When you are attending the party, you can get into the park at 4:00pm even though the party doesn’t start until 7pm. I recommend arriving early if you can because it allows time to catch some rides before the festivities get started. We arrived at about 5:30pm due to work schedules and traffic. We headed straight to Frontierland to meet up with a friend from Texas who is in town with his family on vacation. The 3 guys went and rode Big Thunder Mountain Railroad while I hung out with Kevin, Jessica and their girls. Next we headed to Adventureland to ride Pirates of the Caribbean and the Jingle Cruise. As we excited Pirates we heard the announcement that the party was beginning. Instead of taking you through our evening in order, we thought we would share our Must-Do list for Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party.
Mom Maven’s Must-Dos at Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party 2015
1. Holiday Wishes-Celebrate the Spirit of the Season/Celebrate the Magic
At 9:15pm you can see Cinderella Castle transform into a spectacular canvas of color and awe-inspiring magic. Viewing for this show is great from the hub on back down Main Street USA. We like to watch from near the Plaza Restaurant. This year we were on the new grassy area and had a great view of the show, except for the 1 light pole that is in a lot of our pictures!
Immediately after Celebrate the Magic, at 9:30pm is Holiday Wishes-Celebrate the Spirit of the Season holiday fireworks spectacular. This is our favorite fireworks show of the year!
2. Mickey’s Once Upon a Christmas Parade
This parade is at 8:15pm and 10:30pm, we recommend attending the second parade if you don’t have young children. The crowd for the second parade is usually lighter making it easier to get a good spot to watch from. We are parade people and we love Disney parades! We had planned to catch the second parade but we arrived in the hub area to stake out our spots for Holiday Wishes at about 8:45pm and the early parade was still going on. We were delighted to catch about half of the parade. As you can see from the pictures, the early parade is very crowded!
3. A Totally Tomorrowland Christmas!/VoicePlay
A Totally Tomorrowland Christmas! Is a fun show including Stitch, Buzz Lightyear, Mike Wazowski and a cast of singers and dancers. We catch this show every year, it is so much fun! This year the show is at 7:45pm, 8:40pm, 9:45pm, 10:40pm and 11:35pm. This year sharing the Rockettower Plaza Stage was the awesome a cappella vocal group, VoicePlay. Their sets were short, only about 15 minutes each and take place right after the first four performances of A Totally Tomorrowland Christmas! Just stay where you are, or move closer as the crowd leaves, and enjoy these talented vocalists.
4. Rides!
You are at the Magic Kingdom after all. During the party crowds are lighter than a normal park day and if you plan to catch some rides during the parade, lines are even shorter! We did the Jingle Cruise right at the start of the party-we had a 15 minute wait! I love the Jingle Cruise-it is a Christmas themed ride on the Jungle Cruise. I love the new jokes and the Christmas decorations scattered throughout the ride. Normally Peter Pan’s Flight has a 60+ minute wait so we often Fastpass+ this ride. We wanted Jordan and Chase to see the new, interactive queue so we got in line with a listed wait time of 30 minutes. Our actual wait time was 12 minutes and the boys loved the new queue! The other must-do ride is the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train. Again, this ride usually has a wait time of over an hour and because we don’t plan our trips months or even weeks in advance, there are seldom Fastpasses available. We hopped in this line with a posted 30 minute wait and our actual wait was 27 minutes! At the end of the night as we walked from Tomorrowland to Fantasyland the boys decided to catch a ride on the Tomorrowland Speedway, which had a less than 15 minute wait! We also walked on to Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin earlier in the evening so, we were content with the amount of rides we were able to do during the party.
5. Treats
Who can say “No” to free hot chocolate and cookies? Not us. I think Chase maxed out at 6 stops for cocoa and cookies. Why spend money on snacks when you can get free ones? Just look for the large inflatable candy canes, or check your park map for locations.
6. Characters
During Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party there are tons of characters available for meet and greets. Some of these are characters you seldom see out and about so I will give you a quick rundown of where to find the rare characters:
- Seven Dwarfs-Near the castle wall by Pinocchio’s Village Haus in Fantasyland
- Snow White and her Prince-Castle Archway in Fantasyland
- Reindeer and Elf-Across from Sunshine Terrace in Adventureland
- Sandy Claws-in Storybook Circus
- Mary Poppins & Bert-Near the Confectionery-on Main Street, USA
- Santa Claus-Next to City Hall-on Main Street, USA
- Phineas & Ferb-At Club Tinsel at Cosmic Ray’s Starlight Cafe in Tomorrowland
Last year I wrote a post about avoiding A Frozen Holiday Wish so if you are interested in finding out more about that, go ahead and click over. There are still several Mickey’s Very merry Christmas Parties left this season so contact your travel planner for tickets.
November 15, 17, 19; December 1, 3, 6, 8, 10, 13, 15 – Advance: US $74 (plus tax) for adults; US $69 (plus tax) for children (ages 3-9);
Day of the Event: US $79 (plus tax) for adults; US $74 (plus tax) for children (ages 3-9)
November 20, 29; December 4, 11, 17 – US $79 (plus tax) for adults; US $74 (plus tax) for children (ages 3-9)
December 18 – US $82 (plus tax) for adults; US $77 (plus tax) for children (ages 3-9)
Merry Christmas,
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