How did you think the crowds were at MVMCP this year?

[Missyrose]

That was you??!! Seriously, I was there that same night and thought it more crowded than previous years. A&E and 7DMT didn't clear out, but the other headliners weren't bad. We did the TT Desert party so I can't comment on the fireworks crowds, but we were able to get good parade spots in Frontierland and only wait 15 minutes. Hard to find hot cocoa and gingerbread, though. And grumpy CM didn't want to give my wife three cocoas for three kids. Another one didn't want to sell her cocoa and sent her to the free stand, and then the free stand didn't want to give her three. Crazy. The Disney cops were out in pretty full force -- we had a FP for SM that we had to sprint in the park, so two of the kids and I didn't wait for the bands and we were asked about them four or five times before we got to a place to get them. Bummed there was no Mary Poppins this year, and the line for the Dwarves seemed too long to wait for. Saw Peter Pan but not Wendy, and we did get Santa as we were leaving (lucky, because that was the kids' last chance for the year) Like most things, it would be better if they limited people, but since they don't, I'd be hard-pressed to recommend it.

There was Mary Poppins this year, but she was kind of hidden. Met her twice with no wait. She was next to the exit for the. Town Square. Theater meet and greets. Bert and the penguin were with her too.

As for the crowd levels, I went to two parties (Dec. 9 and 11), and if you spent your night predominantly on Main Street or in the hub, you felt it was crowded. If you stayed in the lands (especially any not named Fantasy), there were little to no crowds at all.

 

[rajak73]

As for the crowd levels, I went to two parties (Dec. 9 and 11), and if you spent your night predominantly on Main Street or in the hub, you felt it was crowded. If you stayed in the lands (especially any not named Fantasy), there were little to no crowds at all.

We were at the Dec 9th party. Have never been before so can not base my opinion on any other time but DW and I thought it was very manageable. Wristbands were checked at every hot choc outlet and ride early. After about 8pm, everything other than the normal busy rides, 7DMT, Peter Pan was 10 min. Waited for the second parade and curbside seats. At 11:20, 7DMT was 20 min wait. Had a great time, we would go again when we get the chance.

 

[cattywampus]

We did three parties in November, two of which were sold out. We focused on attractions and found almost everything was literally a walk-on.

We did meet a few characters, watched the late parade, saw the fireworks, enjoyed the festive atmosphere and had a great time. The fireworks were spectacular from everywhere in the park, and while we watched once from TTDP, my special memories are them going off around us near the Raceway and, on a different night, going off while we were on Splash Mountain. It was very magical to be going around outside in our log with them exploding around us. I feel like some people are so programmed to do the specific party activities from the exact right spot, they miss spontaneously magical moments. Stay off Main Street as much as you can.

I almost didn't buy party tickets because of threads like this, but I'm glad I did --best decision I made for our trip to extend park hours for us west coasters. Was it the most cost effective approach? ...nope. Did it maximize our limited vacation time for those of us that don't want to do rope drop? ....absolutely!

If you go in calculating the cost of every minute or expecting to have the park feel empty, you will be disappointed. Crowds do gather around specific holiday offerings (2 hours in line to for Seven Dwarves character meeting seems silly to me but to each his own) but there are PLENTY of great opportunities for a great time.

 

[minniemous]

We went in November and although we did not attend the party I can attest that in November they swarmed us to leave the park without a ticket to the point of extreme rudeness. Actually it was one supervisor of sorts that was extremely rude (considering we were not trying to sneak our way to staying)..the other CM who escorted us out was really nice.

I find it hard to believe that they would not spot a non-ticeted person eventually considering how vigilant they seemed do be that night. I can not understand people who could possibly think it it would be worth it to try and sneak there way to staying in there.

I will say on the way out it took a long time because of the crowds and the construction going on.

Now that I think of it those who found it more crowded, I wonder if the added construction made things seem worse because there were fewer areas to get a good view of the castle and parade?

 

[ladyjubilee]

We went 12/19. Main Street and the parade area were very crowded, to the point we pretty much got stuck in front of the castle. But other areas were empty. The party was far less crowded than our other days in the park.

Though we won't go back at Christmas again, if we did, we'd definitely do the party again.

 

[MickeyMinnie1971]

We went to the Nov 14th party. I didn't find it that crowded, but we mainly went for the parade and fireworks. We watched the first parade and left after the fireworks. We are in the parks all the time (we live here) so rides weren't a priority for us. We also didn't meet any characters. I'm sure perception of crowd varies based on what your expectations are and what you want to get accomplished during the party.

 

[Kirby]

We went December 2nd and it wasn't bad. It did rain, which was a bummer because Tink didn't fly. We had CRT reservations at 5:30 and as soon as we were done we headed back to Jack Skellington and waited maybe 20 minutes. The wait for Scrooge McDuck was about the same, and my in-laws waited for the 7 Dwarfs maybe 30 - 35 minutes. We got to ride a lot of things we weren't able to during the days so we were very happy.
I had gotten tickets for the Dessert Party the same night which I will never do again. While it was great to sit down, the desserts were ok, but with the rain we missed Tink and the view wasn't great. I would have been happier just watching from wherever but that's something we had to experience for ourselves and now we know.

We were there on Dec. 2nd too. The only places we felt were crowded where the lines to get the wristbands and Main Street. Otherwise it was great! The rain did put a damper on the evening but it didn't last long. We did miss the second parade. We chose to forego the first one in favor of rides and wish we hadn't later. One thing we didn't like was the second parade wasn't canceled until the last minute even though it was pouring down rain. We did get to see some fabulous fireworks and light show. After the rain stopped we had a great time in a near vacant park.

 

[mom2rtk]

We were there on Dec. 2nd too. The only places we felt were crowded where the lines to get the wristbands and Main Street. Otherwise it was great! The rain did put a damper on the evening but it didn't last long. We did miss the second parade. We chose to forego the first one in favor of rides and wish we hadn't later. One thing we didn't like was the second parade wasn't canceled until the last minute even though it was pouring down rain. We did get to see some fabulous fireworks and light show. After the rain stopped we had a great time in a near vacant park.

Any time a major party element is cancelled because of weather it's worth a stop in guest services. I wouldn't be surprised if they were offering some sort of accommodation.

 

[Kirby]

Any time a major party element is cancelled because of weather it's worth a stop in guest services. I wouldn't be surprised if they were offering some sort of accommodation.

They did but we found out too late. We could have gotten admittance to another party later in the week.

 

[jtowntoflorida]

We were also at the party on the 14th. It was more crowded than I expected it to be, only having prior experience with MNSSHP, which has never felt as crowded as this MVMCP did, even though we've been to sold out MNSSHPs in the past. That being said, lines were short for all rides not named 7DMT (and Peter Pan, which had a consistent wait all night long). We also got to meet the Dwarfs with a reasonable (35 minute) wait. I think what threw things off for me mentally was a "security incident" with Elsa at PFH, which stopped the line there completely and thus put us behind where I had expected to be at the beginning of the night.

 

[georgina]

We went Dec 11 and thought it was great crowdwise, it was cold however. I haven't been to a Christmas party there in 12 years, so can't really compare. We entered at 3:45 with our party ticket, rode several rides, some with FP, some without, met Jack Skellington and made our 5:30-6:30 BTMRR FP afterward. Plenty of hot chocolate to be had in Cosmic Rays. Got in several more rides before and after all the special Christmas events.

 

[WDWLODGE]

We went on 11/14 and it was the busiest MVMCP or MNSSHP that we had ever been to. We were mostly there for rides, the parade and fireworks. We've probably been to about 15 parties over the years and this year was the busiest. We had longer waits than expected for the more popular rides. We didn't even attempt to ride 7DMT but around 11:30 we checked the standby line and the wait was still over an hour. It was busy enough that we will strongly consider not doing MNSSHP this year.

 

[kathy884]

We went on a sold out party day, Dec. 16th. This was the first ticketed party event we've ever done, so I don't have all that much to compare it too.

We were going mostly to pay $70 for a one day admission vs. $100 as we were only doing one day at a Disney park and to do something a little different as we have been to the MK just so many times before.

The park was more crowded than I expected at 4 p.m. with both the normal guests and party guests there. We were there to do attractions with hopefully shorter lines vs. character meet and greets etc. And the lines for the first things we wanted to do weren't bad. But then we saw a 70 minute wait posted for Seven Dwarf mine train. That put us in a bind to get done before that Frozen event at the castle to do the light up, so we did splash mountain instead to get to the castle on time. The castle was mobbed with wall to wall people and after that we went to Casey's corner and that was mobbed too with long lines. // We hit some attractions and with it being past 7 lines were pretty moderate. And weather was great so I was happy with this. Seven Dwarfs looked like a problem child again though with a 70 minute line posted, so we decided we'd hit it very later in the evening and skipped it a second time.

As we heard the first parade would be mobbed we hit the second one and I was surprised how heavy the crowds were. We had a fifth row back spot near a pathway, so we could see. I'm not a parade person, don't see what all the fuss is about, and if I'm lucky this will be my first and last MK parade. It was fine though and if I have a child or grandchild who wants to see if (This time it was DS 19 who wanted to see the parade), I'd do it. But I wouldn't encourage it. We had two attractions on our list we hadn't hit yet Seven Dwarfs Mine ride and space mountain and were able to get those in between 11 p.m. and midnight. Seven Dwarfs even at this late time was a good 40 minute wait. And we barely got Space Mountain in (just 10 minutes before midnight). Then we shopped mainstreet USA starting at midnight till about 12:45. The stores had a lot of people actually even that late, so no wonder they keep them open.

Overall given that we had a fairly short list of attractions to hit, the party worked out fine for us. The second parade and new Seven Dwarf ride were way busier than I expected.

I'd probably do it again to pay $70 instead of $100, but I'm actually a little burned out on Disney parks in general (as fun as they are I've just been too many times I think and too recently too many times and crowds feel more of a pain to me these days than they used to too). I'm thrilled that on my next Orlando mini trip March 2016 we'll just be doing SeaWorld parks -- SeaWorld, Discovery Cove, and Aquatica. And maybe a one day at Universal (only if DH comes as DS wants to show him the HP areas.) And if we go one day, I'll fork out the big bucks for one night at a deluxe hotel with early entry and unlimited fastpass which is painful to me to do. It's pay or wait, though, and DH in particular would rather skip all together than wait in a lot of lines. DS and I already got a chance to see the HP stuff and DS prefers SeaWorld and Disney parks to Universal, but would love to show his dad who is a big HP fan the new HP areas. If it's just me and DS though it will be just three SeaWorld days and no Disney or Universal next time for a change.

 

[neb2489]

We were there on 12/16, for our first MVMCP. We usually visit DW in the second half of September when crowds are very low, so we were worried about crowd levels for this trip. Especially when tickets for 12/16 sold out a week ahead.

However, despite a sellout we found the crowds to be thick, but manageable. We were able to do our rides with scheduled FP+'s in the window between 4pm and party start, along with a few others. In all we were able to fit in a meet with Mickey at the theater, all three mountains (Splash twice), Haunted Mansion, Jingle Cruise and Pirates in that 3 hour window. I was very happy with that, as it allowed us to kick back and just enjoy the party when it officially started.

What surprised me most was that we were able to snag a curbside spot in Frontierland for the first parade, only 15-20 minutes beforehand. We were also able to grab seats atop the Main Street station for viewing Wishes immediately following the next parade.

The final surprise came when the wait for Sandy Claws (Jack Skellington) was only ~20 minutes when we went there right after Wishes.

Perhaps we had mentally prepared ourselves for the worst, having seen pictures of Christmas-week crowds last year, but we were able to enjoy ourselves without feeling too crowded.

 

[FeralCatRogue]

I was there first day and it was sold out, the crowds were so bad it was impossible to move if you went to the shows.