New Years at DW

[Disneymamaof5]

I am thinking of planning a trip to Disney World for Christmas-New Years in the next couple of years and I was wondering what is New Years Eve like at Disney World?

What park is the best for New Years Eve?

Is there something/anything special that goes on?


Any info is greatly appreciated!

[TennesseeTink]

I am thinking of planning a trip to Disney World for Christmas-New Years in the next couple of years and I was wondering what is New Years Eve like at Disney World?

What park is the best for New Years Eve?

Is there something/anything special that goes on?


Any info is greatly appreciated!

To sum it up in one word - CROWDED! If I'm not mistaken the week between Christmas and New Year's is the busiest week of the year for WDW.

We celebrated New Year's Eve at Epcot a couple years ago and I will never, ever do it again. Every park was filled to capacity. MK was full by 11am. As spread out as Epcot is, the World Showcase was wall-to-wall people. If you don't mind humongous crowds, not being able to ride anything, like to party, then this is the place to be.

As far as anything special going on, there were several DJs around the park. Everyone was given hats and noisemakers. It was a huge celebration; they make a big to-do out of it. That part was fun. It was just the crowds and large amounts of people who consumed too much alcohol that ruined it for us. That's not our scene.

[MarkC]

We were just there this past Dec. 28-31. I think the recession had some affect, or I'm used to attacking the parks, because it wasn't near as bad as I thought it would be. That being said, you must have a plan!!! We made it to rope drop every day but didn't stay on property so we avoided parks with EMH in the am. We did Epcot on the 31st and were able to do a lot by noon. We had to leave at that time and there were hundreds of people pouring in the parks, but we had done pretty much everything we wanted to by that time anyway. So you can do it if you get up early and stick to your plan. Ask others on this board for help, or send me a PM and I'll tell you how/what we did. Good luck. Mark

[elmjimmlm]

I don't know what park is the right one to go to but I can say that its not MK...
I do believe we would have been better off at our resort watching the ball drop on tv...
I did love being in the park during the day but after dark it just seemed crazy...
We actually stood on a bridge and could not move for about 5 min...Coming and going was at a stand still...
Attitudes were the worst...I was run over about 3 times that day and line jumpers were about to drive me over the edge...I told my DH that I was going to start walking with my elbows out to protect myself from all of the people running into me...
I was never so glad to get on a bus and leave like I did that night...

[Jeff]

My family has been at wdw for NYE many times. We love it! It is crowded but its a fun, exciting crowd. We like Epcot the best for NYE. Avoid MK, that's not a fun crowd - it's a scary crowd.

Like the person above stated - get their as the park opens and have a plan. You can still do a lot and get on the big rides by being there very early in the day and using fastpass.

[Mousemates]

We've done NYE in wdw the last three years and throughly enjoyed it each year (otherwise I suppose we would have only done it once). However, we go with expectations that it will be super busy and plan accordingly. for us that has meant doing new years eve creatively and doing it outside of the parks. (The first year we tried to start it in DS, but after a while we tired of the mobs and punted for a plan B).

Our plan B's have been to use the day to visit resorts and eat at resort restaurants we haven't tried before...we've actually had pretty good luck eating late lunches and dinners at most of the resorts...I guess the folks (almost all the resort guests) are in the parks & are scared to leave because they might not get back in... so far we've been able to pretty much eat anywhere where we like (last new years eve day we had reservations at the Kona and Whispering Canyon)

The rest of our plan B has been to watch fireworks from some varying vantage points...

One year we watched from the back floor of the 60s building (overlooking the lake) at the Pop and were able to watch a panorama of four or five fireworks shows simultaneously (all the disney ones and I guess shows from univeral, seaworld, or whatever municipalities were shooting)...it was great.

We have also watched MK fireworks on NYE from both the GF and Poly...be aware that we've been told (from other posters here) that sometimes these areas are closed to folks who are not staying at that particular resort...but we've never encountered that issue.

Another option is to spend the evening at the boardwak enjoying the steeet entertainment, riding surry bikes, eating ice cream and then watching the fireworks at DS form outside the main gate.

As you can tell we're fireworks junkies...so these options work well for us...we've also been fortunate enough to vist several times in thelast few years (not always on our nickel) and thus if we don't get to ride something its no big deal because we figure we will get it next time.

However, if its super important to your crew to ride everything, you best get to the parks for rope drop...always keep a fastpass, and run as hard as you can till things pack out...and then do some of the less popular, but still enjoyable attractions. just do it with the foreknowledge that it will be crazy busy.

[beksy]

We're planning on going to FL on the 29th and enjoy the Christmas decorations, check out the resorts, and not do a whole lot ride-wise until at least the 1st. We are thinking about staying at the CR and will probably stay there at midnight since we have a theme-park view. Then we have until January 9th to do a "normal" Disney trip, enjoying the rides and things that we normally would do once the crowd dies down. Kind of combining 2 trips into one!