So how were the crowds for December 15-22?

[lilmakattack]

Headed there next year from 12/14-12/21/13! Would love to hear how the crowds were last week so I can plan our trip! Thanks in advance!

 

[mesaboy2]

Headed there next year from 12/14-12/21/13! Would love to hear how the crowds were last week so I can plan our trip! Thanks in advance!

You can safely assume crowds will start out as moderate and increase steadily to heavy over the course of your dates. Pretty much always been thus.

 

[Bergeron37]

I have noticed that Epcot seems busiest

 

[disneydad78]

we where SHOCKED at the crowd levels this year. WOW, ride had a average wait time of 75 mins in EPCOT.

MK was crazy packed.

Ive never seen this large of a crowd this that time of year.

 

[Missytara]

Headed there next year from 12/14-12/21/13! Would love to hear how the crowds were last week so I can plan our trip! Thanks in advance!

I know the week has passed now and this won't help you now, but for future reference, you may want to do what I did when planning on a different week than I normally go.

I am going in June next year, and I checked the wait times for that week - matching up the "days" of the week, not the dates.

Considering Xmas is Wednesday next year, the crowds will most likely be arriving that Saturday the 21st, so you may avoid the worst of it. But expect it to ramp up.

I know some people I work with this year, did not work Thursday or Friday last week, since we have the two Tuesdays as holidays. They opted to take five vacation days and left early.

Expect some to do the same next year, since Xmas and New Year fall mid-week.

 

[Otter49]

Did some hotel hopping today - the 23rd and we left wondering - Where are the people? We had expected to possibly be turned away at some resorts.

BW - self parking about half full and didn't seem to be much pedestrian traffic around the hotel. Valet was very empty.

AKL - self parking 2/3 empty - maybe 15 cars in valet. Boma at 5:30 had about 6 tables occupied.

WL - parking lot half empty - about 20 in valet. WCC at 6:30 was at least half empty with no one waiting.

The pools all seemed extremely light today as well, though it was a touch cool.

And traffic all over property was very light.

Epcot on the evening of the 20th appeared to be a crowd level of around 3.

Oh, and were warmly welcomed to each property with no hint of the mythical 3 hour parking pass.

 

[bwang123]

we where SHOCKED at the crowd levels this year. WOW, ride had a average wait time of 75 mins in EPCOT.

MK was crazy packed.

Ive never seen this large of a crowd this that time of year.

we went these exact days and didnt think it was crazy crowded at all. we actually used standby lines quite a bit more than usual and never waited more than 30min for anything. we even went to magic kingdom saturday, monday and wednesday night (all non party days). saturday, we didnt arrive at rope drop and rode dumbo, tea cups, poo (standby), little mermaid, peter pan (standby) and ate at gastons all by 11am. i guess "crazy crowded" means a good time to go.

 

[bwang123]

Did some hotel hopping today - the 23rd and we left wondering - Where are the people? We had expected to possibly be turned away at some resorts.

BW - self parking about half full and didn't seem to be much pedestrian traffic around the hotel. Valet was very empty.

AKL - self parking 2/3 empty - maybe 15 cars in valet. Boma at 5:30 had about 6 tables occupied.

WL - parking lot half empty - about 20 in valet. WCC at 6:30 was at least half empty with no one waiting.

The pools all seemed extremely light today as well, though it was a touch cool.

And traffic all over property was very light.

Epcot on the evening of the 20th appeared to be a crowd level of around 3.

Oh, and were warmly welcomed to each property with no hint of the mythical 3 hour parking pass.

we drove to boardwalk and told them we wanted to walk around a eat and they let us right through. no 3 hour mention either.

 

[::danielle::]

Thanks for creating a thread on this topic! I will be at WDW the same dates as you next year. I am hoping for low crowds!

 

[lilmakattack]

I have been during spring break, in the middle of July (this year and last), and a few years ago went right before Christmas (yeah for being a teacher's family). So we are used to crowds, lots of crowds. Just trying to get a feel of whether or not it will be lighter or about the same. We can manage either way, just need to be prepared because this time we are bringing first timers with us and they will need a lot of prepping

 

[Missytara]

Thanks for creating a thread on this topic! I will be at WDW the same dates as you next year. I am hoping for low crowds!

There are no such things as low crowds at Disney any more except in late January and after the kids go back to school in the NE in late August.

 

[tiggerfied]

I was there last week on Monday 12/17 and 12/18 - all three parks - and I thought that the crowds were rather light. I hear that by the end of the week, it was getting pretty crowded.

 

[pigletto]

There are no such things as low crowds at Disney any more except in late January and after the kids go back to school in the NE in late August.

Late August was nowhere near as quiet this year as it had been the 3 years previous. It was as busy or busier than our May trip. The secret is out on that one.

 

[EK4636]

I was there last week on Monday 12/17 and 12/18 - all three parks - and I thought that the crowds were rather light. I hear that by the end of the week, it was getting pretty crowded.

I agree with you. We were there from 12/13-12/20 this year and the parks were light...even our guide from Disney VIP said so. Wedding wait longer than 10 minutes for the rides. The key is, I think, to really pay attention to crowd prediction and wait times tools, utilize fastpass, get to the biggest attractions as soon as possible (TSMM, Test Track, Soarin', etc). We found that if we don't do parades, we can hit a bunch more rides. Same thing with offsetting our lunchtimes and paying attention to EMHs.

We got done with AK in 4 hours, DHS in 5, and MK in 7...riding all the popular rides.

I would also agree that Epcot seems to be the crowd favorite especially around the world showcase.

 

[maxiesmom]

We were at the parks Dec 13-18, and with the exception of nighttime EMH at the Magic Kingdom, the crowds were light. I don't think we waited more than 10 minutes for any ride.

We did use Fast Pass for the biggies like Test Track and Soarin. We were able to walk right on Space Mountain, which was a huge shock. And I had planned which parks we did on what day using Easy WDW's suggestions.

One thing I didn't like was the fact that Disney seems to be closing some rides down before the park closes. At the Disney Studios The Great Movie Ride was shut down before the park closed. At the Magic Kingdom Splash Mountain was closed down early. Not sure why, but if the park is open until 8, then the rides should be open until then too.

 

[Missytara]

Late August was nowhere near as quiet this year as it had been the 3 years previous. It was as busy or busier than our May trip. The secret is out on that one.

Uh-oh. Then I would definitely say too like my week since 2000, the week after Thanksgiving, the secret got out on that one as well. I have gone from walk on rides to rather busy. Not crazy busy, but no longer walk-on the last five years.

 

[DizneyLizzy]

I was there for 3 days (20th, 21st, 22nd) and the first two days were very light. The 22nd the crowds definitely picked up, but it was nothing terrible. I could compare the 22nd to March spring break crowd levels and the two days previous to MLK weekend...but maybe even lighter than that. I think a lot of people arrived Friday night or Saturday morning.

 

[Bonniec]

we where SHOCKED at the crowd levels this year. WOW, ride had a average wait time of 75 mins in EPCOT.

MK was crazy packed.

Ive never seen this large of a crowd this that time of year.

There are no such things as low crowds at Disney any more except in late January and after the kids go back to school in the NE in late August.

I agree with both of these. Crowds have felt very packed for us this year. I really have not seen much of a slow season.

 

[TIMtationX]

Last week was our third time we've gone to Disney the week before Christmas.

This time was noticeably more crowded than previous visits. We never had waits longer than 5-10 minutes before (with exception being Soarin'). Most of our waits were between 25-40 minutes for this visit. Crowds weren't terrible, we just noticed it was a little heavier this year.

 

[Denise W]

We were at WDW 12/15-12/22 and felt the crowds were fairly light. We had no problem getting on rides either with a short 10-20 minute standby wait or a fast pass return within about an hour (test track). Restaurants didn't seem too busy either. We went to ESPN on Thursday night at about 7:30 and the server told us they were going to close down half the restaurant (the sit down restaurant side) because it was so slow. Weather was great and we would do this week again.

Denise