Christmas Time at Disney World

[graybow77]

What is the best time to come to Disney when it is decorated for Christmas... I am looking for the best price on hotels (Packages) and crowds to be the least. We have been many times but never at Christmas time and I hear it is very nice...Thanks in advance...

 

[Moliphino]

Avoid Christmas week and the week before that.

 

[kniquy]

It is truly magical that time of year. We have gone for NYE which was crazy and fun, but would rather not do that again. This year we are planning for the week after thanksgiving. We chose this week based on reports from this past December. In the past it has been that the first couple weeks of December were good, but this past year seemed to have experienced larger crowds, which left us with Nov 27-Dec 1st as being the best option for us. It will be decorated, MVMCP will have started , parks and resorts will be decorated and keeping our fingers crossed that the crowds will be manageable. As you approach Christmas (a week before) it will get very busy all the way through to marathon weekend (usually the first weekend in Jan)

 

[Amelia :)]

Our last trip we did Nov 26th-dec 9th last year and I just couldn’t fault it. Crowds were fine, weather beautiful, decorations fantastic. We did MVMCP again which was awesome, it was sold out but didn’t feel busy at all, when people say the parties are busy I’m not really sure what they were going in expecting? All the parks and resorts looked amazing. I really struggle to imagine going any other time of year now.

 

[OneinThree]

This past year, we went the first week of December and were amazed at the number of people in the parks, most likely due to Pop Warner's annual visit. We've also been after Thanksgiving and found that to be very busy as well, possibly due to guests arriving for Thanksgiving weekend and staying through the following week. Although we probably won't attempt it that time of year anymore, the 2nd week of December would be what I would try. Forget Christmas week entirely if you're concerned about crowds.

 

[rwdavis2]

Our last 2 trips have been the weekend of Veteran's day through the next weekend before Thanksgiving. The Christmas parties have started and the parks are mostly decorated. The hotels can be hit or miss.

 

[Donalyn]

We went the first full week in December a while back - good weather, manageable crowds and beautiful decorations.

If you want to reduce the likelihood that you will be in big crowds, avoid any time around a holiday. Veteran's day, Thanksgiving, Christmas through NYE (and some before and some after), etc.

But it can be crowded at any time, these days.

 

[mamamelody2]

I would recommend the week after Thanksgiving. Unfortunately, I can't get any time off between Thanksgiving and Christmas, so we can't go then. We went the week before Thanksgiving. It was really lovely! Wonderful weather. When we got there, MK was decorated and I believe so was HS. Epcot was not on the first time we visited (last day of Food & Wine) but then our next Epcot day, it WAS decorated. Really cool to see the overnight change! GF had the gingerbread house out and finished. The Christmas decorations are really beautiful and we loved seeing them!

 

[samantha3590]

We went Nov 24-Dec 2 this past year and it was incredible! My favorite trip yet! Magic Kingdom at Christmas time is truly beautiful.

 

[tbholc81]

This past year we went the Saturday after Thanksgiving and stayed a week. I'd say crowds were moderate overall. We found EPCOT to be the most crowded. It was a great trip, the holidays were in full swing there. We had park hoppers and did a lot of park hopping if a park felt crowded. One strategy that worked well was ding rope drop at MK on party days. It seemed like people avoided MK those days. One morning it was dead enough that my kids spent about 10 minutes dancing with the bears in Frontierland because there was no one else out in front of Pecos Bills.

 

[Bete]

I would wait for the free dining offer to be announced this year. Hopefully, it will be like last year. It included the week after Thanksgiving and the second week of December. You just need one day to be in the window on the selected dates to be included for your whole stay.

 

[Momof2Singers]

Avoid Christmas week and the week before that.

I guess I will not take this advice since we are scheduled 16-23....only time we can go, and promised my daughter her first Christmas Disney trip. I did hear in the past it was great, but in the past few years it is busy. We are used to busy, only go in summer months, so hopefully it will work out for us.

 

[kniquy]

dancing with the bears in Frontierland

This is the sweetest picture!! I hope this is framed in your house.

 

[RolloTomasi]

In 2016 we went 11/27-12/4. This past year we were there 12/9-12/16. I recommend that first week (right after thanksgiving into first week of December). All the decorations will be up, all the festivities will be happening, and I found that week to be more manageable crowdwise. The second week wasn’t overwhelming, but the crowds did pick up as the week went on. That last Saturday was rough. Plus, and this is just a personal thing, I felt like I missed a lot of the holiday season at home.

The holiday season at Disney is the best, though. No matter what.

 

[kwdw]

Either the week immediately after Thanksgiving or the next one. Now - folks have figured that out - so it's not going to be super light crowds. And don't stress about the Pop Warner stuff - there are events year round at Disney that draw specific groups to the parks/resorts and its pretty hard to miss "some" group of "some" type practically any week of the year now. This past year - my most fun observation was all the families from South America - and how I could be in shorts and a t-shirt at the bus stop in the morning - and they would be in pants and winter coats.

But - I like those two weeks because crowds are manageable, chances for good weather are decent (though its VERY variable), everything is decorated, and they tend not to interfere with holiday plans at home. There's pretty much always room discounts then - but you have to stay on top of the release dates to get those discounted rooms.

 

[GPC0321]

I guess I will not take this advice since we are scheduled 16-23....only time we can go, and promised my daughter her first Christmas Disney trip. I did hear in the past it was great, but in the past few years it is busy. We are used to busy, only go in summer months, so hopefully it will work out for us.

We were there this past December 17-20 for a quick trip, also our first time seeing Disney all decked out for Christmas. It was a splendid trip! By far my favorite WDW trip to date. But I will say that we went into it knowing it would be crowded and making a plan based on that. Our focus was holiday stuff, so we weren't concerned with ride wait times and such. In fact, we rode very few rides. If you have visited WDW before and plan to visit at other non-Christmas times, I would say to use the December trip to soak up the Christmastime cheer and festivities, which makes it seem much less hectic and crowded. We were only there for three nights and we did the following:

Sunday we arrived at our resort - Grand Floridian - early in the morning because we had flown in the night before and stayed at the MCO Hyatt, so we were on one of the earliest Magical Express buses. We dumped our bags with bell services and went to get our mugs and a bite for breakfast, then went to explore the main lobby and get pictures in front of the Christmas tree and Gingerbread House. We were about to head to the monorail to go to TTC and on to Epcot when we got a text that our room was ready, so we got our bags and went to check out our room and then headed to Epcot. We had Memory Maker, so we hit a lot of the PhotoPass stops and then just toured around the World Showcase, looking at all of the Christmas stuff and stopping to enjoy Voices of Liberty. Then we returned to the resort, changed clothes and caught our breath and then grabbed a quick dinner down at the poolside bar. Then we went to Magic Kingdom for MVMCP that night.

Monday, we took our time getting up and going, and we had a table service breakfast at the Grand Floridian Cafe. Then my mother and I headed to Animal Kingdom for a few hours. We didn't do a whole lot: got a FastPass for Kilimanjaro Safari while on the bus heading to the park, so we did that, watched Flights of Wonder, found Pandora (I get lost in AK so easily) and checked it out, got some PhotoPass pics, and left. We came back and rested up, grabbed dinner at the quick service, grabbed my father, and headed to Hollywood Studios for the Jingle Bell, Jingle Bam dessert party and show (which was wonderful! So glad we did this!). We went back to the Grand after JBJB was over, and Mom and I went to the monorail and to Magic Kingdom to see Happily Ever After. This was the most crowded experience of our trip. Like...almost scary crowded. But the show was great!

Tuesday, we got up and got breakfast and headed to MK mid-morning to ride a few things (I was literally making FastPasses on the fly going from Haunted Mansion to Pirates to Pooh. We went back to the resort then to rest. Mom and I went to the pool (it was in the 80's and sunny our entire trip!) and we had a light lunch poolside. Then we got ready and headed out to Epcot for the evening. We had the Candlelight Processional dining package at Biergarten. This was fantastic! It was our first time eating there, and we had a table right beside the dance floor. The restaurant was all decorated for the holidays, and the band played Christmas music. The food was delicious, and our table mates were nice. We left there and went to get in line for Candlelight Processional. The line was CRAZY long (Neil Patrick Harris was narrating), but we wound up with good seats right in the middle and about half-way back. The concert was absolutely outstanding in every way possible, and I highly recommend it. We were at the 8:00pm performance, so we left there and headed to the FastPass area for IllumiNations (I insist on having a FastPass for this show as I love it so). We had perfect spots for watching, and the holiday tag on the end of the show was breathtaking. It was an incredible way to end our brief stay.

I'm so glad that we chose to focus on just the holiday/Christmas stuff during that trip. We had been for Easter 2016, and we knew we'd return again, so we didn't sweat the rides and other stuff that can be done at any time of year.

Sorry for rambling. Remembering that trip never gets old. I guess my suggestion is to do all of the holiday stuff. It's so worth it. And if you do things like dining packages and dessert parties, it makes those experiences much more enjoyable, IMO. I saw the huge crowd of people waiting for Candlelight Processional in the non-dining package line. I don't see how they possibly made it in...not with the amount of people who were guaranteed a seat in our line. And they looked like they'd been there a long time. We got in line about 25 minutes before the show and had fabulous seats. And I felt sorry for the people trying to watch Jingle Bell, Jingle Bam directly behind our reserved area, because once we stood up, they couldn't see anything. But you know what? That's why I forked over $80 a pop for the three of us to get the VIP experience.

Live it up. WDW at Christmas is truly magical.

 

[Elle23]

I guess I will not take this advice since we are scheduled 16-23....only time we can go, and promised my daughter her first Christmas Disney trip. I did hear in the past it was great, but in the past few years it is busy. We are used to busy, only go in summer months, so hopefully it will work out for us.

We were there 12/14-12/21 2017 and it really wasn’t that bad crowd-wise (with the exception of the non-party night HEA...I would highly recommend doing the dessert party that night).

ETA...it might even be better with crowds on your dates this year with how the holidays fall. A lot of school districts won’t even start Christmas break till the week of the 23rd.

 

[Momof2Singers]

We were there this past December 17-20 for a quick trip, also our first time seeing Disney all decked out for Christmas. It was a splendid trip! By far my favorite WDW trip to date. But I will say that we went into it knowing it would be crowded and making a plan based on that. Our focus was holiday stuff, so we weren't concerned with ride wait times and such. In fact, we rode very few rides. If you have visited WDW before and plan to visit at other non-Christmas times, I would say to use the December trip to soak up the Christmastime cheer and festivities, which makes it seem much less hectic and crowded. We were only there for three nights and we did the following:

Sunday we arrived at our resort - Grand Floridian - early in the morning because we had flown in the night before and stayed at the MCO Hyatt, so we were on one of the earliest Magical Express buses. We dumped our bags with bell services and went to get our mugs and a bite for breakfast, then went to explore the main lobby and get pictures in front of the Christmas tree and Gingerbread House. We were about to head to the monorail to go to TTC and on to Epcot when we got a text that our room was ready, so we got our bags and went to check out our room and then headed to Epcot. We had Memory Maker, so we hit a lot of the PhotoPass stops and then just toured around the World Showcase, looking at all of the Christmas stuff and stopping to enjoy Voices of Liberty. Then we returned to the resort, changed clothes and caught our breath and then grabbed a quick dinner down at the poolside bar. Then we went to Magic Kingdom for MVMCP that night.

Monday, we took our time getting up and going, and we had a table service breakfast at the Grand Floridian Cafe. Then my mother and I headed to Animal Kingdom for a few hours. We didn't do a whole lot: got a FastPass for Kilimanjaro Safari while on the bus heading to the park, so we did that, watched Flights of Wonder, found Pandora (I get lost in AK so easily) and checked it out, got some PhotoPass pics, and left. We came back and rested up, grabbed dinner at the quick service, grabbed my father, and headed to Hollywood Studios for the Jingle Bell, Jingle Bam dessert party and show (which was wonderful! So glad we did this!). We went back to the Grand after JBJB was over, and Mom and I went to the monorail and to Magic Kingdom to see Happily Ever After. This was the most crowded experience of our trip. Like...almost scary crowded. But the show was great!

Tuesday, we got up and got breakfast and headed to MK mid-morning to ride a few things (I was literally making FastPasses on the fly going from Haunted Mansion to Pirates to Pooh. We went back to the resort then to rest. Mom and I went to the pool (it was in the 80's and sunny our entire trip!) and we had a light lunch poolside. Then we got ready and headed out to Epcot for the evening. We had the Candlelight Processional dining package at Biergarten. This was fantastic! It was our first time eating there, and we had a table right beside the dance floor. The restaurant was all decorated for the holidays, and the band played Christmas music. The food was delicious, and our table mates were nice. We left there and went to get in line for Candlelight Processional. The line was CRAZY long (Neil Patrick Harris was narrating), but we wound up with good seats right in the middle and about half-way back. The concert was absolutely outstanding in every way possible, and I highly recommend it. We were at the 8:00pm performance, so we left there and headed to the FastPass area for IllumiNations (I insist on having a FastPass for this show as I love it so). We had perfect spots for watching, and the holiday tag on the end of the show was breathtaking. It was an incredible way to end our brief stay.

I'm so glad that we chose to focus on just the holiday/Christmas stuff during that trip. We had been for Easter 2016, and we knew we'd return again, so we didn't sweat the rides and other stuff that can be done at any time of year.

Sorry for rambling. Remembering that trip never gets old. I guess my suggestion is to do all of the holiday stuff. It's so worth it. And if you do things like dining packages and dessert parties, it makes those experiences much more enjoyable, IMO. I saw the huge crowd of people waiting for Candlelight Processional in the non-dining package line. I don't see how they possibly made it in...not with the amount of people who were guaranteed a seat in our line. And they looked like they'd been there a long time. We got in line about 25 minutes before the show and had fabulous seats. And I felt sorry for the people trying to watch Jingle Bell, Jingle Bam directly behind our reserved area, because once we stood up, they couldn't see anything. But you know what? That's why I forked over $80 a pop for the three of us to get the VIP experience.

Live it up. WDW at Christmas is truly magical.

Thanks for all the info...we have been to Disney probably 12-14 times as a family of four. Our last visit was August 2016. This year it is not the case. A hard year and it will be my younger daughter and I DD18. I am a planner, wish I was just a live by the pants kind of person, but realize that would not work for us. I spent about 60 hours planning our trip in 2016, but got everything we wanted. Trying for free dining this time, (its pretty important that I get it) and a little nervous about it. Once I can get past that, getting Christmas Tickets and ADR's I will rest until that 60 day mark. I really would like to experience the Candlelight Processional, but depends on the moderators when we go. Neil Patrick Harris would be a good one, or Kurt Russell. Again, we are on a tight budget this trip. The rides are not as crucial, I will need patches since my older daughter usually rode with my other daughter. I will be experiencing some rides for the first time and will need drugs I am sure. I did 7DMT and did fine, but it was a stretch, haven't rode a roller coaster in many, many years before then and had anxiety but the ride was fun. I am planning on riding a few if I don't chicken out to make my daughter proud and not to have to ride alone. Maybe we will meet up with others that are going the same week. I am an older mom, so really want to experience Christmas with her. Thanks again for your help.

 

[slpeters]

We were there the week before Thanksgiving (left on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving) and it was wonderful! Such a great way to jumpstart the holidays!

 

[soccermom54]

We usually go for a few days the 1st week of December. The resorts are decorated in addition to the parks. Even though we live only 50 miles from WDW, we love to spend a few nights on property during Food & Wine and the Christmas holidays. I still miss the Osborne lights terribly and I feel that is a tremendous loss to the Disney holiday experience. Love, love, love Disney at the holidays and this past December we enjoyed the Christmas Tree festival at Disney Springs, also. Beautiful themed trees, carols playing and the snow was great!