Christmas week - what is realistic?

[kcamozzi]

Hi all!
My family and I will be at WDW from Dec 21 to 26 (we are adults and teens). It isn't our first trip but it is our first Christmas time trip. In our heads we know to expect mass crowds, and so we plan to mix in a lot of "just enjoying the Christmas atmosphere". That said, we do still want to ride a few rides or attractions - even if we only get to do the 3 FP+ attractions per day. Is it realistic to think that we would be able to get FP+ for rides such as 7DMT at MK or FoP at AK? I'm hoping to get a few of the "E" ticket rides if possible. We are only doing 3 park days - Dec 22 at MK (also doing the MVMCP that night), Dec 23 at AK and Dec 24 at EPCOT. Do we have a chance of getting some of the more popular rides as FP+? We plan to rope drop every day and then leave in the afternoon - our evening will be only to go back to the park to see any night time shows such as Rivers of Light (we have a dessert party booked for this) at AK and EPCOT Forever (hoping that a dinner package or dessert party opens for this). Any thoughts, especially if you have experienced the parks Christmas week, would be greatly appreciated!

 

[NYCgrrl]

The December holidays is a great time to consider staying CL especially with the extra FP benefits it offers. We aren't rope droppers so the ability to pre book 6 rides while still sleeping late is a winner. Of course for RDers the advantages are multiplied since you'll get the 6 rides plus the ability to add more.

We have scheduled our 3rd holiday trip this year and by this time have set up a schedule that works well for us: no hard ticket parties since most everything but the snacks are already included later in the trip.

I've learned to bypass MK on Christmas Day unless we have morning back to back FPs; that place is a mad house with long queues for anything by late morning to late afternoon; it gets much calmer later in the evening especially when late hours are offered.
Should we unexpectedly find ourselves in a crowded scene at MK and want to eat we take a quick boat ride to Geyser Point and enjoy the good food and serenity offered there. For Epcot, Katsura Grill, is a great "hidden" spot for a sit down QS meal w/ no need for ADRs. At HS, our go to of late is the lounge at Brown Derby which doesn't negate the hybrid QS at ABC Commissary.

Our holiday traveling group has been 2 adults, and one or two tweens/teens to date. We stay in one room and use the terrace/balcony and club lounge for extra space.

HTH

 

[kcamozzi]

Thank you for your tips. Unfortunately we are not stay CL but are staying at POR with regular dining package. We are only doing 3 park days and I am expecting that it will be very busy. I am hoping that I am not being unrealistic by trying to get popular FP+ for each of my park days. I suppose my hope is that I can get those FP+s for the morning/late morning so we can leave by the time the parks get overcrowded. I am trying to keep my ride/attractions expectations fairly low, but am I being overly optimistic to think I might get FP+s for rides like FoP, 7DMT, Expedition Everest or Test Track? ...I hope not

 

[Bjkandma]

Even if you don't get the fast passes you want at 60 days out, keep checking, you never know. With that said, we never did get a fast pass for FOP in August with a 12 night stay, for any time, or any day making fast passes 60 days out. Good luck!!!

 

[Klayfish]

Yes, you will be surprised at the FP+ you can get. We're offsite people and not rope drop people, and have done Xmas twice. Both times we had no problem getting on 6-10 attractions in a 5 or 6 hour time frame, without running around. Use MDE and refresh often if you can.

 

[kcamozzi]

Even if you don't get the fast passes you want at 60 days out, keep checking, you never know. With that said, we never did get a fast pass for FOP in August with a 12 night stay, for any time, or any day making fast passes 60 days out. Good luck!!!

Yikes! I will have my fingers crossed for FoP then

 

[kcamozzi]

Yes, you will be surprised at the FP+ you can get. We're offsite people and not rope drop people, and have done Xmas twice. Both times we had no problem getting on 6-10 attractions in a 5 or 6 hour time frame, without running around. Use MDE and refresh often if you can.

This gives me hope . We don’t expect to do lots and lots but I’m just wanting to get a few popular rides in.

 

[cjlong88]

As long as you are flexible and check the app frequently, you can definitely find great additional FP's beyond your initial 3. Last year's Christmas trip was so much fun we decided to do it again! While the crowds are large, being flexible and going with the flow is what makes it so enjoyable. The holiday atmosphere has the best feeling compared to any other time at Disney.

 

[MissionMouse]

Getting popular fast passes is a probabilty for each day. Sometimes you get what you can but then revisit to see if availabilty changed. Sometimes it could mean you have some early and a very popular ride late. Use the mobile app on site too. Crowds are at their peak and so our thr prices, so have this expectation. Experience it at least once. We like smaller crowds as we have visited the three other weeks of the Christmas Season. I would suggest purchasing one of the extra cost events that allow your family to break away from the crowds (i.e., viewing dessert party, afternoon tea, show, etc.)

 

[kcamozzi]

As long as you are flexible and check the app frequently, you can definitely find great additional FP's beyond your initial 3. Last year's Christmas trip was so much fun we decided to do it again! While the crowds are large, being flexible and going with the flow is what makes it so enjoyable. The holiday atmosphere has the best feeling compared to any other time at Disney.

We are looking forward to the Christmas atmosphere!

 

[kcamozzi]

Getting popular fast passes is a probabilty for each day. Sometimes you get what you can but then revisit to see if availabilty changed. Sometimes it could mean you have some early and a very popular ride late. Use the mobile app on site too. Crowds are at their peak and so our thr prices, so have this expectation. Experience it at least once. We like smaller crowds as we have visited the three other weeks of the Christmas Season. I would suggest purchasing one of the extra cost events that allow your family to break away from the crowds (i.e., viewing dessert party, afternoon tea, show, etc.)

We do have the Rivers of Light dessert party booked and Caring for Giants. Hoping there will be something for viewing the new EPCOT Forever. I figured that we should do some of these extra cost events just to make it easier for the family

 

[kcamozzi]

Thanks everyone! It was good to hear about what has worked for you and what your experience was at getting FP+s during Christmas season. I’m feeling encouraged and more hopeful! I know we will have a fun trip and I’m looking forward to spending Christmas in WDW

 

[roxiepenguin]

We're probably the minority, but we did not enjoy the crowds last December so I doubt we'll do a Christmastime visit in the future. We had plenty of FPs, dining reservations, etc., but just didn't enjoy the molasses of moving through the park. Definitely not the time of year to full-on plan accomplishing a lot, but if you are okay with hitting a few things each day and don't mind wall-to-wall people, you'll be fine.

 

[BlueEyedBoys]

We were there last year during Christmas and got FOP 60 days out. We did not get SDD at that time, but I was able to get it about 2 weeks out through checking the app. We were patient and did everything that we wanted to do! Like some of the others have mentioned, flexibility is key. A great way to catch fireworks without being in the madness is to have dinner at a resort with viewing. I hope you have a great time! We are already booked for Christmas 2020!

 

[DiningPlanDevastator]

I've been during the week between Christmas and New Years and it was definitely crowded; however, manageable. I would suggest using TouringPlans to create an agenda of what order to the attractions. If you're not familiar with them, they use historical data to forecast wait times on the attractions and gives you a little more knowledge that most park goers about the ebb and flow of crowd characteristics.

My family typically will be at the park at rope drop and leave around 12-2 and go back to the hotel to swim, nap, etc. Then return to parks around 6PM or so and stay until park closes. The crowds seem to steadily increase until early afternoon and then slowly decline until park close. I would also suggest getting a 8AM (or anytime prior to park open) BOG ADR on a day that MK opens at 9AM. I have done this previously and was able to be first in line to 7DMT and ended up riding it twice before wait times got absurd.

It is easily to get frustrated with the people who will take your ankles out with their strollers and countless others that will be abruptly stop in front of you. I have to remind myself that I'm in Disney and life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.

Hope you have a great trip!

 

[kcamozzi]

We're probably the minority, but we did not enjoy the crowds last December so I doubt we'll do a Christmastime visit in the future. We had plenty of FPs, dining reservations, etc., but just didn't enjoy the molasses of moving through the park. Definitely not the time of year to full-on plan accomplishing a lot, but if you are okay with hitting a few things each day and don't mind wall-to-wall people, you'll be fine.

I can totally understand that! My poor DH isn't a crowds person but he agreed to Christmas at WDW just to give it a try - he's a trooper

 

[kcamozzi]

We were there last year during Christmas and got FOP 60 days out. We did not get SDD at that time, but I was able to get it about 2 weeks out through checking the app. We were patient and did everything that we wanted to do! Like some of the others have mentioned, flexibility is key. A great way to catch fireworks without being in the madness is to have dinner at a resort with viewing. I hope you have a great time! We are already booked for Christmas 2020!

I do see that a lot of people seem to really enjoy Christmas at WDW and seem to go quite frequently - this will be a test for us to see how well we do and how much we enjoy Christmas with the crowds. I'm glad to hear that you have had success in doing the things you want during the busy time. We will pack our patience and planning to be flexible

 

[kcamozzi]

I've been during the week between Christmas and New Years and it was definitely crowded; however, manageable. I would suggest using TouringPlans to create an agenda of what order to the attractions. If you're not familiar with them, they use historical data to forecast wait times on the attractions and gives you a little more knowledge that most park goers about the ebb and flow of crowd characteristics.

My family typically will be at the park at rope drop and leave around 12-2 and go back to the hotel to swim, nap, etc. Then return to parks around 6PM or so and stay until park closes. The crowds seem to steadily increase until early afternoon and then slowly decline until park close. I would also suggest getting a 8AM (or anytime prior to park open) BOG ADR on a day that MK opens at 9AM. I have done this previously and was able to be first in line to 7DMT and ended up riding it twice before wait times got absurd.

It is easily to get frustrated with the people who will take your ankles out with their strollers and countless others that will be abruptly stop in front of you. I have to remind myself that I'm in Disney and life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.

Hope you have a great trip!

Thanks so much! It's all very encouraging and we are quite excited to go! Our plan is very similar to what your family does - rope drop, leave around noon and come back in the evening to close. I'm trying to get everyone to take it easy, go with the flow and enjoy the atmosphere

 

[3threebabies]

We went December 22-27 last year (Saturday to Thursday) as a party of 3. I was only able to get SDD on the 27th (60+6). However, we surprisingly got FOP at 60+1. We had no trouble getting 7D or Space. We had 6 day park hoppers. While we were very happy with our trip last year, we did purposely book bounceback for WL CL in order to take advantage of CLFP this year Dec. 21-27.

 

[reluctantredhead]

We were there last year December 20-27 as a party of 3, and we had a fantastic time. (We've been during the same week twice before, but that was 9/10 years ago, so not as comparable.) . We did have the CLPF+ so we started each day with 6 FP+, but honestly we were able to get way beyond our 3 free FP+ by "refreshing" throughout the day...we fairly easily got at least 8 free FP+ per day, including all headliners (FOP, SDD, 7DMT, Space, etc), just by refreshing, and we never stood in a standby line with the exception of once for Muppets 3D (and that was very short). If you look at last year's threads for that week, several of us on the DIS were posting and commenting about how easily we were able to obtain extra FP+ despite the crowds. The standby lines were incredibly long indeed, but again, we didn't stand in any of them because we were able to constantly get new FP+ (and we aren't rope droppers or morning people...we usually don't get to the parks until between 10 and 11 am). I would definitely (if you haven't already) read the threads about how to refresh and how to start moving up your prebooked FP+ as soon as you tap in at your first FP ride...a surprising number of people don't know that they can or should do that, and it can make a HUGE difference.

Two other things I highly recommend are to make sure you have a TS ADR for each day you're visiting the parks, and to use mobile ordering whenever you can for your QS meals. The TS ADR guarantees you a place to sit and time off your feet, and the mobile ordering could save you 20-30 minutes of standing in line. I was astonished last year at the number of people who didn't use it...whereas we would place our order as we were leaving a ride, tap "I'm here" when we were about 2 minutes away, and then have our food within 5 minutes. I felt so badly for all the people standing in the long lines!

We thoroughly enjoyed our Christmas trip last year...so much that we rebooked for the same dates this year, and we can't wait! Don't be afraid -- as long as you go into the trip with a good plan, and knowing that it will be crowded, you will be ok. I hope that you and your family have a wonderful trip!