New Year's Eve at DVC

[iankh]

This past week we decided to use some points and fly down to WDW on December 31st for 4 nights. We'll be staying in a studio at OKW. We arrive at about 10 AM on the 31st.

It will be interesting to be sure, but I'm not sure what we are going to do. So far, the only thing I've come up with is dinner at our favorite restaurant Jiko's.

Has anyone been down at WDW on New Year's Eve? Any ideas regarding the events etc? Any advice or insights would be most appreciated.

 

[mgkkgdm]

My DW and I were there on our honeymoon, DW hates crowds. We rented a pontoon boat from WL and watched fireworks and sipped champagne over by the GF. Very cool, just the two of us and our driver and about 1500 people on the boat dock.

Beside being Grand Marshalls at MK on my 40th birthday, fireworks cruise is one of my favorite memories.


Paul

 

[KCMiller]

Here's a post I did about our NYE trip in 2003. If you do a search for NYE, you can find out all sorts of info - doing that made ALL the difference for our trip (we knew we HAD to have PS's - now ADR's - for meal or risk waiting on VERY long lines for meals, we knew that it was pointless to try to ride rides in the afternoon because of the crowds, we knew to ride AND get Fastpasses, but not to use the Fastpasses until later in the day, we knew to come early and not leave - the parks did close to additional people that afternoon!)

(this was posted on another thread - you may want to do a search for NYE - there's a LOT out there . Oh, and I forgot to mention in that reply, but the weather was FABULOUS! The year before had been awful and rainy - my niece was there, and told me all about it - but we were blessed with outstanding warm sunny weather. )

Epcot was awesome last year for NYE! We got VERY lucky with our PS's, and got to watch the outstanding fireworks show from ringside on the Rose and Crown Patio.

It was VERY crowded later in the day. We entered the park at gate open, went right on the rides we wanted to ride, got Fast passes for a later ride, and by noon, they were posting wait times of up to THREE hours for Test Track and other rides (even Maelstrom ). We had not had breakfast (a quick pastry and cup of coffee/hot chocolate from a counter place), and we had a noon PS at Restaurant Akershus, which we LOVED. We took it pretty easy in the afternoon (caught a snooze in the Hall of Presidents!), and wandered wherever caught our fancy until our PS at 9:30 at R&C. We waited until about 10:15 to be seated, and really enjoyed our view! We missed the England NYE celebration, but we did hear that they did it. At midnight, each country blew off special fireworks first, in the order of when it would have been NYE in their country, then WOW! What a show!

Afterwards, we took our time getting the check and such, then meandered around the park enjoying all the people and fun - there was still a big DJ party going on. My DH and DS and I decided to go back to TT to see if it was still running, and it was! We were the last riders that night, and it was almost 2:30 am before we got back to our car - and there was still a wait to get out of the parking lot (we were staying offsite - MOWC, a great hotel!).

All in all, we'd do it again - but take the advice - do the rides first thing, then just enjoy the park for the rest of the day, and make PS's for all your meals.

KC