Christmas Week Veterans, is this a good strategy?

[LMC]

OK, I know it will be packed while we are at WDW, 12/22 thru 1/1. We have been at Easter week before so I am expecting the crowd level to be about the same for this trip. My plan is to have the four kids each pick one must-do ride for each park each day. We will get to the park at opening time and do those rides first (fastpass where we can--if it's in close proximity to the other must do rides) then anything else we manage to work in is just icing on top of the cake.

1. Say for instance MK opens at 10 am, do we get there at 9:30 or 10, or 10:30? I don't really want to be jammed up in the turnstiles with the kids but we do want to get there early so we can get these must-do's out of the way as I am sure they will be top rides on everyone's lists.

At MK, we will probably go in thru Adventure Land and head straight for Splash Mtn, and TMRR. We will FP one of those and get in line for the other. We will then use our FP, if it is time, or run over to Peter Pan. We will work in that area for a while until our FP is over then probably have to go FP space mtn. And we will wait in lines in that section while we wait to ride Space Mtn on our FP's. We will then work thru toon town, and all the other rides as we can and the parades, Philharmagic, etc.

2. We usually watch the parades but I thought this time we would ride the rides instead. Do the lines at the rides really drop off during parade times? If so, which parade (daytime or nighttime) has the better Christmas showing? We will just see one of those.

We will follow this strategy at each park (hopefully) and that way each child has done their favorite ride.

3. AND, one more thing, since the parks are open very late the week we are there, do the crowds drop off significantly after say 10pm or so? We may leave around 6pm and take a break then go back until they close in the wee hours!

Is any of this good planning for the busy week we will be there? We have 10 days in the parks so I am not concerned about doing it all in one day as we will return to each park at least twice.

 

[Luvmyfam3]

We were there about the same time last year. Yes, I would say that that's a good plan! We had 5 kids so everyone voted on what their "must do" was for the day...thankfully, some were the same!! One thing that I did that REALLY helped was Tourguide Mike. His suggestions were amazing in helping us to time everything. We rarely had any waiting at all!! And, yes, we did go back to our resort sometimes during the afternoon and come back late in the evenings. The crowds were much better.... Also, our kids aren't into parades very much so we always took advantage of that time to ride rides. I have to say that we didn't see too much difference in the rides during the parades.

Have fun!! It's a wonderful time to go!!!!

 

[swilphil]

It's a pretty good plan, but be prepared to be flexible depending on the situation. For one, be there for opening, especially at MK. It should open at 8 a.m., or 9 a.m. at the latest. Also do Dumbo first thing in the morning or very late at night. The line moves very slow. ALWAYS have a Fastpass in hand. As soon as you are able to get a new Fastpass, do so.

 

[LMC]

. The crowds were much better.... Also, our kids aren't into parades very much so we always took advantage of that time to ride rides. I have to say that we didn't see too much difference in the rides during the parades.

I was afraid of this! Oh well, if I were standing in a line for a ride for a long period of time, I wouldn't get out just to go see a parade! You have to really plan for those darn things and get your spot about an hour early and it just eats up so much time. I think we'll skip most of them this trip. I plan on seeing the CP at Epcot, a tree lighting ceremony, Osborne Lights, and maybe one parade (AK?), all the Santa's at Epcot. That's all I can think of right now that is seasonal so we've never done before.

 

[LMC]

It's a pretty good plan, but be prepared to be flexible depending on the situation. For one, be there for opening, especially at MK. It should open at 8 a.m., or 9 a.m. at the latest. Also do Dumbo first thing in the morning or very late at night. The line moves very slow. ALWAYS have a Fastpass in hand. As soon as you are able to get a new Fastpass, do so.

Well I'll re-check the park hours right before we go. I have them written down already but just to make sure nothing changed, I'll double check. I am trying to avoid all the EMH parks because I know those days tend to be more crowded. We don't usually ride Dumbo; my kids are not really bananas over it, I guess because we ride the magic carpets or the dinos at AK. Does anyone know where I can get a FP list by day? I don't think they run FP every day on all the FP rides. I just know that DD will pick Splash, DS will pick the mountain roller coaster (name escapes me!), and other DS will pick Peter Pan, not sure about my niece, probably space mtn. Then of course Philharmagic, Buzz, Indy cars, would all be nice to do.
At MGM, we want to see Fantasmic!, the mermaid show, my niece will want to do RRC, TT, of course the Osborne lights with snow! We may catch the tree lighting and parade at MGM or AK as they may not be as crowded.

 

[Luvmyfam3]

The above suggestion about FastPasses is VERY good!!! They don't offer FP for all rides, but they don't change the list either. We ALWAYS had a FP in hand and were constantly checking the time that we could go get another one. We would send one of our party with all the tickets to go get another one and then get in line for the ride of our first FP. That saved us TONS of time!!!

 

[lovethattink]

1. Say for instance MK opens at 10 am, do we get there at 9:30 or 10, or 10:30? I don't really want to be jammed up in the turnstiles with the kids but we do want to get there early so we can get these must-do's out of the way as I am sure they will be top rides on everyone's lists.

Depends if you are using Disney Transportation or your own. If using your own transportation and you park at TTC, they will not let you enter the monorail until park opening. If using Disney Transportation, it's best with small children to either arrive an hour before opening and wait at the gate or arrive just shortly after the park opened.

At MK, we will probably go in thru Adventure Land and head straight for Splash Mtn, and TMRR. We will FP one of those and get in line for the other. We will then use our FP, if it is time, or run over to Peter Pan. We will work in that area for a while until our FP is over then probably have to go FP space mtn. And we will wait in lines in that section while we wait to ride Space Mtn on our FP's. We will then work thru toon town, and all the other rides as we can and the parades, Philharmagic, etc.

2. We usually watch the parades but I thought this time we would ride the rides instead. Do the lines at the rides really drop off during parade times? If so, which parade (daytime or nighttime) has the better Christmas showing? We will just see one of those.

It does drop some, but not too significantly. Usually the daytime is the Christmas parade and the night time is spectromagic. Not sure for this year. Your best bet is to figure out where the parade starts. Those are the best rides (shortest lines) to hit during and just after the parade.

We will follow this strategy at each park (hopefully) and that way each child has done their favorite ride.

3. AND, one more thing, since the parks are open very late the week we are there, do the crowds drop off significantly after say 10pm or so? We may leave around 6pm and take a break then go back until they close in the wee hours!

There are significantly more adults, significantly less children during the late hours.

Is any of this good planning for the busy week we will be there? We have 10 days in the parks so I am not concerned about doing it all in one day as we will return to each park at least twice.

My other advice is to be sure to have priority seating. The counter service restaurants can really fill up fast. If you are doing counter service, eat at off hours. I remember last year the day before Christmas, I waited in a bathroom line for 20 minutes. DH waited in line at Pecos Bills for 30 minutes just to order food.

 

[LMC]

The above suggestion about FastPasses is VERY good!!! They don't offer FP for all rides, but they don't change the list either. We ALWAYS had a FP in hand and were constantly checking the time that we could go get another one.

OK, I know they don't have FP for every ride. We are pretty familiar with which rides we like that do have FP so we are good there. BUT, I have been to the parks before when the FP booths are covered and they are not issuing FP's for that attraction for that particular day. My ?? was, do they offer some FP's on some days and not on others (say for instance you can only FP Splash on Tues, Fri, and Sat). OR, maybe it is because we usually go at off-peak times so they didn't see the need to open them all up. It was early in the day so it wasn't that they were out of FP's for that day. I thought there was a list that told which rides were FP'd on each day. It won't really matter too much, as our schedule won't be dictated by FP schedules. It would be nice to see a list if there was a list so we would know not to run over to that attraction if it wasn't FP'ing for that day. Hopefully everything will be running wide open due to crowds and we will be able to utilize all FP's.
Oh, and I did figure out several trips ago that you CAN get a new FP before you use a current FP or before it expires!! I had always thought that it had to expire or you had to use it before you could get another one. Duh, how could they keep track of usage, especially when they throw them into the trash and they don't scan them. Now I always check the time allotments at the bottom to see when we can get a new one.

 

[Luvmyfam3]

You're probably right that they didn't offer them for that particular ride if the crowds were low. I can assure you that that week ALL available FP rides will be offering them!! And, they'll probably "sell out" in the afternoon, depending on the popularity of the ride. I don't know if they have a list of FP's that are "sold out". That would be nice... Maybe that board at MGM where they have the wait times posted would show that. But I can't think of places at the other parks where they would offer that.....

 

[anne60]

Not sure if you are planning anything for New Year's Eve, but we had PS's for the Whispering Canyon Cafe, we arrived 20 minutes before the seating time, and waited for 50 minutes AFTER the seating time before we were seated. It was really packed that night. Anyway - we did not stay out late that night, but got up bright and early New Year's day and were at MK at opening. It was by far the most enjoyable morning of the whole vacation. We rode all the "biggies" multiple times before it got crowded. I think it really did not get packed unitl after noon that day.
The other thing I noticed, particularly early in the day, was that they inflated the wait times of the FP rides, I think to encourage folks to get a FP and not wait in line. The biggest was for Tower of Terror which less than an hour after the park opened had a posted wait time of 50 minutes. We had just gotten FPs for RnR so decided to wait in the standby line. Only, there was no standby line....we walked right on!!!
The good news about going during this week is that, although there are a lot of people, there are also a lot of extras going on....I never saw so many wandering performances as I did that week. Also, all attractions are running at full blast the whole time...it's amazing how many people can ride space mountain in a few minutes with both sides and all cars running!!! Also, it is not as hot as Easter week can be, and not all that much more crowded.
I have to say we had a great time and we are going back this year!

 

[LMC]

Well this is all encouraging! The only time we have ever had a problem getting a FP was at Soarin in May; they were sold out by 10 am. This time, we will be at MGM at opening and that is the first thing we will take care of, then go ride a couple of things and return for our FP time.
I think I am finally getting excited about this trip as opposed to dreading it!

I have informed the DH and my sister that we WILL be at the parks at opening times and probably won't stay until closing. We can go back to rest then return later in the night if we want. It looks as though they have some really late park hours this time of year!

 

[dvc guy]

I think we qualifly as Chrismas week veterans. We will make our 6th trip this year. Get going early is the only way to go. Crowds will drop off late in the evening, like 10 PM and later. As posted make sure you have ADR or you will be eating hot dogs and pizza for a week. We seem to to be able to do most rides, remember to stop and see all the special hioliday stuff in the parks. Enjoy see you on the 24th in MK, we are planning a marathon 8AM to 11 PM.

 

[chris7]

"Depends if you are using Disney Transportation or your own. If using your own transportation and you park at TTC, they will not let you enter the monorail until park opening. If using Disney Transportation, it's best with small children to either arrive an hour before opening and wait at the gate or arrive just shortly after the park opened."

Is this true about not being allowed on the monorail before park opening? What about people with early ADR's? I had assumed the monorail would start running much earlier than the park opening time.

 

[LMC]

I think we qualifly as Chrismas week veterans. We will make our 6th trip this year. Get going early is the only way to go. Crowds will drop off late in the evening, like 10 PM and later. As posted make sure you have ADR or you will be eating hot dogs and pizza for a week. We seem to to be able to do most rides, remember to stop and see all the special hioliday stuff in the parks. Enjoy see you on the 24th in MK, we are planning a marathon 8AM to 11 PM.

Is there any other kind of food other than pizza??? No really we have a few ADR's for dinners but my kids really don't do well with those fancy sit down places as they aren't big variety eaters and don't like to sit there for over an hour so we usually just get counter service. We'll just have to change it up a bit for variety!
We plan on going to MGM on the 24th and then seeing the Osborne lights with snow before heading "home" to wait for Santa's arrival. I thought that would get the kids all hyped up for Santa. Plus, I had read how crowded MK was on the 24th so we decided to do something different.

 

[Fedya]

1. Say for instance MK opens at 10 am, do we get there at 9:30 or 10, or 10:30? I don't really want to be jammed up in the turnstiles with the kids but we do want to get there early so we can get these must-do's out of the way as I am sure they will be top rides on everyone's lists.

At MK, we will probably go in thru Adventure Land and head straight for Splash Mtn, and TMRR. We will FP one of those and get in line for the other. We will then use our FP, if it is time, or run over to Peter Pan. We will work in that area for a while until our FP is over then probably have to go FP space mtn. And we will wait in lines in that section while we wait to ride Space Mtn on our FP's. We will then work thru toon town, and all the other rides as we can and the parades, Philharmagic, etc.

I found that going to a ride that has a slightly longer line, and then one with a shorter line, break it up better so that you don't always feel like you are in line. Plus FP help you wait in one line for two rides (as your time gets closer you finish the other ride)

2. We usually watch the parades but I thought this time we would ride the rides instead. Do the lines at the rides really drop off during parade times? If so, which parade (daytime or nighttime) has the better Christmas showing? We will just see one of those.

We will follow this strategy at each park (hopefully) and that way each child has done their favorite ride.

If you are living on the property definatly use the magic hour and get to the popular rides in the morning. You can also get to them with little wait about an hour before the park closes.

3. AND, one more thing, since the parks are open very late the week we are there, do the crowds drop off significantly after say 10pm or so? We may leave around 6pm and take a break then go back until they close in the wee hours!

Is any of this good planning for the busy week we will be there? We have 10 days in the parks so I am not concerned about doing it all in one day as we will return to each park at least twice.

Christmas day was not very crowded when I was there last year. It could have something to do with the rain we had as well. I know people might not beleive this, but in the four days I was in the parks the week of Christmas to New Years, I never waited more than 15 for any ride. My friends were impressed. I guess I have a knack for avoiding the attractions with the long lines at the right time. (and Yes I did do all the popular rides about 10-20 times each, Dino, SM, TT, SM, TT, Aerosmith)

Mk was however closed at noon due to it being full. Luckily they let Disney guest only in at around 3pm. I believe it remained that way for the rest of the day. The fireworks were amazing. They were 360 degrees around us.