Which Park is best for New Years

[rob3092]

Hello,
I am going down to WDW for my girlfriends birthday in late december and we will be there for new years.
My girlfriend and I have never been there for new years before so I was hoping I could get some suggestions as to which park has the best fireworks/celebration.
Are the fireworks all the same in every park?

I would assume MK is the best but there are always so many people there and I havent heard anything in terms of what the other parks do.

Any SUgestions/stories would be greatley appreciated! (Also any Secret spots to get the best view of fireworks would help too LOL!)

Thanks alot!
Rob

 

[TeaForTulips]

Rob,

I'm afraid I cannot be too helpful, but I thought I would share with you what I do know.

We went to NYE this past December at MK and it was the only time I have had a beyond horrible horrible experience at Disney.

I have a lengthy post about it here

http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=39371848&postcount=16

The short version though is do not go to Magic Kingdom. The parks get to maximum capacity quickly, so do go early wherever you plan to go.

We arrived very late in the day and were allowed in because we are Ap holders. I mention it in my above post, but that alone should have worried me. Maximum capacity and still all AP holders and resort guests are getting in? Can you imagine how many people are in there?

It was bad...

From my understanding each park has their own NYE show. I hear they are all quite good. I thought MK would be magical so we went there. The fireworks were amazing don't get me wrong, but the crowds and horrible experience of not being able to go anywhere and being shoved around from one place to another killed the experience. We will never do NYE again at MK.

I really recommend any other park than MK. Since EPCOT has much larger walkways I hear it is not nearly has bad as the other parks, so that is my recommendation. If we do NYE we will be trying EPCOT this year.

I hope you have fun!

 

[briar_rose_59]

I did Epcot for my birthday a couple years ago (NYE baby lol). It was an awesome time. We didn't expect to hit any of the really major rides (Soarin got up to a 400 minute wait or something ridiculous like that) but still wanted to hit some rides because I was travelling with 2 people that had never done Disney, and one person that had never done Epcot. We managed to do the WS rides, Living with the Land, Mission Space, etc. and had an awesome time. Yes, there were crowds, but they were quite orderly from what I saw. I don't know that I'd try it with really small kids, but as 4 adults we were fine. We did have to link hands and make a "chain" to get through some of the heavier crowds though.

ETA: Forgot to mention, the special NYE tag at the end of Illuminations at midnight was FANTASTIC!!! I actually liked it so much I watched it again this past NYE during Dick Clark commercial breaks.

 

[Cheshire Figment]

I would recommend Epcot. The run IllumiNations with the special holiday ending, and then at midnight they have the real fireworks display.

Note that on December 30 they will normally run the MK special NYE fireworks as a "test" instead of the regular fireworks.

DHS usually will run Sorcery In The Sky, which was an old fireworks show that is now done on special occasions only.

AK, due to the animals, does not have fireworks.

 

[damaris13]

My DH and I took a friend and her 3 boys to MK for New Years Eve 2008. We made sure we got into the park first thing in the morning and didn't leave (the gates closed to general admission by about noon, at the latest). The crowds were absolutely horrendous (we came to a complete standstill on the bridge heading over to Splash Mountain and BTMRR for about 10 minutes); however, I wouldn't change our decision to go for a moment. We found a nice little spot for the countdown fireworks along the rail going down to the boat dock near Haunted Mansion. The fireworks go off all over the park, counting down in numbers from 10 to 1. I kept spinning with my video camera trying to catch them all. Honestly the coolest fireworks and New Years Eve I've experienced.

I hope this helps!

 

[Karpkg]

For adults I would recommend Epcot. We went for NYE and arrived very early for RD, and I knew we were in for the duration when at the parking lot we were directed to park ON THE GRASS in the very front. We kind of looked at each other and went, "Oh boy, here we go!"

Of course, work your FP strategies. There were a lot of tour groups that day. I think our 3rd FP had a return time of 9:30PM.

Moving out to the World Showcase was much better crowd-wise. If you like to drink, every country had there signature drink out. Make sure you have ADR's. They had 25% discounts for CS if you used them before and after peak meal times. With the hike in meal prices, every penny saved helped!

We had dinner at Biergarten, and it coincided with Germany's New Year's time in their country. It actually was touching to see German CM's embracing, laughing, talking in their language and tearing up as they sang their country's national song. I guess I would be homesick as well that time of year.

I heard some people try to go to the country when the New Year strikes in that country. That must be neat.

Starting 7pm we were given New Year hats and noisemakers. Each country had their little party going on, so that was cool to go check out. Oh, and SpaceShip Earth had the countdown time lit up on it. Fireworks were spectacular with it's own unique ending, and there was a dance stage set up near the fountains with a DJ. Everyone was dancing.

There was also exits out of the park from the World Showcase that the CM's opened up, lessening the crowd. Overall, I think it is a much better place to enjoy NYE.

 

[dblr]

My DH and I took a friend and her 3 boys to MK for New Years Eve 2008. We made sure we got into the park first thing in the morning and didn't leave (the gates closed to general admission by about noon, at the latest). The crowds were absolutely horrendous (we came to a complete standstill on the bridge heading over to Splash Mountain and BTMRR for about 10 minutes); however, I wouldn't change our decision to go for a moment. We found a nice little spot for the countdown fireworks along the rail going down to the boat dock near Haunted Mansion. The fireworks go off all over the park, counting down in numbers from 10 to 1. I kept spinning with my video camera trying to catch them all. Honestly the coolest fireworks and New Years Eve I've experienced.

I hope this helps!

Small world we were there also, didn't you see us waveing to you we heard from a CM there were 60,000 in the park that day.
I would agree that it was a great day we had a ball, got there @ 9am and left @ 1am ( long day) but we would do it again.
I will pm you with a secret spot we found for viewing the fireworks, it will not remain a secret if I posted it here, sorry. Anyway you will have a great time no matter where you go.