In early December of 2024 we returned to Walt Disney World during the holidays for the first time since 2019. Thanks to a special offer, our 4-day park tickets included Park Hopper for free, allowing flexibility to both see everything and to better utilize the new Lightning Lane Multi-Pass system.

EPCOT

Magic Kingdom

Jungle Cruise has always been one of our favorite rides, and the transformation to the “Jingle Cruise” with the holiday-related decorations and puns from our captain was a fun change. 

Mickey’s Merry Christmas Party, a ticketed event outside of regular park hours was offered on select evenings. The big draws to the event were the Character meet and greets, Mickey’s Once Upon a Christmas Parade and Minnie’s Wonderful Christmastime Fireworks Show. While we didn’t book this event, we did reserve a table at ‘Ohana at Disney’s Polynesian Resort to see the show from across the Lagoon. While the park is always a more immersive option for any projections and fireworks show, many of the restaurants around the monorail resorts play the music from the show in the dining room to coordinate with the pyrotechnics. Daytime visitors on select days during the week of Christmas will also be able to see Mickey’s Once Upon a Christmas Parade without an upgraded evening event ticket. 

Animal Kingdom

We were also thankful to have one last chance to see the retro décor and Christmas themed character meet and greets in DinoLand USA before its closing in early 2025.

An hour in the park after sunset gave us time to also walk through the Marrakesh Market, decorated with lighted lanterns, and to see the winter-themed projections on the Tree of Life, both from the Asia section of the park and the entrance area. 

While not holiday-related, the extra hours also allowed us to ride Flight of Passage with just a 45-minute standby. In past years, we had always booked an Individual Lighting Lane, so it was our first time in the queue. We used the Disney Play App to pass the time. The game was interactive with the ride’s story and queue theming and gave the option for all members of our family to play along.

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Hollywood Studios

The bulk of the holiday attractions were in the evening, with projections on the Tower of Terror and the “Jingle Jingle Bam” show on the Hollywood Theater. 

We unintentionally ended up with a pretty epic Christmas Card Photo when we found the PhotoPass Photographer offering Light Saber portraits in Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge.

Using the Multi-Pass Lighting Lane System

• Day 1-  Flight to Orlando in AM, Animal Kingdom PM
  Even without Lighting Lanes we were able to ride our top choices, the Kilimanjaro Safari (30-minute standby wait) and Flight of Passage (45-minute standby wait), during our 4-hour visit.

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• Day 2- Magic Kingdom AM, Park hop to EPCOT for Candlelight Processional Dining Package, Park hop back to Magic Kingdom (this was the only night we could see the park at night due to the special events on Friday/Sunday). At 7am we also entered the virtual queue for Tiana’s Bayou Adventure and our ZONE 45 boarding time was at 1pm.

  Magic Kingdom Rope Drop: Rode standby rides (in order) with little to no wait 7:30am-10am- Peter Pan’s Flight, Astro Orbiter, Space Mountain, The Barnstormer Dumbo the Flying Elephant, Magic Carpets of Aladdin, and Pirates of the Caribbean.

  Lightning Lanes Pre-book selections: Haunted Mansion, Jingle Cruise, Adventures of  Winnie the Pooh. Lightning Lane additional selections at EPCOT- Living with the Land, Soarin’ Around the World. After these we booked Big Thunder Mountain for when we returned to Magic Kingdom at 8pm. We easily could have booked most rides at EPCOT and Magic Kingdom, with the exceptions of Remy’s Rataoullie Adventure, Frozen Ever After (Test Track was closed)

  
  

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• Day 3- Animal Kingdom to Hollywood Studios to Magic Kingdom to EPCOT to Hollywood Studios

  Lightning Lane Pre-book selections were all for Hollywood Studios so we could ride Slinky Dog Dash (SDD). Because we were park hopping, we chose a late evening time for SDD, and chose two rides to “use up” first thing in the morning in order to select new rides at other parks. I also went to Animal Kingdom from 9am-10am to ride Dinosaur before its permanent closure in 2025, and Expedition Everest. At Magic Kingdom we picked up Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin and ‘it’s a small world’ as Lighting Lanes, and waited the 45-minute standby for Seven Dwarfs Mine Train. We could have selected more rides, but instead chose to focus on more holiday-themed offerings through the parks (aside from fitting in an 8pm Tower of Terror)

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• Day 4- EPCOT rope drop to finish the Olaf’s Holiday Adventure scavenger hunt, Park hop to Magic Kingdom until PM flight.

  Our highlight of the short day in Magic Kingdom was the revamped Country Bears Show. I won’t give too much away, but our favorite characters were still there, they had just updated their song catalog.
  
  

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