12/26 MK Touring plan--I'm skeptical

[Herding_Cats]

Yes, I know TP has it's own forum, but after looking at it for about 40min this morning, this forum is a lot more active.

We were at Disney the week leading up to Christmas in 2015, and Christmas day was nutso. Way, way worse than our other 3 park days leading up to it. I knew it would be busy but I was not mentally prepared for "Christmas day in MK" BUSY. So now I know what we are getting ourselves into. We are going with DH's whole family, and it will be a group of 22-24 people (we are still waiting to hear on if a few will be able to go.) We had *said* that beyond a couple of FP rides and castle pics we would do our own thing, but after I essentially brow-beat the rest of our group into choosing what they wanted for their remaining fastpasses and in detail explained HOW CROWDED IT WILL BE, they decided to just do all the same things that we are doing. That will make things interesting to say the least.

TP has us getting through Jungle Cruise, BTMR, Peter Pan, Pooh, 7dMT (FP+), Dumbo, Meet Ariel, Barnstormer, PSSS-both character groups, [Space (FP+ parital group)/Cinderella & Elena (FP+ parital group)/Laugh Floor (FP+ partial group)] ALL BEFORE 11AM. This seems......idealistic. We are planning on eating lunch at 11, have a whole group FP+ for Buzz, and then will relax and watch the 3:30 parade (because they will all probably want to murder me for trying to pack so much into the morning.) What say you, Christmas experts?

 

[nursejackie]

The park is so busy on Christmas day, it takes an age just to get from attraction to attraction, with queues you can't believe. 10 attractions before 11am seems very optimistic, even with FP+. The last few years MK has been at capacity around 11am, so that gives you an idea of how many people are in there in the morning. We now go to Epcot, as it's more bearable IMHO.

 

[sharonabe]

TP has us getting through Jungle Cruise, BTMR, Peter Pan, Pooh, 7dMT (FP+), Dumbo, Meet Ariel, Barnstormer, PSSS-both character groups, [Space (FP+ parital group)/Cinderella & Elena (FP+ parital group)/Laugh Floor (FP+ partial group)] ALL BEFORE 11AM. This seems......idealistic.

Does it have you getting there at the 7 a.m. rope drop and are you all going to be there at the 7 a.m. rope drop? If you are, then it is possible you could get the majority of that done by 11. From 7 - 8, the park will be very light. From 8 - 9 probably more like a regular 8 a.m. opening. From 9:00 on, the crowds will get steadily worse.

 

[Herding_Cats]

Does it have you getting there at the 7 a.m. rope drop?

No. We are staying offsite that week, so we are planning on being there no later than 7:30 (I would still push for 7 since they aren't holding people in TTC any longer so we could maybe get less-crowded castle pics?) for the 8am general admission rope drop. I'm just trying to figure out how much i need to pare out of the plan.

I'm working off the assumption that the day *after* christmas as nutty as christmas day.

 

[PrincessWithABlaster]

It only seems reasonable for a normal crowd time. I agree that that seems optimistic for a very busy time (I’ve never been Christmas Day so I can’t speak to that). TP sometimes leans optimistic in personalized plans. My May plan is showing a 5 min wait for Soarin at 5 pm in May. Granted it’s a lower season but that seems ... idealistic as you say.

Also something to keep in mind is that even if that timing would work for a party of 2-4, the bigger the group, the harder it is to get them moving. Unless you’re going to be the Commando Drill Sergeant it’s probably going to be inefficient moving between rides - even when you know where you’re going next. I would cut back on the number of rides before your lunch to give yourself some cushion.

 

[Herding_Cats]

Yes, the size of our group is one of my biggest concerns. Because we went from "we will split up into small groups because that's going to be the most efficient way to do things" (where my group has been to disney at christmas time before and knows how crowded it can be) to a group of 23 or 24. I just keep reminding myself that we are going to MK 2 more times this trip and that ONE DAY will not ruin the whole thing for me. I'm honestly considering cutting out BTMR and JC completely and just heading directly to Fantasy land first thing, which is really frustrating me because I know that going there first is what a large majority of people do. *sigh*

 

[hllb]

What do you have your settings on for walking speed? I would set to them to the slowest setting and see what that does.

 

[Herding_Cats]

I completely forgot about walking speed! It took out the frontierland rides and sends us directly to fantasy land in the morning. That seems like a much more realistic plan, and there are a few things we might be able to squeeze in during the morning if we are moving faster than anticipated (such as it's a small world and the carousel.) Thanks for bringing me back to reality.

 

[hllb]

I completely forgot about walking speed! It took out the frontierland rides and sends us directly to fantasy land in the morning. That seems like a much more realistic plan, and there are a few things we might be able to squeeze in during the morning if we are moving faster than anticipated (such as it's a small world and the carousel.) Thanks for bringing me back to reality.

Glad it is more realistic now! I was skeptical too.

 

[nursejackie]

I'm working off the assumption that the day *after* christmas as nutty as christmas day.

We have been on December 26th for 5 out of the last 7 years (and going this year too), and although it's really crazy, it's not Christmas Day crazy. As we go for 17 nights this is usually our 5th morning in MK, so we use our fastpasses for our 3 favourite but popular rides then visit attractions that don't have long wait lines - People Mover, Carousel of Progress, Philarmagic etc

 

[Herding_Cats]

My family would be more than capable of power-walking the orginal plan to make it work, but with 22 of us....probably 2 wheelchairs and a couple of strollers.....not so much.

 

[DVCRyan]

For what its worth we were in the magic kingdom last year on the 26th. We found the crowds to be comparatively speaking light. They were by far the lightest of the week especially first thing in the morning and later at night.

 

[Herding_Cats]

Well fingers crossed then! With as much personal and health stuff as DH's family has going on, they really need to have an amazing trip. I feel a little bad I've been prodding them about stuff as much as I have, but if I can do the mental labor for them now so they can just execute the plan while we are there I think they will enjoy things a *lot* more.