Will we regret skipping MVMCP?

[wrldpossibility]

We're going to WDW in mid-Dec , and it's our first trip there (first for all three generations in our group). Coming from the West Coast, we will visit DLR again fairly soon, but probably will not be back to WDW for about 5 years. We are taking our three children, ages 7, 5, and 2.

We are there 10 days, and are NOT planning on attending MVMCP. My reasons are:

1. We had already bought the needed amount of park tickets before I knew about the party, and it seems a waste to pay for tickets on top of tickets.

2. There are 7 in our group (one is under 3 though), so it will not be cheap.

3. Our kids generally cannot stay up late, so I know we would not stay for the whole evening.

4. We will have many other opportunities during the trip to see Christmas decorations, "snow" is no biggie to us, and I think my kids (who don't know otherwise) will be just a enchanted with the regular parade and Wishes.

5. Now there's this whole frustration about not sweeping the park, and the possible crowds (although this is not really what is stopping us).

All that said, going this time of year, are we crazy not to include MVMCP? Will regret it? The only evening to fit it into our schedule easily is our first full day, and since we'll still be a little bit on Pacific time, the kids could stay up later. My original plan was to get them to bed early that night and adjust to Eastern time as quickly as possible, so that we can take advantage of rope drop in the following days. Thoughts?

 

[shelly3girls]

I don't think you are missing out on anything. I know that there are many people who love it but we felt it was a waste of money for us. The lines were very long (over an hour for Pirates) and the kids ended up tired and cranky. This made us get a late start the next day and partly ruining that day. We will be there during both the Halloween and Christmas party this year and are not doing either.

 

[blanq]

My family did not think that MVMCP was all that great, and I seriously doubt we would consider plunking down the money to attend again. The Christmas parade is very cool, but often it is shown on Sunday afternoons in December so hopefully you can see it outside of MVMCP.

If you skip MVMCP you can still enjoy all of the holiday decorations, and maybe take in the Osborne lights at MGM, which are amazing!

 

[Shoshana]

I've decided to skip it as well. My 3-yr-old daughter and I will be in Disney mid December. Seemed like a lot of $$ when we'd be stuck in a huge crowd for the parade and not able to stay late to enjoy the rides. I think we'll enjoy the day time parades instead.

My major worries revolve around whether or not I got the best ADRs!

 

[all4fun]

We went in '02 when we took our two 12-yr old nieces to WDW and I had just found out I was pg w/ds (8wks). It could be that I was feeling really fatigued all of the time because of my pregnancy, that I didn't enjoy it as much as I could have, but I thought it was a little over rated too. We had an OK time but dh and I both feel we have BTDT and on this next Dec trip we have decided to skip it. Maybe when ds is older if he expresses an interest we might give it another try but right now, we don't feel like we're missing out on much at all by not going.

hth.

 

[tanyaandallie]

We are skipping it as well. My kids are 1 and 3 and just don't do late nights. Plus, I hear you on the additional costs. Pretty sure if we did it we would fork over for the tickets and then have to deal with two very grumpy kids!

 

[Leah and Emily's mom]

My family enjoyed it last year because of the lack of crowds and the special events. My kids have gone to Disney several times and some of our favorite times are the hard ticket events.

The flip side of closing what about those families- us included - who arrive as early as possible to get in the parties and infrindge on those who are making the last few hours of the day they paid for.

either way your family will have a blast, you can't go wrong on a Disney vacation.

 

[MomofCKJ]

We are going in December too and it is our kids first trip. We are skipping it. Our kids are 9,7 and 4 and are just not late night kids, we would not be able to stay up late. And after all the $$$$ we are spending already I just could not spend more just for snow (we are from MA, get way too much of it!), hot chocolate and special shows and parade. Being our first trip I am sure they will be as happy with the regular parades we see. Plus we are planning on seeing the Osbourne Lights and quite a few of the resort decorations.

If we go again at Christmas time when they are older maybe but I don't feel like I am missing out by not going this year.

Allyson

 

[Melrosgirl]

We've not attending it this time around. BTDT. we had a terrible experience last time (2003). Mostly b/c it rained that night and they canceled the parade and then postponed the second parade until 11:30. It was miserable. Overall, we just don't see it being worth it again.