Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party is a special ticket event at Disney’s Magic Kingdom and is one of my favorites events at Walt Disney World. It ranks right up there with Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party. Those are my 2 favorite events that take place at Walt Disney World. I love these special ticket events because the wait times are much lower for rides, you can meet certain characters that wouldn’t usually be out during a regular park day day, it features exclusive fireworks, a parade complete with snowfall on Main Street, a great stage show, and other holiday-themed entertainment (plus unlimited cookies and hot chocolate!).

Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party takes place from 7:00 PM to midnight select nights in November and then in December up through December 22nd.  Advance purchase prices for party tickets range from $99 to $139 for adults, with each date being $5 less for children. These tickets can be added on to your Disney vacation but will be a separate purchase from your vacation package if you have included standard park tickets and a resort stay in your package. Remember, the closer you get to Christmas, the more expensive your tickets are going to be. There are discounts for Annual Passholders and DVC members for these tickets.

So let’s talk about some of the awesome details of this event:

FIREWORKS:

New this year to Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party is a replacement for the Holiday Wishes fireworks show. The new Minnie’s Wonderful Christmastime Fireworks show will be hosted by Minnie Mouse. This new fireworks display will celebrate the magic of Christmas with holiday songs featuring “Joy to the World” and “Deck the Halls” to “Up on the House-Top” and “We Wish You A Merry Christmas.” The music in Minnie’s Wonderful Christmastime Fireworks show will focus on moments of home and family, as well as the holiday season before the always incredible finale. Walt Disney World is also advertising that the new fireworks “can be enjoyed across the park!” which means that there will be projections in other areas for you to see, which is new for Walt Disney World. This show is entirely new this year, so it will be fun to see how different it is from the old Holiday Wishes fireworks show.

  

PARADE:

Along with the fireworks being one of my favorites of this party, Mickey’s Once Upon A Christmastime Parade is absolutely awesome. It has marching toy soldiers, dancing reindeer and gingerbread men, and also features an appearance by Santa Clause! The floats are so fun and even feature your character favorites like  Chip and Dale, Mickey & Minnie all dressed in their holiday costumes.  One of the best places to watch the parade will, of course, be on Main Street thanks to the “snow” (more like SNOAP- Think fake snow and soap) that falls during the parade. Nowhere other than this location can really compare to watching the parade from here, but just know you will need to find a spot about an hour or hour and a half before the parade if you plan to sit on Main Street.

This parade steps off in Frontierland, so if you are ok with not sitting on Main Street, I like to find a seat near Peco Bills and get a front-row view of the parade. It’s not Main Street, but I still love the experience from here. I still get my seat about an hour before, just so that I know I will have a good view.

After December 22, the standard daytime parade in the Magic Kingdom becomes Mickey’s Once Upon a Christmastime Parade, so if you can’t make it to the party and are visiting Disney World during Christmas, you will see this parade during the day.

PARTY EXCLUSIVE FOOD AND DRINKS:

Magic Kingdom has a large lineup of Christmas snacks and desserts, which are available for purchase during Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party. Some items are also available only during the event. These include the infamous Yule Log, Red Velvet Zero Waffles, and the Holiday Burger.  Cookies, hot cocoa, and other holiday refreshments come as part of your special event ticket for the party and you can find stations to get these all over the park, along with different cookies served at each of them.

ENTERTAINMENT:

A variety of entertainment is offered during the party. This includes:

A Totally Tomorrowland Christmas – A stage show in Tomorrowland focusing on Stitch’s efforts to track and capture Santa Claus, with appearances by Buzz Lightyear, Mike Wazowski, and human singers and dancers.

The Edge Effect – Taking the same stage as A Totally Tomorrowland Christmas, the Edge Effect is an a capella group that appears 4 times nightly singing Christmas music.

Mickey’s Most Merriest Celebration Stage Show – This show replaced the Celebrate the Season show a couple of years ago. The theme of the Mickey’s Most Merriest Celebration is that it’s days before Christmas, and Mickey throws a Christmas party at his house, inviting all of his friends, who sing Christmas Carols before the show and features an awesome finale. This show is really popular so, I recommend watching one of the earlier shows from a distance and then returning for the last showing of Mickey’s Most Merriest Celebration. Not only will you have the lowest crowds for that show, but you’ll also “extend” the party beyond its midnight end time!

Character Dance Parties – There are usually two of these, with one in Cosmic Ray’s Starlight Cafe and one in Storybook Circus.

Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom – There is usually an exclusive Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom card that guests can pick up for free during the party.

CHARACTER MEET & GREETS

Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party features a mix of party-exclusive characters, party-exclusive costumes on regular characters, and regular characters. Wait times for these meet & greets vary. One of the highest wait times will, of course, be Jack Skellington in his “Sandy Claws” attire and Sally, which are the most popular. Their meet and greet is located in Town Square Theater, and if you want to do it, you should get in line early, well before the party even starts. Jack and Sally typically start meeting shortly after the unofficial start of Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party (typically between 4:30 and 5:00 p.m.), and only guests who already have their wristbands may line up to meet them. During the middle of Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party, you can expect to wait 2+ hours for Sandy Claws and Sally, so get there early and do this first.

The other big meet & greet of the event is the Seven Dwarfs. The Seven Dwarfs appear in Storybook Circus at Pete’s Silly Side Show. If you want to meet both the 7 Dwarfs AND Jack Skellington, you’re going to spend about half of your Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party waiting in those two character lines, so you’ll need to decide if you want to visit both or one or the other.

Other characters who are not exclusive to Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party can still be found wearing their holiday outfits meet outside in Storybook Circus.

TWO SPECIAL ADMISSION OFFERINGS TO MICKEY’S VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS PARTY:

Fireworks Holiday Dessert Party at Tomorrowland Terrace

The dessert party includes a fireworks viewing area, a dessert, and a non-alcoholic drink buffet. It does not include admission to Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party, which is to be purchased separately. (This means you’re paying once for the party, AND once for the dessert party.) The dessert party also does not include parade viewing. The price is steep, so I wouldn’t recommend this for the Christmas Party. The cost is $84 per adult or $50 for children ages 3-9. However, the fireworks dessert party is sometimes offered on nights that are not a party night, so this may be something you want to do during that time.

Tony’s Most Merriest Town Square Party

This is the exact same idea as the fireworks dessert party, but with food and drinks at Tony’s Town Square Restaurant, followed by reserved parade viewing for the 11 p.m. parade.This costs $99 per person on top of the cost of your party ticket and includes appetizers and desserts, plus complimentary beer, wine, and non-alcoholic beverages. It also extends beyond the normal end-time of Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party, running until 12:30 a.m. so you do get a little bit more for your money and you don’t have to worry about locking in a parade viewing location so early during the party because you will already have one since it is reserved through the Town Square Party. This one I might recommend because I love the parade so much and you know you are getting a great spot on Main Street to watch the parade.

OVERALL REVIEW:

I absolutely love the Christmas Party.  Magic Kingdom gets decked out for the party, with cool decorations, snow, and holiday-themed background music. Yes, the party is expensive, but if you can afford to do it at least once, I would highly recommend it just to get to experience it.  Do I think it is worth it? Of course, because I love Christmas! What it really comes down to is whether you really want to do it. I love the parade, the fireworks, and just the overall mood during the party, but it’s really a personal decision.

What I always recommend to my clients is to skip purchasing a park ticket for the morning of the Christmas party and schedule a character breakfast or somewhere fun for that morning. Visit Disney Springs, or enjoy time at the resort pool until the early afternoon before the party begins. Even though the event doesn’t officially start until 7 PM, you can enter Magic Kingdom at 4 PM with your park ticket and enjoy 3 extra hours before the party even starts. You can even sneak in some fast pass reservations too, which helps make the value of the party ticket worth it.

With all of that said, if Christmas celebrations appeal to you, Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party is an awesome event at Walt Disney World. If you’ve never been to the party, love Christmas, and aren’t wanting to deal with those Christmas-week crowds, it is definitely for you, and an event I’d still recommend if your budget allows. If you have any questions about the party or anything Disney, I’m happy to answer!

If you are thinking about visiting during this holiday season, send me an e-mail! I would be happy to help you plan your trip at no cost to you! Molly@MarvelousMouseTravels.com

Love and Travel Dust,

Molly