Night of Joy, Illuminations or Fantasmic??

[DCWarrior]

We will be WDW as a group of 9 people the week of Night of Joy this year and I am torn as to what to do. There are artists both nights that I would love to see, some I have seen before and others I have wanted to see. We don't have a specific touring plan for our days yet other than having agreed to go to the parks early, take a mid day break and then back in the evenings for fireworks/parades/shows/more rides.

Besides, I'm not sure I want to or others want to pay $60-70 more each for the NOJ events. Maybe we will, maybe not. We will all have to discuss it more. But, there is something I can ask you DISers to help add info to our discussion.

Are the other parks extra empty during the NOJ events at MK? Specifically, would seeing Illuminations at Epcot and Fantasmic at the Studios be noticeably easier and lighter on crowds on these nights?

 

[HookdonWDW]

Are the other parks extra empty during the NOJ events at MK? Specifically, would seeing Illuminations at Epcot and Fantasmic at the Studios be noticeably easier and lighter on crowds on these nights?

Relatively speaking, I would expect the other parks to have higher attendance on these nights, since guests can't get into MK without NOJ admission tickets. All things being equal, Illuminations and Fantasmic should be noticeably emptier the night AFTER NOJ.

 

[prudence64]

Did your party choose the dates because of night of joy or was it just a coincidence?

Price wise, it doesn't seem bad considering just a dessert party costs $50 during illuminations and that is only about 1/2 hour. This sounds more like an evening of entertainment.

If your whole party isn't interested you could always split up for the evening. I traveled with a large party last time and it was nice to have a day where we split into smaller groups and did more specific thing that interested us.

 

[mom2cinderella]

According to the calendar I'm looking at, there isn't a Fantasmic showing Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday or Friday that week. I know that week is low crowds, but between that and no Wishes on Fri/Sat, there's no way I'm going to Fantasmic on Saturday (the 6th).

 

[DCWarrior]

Hmm, good point HookonWDW. I didn't think of it that way.

We were going this week because it fits our group the best with the time, work, low crowds and pricing. NOJ just happens to be a possible bonus for us.

We will have to keep the calendar in mind because I know we want to see MSEP, Wishes, Illuminations and Fantasmic while we are there. So, the planning will be around them then, since they are already paid for with our already purchased park passes.

Thanks for all three of your thoughts on this!!!!!

 

[Day-Day]

We visited MK during the day when Nights of Joy was scheduled for the evening. The park was practically empty throughout the day until Nights of Joy guests started to file in around 4:30pm or so. We hopped to EPCOT afterwards (we have annual passes). A large number of guests do not have the tickets for hopping so they go to parks other than MK on a day that has a special event such as Nights of Joy. They don't want to "waste" a day's ticket for an abreviated visit to MK and may also want to go to MK when they can see a night parade and fireworks.

Something to consider. If you don't have park hoppers you should be able to add for $60. Its not worth the money for some but others think it is worth the flexibility it provides.