Arriving at WDW Dec 31st and I might have a problem...?
Me and my wife planned to spend new years eve at Disney World. Our flight gets into Orlando International Airport at 3:30pm on Dec 31st. I have no idea what time I might get to my resort, which is Port Orleans Riverside. We really really want to spend new years eve in Magic Kingdom and we have dinner reservations at 7:30pm in the park. Here is the problem, most people I talk to say there is no chance they will let us in the park as it will be full. In fact I heard that we won't get into any park. My question is this: What time would we get to the front gate of Magic Kingdom if our flight gets in at 3:30, we are taking the magic express into the resort, then catching the bus over to magic kingdom? Do we even stand a change? Do we get any sort of preference because we are staying at the resort for 2 weeks? Any help at all would be greatly appreciated, I will be really disappointed if we are stuck in the hotel room on new years eve.
Orlando - 5 Answers
Random Answers, Critics, Comments, Opinions :
1 :
ok if you got in at 3:30pm you would get to your hotel at aproximately 4:45pm cuz you need to find your way to magical express and once the bus leaves it will take you 45 minutes to get to your hotel. then you would need to check in. that can take up to 30 minutes depending on how many people are checking in when you are. then the buses to the parks come every 20 minutes. so you would be able to make it to your dinner reservations in the park on time. problem is all those people you've talked to are right. there is very little chance you will get into the park. the parks (magic kingdom especially) fill to capacity early in the day. magic kingdom usually by 1pm at the latest and they stop letting people enter. but if enough people leave they will allow more people to come in. you would have an advantage if they decided to allow more people in cuz they give priority to the resort guests. and let them in first. but you most likely won't be getting into magic kingdom. if you went to magic kingdom and you weren't able to get in you could go to epcot and see if they are letting guests in and if they are full you could try hollywood studios. if they are full you would be out of luck for the theme parks cuz animal kingdom doesn't celebrate new years eve cuz they don't do fire works cuz it would scare the animals and they close early in the evening. if you can't get into the parks they have celebrations at a lot of the resorts for new years eve. i'm going to magic kingdom on new years eve and i'm getting there before the park opens to assure i get in.
2 :
It doesn't matter if you are in the resort for one night or 2 weeks. Call up Disney and ask. I have heard all guests staying at a Disney resort get into the park.
3 :
Personally, I don't think you stand a chance. Yes, the parks, especially Magic Kingdom, always get to capacity on New Year's Eve, and if it is full, it is full. They won't let you in even if you are staying at a resort and have reservations. There are different levels of "full" - such as almost full, so the parks will close to everybody except for people staying at a Disney resort. But on New Year's Eve, it gets really, truly full. I would imagine you won't be able to actually get to the park until at least 5:00, and that's assuming everything goes very smoothly. 6:00 is probably a better estimate. So you should have time to get to the reservation - IF they will let you in. That's getting pretty late to be able to get in. Alternative is you can skip the reservation and just go to whichever park might happen to still be open. Epcot or the Studios might still be taking guests, and although you would miss your meal, you could at least get in. A lot of the time there will be one park still admitting guests.
4 :
honestly forget magic kingdom that night, go over to hollywood studios they have never been full to capacity that night, i went for five years straight and it never happened. anyway MK is crazy that night, skip it and have a great dinner at Brown Derby at hollywood studios i always do and i love it, they sometimes have special dishes for that night.
5 :
I have never had a huge problem with getting to the hotel in a reasonable amount of time via magic express. Then again I never traveled on New Years Eve. Seems like the lines won't really be too long for the Magical Express since everyone will mostly likely be at the parks (since they say it will be SO FULL). Seriously though, I really can't imagine that the park would be that full to the point you can't even get in with your wife.
