Christmas Crowds?

[Aurora0427]

You know it's crowded when Stitch has a 30 minute posted wait.

 

[kristainohio]

Went to MK today. From 7-10 am it was great. Almost every ride a walk on or less than 10 min. We did space twice, Anna and elsa, Rapunzel and cinderella, carousel with the stepsisters, people mover, big thunder, jingle cruise, Pirates, carousel of progress and people mover (again) At 11 am though it was at a staged closure and was horrendous. We exited through the backstage walkway and left. It was a zoo on Main Street. We will go back to use our three fast passes tonight

 

[Networth]

Was at MK 12/21 (Saturday before Christmas) left right after Starbucks and Buzz. It was are last day luckily. Disney would literally have to give me a room and passes to go that week. Kudo's to those of you that can handle those mosh pit crowds. I can only imagine today and New Yearsz

 

[HulkDIS]

Went to MK today. From 7-10 am it was great. Almost every ride a walk on or less than 10 min. We did space twice, Anna and elsa, Rapunzel and cinderella, carousel with the stepsisters, people mover, big thunder, jingle cruise, Pirates, carousel of progress and people mover (again) At 11 am though it was at a staged closure and was horrendous. We exited through the backstage walkway and left. It was a zoo on Main Street. We will go back to use our three fast passes tonight

Geez! Any idea if these wait times are possible the 29th or 30th? 31st I imagine is a mad house.

 

[lisaviolet]

I will never understand the big deal people talk about with crowds and wait times the week of Christmas/into Christmas Day.

The 26th through NYs is insane, a given.

This is my third Christmas/NYs vacation. The last two were very chilly holidays, one crazy cold, so I never posted about crowds. Because I thought that maybe the weather had an impact.

This year has been so much warmer - some record setting, and it's the same outcome.


Early hours/rope drops are fine. I rarely do them, and only have for these kind of trips, because I love sleep. But they are fine.

Late nights. I was at the Magic Kingdom late last night. I pretty well walked on many rides, at least two I could have done over and over. Used my Mine Train FP that I missed earlier, they were giving out Christmas Day forgiveness on missed FPs (and BTW the FP for Mine Train is so short ). I understand that many families would not want their young children out that late. But I have done MK Christmas night all three trips with no issue. There were so few people going in that the security tables were closed and only two guards were standing in front of the entrance.

Christmas Eve at Epcot was not that crowded, been here since the 21st and have had no negative experiences with crowds. This week will be a different experience but I use it to have more down time.

So I understand if you're someone who wants to be in the parks all day long but if not, there are very few issues and it's such a lovely time to visit.

Will return again and again.

___________________________________________

OT: The one thing I hate about FPs is I used to be totally tech free on vacation. Still am pretty much but here I am on the disboards!

 

[CTDisneyfan816]

For me, I understand rides like 7DTR, Soarin', Test Track and Space Mountain will be 60 minutes on up. But when rides like Small World and the like are 60 minutes, forget it. Yes you get 3 FP but after that you will be spending your entire day standing in line. Even this Saturday at Epcot (I was going to MK but bagged it when I saw the lines were all over an hour) were longer than normal. Next year when I go around the holidays I will go early December vs. mid-late December. I am not one for parades, shows, etc. I just like going on the rides and when you can't walk around without bumping into people or spend most of the day waiting in line, for me that's not fun. Going early December I get all the Christmas/holiday decorations without being pressed in like a can of meat.

 

[4Spen]

We hit all 4 parks yesterday. (Christmas) We did AK in the morning and then took a break. Around 5 we headed to Epcot for a 7:20 reservation at Biergarten. After dinner we decided to ride the boat over to DHS to see the Osborne Lights. (low crowds at the light display between 9-10) After we figured we would try the MK. The crowds leaving MK were nuts which made us happy because it meant people were leaving. And once we were past Main Street it wasn't bad at all. Overall it was a good day and we encountered nothing overly overwhelming. IMO it's all about timing.

 

[laura428]

We were at MK again today, arrived at 8. Rode everything we wanted with light crowds til first FP+ at 10:10, then the crowds definitely started picking up. By the time DD9's A&E FP+ was done at 2, we were very ready to go.

Now that we're back, it's hard justifying going back. We have a BOG ADR at 6:25, but DH's awful cold became that much more pronounced with the crowds, and the thought of making him deal with all of that... not great. He's sleeping now, but to make it in time, I'm thinking we'd have to leave here by 5:00 or so.

How hard has it been to get back in at around 5-6 the last few days? What are crowds like at that time? I know we'd eat $40 for missing our ADR, but I may not have a choice.

 

[robinb]

We were at MK again today, arrived at 8. Rode everything we wanted with light crowds til first FP+ at 10:10, then the crowds definitely started picking up. By the time DD9's A&E FP+ was done at 2, we were very ready to go.

Now that we're back, it's hard justifying going back. We have a BOG ADR at 6:25, but DH's awful cold became that much more pronounced with the crowds, and the thought of making him deal with all of that... not great. He's sleeping now, but to make it in time, I'm thinking we'd have to leave here by 5:00 or so.

How hard has it been to get back in at around 5-6 the last few days? What are crowds like at that time? I know we'd eat $40 for missing our ADR, but I may not have a choice.

It should be fine returning at 5:00. Maybe you can let him sleep and you can go to dinner without him? You can also call reservations and let them know he's sick and maybe they'll let you out of your reservation fee.

 

[laura428]

It should be fine returning at 5:00. Maybe you can let him sleep and you can go to dinner without him? You can also call reservations and let them know he's sick and maybe they'll let you out of your reservation fee.

Just called - Disney waived the cancellation fee, thankfully. DH woke up feeling worse than he did when he fell asleep. At least this way, someone else will be able to grab our table.

 

[4Spen]

I had to cancel a reservation (same day) because my DH wasn't feeling well and they waived the cancellation fee.

 

[twins4disney]

You know it's crowded when Stitch has a 30 minute posted wait.

Too funny, we said the same thing yesterday at one point I saw 60 minutes

 

[WilsonFlyer]

Too funny, we said the same thing yesterday at one point I saw 60 minutes

 

[Aurora0427]

Too funny, we said the same thing yesterday at one point I saw 60 minutes

 

[Networth]

Just called - Disney waived the cancellation fee, thankfully. DH woke up feeling worse than he did when he fell asleep. At least this way, someone else will be able to grab our table.

Did the exact same thing on 12/14. Disney refunded party tickets and did not charge for the BOG ADR because my fiancé was sick and the cold made her headache and cough worse. Disney did a great job, just sent them a letter actually. Hope your husband feels better tomorrow.

 

[Aurora0427]

So basically MK on Christmas or between Christmas and NY is doable if you rope drop until about 10 or 11am. Then it is madness until after the fireworks, at which it becomes manageable again. Which is great if you don't have small children and are totally cool with being up at 6am to make 8am RD on vacation. 7am if you are doing EMH. I've been looking at wait times on multiple sites and most rides have waits over 90 minutes. At EPCOT, Figment has a 50 minute wait. Figment.

To each his own, but I am glad we experienced Christmas at Disney 12/11-12/17. I am cool with doing RD, but with small kids hanging out at MK from 10pm-3am just won't happen.

 

[OnSpaceshipEarth]

Around 5 we headed to Epcot for a 7:20 reservation at Biergarten.

@4Spen

How crowded/full was Biergarten? Was Epcot, in general, fairly crowded?

 

[robinb]

So basically MK on Christmas or between Christmas and NY is doable if you rope drop until about 10 or 11am. Then it is madness until after the fireworks, at which it becomes manageable again.

Yes, that about covers it. It's crazy most of the day. Some people can burn the candle at both ends but we can't. We pick either getting up early or staying up late.

 

[SmallWorld71]

Went to AK yesterday on Christmas and DHS today. Both were very manageable.

AK was pretty dead until about noon, I am guessing people slept in. We got tons accomplished.

DHS got pretty crowded, but we were there at opening and had no problems keeping ahead of the crowd. By 11:15 we had already done RnR, Tower of Terror, Great Movie Ride, Animation Academy, and met some characters (Hiro and Baymax, Sorcerer Mickey and Minnie).
The only long line we waited in all day was Hiro and Baymax which took about 45 min., but I was expecting that. We had FP+ for Toy Story, Tower of Terror, and the Frozen Sing-a-long. We also fit in Star Tours, Muppets, The Holiday Comedy Show and Fantasmic with the package. The Osborne Lights were crowded, but manageable.

The weather has been gorgeous and in a lot of ways I am finding this easier than summer. I may be singing a different tune after we head to MK tomorrow...

 

[neoavatara]

Just as reference, we did MK on Christmas. Note that it was our second MK day on our trip.

Got there just after rope drop. Our goal was to do Mine Train, which we did after about a 20 minute wait (basically can't beat that). We then did Space Mountain twice, Buzz Lightyear twice, Big Thunder Mountain and Pirates of the Caribbean (and Pirates actually was shut down for a time because of tech difficulty). We got all that done before 9:30.

After that, we used our three FP. Not bad, all things considered.