"Official" 2018 Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party - Holiday Magic

[0FF TO NEVERLAND]

Do you need to line up early for wishes like normal park days?

I am considering this as I might go for 1 day to the park and maybe makes sense getting this. For the week before christmas

 

[sapphirerose915]

Who else is ready to freeze tonight?!?!?!?

 

[PolyRob]

Who else is ready to freeze tonight?!?!?!?

Layers on layers on layers! We brought cold weather stuff, but opted to purchase additional matching Disney cold gear to match in photos. Haha

 

[blemon]

We went to the party on Sunday, Dec. 9. It was not sold out but it was pretty crowded.

There were just two of us who left our kids at home (we are childhood friends) for a weekend trip.

We got to MK at 3:30 and they started letting people in at 3:45 but it was taking them a long time to put the wristbands on.
We walked up main st. and it started to rain and we realized we missed the bypass so we walked back to get our cookies there.
Went to Jingle Cruise with FP (45 minute wait otherwise). Then got Dole Whip and watched Tiki Birds. When we got out of tiki birds there were already people lined up for Moana.
We went to Haunted Mansion with FP, mobile ordered at Columbia Harbor House (it was nearly empty), ate and did Small World with FP. Ran to the castle for the 6:15 lighting which was AMAZING. Then headed up to Pinocchio's for all the cookies. We were just about first in line so we had no wait but there was a line behind us. Then we didn't have to go anywhere else for cookies throughout the night. We each got two of each cookie (to bring home to the kids as we're not too into lots of sweets).
From there we checked out Gaston's as my friend had never been inside. We shopped at the little store there as it's one of my favorites but it seemed really empty of merch.
We walked over to the Bigtop. The line for 7 dwarves meet was 2 hours so we got in line for Daisy and Minnie. We were about 10 - 15th in line and got through in about 20 minutes once they arrived. BEST MEET EVER.
Strolled to the peoplemover but popped in to the dance party on the way. The Elves dancing were incredible. Great interaction.
After the peoplemover (which is so wonderful at night), we caught the end of the tomorrowland show which was cool because we got to see all the characters for the finale and then they made it snow the soap.
From there we booked it to Frontierland. I walked right up at 8:20 or so to a spot right across the street from the Getaways place. My friend ran for pretzels and joined me in line. She had no wait as she was gone 5 minutes.

After the parade there was a mob and my memory fails me.
The line for peter pan was pretty long. Probably 30 - 45 minutes so we skipped it.

I think this is when we got the Jack treat from Sleepyhollow and it was great. The little cake inside the fondant has these delicious little crunchy balls and was not too sweet. Neither of us ate the fondant.
Got a spot for the fireworks then waited around for the show in front of the castle which was delightful. Since when did Clarabelle make such a comeback? She was in the parade and the show.

From there we did some shopping in Fantasyland, rode Peter Pan (20 minute wait I think), then walked back through Frontierland around the back to Adventureland and caught Jingle Cruise in the dark. The skipper was amazing the second time through so we are so glad we did it. No wait at all.

My friend ordered mobile from Casey's and ate while I went to the Pandora beads.
We shopped in the emporium which was crowded then headed back to the monorail at 12:20.

So you can do all the shows and ride a few rides. We did no special photos.

It was a great party and we had such a good time. I will definitely go again sometime (and bring the kid who has been such a good sport about it). It's not something I need to do every year. We really prioritized the shows because we wanted to do things you can't do on a regular day.

For us it was helpful to have a plan -- we made a personalized plan through Touring Plans and it really worked for us. We stuck to it because it was working.

Shoppers: Castle Couture closed early. Maybe 7:30. I'm not sure. It's a favorite so I was bummed but that's okay.

I'm also glad that I have been to Disney 3 times in recent years so I knew my way around. You can get disoriented since it's so dark but we didn't have any issues. I had read about this on this thread earlier so I knew to expect it being pretty dark.

Thanks to all who helped on this forum. The planning was essential to having a good time.

 

[Tk0021]

Went to the party last night. Really busy, was hoping a Tuesday party wouldn’t be that crowded. Tried a couple free snacks and had a couple of the party exclusive treats. The free snacks were not great but free and the lines were long but moved quickly. Actually the frontier land line and adventure land lines were short when I went through them.

We made a point not to meet characters because we wasted a lot of party time at the MNSSHP last year, but the lines we saw were pretty long. While Belle was on a break we only saw 5 people in line and, but that filled in quickly.

We went to the dance party in the circus area to see Vampireana and she only came out for short periods of time. We then watched the first parade in Frontierland and had a very good view by the maket. Go to that spot about 7:30. It filled in quickly after that. After the parade the crowed merged and we got stuck so we waited it out. A very nice gentleman (sarcasm) made not very Christmas time comments because us as we were stuck in the crowd and apparently in his way. We had words and I ended it “merry Christmas “ and turned around. He got the point and moved on, but still a frustrating moment on an otherwise nice family vacation. We then got some snacks at the bakery and watched fireworks towards the tree on main street. My kids fell asleep and we were on our way out the door, so we turned to watch the fireworks. They were very good and the. It snowed on Main Street. We left right after the fireworks because the kids were sleeping and my parents were tired.

To end, no more parties for us. We were disappointed with Halloween party and thought we would have better luck with the Christmas one. They are just not our thing. Others love them and more power to them, we will never attend another one.

 

[slpeters]

Went to last night's party and thought it was awesome! We did PoC, Jingle Cruise, IaSW, HM, Peter Pan, Pooh, Under the Sea and the Tea Cups. We met Donald & Scrooge McDuck, Daisy & Minnie, the Pooh gang, Tweedles Dum & Dee and Aladdin & Abu. I think the cold cut down the lines where the queues were outside. We did most of the treat stations, the Tomorrowland show, the Mickey stage show then moved a little back for the fireworks (behind the front planters), spent a total of about an hour and a half at the Tony's party (loved it) and was able to walk out at 11:10 to a curbside spot for the parade. Wonderful evening! Dh has already asked if we're going to do it again.

 

[DisneyStarWisher]

Just wondering if it rains like expected Friday night, will they be able to give out party tickets for Sunday night as an alternative? Sunday night is sold-out, but can they add tickets anyway? Just wondering how much of a zoo this will make Sunday night if this is the case.

 

[mom2rtk]

Just wondering if it rains like expected Friday night, will they be able to give out party tickets for Sunday night as an alternative? Sunday night is sold-out, but can they add tickets anyway? Just wondering how much of a zoo this will make Sunday night if this is the case.

I have no idea what the actual answer is to this. My experience is dated but might still be the way they handle it. We were at the party on one of the coldest nights in the 2010 cold spell. They apparently did give out tickets to the party 2 nights later, which was already sold out. We were there for that party as well (had already purchased tickets for both parties ahead of time) and the difference is crowd level was pretty big. I was sort of surprised to hear they had given out tickets. It was cold but we had a good time. But they did have to do a scaled back version of the stage show because of the cold. I didn't hear the story about them giving out tickets until that second party. Which was fine. Yeah, it was cold, but we had a great time and felt we had gotten value for it.

 

[kmacht]

We went to the party on the 9th. It was good to do once but wasn't worth the extra money for us and probably wouldn't do it again. If are there just to do the rides with little or no wait then it might be for you. If you are there for the character meet and greets expect to spend lots of time waiting in line. The lines for almost every character were very long and moved slowly. They seemed to be spending a lot of extra time with each guest once they got to their turn but 3 to 5 minutes per person makes for a very slow line. We watched the parade which was fun but I still miss the electrical light parade. The band playing in frontier land before the parade was really good with their own funny twists on classic holiday songs. I was disappointed in the holiday wishes show. Yes there were lots of fireworks but almost no projections on the castle. The only castle effects were a few color changes and a few white light projections. I much prefer the normal night show. Ride wait times between 4 and 5:30 were very long (1 hour+ for jungle cruise and pirates). It seemed like there were many more fastpasses being used than normal for these rides during that time period. After 6 getting on rides was a non issue. The big rides looked busy but since there were no fastpasses the line moved constantly so the waits were very short. Big thunder had a line extending out past the que but the actual wait time was under 15 minutes for us. It was fun to do once but as I said earlier, we probably won't do it again.

 

[JustCurious23]

Went to last night's party and thought it was awesome! We did PoC, Jingle Cruise, IaSW, HM, Peter Pan, Pooh, Under the Sea and the Tea Cups. We met Donald & Scrooge McDuck, Daisy & Minnie, the Pooh gang, Tweedles Dum & Dee and Aladdin & Abu. I think the cold cut down the lines where the queues were outside. We did most of the treat stations, the Tomorrowland show, the Mickey stage show then moved a little back for the fireworks (behind the front planters), spent a total of about an hour and a half at the Tony's party (loved it) and was able to walk out at 11:10 to a curbside spot for the parade. Wonderful evening! Dh has already asked if we're going to do it again.

Glad you had a good time! Would you mind sharing wait times for the characters and the time you got in line for them if possible? Thanks.

 

[jriveiro724]

Going to this Friday's party and, of course, it happens to be the one party in December that it's supposed to rain! Any suggestions for MVMCP in the rain? LOL

 

[sapphirerose915]

Went to the party on the 11th... it was forecasted to be FREEZING.. but I guess we dressed accordingly because I didnt feel cold at all. So it was my crabby DH, myself. And my 2yo DS...
We got to MK around 520ish. Checked into Tony's. Went thru the bypass and got our cookies, and then headed to our Adventures of Pooh FP. After that jumped in line for Pooh & gang at 6 with about 10 families ahead of us. They came out at exactly 630 and saw them by 645. Went over to Dumbo, and it was a walk on. Tried to get a treat but the line was INSANE..walked over to Tomorrow Land and watched the tomorrowland show. My son LOVED it. From there went on Buzz with a 5 min wait. Went and took some castle pics on the bridge from the hub to fantasyland . Realized we had a LOT of time before we could go to Tony's. My DH hurt his foot the day before.. so walking was killing him. I was trying to keep to tomorrow land.. so we went into cosmic rays.. but my son fell and started crying.. so we went on people mover a few times. It was now 915ish so we walked over to Tony's. Theu were already letting people in. It was great.. Tony was fantastic. Sat with us for a good 10 minutes and had us cracking up. We ate.. food was ok.. nothing to write home about. But it was good. We went out to main street to watch fireworks. After we went to see Mickey and was posted 15 min, but there was only 2 people in line. Went to go back into tonys.. My husband was done... and my son was past the point... we didnt even watch the parade... I was so bummed but knew it wasnt worth even trying to keep them there for another 2 hrs.

So all in all, the party was crowded.. the snack lines were long... the rides we went on were practically walk on.. and Tony's was great.. but I cant say if it was worth it since I missed the main reason we went!! Hope everyone had fun!!

 

[twinklebug]

Reporting in: Party attended on 12/11
Bus situation from Jambo/Kidani was impossible. Had to leave a family or two waiting for the next bus.

It was cold. (yup - everyone was blue)

The cookie/chocolate distribution lines moved very fast. Didn't like the setup at Pinocchio village haus though, it was total chaos.

We had fastpasses for

7 Dwarves
Peter Pan
Jingle Cruise​

All rides we went on without fast passes were walk ons:

Frozen People mover
Space ranger Freeze
Under the Freeze
Frozen Mansion
Big Thunder Mtn bobsleds (what's up with the mist at the top of the first lift hill soaking our heads? Not appreciated!)
Pirates of the Burribean​

We enjoyed the country bears entertaining us before the parade, honestly had no intention of waiting but they were too cute, so we did.

Picked up our event pin early on in the evening. Just as reported they had just the wreath and pass holder pins. Since I only wanted the pass holder one and the window pins that came with the gift cards I was fine with this. (I had been looking everywhere for those gift card ones.)

We got our Sorcerer's of the Magic Kingdom starter pack earlier on in the evening and went back through for our MVMCP cards a bit later. They are so cute! Definitely going to start collecting these.

All in all: I was initially afraid of the crowd reports, but since we didn't try for any meet and greets, and the cold weather seemed to deter any last minute sell outs of the party, we really enjoyed it. I would do it again IF it was no more crowded than this night was.

 

[TheDisneyNurse]

I don’t know about later tonight, but it is a beautiful evening here at Hollywood Studios. Hopefully the weather holds out for all of the party folk!

 

[MIAMouseketeer]

Any reports from last night? Headed to the party tomorrow.

 

[DisneyStarWisher]

Any reports from last night? Headed to the party tomorrow.

I’d like to know this as well. I’m still debating on whether I should leave it for tomorrow night or try to switch it to Tuesday night.

 

[kmbrandt]

We are still here but went to the party on Tues, the 11th. We dressed in layers and had coats for back up. Gloves and a hat made the difference. Most of us wore layers - long sleeve shirt and sweatshirt, add the hat and gloves and we were very comfortable the whole night.
We had a blast (party of 4 adults, 2 teens, 2 kids) - we got there around 5ish. Rode ALL the rides through out the night - including peter pan, seven dwarfs, space mountain, etc. Every single ride you can think of we rode. The only line was seven dwarfs which was 30 minutes. Saw the firewarks, dance party in tomorrowland, etc. Ate all the snacks (and got extras - and allergy friendly ones too). Watched the 11 oclock parade - got a space one row from the curb at 10:45 pm (not on main street but on the circle). We did NOT do any character meets - they weren't for us.

Decide what you want to do but it was totally worth $100 to go and ride all the rides and have most of them less than 10 minute wait. It was fantastic. We watched the fireworks right outside the dumbo ride and could see all of them from all directions. The parade was fantastic - a few characters gave my kids high five.

 

[ericar]

We just switched from the 20th to the 18th because of the forecasted rain. We lost a few good fastpasses but I think it was a good decision. We can easily put up with cold but rain would really ruin the party for us.

 

[Moramoon]

We're supposed to be going to Thursday's party. I'm really hoping the forecast changes. I hate that it jumped from a 30% chance to 90% for rain.

 

[Stratus22]

We went to the Party on December 9th and arrived at 2PM. The park at the time was really empty due to the weather but we were lucky and missed all of that rain. We also Got in just as the Parade was happening and this was our very first time seeing the parade(2nd time at the park) and my kids were in AWWW. As the day went on, the park filled up fast and I thought it was pretty busy. The Party itself was not sold out but it was very busy and there were many people there who weren't wearing Party Bands. But I wasn't bothered by it. The lines to get cookies and drinks were long but they moved fast(Praises to all CM's that night). I was able to get 3 fast passes well before our vacation and just before we were to get on Big Thunder Mountain, my FP was Canceled...No worries, we got on it later on. I surprised my family with reservations to Tony's Very Merry Christmas Party. The food I thought was really good and Tony was a trip. Dominick the Donkey came on Tony got everyone up singing and having a ball. At 10:30, we headed out to grab our spot in front of the tree. At first there was a lot of people there but right after the Fireworks ended, Everyone left and everything was wide open. We sat right in front of the tree with a great view right down Main Street. Holy Cats, I couldn't believe the view. It truly was spectacular and my family was just about in tears as they saw each float go by. The Staff did a great job keeping people away who didn't have party bands from Tony's. One lady complained and yelled at this CM and I so wanted to say something but the lady was over a few feet. Any CM's here...God Bless you all. You all deserve big hugs!!!!! All in all, the Party was a huge hit. Décor was magical, the Weather did get cooler(Can't fix that) and the CM's were terrific!!