Crowds between Christmas and New Years

[momoflizandains]

We are WDW vets but thinking about heading to Disneyland. How are the crowds between Christmas and New Years? Are they as bad as WDW? I'm just not sure that I would want our first time to be at a time of enormous crowds.

 

[3Minnies1Mickey]

Yes they are as bad. And since DLR is a small space with narrower walkways, it may feel even more crowded.

 

[Malcon10t]

We are WDW vets but thinking about heading to Disneyland. How are the crowds between Christmas and New Years? Are they as bad as WDW? I'm just not sure that I would want our first time to be at a time of enormous crowds.

It is THE busiest week of the year. There are turnstile closures several times that week. That said, we go every year.

 

[robinb]

I went to WDW for Christmas in 2010 and then to Disneyland for NYE a week later (OK, OK, I was there for the Rose Bowl, but we also did a few days at Disneyland). DL was *very* busy, but not quite as busy as WDW is between Christmas and New Years. For instance, we were shocked when we were able to walk into the Via Napoli restaurant (or whatever it's called in DL) at around 7:00 for dinner.

 

[deanimal]

We went for our very first visit on New Years Day this year with two toddlers. I was pretty worried about crowd levels, too. I have nothing to compare it to, but it seemed really busy to me.

That said, we had a wonderful time. The decorations were beautiful and the characters were in their Christmas outfits. We were expecting big crowds, so we relaxed and enjoyed the atmosphere without trying to do it all. We also arrived at opening and were able to get our "must do" things in before the crowds built up. There was a huge difference between the crowds at 9 am and at noon.

I'd go again that week in a heartbeat!

 

[3Minnies1Mickey]

We went for our very first visit on New Years Day this year with two toddlers. I was pretty worried about crowd levels, too. I have nothing to compare it to, but it seemed really busy to me.

That said, we had a wonderful time. The decorations were beautiful and the characters were in their Christmas outfits. We were expecting big crowds, so we relaxed and enjoyed the atmosphere without trying to do it all. We also arrived at opening and were able to get our "must do" things in before the crowds built up. There was a huge difference between the crowds at 9 am and at noon.

I'd go again that week in a heartbeat!

While this is a typical crowd flow (less busy at opening) it is especially true on days like Christmas (spend the morning with family before heading to the parks) and New Years Day (park was open until 2am the night before).

 

[Malcon10t]

We went for our very first visit on New Years Day this year with two toddlers. I was pretty worried about crowd levels, too. I have nothing to compare it to, but it seemed really busy to me.

That said, we had a wonderful time. The decorations were beautiful and the characters were in their Christmas outfits. We were expecting big crowds, so we relaxed and enjoyed the atmosphere without trying to do it all. We also arrived at opening and were able to get our "must do" things in before the crowds built up. There was a huge difference between the crowds at 9 am and at noon.

I'd go again that week in a heartbeat!

NYE was pretty packed. Since most didn't leave til 2-3am, we didn't head back in til noon-1pm. New years day usually isn't too bad since many out of Townes also go to the rose bowl parade and then come back for late day.