Best Way to Enjoy Christmas?

[tehSAC]

50th anniversary, Xmas time with crowds going back to normal… I’d say yes.

Yea I get that, but based on past crowd data that first week is usually low.

Will deal with it either way.

 

[NotANewbie]

In the parks? Special holiday snacks. In the resorts? Gingerbread houses: WL, CR, Poly, GF, Beach Club. In Disney Springs? The Christmas Tree Trail - so much!

 

[irene6118]

Is there any left over Christmas magic the first week of January, which is when we are going?

 

[LSK]

My family is going 12/22-12/29, it’s our first Christmas visit. Lots of great info here, thanks for asking this question! We are planning to rope drop MK Christmas morning and then resort hop when the crowds get uncomfortable. How crowded do the MK resorts get Christmas Day?

 

[Cynt]

Going at Christmas is on my Wish List! Definitely go and enjoy it.

 

[PlutoTheDog89]

We used to go every year for Christmas and NYE. The crowds never really bothered us and it was the one time we could really all get together and on the same page for a big vacation. We're planning on going back this year, assuming there's no big restrictions or masks required throughout the parks.

A few things that helped us along the way:
- We did MK every Christmas. We'd arrive at rope drop, stay until ~1pm, then leave. It never seemed to get overwhelmingly crowded until at least 11am. I feel like a lot of families do breakfast together or open gifts in the morning, then head over. But who knows. WITH FastPass+, we were able to get Space Mountain, Buzz Lightyear, 7 Dwarfs Mine Train (FP), Jungle Cruise, Haunted Mansion (FP), Thunder Mountain (FP), enjoy a quick breakfast at Sleep Hollow, and see the parade before leaving for the day. Not sure that'd be possible without FP, but I'm up for the challenge.

- Park hopping is worth it during Christmas week, although it could be annoying this year with the 2pm deadline. In past years, we'd split up DHS and Epcot. We'd do one day where we'd do Epcot for the food kiosks, then DHS at night for Tower of Terror, RnR, and a Toy Story ride... then the JBJBAM! show. Another day we'd do DHS early on for Tower, RnR, the other Toy Story ride, and the Frozen singalong; then Epcot at night for fireworks. Then we'd work another DHS night in somewhere to see Fantasmic.

- For my family — my sister and I being older and able to pay our own way; my parents being older and not able to move and walk like they used to — we decided to upgrade to a Deluxe resort and stay at Beach Club. Being right next to Epcot and a walk or boat ride away from DHS took a ton of stress off us. In later years, after battling the crowds on NYE, we decided to forgo the park and started watching the fireworks from outside our resort, by the Yacht Club boat launch.

- Planning your meals is key. If you're gonna be in MK, plan for MK or the surrounding area. Don't make a reservation for Epcot if you're in MK that day. It's gonna be wayyyy too stressful. Don't plan a breakfast at another resort on a day you wanna get to the parks. Save it for a day you don't mind rolling up in the afternoon.

- Prioritize the rides and attractions you want, don't plan on doing everything, and be okay with last second audibles. I always tiered out the attractions and things we wanted to see. So I would say: "okay, what's new?"... and then "what would I be disappointed if I missed...?".... "what would I be okay skipping this year?" We'd ultimately prioritize the new things and rides we love the first time in the park; then shoot for the secondary things or things we'd like to see, but could live without for the 2nd and maybe 3rd time in the parks.

- People hate the reservation system, but it really is gonna be instrumental in planning your trip this time around. Same used to be said for FP+, but having your parks in hand well before your dining reservations makes way more sense. It also helps you envision your trip and start planning out a plan of action.

 

[acebatonfan]

- People hate the reservation system, but it really is gonna be instrumental in planning your trip this time around. Same used to be said for FP+, but having your parks in hand well before your dining reservations makes way more sense. It also helps you envision your trip and start planning out a plan of action.

Definitely this! Have a plan, but be flexible since things will change. I might be a little crazy since I have a google sheet shared with my family that has a calendar of the week broken down hourly as well as some notes on what's historically happened those days (especially party nights since that really affects MK crowds), budgets, and a whole sheet for things we want to do/eat/see and our priorities and goal dates/times (especially with ADR and reservcation planning). Keeps everything in one place and makes having a general battle plan so much easier to make if we know "Okay, Tuesday is HS. We don't have much we want to do on that day, so we're going to split it and also check out the Boardwalk since we'll be in that general area. We want to do x/y/z and they are really popular so we need to rope drop, yaddy yaddy yah."

If park hopping, take into account transportation times if you're using disney transportation! It might seem "quick" to go to MK to HS, but in reality you'll be using busses. There could be a direct bus going to HS from MK, but prepare for the worst (especially since I am not 100% sure on this and things are bound to change). Your alternative options would then be to walk over to the contemporary to take a bus to HS or do a boat/monorail over to the TTC and take a bus from there to HS.It might not seem long, but it can easily take over an hour+ depending on lucky you are with crowds and timing. You definitely don't want to think you can get to the park in 20 minutes and schedule an ADR at HS at 4PM and plan to leave the MK at 3:30PM.

 

[Shughart]

We liked Christmas tree trail. Obviously there's no MVMCP this year which we enjoy. I highly recommend skipping through the park with jingle bell necklace and ears. I enjoy that. We go to the Christmas shop every time and get a Christmas ornament for the year we go. I like to do a bit of Christmas shopping. When we go next year I want to try to see one or two of the resorts. Maybe Wilderness and Grand Floridian. Last time we saw the tree lighting at Fort Wilderness and the decorations at the Poly (we saw Lilo, Stitch wasn't there yet, dinner time).

 

[ShadowBoxer]

I seen pictures of Christmas day in MK and other parks in Disney and I would definitely avoid that. But it could be fun and magical so best of luck .