What to expect New Years week? Tips?

[MamaBear12]

We will be at WDW the week following New Years (probably do parks Wed 1/2-Sat 1/5). We went last year for a couple days the week between Christmas and New Years. It was crazy, but we stayed onsite and booked FP+ And ADRs early, so it was manageable. This time we’ll probably be staying offsite and with extended family, so rope drop probably won’t happen and we won’t have the 60-day FP+. What can I expect? Can we still get some of the highly coveted FP+ reservations? We didn’t do AK our last trip so Pandora is top of our list, as is Toy Story Land. We’ll probably skip Epcot this trip. Thanks!

 

[StacyStrong]

Pandora and TSL will probably be gone by the time you try to book, but they might show up if you check daily. It'll be harder the larger your party is unless you break your party up.

 

[brave321]

I agree with the previous poster. Your best bet is going to be checking daily (even throughout the day your in the park) and you'll probably need to break the party up if you can. I know that there were some available the day of last year when we went so you might have some luck.

 

[MamaBear12]

Pandora and TSL will probably be gone by the time you try to book, but they might show up if you check daily. It'll be harder the larger your party is unless you break your party up.

I agree with the previous poster. Your best bet is going to be checking daily (even throughout the day your in the park) and you'll probably need to break the party up if you can. I know that there were some available the day of last year when we went so you might have some luck.

Thank you! I will plan to check regularly starting 30days out up to day of as needed. There will be a couple 3yos in the party, so we can utilize rider swap if we can’t all get FP+ for some of the more popular rides that allow it.

 

[Skywise]

Depending where New Years falls will give you the best guess - I've done it twice, 2nd time when NYE was on the weekend. The first will still be pretty hectic but crowds drop off rapidly after that (as people head back to their normal lives). But on the weekend the crowds stayed a bit longer - as people were obviously using up the weekend as extended time.

 

[GovieMom]

Depending where New Years falls will give you the best guess - The first will still be pretty hectic but crowds drop off rapidly after that...

New Years Day falls on a Tuesday next year. Due to that, many, many schools will have off the rest of the week. Not to mention the hoardes of visitors from the U.K. and South America who have extended holidays at that time. Expect the parks to remain packed through the first week of January. (We know from past experience.)

 

[Happy2BMommy0812]

We loved the week after New Years this year. We got there 12/31 (Sunday) and stayed until 1/6 (Saturday). New Year’s Eve in the parks was crazy, and New Year’s Day was crowded, but I felt like the next few days were very reasonable! It picked up close to the weekend due to the Disney Marathon, but I think next year they pushed the Marathon back a week, so a non issue for you.

Honestly, I still say zero chance of fastpasses for toy story land or pandora if you are offsite. Even onsite with a 6 night stay, we couldn’t get avatar until day 3 or 4 of our trip. I’d consider at least a good neighbor hotel that gets the 60 day perk if fastpasses are important to you.

 

[mom22boys]

We loved the week after New Years this year. We got there 12/31 (Sunday) and stayed until 1/6 (Saturday). New Year’s Eve in the parks was crazy, and New Year’s Day was crowded, but I felt like the next few days were very reasonable! It picked up close to the weekend due to the Disney Marathon, but I think next year they pushed the Marathon back a week, so a non issue for you.

We were there the same week as you, and will be there the same week this year 12/30 (Sunday) until 1/5 (Saturday). I am so glad to see that they moved the marathon for 2019!

OP, I am guessing that Pandora and Toy Story Land FPs will need to take some vigilant checking and re-checking on your part, but don't give up hope. One tip, is to watch for park hour changes. We made our FP reservations at the 60 day mark, but about 30 days before our trip they extended park hours which opened up a bunch of FPs even for difficult rides such as FoP. Those FP went quickly though, so you really need to check every morning right around the time you think that they might extend park hours. Last year when they released the new FP, they were gone within a couple of hours.

 

[czmom]

We loved the week after New Years this year. We got there 12/31 (Sunday) and stayed until 1/6 (Saturday). New Year’s Eve in the parks was crazy, and New Year’s Day was crowded, but I felt like the next few days were very reasonable! It picked up close to the weekend due to the Disney Marathon, but I think next year they pushed the Marathon back a week, so a non issue for you.

Honestly, I still say zero chance of fastpasses for toy story land or pandora if you are offsite. Even onsite with a 6 night stay, we couldn’t get avatar until day 3 or 4 of our trip. I’d consider at least a good neighbor hotel that gets the 60 day perk if fastpasses are important to you.

This is good to hear! We are likely going the 2-5, and all I have heard so far is to expect massive crowds.

 

[ministrychick77]

was there this year on the 3rd & 4th. Crowds were heavy, but after the fireworks it thinned out. I ended up staying at MK till close (and then some) and I was able to get a ton of FP's later on. Can't speak on AK or Epcot though. We only did MK & HS.

 

[MamaBear12]

was there this year on the 3rd & 4th. Crowds were heavy, but after the fireworks it thinned out. I ended up staying at MK till close (and then some) and I was able to get a ton of FP's later on. Can't speak on AK or Epcot though. We only did MK & HS.

Glad to hear it! We did the rope drop/early EMH strategy between Christmas and New Years to get as much as we could in, but since we’ll be staying off-site and a larger group, I think we’ll go with the evening strategy and not push it in the morning.