Hi all! First time at WDW, kids are 6 and 22 months. Need some help planning.
We’re doing 2 days at MK, the first being Tues 10/27 - no nighttime shows for us since it’s a party night. Our 2nd MK day is our last park day, Friday 10/30. While we can do the nighttime stuff then, I’m wondering if it’ll be a total mob that day and turn into a disaster? the 6 year old REALLY wants to see Wishes, but I dont even know if the toddler will be able to hang for them. I’m afraid if we leave it to the last day we will all be too tired and cranky to stay late anyway.
We have park hoppers (came with our “free” dining 
) - MK has EMH until 1am on wed 10/28. Wondering if this wouldn’t be a better option for crowds? We will be at Epcot that day (dinner ADR at Biergarten), so hopping over to MK just for the night shows/fireworks is doable if we don’t do illuminations, and I’ve planned an afternoon break at the room for nap too. And, if the toddler can’t hack it that late, DH can take him back to Pop while the 6 year old and I stay at MK.
Which would you do? Any advice is appreciated! I’ve planned the hell out of this vacation but haven’t been to WDW in 20 years so I’m still feeling a bit overwhelmed.
thanks!
I went to MK on a MVMCP day, and unless I was PLANNING on leaving by 4:00 PM, I would never go on a party day again. It was bad enough that the park was 3 CLs higher than predicted (and all of the predicted wait times were way off), but at 4:00 people started to pour in for the party. At 3:00, there was not a SINGLE FPP left in the entire MK. Although officially open to non-party-goers until 7:00 PM, by 5:30 they were “encouraging” guests to start leaving, and by 6:30 they were being downright rude about it. MS was a total gridlock with party folks pouring in and the unwanted masses being driven out. Once we finally got out of the park, the lines for the mono were backed up almost to the bag check tables (as was the ferry line). We waited well over an hour for a launch to the GF (and were late for a dinner ADR at Narcoossee’s.). If I ever plan on going to the MK on a party day again, I will pre-plan on leaving between 3:00 and 4:00 and either hopping to a different park or making it a resort or DS evening.
I don’t have kids, so I can’t really comment on that aspect of your question, but if I were doing it, I would Keep your party day plan (but leave before 4:00 - 5:00 the LATEST - without an afternoon break. I would then go back to MK on the EMH night, watch the shows, and stay as long as you can to take advantage of (somewhat) shorter lines. But this may not work with kids; touring as a solo adult, 14-16 hour touring days are not unusual for me…
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well hell, my research said MK on party days was MOST recommended due to crowds. We do plan to get out of there by 5:30 to make a dinner reservation at Boma so maybe we will be ok?
My customized TP has me able to do pretty much everything we want in Fantasyland/tomorrowland by about 2:30, since we have a pre-opening breakfast at BOG that day.
Everyone who was there that particular week was reporting the same “unpredicted crowd” situations, so I don’t think it was the party that caused the increase in crowd levels that day, but rather just a whole lot more people going to WDW that week than expected. It IS generally accepted that the MK will be lower on party days than non-party days, so I would go with that. But I DO recommend leaving the park between 4:00 and 5:00 - it just got way to crazy after that…
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Another thought, if you want to see wishes on a non party night, like 10/30 I expect the crowds to be huge. I just came back and any night that did not have a party was crowded. Because you can get in at night without a ticket.
Maybe consider a fireworks cruise:
https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/events-tours/contemporary-resort/pirates-and-pals-fireworks-voyage/
or watch the fireworks from Grand Floridian or Poly. I do not know how this will work for you or where you are staying.
Oh and I agree with @bswan26 advice on leaving the park by 5 the latest on a party night. I did that last Sunday and the crowds were swarming in. I was happy to leave. @bswan26 is totally correct!
thanks for your thoughts! We will plan to head out a bit sooner if it gets crazy, then bus over to AKL and check the resort out before dinner.
I’m guessing Wednesday night will be less crowded than friday night for wishes, so I’m going to tentatively plan on heading there after dinner in Epcot if the family is up for it. Then Friday night we can try to hit up our rides one last time during the show if lines are decent.