Wanted: Disney X-mas Week Survival Reports!

[kerri0616]

Sorry, the search button isn't working......

Here's the story: I'm a teacher with kids who is (insanely) thinking about spending 5 days at the world smack dab in the middle of Christmas Break. Not to brag, but I am an awesome Disney planner. I'm also a realist. I realize that riding our favorite rides 10 times during the trip is not going to happen. But with early mornings and good use of Fastpass, we can get our favorites done.

The purpose of the trip would be to experience the wonder of Disney at Christmas...the decorations, music, holiday spirit, etc. Barely making the last MVMCP and seeing CP and the Osborne Lights would be accomplished. Spending time visiting the hotels to see each one's decorations would be great! Having those ADR's made June 22 would be done. Of course we'd stay on-site.

So, here's what I'd like to see. If you survived (and possibly enjoyed?) a week at Disney over X-mas, I'd like to hear about it. I suppose if you had the worst week of your life, I'd like to hear that too. Any suggestions you can offer would be priceless!

Thanks for sharing!

Kerri

 

[wdwgirl03]

I've been to WDW right after Christmas 2 times and over Easter about 4 or 5 times. Is it crowded? Yes. Is it unbearable? To me, no. Christmas is a great time to visit!! On our last trip we went to a bunch of the hotels to see the decorations and saw the Osbourne lights since they didn't have them the first time we went.

Using the extra magic hours definitely does help. You'd be surprised how much you can get done. We'd usually go to one park in the morning, go back to the hotel to swim/rest around noon when it started to get pretty packed, and then go back to a park in the afternoon/evening.

I think part of the thing that keeps me happy during the trip even when it does seem so crowded is that I'm in Disney World, so I just have a great time.

 

[AStamm]

I'm also a teacher and am forced into doing WDW during peak times (of course, other than once every other year vacation I can take if I choose not to use any of my whopping 2 personal days the year prior ).

We went to WDW for Christmas break in 2004 and had a fabulous time. Arrived at CSR around 8:30 pm Christmas Eve only to be greeted by Mickey, Minnie, and Donald all decked out in their Spanish attire. In the lobby, who should be see other than the big man himself--Santa. My poor DS (5 at the time) fell asleep in the car on the way from the airport and it was all I could do to wake him up for this great photo op right at the hotel!

Christmas Day we headed to MK. It was absolutely freezing! Coming from PA (and originally from Central NY), you'd think I'd be immune to the cold--WRONG! We were all bundled up with t-shirts, long-sleeve shirts, warm coats, gloves, and hats and were still frozen. The crowds were great, but there was rain in the forecast. Which, of course, started just as a plopped myself down to save our spaces for the Christmas parade ON Christmas Day (I was so thrilled to think I'd be seeing it on the actual holiday). Within 10 minutes my blanket and my pants were absolutely soaked. My DH and DS came back from whatever ride they had wandered off to to find me drenched. Shortly after they made the announcement that the parade would be canceled. It was about all we could do to stay warm for the 4 or so hours we had between when the parade should have been and our ADRs for Crystal Palace. Needless to say, once we got in, ate, and warmed up at Crystal Palace, we left for the hotel.

The day after crowds were a little heavier, but the forecast was improving to occasional showers. It rained off and on for the first few hours but remained cold the entire day. We ended up canceling our Fantasmic Dining Experience thing at Hollywood and Vine and heading back to the hotel early.

The next day the forecast was a little better--warming up in the afternoon. Thank God we were all layered early in the morning because some woman who probably just got off Mission Space threw up all over my DS and I while we were waiting to see Cranium Command. Thankfully it was just our coats and long sleeve shirts that got hit and a very nice CM got his manager who took our dirty clothes to be laundered and escorted us over to MouseGears to pick any sweatshirt we wanted. By the afternoon, we were back into just t-shirts, though.

The rest of the week doesn't stand out to me like those first 3 days, but I know we had a great time. As long as you go with the mentaility that you are going to encounter crowds, you'll be fine.

One suggestion for you--if you're going to be at WDW for New Year's Eve, steer clear of MK. It hit capacity (75,000) by a little after lunch. We got stuck for almost 1 hr. trying to use the walkways between the Liberty Belle and Tom Sawyer's raft departure area. Wall-to-wall people pushing, swearing, etc. Not a pretty sight! Main Street was complete chaos after SpectroMagic and before Wishes. It was all we could do to squeeze out and head back to the hotel.

We're heading back this Christmas as well. My DH and DS are going down on December 19 to get the room at the value season rate and enjoy Universal Studios without me. I'll be flying down Friday night after teaching a full week, arriving at midnight. The good news is that I'll still be able to fit 9 days in at the parks--we'll be leaving New Year's Eve (I learned my lesson!).

Pack lots of clothes you can layer. Enjoy!

 

[Cinderella Fan]

We went last year the first week of December, as DFi and I are both teachers as well. But this year, we will be there from the 16-26 for our wedding (forced to work around the school schedule).

The first week of December is not bad at all, in fact it was quite nice.

Hope you have a great trip!! Maybe we will seee you there.... you can usually tell the teachers from the rest of the guests...

 

[KCMiller]

We were there the week between Christmas and New Years in 2003, and we're headed back again this year (our children's high school marching band goes every 3 years, and marches at MK!). Here, in a nutshell, are my best suggestions for maximizing your fun:

1. Get there early. No, I mean it. Get there 1/2 hour before the park opens. Minimally. And drive. I mean it. WAY faster than WDW transport with the crowds. Unless you're going to MK, in which case, well, we're all in this together, aren't we?

2. USE FASTPASSES. As soon as you get into the park, start collecting them. They are good for any time AFTER the return time, on the same day. Get a fastpass as soon as you get to the park, and every time your time to get a new one comes up, get one. Don't USE the Fastpasses until the afternoon. Wait on line 20 minutes in the morning, it won't kill you. Trust me, when you see that there are TWO HOUR waits for rides after noon, and all of the Fastpasses are gone by one, you'll be happy you collected them. Meantime, enjoy riding the rides with only normal waits (until about 10am, that is).

3. Make ADR's. Oh, heavens, make ADRS, for every meal. You're thinking "how can I know where we want to eat? Won't that be really expensive? Surely we'll want to get a counter service meal or two?" Well, normally, you'd be right. But at those crowd levels, it's not unreasonable to predict a half hour to an HOUR wait on line for a burger. My niece was at WDW the year before we went, and waited far longer. With an early ADR for lunch, you get a break, it can be breakfast, and you get out of the crowds. Then, a late ADR gets you out of the even BIGGER crowds for a bit. Make an ADR at least for one meal a day.

4. Get a locker. Get one the moment you arrive. You will thank me. Put your windbreaker, your extra socks, your whatever you were going to tote around all day. It's going to be a long, long day. You don't want to be hauling stuff around.

5. Relax. With the crowds being so high, you will NOT be able to ride all the rides, you won't be getting much time with the characters, you WILL get bumped, there WILL be a stroller or an ECV in front of you - but you're at WDW, everyone is in a holiday mood, the decorations are wonderful - what could be better??


Have a great time, and we'll see you there!


KC

 

[mamacatnv]

1. Get there early. No, I mean it. Get there 1/2 hour before the park opens. Minimally.
2. USE FASTPASSES. As soon as you get into the park, start collecting them.
3. Make ADR's. Oh, heavens, make ADRS, for every meal.

Having now done 2 trips between Christmas and NYE I cannot stress the above enough!

We did not do our own driving, we used Disney transportation and just planned accordingly.

Take your patience hat with you, you are going to need it.

The one real advantage is the parks, especially MK hardly ever closes. There was one night that with EMH the park was open util 3 am and the next day 4am. We were headed to MK from Boardwalk to get the bus back to our resort about midnight one night and people were getting on the busses at Swan/Dolphin having just woken up their kids from a late evening nap and heading into the parks at midnight!

Since we really tried to make the early a.m.'s the late nights were just too much for us but it was fun to see others doing it. The A.M.s were the best, there was about a 3 hour block (7-10) when we had MK practically all to ourselves. By 10 things are picking up and we would bail for breakfast and a nap.

The decorations are awesome and the crowds very festive. Have fun we are there 1/1-9/07, we will be arriving while all the NYE'ers are sleeping!

 

[swillis]

There is a good trip report in the UK Trip Report Forum. I think it's called a "Goofyish Christmas Trip" or something like that. It's very good, with some great pictures, and food reviews included.

 

[kerri0616]

Thanks all!

It is nice to read some good reports. So, would you say all parks open at 7 am, or just MK? I'd have no problem getting up and out to be there before 7 if it meant we could get some rides on Space, Big Thunder, Phil, and a few more in Fantasyland.

I like the idea of having breakfast at 10 after some early commando park attacking. I really like the suggestion of collecting Fast Passes and not using them til afternoon!

You all are so great!! Now, I just have to convince my husband to do it!! It would be wrong to leave him home over X-mas while the kids and I take off, right? Just kidding (sort of!)

Anyone else want to share success stories (or failures?)

Kerri

 

[rx2755]

Hi,

We went in 2002 at Christmas with 2 DD (3 and 5) and we just loved it.... so much in fact that we are going back this Christmas Dec 22-30 (this time DD will be 9 and 7). When we went in 2002, Christmas was on Wednesday. We arrived on the Saturday before in the afternoon and went to MK in the evening... we had the place to ourselves... dd(5) and I rode SWSA all alone and they just let us stay on over and over like 10 times (even though she barely looked-Ha Ha), Yes there were big crowds, and no we didn't get to see everything, but we were at Disney at Christmas!! This year I made our reservations on Feb 4., first time I could get flight confirmation and have been planning our trip since before Christmas last year......DDs do not know and we are trying to keep it a secret as long as we can..(SHHHH) we hope to wake them on the morning we are going and say "guess what, we are going to Disney!"... I have reservations for Hoop Dee Doo on night we get there so that should be great way to kick off our trip. When we were there before it rained the day we went to MGM, so my best recomendation is to have rain gear/slickers with you that you can tote along just in case because they are alot of $$$ in the parks and if you get a different color you can find your family easier.

Have fun.....we will see you there....YEAH RIGHT!!! Ha Ha