Tips for young couple arriving for New Years Eve

[bellaluce126]

Hello!

I'm new to the boards--I just booked a trip for my husband and I (27 & 26) for 5 nights beginning 12/31/08 to the Port Orleans Resort. Though I've been to Disney World thrice before, all three times were with my high school's marching band; I've never planned a trip by myself before. I'm quite nervous about going at such a peak time but I really wanted to do something out of the ordinary for New Years Eve this year.

I have some questions for anyone who might be able to give some insight:

1. We are arriving from Buffalo in the afternoon. Our flight gets in at 2:38. Do you think we have any chance of a) getting into a park for the evening and b) getting reservations someplace for that evening? If not, what are our next best options? I'm not extremely picky--I'll consider any options that would get us out of our hotel room and are not too expensive. It would be nice to at least be able to see fireworks at midnight someplace though.

2. Which park would be the best option (least crowded) on News Year Day?

3. We are considering Disney Quest. Is it worth it for adults? I don't want to spend the money and then get bored after 2 hours.


Thanks so much to anyone who's willing to help me out here!

 

[nurse.darcy]

Hello!

I'm new to the boards--I just booked a trip for my husband and I (27 & 26) for 5 nights beginning 12/31/08 to the Port Orleans Resort. Though I've been to Disney World thrice before, all three times were with my high school's marching band; I've never planned a trip by myself before. I'm quite nervous about going at such a peak time but I really wanted to do something out of the ordinary for New Years Eve this year.

I have some questions for anyone who might be able to give some insight:

1. We are arriving from Buffalo in the afternoon. Our flight gets in at 2:38. Do you think we have any chance of a) getting into a park for the evening and b) getting reservations someplace for that evening? If not, what are our next best options? I'm not extremely picky--I'll consider any options that would get us out of our hotel room and are not too expensive. It would be nice to at least be able to see fireworks at midnight someplace though.

2. Which park would be the best option (least crowded) on News Year Day?

3. We are considering Disney Quest. Is it worth it for adults? I don't want to spend the money and then get bored after 2 hours.


Thanks so much to anyone who's willing to help me out here!

I have never been at New Year's so don't have any real advice on crowd levels but since you are staying onsite you can get into the parks. The fact that you were still able to book an onsite room tells me that you shouldn't have too much trouble. Disneyquest is fun for my teen but I don't really care for it much. Not sure if you two would like it or not. I will say that it is the weekend around here and you will get tons more responses during the week so bump this up on Sunday night and the responses will come in faster.

Enjoy. You will have a great time.

 

[sam_001]

dq has video games from the 80's to the present so if you like playing arcade games go for it. but if you don't like arcade games then it is a skip it attraction.

 

[savannahjean85]

Disney Quest was something we did because we had the Waterparks and more option, I think DF and I stayed for like 4 or 5 hours. It was ok not something I would want to pay for indiviually. DF would have stayed longer but knew I was bored. Only ride I really liked was the build your own roller coaster thing.

DF and I had our first trip together and stayed at POR.
They have a wonderful carriage ride they offer, a romantic thing to do. It is not to expensive.

Personally DF and I don't like to waste a full day's ticket on going the night we arrive but instead we head over to the Boardwalk Resort and hit up the piano bar JellyRolls. It is always a great time. It is a 21 and up only bar. They have two dualing piano players who take song request and the crowd sings along. I think that would be an esp. fun night to go. (I am not sure if you'd be able to see the fireworks from Epcot from the Boardwalk)

Another suggestion if you don't want to use your ticket but still want to watch the fireworks, is ride the monorail around MK. You'll be able to see parts of the display. I know some people get off at the Polynesian and watch from the beach there.

I have not been during this time but I know they have January as value season so I would think it should not be to busy (might be wrong).

Good luck with your trip. POR is my favorite resort we have stayed at. It is just romantic and beautiful there.

 

[DisneydaveCT]

I am not a big NYE fan, but I have done NYE twice at WDW, and hopefully will do a few more NYE's at WDW.

My first NYE was at Epcot for the Millenium celebration. The second time, a few years later, was at MK. Both times the parks were fairly crowded.

The advice I received from CM's both times was to pick a park and get there early in the day since the parks have been known to reach capacity on NYE. This also meant spending the full day in one park. So I chose parks that I could spend the entire day in, without getting bored.

Have a great time!

 

[bellaluce126]

Thanks for the tips all--

We decided not to do DisneyQuest but are still up in the air about New Years Eve. I was able to book reservations at Boatwrights, which is nice since we are staying right there at POR, but I'm not even sure if it's a good idea to use those reservations if we are going to attempt to get into a park. These are the options I'm considering--I'd love to get some feedback:

1) Book it to Epcot ASAP when we arrive, cancel the ADR at Boatwrights, and just enjoy Epcot for the evening with counter service food.

2) Same as above, only go to Hollywood Studios instead.

3) Get in, relax, have dinner at Boatwright's, then take the ferry to DTD and spend the evening there at either Jellyrolls or Atlantic Dance.

4) Get in, relax, have dinner at Boatwright's, then take the buses to the Poly or Contemporary to get a drink and watch fireworks from the beach and/or ride the monorail.


Our flight is out of BUF and we arrive 2:38 pm. I'd like to hear opinions on which option would be our best bet for a great NYE. Thanks so much!