2013 Very Merry Chritmas party

[Luv2trav]

we were there that night too....chaos! It was just weird how people were behaving. We plan to do the same as you if we ever do it again. No way will we ever be right in the mix again.

Us too!!! it was awful. I don't see how anyone thought that was a fun experience. Totally awful. I will NEVER go to another party again... And to think I paid 300.00 to attend that madness I was furious. That was the most crowded i have ever been at Magic Kingdom and I have gone during SEVERAL high crowd times.

 

[Irishmom23]

I wa also at the pary on Dec3 and it was very crowded. I had a ruptured brain aneurysm in September abd had brain surgery. I was so looking forward to my planned Disney trip due to my close encounter with death. I get very fatigued when standing and was leaning against a fence near Main Street, and a cast member moved all of us away from the fence and made us go into the street to watch the fireworks and castle show. I was not able to stand for long periods without resting on someting so could not enjoy the show from where I was standing. With the crowds, my daughter was paranoid someone would knock me over so wouldn.t leave my side. I would like to attend another party in the future when I am more recovered.

 

[Barbydoll8]

Went back in 2003 and lurved it. Mild crowds and fun, fun fun. Went again 3 years ago and that will be the last. It is WAY Oversold and not worth the price anymore IMHO.
There is enough to do w/o paying the extra for this event for us. As much as I love the World, this is one special event we won't be attending anytime soon in the future.

 

[Ron from Michigan]

We did not go to the party this year as we have gone many times over the years including last year. I have notice on-line that many nights have been sold out this year. I don't remember ever seeing that so much in past years.

 

[NoleFan]

We were at the party on Dec. 15. I don't think it sold out but the area around the castle was crowded for parades, wishes, etc. I also noticed people were pushing, shoving, & obstructing other's view of parade. You were camped out for a spot. The 2nd parade we saw from Main St. and it was less crowded. Glad we did it once but taking all into consideration especially the high ticket cost, it will be a one time experience for us.

 

[murphy7573]

Went to the Mickey's Xmas Party the week B4 Thanksgiving. My 6th Party and my 4 y/o DD's 3rd Party! BEST EVER so far...Yes the crowds for the First parade and only Xmas Fireworks show are crowded but isn't that always the case. What my wife and I love now is that our 4 almost 5 y/o is tall enough and more brave to ride the thrill rides and with wait times under 5 minutes or less for these rides at MK, you know the busiest park in WDW for us it's totally worth it !!! Since you have a lot of people who come to the Party specifically for the parade, fireworks, hot cocoa, cookies and won't ride thrill rides anyways it is worth the cash! Just B4 the fireworks shot off, we nabbed a spot on the bridge that connects Main Street to Adventureland with no obstructed view. Fireworks finished, right to the Jungle Cruise and POC after that. It also helped that our server from Le Cellier was in line behind us at POC and myself, wife and daughter hung out with him and his fellow Canadian Cast Members the rest of the night riding Splash and Thunder Mountains repeatedly, Haunted Mansion and numerous others with virtually no lines. Plus their 40% CM discount was pretty rad too !!! We love paying xtra for the MVMCP tickets for the fact that the RIDE crowds are slim at best ! Make friends with CMs from the Canadian Pavilion !!! Also, as far as people backed up in front of Cinderella's Castle, it's like one of the most photographed tourist attraction in the world, not DisneyWorld...The WORLD! And with the "icicles" draped all over it only makes for better photos. Also it's the best spot for the Celebrate the Magic, Fireworks shows and parade (we always do the 2nd parade anyways, read about tips on this). Now the scooter issue...being a paramedic, all I can say is...The health of this country is, well plain Awful.

 

[MinnieLovesMickey12]

DH and I went to our first ever MVMCP this year on November 14th. We have never been during high crowd times so to see that enormous amount of ppl in the park was kind of shocking to me.

Also what was surprising to me was the sheer number of ppl walking around the park with no wristbands on. Ppl were not being asked to leave.

One girl did walk down the street along the parade route and ask ppl to hold up their wrist so she could see their bands but all she saw was the first row of ppl. The sidewalks were 4 or 5 ppl deep.

Usually showing up one hour before the parade is enough time to secure a curb spot. Not during the MVMCP. We got to the sidewalk at 7 pm for an 8:15 parade and there were no curb spots left. We had to stand behind a family that was seated on the curb and STAND we did literally for 90 minutes waiting on the parade to start. By the time it got to where we were standing by the bridge into tomorrowland it was 8:30.

After the parade we found a spot to sit down to watch the castle show and fireworks.

But that amount of ppl was hard for me to deal with. I have been six times in the last 2 years and have never seen crowds like what we saw.

I thought going the first week they started having the party would be lower crowds but it wasn't.

We won't be going back again until 2015 but we will do another MVMCP when we go back so the kids can enjoy it.

 

[Sammie]

I hate you had to experience this and especially the child, but we attended a sold out Halloween party without near the problems. So maybe at times it is more about the people that are there then the actual number of people.

As to the checking wristbands, we have seen them before very stern about it and escort people out of the park and also have CM with flashlights working crowd control in congested areas to the point of being very strict about it.

 

[Sammie]

This is one of the reasons we stopped going to the Xmas Party… We noticed 4 yrs ago that so much has changed and the crowds were just getting bigger every year… After going to it for about 10yrs in a row we decided that it wasn't worth the cost and crowds to go again… I have the first ticket from the 1st Xmas party that we went to price was 19.95 per person, and I know you won't believe it, but you got so much more for your money(Pictures, cookies, hot chocolate, and the shows were so much better) used to be great !!!!

Did they stop the hot cocoa and cookies this year, we got them last year.

I know you don't get the photo anymore and I agree there were more shows and they were better including Mickey's Christmas Carol and Country Bears.

 

[jerseyduke]

They did do the hot chocolate and cookies this year.

I was there on 12/10. What i did not see that i saw last year was an adamant checking of the wrist bands. Last year we were stopped to the point that it was almost annoying. This year, not once.

The whole time walking around (while I did enjoy it) i was thinking Disney needs to raise the price of this event, and cut the number of tickets sold.

I am sure that that would not be popular amongst larger families, but sadly this year, it did not feel a tad bit "exclusive"

 

[jimandami]

They did do the hot chocolate and cookies this year. I was there on 12/10. What i did not see that i saw last year was an adamant checking of the wrist bands. Last year we were stopped to the point that it was almost annoying. This year, not once. The whole time walking around (while I did enjoy it) i was thinking Disney needs to raise the price of this event, and cut the number of tickets sold. I am sure that that would not be popular amongst larger families, but sadly this year, it did not feel a tad bit "exclusive"

We were asked to show our wristbands at least 10 times this year! ETA: we attended the same party as you. And I do agree they are selling too many tickets!

 

[DisneyHeather]

We went on December 10 and it was our first time going to one. We enjoyed ourselves except for when we tried to get away from Main St after the fireworks. We made the mistake of going the wrong way and then had to turn around and back track and with 9 of us it was hard to keep everyone together. That part of the experience actually made us decide not to try to watch the 2nd parade.

We were happy with the short wait times for the rides and on Splash Mountain they let us stay on for a second ride since no one was in line at the time which was cool. It helped us to be able to ride everything in one side of the park so we didn't have to do it another day but it did feel super crowded on Main St.

Oh and they were checking wristbands on us.

 

[anna08]

We have been caught unable to get through the crowd at MK prior to fireworks before, and with small children it was truly frightening. We have never stayed for the fireworks at MK since. There were no CMs to be seen on our night until we got to the very front, and by then all we wanted to do was get as far away from the MK as possible, and had to wait for 30 minutes for a resort bus. Thank you for posting your experience - we will be certain to avoid this party in the future.

As for CMs checking wristbands at the time of the parade - what are they going to do? Send the offender toward the exit?? They aren't going to get anywhere in those kinds of crowds.

 

[dwight16]

Oh wow thought it was just me we went the first night back in November and wow we left after 1 hour it was truly awful. Did the Halloween party last year and it was fine but this was so packed made me Uncomfortable so we started to walk out during the fire works and felt better. I read that a sell out was 20,000 tickets I was like no way bc the park can hold almost 80000 when they cut it off for capacity. Made no sense.

 

[princessK30]

We have been caught unable to get through the crowd at MK prior to fireworks before, and with small children it was truly frightening. We have never stayed for the fireworks at MK since. There were no CMs to be seen on our night until we got to the very front, and by then all we wanted to do was get as far away from the MK as possible, and had to wait for 30 minutes for a resort bus. Thank you for posting your experience - we will be certain to avoid this party in the future. As for CMs checking wristbands at the time of the parade - what are they going to do? Send the offender toward the exit?? They aren't going to get anywhere in those kinds of crowds.

We were there the second week of December and right before the parade started, a line of probably 20 cast members came down the street asking for everyone to hold up wristbands - there was a family of 6 (4 adults, 2 kids) sitting on the sidewalk right next to us that didn't have wrist bands and they were immediately swarmed by several cast members as well as security and escorted out of the park. The staff was very nice about it but when the family tried to play dumb and think of excuses why they didn't have wrist bands on, that's when the security people appeared out of nowhere. It was pretty crazy! But at least we got to move closer to the curb