Epcot New Year’s Eve Report
We had the chance to ring in the New Year at Walt Disney World, and spent the evening at Epcot. In this report, we’ll share our thoughts and photos from the experience, and some helpful planning advice for anyone else debating between Magic Kingdom and Epcot for New Year’s Eve.
Prior to this, it had been a while since we’ve done New Year’s Eve at Walt Disney World. We really enjoyed our last NYE experience, but everything is more expensive this time of year and discounts are scarce. However, I really like this time of year. We follow and recommend the strategy outlined in our Tips for Surviving New Year’s Eve at Walt Disney World post: getting up to see sunrise in Magic Kingdom (although it was foggy several mornings this year), napping midday, and then staying out super late.
From our perspective, Epcot is the best park for New Year’s Eve. Animal Kingdom closes early, so it’s a non-factor (although it can be a good spot to start your day to avoid crowds), and Disney’s Hollywood Studios doesn’t do much of anything special, so it’s also out. That leaves us with Epcot v. Magic Kingdom for New Year’s Eve.
This is really easier than you might think. Magic Kingdom does its New Year’s Eve celebration on two nights–December 30th and 31st. There’s no material difference between the two in terms of entertainment, just no noisemakers and hats on New Year’s Eve (Eve). In other words, doing Magic Kingdom the night before and Epcot on New Year’s Eve is the most logical approach if you want to see both. (Click here to read about our New Year’s Eve (Eve) Magic Kingdom experience.)
All things being equal, Epcot also has the best party atmosphere for New Year’s Eve. At least, for adults without children. We don’t drink much anymore, and even if we did, we wouldn’t have imbibed on NYE–if only because lines for booze and bathrooms were equally outrageous. I also don’t really dance. At least, not publicly–no one should be subjected to seeing that.
For the most part, our actual experience at Epcot on New Year’s Eve was uneventful. We started with lunch at Ale & Compass Restaurant in Yacht Club, which was fine (a lot of people love this place, but I still don’t fully get the appeal).
After that, we headed into the park and immediately went to the Imagination DVC Lounge, spending about 30 minutes there before it started to really fill up.
After the Imagination Lounge, we went on Living with the Land to see its holiday “overlay” one last time. At this point, it was one of the few attractions with a posted wait of under an hour.
We had more FastPass+ to use at Epcot, but decided to bail on them. Quite literally–we got into the Soarin’ return line and it was so backed up that we figured it wasn’t worth the wait. We’re fortunate that we’ve done Soarin’ a lot and will ample opportunities to do it pretty much whenever, so we’re definitely in a unique position.
Personally, I think our perspective is almost necessary for midday visits during Christmas week and New Year’s Eve.
Maybe we’re just spoiled by being repeat visitors, but I’d have a really hard time justifying over an hour for the vast majority of attractions.
New Year’s Eve is a “being there” type of experience. It’s best not to have a set agenda; just enjoy the ambiance and have fun with it.
This is especially true at night when the dance parties get going and the frustration hanging in the air earlier in the day gives way to a sense of alcohol-tinged gaiety. (Think of this as the sweet spot before the light buzzes transform to sloppiness.)
Even though I wasn’t dancing or drinking, it was fun to just walk around and witness the dance parties at arm’s length. About the only one that didn’t have a palpable energy was the “Silent Groove” dance party behind Spaceship Earth.
It was really odd to walk through these dance parties, all of which were imbued with a clear sense of joviality, and then walk to the front of Spaceship Earth. Even after 10 p.m., the ride had a posted wait of 90 minutes, and everyone in line just looked miserable.
I love Spaceship Earth, but I cannot fathom waiting in line over an hour for it and missing the New Year’s fireworks for it.
I can understand not realizing the parks are very busy on New Year’s Eve, but at some point you’ve gotta cut your losses and make lemonade out of lemons.
Rather than doing attractions, we spent most of our afternoon and evening camping out for IllumiNations. Our friends Mark, Ben, Morgan, Jeff, Don, and Cory do this every year, and we joined them for the first time. I think we spent a little over 6 hours doing this.
That might seem unpleasant, but it was actually pretty great. The entire time, we were away from crowds, and we mostly just sat around and chatted. We all had the chance to go out into the park in rotations, and everyone else did a table service dinner. Sarah and I were going to do Electric Umbrella, but the line was too long so we just didn’t eat dinner, period.
We were at the back of the normal IllumiNations FastPass+ area with no one behind us, and pretty much everyone in this viewing area was sitting on a blanket for the duration. They made everyone stand a little after 11 p.m., but for several hours before that, it was nice and relaxed.
Thanks to good company and a nice location with views of literally every Epcot dance party in the distance, this was a really fun and memorable experience. Probably not how you’d want to spend the night if you’re on a time-limited vacation, but for us, it wasn’t much different than hanging out at a friend’s house for New Year’s Eve…just a different venue.
As for the Global Countdown to New Year’s IllumiNations tag, it was fantastic. I go back and forth as to whether I prefer Fantasy in the Sky or Global Countdown, and it’s really tough to choose.
Global Countdown seems like the more fitting way to ring in the New Year, and it’s quintessential EPCOT Center, so there’s that. Fantasy in the Sky is more immersive and is also a delightful Magic Kingdom throwback, in its own way. They’re definitely the two best fireworks shows at Walt Disney World.
The Times Guide indicated that it’d be the final year for the IllumiNations Global Countdown to New Year, which is true from the perspective that it definitely won’t include IllumiNations next year.
However, if rumors we’ve heard about the interim Epcot Forever shows are accurate, there’s no reason Global Countdown couldn’t still go next year (albeit in slightly modified form). Here’s hoping that’s the case.
As for the dance parties, the fire and dragon in China was my favorite. Dragons are a common component of Chinese New Year, which is celebrated per the traditional Chinese calendar (in other words: not on New Year’s Eve). In China, dragons are a national icon symbolizing good fortune and bright future.
In Walt Disney World, dragons seem to symbolize rave music and fireballs. Nevertheless, it’s really cool to see and stand under the dragon with huge flames rising on all sides.
Walking around Epcot was surprisingly easy on New Year’s Eve. Crowd control was exceptional, with left/right lanes on the ground, and a ton of Cast Members directing traffic.
One of my biggest pet peeves about Walt Disney World guests is that too many have, seemingly, never walked in public before. As crowds decrease, guests just find exciting new ways to take up more space and loiter in walkways. Not so on NYE, when Cast Members were all over to make sure that people walked as socialized humans should.
Park cleanliness was an issue at Epcot on New Year’s Eve. Part of this is unavoidable. Restrooms have perpetual lines, people camp out in areas and leave their trash beyond, and there are simply a lot of people behaving badly.
To Disney’s credit, we did see multiple managers cleaning up post-IllumiNations, but that struck us as too little, too late given the condition of the park for hours prior to that.
Throughout the afternoon and evening, there were trash cans overflowing and men’s restrooms with no lines that smelled foul by mid-afternoon.
More to the point, this is an issue that has been percolating for a while, even on days that aren’t feeling the same crush of crowds. It’s a problem quite often, and was just an amplified one on New Year’s Eve.
It would be easy to dismiss this as guests being more disrespectful than they used to be, and that plays a part, no doubt. We also strongly suspect that Disney’s custodial crew is being spread too thin; that this is yet another corner being cut.
We’ve seen a lot of tweets about this recently, including several replies from the @WDWToday account encouraging guests to report this to Cast Members.
That’d be an acceptable response if this were an incredibly rare anomaly, but it isn’t. Moreover, it shouldn’t be the role of consumers to report when trash cans need to be emptied (especially since the things are equipped with sensors that serve that same function).
Walt Disney World needs to do better and live up to its own standards and reputations when it comes to cleanliness and maintenance. They’re charging premium prices–there’s no excuse for delivering anything short of a premium experience.
That rant aside, we had an exceptional time at Epcot on New Year’s Eve. It was a pleasant day with friends, and the tastes of the more raucous party atmosphere that we had gave it a fun energy. I definitely would not have felt the same way if we had small children or came with the priority of experiencing attractions, but with our expectations in check and our only priority being the fireworks, it was a great time.
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Your Thoughts
Have you done New Year’s Eve at Walt Disney World? Which park is your favorite? Thinking about doing a future NYE at Epcot or Magic Kingdom? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
We were at Epcot on Christmas and ended up staking out a picnic table near Germany that was right on the water around 8pm. It was a perfect spot and not a long wait. Husband and kids ran around the lands while I held down the table. A big crowd built up behind us later but we definitely had the best view.
We were there this year, too! We had so much fun. Crowds were crazy at times but we expected it. MK closed earlier in the day due to capacity so I am sure that added to the population at Epcot. I do think that Fantasy In The Sky at MK was the better show, however, the atmosphere at Epcot with all the entertainment added to the experience. I was surprisingly impressed with how Epcot handled the flow of walking traffic throughout the day….and was most impressed with the long line of charter buses waiting at the end of the evening to shuttle people to resorts. We were back in our room by 12:40! I would definitely do NYE at Epcot again!
Wow that’s horrendous! We did notice this year (we were there week of Christmas, but not for New Years) that the custodian crew seemed to be stretched too thin–certainly not drawing mickeys like they used to, a sad and palpable difference, though trash cans weren’t overrun yet. The buses had longer waits than years past (I work in the schools so we’re always there at peak time-Christmas and/or Easter, so I am comparing apples to apples so to speak).
We did Epcot for NYE in 2017. We took our 22 and 23 year old nephews. We all had a great time! It was VERY crowded, but we managed to have a dining reservation at Rose and Crown for dinner and stretched it out till midnight. Was an exceptional experience, glad we did it, but once was enough for me!
We (Me, Wife, 18 Y.O. Son, 17 Y.O. Daughter) also spent NYE at EPCOT this year. This was our first trip to Disney when it was decorated for Christmas. We loved it. Sure the crowd was hard to take sometimes but overall, it was worth it. We went to the park early and did all the non-countries part of the park before lunch. After a fantastic lunch at Le Cellier Steakhouse, we went back to the room for a mid-day rest. We returned to the park at 7 pm to visit the rest of the countries and begin the NYE celebration. The dance parties in China and Italy were the best in our opinion. We did not waste time sitting for a “good” spot to watch the fireworks and instead visited each country around the lagoon. When it was time for fireworks we were in the UK and just stopped and watched from there. It may not have been a prime spot but we could see and hear everything just fine. We saw a few drunk people here and there but most people were very polite and well-behaved. After midnight, we spent an hour or so dancing at the dance party near Spaceship Earth with the kids. It was so nice spending time with the kids doing something they love to do! We loved every minute of EPCOT at New Year’s Eve and would consider going back to do it again in a few years.
Quantity increases and quality decreases….just sayin.
We did Epcot in NYE this time too! We (5 adults) got into the park about 8:15 a.m., and we could go to Frozen Ever After in just 15 minutes! Then we did Imaginations in 5 minutes (when we got out of it the line was about 30 mins). We had our FastPass+ for Soarin, Mission Space and Spaceship Earth, between them we were just hanging around, trying the foot-long hot dog outside , meeting Baymax and waiting for Living with the Land (lowkey my fav thing about Epcot) could be less than 60 mins (it was crazy how the line could be 70 minutes and half an hour later was about 20 and 10 minutes later was back again in 60). Around 3:00 p.m. we decided to go back to the hotel (even though MK was already closed and afraid that the park would close) and came back around 8:00. We went through the parties, pretty awesome, my fav was in USA pavilion, great mxixng of maintream, latino and dance hits! My dad’s favorite was in the U.K with some rock songs (and a delightful peer cider). Italy was crowded! China, wow, amazing! We had 2-3 beers (expensive, 9.50 for a beer). We did the Gran Fiesta Tour (you know, we’re mexicans) and then we started to wait for the fireworks around 10:45 in a great spot near Mexico’s pavilion! We had our best NYE ever, you have to be prepared to knwo how the crowds will be. I would recommend to start your day way rope drop at the park, do the most attractions between 8-9:30, plan your FastPass+ since day 1 you can. Also, know that you will be hanging around between INSANE crowds, but try to go rest after 2:00 so you can enjoy at the night parties at its full. I certainly recommend going to Epcot in NYE, I would do it again! (Except if I’m bringing children)
Just got back from our very first trip to Disney World and we went during the week of Christmas Day thru New Years Eve. Your blog really helped me with our preparations. With all your crowd and cleanliness warnings, it really lowered our expectations and coming from NYC area, Disneyworld’s Busiest Time of The Year didn’t faze us a bit!
I’ve never been to Disney World on Christmas or New Year’s Eve and after reading about the crowds, the trash, the foul bathroom situation I will never go at that time. My dream is to go when there are no crowds and no lines but I think it’s an impossible dream! That said-I really enjoy reading your blog for all the great info.
We spent NYE at the Countdown to Midnight party and in the Ink & Paint club (which was a class act with amazing food choices ) at Contemporary Resort this year. Absolutely worth the money and a night to remember , we felt so special in the ink and paint club! Everything was Disney style attention to detail at its best with tons of cast members and chefs doting on us and all the guests were dressed to the nines and having a fun time! My kind of NYE. Then at 11:45 all went outside and saw MK fireworks right above us and they had private buses to take us back to Animal Kingdom Lodge with no wait !
Returned home to Canada on the 6th of January after a 10 day adventure at WDW with the family. There was six of us this year as my adult boys brought the girlfriends along. We stayed at the All Star Movies with 2 rooms. My wife and I in one and the younger folks in the other. We did the MK for NYE, arrived at the park at about nine a.m. , did our first 3 fast passes and we were able to some attractions we enjoy but not the most popular with everyone so the waits were not to bad. During the afternoon my youngest son and his GF were able to get us our hats and horns for the celebration. We went to the Crystal Palace for a buffet dinner with Pooh and the gang, and just enjoyed ourselves with a couple more rides, then around ten thirty we left the park and took the monorail to the Polynesian and the pool area was open so we sat there and enjoyed both layers of fireworks, the castle and the Seven Seas Lagoon. We were going to take the monorail back to the MK to catch our bus back to the hotel but my oldest son surprised with a MINIVAN Taxi order and we were back at the hotel before twelve thirty . Had a truly great trip
Returned home to Canada on the 6th of January after a 10 day adventure at WDW with the family. There was six of us this year as my adult boys brought the girlfriends along. We stayed at the All Star Movies with 2 rooms. My wife and I in one and the younger folks in the other. We did the MK for NYE, arrived at the park at about nine a.m. , did our first 3 fast passes and we were able to some attractions we enjoy but not the most popular with everyone so the waits were not to bad. During the afternoon my youngest son and his GF were able to get us our hats and horns for the celebration. We went to the Crystal Palace for a buffet dinner with Pooh and the gang, and just enjoyed ourselves with a couple more rides, then around ten thirty we left the park and took the monorail to the Polynesian and the pool area was open so we sat there and enjoyed both layers of fireworks, the castle and the Seven Seas Lagoon. We were going to take the monorail back to the MK to catch our bus back to the hotel but my oldest son surprised with a MINIVAN order and we were back at the hotel before twelve thirty . Had a truly great trip
We did Epcot for NYE last year. I would recommend it to anyone who likes to jump into the crowd (dance floor) but also likes to step away from it all for a few minutes. Lines earlier in the day are long. Soaring said it was a 180 minute wait but only took an hour to get through. We didn’t stay on property and found a quick way out of the parking lot. Getting us back to our hotel on International drive in 25 minutes flat. Even with that being said I would have preferred to stay at one of Disney’s hotels within walking distance of Epcot. The writer is correct. If you’ve been to Epcot multiple times (love it) and don’t mind crowds than Epcot for NYE is for you. If you’ve never been there and want to experience everything Epcot has to offer, wait till between a full week after Easter and mid-May to head there.
The custodial crew being spread too thin is an observation I had in all parks, especially Epcot and Magic Kingdom. The bus situation at Epcot on New Years was uncalled for. The line for Pop Century’s buses in the last corral extended all the way to the park. While all other resort bus lines were cleared out, our hotel’s guests were still waiting. We didn’t get back to our room until 3am!
This was our first trip to WDW at NYE. Your observations are spot on. We did not enter the park until after the first Illuminations when we heard many people left. We were pleasantly surprised with the crowd control at Epcot. We used the restrooms at Future World, so there was hardly any wait. We stood in line 15 minutes at the most for margaritas in Mexico. Never did we feel the crush of over crowded walkways as we have experienced on previous trips to Disneyland on the 4th of July or MK after the fireworks. We really enjoyed ringing in 2019 at Epcot and our favorite memory of NYE is meeting you and Sarah at Ale and Compass. #bucketlist You two are the best!
We were there on NYE and had an overall excellent experience. However, custodial services are spread much too thin and it’s too hard to find cast members let alone convince a CP to actually do something. After midnight, some guest threw up in our bus queue. Reported it to a cast, and an hour later, it still hadn’t been cleaned up. It also would have been helpful if buses actually responded to demand. There was no line for Fort Wilderness and it had four buses come before Saratoga, which was wrapped back around itself and obscuring several other queues, got their second.
Also, as pleasant as it is, the blankets and towels are really a problem that should be addressed before 11. We were trying to find a seat around 10, and there were many families of four – some of whom conviently knew just enough English to be rude – who were taking up enough space for 10-15 people. Very irritating. Ultimately got a great spot on the Italy bridges, but I thought EPCOT’s crowd operations were poor at best.
We did NYE in Epcot a few years ago (and MK the night before). I’m glad you had a good time, but it was definitely an experience I will not repeat. The fireworks were awesome, but the “alcohol tinged” dance parties were not. Drunk people stumbling about to techno music is not what I go to Disney for, so I’ll pass on having that experience again.
CM’s also didn’t open the extra exit pathways from World Showcase, resulting in a horrifying crush of people after the fireworks trying to get out. My wife happily goes into mosh pits at rock concerts, but swears she will never be caught in a crowd like that again!
We were at Disneyland for NYE instead this year. We went hiking instead of a park, went to bed early, and hit rope drop to very low crowds on New Years Day instead. Much more our cup of tea.
To me – there seems to be a bigger than ever gulf between “we have the luxury to come back” and the rest of the park goers. So the experience can’t be common. its great – and I myself have the luxury to do that if I wanted to at Disneyland – but it just seems like it’s a bit of our experience – not what the common tips should be. i don’t know – maybe reading in to it – but with the price increases in California, etc., it seems like these types of casual efforts on holidays will become less of a reality for majority of guests.
Crowd gridlock and the inability to do Anything without long waits Is Not Fun !
Having said that……….What Is The Point.
I just opened your New Year’s fortune cookie:
“Reading is key, and using the skill will unlock many of the great mysteries of life.”
So, master Zen……What makes you think Toms experience on New Yrs eve has anything to do with my expectations?
Mike,
You said what was the point with all the crowds and that it would not be fun. Tom showed several ways you could visit and have fun despite the crowds 😉
The crowd sizes are enough to deter me. Granted, I find the parks nearly crushingly crowded during the “off seasons” these days. This seems like a nightmare to me.