It's... busy. And to the group who tried to sit down in front of us after we waited two hours for the parade... sorry for the dirty look... but no.
I'm not sure why I didn't think to ask this sooner. Does anyone know, does the train still run around MK during the party? I'm hoping to find a spot around the train station for the first parade and was thinking we'd take the train instead of trying to cut through Main Street then hopefully make a quick escape on the train over to Frontierland once it's over.
It's... busy. And to the group who tried to sit down in front of us after we waited two hours for the parade... sorry for the dirty look... but no.
we Went to the party tonight and had the time of our lives!!! Thank you for all the tips and info from everyone. We went to sit and have a snack to wait for the first parade at 6:30, it was hard to find a curb, but we found a spot for 2 of the kids to sit up front towards the end of Main Street. I tried 6 times for the mistletoe picture on the Tomorrowland bridge, but there was never a photographer there. The parade, the fireworks and the shows were all amazing!!
Yes!!! We waited 2 hours for a spot in the front......5 mins before the parade people appear from no where and ask if there kids can be in front of us to see....I was annoyed because I wanted to be right by my kids and not random kids between us.....but after the parade started I did feel bad for those kids and let them up. I just can’t believe the nerve of some people.
Was there last night
It was AMAZING.
There was no way we were going to watch the parade from Main St area so we went on rides which although times were listed as 5-15 minutes in most you could just walk on. We then happened upon a fairly open area in frontier land about 20 minutes before first parade.
And I will say I would understand the frustration some have with waiting in “their” spots for so long, but I saw families who also SPRAWLED out. Not just spread out, but 4-5 people who would take up the space of 10. Blankets and bags spread out. And then when others would come and crunch in, I was happy for the people who swept in and got a good spot.
A plaid clad guide with VIP family were also dropped into the front of the line at one point which in my opinion was outrageous, I made my views known to a supervisor who then asked if she could offer us front of line passes for a ride or meet & greet to make up for the situation.
We told her that if we took her up on her offer then we were no better than the family of line cutters & politely declined.
Just want to say I really respect that your words & actions matched here. This situation would have frustrated me too. For whatever reason, I don't care so much when people pay more and get in front of me on rides, but for character interactions that you've already waited in a long line for, when you have a very limited window to enjoy the party anyway - well, I appreciate that you spoke up about it and I hope that Disney took your feedback seriously.
Myself & the people around us in the line were stunned when it happened, pretty much everybody shrugged their shoulders & "let it go", however being British we have made standing in line or "queuing" as we call it a national pass time & cutting in front is just not on.
I don't have a problem with people paying for the VIP guides either but cutting in front of a line as publicly as they did was completely out of order, I don't know why a meet & greet could not have been engineered for them backstage, they would still have got what they wanted & the people who had stood in line would have been unaware.
What's done is done & as you said hopefully our feedback will be acted on but I have my doubts that it got any further up the line than the supervisor.
We thought about stopping in at Guest Services on the way out but didn't want to go through the whole thing again at the end of the night.
We still had a great time & as I sit in my office looking out at a cold, wet & dull day I know where I would rather be right now.
I"m actually surprised this happened. We did a VIP tour a few years back and were told specifically the guide could only get us into FP+ lines (they also had access to seating areas for shows, parades, fireworks), but, other than that, for any attraction that did not offer FP+ (like a character meet and greet as you describe or Jedi training for instance) we would have to wait in the general line.
Aww thank you, I am, finally back in the office today - got the xmas music going to keep me smiling!!16D Until Our Disney Christmas Vacation!
@FinnsMom7 - Hope you are feeling better! 1 more week for you!
I'm still trying to decide whether to buy tickets for the 19th or the 21st. Do you think they will both sell out and do you think one day will be better than the other? Thanks in advance.
To be fair to the character handler, she did try to stand her ground with regards to the line & people in it, but the VIP Guide was adamant that her guests had to be let in, the other thing to remember is that there are no FP+ issued during a party & most of the special characters do not even meet in normal M & G locations so there aren't specific FP+ queue lines in place, there really was no easy or subtle way for them to be cut in without the majority of the line seeing it happening.
We have been asked by cast members in the past when waiting in line to meet a character on a non party day if we minded if a "Make A Wish" family went in front of us, we were of course happy to help as I am sure most people would.
For all we know they may well have been celebrities or family of one of the Disney executives, the supervisor appeared very quickly when I started to talk to the character handler & was very keen to make the situation disappear.
The family & VIP Guide also disappeared very quickly once they were finished with the meet & greet.
The VIP tour thing... was that connected to Disney or a private guide?
I'd have been seriously irked, too.
Everyone there has paid a premium price for this hard ticket event already.