Here now...

[Disneygrl71]

Weather is absolutely beautiful! Parks are extremely crowded. The lady working fastpass at dinasour said she has never seen it this bad. For the most part everyone is nice but we’ve ran across a few very rude people, one older man shoved my sons hand out of the way to scan his fastpass badge while waiting in line for ROL show and the Disney worker politely corrected the man before I had a chance to step in and say something. There was a huge people jam in the back part of Epcot (by the Candlelight show) and literally no one could pass either way, it was a nightmare, but Disney had security there within minutes and cleared it up. It was a little scary as I thought a few people were going to come to blows, smh! We arrived at AK for FOP at 7am and still waited 3 hrs to ride it (no fastpass for us). Hubby came down with the Disney bug last night, hopefully he will be over it when he wakes up this morning (today is a rest day for us with the MVMCP tonight) Overall we’ve had a great time. Just wanted to share my thoughts while sitting in the room watching everyone else sleep lol. Overall thought..while it’s absolutely beautiful here and I love the weather and Christmas decorations, we probably won’t come back this time of year again just because the crowds are a bit much for us and now we’ve seen Christmas at Disney. If you have any questions I’ll try and answer them

 

[Mickey's Best Girl]

We love Christmas at WDW!

In early-mid November.

But even November is getting a little out of hand crowd wise.

Glad you’re having fun regardless of the not so festive guests around you.

 

[focusondisney]

Glad the weather has improved. We just got home Saturday from a week there & it was pretty cold for much of the week. I agree about the crowds. We have been that week several times, including the last 2 years. We thought it was much busier than we have seen before. Even if the ride times were’t gorrible, there were people all over & it was difficult to get around. Heck, even the loading areas for Carosel of Progress were full last Wednesday.

I think I will skip Christmas for a few years too. Fighting crowds at the parks & then in stores when I get home is just too exhausting! Lol!

 

[Klayfish]

Glad you're having fun! We head down tomorrow. As I've mentioned before, we take a very different mindset this time of year. It's crowded...very crowded. So we don't "fight" the crowds or try to get too much done. We just go with the...slow...flow of things and enjoy being away from home and in Disney. If it takes us 15 minutes to walk from HM to SM, so be it. Sure, it gets annoying, but we just take it as "it is what it is". We plan to do other things than focus on rides, such as stop for street performances that we don't do as much, visit hotels, etc... I can't wait!

 

[Disneygrl71]

Glad you're having fun! We head down tomorrow. As I've mentioned before, we take a very different mindset this time of year. It's crowded...very crowded. So we don't "fight" the crowds or try to get too much done. We just go with the...slow...flow of things and enjoy being away from home and in Disney. If it takes us 15 minutes to walk from HM to SM, so be it. Sure, it gets annoying, but we just take it as "it is what it is". We plan to do other things than focus on rides, such as stop for street performances that we don't do as much, visit hotels, etc... I can't wait!

That’s exactly what we decided after the first day..just going to relax and enjoy the decorations and ride what we can!

 

[KEW]

We arrived at AK for FOP at 7am and still waited 3 hrs to ride it (no fastpass for us).

What time did AK open that day?

 

[Disneygrl71]

What time did AK open that day?

Emh was at 8 am

 

[KEW]

Emh was at 8 am

Ugh! So even though you were there 1 hour before official open...the ride wait was 3 hours. Oh man. I was hoping that you had gotten there right when EMH started or something. Was hoping to get there around 6 for a 7 opening next week and that it wouldn't be too bad. I have a FP a couple of days later but would love to ride this more than once. Oh well. Thanks!

 

[Redbudlover]

We were at AK on the 15th and arrived at 8:30 for a 9 am open and waited 2 hours for FOP. I was shocked. I thought we might have to wait an hour - but 2 hours? Ridiculous. A man we talked to said he and his friend got there at 730 am and walked on. So I guess without an FP you have to plan on being there 90 minutes before rope drop. I had tried and tried to get an FP right at 60 days in the morning but was only going to be there 2 days and so there was nothing left...

 

[zebrastreyepz]

My dream was to do Christmas and now that I've done it, never again.

Rudeness level was off the charts, IMO, and I've been before at very busy times.

 

[annemce118]

I just got back from a quick weekend trip, and I loved the weather! The crowds were pretty bad. After the 2:00 parade at the MK it was hard to move! I was trying to leave and literally couldn’t go to where I wanted, so I changed direction. That was bad! I’m glad I went to MVMCP, but I doubt I will ever go again this late in December. Just too crowded!

 

[tarahill]

We too are here now. We have been doing our fast passes in the morning. Going back to the parks the after 5pm. Midday is a lesson in futility in trying to do anything in the parks. Magic Kingdom was insane yesterday, and they added an hour (it was announced at 10 it would be open until 12.) I keep telling my kids to pack their patience, and we will have a great time. Good luck with crowds, stay cool, and Happy Holidays!

 

[twodogs]

We were there Friday to today. We did DHS and Epcot Saturday, MVMCP Sunday and AK yesterday. Crowds were busy to me but not nearly what we had this year at spring break. Spring break in March was a freak cold front and they closed the water Parks. So everyone was at the parks and it was insane. It made me not want to return to WDW, that’s how bad it was. I thought this weekend was not nearly that bad. We stayed at Beach club and walked to DHS and boated to Epcot. We Minnie-vanned to MK. Lyft to AK. Really thought it could have been much much worse. I guess depends on which park on which day and perspective. We had a great trip and I was expecting horror. Spring break did make us declare that we would not use the Disney busses ever again. So that took a lot of stress off because we weren’t waiting 1-1.5 hours for a bus like spring break. Overall I thought this trip was less crowded than I expected.

 

[mom22boys]

How have the FP lines been? Have any of your waits been super long?

 

[Gentry2004]

How have the FP lines been? Have any of your waits been super long?

Yes 15+ minute FP waits for safari, Everest, mine train, etc. I’ve never seen anything like it and I’ve been Palm Sunday before.

 

[twodogs]

FP waits for us: EE was 20 minutes yesterday. Safari was 5 for us. FoP was 5 yesterday. Navi was 3 minutes yesterday.

 

[rn448698]

I guess depends on which park on which day and perspective. We had a great trip and I was expecting horror.

THIS. We were there from Wednesday through Sunday afternoon. We did MK and MVMCP on Thursday, Epcot on Friday, AK on Saturday, and DHS on Sunday morning. We showed up at rope drop each day, and we were at the pool each afternoon.

We used our car for the Epcot, AK, and DHS days. We parked at MK for rope drop, took a bus back to AKL (never again...), and Minnie Van to the MK bus stop. Overall, with fast passes in the morning (except FoP), planning, and avoiding MK on a non-party night, we experienced the crowds but also never waited in a line (except FoP). Granted, we didn’t get to do everything, but we definitely weren’t hanging around with nothing to do. The only regret was not seeing the French movie (now at 15 and 45 minutes after the hour) or going on Mission: Space. We did everything else we normally would do during slower times.

 

[theSurlyMermaid]

We’re here now too. No crazy FP waits and our standby EE said 45minutes but it was actually 30-35. It is horribly crowded but I haven’t experienced rudeness yet.

Both my kids got the Disney stomach bug. My son started puking at Animal Kingdom on Sunday (luckily in the first aid center) but he was over it in a day. It has hit my daughter much harder. This was her second day in bed and she and my husband missed riding FoP. Our fast passes were for today.

Wash your hands, everyone. Like ten times more than you usually would.

 

[mom22boys]

Both my kids got the Disney stomach bug.

Sorry to hear that. Hope your daughter feels better tomorrow. Is there seriously a stomach bug going around? I feel like one always goes around at Christmas even here at home.

 

[ellynsoh]

We were there December 4-12, and it was very crowded. There is no slow time now, and school-age children are prevalent all year.