Disney Christmas Party Review! (and more)

We got back yesterday from a quick 4 night stay at All Star Sports. Not my favorite resort, but I just booked this trip less than a month ago, and there was literally NOTHING available for the holiday weekend. Cute resort, we have stayed there before. Small, beds are super small, got kicked every night Every building was a good location, the food court is good. Pools are cute. My kids love the oversized crap there. We took Minnie Vans three times to Hollywood Studios in a day. It was nice to have them just drop us at our building! The new bus stop location at HS is AWFUL, FYI. Be warned! It's SO far from the entrance. Short trip, and our time was valuable, so we paid a premium for the Minnie vans!

Our main focus was the Christmas Party. We went on Friday, it was a sold out party. We had a blast! It was busy, but we managed to avoid a lot of the crowds. We entered at 4pm, did our 3 fast passes we were able to book in advance. Then waited for Scrooge McDuck and Donald meet and greet. Then rode a bunch of other rides with really no waits. We also booked "Tony's Merriest Dessert Party", where we got reserved seating for the 11pm parade. OMG the view was a million dollar view! We were dead on with a view of the castle in the background, right in front of the Christmas Tree at the Flag Pole circle. It was AMAZING! Totally worth the $99 per person fee! The desserts in Tony's were great, and it was a nice break from the heat, it was HOT! I highly recommend it! Total splurge I booked on the bus on the way to the park, but totally worth it! Of course you can line up for the parade on your own, but be prepared to sit there for almost 2 hours to get a good spot on Main Street. Also, if you are going, make sure you go the way they direct you for the Party....behind the buildings to the right on Main Street. When you go that way, you get a huge packaged Mickey cookie, and a bunch of photo props. It takes you out by Tomorrowland Terrace. But, you can loop back around to the castle if you want to get pics, etc. Also, if you are a "Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom" card fan, make sure you get the party one. You can get it right at 4pm when you enter at the Fire house. A Cast Member stands there and marks your bracelet and gives you the card. AND, Tortuga Tavern gives out snowman soft pretzels and snowcones at one of the treat stops, they were both great! The cookies, etc. in the other stops were good too. All free, so don't forget to grab some!

We did Toy Story Land and it was BEYOND cute!! Got there for extra magic morning, they let us in at 7:30. We ran to Toy Story Mania while everyone got in line for Slinky Dog. Slinky Dog was down until after 9am. A lot of unhappy people in that line, which stretched back to The Great Movie Ride! Apparently it's down a lot in the morning! We ended up getting a return time (with my son's DAS), and rode Slinky late morning. Holy cow that is faster than I expected. I thought it would be like the Goofy Barnstormer Was a little queasy when I got off, not going to lie! We did Swirling Saucers twice (I shouldn't say we, my kids, I will throw up lol), met Buzz (in his Santa hat, so cute), ate at Woody's Lunchbox, and poked around a bit. Then we came back in the evening and rode them all again. It's so cute at night, love all the lights!

I HIGHLY recommend the Santa at Hollywood, the setting is GORGEOUS! They give out cards to write their letters to Santa on while waiting in line. It's located near Tower of Terror, and at dusk, they do a great projection show on the TOT, along with snow! Don't miss it! Jingle Bell Bam looks cute at night, but we didn't want to sit on the concrete for an hour to hold our spots, so we ended up beating the crowd to leave. I checked for the dessert party for that show everyday, but nothing ever opened up, which was a bummer!

We also hit Epcot, and since it was the last weekend of the Food and Wine Festival, it was a zoo. OMG, never seen that many people in World Showcase. We did all of Future World and only did Frozen and ate in England, then left. It was ridiculous the amount of drunken adults there. Smelled like a bar everywhere we turned I was completely turned off and disgusted actually.

Overall, we had great weather, and it was a super fun getaway!!

Message edited 11/13/2018 9:26:24 AM.

Re: Disney Christmas Party Review! (and more)

This was our parade view!

Re: Disney Christmas Party Review! (and more)

Sounds like fun! Amazing parade views.

How long was the wait for Scrooge? Also, was Jack Skellinngton there as Sandy? Any insight on his line?

Thanks!

Re: Disney Christmas Party Review! (and more)

Re: Disney Christmas Party Review! (and more)

Thank you for the insight. I am hopeful that we might finally get a Jack picture! I have never had the heart to wait on the 2+ hour line at the Halloween party.

Did you do the Memory Maker also? Were there any amazing magic shots offered for the party?

Re: Disney Christmas Party Review! (and more)

Disney Christmas Party Review! (and more)

We really enjoyed the Christmas Party too! So much fun and not that crowded. We were able to do so many rides (we skipped Peter Pan since the line was so long). We walked right in to see Mickey too. Could’ve done Nightmare Before Christmas with a minimal wait but my kids didn’t want to. We also had no wait to see Santa.

It was 85 degrees and humid and people were wearing flannel Christmas jammies and Christmas sweaters which was nuts but other than that, and Santa looking as if he was about to melt it was great.

Toy Story Land was complete and utter insanity though. We went there straight away at rope drop and there was a 2 hour wait for Slinky already by 8:50. We got to do Toy Story Mania though twice before the line got too long because DS and I had a black screen at one point so they let us go again.

We also did 2 days at Universal this trip though and it blew Hollywood Studios away. We got their fast pass which is AMAZING and worth every penny. And there was so much more to do.

Re: Disney Christmas Party Review! (and more)

Re: Disney Christmas Party Review! (and more)

You're making me want to go back and I was just there for Halloween!
I don't remember Santa in HS last year. The kids would have liked that.
I waited with DD1 for Jack and Sally right after the 1st Boo to You parade ended (we watched from right in front of town square theater.) There appeared to be almost no wait - were able to walk all the way to the back wall, so not many people ahead of us to get through the first door. But, the line was actually still pretty long. It stretched along three walls of Tink's outer room and through the next room. There was definitely only one room being used for the characters. There was no posted wait time, but I think we waited at least 40 minutes.
We went to Mickey right before the parade started and there was no one on front of us.

Did they let people with EMM go through fast pass lane for a while once SDD was back up?

Disney Christmas Party Review! (and more)

It wasn't EMM it was EMH (resort guest hour early opening), and they made everyone stand in the line. People were standing there from like 7:45 until 9:15ish. Such a waste of time, and they weren't giving out fast passes to just return to the line later, They HAD to wait if they wanted to be able to ride! I overheard a woman asking why they wouldn't give them return times to ride, and she said because the ride never opened. If it had been opened and broke down, they would give a return time. Stupid policy if you ask me, because it made EMH worthless for so many!