Christmas 2006

[kribit]

Just wondering who visited this past December 16-23? It's ONLY a year off, but we're trying to determine how packed the parks will be. I know it's the week before Christmas, but if I do a google search it includes the week after Thanksgiving to Christmas as the best times to visit. Do the parks start hopping the weekend before Christmas Day?

thanks.

 

[Princess Erin]

i was there December 19 through the 26th and it was more crowded than other years. We do the parks on the 20, 21, 22, 23, no 24 and 25. The sooner the better. The closer to the holiday the more crowded. We got to see everything. I went last year January 3rd for two weeks and it was wonderful. Everyone was back to work and school after the holidays and you really could enjoy just walking around.

 

[Joanna71985]

The week of Christmas up until New Years, and right before Christmas actually, is the most crowded time of the year. It's crazy how crowded it is- wall to wall people.

 

[unicorn1]

We were there 12/16 - 12/21. Very managable for the first few days, but it picks up each day closer to Christmas. By the time things got crowded though we were fine with it because we had done everything we really wanted to do at least once. We have settled in on that week as our favorite time to go to WDW (without taking the kids out of school). Get to take in the Christmas experience without the craziness of the parks the week after Christmas. Plus the trip home isn't such a downer because we sitll have Christmas to look forward to.

 

[kribit]

We're actually staying the 16 through 26th, but not planning on park hopping too much the days right before. We hope to get everything in the 16-21st before the major crowds roll in, but our last few trips have been in September,October,November so there is definately no comparison crowd wise. We're early morning risers, so we'll definately take advantage of that. I imagine after 11am the places get packed. We'll just have to schedule things this trip vs. "winging it."

We always wanted to experience Christmas and with the kids so young, we thought it would be some nice memories for us as a family.

 

[Fitswimmer]

We were there from 12/20 to 12/23 and we didn't think it was that bad. We had ADR's so we didn't have trouble getting in to the places we wanted to eat, and we used our fast passes wisely. We'll probably go again that time next year because that's when my niece has break from college.

 

[Kick Save]

We were there Dec 16-22 and had a great time. Crowds were reasonable in size, headliners were usually 60 minutes or so after 11am, but it wasn't elbow to elbow. I'd go that week again if the schedule shapes up for it in the future sometime.

 

[blessedby3]

We were there the 16th-23rd this past Dec. and I thought it was way crazy. We are used to going in very slow times and maybe if we usually went during the summer or higher crowd times I would think differently, but I thought it was too crowded. We saw wait times of 80-90 mins on lots of rides .The food lines were unbelievable. Fast passes were out early in the day. In 2005 we went the week after Thanksgiving and we felt like we had the parks to ourselves. That is our favorite week!!!!

 

[Jestocost]

We were there Dec. 21-26 this year and crowds were very manageable; not even as bad as some of the Summer trips we have made in the past. The closer you got to Christmas the busier things got. I hear the MK was definitely the worst, but we did that park early in our stay and kept away closer to Christmas proper. Judicious use of FPs helped and crowds seemed to be fairly late arriving, which means if you were there at park opening or for EMH lines were virtually non-existant EXCEPT for EE at AK and Soarin' at Epcot. Even so, we got to do EE three times and Soarin' twice and never waited longer than 20 minutes (except when EE was in its daily "unexpected" delayed opening). Soarin' did run out of FPs early and had stand-by lines of up to two hours later in the day, however.