How crazy is it really at the end of December?
 

I found out that I'm getting a bonus some time in the next few weeks. :cool1: All our bills are paid and we don't have any debt, so I'm thinking about blowing it on a surprise trip to WDW! The only problem is, the only time we'll both be able to go will be from December 26th until January 3rd. We've never been during this time but I understand it's seriously crowded. I'm not going to book until I find out for sure how much I'm getting, which will likely happen sometime around the first week of December. Do you think it will be possible to book onsite still? Are the parks packed from start to finish during this time frame? We've dealt with heavy crowds before and we've been to WDW quite a few times now, so I know we can handle it, but I'm just curious as to whether we're talking "turnaways at the gate" sort of crowds. :confused3 I would really like to stay onsite but we've got several options in mind for offsite too if we must. (unless of course they're all booked up too! :scared:)

Yes, this can and does happen during the dates you are considering. This is the busiest time of the year for all Orlando-area theme parks.

You will typically see manageable crowds for no more than the first hour or two of any park day. After that, it is wall-to-wall people for the rest of the day--crowds of biblical proportions.

Cra-

-zy!





;)

Seriously crazy.

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This crazy.

Just one example of how crazy It gets...You know the bridge in Magic Kingdom on the right going to Tomorrowland.It has to be at least 15 feet wide, at night it is a wall of people smoothed together like on the subway in rush hour.You literally baby step your way through most of park.We used to always go during holiday, than it just got to be too much, so we now go early December and get all same perks, just minus horrendous crowds.

Local here - everything everyone has said here is true. It's wall to wall, turn people away at the gate crazy.

I have done it all July 4th, NYE, Christmas Day. It still blows my mind every time.

You can come for "the experience" but you'll probably get a lot more done, spend a lot less money and have a more relaxing time in late winter or early spring.

Know your family. If they are upbeat have fun no matter what people? Consider. Maybe not? Try another time.

Good luck!

It's crazy. Very crazy. One day last year mk, ak and Hollywood all closed to capacity.

I agree with everyone else thus far. Crazy is a bit of an understatement. Rides that don't typically have a long line (like IASW) can have lines close to an hour and lines that are typically longer (like Peter Pan's Flight) have really long lines. The WS is pretty hard to navigate. It's just easier to tell whoever you are with to meet you at a specific spot and then fend for yourself. On NYE, TT and Soarin' both had wait times listed over 300 minutes and the ends of the lines for Nemo and the Character Spot basically met eachother.

However, it's a great experience and worth trying at least once. The parks are generally open longer to counter the crowds a little and the vibe in the parks is different than it is any other time of year. Also, if you are into people watching there is no better time of year to go. As long as you have a lot of patience and don't expect to get everything you want to do, don't let the crowd level scare you off.

Still not crazy enough. :rotfl:

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I have never been at WDW the week between Xmas and NYE, but isn't it often mentioned here that while a park may close mid-morning, in many cases, they re-open by midafternoon when people begin to leave the parks?

Just trying to be fair to the OP.

I'd not say, generally, by "mid" afternoon.

More like "evening."

Whew! Now that is crazy! Haha! Thanks for the replies all, the nice thing about having gone so many times is that if we don't get to go on everything we want to, it's ok, we know we'll be back again. Plus there are other things than the parks that we like to do. We'll be driving down (2020 miles one way!) and one of our favorite things to do is to just drive around the World. There's a lot you don't get to see if you're using the buses. We'll have fun going to all the different resorts to see the different trees and decorations. It will be fun no matter what! I can't wait to see the holiday version of Illuminations again! We went last year during the first week of December and saw it. :thumbsup2

Now, hopefully there's somewhere left for us to stay! :goodvibes