The Holidays are here… at least at Disney World.
Mickey’s Once Upon A Christmastime parade
Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party has officially begun, marking the unofficial start of the Holiday season at the resort. The main draws of the party are the exclusive Holiday experiences, including Mickey’s Once Upon a Christmas Parade, Minnie’s Wonderful Christmastime Fireworks Show, treats, and character meet & greets in their Holiday best, and access to many of the Magic Kingdom’s attractions including holiday overlays of Space Mountain, and the Jingle Cruise.
So, with all that offer, just how crowded is Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party this year?
We entered the park right at 4PM, when your after hours tickets allow you to enter the park, and crowds were VERY heavy!
Crowds are no joke!
However, the lines moved very quickly, and we tapped in within a few minutes! They opened the gates at 3:45PM and we were scanned into the park by 3:49PM (yes, even with that massive crowd!). We got our bracelet right after scanning in, but we were held for a minute just inside the gates before we could move into the rest of the park.
It is PACKED!
Inside the park, we followed the crowds over to Market St, where crowds continued to be relatively large as we all were entering at one time, but things seemed to ease just a little bit!
Here we go!
At 7PM, the party officially began, and we took a look at wait times to see how many guests were in the park. Now, remember, regular park guests had to leave at 6PM, so by 7PM, the majority of people in these queues are here for the party. The highest wait time was TRON Lightcycle / Run at 50 minutes, which isn’t bad for the hottest ride in the park!
©Disney
Other notable wait times were Space Mountain and Peter Pan’s Flight both at 45 minutes, Tiana’s Bayou Adventure at 40 minutes, Jingle Cruise at 35 minutes, Seven Dwarfs Mine Train at 35 minutes, and Haunted Mansion at 20 minutes.
Jingle Cruise
Also at the beginning of the party, we waited about 45 minutes for the new Mickey Elf Popcorn Bucket! This was just announced and it’s exclusive to the party, so it’s going to be popular among partygoers.
Exclusive to Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party
By 8PM, ride wait times had dropped IMMENSELY. The highest wait time in the park was TRON Lightcycle / Run at 35 minutes with Peter Pan’s Flight and Jingle Cruise also at 35 minutes, and Tiana’s Bayou Adventure was ONLY 25 minutes!
©Disney
And by 8:30PM when the first parade was starting, they had moved around a bit. Peter Pan’s Flight was back up to a 40-minute wait, TRON was 35 minutes, Seven Dwarfs Mine Train and Jingle Cruise were 30 minutes each, and Tiana’s Bayou Adventure had dropped to 15 minutes!
©Disney
Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party is certainly crowded this year, but not too terrible this year! Stay tuned to DFB for more updates on the Holiday season.
How To Ride Tiana’s Bayou Adventure at Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party
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Attending the party 11/18 & have hotel reservations for 12/24-12/25. Is the parade and fireworks different at the party than 12/25? I am hoping to get in as many rides as possible during party and already have dessert fireworks party pd for on 11/25. Any guidance is appreciated.
I AM SHOCKED!!! We just purchased Very Merry Party tix at $200/person (on top of paying a FULL daily rate just to attend in the morning), only AFTER talking to Disney about it over the phone. We were not going to spend the extra money since we already had park hopper tix, but the Disney rep stated that she attended the party this year and the wait times were around 5 mins! Yes, she said 5 mins, with the longest being 20 for space mtn & jingle cruise. So now that we have spent $1,100 more dollars JUST for a few hours at the party(there are 6 of us), I see you posted these wait times and I’m devastated! Especially since those are the longest we will typically wait for (45-55 mins) with my daughter having a broken ankle and my multiple recent foot surgeries. And to top it all off, the worst part is that they don’t even offer lightning passes during parties, so there is nothing to help us spend up the wait times on any ride, or more importantly…to save our feet for the remainder of our trip=( I am SOOOOOOO upset and wish I could cancel our tix now.