Disney the week after Christmas

[eangel12]

It has been a dream of mine to go to Disney World during Christmas. I am a teacher so going during the month of December to Disney means I have to work around our "winter break". This year, we have the entire week after Christmas. I am looking at booking December 27th-January 3rd at Wilderness Lodge.

We have annual passes and are going for 10 days in August. We are rope drop people, take a break and head back at night.

Is it too cold to swim in December?? Are the crowds SO SO awful that it will be miserable?? Does going at rope drop allow a few rides?? Is it worth it (for those who have done it)?? I really want to see the Osbourne Light Show. Is it still there??

 

[eangel12]

And for people who are experienced, is December 20th to December 27th any better crowd wise??

 

[4xmom]

We use to go the day after Christmas all the time. We were teenagers so we weren't really "rope drop", more of we got the call that we better get in the park before it hit capacity. We also went in the summer a couple of times. I never even realized how crowded it was until we went in Feb. one year and it seemed empty. We just rolled with it. We knew there would be people everywhere, lines would be long, ect. We still had a great time. We didn't ever go swimming. But I remember packing lots of different clothes. One year we were all buying sweatpants and sweatshirts at the World of Disney. A lot of times, in pictures, we have on shorts.

 

[OhThePain]

We went once from a couple of days after Christmas until a couple of days after NYE a few years ago. Totally worth doing once. Yes, the crowds are big, but the parks usually have many more hours to compensate for that (for example, one day we spent 20 hours in MK, it opened at 7AM and closed at 3AM). The crowds started to pick up at about 8AM that day and the park was about empty by 1:30AM. I am a HUGE fan of people watching and there is no better time of year to do that at WDW. As long as you know what your getting into (I don't think any ride had less than a 60 minute wait most of the day, including Journy into Imagination) and you pack a whole lot of patience, you'll be just fine.

December is really hit and miss with weather. We found ourselves doing the shorts and t-shirt thing durring the day but would be in jeans and a sweatshirt at night. You may be able to swim, you may not.

The 20th to the 27th will probably have slightly lighter crowds than the 27th to the 3rd.

 

[tajz90]

We love Disney thru the 26th. We have taken that trip several times and it's completely manageable and our favorite time to visit! We visited once after Christmas thru the New Year and OMG, it was busy!!!! Glad we did it once, but never again. We had a happy go lucky attitude and realized we wouldn't get a lot done, but we actually managed LESS than we even imagined.

We don't swim at that time. Water is freezing to us. People do swim though.

 

[pad406]

We did our first ever visit over Dec/Jan 2010. The parks were very very crowded but, even as novices, we did manage to get a lot done. We alternated with some early mornings and late nights. It was still busy upto the 3rd, which was a Sunday, this year the 4th is the Sunday so my guess would be still busy upto that day. Dec 26th early morning was fantastic by the way, park was really empty till about 10:00. Christmas day we just wandered around various resorts on the monoraill loop, we were at the POLY. We did NYE at HS which was great fun and not too crowded. But the whole trip was fantastic, so good that we're heading back this year

 

[DVCFan1994]

It has been a dream of mine to go to Disney World during Christmas. I am a teacher so going during the month of December to Disney means I have to work around our "winter break". This year, we have the entire week after Christmas. I am looking at booking December 27th-January 3rd at Wilderness Lodge. We have annual passes and are going for 10 days in August. We are rope drop people, take a break and head back at night. Is it too cold to swim in December?? Are the crowds SO SO awful that it will be miserable?? Does going at rope drop allow a few rides?? Is it worth it (for those who have done it)?? I really want to see the Osbourne Light Show. Is it still there??

What are the ages of the people going? To me that makes a huge difference. I've been both before children and after. Same timeframe you are talking because my sister is a teacher. I think it is absolutely worth doing to see the Christmas beauty. Going pre-kids we would go on very few rides. We'd hit a park late morning do a ride or two, have lunch, maybe another ride, then pool for the afternoon (we are New Englanders and usually found it warm enough to swim) then dinner and usually illuminations nightly. We started this tradition pre FP-, when everything was a good old fashioned line. Everything had long waits, but we did the few we wanted and called it a day. It got easier to get more rides once FP- started but because we were not RD people return times were still late.

Did it once with an infant (not fun) then Christmas to New Years 2012-13. Kids were 4 & 6 then. It was manageable but still a little frustrating. Definitely consider Animal a Kingdom for New Years Eve morning. It is not open until midnight, so far less people go. It was empty. We did every ride we wanted (no kali) and were on a bus to DTD for lunch by 1130. I won't do MK for New Years. Too crowded, like made me claustrophobic crowded. We always do Epcot. We are usually at BWV, so it's an easy walk home. Last trip with kids we didn't make midnight, but could see fireworks from the room.

The Osborne lights are great. And we usually go around and look at some of the different hotels decorations. The gingerbread at WL, YC, BW, and GF are my favorites.

 

[nevamichelle]

I went a couple years ago and while it was pleasant weather wise during the day, I still needed a sweater in the mornings and sometimes a light jacket at night. But one day it got up to 80 degrees so you might be able to swim.

As for our crows level experience........it was like nothing I had ever seen before. Really. SO MANY PEOPLE. As long as you mentally prepare for the crowds and how slow everything is, you'll have an awesome time!

 

[double r]

You have gotten some really good answers, swimming yes it's possible we really just hot tubed it. If you are rope drop people I would plan my Fast pass+ for the evening when you return to a park. When the crowds get real bad we would resort hop to see all the decorations, Wilderness Lodge was one of our favorite. Go enjoy and just plan on crowds and you will be fine. Another thing if you can go to the park without any bags that will help as this year the lines for bag search were terrible.

 

[fishhunter]

We LOVE the Christmas season in Disney! We are a rope drop family and I certainly do meticulous planning prior to our trip. If you plan accordingly and make rope drop at least once at each park, you will have no problems. Some posters on here will tell you it’s not worth it but we have had no problems. I'm not criticizing others choices during their vacations, but a lot of the complaints are the complainers own fault. You cannot show up at any park during the Christmas season around 10:00 am, grab a park map at the gate and then try and decide what you are going to do that day and not expect to spend more than half of your time in lines. Also, do the Christmas Processional! It’s so worth it.

 

[tajz90]

Rope drop is a must and you should plan to stay the whole day, but even with meticulous planning, you're not going to accomplish as much during the week of NYE as you would Dec 20th thru the 27th. The amount of people is just amazing. Of course, we chose it because we wanted to experience it. Once was enough even though we had a great time. We are "seasoned" WDWers, so we didn't feel robbed.

And I agree on the bags. Just leave them at the hotel. The line through security was long!!!!