December when does it get busy

[cottontail]

Hello:

Just wondering in december when exactly does it change from not busy to very busy with the christmas vacationers. We have friends thinking of visiting from the l9th to 22nd of dec.

Deb.

 

[Ilovestitch]

I think it starts getting crazy the week before x-mas. We went this past Dec 16-20th. Early in our trip, there were no lines- for example Space Mt. in the middle of the afternoon had a 15 min wait.

It started getting more crowded over the weekend (18th and 19th) but wasn't too bad.

By Monday the 20th the MK was CRAZY- wall to wall people. Stitch had an hour and a half wait. Even the Haunted Mansion and POTC had hour long waits and those rides are usually walk ons.

 

[CPer'sMom]

Hello:

Just wondering in december when exactly does it change from not busy to very busy with the christmas vacationers. We have friends thinking of visiting from the l9th to 22nd of dec.

Deb.

We have made 3 trips to WDW at Christmas time ~ always the week before Christmas, typically the 17th through the 26th. Crowds have always been virtually non-existant for the first few days ~ great for viewing the Christmas decorations and taking advantage of all the special holiday happenings at the parks. Very little, if any, wait for rides ... we do utilize fast passes also.

You can see the increase in crowd size the closer it gets to Christmas day. From Christmas day on, the parks are very crowded; I would not ever visit during the week between Christmas and New Years.
Our last park day is the 24th ~ Christmas day is spent relaxing, shopping, dining at one of the resorts.

 

[OKW Lover]

It really depends on where Christmas falls in the week. But at any rate, the closer you get to the 25th the busier it gets.

 

[pugdog]

we went down the 6th till the 22nd and everything was fine untill the weekend before xmas. then like stich said that monday it really started to pick up. glad we went home weds since it was really starting to get bad.

 

[jwfla422]

When we were finishing breakfast at CMC on 12/14 this past year I was speaking to a CM and she had told me that we were in the calm before the storm. It was very quiet at the restaurant which we almost had to ourselves at 10:45. She said by Thurs. that week (12/17), they were expecting it to get very busy. Being that it was a week before Xmas I'm sure it was too.

 

[bonnick98]

this year we went to WDW Dec 8th-16th and for the most part the crowds were small. The evening of Saturday the 11th there was an enormous crowd @ MGM for the Osborne Lights, they were actually directing people to exit the park through the maintenance entrance because there was too big a crowd at the gates! And of course Mickey's VMCP was crowded, but overall it was a good time to go. We were able to ride the big rides (Space MOuntain, Rock-n-Roller Coaster, Tower of Terror, Splash MOuntain) several times in a row.

 

[whacked]

Here's the info on projected crowd levels. Scroll down to december, and you can look at it day by day.

http://www.touringplans.com/BestDays.htm

Note that the projected levels for many days are higher than the last several years.

Any time up to the 20th looks pretty good. Crowds start picking up after that.

Disney does at times get unexpected crowd spikes, so your milages may vary.

 

[jl3614]

I agree with OKW Lover, when the crowds start to pick up is dependent on the day of week Christmas falls. Christmas this year is on a Sunday - our kids have school all the way up to 1/2 day on Friday the 23rd. Last year with Christmas on Saturday they got out of school the whole week before, their last day was Friday the 17th.

If other schools are like ours (off 12/24 - 01/08), the week before Christmas may not be as busy as normal, but the first week of January could be very crowded.

 

[MLAinVA]

I agree with the posters who think that the holiday crowd rolls in on the Saturday before Christmas. We were there from Dec 16-19 this past year. The 16th and 17th were calm and quiet, but Saturday and Sunday the crowds in the parks were noticeabley larger.

 

[newholidayx2]

Nov 29, 2002 we could NOT get a deluxe hotel room anywhere on WDW property for 8 consecutive nights