For those of of you who did MVMCP this year...

[EveClark]

How did you fit it all in...?

We are thinking about taking our first Christmas time trip early this December (first or second week) and I'm trying to do as much research as I can about MVMCP to see if it would be worth it for us. I'm not too interested in riding rides while we're there, since we have other MK days planned. If we went to the party, it would simply be to do "other" things... Our kids will be 8 and almost 5 so staying up late shouldn't be too hard. Maybe not til midnight, but they should do ok

I'd love to see the the Castle light up, stage show, dance parties, and of course the parade and Wishes... This will be our 5th family trip so I'm used to the layout of the parks and where rides are, etc., but I just can't seem to wrap my head around how I could make it all work...

I feel like with the crowds and the way things are timed (using this year's times as a loose guide) that I would just end up sitting in the hub or on Main Street for 3 hours for each of those timed events... I know that can't be what people do, but I'm just getting a mental block on how it would work out with the timing... Everyone talks about the crowds, so I feel like there would be a lot of "you need to get there early" type of thing. The times almost follow each other, so if we got to our "spot" early for one event, then had to get to the next one "early" again, we'd just be sitting on the curb the whole time either watching a current event or waiting for the next one. Especially if we wanted to sit on Main Street... We normally go in the early to mid part of September so we're used to low crowds.

So for any of you who did all or most of the party specific events, how did you make it all work? Any and all advice very much appreciated!
I would hate to spend the extra money for the 4 of us and end up only being able to catch one or two things or not get good views or any of the other things that I'm currently (and unrealistically) stressing about
Sorry if this sounds silly, but I thought I'd just come right out and ask while it was still fresh in some of your minds. Thanks in advance!

 

[Airship Ariadne]

you can't fit it ALL in with just one party night...not if you want to hit all the meet and greets, dance parties AND the parade and fireworks...I really think that isn't possible.

Personally, we only hit the dance party with Phineus and Ferb because we were hungry and ate at the location...for little kids, it is fun to dance with characters...ok, and DW had to do it too.

 

[Orph]

It is very difficult to fit it all in.

Certain meet and greets are "rare", certain events only happen during the MVMCP, and the park is opened past midnight.

Personally, I lined up for 3 meet and greets..grabbed some quick food..watched Wishes...watched the Parade...and it was 12:00.

So yeah...it will be very difficult depending on what you want to do.

 

[Missyrose]

Get in line for one of the big M&Gs early. Plan to do M&Gs during the first parade. Skip the castle lighting (you can see it any night in the park). Have a top three or four things you want to accomplish that night and let everything else be gravy.

 

[EveClark]

Thanks everyone for the quick replies! I'm taking notes and taking them all to heart...

My first, very tentative, plan was to make a dinner ADR for 5:00-ish, finish dinner about 7:00, head over to Main Street and stake out our spot (assuming 30 minutes is enough time)...
Catch the 7:30 Stage Show, 8:00 Castle Lighting, 8:15 Parade, and 9:30 Wishes... I could knock them all out in one big chunk of time. But, we'd be sitting on a curb for almost 3 hours. Yes, it would let me see all the things I want to see, but it would only give us 2 hours after that (assuming my kids make it to midnight) to catch any dance parties and M&G...
Plus, my already-not-a-fan-of-waiting-for-parades husband might divorce me if I make him sit that long with people's knees and strollers pushing in his back (which unfortunately has happened every single trip, and what started his distaste for the waiting)
BUT, if I can convince him to go along with it "just this once", does that seem like an ok plan?

To be honest, I hadn't even thought about the character M&G... I haven't looked up which characters will be there that my kids may be interested in meeting... Are there lots of "non-regular" characters out? Or is it a lot of the usual characters, just in Christmas attire...?

Thanks again for the help! I'm definitely going to keep thinking on this!

 

[eyehartdisney]

You should head over to Kenny the pirate's website, but the Christmas parties are now the only way (Outside of valentine's day) To meet any of the princes. I can't remember, but I think it's also the only way to meet the mice from Cinderella (I got lucky this Halloween and met them during a party. How cool is that?) But meeting the princes is going to take a long, long time.

 

[siskaren]

Catch the 7:30 Stage Show, 8:00 Castle Lighting, 8:15 Parade, and 9:30 Wishes... I could knock them all out in one big chunk of time. But, we'd be sitting on a curb for almost 3 hours.

You would actually only be able to see the parade while sitting on the curb. The stage show, castle lighting and Wishes (Holiday Wishes, actually) are better seen standing in front of the castle. (Well, for Holiday Wishes you don't want to be too close to the castle, because you want to see the castle framed by the fireworks). Also, while I know your kids will be 8 and almost 5, if they can stay awake until the second parade, it will be much less crowded.

Although it's from 2011, I would suggest checking out this post from easyWDW:

http://www.easywdw.com/worth-2/christmasparty/mickeys-very-merry-christmas-party-2011-characters-strategy-merchandise-food-etc/

Things shouldn't be significantly different in 2015 than they were in 2011.

 

[EveClark]

You should head over to Kenny the pirate's website, but the Christmas parties are now the only way (Outside of valentine's day) To meet any of the princes. I can't remember, but I think it's also the only way to meet the mice from Cinderella (I got lucky this Halloween and met them during a party. How cool is that?) But meeting the princes is going to take a long, long time.

That's a great suggestion. I'll make sure to check out his sight! Meeting the Princes would be very cool!

You would actually only be able to see the parade while sitting on the curb. The stage show, castle lighting and Wishes (Holiday Wishes, actually) are better seen standing in front of the castle. (Well, for Holiday Wishes you don't want to be too close to the castle, because you want to see the castle framed by the fireworks). Also, while I know your kids will be 8 and almost 5, if they can stay awake until the second parade, it will be much less crowded.

Although it's from 2011, I would suggest checking out this post from easyWDW:

http://www.easywdw.com/worth-2/christmasparty/mickeys-very-merry-christmas-party-2011-characters-strategy-merchandise-food-etc/

Things shouldn't be significantly different in 2015 than they were in 2011.

Great info, thank you! Do you have any suggestions on where to stand? Should we move to a different spot or do you think there is someplace we could sit while we're waiting and watching the parade, but then stand up to see the others...?
I had thought about the second parade and later show, but I was concerned that there would be people who were doing the first plan I thought of and all of the good viewing spot would be taken up from people who waited before Wishes... I adore fireworks, so seeing Wishes (from a good spot) is important to me. We kind of just caught regular Wishes on our last trip off to the side after walking out of Tomorrowland so I'd like to get a good view to see the lights and show that goes with it this time.
Thanks for the link! I'll check it out!

 

[redsbe]

Since we arrived at our WDW resort mid day, we used the party as our first WDW park experience. Did a few rides but mostly there for the MK and holiday atmosphere, events, parades and fireworks. Since we were at WDW for another 6 full days we had plenty of time to come back to MK for all the other rides and attractions on other days.

 

[GaSleepingBeautyFan]

I didn't fit it all in. As soon as I found out I was going on a sold out party night, I decided what was most important to me.

I met Jack Skellington, Daisy/Donald/Scrooge McDuck, Minnie,
Mary Poppins/Bert/Penguin, saw the parade, fireworks, the stage show, got my souveniers (all except the ornament which was sold out), the special SOTMK card, snacked, caught a few minutes of the last pirate carolers near POTC.

I didn't get to the dance parties which I wanted to do, meet with the 7 Dwarves which I knew was going to be iffy anyway or the Tomorrowland Stage show which wasn't a big deal.

Typing it out made me realize I really did do alot but I was solo and could move more easily through the crowds than a family could.

 

[CampbellzSoup]

We fit it all in. We did everything and then some.

 

[DisneyHardin]

We did not fit it all in, but still enjoyed ourselves. We saw the Dwarves, Scrooge and Minnie (Dwarves and Scrooge were both 40 min lines). We watched Wishes while in line for the Dwarves - the view was actually pretty good. We went to the 2nd parade. I can't remember exactly, but I think we might have done a couple rides with shortish lines too.

 

[MaleficentRN]

My first, very tentative, plan was to make a dinner ADR for 5:00-ish, finish dinner about 7:00, head over to Main Street and stake out our spot (assuming 30 minutes is enough time)...
Catch the 7:30 Stage Show, 8:00 Castle Lighting, 8:15 Parade, and 9:30 Wishes... I could knock them all out in one big chunk of time. But, we'd be sitting on a curb for almost 3 hours.

IMO, I'd ditch the ADR. You are wasting a good chunk of time with it. Have a large, late lunch and grab CS during the party.
What we did was arrive at 4, did 7DMT, Peter Pan ( both FP+) and IASW. We got in line for Jack Skellington (the only M&G we wanted) about 5. He came out at 6:15 and we met him at 6:30. We went on Buzz, SM and People Mover twice because we were waiting for rain to let up. All of this was before 7. You could get in line for Seven Dwarves in that time period and you'd knock out the top two M&G between 5 and 7.
And if after Wishes you head over to Frontierland, you can gain time as you'll see the parade earlier and have more time for dance parties and such. Plenty of room back there.
There are many variables in this. Crowd, weather, cranky kids. It's just my experience. Hope it helps!

 

[EveClark]

Thanks again everyone for all of the suggestions and tips! They're all going to be so helpful in trying to figure out what works best for us.

I'm starting to lean towards figuring out a way to make it work with going to the 2nd parade... The fireworks, parade, dance parties, and shows are more important (right now) to my kids than meeting the characters.

My question now is if we decide to skip the first parade and go to the second one, I'd still want to see Wishes... I'm "worried" that if we walk up to the hub/mainstreet area about 9:00 to wait for the 9:30 Wishes, that all the people who staked out spots for the first parade will just stay put and there won't be any good viewing areas for Wishes. This trip will be the last one we're taking for a while, so I really would hate to miss a good view (especially since our last trip was way too close and off to the side)

We're hoping to go the first week after Thanksgiving/First week in December (Nov 30 - Dec 5) and we'd go to the Tuesday party, so I'm hoping this party won't be as crowded as some others or sold out.

Thank you again for all of the help!

 

[siskaren]

My question now is if we decide to skip the first parade and go to the second one, I'd still want to see Wishes... I'm "worried" that if we walk up to the hub/mainstreet area about 9:00 to wait for the 9:30 Wishes, that all the people who staked out spots for the first parade will just stay put and there won't be any good viewing areas for Wishes.

You can't really see Wishes from the same spot you watch the parade from. Most people are going to be moving into the street after the parade ends in order to see Wishes.

 

[EveClark]

You can't really see Wishes from the same spot you watch the parade from. Most people are going to be moving into the street after the parade ends in order to see Wishes.

That's good to know!!! So people just kind of fill in all the space...? I was thinking that they kept the streets clear like they did for the parade or something... That's great! So we should be able to just walk up to any spot that we think is good and stand there... That will work out nicely!

Thank you again for the easywdw link! It was SO helpful, and those pictures of the crowds at 7:00 were invaluable!

 

[FeralCatRogue]

I did it on the first day and it was impossible to even view all the different live events without rushing all over and doing nothing else. It was kind of a let down compared to mnsshp.