New Years Week Questions

[pgende80]

We will be staying dec 27-3 at AoA, we are a rope drop family! Have All FP+ booked already! My question is being there at rope drop will we still have an hr or 2 to hit rides before it gets crazy packed? Also any other tips for this week would be great! Thanks!

 

[Robo]

We will be staying dec 27-3 at AoA, we are a rope drop family! Have All FP+ booked already!


My question is being there at rope drop will we still have an hr or 2 to hit rides before it gets crazy packed?

The better part of one hour, at least.

 

[PlutoTheDog89]

My family usually goes from Dec. 24th to Jan 1st or 2nd.

Dec. 24th and 25th are very crowded - to be expected.

The crowds die down (comparatively speaking) December 26th and 27th, and then pick up the 28th. This may be a little different this year, as the 26th and 27th fall on a weekend. I'm willing to gamble that Disney is going to be a little more packed this year. Christmas falls on a Thursday. A lot more people will be willing to take off the 26th, giving them a full weekend at the parks.

Anyway, to answer your question... the 30th and 31st will be very crowded. I have never experienced the parks on the 1st of January, but I've heard it's crowded as well.

Get to the parks early - for Rope Drop or morning EMH. It's totally worth it. Also - stay at the parks late, if you can. Spend December 30th at Magic Kingdom. It's gonna be crowded - but it's awesome at night! They do the NYE show!

Join in on my Christmas DIScussion tomorrow for more answers. It starts at 12pm.

Check out my book - survivedisxmas.com. I cover NYE and the how to beat the crowds. It's free!

 

[pgende80]

Awesome!! Will do thanks!!

 

[jfeasel]

We go every other year Dec. 26 - Jan. 2 and take a high school girls basketball team! Our experience has been that Jan. 1 is a great day to go to the parks - I'm not sure if everyone is sleeping in or leaving that day, but that has been the least busiest day when we've been there.

NYE in EPCOT is great - even trying to keep track of 24 high school girls. The park is the largest but they do 2 fireworks show, one around 9 and one and midnight. So after the first fireworks, people with young kids and strollers leave. The countries of EPCOT also have their own parties based on how each country celebrates. Our plan is that as soon as the last firework goes off at midnight, we all run for Disney transportation.

During this time, there are a lot of sporting events happening at Wide World of Sports (this is why we're there.) There is a boys and girls basketball tournament (last year over 100 teams with their fans), a soccer college preview tournament (it's HUGE), a wrestling tournament (about 40 teams) and for some reason, baseball games!!! The basketball players and wrestlers stay at CSR and some of the All Stars. The soccer players stay everywhere.

Yes, some of the parks will close in mid-afternoon due to crowds. We've been to MK when it has closed and Disney opens up a special walkway (usually used just for cast members) to get from the gate to Fantasyland because Main Street USA is so crowded.

We have been able to swim every year but 1 (it was the coldest winter ever in 2009-10). Last year, the weather was perfect with us just needed jackets at night and it never got really hot during the day.

The parks are beautiful during this time - crowded but beautiful.

We'll be back 2015-2016.

 

[Claire&TheBoys]

We were there this year from 12/31-1/5 to celebrate my 40th birthday. We went to DHS for part of the afternoon/evening of NYE and it was pretty busy, but I had booked our FP+ and we didn't have long waits for those attractions at all. We also had an ADR for dinner at 50's Prime Time Café and were seated early. We did leave before midnight because we'd been traveling that day and wanted to do rope-drop the next morning at MK.

The rest of the week was pretty busy, but we did most everything we really wanted to. It rained a couple of days and was quite chilly (to us Floridians) one day. My husband wound up getting sick the last day of our trip, unfortunately. Getting to the parks early, knowing what our must-do attractions are, and having an ADR every day made our trip enjoyable, even though it was busy.

 

[karenklo]

We were there last NYE week and will be there again the same dates as you! We found last year that the first two hours or so after RD were great, especially is the RD was at 7am for EMH. Jan 1 was good till 11am. See ya there!!