Thank you for the great info and advice!
Do as MUCH as you can 12/19-12/24. From then on things get pretty intense. Once the Christmas parties have ended for the season (maybe 12/20 this year?) you can catch the Christmas fireworks and parade each day at MK. The parade is so sweet. However, I’m glad to hear you’re avoiding MK on Christmas Day, truly. It isn’t pleasant in the least.
We loved Epcot on Christmas Eve but I do recommend having a reservation for either lunch or dinner to escape crowds a bit. The festival of the holidays is wonderful with lots of fun offerings and storytellers in each land. You can also look into candlelight processional during your trip.
We did California grill on Christmas Eve dinner which was wonderful, especially during the Christmas fireworks.
ADRs in general will be your friend. It’s a way to get some respite, some food and a devoted place to sit. You’ll wait 20 minutes if not more, past your reservation time but just try to stay patient.
We did AK on 12/26 and it was actually great. Some of the lowest crowds I’ve experienced at AK for some reason. Nomad lounge is a great spot to relax.
12/26-12/28 will be crowds, crowds, and more crowds for the most part so look at those as your bonus days. Take it easier, use your FPs each day then stay flexible.
I was thinking Epcot for either Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, but then thought maybe the Candelight Processional would be too crazy on one of those days, even with the dining package, which we would do.
I almost booked the California Grill brunch on our last trip. I'm going to look into the dinner. How do you time it with the fireworks? When should the ADR start in relation to the fireworks time?
Interesting about AK on the 26!
Do some resort hopping and take in the holiday spirit at each of them. We especially like the Grand Floridian. There's the adult ginger bread house there. They have a small orchestra doing Christmas music in the lobby. In between their sets a piano player will do some Christmas tunes. Take in a restaurant there for a meal. Time your meal with the fireworks at MK. If you eat at Narcossee's you can see the fireworks right there. The dock provides a good view, too.
We have never visited the Grand Floridian, except to see it from the monorail, and we definitely plan to visit there this trip! I knew about the gingerbread house, which looks so cool, but I didn't know about the live music! For the dining, I don't like seafood and I know Narcoossee's is primarily that - would it be a waste for me? Any other recommendations for dining at the GF?
Make your plans and ADRs far in advance. Christmas week is no time to fly by the seat of your pants, but (ironically) you still have to still remain flexible. I agree that you should do as much as you can earlier in your stay. It will become busier and busier as your vacation progresses. I wouldn't avoid the MK for Christmas if that's where you really want to be. Everything will be crazy. Just make sure that you have an ADR somewhere (booked at 120 days!) and either FPs or plan on 7:00 am EMH. I would also suggest that you book the Candlelight Processional dinner package for Christmas Eve if possible. Here is more information on it:
https://www.disneytouristblog.com/candlelight-processional-review-tips/ and here
https://www.wdwinfo.com/holidays/candlelight_processional.htm . If you do 2 TSs per day you may want to look into one of the DDPs as Disney often jacks up meal prices during the holiday season.
My other piece of advise is to dress in layers and plan for both heat and cold. You'll be able to wear tank tops and shorts one day and you'll need to bundle up the next. Bring stretchy gloves for chilly nights.
We don't have any special attachment to Christmas at MK, really. Would be fine visiting it other days. I did see that those 7:00am EMH exist and definitely plan to take advantage of those! Do they actually have lower crowds? I'd assume they would, but we did an evening EMH at MK in July and were shocked at how much it did not feel like an EMH. The crowds barely changed.
I booked our ADRs at 180 days at 3am Pacific time even for our last trip in July - I do not mess around with the planning.
Definitely planning on the CP dinner package! Thank you for the links! Is it much harder to book that for Christmas Eve or Christmas Day than the other days? Here's another thing I'm wondering - I think I read that bookings for that open AFTER 180 days - should we just book up back up reservations at the place where we want the dining package? I saw that the narrators are all announced after the dining packages would need to be booked, also. Just wondering about the timing of that. Epcot restaurants are our favorites, so we have a lot of options, looks like.
I've read that about the weather - sounds interesting, for sure! Still better than what we're used to at WDW, which is "Maybe it will 'only' be 92 degrees today instead of 95!'" I'm wondering if we may be making use of lockers for extra clothes (jeans and coats, probably) for the first time ever. We've only used lockers at DLR.
We were there on December 26th, 27th & 28th in 2019 and the crowds were not horrible at all. It was busy, and FPs were important, but we never felt like we lacked personal space while in the parks at all. I think that "Christmas week is horrific" claim was either always overblown, or it has changed in recent years due to tiered ticket pricing & the Internet urban legend about that being the worst week, and therefore more people visiting in early December. We visited during this week in 2017 and it was okay, too, except at Pandora, which was very new then.
Our favorite things were the decorations everywhere, snow on Main Street, and the Candlelight Processional at Epcot.
That's very encouraging! Thank you for that. I have watched some videos on YouTube filmed in that time frame and don't feel like it seems to horrible for walking, even at MK. The foot traffic crowds at DLR are generally much worse than at WDW because of the smaller size of walkways, so it's something we are used to. Clearly the lines are outrageously long, but we know how to navigate that with FP+ and doing shorter line things or just enjoying the atmosphere at the most crowded times.
We spent Xmas at WDW 4 years ago and are booked for the 18-26 for this year. Great holiday photo ops. We had Fantasmic dinner package, which gives you an area that's roped off to sit in. Still crowded so get there early. We enjoyed the Candlelight Processional at Epcot. We plan to do the
MVMCP this year. Last time the Magic Kingdom was open really late one evening and my sons and I went for several hours in the intermittent rain. It was quite warm so we didn't mind. Went on many rides with little to no wait. "Snow" on Main Street was magical even for my 16 year old. The lights on the castle are beautiful. We went to all the Deluxe resorts to see the gingerbread houses/displays. Stayed at WL which is so beautifully decorated. Many times there were mild crowds but closer to Dec. 25 things get real. We were on the monorail returning to our resort on the 25th and the drive into WDW was like a parking lot.
Well if you're repeating, it must have been worth it! We have yet to see Fantasmic at WDW, though we've seen it several times at DLR. Maybe this will be the year! What restaurant did you eat in for the dining package? We do love the dinner packages - actually we did one at DLR for Fantasmic at Blue Bayou and it was a fantastic choice.
We've experienced the snow on Main Street at DLR and we love it, but I don't think our sweet little Sleeping Beauty Castle, beautiful as it is all lit up for Christmas, will be able to compare with the Cinderella Castle in all its Christmas-lit glory. That's one of the things I am most excited for, because I'm obsessed with that castle in general.
