Crowd differences in Dec vs Jan?

happydisneyfan

Earning My Ears
Joined
May 8, 2011
Messages
3
Hello, all--long time DIS lurker, first post. I've been to WDW many times, but will visit Disneyland for the first time this winter. My daughter and I have two options: go from December 27 to Jan 1, or from Jan 2 to Jan 7.

My question is, will there be an appreciable difference in crowds the week of Jan 2, or can we expect about the same number of people as Christmas week?

Many thanks!
 
Hello, all--long time DIS lurker, first post. I've been to WDW many times, but will visit Disneyland for the first time this winter. My daughter and I have two options: go from December 27 to Jan 1, or from Jan 2 to Jan 7.

My question is, will there be an appreciable difference in crowds the week of Jan 2, or can we expect about the same number of people as Christmas week?

Many thanks!

Oh yes it should be much quieter Jan 2 to 7. We went last year the week after Christmas when they closed the parks due to reaching max capacity 3x and managed to have a magical trip but I don't think I would go that week again.
 
Welcome to the Boards.

The crowds during the Christmas break are by far one of the worst times to visit the resort especially on New Years Eve. After the first weekend of January the crowds at DL will dropped dramatically since it will be in the off-season. On Monday which is Jan. 2nd, it is predicted to be really crowded that day, but after Monday the park will go to the off-season and the Holiday decorations will be taken down one at a time.
 

If I might make a suggestion: one year we went from Dec 28-Jan 4 and it was awesome because half the time the park was empty (basically after New Years) but before everybody was in the holiday spirit so it was very cool. Perhaps not this trip, but consider it for future times ... that trip was one of my favorites straddling the busy and empty season ...
 
Anybody know how busy the park is the week before xmas specifically 12/18-12/13 for 2011?
 
Just to throw another thought in, what about the weather? is there much difference between early to mid december and mid january? In 2010 we were in dl around the 20th of january and it poured raining for the whole 4 days, very unpleasant when added to the cold weather. :cold:
 
Anybody know how busy the park is the week before xmas specifically 12/18-12/13 for 2011?

Do you mean Dec 13-18?

We went Dec 7-14, 2010 because everything I read/heard said it would be low crowds. In my opinion, it was not low crowds. We experienced shorter wait times and less "crowds" when we went after school started in September. I would venture to say that the closer you get to Christmas the busier the parks get. So, what do you mean by busy? Are you looking for wait times?? We experienced average wait times of 30 min per ride when we went in Dec with the main rides/mountains averaging 45-60 min waits. Space Mountain sold out of FPs everyday of our trip by the afternoon/evening. We tried to get front "curb" seating for the parade 1.5 hrs before it started and walked the ENTIRE route with no front spots left -- we settled for a "2nd" row spot. This is quite different from our Sept trips where we walked on most rides with little to no waits -- we literally kept running back on SM 6x in a row with a 5 min wait time. So, for us -- Dec seemed busy. However, for someone that normally goes in the summer perhaps that time is dead to them. It is hard to explain crowds when it is all subjective. I looked on our local school calendar and our winter break begins on the 20th so perhaps that week before won't be too bad if other schools have the same break schedule, but we are in WA so who knows.
 





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