First Timer-Need Planning Advice!

[Spo0nfulofSugar]

Hello all!
While I've been to Disney my fair share of times, I have never had to plan the trip myself-it's a lot harder than it looks! I'm going to Disney with just one other friend, and we have three day, non-hopper tickets. My friend was a little bummed about not visiting AK, as this was the park we decided to skip. However, I just bought tickets to the Christmas party, which apparently means we can get into MK at four just from our party tickets? Here's my real question. Should we spend the entire day at MK, using our actual park tickets for entrance when the gate opens, then again for the Christmas party, or should we visit AK in the morning and head over to the Christmas party at four? My only concern is that if we chose the latter, we would essentially have only a half day in MK, as the other two days we were planning on HS and Epcot. Sorry if this is confusing, it's sure confusing me!

 

[LSUfan4444]

Honestly, I think it depends on how much of your day at MK will be spent with meet & greets.

If you hit Animal Kingdom at rope drop you won't need your FP+ there, so keep them over at MK starting at 4 pm. Head directly to Safari, then move over to Everest, then hit the 10 am Lion King. After Lion King, you will have some time to hit Primevil Whirl and/or Dinosaur and catch the 11 am Finding Nemo if you want.

Don't know if Kali River Rapids will be in your plan, but you will get wet so you might want to do that after FOTLK and/or Nemo.

Make your FP+ for Mine Train for sure (and two of your other favorites), then plan to be in MK late that night to ride whatever else you want with little to no wait.

 

[Lavitz]

That's a touch choice. If it were me, the only way I would do what you say is if both you and your friend are familiar with WDW and are ok with only being at MK starting at 4pm. If say your friend is still new to WDW then half day at MK would be too little for me, there is just so much to do at MK.

I do what you suggest every trip. Get MNSSHP or MVMCP tickets, go to our half day park in the morning (was AK, now it's Epcot), and spend the rest of the day at MK. Too bad you don't have an extra day, half day AK and 1.5 days MK would work great.

 

[Jennasis]

This is exactly what friends of ours who were on a budget did this past September. They had 2 day tix and a MNSSHP ticket. We used the party as their MK day, entering right at 4, and the other tix for DHS and Epcot. The park was open 4-12 so it was a full 8 hours of fun at the MK and we saw just about everything!

 

[Spo0nfulofSugar]

We would love another day as well, but we're working on a slim budget, as we're both in college and have just bought all our Christmas presents

It's been about two years for both of us, but I think half a day of MK will just have to work. My next question, I knew there wasn't a chance in hell of getting reservations basically anywhere, seeing as we decided to go about three weeks ago. For places like the princess breakfast in Norway (or any character dining), is there any chance of us being seated without a reservation, or should i just keep checking on the off chance someone cancels theirs? I apologize, I know these questions are so stupid haha.

 

[taythecray]

We went last year and did plenty during just the 4-midnight Christmas party. We didn't buy any day tickets, just the MVMCP ones, so we resort hopped and visited DTD during the day. It really does depend on what all you want to do in MK though. Just for perspective, this is what we managed to get done that night:
Pirates of the Caribbean
Haunted Mansion
Big Thunder Mountain
Meet Tinkerbell
Stitch's Great Escape
Wishes
Christmas Parade
Celebrate the Magic castle show
Space Mountain
Buzz Lightyear
It's A Small World
TONS of shopping/wandering

We basically managed to get all the highlights done WITHOUT using any fastpasses (7DMT wasn't open yet). So WITH fastpass, I'm sure you can do more. It just depends on what rides you want to ride and what characters you want to meet.
Oh and a side note, that was my first time ever at DW and it was fantastic. Probably could have rode a few more rides instead all the wandering but oh well

 

[PlutoTheDog89]

I've gotten flamed for this, so I'll go with a quick caveat: AK has a ton of intricate details and when you have the time - it's fun to see all the details and theming.. BUT - you could get AK done in half a day. Arriving at RD, you can easily get in Expedition Everest, the Safari and DINOSAUR, as well as see a show or two. This should leave you with ~one hour before the party starts.

It depends on when you're going, though. This should decide how bad the crowds will be. My family normally arrives in 12/24 - so I don't know much about the crowds during MVMCP... but I'd imagine it gets pretty packed toward the last few days (or, the crowds could start to thin out - who knows)

If it's going to be crowded, I'd say spend the day at MK. For a short trip, you want to see and do everything. We normally do longer trips, but we went for a wedding a few years ago and were only in Disney for four days - one being the wedding. For us, we wanted to do MK, DHS and EPCOT. We didn't see the value in going to AK. We were with a lot of newbies and wanted to show them classic Disney.

Now, let me throw another idea in here... Don't do a park the day of MVMCP. During Christmas, there's so much to see and do. The resorts, in particular, are gorgeously decorated. Use your morning and early afternoon to tour the parks. You could "bargain" with your friend by starting at the Animal Kingdom Lodge. Make sure to stop by the Wilderness Lodge as well. You could check out Boardwalk and Yacht and Beach Club or save it for the day you do EPCOT (in the interest of time.) To end your tour, hop aboard the mororail and start at Contemporary. Then, go to Poly (although it's under construction) and end with the grand finale - the Grand Floridian. End your tour around 3:30pm - just in time to hop on the monorail to MK and enter the park for the party!

I think this ^^ is a much more cost-effective plan and a great chance to see everything and get into the Disney and Christmas spirit!

For more info on Christmas at Disney, check out my free guide at survivedisxmas.com!