Christmas Crowds?

[Skylarr29]

What does phase a status mean?

park is closed to off site guests I believe. On site and APs can still get in.

 

[jayohjayoh]

Casual visitors are turned away at the automobile toll plazas. This means that people without tickets, those with one-day, single-park tickets, and those intending to use cast member passes will not be allowed to park.

Other guests may enter:
•Those with multi-day or multi-park tickets
•Those staying at a Disney Resort
•Annual Passholders
•Those re-entering the park that day.
•Those "hopping" from another park.
•Those with in-park reservations or appointments.
•Those arriving via Disney transportation

 

[BuzzLiteyear]

I'm sitting in Tomorrowland waiting for my family to come off Astro Orbiter. We just rode Space. It's not crowded yet.

We were on Space Mtn. at the same time

 

[BuzzLiteyear]

We're at MK right now. No idea of current phase of closing as we've been here since 7am. We've been on lots of rides. It's pretty crowded in spots.

 

[robinb]

The MK is at Level 2 now. We're here and it's super busy. We are waiting in a long line for the train at the Fantasyland station. My guess is that it will be 20-30 mins. We have a FP for 7DMT at 2:45 so we'll do that, see the parade and then get out of Dodge and come back for the fireworks.

 

[WilsonFlyer]

I haven't read any reports of parks being filled to capacity yet, this year.

Hang tight.

 

[kbmaggs]

Spent the morning at EPCOT…. our biggest wait time was about 10 minutes, but couldn't get on Soarin because the wait time was 70 minutes. Other than that, it was no problem getting on anything. Left there about 30 minutes ago- I wouldn't want to be going in now!

 

[wendyt_ca]

We are here now and really glad we decided to come for Christmas. We come a couple of times a year though so we aren't concerned about much other than our fast pass reservations. It's much less crowded than I expected though.

 

[Disneylover99]

The MK is at Level 2 now. We're here and it's super busy. We are waiting in a long line for the train at the Fantasyland station. My guess is that it will be 20-30 mins. We have a FP for 7DMT at 2:45 so we'll do that, see the parade and then get out of Dodge and come back for the fireworks.

Yeah, the train lines are long. We waited for a train in Fantasy Land at about 12:30pm.

It's the Starbucks line that's crazy now.

 

[Disneylover99]

We are here now and really glad we decided to come for Christmas. We come a couple of times a year though so we aren't concerned about much other than our fast pass reservations. It's much less crowded than I expected though.

I'm really happy to be here too! No regrets!!!

 

[4Spen]

We are here and in the hotel resting right now. We did AK this morning it was crowded but no worse than Spring Break. My kids rode Everest 4 times and we walked right on Dinosaur. The bus driver that brought us back to WL had to take the long way back because he said World Dr was a parking lot. We have no plans to get near MK today, though.

 

[Shelly F - Ohio]

Currently the MDE app shows over 2 hr waits for most of the popular rides at MK. No way would I wait 2 hrs. I remember last year Soarin had a 5 hr wait! And at a level 2 closing you know it is VERY crowded. That means only guest with dinning reservations will be allowed into the parks.

 

[dimndgal1]

So far have been very happy with crowd levels this week - today is the first day you can 'feel' the crowds around the resort.

We have been doing Rope Drop and a few late nights since Saturday and have never waited more than 20 minutes. We are sitting out parks today but saw the traffic getting to EPCOT and MK on the way to Chef Mickey's for brunch and then were blown away by the crowds at the gates to MK when we left Contemporary. I just can't fathom trying to get into the park around noon on Christmas Day.

We found PM EMH at MK amazing on the 23rd - we showed up just before 7, saw them light the castle, rode TTA and grabbed a snack while heading toward a spot for fireworks. After fireworks, we rode HM, Splash, BTMR, and did and E&A FP before the final parade. From there, we waited 5-10 minutes for most anything else and were out of the park by 1130p... totally beyond our expectations. We did EPCOT yesterday and while Soarin' and TT were busy, everything else seemed to hold between 20-30 minutes. It started pouring around 830p which really thinned crowds out and we heard from someone when we got to the resort that the rains made HS walk-ons for most things toward the end of the night.

We'll hit the parks tomorrow night for late EMH at MK and I feel like that will truly be the test of the crowds but, honestly, my group of 11 was amazed at how much we've done this week and agree Rope Drop and late hours are the way to go!

 

[redsbe]

Currently the MDE app shows over 2 hr waits for most of the popular rides at MK. No way would I wait 2 hrs. I remember last year Soarin had a 5 hr wait! And at a level 2 closing you know it is VERY crowded. That means only guest with dinning reservations will be allowed into the parks.

But just wait someone will come in here and post that the crowds and lines were managible at MK today!

 

[mjhannaf]

Take a peek at my signature if you'd like to see posted and actual wait times.

 

[SeilerBird]

I was at Epcot at rope drop this morning (Xmas) and I rode Soarin', then Test Track and then Mission: Space (orange). I was done with all three of them in one hour and fifteen minutes. And that was without any Fast Passes. The line of cars waiting to get into MK was horrendous. It went on for miles, but Epcot was very manageable.

 

[robinb]

We went into the MK around 9:15. I didn't pay too much attention but our bus from AKV was not in traffic. I think it went a different route than it usually does c

 

[Disneylover99]

But just wait someone will come in here and post that the crowds and lines were managible at MK today!

Crowds and lines were totally managable for us today.

But here's the thing. Lines in late August (when we usually go) for the headliners mid-day range from 40 minutes to over an hour anyways. We would not wait in any line of 40 minutes or more for a ride no matter what time of year.

There was virtually no one in Tomorrowland for at least the first hour today. So we rode Space and Astro Orbiter a couple of times each. Frontierland opened at 8, so we headed there next to ride Big Thunder. Then we did some less popular rides until Pecos Bills opened at 10:30am. We got some food early before the crowds arrived. We also FP'ed HM, PP, and Buzz, rode the train and ate a late lunch at Liberty Tree.

We left at about 3:30 and hit the monorail to tour the deluxe resorts. Now we are relaxing at our resort. Maybe we were lucky, but we had no bus line heading to our resort from the MK as well.

 

[a1tinkfans]

Anyone at MK right now? What's it like, flowing, mobbed??? Tia!

 

[anniemae]

Anyone have any crowd photos?