Christmas strategy with MVMCP?

[d0naldduck123]

Hi, my BF and I are looking at going to Disney World from Dec 20-24. We're planning on doing 4 day tickets (1 day at each park) with no park hoppers. What I completely disregarded was the MVMCP dates! This trip we're trying to keep it on a low budget so we're not planning on attending MVMCP. But I'm worried about it because the party's on both the 21st and the 22nd, right in the middle of our trip.

So arrival day we're planning on doing HS then originally was going to do MK either on the 21st or 22nd because I felt that it will really start to be crowded by the 23rd, which is a Saturday. But now, since MK will be closing early for the party on both days, I guess the only choice is the 23rd cause we want to stay late since we only have 1 day at MK... but do you guys think it will be super crazy on that Saturday? My thought process was that a bunch of other people who aren't attending the parties won't be at MK on the party days, so they might come on the 23rd like us...but I might be wrong..I hope I'm wrong And do the rest of the parks generally get more crowded than they "normally" would be because of MK closing early? I mean, we are going during Christmastime, so I know I'm expecting the parks to be really crowded anyway, but will it be super extra crowded in the other parks because of MVMCP

So now I'm exploring options about moving dates...we could do Dec 21-25, which I don't think makes much of a difference except that the 23rd AND 24th would be a non-party day park day option for us as opposed to just the 23rd...and we briefly considered going from 25-29 but I think that's just setting us up for more crowds. I also considered November 15-18 which, I know the 16th and 17th are MVMCP, but hopefully the crowds overall will be somewhat lower before Thanksgiving. We were originally going for end of December because I'll be getting my Masters then, so it'd be a celebratory graduation trip after my thesis and final exams. But now I don't know how to go about planning this

 

[Marthasor]

We went from Dec. 25 - Dec. 30 in 2015 and MK was so crowded all of those days I swore if we ever traveled at that time again I wouldn't even step into MK. We went from Dec. 16 - Dec. 21 this past year and it made a little bit of a difference, but it was still very crowded. Honestly, if you can go Nov. 15 - 18, I would do it. The crowds will be so much better.

 

[sharonabe]

So arrival day we're planning on doing HS then originally was going to do MK either on the 21st or 22nd because I felt that it will really start to be crowded by the 23rd, which is a Saturday.

Are you arriving on the 20th and therefore that is a shorter park day or are you arriving on the 19th and the 20th is a full day? If it's a full day, I'd do MK here. The 23rd will be CRAZY busy for the exact reason you're thinking of doing it. Even if it is a shortened day, I think I'd be at MK on the 20th over the 23rd.

 

[d0naldduck123]

Are you arriving on the 20th and therefore that is a shorter park day or are you arriving on the 19th and the 20th is a full day? If it's a full day, I'd do MK here.

I'm arriving on the 20th! If it was a full day, I would have definitely done MK like you said. But my full days are 21,22,and 23. Or possibly on the 24th too if we arrive on the 21st. I don't know what will be worse - the 23rd or the 24th.

November is definitely a possibility but for that I'll have to wait and see if my classes will have an exam on that day

 

[sharonabe]

I'm arriving on the 20th! If it was a full day, I would have definitely done MK like you said. But my full days are 21,22,and 23. Or possibly on the 24th too if we arrive on the 21st. I don't know what will be worse - the 23rd or the 24th.

November is definitely a possibility but for that I'll have to wait and see if my classes will have an exam on that day

Unfortunately, I think your only option then is to flip a coin. The 23rd and 24th will be very crowded with little to no difference.

 

[Accident]

Epcot is the last to change over for the holidays with their stuff starting generally monday after thanksgiving weekend. So if you really want to do it all, then your looking at dec. if your ok missing some stuff at epcot, then nov is much better crowd wise.

But the weeks around xmas and new years is the most crowded time at disney. shoulder to shoulder except on the holidays themselves where they start to open up backstage areas to get more room.

 

[shanew21]

Unfortunately, I think your only option then is to flip a coin. The 23rd and 24th will be very crowded with little to no difference.

I'm not the OP but we are doing the 19th to 23rd and are planning on doing MK on the 20th and 23rd. Would another park be a better option on the 23rd?

Our plan is currently HS/EP on arrival day (19th), 20th - MK, 21st - AK, 22nd - EP (might hop once we're done), 23rd - MK and potential hops

We wanted to avoid the CP days at MK since we don't want to spend the extra $100 each for the hard ticket.

 

[sharonabe]

I'm not the OP but we are doing the 19th to 23rd and are planning on doing MK on the 20th and 23rd. Would another park be a better option on the 23rd?

Our plan is currently HS/EP on arrival day (19th), 20th - MK, 21st - AK, 22nd - EP (might hop once we're done), 23rd - MK and potential hops

We wanted to avoid the CP days at MK since we don't want to spend the extra $100 each for the hard ticket.

Since you have the hopper and you're already planning MK for the 20th, I might move that 23rd MK day to a day that has the party. Here's why:
You'll get the nighttime entertainment on the 20th. The daytime hours of party days are a little less crowded than the days without the party; people don't want to "waste" a ticket on MK when it closes early. You could do MK in the morning/early afternoon and then hop somewhere else for the evening. I'd be leaving MK around 3:30 so as to miss the 4:00 entry of party goers.

If you're planning on seeing Fantasmic!, you may want two nights at HS so you can see Jingle Bell, Jingle Bam if they do it again.

 

[shanew21]

Since you have the hopper and you're already planning MK for the 20th, I might move that 23rd MK day to a day that has the party. Here's why:
You'll get the nighttime entertainment on the 20th. The daytime hours of party days are a little less crowded than the days without the party; people don't want to "waste" a ticket on MK when it closes early. You could do MK in the morning/early afternoon and then hop somewhere else for the evening. I'd be leaving MK around 3:30 so as to miss the 4:00 entry of party goers.

If you're planning on seeing Fantasmic!, you may want two nights at HS so you can see Jingle Bell, Jingle Bam if they do it again.

The only issue is we've heard the Christmas parades are great and those would only occur for non-party goers on the 23rd, right? According to Touring Plans we've also got EMH at MK on the 22nd, so we plan on doing that before EP opens at 9. The real question is just where to make the fast passes for that last day and spend a majority of our time. If MK will be absolutely swamped it may not be worth it, although worst case we could just hop over to another park after using our FPs.

As for Jingle Bell Jingle Bam, I heard not great things, so it wouldn't kill us to skip it. Definitely seeing Fantasmic though (first night is the plan).