@Tborkowski119, we will be at WDW the week before after a 7 year hiatus. So, I understand what you have gone through and will be going through to plan this WDW trip for the Christmas week. Of course, you have the week of Christmas and we have the week before Christmas.
Touring Plans has lots of resources for planning and getting some idea on the expected wait times for each day at each park. Then, there are the people who are part of the Forum who have lots of tips and are gracious to look at plans, answer questions and provide customizied tips.
Wait Times: https://touringplans.com/magic-kingdom/wait-times/date/2019-12-24 These are the expected wait times. You can get them for each day and for each ride. The opening of Millennium Falcon and all the unknowns make it challenging to plan. And The opening of RotR on December 5th really throws an unknown wrench for the Christmas season. ![]()
Touring Plans: Magic Kingdom Touring Plans. These are the different types of touring plans that you can customize for you. Do note that each plan includes suggested FPP times. I personally plan to RD the main headliner for each park but DS18 has been glaring at me over RDing everyday… For example, regardless if anyone else will join me, I plan to RD 7DMT. Then move on to other Fantasyland rides with short wait times (maybe PP, Small World, Tea Cups, Barnstormer… or depending on what the Lines App has for wait times). FPP reservations for 10, 11, and 12. Plans to move the 11 and 12 up as we use the 10 FPP. And when we tap the 3rd FPP, get another FPP. And after we tap the 4th FPP, get another FPP and so on. I plan to enjoy the lands as we move through them, minimize walking (the old paper FP required lots of walking!!!), get on rides along the way as the Line App shows short wait times (Noticed I said “I” and not “We”?). I hoping some rides will go down and/or there will be rain so that we can get a number of anytime FPPs.
RDing: It is hard to get up each morning for RDing but totally worth it. We will have to RD 7DMT, SDD, and FOP. Let’s see how DS17 will do. We may have to leave him at the hotel. Since we are offsite but at a hotel with Disney Perks, we can only do FPPs at 60 days and not 60 + 7 days.
Same Day Drops (SDD): Current same day FP drops. SDDs are not guaranteed but will be invaluable to get more FPP for headliners or FPP headliners for the sleepyhead DS17. He will have to do it on his own! ![]()
Hard Ticket Events: DH and I will arriving in WDW on Monday, December 9th. We will be there 5 nights before the kids will join us. We do not have park tickets for the period the kids are not there. Instead, we purchased 2 nights of MVMCP tickets. We have never been to MVMCP and will unlikely return to WDW for Christmas since we live in CA. DH and I decided to do two nights of MVMCP to fully enjoy it, do all the event specials, and get on some rides. Parties are good times to do rides because of the significantly lower wait times. I’m toying with getting the family EMM for Toystory Land but that will get expensive. And there are other hard ticket events that have lower crowd levels. I don’t think we will do a hard ticket event for Star Wars Land. We are a 7 hour drive from Disney CA or a 1 hour plane ride. Both kids are in college in Southern CA. We may go to Disney CA later, during a less busy time when DH and I are visiting the kids.
Setting Expectations and Priorities: In the past, our normal touring style is from opening to closing and riding our favorites as many times as possible. Afterall, we are paying big bucks for park tickets, airfare, and hotel. We wanted to get our money’s worth. DH and I are getting too old for that touring style! Knowing that and the crowd levels, I’m trying to set realistic expectations and priorities for the family (DH, DD21, and DS18). We will ride our share of rides but I want to enjoy the magical Christmas displays, be engulfed within the bubble, and enjoy our time together as a family (those days are rare and far between as the kids are in college and soon they will fully fledge the nest.)
I am a planner but planning for WDW is wilting me. I have learned from other here to be flexible, enjoy the journey, and use the wisdom of the people on the Forum and Lines instead of stressing. Looking forward to being in WDW in 132 days!
Best wishes for getting ready.