New Years Eve 2008

[bellasmom]

Well- we just finished planning our trip to leave the day after Xmas and stay through New Years. I keep hearing all of these negatives from everyone about the crowds at this time of year. Does anyone have any suggestions for us? What should we do on New Years Eve? We have a 3 year old and a 7 year old but the grandparents are coming too so they can take over later in the night if there is anything nice for just the two of us. What do you think? Thanks!

[PAMOUSELOVER]

We are arrive on NYE day. I plan on not hitting the parks that day and just resort hopping to see the deocrations, dinner downtowne, disney,poly or turnisle of DHS for fireworks!

[Jeff]

The crowds between Christmas and NYE are incredible. That being said we have been 5 o4 6 times duringthis week and are going again this year.

Get to the parks just as they open. You can still do a lot in the first 2 or 3 hours.

NYE itself will be crazy crowded, especially in the MK. We usually go to the Studios or Epcot on NYE. The Studios has awsome fireworks, as does the MK. Epocts are good but not quite as "over the top" as the other two.

Make ADR's for a sit down dinner mid afternoon or so to get away from the heaviest crowds.

[SharaLynn]

Welcome to Intercot! :mickey:

My family and I visited WDW in 2005 during Christmas week and had a wonderful time. On NYE, we had planned to spend it in the parks, but were advised by more than a few CM's to rethink it, especially since we had children. Our day looked like this: We had an early ADR at Cinderella's in MK(a dream!) and were in MK very early. We hit a few rides and did breakfast, then left. As we were leaving, I'd say around 11am, the park was closing because it had reached capacity crowds already. So here's what we did: we ended up hitting Downtown Disney and shopping for most of the afternoon, had dinner(counter service) at the resort, and watched fireworks from the pool at midnight. It was memorable and fun, and the kids still talk about it. My husband also surprised me with a bottle of champagne from France in EPCOT, and we popped the cork at midnight and toasted a wonderful vacation. We left for home on NY Day. So my advice: lay low and take it easy. You will have a great time!

[AwPhooey]

We were at Disney for Christmas and New Year's a few years ago and the crowds are pretty crazy

We didn't have any young kids with us, so we spent the *entire* day at Epcot.

I'd recommend going to a park as early in the day as possible and stay all day. If you leave and try to get into a park later in the day you may not be able to if it reaches capacity.

[Meerkat]

Don't plan on park hopping on NYE. If you want to be in a park, you should arrive early and plan to stay there. You may be able to get into AK late in the day, but the other three will likely reach capacity early.

It will be very crowded. Not worth it for me, but I live nearby and can go at other times.

[dnickels]

As others have mentioned, if you, the kids or the grandparents want to be in the parks at midnight, plan on being in them well before noon.

You mentioned the grandparents taking them later, but know that once the parks reach capacity they won't be letting others in, so the grandparents would already have to be in the park, they won't let you switch off at the gate to get them in. If they can stomach the 14-15 hour long day in the park and don't mind things being crowded it really is a fun time, but it might be too much for a 3 year old or for grandparents.