How can we survive Christmas week?

[nhdisnut]

We have finally decided (after much debate) to brave the world next Christmas. We have to go Christmas week and I am terrified about the crowds and how we can make the most of our time. I realize our trip is 11 months away, but am interested in any ideas, feedback, strategies from anyone who just spent Christmas week in the World. My DW is also very interested in any feedback/info regarding the Epcot Candelight Processional.

Thanks!!

 

[MommyPoppins]

My recommendation would be to check out tourguidemike.com. It's as cheap or cheaper than a guide book and well worth it. I'm using it to plan my may trip and am also going to use it for my dec. 2006 trip. Everyone who I've talked to raves about his advice and people swear they had the best time and did all they wanted to even at busy holiday times. So, I'd check it out.

 

[mickekmania]

Okay, you can probably tell I'm a newbie I've seen references to Tour guide Mike, but don't know anyhting about him, could you fill me in?

Thanks,
Julie

 

[rkmassa]

http://www.tourguidemike.com/

Have to agree that TGM was absolutely the best money we invested in our vacation last year. Went Dec 17th to 27th. He knew exactly which park to be in for the lowest crowds each day. Gave great advice on what to do first for really popular rides.

 

[momsgoofy]

We have finally decided (after much debate) to brave the world next Christmas. We have to go Christmas week and I am terrified about the crowds and how we can make the most of our time. I realize our trip is 11 months away, but am interested in any ideas, feedback, strategies from anyone who just spent Christmas week in the World. My DW is also very interested in any feedback/info regarding the Epcot Candelight Processional.

Thanks!!

We were at SSR from 12/18 - 12/25...our flight left that night at 8pm. The crowds were there, but we really only noticed them at Epcot...probably because of all the extra holiday stuff...storytellers and such.

I think if you go with the knowledge that there will be crowds, and now that you're DVC members...we are in our first use year also so our mantra is...we're always coming back ...who cares if we don't do it all this trip!

We opted to go at Christmas to get away from the stress of the holiday at home...too many relative's houses to be at in 24 hours that just stresses us to no end. That said, we did not want to stress at WDW...we slept in, most mornings didn't leave until 11am...ate nice meals, rode what we could without waiting (which surprisingly was more than you'd think), saw the holiday decorations, did the MVMCP, went to CP (twice) and promised not to kill each other...

I started planning 11 mos. out also...started finding out what our family of 3, DH, DS13 and me, wanted to do...what were our priorities for this trip?
-NO early mornings...fine! I did plan one and for us it was a big mistake since we really didn't like Donald's at all.
- nice meals...I, the trip planner, chose places I thought they'd like, then asked them to narrow it down...if they had no preference I reminded them that "you've been consulted so don't complain!"
-CP...ya gotta do this! It's fabulous! I knew I wanted to see Marlee Matlin and it'd be nice to go a second time on Christmas Eve...when the narrators came out, I jumped on the dining package for us.
-MVMCP...okay, DS didn't care about this but I did and I was the planner...and DH wanted to go so we won out...as soon as the dates were announced I bought our tickets.

Then as I planned I started asking questions, getting answers, suggestions, advice and all the good scoop you can get here at the DIS I've looked at several different sites, but IMO the DIS is the most "in the know" boards I've seen.

I still use my Passporter's Guide to WDW to plan...I can take it along with my much easier than my laptop when I'm working or waiting in a doctor's office so I can still work on planning the trip. Besides, there are times when I just don't want to mess with the computer.

I'm not sure what the dates are on your trip, but just plan accordingly...know there will be crowds, longer lines, etc. and plan accordingly. I think the best thing for us, as DVC owners, now is that we know this isn't the last trip to WDW, nor is it going to be a few years before we get back...we had 2 trips in 6 mos. in our first use year.

I hope this helps...if you have any specific questions that I might be able to answer, just send me a PM, I'd be happy to try to answer for ya.

 

[CheshireVal]

My biggest tip for Christmas at Disney is to GET TO THE PARKS EARLY! Be there when they open, take advantage of EMH in the mornings. You'll be able to get more done in those first few hours in the park than you will for the rest of the day. If you're there the week before Christmas, up until Christmas Eve, you're not going to experience unusually large crowds. But things definitely pick up around the 24th.

 

[nhdisnut]

Thanks for all of the info!!!

I'm curious if anyone has experience with the evening EMH in any or all of the parks during Christmas week. We tend to be more of a stay up late, sleep in family, so if we can experience alot during evening EMH we would want to go that route....

 

[PrincessKitty1]

DH and I were at WDW for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day last month, leaving the day after Christmas. We confined our park-hopping to MGM and Epcot, since we knew the MK would be breathtakingly crowded AND because it was so easy to walk or ride the boats from the Dolphin.

We were surprised that the parks were not nearly as crowded as we expected. I was afraid the parks would be too crowded to find a place to eat lunch, but I was mistaken! Counter-service restaurants were not that crowded. We saw lots of people being turned away from table-service restaurants for dinner, though (surprisingly, many people do not know about ADRs), so make sure you have ADRs for dinner every night.

The Dolphin was a WONDERFUL place to stay for Christmas--the decorations were very festive and there was plenty of room at Tubby's for breakfast in the morning.

 

[LMC]

We just went from 12/22-1/1. I honestly didn't think the crowds were too bad until 12/30 and 12/31. We had been at spring break before and were warned that Christmas was just as bad but I don't think it was.
The line wait times were approx 40 min's for the "secondary" rides. Even BTMRR was about a 40 min wait. Space Mtn was longer, buzz lightyr got up to about 60 min, peter pan was about 2 hours. But most everything was about 40 min. I strongly suggest that you heed the advice of getting to the parks early. You can get so much done from 8-11 before the masses start arriving that you'll be able to relax the rest of the day. We usually "went home" around 6pm each night. If you are on site, use the EMH. We didn't stay onsite this time so I can't tell you how crowded EMH was at night. You may want to post another message with that specific question. Another suggestion, have your plan. Decide what attractions are a must then do those first. Anything else is a bonus when you go and it's peak time. If given the opportunity, we will go at the same time again so it couldn't have been that bad! The worse part was having Santa visit while we were away from home.
I also second the suggestion for TGM. I didn't have time to subscribe for our trip but you have 11 mo's to plan so go ahead and get it now so you can get the best planning ideas. TGM gives crowd trends, and suggestions on how to avoid those long lines!

 

[Twinprincesses]

We went Christmas 2004 and had no problems as all. We just did not do magic kingdom on christmas day.

 

[paigevz]

We did last year (2004) Christmas. We had very little trouble. We've been to Disney several times, so of course we knew how to use fastpass, to get our ADRs in time, to go early, nap mid, stay late. We stayed on property of course, there's no other way anytime to experience Disney, but at this time it was crucial........traffic would've been bad, and also you get an edge up if the parks are crowded. We used Unofficial Guide to help us know which parks on which days, but we ignored their advice on no MK on Christmas Day........we have kids and it was Christmas! We didn't go early, but did stockings/presents first and headed over about 10. We left about 3.......it was the most crowded day, shoulder to shoulder on Main Street, but once you got off into the "lands" it wasn't that bad. Wait times were about 30 min for minors, and we only fastpassed majors. It was raining pretty hard later on that day, so that's why we left. We went back that evening, and it had cleared out a lot. Ate Christmas dinner at Liberty Tree Tavern, saw the spectromagic parade while waiting for our ADR (which we'd called and rescheduled as we'd napped and wouldn't make it in time by the time we got ready, easily rescheduled, they didn't seem to be full), and then saw the fireworks just after. We hung out on Main Street at closing until the park was pretty empty.......just enjoying the peace and the decorations/lights.

We did also see Candlelight Processional at Epcot on Christmas Eve. My family's tradition is to read the Christmas story on Christmas Eve, so this was our "reading" for that year. It was beautiful. Gary Sinise was the narrator. It was very, very nice. Unfortunately, we had a 2 year old who did not like it, so my dh was kind enough to take him to the side by the wall to run about, but I was distracted the whole time worrying about him missing out, so really we didn't get to enjoy it as thoroughly as we'd have liked. We sat under a small tree with lights in it, and it made it even nicer. We did the dinner plan/tickets for it, eating at Garden Grill for the kids. I was dragging everyone to the CP though, as we were late getting over there, even though we'd been to Epcot plenty of times, you forget how far it is over to the other side of the lake. They open it up to stand-by after the dinner people are seated, so we barely got in before that. Still had a great spot.

I don't think Christmas is the best time to go for a first-timer, but if you already have a feel for the place, it is really nice at Christmas. We don't think we'll try it again, though, because with the kids, it felt very hard to be able to do it as traditionally as we like it while traveling. We've also done Easter at Disney, and it was similar in crowds and in trying to do the holiday at the same time as the trip. I think it just gets to be too much, both together like that. We actually, both holidays, kind of felt a bit like we'd missed out on the holiday, since Disney is so big and exciting, and kind of overshadowed our normal build-up to the holiday. It was still nice to do once though.