Getting discouraged for my trip to WDW December, 2020

[kaytieeldr]

Local here, the weekend starting before Christmas... through the weekend after New Year's is crazy busy..

In 2020, that's going to encompass pretty much two full weeks.

 

[Remy is Up]

Christmas Morning in MK on Main Street by 6AM, we did BTMRR, Space, HM, and 7 Dwarves all without FPS then used FPs on Buzz, JC, POC, Teacups, Mermaid, and Pooh. Walked out of the park at 11AM after pulling a FP for Everest, went to Ak did Everest, Safari, Dinosaur, and FoP all with FPs we pulled while in the park. Out by 4 and enjoyed a quiet evening.

 

[Unvoiced_Apollo]

Oh boy! I am checking out the wait times for WDW right now to plan and prepare for our family trip to WDW. Yikes! I don't like seeing the long, long wait times. Are there any positive reports I could read about dealing with the crowds and hoping to get on every favorite ride?

Are you staying on-site? if so, the best tip is to prioritize your favorite rides and when making FP reservations, go backwards from your last park day to your first (the closer you are to the start of your vacation, the less likely those FP's will be available).

If you're going in the first week of December, crowds aren't actually bad. I had a great time when I was down there and while there was at times an influx, it wasn't hard to navigate. Caveat: I did use Touring Plans. I found it useful to have an outline of a good strategy in how to do everything I wanted, even if sometimes I said "screw it, imma do this instead". It's $15 bucks to use the planning tool, but worth it for those insights. But as I had already figured out, it's a tool, not a straight jacket.

If you're going week of Christmas, what I would do is avoid MK on Christmas Eve & Christmas day like the plague unless you plan on rope dropping and staying in the park all day (or hopping to another park).

A tip that I thought served me well: If you're going during a time where they have the christmas parties, make your MK day an MVMCP party day even if you don't have a ticket to the actual party. Your day ends a little early but because people don't want to cut their time short in the parks, it decreases the crowd relatively signficantly. You still get hour waits (maybe a little more) on some attractions, but non-party days at MK are noticeably more crowded (to the point they have to open up a back area to bypass crowds for the fireworks in addition to the bypass by Tony's).

If it's in your budget and the it's available during your trip, get an Early Morning Magic for Fantasyland. You can get on the most popular FL rides and attractions and you get a complimentary breakfast. Takes the pressure off getting FP's for those attractions. And since breakfast is in Future World (go figure) then it's not hard to hop on Space Mountain when park opens to everyone else before getting your meal (ends at 10).

 

[Leigh L]

As painful as it sounds, get to the park for those 6 am EMHs or 7 am park opens. We have friends there now that say they were fabulous times to be in the parks. Walk on for the first hour. Then go back to the resort to nap in the afternoon.

I was at MK on December 25th, at 5:30 am for rope drop. I could've easily finished all attractions in tomorrowland and fantasyland by 8am, not kidding, rope drop is your best strategy

This!
We just did the 7 a.m. EMH on 12/24 and pretty much gotten through most attractions in the park by noon (except 7DMT, Space and Big Thunder, but the latter two we weren't looking to ride and we had a FP for 7DMT. I did notice Big Thunder had low wait times when we went on Splash mid-morning). Early morning is definitely the time to go. We stayed open to close since we only were at WDW for one park day and by far, this was the easiest time of day crowd-wise.

 

[wilbret]

Be willing to be flexible. Our trips to MK vary by what it's like.
We may only pin trade. We may just do Sorcerers of MK. We may focus on one section only. We may focus on shows, parades, and fireworks. We may do things we tend to neglect (Hall of Presidents, Country Bears, Tiki Room, etc. )We may go bananas, and let the Lines App take us all over the place. ;-) One time, all we did was seek out photographers so we had plenty of pics.

It's going to be nanners. Even the Christmas parties are wall to wall people now.

Make your fast passes the moment, and I mean, the moment... you can.
Take advantage of early hours. Just do it.
And always, you can hope for bad weather!! People are wimps, and you'll find the lines much shorter. ;-)

 

[ofcabbagesandkings]

We went the week before Xmas and the longest waits we had was for Millennium Falcon which we rode at 5pm, it was 45 minutes to the point where we were given our assignments and loaded into the cockpit. With that exception, our strategy was to hit RD every day, taking advantage of early hours and FPs, and do shows like Monster's Inc Laugh Floor or Muppets during peak afternoon hours. Mobile Order was also key at quick service places. I don't think it's worth staying in the evening for the fireworks and other evening shows this time of year unless you really love them because the crowds are insane and getting out afterwards is difficult (I may be a little salty because of the near-constant rain for our trip, though, which definitely did not improve the experience).

 

[Heather07438]

Time has a huge impact on experience. How many days are you going? A short trip is more challenging than a longer trip.

The best thing about the busiest weeks is the expanded park hours, sometimes a park will be open 16, 18 or even 20 hours. Work them to your advantage. Plan some long afternoon breaks if you do both rope drop and night shows. Heed the rope drop advice, but on a longer trip consider sleeping in 1-2 days (especially after attending a late EMH, event or party).

If you're able to do 2 days at a park, life becomes much easier with 6 pre-booked FPs.

Keep your ear to the ground as your week approaches for the parks to expand hours. FPs you were unable to get will have new availability once hours are changed. Example: You were unable to get 7DMT, SDD or FoP on the first days of your trip with 8 or 9am park opens. If a week before your trip WDW decides to open some parks an hour earlier than previously posted (likely), that first hour will have a brand new batch of FPs available. Sometimes MDE will show them available immediately after WDW changes the park hours, sometimes they will show the next morning 6am or so. And extra hours get added to evenings as well. Be ready to pounce!

 

[AngiTN]

If you are going this week it is what it is.
You either pack patient pants or you stay home.
That’s the fact.
We are having a great time but it is crowded and you will NOT get as much done as you would on a different week.
So you accept it for what it is or you don’t.
But if you go in to it without the right expectations you will be miserable.

 

[Lashed34]

We went early December a few weeks ago and MK was busy as hell - so get those FP+ in as soon as you can and then just try to do as much as you can.

Our trips to all the Disney Parks saw big crowds BUT RotR had just opened and so many people came to DHS for that, and then obviously went to the other parks too, so maybe next December will be different.

 

[Heather07438]

We went early December a few weeks ago and MK was busy as hell - so get those FP+ in as soon as you can and then just try to do as much as you can.

Our trips to all the Disney Parks saw big crowds BUT RotR had just opened and so many people came to DHS for that, and then obviously went to the other parks too, so maybe next December will be different.

Next December will have many other new attractions:
Mickey & Minnie, Ratatouille, HarmoniUS, Space220, and probably others.

I think the best strategy is prioritizing what's most important and like Angi said, balance your expectations. Don't focus on trying to do everything. We prioritized RoR & MF because we haven't tried them yet, Spaceship Earth & Epcot Forever because they'll change before we return, Kilimanjaro & HEA because we love them, etc. Then there were things we would've liked to do but didn't work out (Frozen EA, Ex Everest, and Peoplemover, 7DMT). We'll do them next time. Set some priorities and be flexible with the rest.