According to USA today, Disney World parks no is longer considered to have one of the best Christmas celebrations compared to other theme parks. It doesn’t even make the top. 10 my husband daughter and I went to one of the top 10 to see how it compared to this year’s Mickey’s merriest Christmas party.
Six Flags great adventure was rated 7th best theme park holiday event, and luckily for us we happen to live an hour away from there and have season passes. I’m not going to lie, Six Flags is by far my least favorite theme park. It doesn’t even compare to the overall atmosphere of disney by far. I am definitely biased towards Disney in almost every way. But when we walked through Magic Kingdom gates for our Mickey’s merriest party during our honeymoon this year, I was very disappointed in the lack of holiday decoration.
After all, Magic Kingdom is supposed to be the happiest place on earth, with the most beautiful Christmas decorations. if we weren’t on main street the holiday decorations were almost nonexistent. I would’ve liked to have seen more decorations and Christmas lights on the buildings and right entrances.
My husband and I would have to write our Mickey’s merriest party at a 4/10. The highlight of the party was definitely the fireworks. We could’ve done without seeing the shows and the character meet and greets had extremely long lines and were missing several characters that were promised (i was disappointed we didnt see flynn ryder.) it was almost impossible to get memory maker photos due to the long lines. As soon as we walked into the park, we walked right into a line to get a picture in front of the giant Christmas tree. We were very underwhelmed when we noticed that they were only taking pictures of the bottom part of the tree.
we were also disappointed in the lack of CM knowledge of the party. We had asked several questions that should’ve been easy to answer, such as where Jack and Sally were and where we could find the Apple cider because my husband can’t have hot chocolate. None of the CM we had asked knew these answers. One of the CM finally told us that a lot of the people work in the party or not Magic Kingdom employees, but they signed up to work the party so that they could experience it for themselves. We completely understand why someone would want to sign up for this party, but we feel that Disney should’ve trained their employees to know where things were before the party.
After picking up our ornaments, we walked towards frontierland to ride big thunder mountain. We already had a return time of 4:45pm and were let on. As we walked off, we immediately went to get a return time for splash mountain. We had to wait a bit longer for that ride, so we decided to grab some food before the carts began closing.
My husband had been dreaming about the giant turkey leg since our last trip. We finally curbed his craving and it was a rather tasty turkey leg. He gave it an 8/10 which is high praise from him.
Finally it was time to ride splash mountain, so we began the walk towards frontier land. Of course, we ran into a few bumps in the road. My husband and I got stuck on several rides during the party. Splash Mountain for 45 minutes and haunted mansion right after that For another 15. Not only was it frustrating because we had a limited amount of time to do everything we wanted to, but because that will be the last time we ever rode splash Mountain. when we finally got off the ride, none of the employees even acknowledged that any of these guests who were walking off the ride were stuck. No apology. No explanation.
We took a break from the rides to try to meet some of the characters and get some of the free hot chocolate and cookies. Both were decent, but there were still decent sized lines to get the snacks . A couple weeks before the party, the Disney app had stated that Disney was going to be giving popcorn, drinks, and other Disney snacks, in addition to the cookies and hot chocolate. I tried not to get my hopes up when I heard that, but it was still disappointing to see that Disney had taken that information down after a couple of days before the first party. It was definitely underwhelming to get cookies and hot chocolate after having party goers squealing with joy when they heard theyd have more options. During the first party of the year , there were even guests who hadnt realized those items were no longer included. When they ordered the snacks and were charged, CM would actually state there was never info on free snacks on the site. I personally think it was bad business for them to pretend their media mistake hadnt happened and it certainly lowered the magic scale for some.
It definitely felt as though the party was not up to Disney ‘s normal standards. Even compared to a normal day at magic kingdom, Mickey’s merriest couldnt compare. There was not enough to do that was party specific to make the night worth it. We know that there are many people who do not share this opinion of Mickey’s merriest and who will continue to love it for nostalgic reasons, but with rising prices and lower standards we felt we didnt get what we paid for.
The Main Street area was the most decorated area in the parks, and without the Christmas decorations and lights on the castle, the decorations were lacking. This was our first time to Disney World during Christmas and felt that Disney did not meet the typical Disney standards for a holiday party.
Meanwhile, the six flags holiday in the parks event was free for us to get in to as annual pass holders. My expectations were not high, as I am not a fan of the six flags theme park, But I will admit that the annual passes are worthwhile money wise for events like this where you get to do holiday activities with your family.
When we first arrived in the park, you can see that there was plenty of decorations to go around. We stopped at a restaurant to make the most out of the $10 refillable hot chocolate mug, and then began to make our way throughout the park. It is definitely much colder in New Jersey than it is in Florida this time of year and we were grateful to see that there were fire pits located throughout the park. They also offered s’mores that you could create yourself for an additional charge.
The park is open from 1 PM to 9 PM. At 3 PM, most of the highly sought after rides were walk on. Dan was able to ride the new joker within five minutes of getting in line. There are not as many children’s rides at six flags, but Aubree was still able to enjoy herself. Six flags was not crowded. Even during peak hours, most rides only had a 10-15 minute wait. The rides might not have been up to Disney standard, but none of them had broken down during our trip.
Dan and Aubree began to get hungry around 4 PM, so we walked around in search of some thing for them to eat. Aubree originally wanted a hotdog, but settled for a slice of pizza. We might not have been at Disney, but we might as well have been for the prices that we were seeing for meals. $15.99 for a slice of pizza that our daughter didn’t even want to eat after the first bite. Dan got Lucky by picking a burger joint and had a $20 fast food burger. In terms of food, Disney wins by a long shot. We recommend packing food ahead of time, as there are multiple fast food, restaurants, and a Wawa located right outside the park entrance.
It began to get dark around 5 PM, and we were able to see the extent of Christmas decor throughout the parks. I have to admit, Six Flags had a more festive feel compared to Disney. There were trees lit up in Lights throughout the parks, bonfires on each street, make your own s’mores with purchase, storytime with Mrs. Claus, hot chocolate, stands with unlimited hot chocolate mugs for purchase. We even noticed some snow fall on their version of Main Street next to their Christmas tree. There was no questioning that this was a holiday event.
I am a Disney girl through and through, but when it comes to wanting a Christmas theme park experience complete with festive lights and activities, I have to admit that Six Flags did all right. Disney has been at the top for so long that they have started to get comfortable with their reputation. The Christmas party special ticketed event was definitely not worth the price we paid.
While Disney is still higher quality theme park in my opinion, we did not have to pay an additional $350 just to enter the park for Six Flags holiday party. Just in cost alone, I expected much more from Disney and they dropped the ball. In order to feel that it is a true Disney Christmas experience, Disney would need to come up with a way to decorate the entire park with Christmas lights and have more activities to offer than the fireworks, parade, and several quick shows (while most of these offerings were themed towards Christmas, it is still some thing offered year-round without Christmas theming). I would love to see them decorate some trees and buildings with lights, lighten party attendance a smidge, train their employees who sign up to work a party beforehand and work on the ride maintenance again to get back up to Disney standard. If they were able to do that, I would consider giving Mickey’s merriest christmas party a shot again.
Comments