Anyone go NYE, but not go to parks?

[Simba's Mom]

We were thinking of what it would be like if we went to WDW for New Years, but didn't do any parks. Has anyone ever done that? My biggest concern is that the hotels would be so loud with drunken party-goers around 2:00am. Is a hotel such as OKW, where there aren't hallways OK? Anyone with any experience? Did you feel you were missing the fun by not going to the parks? Or were you glad to stay out of the crowds?

 

[Straughn]

We were there for NYE in 2001. We stayed at the BWI and spent the evening on the BW. Cocktails at the Bellevue Lounge, followed by dinner at the Flying Fish and then on the to Atlantic Dance Hall for the remainder of the evening. The dance hall was not crowded, but there were enough folks there so that it did not feel empty. We were able to see the Epcot fireworks from the dance hall balconey. After the parks closed, the dance hall started to fill up with partyers but nothing obnoxious. There were a few "wound-up" folks on the Boardwalk, but the hotel was its usual quiet self.

We elected not to go to the parks because we didn't want all the crowds and we didn't feel like we missed anything. There was lots of entertainment and people on the BW-but it wasn't packed. In fact it was very enjoyable. We may well do the same thing for NYE this year.

 

[Bill3]

Being on the other side of middle age tlw and myself decided to stay out of the parks on NYE. We were zzzing away at midnite, the only disturbance was when a group came by our room after the parks closed, but that noise lasted all of 2 minutes. Oh- we were staying at CBR. I think we will do it again that way in the future.

 

[travelbug]

We were just down for NYE 2002. We stayed at BWV and decided not to do any parks on the 31st. We didn't want to deal with wall-to-wall crowds. It turned out well for us. We shopped, hung out at the pool, had a nice dinner at Cape May, and got back to our room just before it started pouring rain!! Since we had done parks nonstop the previous 2 days, we were happy staying in, staying dry, watching TV, and then watching the high fireworks from Epcot. We didn't feel like we were missing anything. It wasn't noisy in our hallways at all.

We'll be back down for NYE 2003, and will probably do a similar scenario. Can't wait!

 

[wdwnut61]

We also celebrated the NY at WDW this year. We wanted to avoid the parks because of the crowds. We planned NYE as a non park day. My oldest DD and I rented mouse boats and had a blast. We were staying at the CR and rode around WL, FW, GF and the Poly. My DH and other DD spent the day at the pool. We had dinner at Chef Mickey's, again not leaving our resort. After dinner we did some shopping, the CR has wonderful shops. Then we watched the fireworks from our balcony. It was a very fun and relaxing way to ring in the NY. We switched resorts on NY day to take advantage of the value season rate. Again, we planned this as a non park day and enjoyed the new resort, AKL Have fun with your plans.

 

[vicb]

My sister and her crew were down there this NYE with the Citrus Bowl cheerleading horde. The cheerleaders were taken enmass to MGM where they got totally rained out by the storm and brought back to ASSp before mid-night. The non-chaperoning adults went to an italian resturant that was off site. I don't know the name but she said it had opera singing waiters and was wonderful.