Christmas week strategy, which parks to reserve, park hoppers?

[HappilyEverAfter80]

We booked a Christmas Disney world trip (staying at POFQ) for 6 full days, arriving early on Dec 20 and leaving right after Christmas Day. For background, we have been to WDW many times but never during December. I know this time will be incredibly busy with most school districts done on the 18th. We are not looking to ride every attraction and do crazy park touring, but we hope to do a few rides a day and the rest see shows, soak up the Christmas atmosphere. We will be travelling with just our 12 yo. (2 adults and 1 kid). We do have a reservation (dining pkg) for the Candlelight processional, otherwise no real plan. We do not plan to be in the parks Dec 20 (arrival day) or Dec 25. Our plan for Christmas Day is to have breakfast somewhere and then tour some resorts.
I need some advice on what parks to reserve and if it makes sense to have the park hopper. Right now our tickets are 4 day park hoppers.
Is the best strategy to arrive before park opening and riding a few rides before moving on when it gets super busy, I don’t know if it makes any sense to arrive prior to park opening if we don’t have early entry as not staying at a deluxe? Also, should we purchase the Disney genie+? I haven’t done any research on it yet and again we just hope to do a few rides in each park on this trip. I should mention our fav ride is FOP, and we have done Rise multiple times on our trip to Disneyland this summer. We love Rise too, but don’t have to do it this time. We have not done Remy or Mickey and Minnie railway as our last trip to WDW was summer 2019.
I appreciate my post is all over the place but any advice on where to reserve our park days (again 4 day park tickets), park hoppers or not etc. It is very likely that we would leave the park each day around lunch and come back for evening entertainment. We do not stay in the parks all day on any trip and once it gets incredibly crowded we generally resort hop or go back to our own resort to swim etc.
Thank you in advance and if there are any posts on this (I looked but didn’t see anything recent) please direct me
EDITED to add: would we be better off cancelling park hoppers and splurging on the Christmas after hours event at MK? Only day we could do it is 21st at $250pp. Yikes.

 

[CBMom01]

We're there around the same time and I'm overthinking the whole thing. I did make 3 MK park reservations because of fear of crowds at MK and the potential of not being able to hop there if things get really busy. Also, because of the after hours events it closes an hour early most days we are there. So our plan if it works is to hit MK multiple days at EE so we're assured getting in. Only have one day planned for HS and everyone wants to do RoTR so we'll see how that goes. Trying not to buy any $LL.

 

[HappilyEverAfter80]

We're there around the same time and I'm overthinking the whole thing. I did make 3 MK park reservations because of fear of crowds at MK and the potential of not being able to hop there if things get really busy. Also, because of the after hours events it closes an hour early most days we are there. So our plan if it works is to hit MK multiple days at EE so we're assured getting in. Only have one day planned for HS and everyone wants to do RoTR so we'll see how that goes. Trying not to buy any $LL.

Totally understand!
The more I think about it, the more I’m leaning towards buying the after hours party tickets and changing our regular tickets to 3 day no park hopper. It’s almost the same price total if we do this.
This way we’d be in MK from 7 pm to 1 am and hopefully with a lot less crowds.
Then next day Epcot and so we could sleep in a bit.
Ugh. I know. I am totally overthinking it too.
I know it will be very crowded but the Mk crowds scare me. Lol

 

[CBMom01]

Totally understand!
The more I think about it, the more I’m leaning towards buying the after hours party tickets and changing our regular tickets to 3 day no park hopper. It’s almost the same price total if we do this.
This way we’d be in MK from 7 pm to 1 am and hopefully with a lot less crowds.
Then next day Epcot and so we could sleep in a bit.
Ugh. I know. I am totally overthinking it too.
I know it will be very crowded but the Mk crowds scare me. Lol

That's an interesting idea just taking the $$ difference between PH and single park and putting it into MK after hours. I'm just so stuck on the idea of being able to PH (though I've never done it in the post-covid 2PM world) that I can't bring myself to do single park.

What I really wish is that our stay included an MK extra evening hours night but the days didn't work out.

 

[HappilyEverAfter80]

That's an interesting idea just taking the $$ difference between PH and single park and putting it into MK after hours. I'm just so stuck on the idea of being able to PH (though I've never done it in the post-covid 2PM world) that I can't bring myself to do single park.

What I really wish is that our stay included an MK extra evening hours night but the days didn't work out.

We’ve parked hopped in Disneyland in August and waiting til 2pm to do it was a pain. Also, depending on how busy the parks get it will probably take a while to park hop.
Not sure what we’ll do yet, but if we do get the extra tickets it would likely be our only MK day on this trip.
If I did my math correct, then 4 day park hopper is about $100 less than 3 day 1 park a day and 3 after hours tickets for us.

 

[tjmw2727]

Just want to clarify that early morning extra hours are available to all resort guests vs the evening hours at select parks that are only available to deluxe resort guests.

Hope this helps with your planning!

 

[HappilyEverAfter80]

Just want to clarify that early morning extra hours are available to all resort guests vs the evening hours at select parks that are only available to deluxe resort guests.

Hope this helps with your planning!

Totally missed that, thank you!
So many new things at Disney world right now.