4 Parks on Christmas Day - Genius or Crazy???

[ashleymrush]

So my family and I are going this Christmas to WDW. We go at least once a year and are vets but this is our first Christmas. We are prepared for the crazy crowds and are discussing options on how to best deal with them. One thing that we've never done, is to try to do all 4 parks in one day. I had the thought of maybe trying this out on Christmas Day. My thought process is that the parks will be very full all day but if we go to each park with the goal of doing one or two things only and then leave to go to another park, we will get a break from the crowds and a little rest while traveling from one place to another. Here is my tentative plan:

Rope drop MK - Do BTMRR and another ride TBD

Take transportation to DHS - thinking we need to get in there earlier rather than later due to Star Wars

Take boat to Beaches and Cream for Kitchen Sink treat because it's Christmas and would make for another good memory

Take boat or walk to EPCOT - do a little walking around, maybe ride something, maybe just roam WS

Take transportation to AK - ride something and enjoy Pandora at night

Travel back to hotel (CBR) and crash after a VERY LONG day.

So all in all, what do you think? Am I crazy or could this actually be a good idea??? Any explanations that you may have to convince me one way or the other are greatly appreciated. Like I said, we are Disney vets but haven't dealt with Christmas crowds before.

 

[mom2rtk]

I haven't done the parks on Christmas so might be way off base. But I have to think the lines for transportation will be very long on such a busy day. I can't imagine that won't just multiply the impact of the crowds for you. Sounds like a fun thing to try on pretty much any other day of the year.

 

[PSUGuy]

We did the 4 parks thing once years ago, in March and found it to be a waste of time. More time in the transport system than in the parks. Never been tempted since.

Bill From PA

 

[TwinkleKS]

We go for Christmas every year. Is your plan potentially doable, yes. Are you going to enjoy it ... Hmmmm ... I'm not you, so I can't say for sure ... but there will be a lot more traffic, a lot longer lines. It's not just the rides, its the going from park to park, driving on the roads (the buses don't have a magical way to not wait in traffic for portions of the trip), waiting in line for bag check, waiting in line to get in the park. That kind of stuff. Plus with the crowds in the parks you can't physically walk as fast from lets say SDMT to BTM (or the park entrance to the back).

 

[jbehr12]

So my family and I are going this Christmas to WDW. We go at least once a year and are vets but this is our first Christmas. We are prepared for the crazy crowds and are discussing options on how to best deal with them. One thing that we've never done, is to try to do all 4 parks in one day. I had the thought of maybe trying this out on Christmas Day. My thought process is that the parks will be very full all day but if we go to each park with the goal of doing one or two things only and then leave to go to another park, we will get a break from the crowds and a little rest while traveling from one place to another. Here is my tentative plan:

Rope drop MK - Do BTMRR and another ride TBD

Take transportation to DHS - thinking we need to get in there earlier rather than later due to Star Wars

Take boat to Beaches and Cream for Kitchen Sink treat because it's Christmas and would make for another good memory

Take boat or walk to EPCOT - do a little walking around, maybe ride something, maybe just roam WS

Take transportation to AK - ride something and enjoy Pandora at night

Travel back to hotel (CBR) and crash after a VERY LONG day.

So all in all, what do you think? Am I crazy or could this actually be a good idea??? Any explanations that you may have to convince me one way or the other are greatly appreciated. Like I said, we are Disney vets but haven't dealt with Christmas crowds before.

I’m worried you’re expecting to get too much done. It’s possibly the busiest day of the year, so you’ll be waiting for buses, boats, security, admissions, traffic, quick service food, etc. 2-3x that of a normal day unless you Uber everywhere.

I’d recommend planning less.. if you get to do more it’s a pleasant surprise rather than a let down that you can’t get done everything you wanted to. Parks can also reach capacity on Xmas so if you leave one there’s no guarantee you’ll get into another.

 

[DisneyWishes14]

When you say "ride something", keep in mind there will be hour long waits for things like Peoplemover that day and traffic and transportation are a nightmare. You will also be going through security 4 times. Personally, I would do two parks at most and would probably pick DHS and EP just to keep transportation to a minimum as you can walk between the two. We stayed at BWV over Christmas a few years ago and even trying to get a boat back from DHS was next to impossible.

 

[monkyby87]

If your plan is to just visit the parks and say you went to all 4 on Christmas, then you can do it. But if you're actually trying to do things and enjoy the parks, you'll have a very hard time. As everyone else has said, wait times for EVERYTHING will be double or triple what they normally are, even things that never have a wait. In my opinion you'll be wasting so much time and energy with very little to show for it. You're better off picking a park or two and just enjoying those as much as you can. Even on regular, non-busy days doing all 4 parks in one day ends up being more about saying you did as opposed to doing stuff in each park. Christmas will just be so much harder.

 

[anomamatt]

I love to hop. I think it's fun doing 4 parks in one day (have done it several times). But Christmas Day presents two massive problems: security/entry lines and transportation. Both will take you MUCH longer than you are used to. Non-AP lines were 20-30 mins (to tap in, after security) in some cases last year. The roads (and thus buses) get backed up.

If I were going to do it, I would try to minimize buses as much as possible. And I would try to keep myself in the security bubble and/or using less busy lanes/entries (like IG) as much as possible.

I'd do DAK first, bus to DHS and then no more busses needed...

 

[elaine amj]

We did 3 parks one Christmas week and had a lovely time.

Started at 7am EMH at MK and did a few rides with practically no one there. We even stopped to play at the arcade in Space Mountain and have a leisurely snack. Then we left about 9am to go to a second park (maybe Epcot? I forget). Then after the Candlelight Processional we strolled over to DHS for a Toy Story Mania FP and enjoyed ourselves at the Osborne Spectacle of Lights (gone now - so sad) and Fantasmic. We might even have gone back to MK after DHS closed...I forget now lol.

We kept the day leisurely as my father was in his late sixties and needed to walk slow. Plus he likes to stop and browse a lot haha. It was a lovely day, even took time to nap through two sessions of the American Adventure, and eat at Chefs De France, and still got a fair bit done (we only spent 2 park days that trip so wanted to cover a lot of ground).

 

[Disneylover99]

Last year, MK opened at 6am, so rope dropping meant being on the 5am bus to avoid the crush of people going through security and through the tapstyles. It’s fun but tiring. One park on .christmas day is enough for me.

 

[KenHutch]

Genius Or Crazy? Well crazy but saying that Have Fun!

 

[ashleymrush]

Genius Or Crazy? Well crazy but saying that Have Fun!

I do believe you are correct! lol

 

[gharter]

Given how busy the parks generally are on Christmas Day and week, I wouldn't try it.
I think you will spend a lot of time waiting for transportation to parks.
Other than the first park, FP may not be much help to you as every other park will be add on FPs. Havent been there on Christmas for many years, so not sure of the availability of same day FPs on Christmas.

In the end, if you want to visit all 4 parks on Christmas just to say you did it, then go for it. If you actually want to be able to do much in any given park, I wouldn't.

 

[Remy is Up]

We have done Christmas Day MK and New Years Eve Epcot several times. Im not huge on jumping more than one time park to park. I believe one jump is feasible and would be fun, more than that on the busiest day of the year wouldnt be something I would do.

 

[kiford]

We did Christmas Day last year. Where you're going to run into time issues are both the transportation and, more importantly, security. Some lines during that week took 30 minutes to get through especially when getting stuck behind people who were packing for a week in the Andes or something. The new rules on strollers might help a little but I think you'll find that you probably spend 30-40% of your time waiting for very crowded transportation, in security lines and in ticket entrance lines. We left our hotel at 5:15 am (we were with friends who had a car), parked and got into the MK security line at 5:30 am. They started processing people at the TTC at about 5:45 am. We opted to take the monorail rather than the ferry where the CMs were mostly ushering people. We got into the park a little after 6 am. We then left about 11 am when it started getting very busy and headed back to the TTC on the monorail. We had to wait quite a while and the cars were absolutely packed. I can't remember now whether we went to AK or HS and the parking wasn't too bad (we did either AK/HS on the previous day in the afternoon - parking wasn't bad either day) but the security lines were long and slow as were the ticket lines.

 

[Disneylvr1971]

I would do this if I was there on Xmas day. I wouldn't expect any rides, but to say I was at all the parks and get pictures at all of them...heck yeah!

 

[lvdis]

I like crazy!