Our successful Xmas Week Trip 12/21-12/28!

[kerri0616]

I know many people would never voluntarily enter the parks during this time, but if you're a teacher with kids who are in school and you want to experience Disney over the Holidays, there is no other choice. This was our third wonderful Xmas Week trip and we managed to do almost everything we envisioned. This was our first trip with FP+ and we worked around its constraints as best we could.

Our party consisted of me, DH, DS16, DS19. It's not easy to get the boys out of bed super early, so we didn't do rope drop every day. But rope drop is the key to getting "everything" done before the crowds descend. We chose to have a few "sleep in" days and chose our 3 FPs for later in the day. It kept my family happy and sane. Here are some thoughts about each park, if this helps:

MK: If you can drag your family here for 7am opening and rope drop, you will be ahead of the crowd. I managed to get my family here one time at 6:45. Walked onto everything (except Peter Pan which was down that morning...had to FP it later in the week since it consistently had 120 min wait time...insanity.) We ate granola bars/pop tarts at the bus stop for "breakfast" so when CS restaurants open at 10:15 am for lunch, we were almost the first in line to eat lunch. No lines for lunch! And we were starving. I planned our three FPs for late morning/early afternoon and managed to be in frontierland during Xmas parade! Well timed! Finished up around 2pm and got out. Returned later for Castle Lighting/Wishes without FP. Had a fine view in the hub.

EP: Park had 8am opening. This was our only bump in the road all week. As we walked to our bus stop, we saw our Epcot bus pulling away. Dang. Another one came about 15 min later, but this put us behind the crowds. (Later in the week, we chose to drive to Epcot and got "ahead" of everyone...more later.) So, we got to Epcot at about 7:50 and were behind a million people. I had chosen Soarin FP which meant we had to do Test Track standby. At 8, they released us and we scooted to TT as best we could. And the ride was down...we were in a temporary queue outside the building watching the wait time go from 40 to 50...Finally heard the cars start zooming over our heads. But of course, the FP people were given priority. By the time we finished the ride it was 9:25. Had a wonderful ride later on Soarin and enjoyed lunch in the World Showcase. How nice that even during this busy week, we could walk onto the Mexico ride! Left the park early afternoon.

Be back in a bit for more...need to tell you about our 2nd morning in Epcot!

 

[quickcat]

Thanks for this! We have never been to Disney at Christmas and planning our first Christmas trip in 2016- truth be told, we always have gone during non-busy times. After seeing some pictures that people have posted showing the crowds, I am starting to get a little nervous.
Can you tell me how much you planned, meaning, did you have everyday, every ride, every meal planned out for every park? I can plan some, but nothing like every aspect which sounds like many people do over Christmas. We will stay on site, to get the earlier access to fastpasses, which I was originally planning on staying off site but not anymore.
I have 2 children, 7 & 11, being there at rope drop will not be an issue, they are early risers
On Christmas day we are planning on trying SeaWorld instead of a Disney park because I have read several reports that it isn't as 'bad' for crowds as Disney will be.
Sounds like you had a great time! Anymore info you can share I would love to read about.

 

[Canuck16]

RD is key for us on any Disney trip for us as well.

 

[jaysmom4285]

see this thread for more helpful tips:

http://www.disboards.com/threads/our-christmas-trip-12-23-12-30.3471842/

 

[kerri0616]

Thanks for this! We have never been to Disney at Christmas and planning our first Christmas trip in 2016- truth be told, we always have gone during non-busy times. After seeing some pictures that people have posted showing the crowds, I am starting to get a little nervous.
Can you tell me how much you planned, meaning, did you have everyday, every ride, every meal planned out for every park? I can plan some, but nothing like every aspect which sounds like many people do over Christmas. We will stay on site, to get the earlier access to fastpasses, which I was originally planning on staying off site but not anymore.
I have 2 children, 7 & 11, being there at rope drop will not be an issue, they are early risers
On Christmas day we are planning on trying SeaWorld instead of a Disney park because I have read several reports that it isn't as 'bad' for crowds as Disney will be.
Sounds like you had a great time! Anymore info you can share I would love to read about.

I did plan our mornings up to and including lunch and our 3 fastpasses. But we left the parks each afternoon for resort time/pool time. I knew we would eat CS lunch super early and since this was a Free Dining Trip, we had ADRs for each dinner. So, I ultra planned part of each day, but knowing my family, I had to plan in down time too. I'm happy with how it worked out. It was hard for me to let go of a planned morning at DS, but surprising them with Force Awakens tickets was awesome. Kept us out of the parks for half of a day and they will always remember seeing episode 7 in Downtown Disney. It does pay off to break away from my ultra planning!

 

[kerri0616]

I'm back. Laundry just never stops...

Back to Epcot for our 2nd visit...I wasn't about to let Test Track's crowds beat us again. Told the family when we were leaving the room and decided to drive this day...only time we drove to a park other than after checking out the last day. So happy to see an Epcot bus leaving our stop as it headed to make all the other resort stops (did I say we stayed at CBR? It was awesome.). Scored a fabulous parking spot and walked up to empty bag check at 7:35 am (8am opening). Got through tapstiles and power walked toward Mouse Gear assuming we'd be near the front of the pack as we waited for opening. But, what the heck? No people. No rope. We just kept walking to Test Track. Apparently, they opened the park early!! OMG!!! We walked onto TT and then after our first ride (not even 8am yet) we zipped right back through the queue! 2 rides! No waiting. Peeked at the wait time after our second ride...40 minutes! Yay us! So, being the overachiever Type A person that I am, I hustled everyone over to Soarin to check Standby. 5 min wait time posted---after 8am during Xmas week. I assumed it was a mistake, but we joined the queue. Unbelievably, it really was a 5 min wait. I have no idea where the crowds were. What a kick*** morning! Later on we had an amazing CP lunch at Via Napoli and truly enjoyed Blair Underwood's narration. (Paid OOP...I don't think it's worth 2 dining credits.) And wait times for our beloved Test Track and Soarin reached 120-140 minutes. If not more. Saw 180 waits for these as well.

 

[kerri0616]

If you plan to visit a park on Christmas Day, please consider AK. We had such a wonderful day. Arrived around 8:30 (8am opening) and went to EE. 10 minute wait!!! We rode it 3 times. I had our 3 FP for other attractions(Safari, Dinosaur, FOLK) so we were so glad for the nonexistent standby line. Enjoyed viewing the Gorillas and meerkats. We had a wonderful lunch at Yak n Yeti (a family favorite) and left the park around 2 when the crowds began to clog the paths. Someday, I'd like to arrive at AK around 4 and stay til 8:30pm closing. I think that would be a great strategy too. Never seen Flights of Wonder either...maybe next time. As soon as we started to feel closed in by the crowds, we left the parks.

DS: We spent about 3 different half-days here. Thanks to FP, we did get a ride on TSMM which is enough for us. We prefer Star Tours. So amazed at the renewed interest in this attraction since Episode 7 has been released. The line to build a light saber was insane! We saw 80 min standby lines for the attraction. But the wait times for TOT and RnR were always 120+ minutes. I managed to get FPs for these big two on our last morning and thanks to my good planning we were able to ride them back to back bypassing those insane waits. Our last two attractions before heading out!

 

[kerri0616]

Final thoughts...

MK: The Castle Projection Show is a must do. Anna and Elsa were cute too. And Wishes cannot be missed. We managed to experience Wishes three different ways...(1) From the hub standing with 50,000 of our friends. (2) We finished our dinner at Narcoossee's and watched them from their walkway under the impressive full moon on 12/25. Music piped in. (3) As we exited Be our Guest, we walked right into the middle of them! Interesting to see how far apart the two types of fireworks really are from each other.
We had our first ride on 7DMT...we are not the target audience for the ride. Very nicely themed, but my boys would never give up a "mountain" FP for this attraction.
Wait times: I knew the standby lines would be insane. But I still have to wonder who enters a line that promises a 160 min wait? People...arrive at rope drop or stay til closing. You CAN get on the popular rides. We were always able to find minor attractions to enjoy during our short waits for FP times. No trouble getting on TTC and Monsters Inc was almost always a walk on (walk in?). We never got a 4th FP all week and still didn't really miss much!
DS Star Wars Fireworks were awesome! We saw them twice from way far back from the Chinese Theater. Our first night, they started at 11pm and we were on our bus at 11:12 and back at our bus stop at 11:23. So glad to see the Osborne Lights one final time. I'm still angry at Disney for not finding another place for them...I fear seeing a Youtube video of them laying in a heap in Disney junkyard alongside the Epcot Mickey Wand. (Sad face)
Two things we didn't squeeze in this time...Illuminations. And my husband was sad we didn't see the Hall of Presidents. I bet that would have been a walk on!

When the kids were younger, we went almost every year. Then it was 18 months between trips. And now it was 2 1/2 years since our last trip (got one in college, you know!). We'd like to return in summer 2017 to see a new movie in Soarin, Norway's Frozen attraction, and Pandora. I don't think we'll plan a trip until we can see all of these. But I would not hesitate to return for another Xmas Trip. We were blessed with perfect weather...record highs in the mid 80s all week. Not one drop of rain over the course of 8 days.

I hope my thoughts/reflections help some to decide to do a Disney Xmas Week trip! It was wonderful. (I plan to do some brief dining reviews too...but I don't take pictures of the food!)

 

[tink2]

We just returned as well and had a wonderful and very successful trip! We were there Dec 23- 29 with 11 people~ four kids ages 14 and above. I'm a teacher as well and with the four kids in our family being 2 in high school and 2 in different colleges~ Christmas week was literally the only time we could all schedule to go. With planning~ we did everything we wanted and more. yes, 7am openings are a MUST to be able to ride a lot. Then our FP were scheduled for lunch and after~ plus we did the extra magic band thingy too that worked great. We had a wonderful trip and while yes, crowds were crazy, I wouldn't hesitate to go again Christmas week. This was our second Christmas week trip and we had a blast.

 

[tstidm1]

Question for you. Did your family see Star Wars FA in Fork and Screen (AMC's version of a Dine In Theater)? Have wondered about the experience because there isn't one in Metro Baltimore. If not, How is AMC Downtown Disney as a Theater? Never been to the AMC Downtown Disney and was wondering whether it was a really good movie experience. May see a movie at AMC Downtown Disney when I'm down in May and am curious.

 

[NH-to-FL]

Scored a fabulous parking spot and walked up to empty bag check at 7:35 am (8am opening). Got through tapstiles and power walked toward Mouse Gear assuming we'd be near the front of the pack as we waited for opening. But, what the heck? No people. No rope. We just kept walking to Test Track. Apparently, they opened the park early!!

Yes! After seeing an announcement on easyWDW that Disney was doing "surprise" 7am openings at Epcot we we at the tapsiles at 6:45am on the 30th. By 7am there were about 60 people in line. At 7:05am they let us in! We leisurely strolled over to the Land and rode Soarin' three times in a row. The first run was at best only 1/2 full and was still filling up by the third ride. What a wonderful surprise for early risers!

 

[disneydreamer75]

I'm back. Laundry just never stops...

Back to Epcot for our 2nd visit...I wasn't about to let Test Track's crowds beat us again. Told the family when we were leaving the room and decided to drive this day...only time we drove to a park other than after checking out the last day. So happy to see an Epcot bus leaving our stop as it headed to make all the other resort stops (did I say we stayed at CBR? It was awesome.). Scored a fabulous parking spot and walked up to empty bag check at 7:35 am (8am opening). Got through tapstiles and power walked toward Mouse Gear assuming we'd be near the front of the pack as we waited for opening. But, what the heck? No people. No rope. We just kept walking to Test Track. Apparently, they opened the park early!! OMG!!! We walked onto TT and then after our first ride (not even 8am yet) we zipped right back through the queue! 2 rides! No waiting. Peeked at the wait time after our second ride...40 minutes! Yay us! So, being the overachiever Type A person that I am, I hustled everyone over to Soarin to check Standby. 5 min wait time posted---after 8am during Xmas week. I assumed it was a mistake, but we joined the queue. Unbelievably, it really was a 5 min wait. I have no idea where the crowds were. What a kick*** morning! Later on we had an amazing CP lunch at Via Napoli and truly enjoyed Blair Underwood's narration. (Paid OOP...I don't think it's worth 2 dining credits.) And wait times for our beloved Test Track and Soarin reached 120-140 minutes. If not more. Saw 180 waits for these as well.

That is so Awesome!!! Glad you enjoyed some pixie dust with the unexpected early park opening!!