Don't be worried about going over Christmas/NYE!!

[travelbug]

We just got back and had a WONDERFUL time!! Went DD4, DS7, DH, and my mom--it was great and we just used a plan to avoid the crazy crowds. If you can take the kids out of school for a week, that would be great, but if not, this was VERY easy and not having super hot weather was a huge bonus. We were at park opening EVERY day--one day had MK almost to ourselves from 7-9 am. Even went into MK on NYE around 12:30--watched the end of the parade at end of Main Street (were about 2 rows back and DD saw everything). Then went to Tomorrowland Noodle Station, found a table right in front of castle, had a wonderful lunch, watched the show at the castle, and then walked down an almost completely deserted Main Street--have NEVER seen so few people on Main Street. We went to DD for dinner at Ragland Road--soo much fun! And were in bed by 10:30 to get up for 8am MK hours the next day. It is not hard to do--just follow a sensible plan and go against the crowds. We did EVERYTHING--with big rides 2 or 3 times, and did not wait for than 30 min for anything--and usually not that long. The key is getting there at opening, but with kids, you are in bed by 10/11 most nights anyway. Don't be afraid of going then--it really was terrific!!

We had a great experience down there too - Dec. 27 to Jan. 3. By making full use of 7 AM openings at all 4 parks, and using fast passes to our best advantage, we never waited longer than 15 min. for anything!! The only exception was our arrival night when a newbie in our group couldn't wait one more second to try out Tower of Terror. We walked over from BWV and found that there was a 50 min. wait. Since we had nothing else planned for that evening, we relaxed and waited. Aside from that, 15 minutes was our longest wait the whole week. We did all the super headliner rides too, some of them several times during the week.

I overheard a concierge at BWV telling somebody that crowds were down during Christmas week, and that the Boardwalk resort was not filled to capacity for the first time ever during Christmas week.

 

[travelbug]

Oops. I have to add one thing. Actually we did wait 20 minutes for something, but it wasn't to board a ride. It was to get fast passes at the Toy Story ride.

We did see some amazing wait times posted, even though it didn't impact us. The longest we saw was 300 min. for Soarin'. Seriously, are there really people who would wait 5 HOURS to ride a ride?

 

[sandym718]

Would the overall opinion be that the "before Christmas period" 19th-23rd, say, be the least crowded of that time? Then the "after Christmas" 26-30th? Then the actual holidays, Xmas, NY, NYE? How's Christmas Eve. We're considering a 12/19-12/29 trip for this year. Staying offsite in a house, so no EMH. We won't arrive until late on the 19th, so no parks that day. Parks 20th-23rd for sure. NO park on Xmas Day for sure, parks on 26-28th most likely. We'd probably do a day trip to the Canaveral area. Any recommendations on a good day to do that? Not sure if we'd want to be gone all day Xmas Eve, but if the parks are unbearable that day, maybe.

 

[MelissathePooh]

Please bare in mind that travel was down in general this year AND the holidays were spread over 2 weeks with the holidays falling on Wed/Thurs. That also split some of the crowd.

We have been over the holidays for the last 3 years and this was by far not anything like the last 2. We actually checked out Christmas Eve this year to be on the safe side, but it was obvious the parks weren't as crowded as years past.

If the economy turns around my guess is the holiday crowds will too. I'm glad everyone had a good experience, but please take into consideration that it is not the norm.

 

[applechips]

I think everyone came the week before Christmas! I was there from Dec 13 to Dec 21 and on two days where I did not use TGM's suggestions the MK was MOBBED. Crowds on Main Street, especially after the first Spectro were downright dangerous. And yes rude people!! Never in my life did I experience such rudeness. We've been going to WDW this same time of year since 2005 and go other times throughout the year and this last trip and the October 2008 trip were so crowded, I was shocked.

This was the scene at the Emporium on Dec 13. I had to leave the store because I felt like my 7 year old would be swept away in the crowds.

 

[sandym718]

Yikes, applechips - that doesn't look good!! And on the 13th???

 

[applechips]

Yikes, applechips - that doesn't look good!! And on the 13th???

YES! can you believe it? mobbed!

 

[Missin'Disney]

thank you to those who have posted here....we have always wanted to try the holiday week as DH has off that week anyway from work, and the decorations are so unbelievable, but have been very hesitant b/c we abhor crowds & our kids are horrible with lines. We usually go in August, and it's been getting more and more crowded (FD i guess) so it's been pretty unbearable on the lines when it's 95 degrees out.

To those of you who have been Christmas - New Yrs., please continue to post and share your tips +/or experiences...

 

[dvc guy]

Just got back from our 10th trip to WDW over the Holidays. It was the strangest in terms of crowds.

We arrived at the MK on the 30th at 4 PM to do a few rides/shows and found that the wait time for Laugh Factory was less than 15 minutes, picked up fast passes for Buzz and did a few more things. Went to Cal Grill for dinner and headed back to MK about 10PM to take advantage of Extra late hours 12-3 AM. Splash was a walk on and we rode 2 times with out getting off. BTMRR was still 30 minutes at 1 AM and SM was 60+ at 1:30 AM. Over all the parks seemed quieter than in the past , but the big rides still had long lines.

Did Epcot on 1/1 and again the park seemed quieter than in the past years, Soarin had 200 minute wait by mid day 1/1. Other rides were walk on or 10 minutes.

Got a very late start on 1/2 for the DHS and all the big rides had long lines with Toy Story coming in at 200 minutes. Even with all the long wait times the park seemed quieter than in the past.


As a veteran of Christmas week the only advise that works is to do EMH and get started early, if you don't all bets are off. MY kids 12 & 16 like to sleep late and getting them to the parks early is just about over.

 

[sandym718]

We won't have EMH if we get an offsite home for Christmas, but I wonder if a rope drop plan will work. Stay until it gets too crazy and then leave. If there's things we want to do with evening fast pass return times, we could come back after dinner. Does that sound like it would work OK? I guess I'm not too worried, b/c hopefully we can do most everything on our May trip. Then just hit our faves/ enjoy the decorations/ relax a lot on our Dec. trip.

 

[yenlee]

We rented a condo in Windsor Hills and didn't have EMH. We did the avoid-EMH strategy and *tried* to make it to rope drops. Even if we had EMH, I don't think I could do 7am. Starting the day at 8am leaves plenty of time to do rides. When the park opens at 9am, it's a bit tougher, but at least you get to sleep. Every evening we'd go back to the parks and do about 2 things and then leave. (We never went back to the same park to use an FP, because we're addicted to park hopping. But that strategy is definitely sound.)

It's definitely possible that this year was a bit unusual. I've only been during the holidays once before, and it was bad enough that I decided to "never" do it again. I chalked up our good trip this year to reasonable expectations and more Disney experience, but maybe it was just less busy.

Speaking of the way the calendar worked, it seemed to me that WDW was prematurely downgrading their capacity after NYE. For example, park hours started contracting on Jan 1 (Thursday), and shows started getting more sparse, even though the parks didn't start thinning out for another few days. On Jan 4 (Sunday) there was no Fantasmic already, and there was no Lights Motors in the morning, but the park was still busy enough that the first Indy show of the day was standing room only.

@applechips: Early December did have that free dining deal through Visa. That might have contributed to the crowds. (But if it was so crowded, why did they need to offer free dining? Weird.)

@hart6066: I'll just have to take your word for it. We left Epcot on NYE sometime around 12:30 or so, and there was a huge gush of people entering the park as we were leaving.

 

[Lynn5700]

This is great to hear because we are planning on going this NYE.

 

[sandym718]

We rented a condo in Windsor Hills and didn't have EMH. We did the avoid-EMH strategy and *tried* to make it to rope drops. Even if we had EMH, I don't think I could do 7am. Starting the day at 8am leaves plenty of time to do rides. When the park opens at 9am, it's a bit tougher, but at least you get to sleep. Every evening we'd go back to the parks and do about 2 things and then leave. (We never went back to the same park to use an FP, because we're addicted to park hopping. But that strategy is definitely sound.)

thank you! I don't think we could be up, fed, out the door and to a park by 7 AM either - onsite or not!!! That's why I'm not too worried about missing out on EMH - don't think we'd keep the kids up Super late either.

 

[DisneyMim]

We just came back from our first NYE trip and I must say I would have been so nervous if I had listened to some of the negative comments. We are huge Disney fans, been going forever, but never had the chance to go during Christmas/New Year until this trip. We had a wonderful, magical, super time and we never got to the parks early. We are night owls and stayed up late every night. We do not do commando style and we went with the attitude that the decorations and Christmas stuff was what was important to us. Now I will say that we go multiple times a year (going again in 6 weeks! Yeah!) so if this was our one and only time we would have been disappointed in not being able to do every ride when we wanted, but we didn't care about that. The atmosphere was way beyond my expectations, just beautiful everywhere we looked. We loved the Candlelight Procession in Epcot and the Osborne Lights, the "ice" Castle in Mk, the gingerbread house at GF. I could go on and on, we just had the best time!! Yes it was crowded, but honestly we really only noticed on NYE and even then we didn't think it was so bad. I guess it just depends where you're coming from. We're from Boston and have done First Night and always find that crowded. Waiting in the freezing cold for an "outhouse" is bad, so waiting 2-3 minutes in a ladies room line on NYE hearing people complaining just made my daughter and I laugh. The weather was soooo nice. I am sooo envious of all you people in Florida. We came back to snow and cold. UGH. We are ready to plan for next year we loved it so much!!!