December crowds

[KGrogan2018]

whos been 1st week of December? Looking for advice and insight on crowd levels that time of year!!

 

[jaceraden]

Known to be lower than other times towards the end of the year but the crowd levels are increasing all over the map so a slow time is not the same level of slow it used to be.

FWIW - the first week of December is when we typically travel to WDW and we love it.

Of course this year is possibly when GE is opening so you can throw slow out the window if that's the case...

Edited to fix an autocorrect

 

[jaysmom4285]

We've been there many times at that time of year. You'll get varying opinions about crowd levels. Some will say it feels packed, and others feel it is fairly uncrowded. I'm with the latter group. There is no time at WDW that is truly uncrowded - it's only more or less crowded than other times. But we've always found early December to be a good time to go. In our experience, crowds are very manageable, and we have no issues getting additional FP+ for basically whatever we want, with a little persistent refreshing. The parks are decorated for Christmas, which is a sight not to be missed. One tip about MK. MVMCP is held four nights a week, meaning MK closes to regular visitors at 6 or 7. People tend to avoid MK on those days because they prefer parks with longer hours, but that makes it that much more enjoyable for those of us who choose to visit on those days. Since there are only three days a week that MK is open late (and that non-MVMCP ticket holders can see HEA), those three days tend to be much busier.

 

[kdisser]

We went December 7-16 in 2017. In parks 8-15.... Literally the first two days were decent and able to do most of what we wanted in the parks on those early days. After that we could feel the crowds coming in and becoming heavier in the parks. Star Wars is supposed to be open by then so there's no telling how it will be.

 

[gwb]

been going to WDW during 1st week since 2000 crowd are getting a bit more crowded as the years go by. But are very manageable . This year during am emh at EPCOT, after WS opened there was many open spaces as we walked between the countries. We had no problem getting a good viewing for Illuminations. The parks that were understandably busy was Pandora and Toy story land. MK was easy to get around, had a walk up in standby land for Buzz.
The 1 area of issue was with the Pop warner and cheerleaders at parks at night. Loud, pushing other people around no so called chaperones or parents in sight. Did see 1 group of cheerleaders walked out of MK with 1 adult woman yelling at CM

 

[AllThingsMickey4]

We just went November 30th - December 8th and I found it to be more crowded than I expected and more than websites predicted. For example, one of our days at AK was predicted to be a 1 crowd level and it turned out to be 6. I know people say crowd levels mean nothing, but I’ve found them to be pretty accurate on my other trips.

We also went April 26-May 3 2018 and crowds were much lower then.. crowd levels were 3-5. Also enjoyed fairly low crowds October 26-November 3rd 2017. Epcot on Halloween day was practically a ghost town.

We had planned on early December again for 2019, but after our most recent trip I’m having a hard time deciding if I want to battle the Star Wars and holiday crowds

 

[Jennasis]

It is crowded. Not Christmas Day crowded, but enough that you need a game plan. Avoid the park with EMH (especially MK evening EMH).

 

[gharter]

the first 2 weeks have not been too bad, but busier than they used to be. Then, the craziness starts and its crazy busy until about the 2nd week in January.