New Years Eve 2008

[360Joules]

Hello all..

I was noticing that new years week 08 will be the last chance for a trip to WDW using weekday points for a couple years. The question I have is how hard will it be to reserve a " close to the action" resort at 7 months? I own at AKV but feel its too far out for a NYE trip. fyi 1 or 2 bedroom preferred.
Crowds are a concern obv , but I have a ressie for a mid June trip which I imagine have big crowds as well. Can Anyone out there give me an estimate on ride waits for mid june and new years week?
Thanks

ps DVC Mike your awesome, thanks for providing us with great DVC info

 

[disneyfan2kids]

I stayed at SSR and watched the DTD fireworks... it was an AMAZING NYE experience.

If it's something you're interested in... I would bet SSR would have "some" availability for NYE at the 7 month mark. I think I recall people posting that they got NYE ressies at 7 months out for SSR.

If you want to be "close to the action" as in "at the parks" at midnight. I'd guess you'd want BCV/BWV/VWL - that might be "iffy" at the 7 month mark...but waitlist is probable to come through. SO many people cancel when airfare isn't cheap around NYE (and it's NOT cheap!)

 

[LIFERBABE]

I would book NYE at my home resort and then try to move at the 7 month mark.

SSR booked NYE at 11 months. You will most likely have to waitlist for that week at the 7 month window because it is a "cheap" week compared to spending weekend points during Premier season.

It will be even more difficult to get the Epcot Resorts.

 

[BroganMc]

As for wait times, you can expect 1-2 hours+ on the main attractions with fastpasses gone by mid-morning on NYE. It is very, very crowded Christmas week. About the only break you'd get is late night EMHs at some parks.

And this year people found the crowd didn't dissappate much after Jan 1 but lasted until the weekend.

Like Liferbabe said, book AKV at 11 mos out and put yourself on the waiting list for other resorts. I imagine VWL will be very difficult since it is so small and has a big holiday following. BWV & BCV may be more possible but again you have the "want to be near DHS and EPCOT" following. OKW & SSR will give you the best likelihood of a transfer due to their size. They are closer to the action than AKV since DTD has NYE festivities as well as the parks.

As for which parks to be in NYE, I opt none. They are supercrowded and (in MK's case) close early due to capacity. MK was closed by noon this year.

 

[Psychodisney]

We were at MGM this New Year's Eve and I'd say it was our least crowded day of the trip. We did head back to BCV around eleven. We were able to see Epcot's fireworks, MK fireworks and Downtown Disney from the fourth floor.

 

[ADP]

We were at EPCOT New Year's Eve and although the fireworks and other events were wonderful it was so crowded I don't think I'll go to a park on New Year's Eve again. I'll probably opt to stay at our resort.

Here is a picture of some of the wait times at EPCOT and a live trip report I posted the next day.

Day 3 Dec 31st.

We spent New Year's Eve at EPCOT. We arrived at the EPCOT parking lot at 10:00AM to a sea of people waiting for a tram to the front of the park. I must say the transportation at EPCOT seemed poor to me. It appeared to me 3 trams were running from the parking lot to the front of the park while two were sitting idle and not being used. Some people were not getting picked up at all. The trams would pass up groves of guests to get to guests behind them. This did not sit well with people. I witnessed one man who walked into the tram lane to stop the tram so his family could board. A very dangerous situation. Guests were yelling at the tram operators and security was called. Two security guards showed up on bicycles to calm guests.

As we entered the park it was apparent it would be extremely crowded which I presumed. Wait times posted for some attractions were 220 minutes. We decided to spend most of our time at Innoventions West which I thought would not be nearly as crowded. We did some of the interactive games and left after about an hour. We began our stroll through World Showcase. All of the Storytellers were no longer around, but the usual entertainment was in full force.

As we approached Norway a CM waived to my Daughter who loves to hug CMs. Of course, this would be no exception. I noticed an EPCOT chef with this Cm so I struck up a conversation with her. Come to find out she was the Executive Chef at EPCOT. She oversees all of the restaurants within the park. I took a photo with her and discussed some of the finer dining points of EPCOT.

We dined at the World Showplace pavillion. I have to say it was much nicer than I expected. The pavillion is very large and it was well decorated. The buffet was exceptional. They had a main buffet, a carving station, a pasta station, a kids buffet, and a dessert buffet. They also had a cash bar, and a bar where you could get your soft drinks refilled. A band played music near the dance floor and some folks were dancing the night away.

At 7:15 I told Kim and Anna I wanted to see Holiday Illuminations. I'd never seen the Holiday tag before with Walter Cronkite. I stepped outside of the pavillion and headed for the steps of Canada to see the show. This is not the best spot to watch Illuminations, but it wasn't extremely crowded and you are elevated so you can see the lagoon pretty well. The amount of shells shot off during the holiday tag are numerous. Walter Cronkite does a great job expressing the spirit of the holidays. It was very moving!

I walked back into the World Showplace pavillion had dessert and coffee and we left to see if we could do a few attractions. By the way EPCOT was handing out New Year's hats and horns. The horns were everywhere and very loud! We were able to jump onto Journey into your Imagination and then headed over to SSE. The wait was 40 minutes and it was more like 25.

Hats and horns handed out for New Year's Eve

The countdown to midnight timer was displayed by laser light image on the EPCOT ball. This was a very cool element of the New Year's Eve celebration.

The Illuminations New Year's EVe fireworks were very well done. Regular Illuminations was done and then a New Year's Eve tag was performed. Each country had their own 30 second firework display over their pavillion one at a time in order of when their country hit midnight. Then there was a grand finale over the globe in the middle of the lagoon. The number of shells bursting was more than I ever saw before. My whole body was shaking from the shells bursting in the air.

We decided to wait to leave and the lines getting back out to the parking lot where thick. We did not get back to our villa until 2:30AM.

We are just about to leave for the Studios. We have a 6:15PM ADR at Mama Melrose and will be viewing the Osborne Lights this evening. By the way, my eye has turned out ok. No bruise, just a scratch and some swelling; nothing major.

I'll try and get more photos uploaded, but as I said my wireless connection at Vistana is poor. I don't know why, but it is very slow. I'm hopeful I'll have more luck at Pop Century.

Until later...Happy New Year everyone!!!!

 

[drusba]

Reserve home resort early (11 months out) and then try to switch at 7, may have to waitlist for the switch but might get another resort, and that is only a might. BWV, BCV for Epcot, VWL for MK, OKW or SSR for DD, any of those would be fine.

Been mid-June, been Christmas time:

Mid-June is very crowded. Hour waits and longer for popular rides and long lines run from about 10 a.m. to closing. Even secondary attractions get very long lines part of the day. Fast passes can run out fairly early in the day. Street crowds very heavy.

However, if you go mid-June and then go Christmas you will believe mid-June was an off-season. Parks can close to new guests during the day due to overcrowding. Lines for popular rides go to 2 hours or more, and 3 to 3 1/2 at Test Track and Soarin. Street crowds are stiffling -- image you have just entered MK at noon and are standing at the base of Main Street looking down toward the castle; you don't see the street, you don't see the sidewalks along Main Street, all you see is a sea of bobbing heads packed next to each other and moving snail-like en masse.

 

[360Joules]

Thanks for the advice and tips everyone. I have a serious case of Idontknowwhattodoitis I can only go once in 08. News Years sounds like a fun time even if its staying at a resort. Hmmm keep my June ressie or NYE

 

[disneyfan2kids]

Depending on your use year... you can keep your June ressie and cancel with enough time to still do NYE if necessary!

Hope you get your choice!!!

 

[JCLNJ]

We were planning on going from Dec 28th to Jan 2nd in 2008. After reading how crowded it is going to be I'm not sure now . We have gone during Easter before. Is The week between Christmas and New Years alot more crowded than Spring Break?

 

[ADP]

We were planning on going from Dec 28th to Jan 2nd in 2008. After reading how crowded it is going to be I'm not sure now . We have gone during Easter before. Is The week between Christmas and New Years alot more crowded than Spring Break?

I think it depends what week you go for Spring Break and when Easter falls in relationship to the calendar.

If I had to bet I would say the week between Christmas and New Year's is the crowdest week at WDW.

 

[pistonfan32]

We were planning on going from Dec 28th to Jan 2nd in 2008. After reading how crowded it is going to be I'm not sure now . We have gone during Easter before. Is The week between Christmas and New Years alot more crowded than Spring Break?

We were also planning on going to DW from 12/28/08-1/2/09 but have now opted to not go due to the large crowds. Going to DW in three days (OKW)--can't wait.

 

[tomandrobin]

We were planning on going from Dec 28th to Jan 2nd in 2008. After reading how crowded it is going to be I'm not sure now . We have gone during Easter before. Is The week between Christmas and New Years alot more crowded than Spring Break?

The week between Christmaas and NYE is the busiest week of the year at WDW. Easter is second and July 4th is the third busiest week. This year will be our fourth year going to WDW at NYE. We have a blast and look forward to it each year.

Unless you plan on doing the morning EMH or the extreme late EMH, don't figure on doing alot of rides. We do the EMH's, do a lot of non-ride activities, see all of the holiday decorations/shows and plan nice family dinners in the evening.

 

[bobbiwoz]

We hope to be there this year!!
Bobbi

 

[disneyfan2kids]

We did NYE this year and didn't think it was as bad as we expected. Although, we did avoid parks entirely on NYE. As a matter of fact EMH on the 30th at MK was downright QUIET. Best memory of trip was being at MK at 1am with my DS6 running on & off rides with NO wait!

Don't discount it based on crowds!

 

[VLee]

I braved Epcot on NYE 2008 by myself from 9:30 pm to 1 am with my 5 and 7 year old grandchildren. (Their parents headed off to Downtown Disney for a concert after we ate at Coral Reef.)

Not too far from Coral Reef, there was a DJ set up on a stage playing all kinds of dance songs, teaching dances...mainly geared toward the younger set, but there were more than its share of adults dancing along too.

The DJ - Elliott, kept saying just to stay with him until about 11:40 and he would tell us where to go to see the fireworks and not be in all of the crowds.

About 15 minutes before the fireworks were to begin, he stopped playing music and told us to go toward a little bridge not far at all from the stage. People were sitting on a hilly grassy section and it was not crowded at all.

We had a fantastic view of the fireworks..could not see the globe on the water, but we have seen it many times before. After the fireworks, they wanted to head back to the stage, but ended up only staying a few minutes. On the way to International Gateway, we noticed Soaring had only a 30 minute wait (after seeing it up to 220 minutes earlier), so we rode it and then about 1:15 headed out to the IG..... to walk back to BCV --absolutely no one in the parks...so we had no crowds at all.

 

[NJOYURLIFE]

I agree with some of the others to not discount it entirely due to crowds. I think a lot depends on your travel style and how important those rides are to you. We didn't get there this past New Year's Eve, but we were there last year. As my husband puts it, it is a time to enjoy all of the non-ride stuff that the parks offer. There are so many side shows and little things that we tend not to notice as we go from ride to ride. We are also late night people and were able to take advantage of the parks after 9 PM when the lines are not as busy or even later than that when we can ride stuff like Big Thunder Mountain and not have to get off because there is no line.

Also, while Magic Kingdom did close early in the day, by 7 pm it was reopened. We were over at Epcot (which didn't close - although I don't know if the parking did), but we really wanted to be at MK and when we heard that they had reopened it, we headed over there and got there just as the first wave of people were exiting the park after the first evening parade. And after the midnight fireworks, my children were able to get on some rides fairly quick.

But again, this worked for us because we are night owls (even our 7 year old) and because we do frequent trips to Disney so we knew that whatever we missed we would see another time. I would not recommend this for people with real small children that can't stay up late or if your trips to Disney are not frequent ones and especially not for first timers. I also think having our annual passes helped take the pressure off. We were traveling with people who only had park hopper passes and once they used a day, they felt obligated to get their money's worth from that day, so they would brave the lines. Of course, they ended up saying never again, while we can't wait to do it again.

 

[Cruelladeville]

I was at Epcot on NYE, and the crowds were so bad that I said "never again", even though I have been there before on NYE! I think the problem was that it was so hard to get around, due to DJ's, light shows, bands, etc. that were in each country, so people spilled out to the walkways. It was bad. Next year I am staying two weeks, the first week at Disney when it is less crowded, and then I will spend New Year's week at Marriott, enjoying the Florida sunshine. This year I spent Christmas week getting a massage, pedicure, playing golf, and shopping, and then tried to do the rides on my second week, which did not work out well.

 

[JCLNJ]

We have decided to go this year since it will probably be our last year that we are able to go while our kids are still home. We made a reservation for the candlelight processional on Monday, Dec 29th and are deciding wheater to go back into the parks for NYE or wait until Jan 1. We are staying at BCV do they do anything at the resort for NYE?

 

[Psychodisney]

They didn't last year. They suggested the dance place over at the Boardwalk. We went to MGM but were back at BCV by midnight. We could see fireworks in every direction-pretty cool.