Christmas Crowd Question

[Melknor]

We had our first DL trip July 20-23 and I'm ready to return! I thought the crowds were fine in the mornings and horrible by afternoon. I would love to see the park for Christmas time and am throwing around the idea of going Dec 21-23 in the parks.

How would the crowds in this December time frame compare to what we had in July? I see passes are blocked the same as in July so I'm hoping it wouldn't be worse???

 

[Cheshirecatty]

We visit the resort for Christmas every year, and we find the crowds during the week leading up to Chirstmas, to be very nice(in our opinion). Crowds have definitely picked up, since the first two weeks of December, but are nowhere near as crazy busy, as the days AFTER Christmas, leading up to New Year's Eve!

We also visit the Resort over July 4th, most years, and found the crowds to be smaller this year, than in the past few years(we heard several CMs mention the same thing).

If I were to base the comparison on that, then I would think the two time frames(in our experience/perception) would be similar---busy, but completely do-able, and very pleasant as far as crowds go.(You will love Holiday Time!!!)

 

[plutosbuddie]

I have had an annual premium pass for the last 6years. I think crowds are also subject to interpretation:

In my experience the week leading up to Christmas is quite busy and bustling. With very popular rides like cars in CA and Indiana jones in DL with 120 minute waits with no available fast pass after 10am.

Christmas Day of course is super busy, pick a park, a handful of rides grab a coffee and people watch! Take a deep breath of a magical disney Christmas!

After Christmas Day however I find the parks to be not as busy. Easier ride access and less of an overall crowd. You can obtain fast passes for most of the rides and enjoy the day without running in to people

I think if you just appreciate you get to go to disney and that you aren't going to ride everything -you will have a great time-

 

[Sherry E]

We had our first DL trip July 20-23 and I'm ready to return! I thought the crowds were fine in the mornings and horrible by afternoon. I would love to see the park for Christmas time and am throwing around the idea of going Dec 21-23 in the parks.

How would the crowds in this December time frame compare to what we had in July? I see passes are blocked the same as in July so I'm hoping it wouldn't be worse???

Melknor -

As plutosbuddie said, I think that crowds are often subject to interpretation, making it very hard to get a true sense of what will be "too crowded" or "not that crowded" for your own personal preferences. Everyone kind of sees things through his or her own viewfinder, as it were, so what one person views as large crowds may seem not too oppressive to another person.


The fact of the matter is that a lot of people will be out of school and work in that week leading up to Christmas, and some of them will arrive at Disneyland before Christmas to spend it in the parks.

As Cheshirecatty indicated, there will be more people in the parks (who are free from holiday obligations and available to descend upon Disneyland) after Christmas and on into the New Year -- that week is notoriously packed unless it rains, in which case a lot of the crowds will thin out. But the week of and days leading up to Christmas will be quite busy.

That's not to say that you can't have a great time, though, even if it ends up being really busy. The way I see it is this:

It is much better to expect and prepare for possible large crowds (figure out schedules, back-up plans, places to go when it gets too crazy in the parks, whatever it takes) and then be relieved and delighted to find out that they didn't live up to what you expected.

It is worse to think that the crowds will be tolerable and not too bad -- only to arrive at DLR to discover that they are horrible and not something you want to deal with.



I am bringing the following info to you from my "Disneyland at Christmas/Holiday Season Superthread," but you should join us there at some point if you can because we discuss everything having to do with the holiday season, and there is a lot of information in the posts on page 1. Here are some Trip Recaps/Reviews from people who went to DLR (in 2013 and 2012) in the same general time frame you want to go. Their recaps might give you a good idea of what they encountered, crowd-wise:


blue888’s trip recap (trip included Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, 2013)

tipoveriff’s December 19-26, 2013 trip recap (including Christmas and Christmas Eve)

NSmuppetmom’s December 22-25, 2013 trip recap (including Christmas)

JediMasterNerd's review/recap of a December 2012 trip (including Christmas Eve and Christmas Day -- a lot of great info in this review!) - Here and Here

Mickey&JoshNut's review/recap of a December 2012 trip (including Christmas) - Here

​

 

[Melknor]

Thank you for the replies. I think it will be do-able. We did a lot on our first trip so this would just be icing in the cake to be there at Christmas and to take in all the details.

 

[Cheshirecatty]

You are very welcome!

I think you'll find the week before Christmas to be very do-able---we love it, and are always able to get lots done!

Taking time to drink in the details, and soak up the atmosphere is a great plan---it's such a lovely and fun time to visit!

 

[ociana]

We have gone for Christmas twice now and are headed a third time this year. Yes, it gets busier than other times of year, but if you pace yourself and prepare for crowds it can be tons of fun. Christmas 2012 it was so packed the day after Christmas that they were limiting entry...the entire New Orleans plaza area was roped off into sections with cast members waving on walking paths through the sea of people. It was the busiest I have ever seen it, but only for a few hours before things settled back down to a tolerable level.

See you there!