New Year's Eve 1999 - anyone else remember it?

[Niagara2]

We were there with extended family staying at BWV with DVC. We did get the flashlights. We booked at exactly 11 months prior. Disney had portable spot lights set up,at most intersections in case there were no lights after midnight.
We had to go to Epcot early Am to get in for the day. We heard that parking lots were closed around 9am. We did go back to resort to rest and returned. Some people claimed spots for illuminations in the am and sat on their blankets all day. We were on the other side of the walkway, near buildings in world showcase to watch illuminations. It was 20 to 30 deep around world showcase.
I look back, and know we were thrilled to be there. The kids were in a stroller. Now one is starting college.
It was crowded, it was crazy, but it was exciting. Being DVC we knew we would be back for the rides and attractions. We soaked up the history and experience of being there for the millennium.
There were special venues set up. We had dinner reservations in a tent at the rear entrance to Epcot. There was music and characters for that. There was another tented area set up in the park with extra activities too. We only went to Epcot because if you were lucky to get into a park for the day, that was it. All parks closed admittance by late morning, even for resort guests.
Was it worth it, yes! We were there to experience a once in a life time event that I think Disney handles so well.
We will be back in a few weeks. DS is starting the Disney College Program, He got the bug too!.

 

[ChitownFamily]

I wasn't at Disney (we did 2003 NYE )
But for 1999, I had turned 21 on 12-30-99. For my 21st birthday my took my sistèr & I to NYC. We had famiky living near the city. It was awesome
We did visit Times Square -for the millennium they rang in New Years around the world at the top of each hour. We stayed for several hours but decided to head home. To my aunt & uncles

 

[ktlm]

We were there, it was an incredible trip. We stayed at POR (Dixie Landings back then). We only booked 3 weeks in advance. We had nothing planned for the turn of the century and I was a bit irritated at that, and we decided if the world was going to blow up at Y2K, we might as well be at WDW!!!! DH called a travel agent, and apparently, there was a cancellation and 1 room left on all of Disney property. We grabbed it and went. We had never stayed at POR, but we really enjoyed it. A lot of people were cancelling their trips and plans for New Years because of Y2K, so the flights weren't hard to get and weren't that expensive. I remember the flashlights and water being put in our room on NYE. We got a kick out of that!

That whole trip seemed to be charmed. Everything went our way, and somehow we managed to plan our parks to avoid the worst of the crowds, even without all the tools we have now. I can recall being at AK on New Year's Eve and people coming into the park complaining that all the other parks were closed to capacity and they were stuck coming to AK. They were complaining that when WDW told them they were guaranteed to get into a park on NYE, they didn't tell them that they wouldn't get a choice and it might be a park that wasn't even open until Midnight. We were happy because AK wasn't horribly crowded and we were leaving late afternoon anyway.

We did the Pleasure Island New Year's Eve party with Styx, Hootie, and the B-52's too! Somehow we had such a lucky night. We wound up being ushered by a CM out onto the front of a balcony at one of the clubs to watch Styx. So we had a front row upper seat. We managed to get just a couple of people back to watch the B-52s too. Didn't get as close to Hootie, but still had a great time. We were in a club dancing and went out of the club to celebrate the New Years countdown and managed to wind up on the staircase looking over the rail out at the crowded sea of people with a CM throwing party favors up to us to keep. They were little LED string lights, and we still have them and they still work. This is what we saw at midnight:

Right after this picture was taken, we heard the fireworks start, but we couldn't really see them from where we were standing, so we followed some people who ran into the club to watch and got an incredible view out over the water standing in front of a ceiling to floor plate glass window . It was a fantastic night!!!!!

 

[Harambe]

Love the stories!!!

ktlm - you surely were lucky all around planning a last minute trip and getting down to WDW! I remember calling the travel agent (this is of course before I became the Disney extraordinaire, and did all my own travel plans!) to get plane tickets and transportation from the airport to our resort. She told me we'd never get a room, but then was amazed when I said we had a room for 6 years!

Absolutely LOVE the photo! You are right - it was a special night, and I think all the folks in that photo would feel the same way.

 

[mousermerf]

Video from Epcot - which reportedly closed its parking the night before at 3am.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5KaUusD8z0g

And the video shows crowds entering at 7am, and mentions the first phase closings at 7:45am.

 

[Harambe]

Way-la, way-la, way-la! Oh, mousermerf - thank you for the Tapestry of Nations parade on that video! That is my FAVORITE Disney "song". I miss that parade!

 

[GrumpysFavoriteGirl]

We were there too! We were in the parks early that day but couldn't make it all day/night. We were just too tired. We went back to CBR to take nap. We slept way too long but had a great time at the resort that night!

Sent from my iPad using DISBoards

 

[ftballfan7]

I was at work. As a career firefighter, it was all hands on deck (just in case). Turned into a a night that was no more eventful than any other New Years Eve (which tend to be eventful enough).

 

[kangaroodle]

Disney housekeeping gave all rooms a few bottles of water and a flashlight - in case the whole Y2K thing actually happened and there was no power. We also had the info for buying bus tickets home in case the airplanes couldn't fly! Sooooooo funny now when I think back on it all!

Happy New Year to everyone - and enjoy your time at WDW!

Much like "The end of the World" on December 21st!

 

[DisneyChristmas]

We were there, too, staying at the Poly Arrived at MK at 7 am to get in line. Back then the lockers were under the train station, and we stored jackets etc as soon as we got into the park. We took it easy all day enjoying the holiday shows and parade and doing rides with shortest lines. After 6pm the energy began to build with wall-to-wall people and everyone having fun. We made it to midnight and then people-watched until somewhere after 1am.

 

[Cheshire Figment]

Mine was an adventure.

Judy and I decided in 1993 that we were going to do the Millennial New Year's Eve at Disney World. So we made reservations for 11 nights at the Contemporary Tower (Park View) beginning December 23. The price did go up several times over the years. For us it stabilized at $192 per night. This was for two reasons; we arrived in Value Season (at the time the rate for arrival day was the rate for the entire stay) for a $240 rate but were Magic Kingdom Club Members and got a 20% discount. We noticed that for people arriving December 27 or later a similar view room was $485 per night.

We decided that Epcot was the Park to do, so at a little after 7:00 we arrived at the Epcot Parking lot and were able to park in Disabled Parking (Row Journey 5). There were already lines formed from every gate almost all the way back to the Tram Lane. The turnstiles were opened about 7:25. An unusual thing was they stamped our APs and told us if we left later were were guaranteed re-entry.

The line for the lockers was ridiculous. While I was trying to figure out a way to crash the line without getting in trouble, someone nearby said they had some extra locker keys. It seems they thought they were getting small lockers but got large ones. So I paid the person for the rental fee and we had our locker.

We wandered around a lot, trying to figure out what to do. We made it a point, and pet friends, at Japan just before 11:00am, so we were in Japan when it was New Year's in Tokyo. We then went over to China to be there at noon, again for New Years in Peking celebration.

We stopped at Restaurant Akershus and talked to the General Manager, who we knew, and were able to get a reservation for dinner. (Note this was when Akershus served good food and not Princesses.)

We tried to get into the Millennium Village for some of the countries there but too crowded in the area.

So we took the monorail and went back to the Contemporary for about a two hour nap. There was no problem at all with the Epcot Monorail, but when we went to board the Resorts Monorail we had to show our room keys before we were allowed on the platform. We knew better than to try to move our car.

We returned to Epcot in enough time to get to Akershus for dinner, and were eating when it became Midnight in Norway, so again we were part of the celebration. We tried to get to UK, by 7:00, but we could not even get onto the bridge at France.

So we then wandered around some more, getting to the Lagoon fence next to Mexico about 11:00. Starting around 11:40 they had IllumiNations, which ended just before Midnight. Then they had the "real" fireworks. These were backstage between from about Germany to about Morocco and lasted about another 20 minutes. My thought about this second set of fireworks was that where we were, between Mexico and Norway, there was enough light from the fireworks to easily read newspaper classified ads. We later heard that the Epcot fireworks was the second largest display in the World, beaten only by the ones in Paris.

We hung around after the fireworks and made our way along the Promenade to Mexico, waiting until 1:00am which was Midnight in Mexico City. We then made our way out of the Park and got to our car, which was right in the front of the parking lot, and drive back to the Contemporary where we proceed to collapse.

And we flew back to Virginia on the 3rd, with no crowds.