So my family is having a GRAND vacation (I know they don’t call them that anymore) the week before Christmas December 18 through the 23rd. There will be my side of our family for the entire time (7 adults, ages 27-66 and 4 children, ages 7-16) and DH family will be there Wednesday evening to Saturday (4 adults, ages 38-68 and 2 children , 2 and 11) .
I am already having nightmares about trying to get that many fast pass plus but first I need to tackle our itinerary!
We will all have Park Hopper tickets, ranging anywhere from 3 to 5 days depending upon arrival date, with the plan to attend a park every day Tuesday through Saturday. We will take breaks anywhere from 3 to 4 hours a day and probably return to a different park. Or at least that is my plan. Depending upon what you guys say 
I also would like to do an evening night show at least once (so that means twice while we are there to cover both families). So here we go!!
Tuesday Dec 19
EMH 7a MK
BREAK 11-3 or 4
EPCOT EMH till 11:30 (CLP package)
Wednesday Dec 20
AK RD till 3:00
Thursday Dec 21 (MK closes early for party AND my DS turns 11)
EMH 7a MK till 1:00
BREAK 1:00-4:00
DHS till close with Fantasmic
OR
EMH 7a MK till 3:00
BREAK 3-6
Chef Mickey ADR
Watch Fireworks from Top of the World Lounge
Friday Dec 22
EPCOT RD till 1:00
BREAK 1:00-5:00
MK/DHS whichever we didn’t do the night before
Saturday Dec 23- my side of Fam leaves in the am
RD AK
So it is really the Thursday, December 21 that is throwing me. DS has indicated that he would like a character meal for his birthday. One with the originals as he calls them. But we probably need one outside of the park since one set of the grandparents may not be purchasing park tickets. Also Does anyone know if you can still see the Christmas party fireworks at the usual outside of the park locations? Not sure if that’s even an option to watch from TOWL during a party evening.
Finally Which evening presentation is the must do between Fantasmic and the activities at the Magic Kingdom? It will be the first time At Disney for three out of the six kids if that makes a difference.
It’s hard to say without seeing the new fireworks but I would be willing to place my bets now that the show will be a must see but I always recommend Fantasmic, especially for first time guests. IF you only have one night, I would probably suggest MK fireworks over Fantasmic SOLELY because I feel like no trip to WDW is complete without seeing the fireworks behind Cinderella Castle.
We’ve never done character dining so I’m not a pro with this but I do know that Chef Mickey’s in the Contemporary has the Fab Five characters
If you’re planning to watch the fireworks from TOWL, there is is usually a limit on how many guests each DVC member can bring in. If it’s quiet it won’t be a problem, but that close to Christmas they might impose a limit. (I assume someone is a DVC member in the party, otherwise that’s not going to be an option. However you could watch from the 4th floor deck of the Contemporary.
I’ve done Chef Mickey a couple of times. It is noisy but fun. The food is fairly standard buffet food, but it does have a carving station and some decent deserts.
Otherwise what about a Fantasmic dining package at Hollywood and Vine at DHS.? Again, food is like any other buffet. You’d be able to book lunch or dinner, since as of May the lunch is changing from Disney Jnr to Minnie & friends. And it saves queueing for Fantasmic.
Yes we are DVC and our entire party will be in rooms on DVC points…so I’m thinkimg it should be ok?? I didn’t know that H&V was changing from Disney Junior, that gives another option. We loved H&V when the boys were younger but Disney Junior is no longer around here😢 Do you know if they have a dinner fantasmic option? Thinking it will be difficult to come over to DHS to do lunch since that was supposed to be our after break park…
The other option is maybe chef Mickey for brunch? Not sure what the difference is as the food looks pretty similar. Then we could take our break and hop over to DHS. Any thought on the likelihood of being able to get same day fast passes for fantasmic for a party of 17?
When we booked for the F! Dining, the latest we could get a ressie for was about 5pm maybe. That was for F! at 8pm. We ate at about 4:30 but had skipped lunch, just grabbed a snack along the way.
Not sure about fastpasses, I guess it depends what time you’d try. You would want to do it asap, and I think try and grab them in smaller groups. Get 4 people to try for them, rather than 1 person trying for 17.
Well not sure what I will do now? There is a Christmas party almost every single night that we are there in December and the only free night was the travel day for the rest of my party. I just can’t ask them to pay another $400 for one night. Ugh I had finally decided how to fit everything in as well. It makes me sad that the kids won’t get chance to see the parade or fireworks in front of the castle 
There doesn’t"t appear to be a party on the 20th. Can you swap days?
They won’t have the special Christmas parade that night, but there will be fireworks. The Christmas parade isn’t run on non-party nights (thee isn’t a regular night time parade anymore). But Festival of Fantasy is still worth seeing.
If not, you can still watch the fireworks from TOTWL on a party night.
I offered to add another park day to the family that will be arriving on that Wednesday. If worse comes to worse it might be that we split up and those that are already theee go ahead to the park on Wednesday the 20th. It looks like they might even have evening extra magic hours. We could switch out our Friday evening for Wednesday. So it would look like:
Tuesday 12/19
MK 7-11:30
Break
Epcot : CLP 4-close
Wednesday 12/20
AK till 1:00
Break
MK 8:00-??
Thursday 12/21
MK 7-11:30( for those that did not do MK night before)
Break (Birthday Lunch at Chef Mickeys)
HS 4/5- close
Friday 12/22
Epcot 9-1
Break
Epcot or AK or HS… people’s choice
Saturday 12/23
AK
Can you lose the parkhoppers and do the Christmas party instead?
You know I priced that and even with out the park hoppers once you add in the Christmas party it is more than what we are paying for park hoppers. I talked to DSIL and she herself said she wanted to see the MK at night so they are considering it. I still have them scheduled for MK the next morning if they did decide not to buy an extra park do so at least they will get to tour it…