Dec 9, 202311 min read

November 2023 Trip Report - Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party

The day after we did EPCOT, we had tickets for Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party, and it just so happened it would be the first party of the season, and a sold out night!

When planning this trip, I knew I wanted to visit each of the four parks, and I knew I wanted to use only 4 park days so that we could take rest days in which my daughter could get homework done since I was taking her out of school for this trip. But when it came to the Magic Kingdom, I found that either there were days where the crowd level was projected to be very high, days where it closed at the regular time but with no fireworks, and days where it closed early because of the Christmas Party. And I knew I wanted fireworks. Given the Christmas party tickets are about the cost of the day ticket, this was a hard decision to make. Was it truly worth it to buy a ticket that only allowed me part of a day at the park?

The answer, after consulting with my teenage daughter, ended up being "yes", and honestly, I couldn't be happier with this decision. But then I saw the party sell out and realized it was opening night. I wondered exactly how many people would be there just to do things for social media, taking selfies, and being annoying if I got in their shot by accident. And I wondered how crowded it would be, given the last "party" I had been at at Disney was a Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party pre-pandemic, and it was so crowded that it was not enjoyable.

Nevertheless, we enjoyed the morning and early afternoon by sleeping in. While my daughter did some homework, I went to find a reading nook at the hotel. We left the hotel around 2:30 PM, arriving at the Transportation and Ticket Center at about 3:00 PM. While the Christmas Party officially began at 7:00 PM, you could get into the Magic Kingdom with only your party ticket, starting at 4:00 PM and that was our plan.

A note about drop off and pick up at the Magic Kingdom

Since I am usually loathe to stay anywhere other than at a Disney resort on my Disney vacation, the drop off situation at the Magic Kingdom was a new experience for me, but one I was prepared for. Only Disney transportation can drop guests off directly at the Magic Kingdom entrance. All other guests, whether arriving with their own transportation, using a rideshare or taxi, or using an off-site resort's transportation, arrive at the Magic Kingdom by actually arriving at the Transportation and Ticket Center, which is across the Seven Seas Lagoon from the Magic Kingdom. From here, guests can get to the Magic Kingdom by taking the monorail or the ferry. I anticipated this feeling like a major inconvenience, but in the end, it was fine.

Arriving at the TTC, we took the monorail to the Polynesian resort because we'd stayed there before and wanted to visit, and to get a Dole whip (we maintain that the Dole whips here are the best). The monorail was PACKED, and our particular car had at least one rider whose body odor was permeating the entire car. In short, the monorail smelled like a locker room that some blue cheese had been left in. We should've walked to the Poly.

Regardless, we got off at the Poly and had our nice Dole whips, sitting on the tables near Captain Cook's. Then, we gritted our teeth and boarded the monorail again. The plan was to stop once more at the Grand Floridian to have a look at the life-sized gingerbread house, but the line for the monorail at the Poly was long, and the monorail once again was completely packed (though less smelly this time). The driver also enjoyed pumping the breaks, which was unpleasant as a standing rider. We got to the Grand Floridian station, looked at each other and the line to board the monorail at the Grand Floridian, and decided, no, we just wanted to be done with the monorail, so we continued on to the Magic Kingdom where I took the "secret stairs" while all the other guests took the ramp to the Magic Kingdom entrance.

Upon arrival, I thought I'd made the wrong decision. The entrance plaza was FULL and it wasn't even quite 4:00. Cast Members were directing Christmas Party guests all the way around the plaza back to about where the bus stops are, where the line then turned and circled back to the Magic Kingdom. I'm sure this was to keep the Christmas Party arrival traffic from clashing with the park exit traffic, but it was a LONG line, and a long shuffling wait to get in in the late day heat. At some point during this shuffle, because my daughter was gripping my wrist to avoid getting separated, my Magic Band fell off as well, so I got to the turnstile ready to scan in, and realized my band wasn't on my arm.

Friendly Cast Members greeting party guests, and signage directing us to the backstage corridor parallel to Main Street USA.

And this, surprisingly, is where my night turned for the better because a guest in front of me heard my panic and just had happened to see a Cast Member a few paces back pick up a Magic Band from the pavement. I walked back just a few yards and sure enough, a Cast Member had my Magic Band. It took all of a minute to recover it in that roaring crowd. With that, we went through the turnstile and into the Magic Kingdom where we could catch a glimpse of the Christmas Tree before smiling Cast Members dressed in Christmas outfits directed us to a side corridor that went along the backside of Main Street U.S.A so we didn't have to fight traffic again. Back there, they had several photo ops, an elf greeting guests, a band playing Christmas music, and they gave us our complementary ornaments. There was snow blowing as well, and it just really served to get us in the festive mood.

Elf MC with her DJ spinning holiday tunes

Now, between 4:00 PM and 6:00 PM, guests who are both day guests, and guests arriving for the party are in the park, making these the busiest park hours, but that's okay because I had planned for this. For one, we hadn't yet eaten, so upon arriving in Tomorrowland, where the backstage corridor let us out, we stopped at the Lunching Pad and got a Mickey Pretzel and a blue slushie and perused the Christmas Party map we were given, making a plan. After a snack, we noticed the PeopleMover had the lowest wait of all the rides, so we boarded that (at the time it was a 15 minute wait which felt like 20 minutes, which is unusually high for this ride except when it's really busy, which it was at the time). After riding, we went to Star Traders which was one of two locations (the other being the Emporium on Main Street) selling exclusive party merchandise. I bought my party pin and some other pins.

Then, we headed to Main Street to do a little shopping while the ride wait times were still long. The shops on Main Street were completely packed, but we did manage to find a few ornaments we liked and bought those. At both of these shops, mobile merchandise check out was a life saver. It is so nice to be able to scan your items yourself, pay, and then just show your app to a Cast Member at the door, rather than wait in a long line to check out, which is what most people were doing.

This is what Fantasyland looked like during the busiest portion of party night, when day guests and party guests were both in the park. But it's hard to be mad when this light was so nice.

It was nearing 6:00 at this time, and already the park was starting to feel calmer and the sun had set. We headed toward Liberty Square, and on the way, caught the new Frozen Christmas show at the castle, which looked way better than I expected a castle stag show to look. There were projections on the castle to go with the show, and even some fireworks toward the end.

Between 6-7, MyDisneyExperience stopped displaying wait times for rides because technically at 6:00 the park day had ended for day guests, and the party didn't start until 7:00, but rides were still running and you could see the wait time when you approached. We rode Haunted Mansion, which was posting a 10 minute wait time, and pretty much walked right on with a bunch of other party guests. The night was beginning to feel less crowded and way more relaxed than the past two hours had felt, and we rode Haunted Mansion no problem, then got a in a line at Liberty Square to collect our first cookies and hot chocolate, complimentary with the party ticket. These lines looked long, but they always moved quickly and never took more than 5 minutes. All the places had different kinds of cookies, and either hot chocolate or apple cider, which was blessedly cold.

After our cookie stop, we used the pass through to head to Adventureland and ride Jingle Cruise. Adventureland looked like a ghost town, but Jingle Cruise, despite looking totally empty from the outside, was posting a 50 minute wait. Yes, 50! But we had very few ride must-dos on this night, and this was one of them, so we got in line. We joked later that this wait time must've been a "Christmas Party 50 minutes" because in reality, the wait was only 10 minutes before we were on our boat listening to corny Christmas jokes. While waiting, we had a chance to see how many guests really outdo themselves with outfits for the party. Many families wear matching pajamas, which we thought must be so hot in the Florida heat, but it was really cute to look at. There was a father and son behind us and they were just chattering about how nice it was to spend time together and it made me think that Walt would be smiling.

After Jingle Cruise, the daughter insisted on cotton candy, so we picked some up in Liberty Square before heading through the hub to position ourselves for Tomorrowland rides while others were at the 8:00 PM parade. In Tomorrowland, we rode Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin (posted 10 minutes, we walked right on), and the PeopleMover again. This time on the PeopleMover, we could see the holiday overlay in Space Mountain, which I didn't even expect based on press before the first night of the party would have an overlay, but it was crazy, all the lights on, which I'm sure people loved, and red and green dots dancing along the walls to some frenetic holiday tunes. It made me wonder if I would ride with the lights on. I considered it momentarily, but decided no.

Next up, we did three cookie stops in a row, with at stop at Pecos Bill in between, ending at Pinocchio's Village Haus. At Pecos Bill, I tried their red and green tamales which were a party exclusive food item. They were fine, nothing special. I wish I could've handled more sugar because a lot of the exclusive food items were sweets and looked adorable, but I knew I'd feel bad if I ate them. By the way, all the cookies we were collecting also went into my daughter's collection, as did the hot chocolate.

The Christmas Fireworks

Now that we'd eaten and had snacks in reserve, it was time to end our night on Main Street already. We positioned ourselves at 9:30ish for the fireworks, which were at 10:00. The crowd wasn't terrible, but it never fails that in the last 5 minutes before a show, some family is going to get in front of you, back their stroller up into you, and hoist their kid upon their shoulders, blocking your view. You guys, don't do this. Please. I know kids need to see, but then plan for it. Get a spot ahead of time that allows you the space you need and height you need without blocking someone else's view.

The fireworks were okay. They were cute, but honestly, I would've preferred the regular show playing at the time: Happily Ever After. After fireworks, we stayed on Main Street and tried to find a spot for the 11:00 parade. The snow started falling as well after the fireworks, but there wasn't that wonderful moment like the one I had in 2021 at Disneyland where the snow starts, some sappy music plays, and everyone falls silent just hugging each other and enjoying the feeling. Instead, all the families that had seen the earlier parade had decided the fireworks were the end of their night, and were exiting, so it was a bit intense for a few minutes. Dear Disney World, please consider playing some sappy song when the snow starts to fall directly after fireworks to encourage people to just take a moment and linger.

Our usual plan for a parade is to find a trash can to stand behind because then no one can stand in front of you, so the first spot we selected was behind a trash can, but daughter quickly got grossed out. There was a lot of curb space still available, though, and our feet were tired, so we walked down a bit closer to the exit of the park and found a curb to sit on. The "snow" fell almost continuously for the rest of the night, and it was nice to just sit there and watch other guests for a while. Although I gripe about the crowd sometimes (or I should say, the manners of a few people in the crowd), this crowd felt remarkably different than the EPCOT crowd the night before had felt. Everyone in this crowd was smiling and seemed jolly and just happy to be there, and it put a nicer edge on things. Plus, after the people leaving post fireworks were gone, it really didn't feel crowded at all. I can imagine most of the party guests who remained were likely on Main Street, and if not, I'm sure the other lands must have felt like absolutely ghost towns. There was a dad standing near us who kept remarking to his wife that Big Thunder Mountain Railroad was only 10-minutes and so on.

One of the smell-a-riffic floats at the Christmas Parade. This was our favorite because it smelled like mint candy.

The parade was, in short, fantastic. It was the highlight of the night. It even had a pre-show which was this "elf brigade", I will call them, who came out and made us ready by making us jolly. Some of the floats in the parade pumped Christmassy scents out the back, which we thought was so awesome. It was just super great, and I'm really glad we stayed for the late parade because by that time it wasn't crowded or hard to get a spot for it either.

The parade passed through Main Street close to the stroke of midnight, which is when the party ends. I looked at my watch, and the parade had ended at 11:51, so we just followed the parade out of the park. I had been really concerned that it would be madness trying to get on the monorail or ferry to the TTC because it quite often is quite terrible at park closing, but this was different because the party was a limited number of guests, and many had already left two hours earlier when fireworks had ended. It just so turns out we walked to the ferry dock, where a ferry was already waiting, and were among the first to ride that to the TTC. At the TTC, my Lyft was there within 10 minutes. All in all, we were back at Rosen Shingle Creek by 12:30 AM, which I thought was very good timing.

Would I do the Christmas Party again? Heck, yes! Even on this sold out night, it felt like an exclusive event with almost all rides a walk on, and everyone in a super good mood. It was also nice to be in the park during the evening when we didn't have to suffer from the heat of the day, and I know I sound like I'm exaggerating about the heat given it was November, but on that particular day, the high was 85 and it was humid (by evening, it was very tolerable, though). I'm also happy with what we chose to do. Given we've bene to Disney World a few times, we don't need to do all the rides all the time, and I think we struck a good balance between riding our favorite rides and doing party things. The only complaint I have is time flies when you're having fun.

Summary:

Dole whips at the Polynesian

PeopleMover (twice)

Haunted Mansion

Jingle Cruise

Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin

4-5 cookie stops

Frozen Show

Fireworks

Parade

Weather: High of 85, sunny.

Miles walked: 6