Christmas time at WDW...rough trip

[monami7]

We just got back from out first WDW christmas trip. No one in our 12 person party ever wants to do that again. We enjoyed out WDW trip but WDW at Christmas not so much. About half of the decorations we expected. No WOW factor at all and it was SO crowded from Friday the on that it was effecting our touring. Fastpasses were out by 2pm for sorin' and everest. And there were just people everywhere. We were prepared for crouds but thougfht the Christmasy feel would be worth it. Nope not so Christmasy.
I will say that the CP at Epcot was great and that MGM was a little more decorated than other partks.
MVMCP just made my family feel ripped off. The only difference from EMH was the parade and the dance parties. The cookies did not make up for the really long lines and extreme crowds...and the party monday was not even sold out.
We also noticed that we always feel spoiled at WDW. That is why we go. It always has good cast members, yes one or two are occasionally off but overall it is good. We actually felt that they were horrible this trip. The first day or two we blamed it on coincedence. By day three it was just off. My DH thought maybe they just were not prepared for the amount of people that are there.
Also the busses though they claim they come every 20 minutes were rarely there that fast. tHE TYPICAL TIME WAS 45 MINUTES. aLSO ONE TOOK MY PORR SISTER AND HER BUSSLOAD OF csr GUESTS TO SSR (sorry for the caps hit the wrong key) It really was unreal how bad teh overall effect was.
We do love WDW and of course we will be back. Already started talking about the next trip. In Sept., oct., early Nov., January or February. Those are the only months we will return.
We had hoped to fall in love with WDW this time of year and were very disapointed.

 

[Buttercup Roberts]

I am thinking early December is not the time to go anymore, no matter what the guide books say!

 

[mikiclements]

Sorry ya had such a hard time. We also went Monday to the very Merry Christmas Party, but we soared through the lines. My daughter got on space mountain in 5 minutes flat.. no one was at Buzz light year... Maybe it was the timing. We arrived a bit late as we went first to MGM to see the lights.

I hope you are not too discouraged. I am sure they will do better for you next year if you go.

 

[monami7]

we won't be going back. It did get better at 11:30 and DH and I rode pirates and space mountain with no lines. However nothing was worth the extra money it cost. We could have rode rides on an EMH nite. And it really was crowded. Maybe it was timing.

 

[horseshowmom]

We're in Orlando now (got here Saturday and started at the parks on Sunday). We've had a great trip and fell in love with MVMCP on Tuesday night (we're already planning on coming back next year during the same timeframe and doing Universal, Sea World, and MVMCP!).

The only thing that may have made a difference for us was that we used TourGuide Mike (and we're completely sold on his advice).

We didn't stand in lines for more than 10 minutes hardly at all (used FP's for the major attractions mostly). A lot of the stuff we walked straight on.

It's been a great trip so far!

 

[Florida_Mom]

This was our third year at the Christmas Party and it was my favorite year, so far. I was there Monday night, the 18th, and the crowds were not bad at all. We even had ADRs at Liberty Tree Tavern at 8:20, which got us out of the parade crowd, we were at dinner for an hour, and still had to time to ride most everything that we wanted to before and after. DH rode Space Mountain, and the line was about 7 minutes. The longest line we waited in was for the race cars in Tomorrowland which DS5 just loves. We rode BTMR --again, minimal wait -- maybe 5-10 minutes. We found a great spot on Main Street 5 minutes before the last parade started (yes, we had to stand, but that was ok). Saw the fireworks from Frontierland and they were gorgeous.

Everyone has different experiences, and I've certainly had a trip or two to Disney that didn't live up to expectations, so I can relate. But this trip really worked for us.

 

[Vemnox]

Please remember CM's are indeed well-informed about the huge crowds and that they are people too ... they "enjoy" the same stresses of the big crowds as you do. Don't take anything personally from them.

 

[mrsltg]

Strange. We were there the 9th-16th and had a completely different experience. The CMs were great, the party on the 11th was near empty, crowds were low, transportation was quick and efficient. December is my favorite time of year to go to Disney. Sorry you didn't enjoy it!

 

[Santa]

Sorry you had a not so magical trip this time. The time frame you were there is also Pop Warner week. We got caught off gaurd once and learned a great lesson. If you decide to go in December again (and I hope you do) try the second full week. What a world of difference a week makes.

 

[Pugrpooh]

Strange. We were there the 9th-16th and had a completely different experience. The CMs were great, the party on the 11th was near empty, crowds were low, transportation was quick and efficient. December is my favorite time of year to go to Disney. Sorry you didn't enjoy it!

We were also there during this time. Crowds were very low during the day, but we went to MVMCP on 12/14 and it was terribly crowded. CM's were great and didn't have any problems with the transportation either.

 

[lovethattink]

I was at Mousefest and have gone several days during the week after that. I think crowd levels are up at this, in past years, slow time, because so many people are reading the planning guides and boards. I can remember the days we'd come the 1st week in December and it was a ghost town.

As for navigating the parks on a busy day it is very possible to do using fast passes and keeping an eye on wait times. Here's what we do. We fast pass a ride that has a 30 min to an hour wait. Then we go on the high capacity attractions in that area. If there is another fast pass attraction in that area we send one person in our party to get that fast pass as soon as we are allowed. Then we go ride the attraction of our original fast pass. We keep repeating until all the fast pass machines are closed. There are some fast pass attractions that can hold you back from getting new fast passes if their return time is hours away. We save fast passing those attractions til later, or skip them all together.

 

[alicenwonder99]

I felt the same as you regarding MVMCP. We won't be doing that for a long time.

I wonder if you didn't have a great time because of the big party you had. Trying to get 12 people to move along at the same pace, on the same ride, etc. is probably very hard. I noticed the big difference between just 3 of us as opposed to the 6 of us (when the whole family goes). I can't imagine trying to go to WDW with 12 people.

 

[monami7]

I am sure our party size was a part of it. We did have fun on our trip. It is obviously not the first or last time we will be at WDW. We just did not have that "special magic" time we have in the past and none of us felt there was a christmas feeling there. We usually go in Oct. or Jan/Feb. so we like the near empty times. We just expected more. We have alweays wanted to do WDW at Christmas and now that we have we don't knopw what the big deal was.

 

[monami7]

I also wanted to add that there were things I went specifically to see for example. We ate at Boma's because I really have always thought that the candy village they make was so neat. I wanted to see it in person. So we check in all excited to see it and the lady at the desk says. "Oh, we don';t have one this year. HUH how do you not have one? Also there is so much hype about the GB house at GF. We saw it and it wasn't really that big of a deal. MVMCP was nothing special. They even do the Christmas show in tomorrowland during the day so I saw no reason other than the parade to go to MVMCP. We had tickets though and went only to fight more crowds.
Epcot was beautiful at night, it always is though.

 

[scraptoons]

Strange. We were there the 9th-16th and had a completely different experience. The CMs were great, the party on the 11th was near empty, crowds were low, transportation was quick and efficient. December is my favorite time of year to go to Disney. Sorry you didn't enjoy it!

Ditto for us!!! We were sure to get out of there by the end of the 2nd week.

I've heard that from the 15th on, it starts getting packed. I noticed a huge difference in the crowd levels on the last day.

We did not do the MVMCP since we have kids in the age range that would possibly be asleep during that time, and we didn't feel like shelling out an extra $200 for cookies, hot chocolate, and fake snow.
Plus an experienced Disney coworker advised us against it.
I'm glad, because we spent the time at Epcot running thru test track and mission space a few more times.

 

[monami7]

Ditto for us!!! We were sure to get out of there by the end of the 2nd week.

I've heard that from the 15th on, it starts getting packed. I noticed a huge difference in the crowd levels on the last day.

We did not do the MVMCP since we have kids in the age range that would possibly be asleep during that time, and we didn't feel like shelling out an extra $200 for cookies, hot chocolate, and fake snow.
Plus an experienced Disney coworker advised us against it.
I'm glad, because we spent the time at Epcot running thru test track and mission space a few more times.

I wish that we would have spent that money on park hoppers instead and we could have joined you! I really don't think that we had a bad time. We just did not think it was worth the money to go to MVMCP.

 

[scraptoons]

I wish that we would have spent that money on park hoppers instead and we could have joined you! I really don't think that we had a bad time. We just did not think it was worth the money to go to MVMCP.

It would have been fun to have you guys running through the line corrals with us!

I was debating on the park hopper option way back when. The biggest thing I learned on the trip is that park hoppers are the way to go. Especially if you are staying on site.

We renting a Boardwalk studio from a DVC member.
In the late afternoons and evenings, kids loved hopping on a boat to ride to Epcot, walking through Epcot to the front gate to get on the monorail.
We could have taken a bus, but this was the fun way to do it.

Plus, we found that most all the rides had hardly any lines late in the day. Most of our ADRs were lunch times.
Next time, I'm scheduling all our TS ADRs for the latest lunch slots. We were able to max the time in the parks, especially with MK closing early. Everything seemed to happen at dinner time!

 

[MickeyNicki]

This was our third December at WDW. I have always wanted to go around Christmas and in 2004 the dream became a reality! We will always go the first or second weekend in December. We love the decor, extremely Christmassy! We make a point to travel to all the resorts and enjoy their decorations too. MVMCP is a must for us...the last 3 years we have enjoyed very low crowds, wonderful parades and shows..the fireworks are the best!

Sorry you do not feel the same....

 

[mom2rb]

We were at the parks last week. We had a great time until Sat. Then we felt like we couldn't move. It was so crowded. We didn't go to the Christmas party, we went a few years ago and didn't care for it. We also thought the decorations were fewer than two years ago. Over all we had a great time.

 

[goofie4goofy]

We were also there during this time. Crowds were very low during the day, but we went to MVMCP on 12/14 and it was terribly crowded. CM's were great and didn't have any problems with the transportation either.

We were there from the 9th to the 15th. We went to MVMCP on the 12th and it was EMPTY! I noticed the sign for the the 12/14 MVMCP and it was sold out. For the future , always choose a Tuesday MVMCP if you can during the 2nd week of Dec. it is ALWAYS less crowded.

During our stay the crowds were minimal. The longest line we waited on was 20 min for EE...and that was not even bad as you just walked thru. The day we were leaving we noticed the crowds start to build. We got out just in time. Out trip was great, perfect weather and low crowds.