If You’re Spending The Holidays With A Mouse…

I know this is a little late but, for some reason, I’m getting a bunch of hits from people wanting to know what to do with this mouse. Maybe they’re planning to see him for Easter or planning to go for the next really big holiday.  Anyhoo, here ya go!

A lot of people who have never been to WDW for the holiday season, like to get a heads up on the crowds  and whatever else is happening around there.  This information is from my own personal experience, someone else may have had a different experience so, here goes;

GET THERE SUPER EARLY!  The park will shut down on you!

We spent Christmas day at WDW and didn’t have a hotel room on the grounds.  Getting there early is crucial if you do not want to be turned away at the gate(I hope you got the tickets in advance.)  We got there before the gates opened and everyone was waiting to get on either the monorail or the ferry-boat (the monorail is faster so, get on that no matter what the workers say.) Due to fire codes, they can only let so many people in the park and after that, it’s a no go. Every single year, the employees bet on what time the park will shut down on Christmas day.  The park opens at 7 a.m., the year we went, it shut down at 10 a.m.  The process is… first, they will stop selling tickets then, people who aren’t staying on the grounds won’t be admitted, and finally, no one will be allowed in…even if you’re staying on the grounds at a Disney resort.  The year we went, it was completely shut down by 10 and did not reopen to allow guests in until 1 p.m.

If you have a pet, check him/her in early because it is first come, first serve and they are always swamped on that day. In fact, they’re swamped the entire week.  The kennels are great, some employees better than others. I’ve  read that some employees are mean but, I have really thick skin and I am not easily offended so, what is probably perceived as mean to some folks is just normal behavior to me. Some people have “tissue paper feelings” as my mom used to say.

Make sure you have all of your pet immunization records because you will  need them to check your pet in and they have to be up to date.  The papers from petco, petsmart and places like that are taken.  Our furry family members were vaccinated at petco and we had no problems at all with the papers.

When you get to the theme park, RUN AND GET YOUR HAT! Everyone walks around with Christmas hats on and the really popular ones like Pluto which lights up or the Mickey’s First Christmas hat sells out really fast. They sold out of the Pluto hats at Magic Kingdom but, we found a bunch of them at MGM Studios.

It is going to be very, very crowded so, get on your favorite rides early.  We were able to ride The Tower of Terror 3 times that day(my son was rode it about 6 times) which is very good considering the crowds. Also, make sure you get the fast pass and go back to the ride at the time stated.  Those are really good. The lines will still be long just not as long as the other line for non-fast pass users.

Pack plenty of patience!  It is crowded on holidays so, if you can’t handle wall-to-wall people pushing trying to get past you…you may want to rethink going there during their busiest time. I had taken the pic above because, we kept hearing people complain about the crowd and we were like, “oh, there’s a crowd?” Some streets in New York are more crowded. We have crowds larger than this leaving any parade route.  LOL…the magical conditioning of Mardi Gras.  It does tend to get pretty thick in some areas of the park .

Make reservations to eat at  the restaurants in the park and make them very early!  I made my reservations months in advance and was able to get them at whatever restaurant I wanted. However, if you think you’re gonna go there on Christmas day(or any major holiday) and get on the waiting list at the Crystal Palace  for instance…think again.  You’ll be stuck eating at one of the fast food joints there…which isn’t very good IMO.  I used AllEars.net which is wonderful! They give you all the info you’ll ever need regarding dining at Disney.

Park your car and use the bus transportation to hop from theme park to theme park. IT’S FREE!  Disney makes everything convenient. If you’re at Magic Kingdom and want to go to Epcot, MGM or anywhere on Disney’s grounds, just go to the bus terminal which is in front of the entrance and get on the bus.  They’ll have  signs posted at each bus stop to let you know where that bus is going and the wait time is very short!  My husband had no idea about the bus transportation, he thought you had to drive to the next theme park…naw buddy, leave your car and the pets where they are!

Other than that, just dive into the kid in you and ENJOY!