The holidays at Disney are pure magic. I haven’t visited Disney on Christmas or Thanksgiving, but I have been on other holidays (Halloween, Fourth of July, New Year’s Eve -blog post coming- and New Year’s Day. Even though I haven’t been to the parks on Christmas Day, I did visit during the holiday break this past year (the weekend right before New Year’s to be exact)!
Visiting Disney the weekend leading up to New Year’s scared me. I thought it was going to be insane. I thought parking would be crazy. I can honestly say, it wasn’t that bad! I arrived at the TTC just past 6pm and quickly went through bag check and boarded monorail to Magic Kingdom (I honestly was so surprised at how easy breezy the whole trek was… it’s usually just my luck, that I get stuck in the slowest line at security and then there will be monorail issues that delay us).
Once in Mk, I took in all of the sights of the holiday lights and decor at night. It truly was beautiful. Did I mention, that was the reason behind the visit? We were going to see the holiday fireworks show, so stopping to take in the festive decor was only fitting.
If you’re wondering about crowds, the park did not seem that busy, but it sort of was. You mainly noticed the people when waiting for rides. Wait times were quite high for all of the roller coasters and popular attractions. We waited about 25 min for The Little Mermaid (which isn’t that bad, but longer than what we usually wait). Space Mountain had a wait time of over 2 hrs! We decided to skip the rides and spend the rest of the evening meeting characters (Mickey’s wait was less than 30 min)!
By 9pm, we had met Mickey, Tiana, Rapunzel, eaten a churro and scored a great spot right in front of the castle to watch the fireworks. We quickly learned there was a show in front of the castle that would be entertaining us while we waited for the main event. The show was Mickey's Most Merriest Celebration, that included singing and lots of characters! It was quite fun and very enjoyable. From what I gathered, it’s the exact same show that they perform during the Very Merry Christmas parties. So that’s kind of what I wanted to share… we saw the show, the holiday fireworks, AND in the day -had I gotten there earlier- the Christmas parade. You can see all of the Christmas festivities without having to be there on Christmas or buy a ticket to Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party! The next day, they even were handing out the holiday cookies that they pass out at the parties!
The castle show was good, but the holiday fireworks show was even better! It’s all fireworks and music (no castle projections) and it honestly left us speechless and blown away!
If you’re free next holiday during the break, I definitely recommend visiting Magic Kingdom right before New Year’s to check out all of the decor, festive offerings and fun!
