Talk to Me About New Years Eve!

[Didi8367]

My family (me, DH, DS-15, & DD-13) have decided to give ourselves the gift of Disneyland for Christmas (Woo-hoo!) and we’ll be at DLR on 12/30, 12/31, & 1/1.

We plan to spend NYE in Disneyland Park and do not plan to park hop. We plan to rope drop, purchase Genie+, and individual rides for all of us on ROTR. We’ve experienced NYE at WDW (Epcot 2015), so are familiar with maximum Disney crowds.

What I’m looking for is a general sense of what DLP feels like on NYE (beyond “crowded” obviously). What special things do they do? Does rope-dropping NYE help? Or is it packed every minute from open to close? Any tips or tricks anyone can share? Basically, if you’ve done Disneyland on NYE, I’d love to hear what your experience was like.

I’m asking because we were discouraged in ways large and small about spending NYE at Epcot, but we ended up having a blast. And, I fully believe that’s because we went in clear-eyed and with a plan. I’m hoping for the same outcome here.

Thanks in advance!

 

[gelatoni fan]

Historically, they have two showings of fireworks. One at 9PM for East Coast New Years and one at midnight for West Coast New Years. This show is NYE exclusive so you can't see it any other nights. Sometimes they also have celebrities come out and do the countdown. Starting mid afternoon, main street will start to get packed and by 7PM, it may be faster to walk from Adventureland to Tomorrowland through the back of the Fantasyland than through main street. Sometimes, they also give out little gifts for NYE.

DCA had a special version of World of Color that is NYE exclusive but that may not exist this year.

Sometimes, they also have dance parties on both sides but that will likely not happen this year.

Historically, crowds in the morning would actually be OK and DCA side is not bad for the holiday season given that everybody wants to be at Disneyland for the fireworks.

 

[foolish_mortals]

There is also a chance that fireworks could get cancelled due to high winds. Happened in 2018 and they announced it at all 10pm. On the upside a lot of people left and after that it was considerably less crowded and pretty nice.

 

[Malcon10t]

We have done NYE every year since 1999, except 2017/18 when we did Epcot and last year. Fireworks are great, but NYE can have a few issues such as 1. Rain, 2. Wind, and 3, Fog. We've had a blast with fireworks a couple years when they go off, and all you could see was the high fog change colors and the booms. But it was fun!!

 

[ParkHopper1]

The offerings each and every year seem to be getting less and less. A few years ago it was a freakin blast spending the last half of the day once dark hit checking out all the entertainment and parties between DL and DCA...last year we were bored waiting for midnight.

 

[mseyre]

We have done NYE twice. The first time the weather was rainy and cold which was fine for us Canadians but scared away locals. Which meant we had the run of the parks. Yes parks. We were able to park hop all day. I think that was 2017 maybe? We went over to DLR for the midnight fireworks at around 10:30 pm and got a great spot on Main Street.
We then went again for 2019 NYE. Much busier but high winds meant that the Fireworks were cancelled. We ended up bailing at about 10pm because it was just to busy. We went, got a good sleep and rope dropped for New Years Day instead and just plowed through everything as the morning was super quiet.

 

[Didi8367]

Thanks so much for all the replies so far. I appreciate the advance info.