Christmas Week next year (2020)

[jd12]

Hi all,

We already booked our Christmas Week trip for next year (Dec 26 2020 - Jan 2 2021) because of almost 50% off plane rates.

We would like to submit our initial (but elaborate) plan to get your comments.

For each trip, we make a exhaustive list of our priorities. Forgive us in advance for the length of this one. Our general priorities are Holiday exclusives and then new attractions/things we did not try yet.

P1 New Year’s Eve Special Evening - Magic (Dec 30 or 31)
P2 Story Book Dining
P3 Jingle Bell, Jingle BAM! - Studios
P4 Candlelight Processional - Epcot
P5 Sunset Seasons Greetings - Studios
P6 Ratatouille - Epcot
P7 Mickey's Runaway Railway - Studios
P8 Epcot Festival of the Holidays
P9 Minnie’s Wonderful Christmastime Fireworks - Magic (extra before 30-31)
P10 Mickey‘s Once Upon A Christmastime Parade - Magic (extra before 30-31)
P11 Deluxe Hotels Decorations
P12 Disney Springs Decorations
P13 Star Wars Rise of the Resistance - Studios
(I know it's far but I'm the only true fan in the family)
P14 Star Wars Smugler's Run - Studios (same comment)
P15 Flight of Passage - Animal (twice despite not new for us)
P16 Frozen Holiday Wish - Magic (extra before 30-31)
P17 Slinky Dog Dash - Studios (not new)
P18 Seven Dwarfs Mine Train - Magic (not new)
P19 Epcot HarmonioUS
P20 Last night at Magic
P21 Beauty and the Beast Sing-Along in France - Epcot

We will stop for now, but the list could still be a little longer.

Here's our plan so far:
Note that we should do much more than what we list here.

Dec 26
AM Flight
Hotel lunch

Hope to get to Epcot by 2PM
Ratatouille (with FP+?) P6
Festival of the Holidays Some of P8
Dinner on the fly
Candlelight Processional (only peek from behind) P4
Sleep early max 10 PM

Dec 27
Studios AM Extra Magic Hour
Rope Drop Rise of the Resistance or Smugler's Run P13 or P14
Toy Story Mania and others
Slinky Dog Dash (with FP+) P17
Lunch Docking Bay 7
Look around Galaxy's Edge

Hotel PM break

Dinner Story Book Dining around 4-5 PM P2
Wilderness Lodge Decorations P11
Magic PM
Minnie’s Wonderful Christmastime Fireworks 10 PM P9

Dec 28
Animal AM Extra Magic Hour
Rope Drop Flight of Passage P15
Other attractions
Second time Flight of Passage (with FP+) P15
Lunch Satu'li Canteen

Hotel PM break

Epcot PM
Festival of the Holidays complete P8
Table Service Dinner?
Beauty and the Beast Sing-Along in France P21
Epcot HarmonioUS 9:30PM P19

Dec 29
Magic AM Later
Mickey‘s Once Upon A Christmastime Parade 12 PM P10

Studios PM
Other Star Wars Ride (FP+?) P14 or P13
Mickey's Runaway Railway (FP+?) P7
Sunset Seasons Greetings P5
Jingle Bell, Jingle BAM! 10PM P3

Dec 30
1900 Park Fare Brunch
Grand Floridian Decorations P11
Magic
Seven Dwarfs Mine Train (with FP+) P18
Patiently wait
Early dinner 4PM
New Year’s Eve Special Evening P1

Dec 31
Disney Springs AM
Decorations P12
Lunch

Studios PM
Slinky Dog Dash (with FP+) P17
Missed rides (FP+?)
Sunset Seasons Greetings P5
Jingle Bell, Jingle BAM! 6:30PM P3
Fantasmic! 9PM
Star Wars Fireworks 12AM

Jan 1
Animal AM
Flight of Passage (with FP+) P15
Other attractions

Hotel PM break + Prepare luggage

Magic PM Extra Maic Hour x2
Happily Ever After 8PM
Last night at Magic P20

Jan 2
AM Flight

Note that P16 is not scheduled yet and we don’t see how it could fit (maybe on 27 if we don’t get ADR for Story Book Dining).

Questions

1- We have decided to go to Magic on Dec 30 instead of Dec 31 because options are not available at other parks on Dec 30. We already went to Magic on Dec 31 a few years back. Is this our optimal choice?

2- Studios seems like a better option than Epcot or Animal on Dec 31?

3- Is it realistic to get ADR for Story Book Dining on Dec 27 (second day of trip)? Would Jan 1 (last day) be a better option? We have a feeling this is the one that could mostly change our plans, but we will have time to adjust after ADR 180+ days out.

4-How feasible is our FP+ plan? FoP 28 and/or 1 + SDD 27 and 31 + 7DMT 30 + New rides

5-We are still debating if we should switch our Dec-29 Magic visit for Epcot? Will Festival of the Holidays consume that much time? We are not so much into special food but surely will appreciate everything else.


Don’t worry, we have a couple days to rest after that “vacation”.

Hope this post is not too long. Your comments will be greatly welcomed!

Thanks
JD

 

[nickys]

I know you’re assuming things will be scheduled pretty much as they are this year, which is of course subject to change.

There is no way though to tell what happens to FP tiers at DHS. And if things stay as they are now, Slinky at 60+1 is slim, even FOP for 60+2/3.

Story Book Dining is incredibly hard to get right now, difficult to tell what will happen for next year. But to make your planning easier, I would assume you won’t be able to get it at 180+1, however New Year could be equally hard.

My view is you have a lot on your first DHS day, unless you go off and explore GE on your own.

To see all the Festival of the Holidays at Epcot is difficult to schedule. I did a Touring Plans plan to try and see if it was possible to do them all in one day - it was just about possible from 11am to just after 7pm, but not with CP and dinner as well. The idea of splitting it is a good one, but the actual timings of each performance won’t be known until much closer. But you will definitely need two days to see all of them.

 

[jd12]

Many thanks for the quick and thorough reply!

So, we need to figure out more time at Epcot. Problem because of a lot of things to do after 11am everywhere.

For DHS, we will try to split things up between our 3 visits. Let's hope FP for the new rides (one or both Star Wars and MRR) can give us some time and maybe free up availability at SDD a little. If not, we will focus more on new rides on EMH day.

Should we sacrifice our early Animal visit (on 28th because Epcot FoH ends on 30th)? We already did FoP a couple times and it will still be there on our next trip. But a morning does not do us a lot of good for Epcot needed only after 11am. We also assumed Animal at night was not a must for the Holidays, is this a mistake?

We hesitate on cutting some Magic visits because it's our favourite park and Holiday enhancements are so great there.

Think we'll try to book Story Book Dining first, decide on Magic 30 or 31 and work the rest of the schedule around that. We should be very flexible on meals. Booking too many ADRs and canceling some later is an option. SDD and FoP (if we keep it) should also be as late as possible in the trip.

Thanks again and keep the good comments coming!

 

[nickys]

Many thanks for the quick and thorough reply!

So, we need to figure out more time at Epcot. Problem because of a lot of things to do after 11am everywhere.

For DHS, we will try to split things up between our 3 visits. Let's hope FP for the new rides (one or both Star Wars and MRR) can give us some time and maybe free up availability at SDD a little. If not, we will focus more on new rides on EMH day.

Should we sacrifice our early Animal visit (on 28th because Epcot FoH ends on 30th)? We already did FoP a couple times and it will still be there on our next trip. But a morning does not do us a lot of good for Epcot needed only after 11am. We also assumed Animal at night was not a must for the Holidays, is this a mistake?

We hesitate on cutting some Magic visits because it's our favourite park and Holiday enhancements are so great there.

Think we'll try to book Story Book Dining first, decide on Magic 30 or 31 and work the rest of the schedule around that. We should be very flexible on meals. Booking too many ADRs and canceling some later is an option. SDD and FoP (if we keep it) should also be as late as possible in the trip.

Thanks again and keep the good comments coming!

Animal Kingdom this year has had lots of Holiday additions, I would give yourselves an evening there if you can, as it looks impressive in the reports I’ve seen.