What parks What days? and New Years

[thejen]

Hi everyone. My family and I visited Disney a few years ago and I got so much helpful information from this site that I had to visit again. WE will be in Disney from late Dec. 25 until Jan 2. I think we will do 4 or 5 days at disney and also check out universal a couple of days. Are there certain days that we should go to certain parks? We are not staying on disney property so I assume we should avoid the early entrance. Also, do any of the character meals do anything special for New Years Eve or am I too late for that anyway? Any other tips for going during this time are greatly appreciated!

 

[WDSearcher]

You know ... honestly, that time of year it really won't make a difference which park on which day. It will be crowded all week long, and you won't really see a difference. If you were staying on site, then it would be different, since everyone would be advocating using EE to get the big stuff out of the way before the masses descend , but if you're coming from off-property, it won't really matter.

One thing though -- and this applies to Universal as well as WDW -- get to whichever park you're going to early! During Christmas week, parks often close at capacity early in the day, and you may find yourself a tourist without a theme park. This is not the week to sleep in and think you're going to show up at 11am and wander through the turnstiles. Particularly since you're not on-site. All the parks (including Universal) will close to off-site guests first.

Another option is to wait and hit the parks in the afternoon. Most parks that close at capacity in the morning will re-open sometime in the mid-to-late afternoon. So if you're a "sleep in" kind of vacationer, then you'll want to go that route.