Tips for New Years Eve at Disney?
 

I live near Orlando and I'm a Disney annual pass holder and this year a few friends and I decided to try out Disney for new years eve. We've settled on Epcot since we wanted to have alcohol available and didn't want to be bothered by the hoards of kids at the Magic Kingdom. Has anyone celebrated new years eve at Epcot before? Any tips?

NYE is the busiest day of the year at Disney World. There will be hoards of kids everywhere.

I used to work at the Disney Reservations Center (aka the call center). It's almost a guarantee that each of the parks will be closed at various parts of the day. Closures are done in "phases". I honestly can't remember the hierarchy...but non-Disney guests get turned away first. Annual Passholders and Disney Resort guests are the last turned away.

If your friends are not Annual Passholders or not staying at a Disney-owned Resort, there is a good chance that they will be denied entry. You, however, will be let in.

Throughout the day, different parks will enter various phased closures. They only re-open when a specific number of guests leave that park. Disney has crowd-control down to a science, which should tell you something: If they are denying entry (and the accompanying money that guests spend), it means there literally is nowhere else to put people in that park.

Sorry guys....

Can we please talk about HORDES ?:D

All I can say is that you better get there early and plan to spend the entire day and night.

Also don't plan on being able to drive just about anywhere. It took me about 1 hour to make the right turn from Rte 535 (I was coming from the Hyatt). Normally it takes a few minutes.

Good luck. You're going to need it :)

Ok, I didn't know about non-Disney guests potentially being turned away. We will do our best to arrive at the park as soon as it opens to ensure we are able to get in.

I think the shutdown phases are:

1. no non-resort guests
2. no annual passholders
3. no one

There is another phase of #1 where they let you into a park, it just may not be the one you want :)

Like I said. Good luck ;)

With that said (and I don't know if it is good or bad) but Epcot, in my experience, has been the last of the 4 parks to close its doors on the heavy days. I always assumed it was due to the size of the park and the fact that it just seems to have more non-ride themes than the other parks and thus kids may want to go to the other parks more than Epcot.

And as I think I mentioned in another thread, I did go to Epcot once on New Years day. We were not staying onsite and arrived about 30 minutes after opening. Epcot was the only park still open to the public (the others were listed as full) and the crowds in the park were horrific. I will never, ever, ever, ever go again around the Christmas/New Years holidays. ;)

Note that I will (and am) going the week after New Years and I'm hopeful the crowds will be much smaller for most of our trip (Jan. 4th - 10th).

I was just at Epcot this past Sunday and the crowd was very light and we got on all attractions within minutes. I enjoyed it as I knew I would be shoulder to shoulder come New Year's Eve. Disney was the only thing I could think of to give my guests any sort of memorable New Year's Eve experience. It certainly sounds like it will be memorable be it good or bad haha.

I've worked Christmas week, but not NYE at Epcot and visited several times as a guest.

Don't plan on doing much other than one or two attractions unless you get Fastpasses. Universe of Energy is about the only manageable line after noon other than shows and they can still get crowded as people just want to get off their feet. Going to a park on NYE for something other than fireworks is pointless, but I was ok with that. Your guests may not be. Prepare them for not doing much before getting there.

As an ex cast member, I wasn't worried about doing things. Mainly to relax and have a drink or two and enjoy the DJs and fireworks.

For good fireworks viewing, I'd recommend staking out a place right after the early fireworks show as many families with smaller kids may leave. Take a blanket or two to spread out to sit on and have something soft to use as a pillow (sweatshirts/jackets). What I can remember as light drinker is two drinks per id - so you can send some of the party out to get drinks while the remainder stay at your chosen spot.

If driving afterward, wait until closer to one before leaving. You can stay and enjoy the party atmosphere and let most of the crowd leave.

If Disney is so busy on NYE, it means entrance fees are too low. Increase ticket prices a few hundred percent on that day and I'm sure crowds will be more manageable while making a pile of $$$ for Disney.

The other option to consider is trying to get a dining reservation at Epcot. I'm fairly certain that anyone with a Priority Seating (aka reservation) will always gain access to the theme park where that restaurant is located. Doing that means you won't have to arrive at 8am and spend 16+ hours in Epcot.

At this point, you'd be looking for a last minute cancelation. But, you can search online fairly easily:

https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/dining/

If you end up doing this, please verify that a reservation will ensure you can get in the park. That was the policy when I worked there. But, it's possible that might have changed.

I suggest the following entrance fees on NYE: $250 per adult, $100 per child.

I suppose they might try and do that for non-passholders. Annual passholders have no blackout dates and it would look very bad on Dinsey to try and change the terms of our agreement.

Actually, some annual passholders DO have blackout dates.

There are Florida resident annual passes - one is a regular annual pass with no blackouts and the other blacks out summer and holiday periods, the end of December is always blacked out. But this pass is substantially discounted even more than residents get.

And those annual passes aren't cheap any longer. I nearly fell over last time I bought 2 - they were nearly $1300!!!

If they tried to get more money from me for the privilege of being with a few hundred thousand of my closest friends on the busiest night of the year, they won't get it :D

It seems that the Holiday weekends with the least crowds are Labor Day and Columbus Day.