Christmas Day excitment

[PrincessSuzanne]

Well, DH and I have decided to bite the bullet this year and spend Christmas Day at MK. We are currently booked Dec 21 thru 26. I know we are crazy, but we just have to do it to say we have once and I think this is probably the best year to do it.

I lost my mom a year ago and we don't have children, so last Christmas was just awful and I really don't want to feel that way again this year, so I am being proactive.

I need a little info from thos who have done this before. Right now, MK is supposed to open at 8am, what time do we need to be there to be able to get in. BTW, we will be at Pop Century and we also will have our own vehicle, which is better?

Suzanne

 

[SunniKC]

I'm trying to decide right now if we want to do MK on Christmas day or EPCOT and doing the CP on Christmas Day (we were originally considering Christmas Eve)...but there is just something about the thought of spending the most magical day of the year in MK that has me leaning towards just going for it.

 

[PrincessSuzanne]

That is the very reason we are going to spend Christmas Day at MK. We are planning to spend at least part of Christmas Eve at Epcot. I might consider doing CP to kill some time, since Epcot is a 1/2 day park for us.

Although we will probably just be having a leisurely trip this time, since most of the time, we are rushing from one park to the other.

My biggest concern is what time to get to the park, I am thinking we will leave the resort about 6:30am, but I am hoping someone will offer some more insight, since we have never been at a time this busy.

Suzanne

 

[SunniKC]

Someone was telling me they thought the early morning hours wouldn't be quite as bad as later in the day as people would want to take time to open gifts and spend family time before heading to the parks but don't know how true that will be.

 

[SunniKC]

I've been hearing everywhere that you need to be at MK before 10 as it closed last year to level 4 capacity (absolutely no one in) by 10:30.
Since we are staying at DTD we can't take advantage of the EMH hour but will plan on being there 45 minutes prior to 9:00

 

[PrincessSuzanne]

We have an 8:30am ressie at CRT, so we will be leaving Pop about 6:30am. It will make for a long day, but well worth it. I knew the park closed about 10 or 11 last year and we originally had a 10:10am ressie at CRT, but I was able to move it earlier, we were going to leave the resort at 6:30 no matter what.

Suzanne

 

[SunniKC]

That's funny Suzanne, because we have an 830 ADR too...but at Crystal Palace
I hope to have figured out by then how long it will take us to get from our hotel to the park (downtown disney hotel)....whether to chance their bus that day or take our car and just drive in ourselves

 

[PrincessSuzanne]

That's funny Suzanne, because we have an 830 ADR too...but at Crystal Palace
I hope to have figured out by then how long it will take us to get from our hotel to the park (downtown disney hotel)....whether to chance their bus that day or take our car and just drive in ourselves

I just saw you had posted your ressie on the December thread, that is sooo exciting I'm not sure what time the buses at the resorts will start running and I read somewhere on here that only resort guests can board the transportation at TTC, so I don't know how we will get up to the gate. I keep hoping someone with more experience or a CM will post, so I will know whether we need to drive or take the resort bus. I use an ECV, so that is a little bit of an extra challenge in itself.

I really want to drive our van over, but I am just not sure. We have had trouble with early morning transportation and getting to ressies to the point I have had to call Disney Dining and have them call the restaurant to tell them we were having transportation trouble, but luckily we made it on time, but CHristmas morning is not the morning I want to take a chance on. Whatever you do, make sure you have your ressie number available, so they will let you on the transportation from the TTC.

Suzanne

 

[SunniKC]

Thanks for the advice! I plan on keeping all my reservation number and info on my blackberry as well as keeping a folder with the printout confirmations (the ones I got emails for...ones I made over the phone I have nothing but confirmation numbers for) in it (along with my spreadsheet that shows park times/show times/dining reservations including number.)

 

[PrincessSuzanne]

Wow, you are more organized than I am. I used to do that and got tired of it. I do write down our ADR numbers, but that is all. You can put your confirmation numbers in at the ressie booking area on the WDW site and pull them up and print them out. I may do that.

Suzanne