Hello! We are taking my son and the grandkids to WDW Christmas week (Dec 26-Jan2). I have read the touring plans for th parks and see that there are holiday plans for all the parks except MK. Can I reasonably expect to use any plan for MK for Christmas week?
Also I am reading the Unofficial Guide “with Kids” and it says (about Christmas week), “Again, most parks will reach full capacity by 10 a.m., and no advance reservations will get you into the park once it has been closed. So pick your park and be prepared to stay there all day.” Can I not use the go back to the hotel and nap strategy? If I have a dinner reservation, will they not let us in? I have been thinking that we will start an hour before park opening and just be done for the day by lunch. Then maybe have character meals at dinner or other activities in the evening.
Thoughts? I would love to hear anyones experiences from Christmas week. Thanks!
VCFirst off, the parks operate on a phased closure basis. I forget the exact categories but it’s along the lines of:
Phase 1 - non resort guests with day tickets only cannot enter (parking may be suspended first) and will be redirected to another park
Phase 2 - all non-resort guests refused entry, no park hopping for onsite
Phase 3 - only those with fps, ADRs, other reservations allowed in
Phase 4 - full!
In 2016 there was only a brief phase 1 closure, where they redirected cars to Epcot but allowed people to travel by monorail and still enter MK. So not really a closure at all! I know on NYE there wee 2 hours of traffic jams trying to get into Disney property in the afternoon, but no closures. So if you have an adr etc you’ll be fine. Also info was out everywhere when it looked like MK was heading for phase 1.
I too was worried planning, but in the event it wasn’t a problem. Be prepared, have a touring plan. Even if you don’t like optimising, like me, evaluate your plan to see how it looks. The crowds are big, it can be slow but we still had a great time…
Thank you! This is so helpful. I am trying to avoid the worst parks on the worst days, such as doing AK on NYE and doing MK on NY day.