New Year's Eve Thoughts

[MassJester]

I'll be in WDW with a (some) friend(s) on New year's eve. We are staying at the Contemporary Resort, but otherwise have not thought about how to spend New Year's Eve.

We'd be pleased to hear from folks who have been there at that time and have advice.

 

[cranbiz]

I went to EPCOT last year, it was crowded but most of the time, you could move about without much problems. DS and I had a great time. Ride times were outrageous but we used this time to check out the shows and street performances.

The worst line I waited in was the beer line

 

[Scottish-Helen]

Hi there, we will be in the World for our first New Years Eve this year. If you use the search function on here for NYE and New Years Eve you will find lots of great info.

 

[AStamm]

We spent New Year's Eve at Magic Kingdom two years ago. By early afternoon the park was at capacity and it was extremely tough to move anywhere.

We just booked our hotel and flight for this Christmas this morning...this time we decided to fly home on New Year's Eve and forego all the crowds. I would suggest if you're thinking about a park, it not be Magic Kingdom.

 

[Danauk]

We spent the last NYE in MGM. We went to the park in the morning to do the rides, went back to our room at lunch time and returned to the park at 6:30pm. We had an ADR at Hollywood Brown Derby which was lovely, went on a few more rides, watched the 10:30pm Fantasmic and then found a great place to watch the fireworks from (which were excellent, I really enjoyed the music that went with them.) All evening we were entertained by a DJ and live bands from under the hat. Although the park was busy it was well set up for the crowds and it was a really good evening. 30 minutes after the fireworks had ended we were back in our room at the BCV after a walk back via the Boardwalk.
If we went to WDW again for NYE I would definately go back to MGM.

 

[chipscinderelly]

We were at Epcot for NYE 2005 and really enjoyed ourselves. We made our dining arrangements early (counter service lines were very long all day - say 30 minutes at minimum) and did not plan to ride any rides. We went into the park around 10:30/11 am and stayed the remainder of the day. We shopped, watched people, went on Livin with the Land and Soarin (thanks to a nice family with extra fast passes) spent time wandering the world showcase pavillions, went to see the holiday light show and then staked our spot out for the fireworks about 8:30 pm. After that we ate our way to New Years with sushi, popcorn, pretzels, hot dogs - you name it we had it. It was a lot of fun and we were able to see the Epcot fireworks as well as the MGM fireworks from between the US and Italy.

 

[Amy&Dan]

We were at WDW this NYE and it was great. MK also had their New Years Eve fireworks on the 30th followed by EMH that lasted until 4:00 a.m. This was an effort to have people go to MK on the 30th instead of the 31st. So we did that and by about 1:30 a.m. at MK we walked on so many rides it was unbelievable. If they do this again you should do it because that way you can see the MK NYE fireworks display one night early and then go to Epcot and see theirs on actual NYE. At Epcot we only saw the France movie, wait times were awful and fastpasses long gone by the time we arrived at 8:00 p.m. We just people watched from our ground vantage point in America as we waited for Illuminations and the NYE's fireworks. Be careful about drinking too much, the waits for bathrooms are awful! My husband noticed more women than men in the mens rooms as the waits for the ladies bathrooms were over 20 minutes in some places. It was a great experience, I would do it again in a minute. The excitement of being in WDW on NYE was great. Just go with the knowledge that crowds will be unbelievable. Also, I would not necessarily recommend this time of year for someone's first trip to WDW. And get Tourguide Mike, it helped enormously!

 

[Amy&Dan]

It was a lot of fun and we were able to see the Epcot fireworks as well as the MGM fireworks from between the US and Italy.

Your experience sounds very similar to ours! In fact we saw the fireworks from just about that same spot, it was great to see MK's off in the distance and MGM's too. Who knows, we probably saw each other!

 

[snowglobe girl]

We were at MK NYE 2002. Advice we got from CM's was to pick a park, arrive early and plan to stay there all day. MK usually reaches capacity on NYE and they stop admitting people. It was horribly crowded all day long and then it started raining during SpectroMagic - then POURING!! It really thinned the crowd out and by 10:30pm, we could walk on nearly any attraction. We watched the fireworks in the rain and had a blast!!

 

[Feralpeg]

We went to Epcot for NYE 2005. I hated it. Way too crowded. Maybe I'm spoiled because I can go when it is not crowded. Anyway, I won't be doing that again.

If I were you, I'd make reservations at restaurant at the top of the Contemporary late enough to watch the NYE fireworks display from MK. Just think, no crowd. Drinks, good food and a great view. That's my idea of a pleasant evening.