Orlando at Christmas/New Year

[tartangirl]

We are planning a trip to Orlando over Christmas/New Year this year - not something we would expect to do again but we wanted to experience Disney at Christmas at least once.

I expect very large crowds and we will definately do MK and Epcot but is there anything special at MGM or AK that makes it worth doing?

Also, does Universal do anything special during the festive period (other than put their parking charges up)?

Is there any must dos at Christmas/New Year that we wouldn't do during the summer months?

Thanks

 

[pauldolling]

We went xmas 2005 and it was superb. The parks were the busiest I have ever seen them, including the height of school holidays in August, but the atmosphere is great. All the parks including Universal all have the Christmas theme in full effect and this really gets you in the festive mood.
Weather is warm but in the mornings it is cold and we even saw ground frost first thing on several occasions. The waterparks were closed I think when we were there but we hadn't planned on using them as it really wasn't warm enough, leave those to the summer.
All in all I could highly recommend Christmas at Disney and Florida as a whole.

 

[tartangirl]

Thanks for the info - if Universal has the Christmas theme going we'll probably pay it a visit.

Are all the Disney parks worth doing - we dont do AK much in the summer so we weren't thinking of doing that one and MGM with large crowds isn't that great (IMHO).

 

[pauldolling]

The best park IMHO at Christmas is MK, my kids loved it. The Christmas decorations are out of this world and the whole festive mood is second to none.

 

[tartangirl]

That's what I was hoping - I always think MK is the best park for just being in and I was hoping that even with large crowds the atmosphere would be great.

We plan to do Epcot because in summer it's too hot for us too amble around so we thought we'd do and just spend the day walking between the countries.

 

[tashasmum]

We came back at the beginning of jan. I would recommend doing all the parks at least once, they all have different things going on for xmas. Universal had the Macy's day parade which was brilliant and if you are over 18 you may get to be in the parade as they need lots and lots of people to hold the balloons.
If you are planning on being in Mk on xmas day i personally would not bother with the MVMCP because you can see everything in the park with-out paying for the extra ticket. The Osborne lights are a must see they are just fantastic but you really need to see for yourselves. We had great weather,in the 80's most days and i think we only needed fleeces on a couple of occasions but according to a local lady we had been very fortunate. The week before xmas day the crowds were bearable but between xmas and new year a lot of the parks were actually closing the gates as they were full to capacity. With a little planning though they are manageable.