Christmas/New Year's Eve fireworks?

[jrsharp21]

Great thread as I was looking for something like this. It will be our first time at WDW for NYE. We have park reservations for MK and staying on property. It was stated that the TTC parking fills up early that day. Our plan was to drive to MK that morning. Also reading that getting back to your resort after the midnight fireworks is a mess. My thought was that we drive over in the morning, then take the bus back to our resort early afternoon to rest, leaving the car there. Then ride the bus back to MK around 6pm. Then we will have the car there to drive back to the resort afterward. Does that sound like a feasible plan?

 

[scrappinginontario]

Great thread as I was looking for something like this. It will be our first time at WDW for NYE. We have park reservations for MK and staying on property. It was stated that the TTC parking fills up early that day. Our plan was to drive to MK that morning. Also reading that getting back to your resort after the midnight fireworks is a mess. My thought was that we drive over in the morning, then take the bus back to our resort early afternoon to rest, leaving the car there. Then ride the bus back to MK around 6pm. Then we will have the car there to drive back to the resort afterward. Does that sound like a feasible plan?

It is feasible but I’m not sure you will save time compared to using Disney transportation. Once you leave the MK after the fireworks you will still need to take monorail/ferry to TTC, possibly take tram to car and then you will still be in the vehicle traffic back to your resort.

It’s a personal choice but if it were me I’d leave the driving madness to Disney transportation. I’ve heard it can be pretty intense!

 

[GADisneyDad14]

Great thread as I was looking for something like this. It will be our first time at WDW for NYE. We have park reservations for MK and staying on property. It was stated that the TTC parking fills up early that day. Our plan was to drive to MK that morning. Also reading that getting back to your resort after the midnight fireworks is a mess. My thought was that we drive over in the morning, then take the bus back to our resort early afternoon to rest, leaving the car there. Then ride the bus back to MK around 6pm. Then we will have the car there to drive back to the resort afterward. Does that sound like a feasible plan?

Quick reminder in case not on your radar, MK does fireworks at 6:30pm and 11:50pm… so if you stick with that plan to arrive back at MK +/- 6pm you’ll be walking into a thick crowd of people waiting for the 6:30pm show. Not necessarily a bad thing, just more expectation management.

So an observation… the post-covid/theme park reservation era of NYE at Walt Disney World is a lot different than it was pre-covid, in my opinion. We’ve done every year since 2014 or so and yes, pre-covid you’d see epic traffic/crowding situations you couldn’t even begin to describe, but not so much the last couple of years. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still very crowded, just not the OMG out of control you sometimes see on the Internet.

I think your logistics plan sounds good to me, although you don’t need to worry about the TTC lot filling to capacity - low probability of that happening. Having your car there at the end of the night isn’t a terrible thing in case you run into WDW transportation lines you find unfavorable, you can always opt to walk to GF/Poly/TTC if you’re up for it (just get in some more steps before Dopey!). My one NYE rule is I like having plan B and C options that you can pivot to on the fly vs relying 100% on one method.

Hope that helps!

 

[jrsharp21]

Quick reminder in case not on your radar, MK does fireworks at 6:30pm and 11:50pm… so if you stick with that plan to arrive back at MK +/- 6pm you’ll be walking into a thick crowd of people waiting for the 6:30pm show. Not necessarily a bad thing, just more expectation management.

So an observation… the post-covid/theme park reservation era of NYE at Walt Disney World is a lot different than it was pre-covid, in my opinion. We’ve done every year since 2014 or so and yes, pre-covid you’d see epic traffic/crowding situations you couldn’t even begin to describe, but not so much the last couple of years. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still very crowded, just not the OMG out of control you sometimes see on the Internet.

I think your logistics plan sounds good to me, although you don’t need to worry about the TTC lot filling to capacity - low probability of that happening. Having your car there at the end of the night isn’t a terrible thing in case you run into WDW transportation lines you find unfavorable, you can always opt to walk to GF/Poly/TTC if you’re up for it (just get in some more steps before Dopey!). My one NYE rule is I like having plan B and C options that you can pivot to on the fly vs relying 100% on one method.

Hope that helps!

Didn’t even think about walking from MK to the TTC via GF/Poly. We always take the boat back and forth from the TTC. But I have been there before where it can take forever to get on a boat. So imagine NYE it will be crazy after MK closes. If that is the case, I will take the 20 minute walk over waiting an hour plus for the boat. I would rather wait in the car to get out of the parking lot than wait with a herd of people.

 

[GADisneyDad14]

Didn’t even think about walking from MK to the TTC via GF/Poly. We always take the boat back and forth from the TTC. But I have been there before where it can take forever to get on a boat. So imagine NYE it will be crazy after MK closes. If that is the case, I will take the 20 minute walk over waiting an hour plus for the boat. I would rather wait in the car to get out of the parking lot than wait with a herd of people.

One thing I should note that could be important, for the late show they close the MK/GF walking path for a period of time since there’s a launch point in that general area. I am not sure what time they reopen unfortunately. They post watercraft as closed 11:30-12:30 for the same reason (fireworks launch points around Seven Seas Lagoon) so I ‘assume’ (key word) the path may be the same. I’d be curious to hear your experience if you have a chance to come back and post - path closures for fireworks aren’t common except on these special days so always good to have real world experiences. Enjoy your trip!

 

[GADisneyDad14]

Didn’t even think about walking from MK to the TTC via GF/Poly. We always take the boat back and forth from the TTC. But I have been there before where it can take forever to get on a boat. So imagine NYE it will be crazy after MK closes. If that is the case, I will take the 20 minute walk over waiting an hour plus for the boat. I would rather wait in the car to get out of the parking lot than wait with a herd of people.

A quick update to my posts above as this foiled me last night, I didn’t realize the path between Poly and GF is still closed. The path itself (which is a detour around the construction) is there but there were signs up that said path closed so we didn’t chance it.

 

[jrsharp21]

A quick update to my posts above as this foiled me last night, I didn’t realize the path between Poly and GF is still closed. The path itself (which is a detour around the construction) is there but there were signs up that said path closed so we didn’t chance it.

Haha, I hadn’t checked this post lately and we found this out the hard way. After seeing the line for the monorail started near the Empodium, and then saw the sea of people in line for the boat, we decided to make the walk. Got to GF and then started the way to Poly and ran into that dead end. This was around 1am. So we head back inside to the GF. I ask the lady at the front desk if we can take the monorail to the TTC. She tells me no, that they are not running anymore and we would have to order an Uber to get back there. So I put in my ride request on my app. After 15 minutes of not getting a car, I decide to go upstairs to the monorail station. I ask the CM there about getting to TTC and he confirms they are still running for another hour. I told him what the front desk lady told me and he said there is a big disconnect with the hotel staff on park operations. So we finally get on a monorail to the TTC and head back to our resort. I think we walked in our room around 2:45am. We are dragging today.

 

[GADisneyDad14]

Haha, I hadn’t checked this post lately and we found this out the hard way. After seeing the line for the monorail started near the Empodium, and then saw the sea of people in line for the boat, we decided to make the walk. Got to GF and then started the way to Poly and ran into that dead end. This was around 1am. So we head back inside to the GF. I ask the lady at the front desk if we can take the monorail to the TTC. She tells me no, that they are not running anymore and we would have to order an Uber to get back there. So I put in my ride request on my app. After 15 minutes of not getting a car, I decide to go upstairs to the monorail station. I ask the CM there about getting to TTC and he confirms they are still running for another hour. I told him what the front desk lady told me and he said there is a big disconnect with the hotel staff on park operations. So we finally get on a monorail to the TTC and head back to your resort. I think we walked in our room around 2:45am. We are dragging today.

Argh, well damn, I’m sorry I contributed to your delays with my bad advice. Over the course of a few days I have seen a couple of people running the detoured path in front of the construction despite the signs - I almost did myself the other morning if not for an OC sheriff parked at the construction entrance.

Sorry again with that. I feel terrible.

 

[jrsharp21]

Argh, well damn, I’m sorry I contributed to your delays with my bad advice. Over the course of a few days I have seen a couple of people running the detoured path in front of the construction despite the signs - I almost did myself the other morning if not for an OC sheriff parked at the construction entrance.

Sorry again with that. I feel terrible.

No worries at all. It was a memory made. LOL. It was actually our first time at the Grand Floridian.