was about $1100 and Poly was $1200 I think

We'd use our DVC points for the night.

 

[practicallyperfect77]

The only way I would do NYE anywhere near MK would be from the comfort of a DVC theme park view villa at BLT.

I totes understand thise crazy high prices. NYE was on my Dis bucket list and I have to say while it was amazing, fun, and beautiful, I can't imagine ever doing it again and not being at a deluxe resort. I was at Pop and went to MK on 12/30. Getting out of there that night really wasn't bad at all.....I think I was back to resort by 12:40. However, yesterday was Epcot and I waited in line for a bus for an 1 hour 20 mins. I def should have watched the show from a diff location so I was closer to the exit.

I did enjoy MK more than Epcot - not sure I would do Epcot again.

 

[seashell7290]

Enjoyed the fireworks from a contemporary room balcony! After the countdown we sprinted to Epcot for one last ride of soarin before it closed. We battled the crowds upstream and made it just in time

 

[dislmntx]

I'm at GF for the first time for nye, they do a balloon drop at midnight with the jazz band entertaining, and they have dance floor set up. It was nice

that does sound nice. Where did they have the dance floor set up? Would love to do NYE at GF- its our home resort so we'll have to plan it!

 

[1153rsmith]

We started leaving Liberty Square around 12:15am. Main Street wasn't bad until you got to the flag pole. Then it was stand and wait. We needed to get to TTC and figured the ferry would be the best option. A couple problems: there wasnt adequate lighting in the area outside the baggage checks so you had thousands of folks standing shoulder to shoulder in the dark. In my opinion, that was dangerous because there were very few CMs there and all sorts of issues can occur in the dark. Disney should have had temporary lighting set up in that whole area. Also, apparently the transportation manager out there didn't have the crowd flow set up properly so while some folks were coming out of the park and getting on the ferries relatively quickly, we were trapped in a group that wasn't going anywhere. Eventually, they figured that out and got us moving. We saw several folks that were pushing through the crowd regardless of who they separated. My wife and son got separated from me and my daughter for most of the two hours we stood in line. Thankfully, I have teenagers, so that wasn't a big deal, but folks shouldn't be so impatient and rude. Everyone was tired and wanted to go home.

Once we got to the TTC, it took another thirty minutes or so to get on a tram. There again, there were folks ignoring the lines and jumping in front of folks into tram rows folks were patiently waiting for. They also ignored the commands to fold strollers, not sit in laps, and stay behind the yellow line, thus slowing everyone down.

Seemed to me, that Disney dropped the ball some last night with the crowds. I expected them to be much more efficient.

We finally got to our car in the Peter Pan lot at 2:45am. Two and a half hours of standing too close to folks I don't know. I felt for all the little kids I saw, who should have been in bed. From there, getting out of the lot was busy, but things kept moving and was better than I thought.

We were told that magic kingdom was expecting 100,000 but it never got above 68,000. In my opinion, they struggled to handle what came. Not sure they could have handled the 100,000. I am sort of surprised nothing got out of hand. I could see someone getting shoved around and run over with a stroller one too many times and going off on someone.

I am glad we went. Don't think we will do NYE there again though. We spent too much time sitting and waiting because we could not ride much due to lines. Met some great CMs though. Shout out to Taylor in the main St. Confectioners if you are in the boards. She was a pleasure to talk to.

 

[Accident]

Seemed to me, that Disney dropped the ball some last night with the crowds. I expected them to be much more efficient.

That's really interesting as the night before they looked like a well oiled machine.. I wasn't in the crowd but the fireworks ended, we did a short walk around and about 45 minutes after the fireworks went to leave. the park was pretty empty (but rides had a lot on it), it wasn't after hours empty but it was missing about 80% of who was there 30 minutes earlier. at 12;45 I took a ferry with 5 other people to ttc to 2 trams waiting to take us to cars and maybe 10 people from teh monorail joining us.. There was even 2 ferries waiting at the MK side, they actually used both slips which I've never seen on any trip into MK my entire life unless there was repairs being made to the other.

I do agree with lighting, they had so many extra lights around main street and usually do that your dark eyes are gone before you end up outside and trying to figure out where to go.. more lighting even if just turned on when there is a rush would probably make finding and getting to where you need so much easier for everyone, especially if you need to be able to see it or read the signs to find it.

 

[yulilin3]

that does sound nice. Where did they have the dance floor set up? Would love to do NYE at GF- its our home resort so we'll have to plan it!

In the lobby, by the gingerbread house

 

[1153rsmith]

That's really interesting as the night before they looked like a well oiled machine.. I wasn't in the crowd but the fireworks ended, we did a short walk around and about 45 minutes after the fireworks went to leave. the park was pretty empty (but rides had a lot on it), it wasn't after hours empty but it was missing about 80% of who was there 30 minutes earlier. at 12;45 I took a ferry with 5 other people to ttc to 2 trams waiting to take us to cars and maybe 10 people from teh monorail joining us.. There was even 2 ferries waiting at the MK side, they actually used both slips which I've never seen on any trip into MK my entire life unless there was repairs being made to the other.

I do agree with lighting, they had so many extra lights around main street and usually do that your dark eyes are gone before you end up outside and trying to figure out where to go.. more lighting even if just turned on when there is a rush would probably make finding and getting to where you need so much easier for everyone, especially if you need to be able to see it or read the signs to find it.

They used both ferry slips last night with 3 ferries running. Just seemed like there was not a lot of order.

 

[HopperFan]

Here is our NYE at Epcot Experience:

Went thinking it would be insane and a bucket list check, never to return again. BUT I'm ready to do it again. We arrived around 12:30 pm via bus and buzzed right through bag check and security. I only had to wait a couple minutes to upgrade my AP (was blocked out). I used the AP Only Gate and it actually was well marked, with humans and ... we got through the same time as our non-AP friend, oh well. Of course as soon as we entered we knew it was crowded beyond any day we had ever been with Spaceship Earth line.


- Soarin' FP+ line was being sent in the back of the land, via a path next to Imagination and out toward the front of the land. YIKES!
- We wandered to check out the firework viewing areas in FutureWorld and extra bathrooms etc, deciding that we would not view from there
- We went to Canada to get our Happy Birthday Canada pins, no issues being non-Canadians
- To get a visual, the area all through Canada was even full of people
- We checked out all the fenced spaces (they opened at 4)
- We decided to eat at Electric Umbrella around 2 pm since it looked manageable
- By time we finished there was HUGE line out the door to plaza (good move)
- We wandered through MouseGears to check out newest merchandise
- By now it was close enough to 4 that we headed to WoL Pavilion for Hats/Horns
- Sat about 30 minutes (rest whenever you can) and were the first let in to get ours
- Being first they took our pictures
- Time to head to World Showcase and the masses
- Note Ride Wait Times were CRAZY, FEA got up to 5 hours
- Got some photopass pics, beer and pretzel
- Walked the circle to get an idea of what was out there and coming
- By 3 pm people were camping around the lagoon about 5 feet deep
- By 6 pm people were camping about 8 feet deep which was inside the masking tape line
- They had blankets, food, board games, cards ....... and pillows as some were sleeping.
- WHY? They missed the whole night except for fireworks ...
- Never saw so many sleeping .... on the grassy areas from time we walked in ??
- Watched first Illuminations from Italy area
- We tried the blinking bowl drinks from France - high school cranberry drink but the glass was so COOL
- England had their regular AWESOME band and mixed in with StarWars DJ = AWESOME time there
- China had a great dance party with fire blasting in the sky run by Disney technicians and they did great
- Japan had a Silent DJ Dance party. WEIRD to watch and everyone looked SO AWKWARD. We passed.
- Italy had DJ with basically electronic music and tons of lasers .... our favorite
- We watched NYE Fireworks from England hoping to use the backstage lane there
- Illuminations, then this great unexpected to me, display of fireworks at each country in order they did NYE
- Countdown and then this finale that I felt like we could touch. WOW WOW WOW
- THEN we waited 25 minutes before giving up on bypass (they shut before fireworks)
- Since countries had fireworks go off back there they had to clear it.
- Knew then after 25 minutes we would be in trouble at bus depot so
- Went out International Gateway
- We walked to DHS passing the dance party at BW
- Got on the next bus (10 minutes or so) = COACH bus, yes!
- We were in bed by 1:15 even with our wait and walk.

Drunks? = minimal and honestly saw none I would say had too much. Aside from prices, lines were crazy long and not worth it. This was nothing at all compared to Food & Wine on a Saturday night. Not even a factor, at all. and we walked the World twice.

Bathrooms? = Really depended on where you were. I heard some stories of nasty in FutureWorld and am guessing since many folks seemed to be just camping up there and not participating in the rest of the park, maybe those few in that area were taxed. We waited about 15 minutes in Germany and it was super clean, CM working the inside and nicer than a regular day. Later on I went out the International Gateway (with promise I'd get back in) to the bathroom and was only one in it. Key was don't wait until you have to go bad, see a shorter line - just go.

Biggest negative? = Lines for food and drinks. Why they didn't bring just the carts with taps or ice chests (they were all over DS) and place then all around I don't know. They set up a few extra food lines and even to late in the night they had huge lines. They loss income by making it too hard to get any drinks, even water, and food/snacks.

Yes the line goes to Imagination, back past bathrooms, in to the back of The Land, which was behind me.

ITALY Dance Party short video

http://vid50.photobucket.com/albums/f306/bmozmumy/5605309A-E9AF-4C7A-867C-FD9AE4F61C3B.mp4