How Are The Crowds During Presidents Week In February?

[twinx4]

Hi

How are the crowds during the Presidents week in February compared to the Christmas holiday crowds?

 

[Doctor P]

Busy, but the week between Christmas and New Year's is probably the busiest time of the year for the parks overall.

 

[DisneyHumbug]

Sat, Sun and Mon are the busiest days. It gets better later in the week.

 

[beachblanket]

President's Day week is the second most crowded at WDW (Christmas is first). Wall to wall crowds ALL WEEK of northeastern families (they have a school vacation break then, and many come down for the whole week). So if you don't like Long Island accents, avoid this time!!!

 

[Mahusky]

Plus the Daytona 500 is the 18th.... you can get so residual crowds for that too.

 

[jodifla]

President's Day week is the second most crowded at WDW (Christmas is first). Wall to wall crowds ALL WEEK of northeastern families (they have a school vacation break then, and many come down for the whole week). So if you don't like Long Island accents, avoid this time!!!

Busier than Easter? Surprising!

 

[Doctor P]

President's Day week is the second most crowded at WDW (Christmas is first). Wall to wall crowds ALL WEEK of northeastern families (they have a school vacation break then, and many come down for the whole week). So if you don't like Long Island accents, avoid this time!!!

I find that hard to believe, and it does not jive with what we experienced during President's Week a few years ago. Busy, yes. Parks closing to visitors level of crowding--no way.

 

[Pocahantas]

And this year President's week and Mardi Gras are at the same time so there will be alot of people from Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama there to add to the crowds.

 

[beachblanket]

I find that hard to believe, and it does not jive with what we experienced during President's Week a few years ago. Busy, yes. Parks closing to visitors level of crowding--no way.

As other have already observed, the President's Day crowds can be readily exacerbated by other factors, particualrly big crowd drawers like major NASCAR events.

Also, unlike Easter (when school breaks vary, not all systems take a particular week then), the third week in February is used by a good 1/3 of the entire country as a school break. That leads to travel compression, which readily makes the parks as crazy as Easter.

And here's what some experts say:

TGM : warns his guests about this being a "five" (e.g., as busy as WDW gets.) Has also stated that the MK has occasionally closed during this period.

Disney itself (directly from their website):

Highest Attendance Periods:

Presidents' week in February
Mid-March through Late April ("Spring Break")
Memorial Day weekend
Mid-June through Labor Day
Thanksgiving Day and weekend
Christmas week through New Year's Day

Bottom line: anyone who doesn't want to experience the below should avoid the week the OP asked about.

 

[Doctor P]

As other have already observed, the President's Day crowds can be readily exacerbated by other factors, particualrly big crowd drawers like major NASCAR events.

Also, unlike Easter (when school breaks vary, not all systems take a particular week then), the third week in February is used by a good 1/3 of the entire country as a school break. That leads to travel compression, which readily makes the parks as crazy as Easter.

And here's what some experts say:

TGM : warns his guests about this being a "five" (e.g., as busy as WDW gets.) Has also stated that the MK has occasionally closed during this period.

Disney itself (directly from their website):

Highest Attendance Periods:

Presidents' week in February
Mid-March through Late April ("Spring Break")
Memorial Day weekend
Mid-June through Labor Day
Thanksgiving Day and weekend
Christmas week through New Year's Day

Bottom line: anyone who doesn't to experience the below should avoid the week the OP asked about.

The order of attendance that I have seen, which does not disagree with what you posted necessarily is:

1) Christmas Eve through New Year's Day (in a class by itself)

2) Week before and after Easter

3) Spring break peak weeks

4) Fourth of July week

5) Memorial Day weekend

6) Summer

7) President's Week

Furthermore, attendance at WDW is very global and not actually as sensitive to some U.S. school breaks as one might otherwise expect.

 

[byoung]

Tooooo crowded for me.

 

[lisareniff]

From what I understand, having gone a few Pres. Weeks (but with nothing really to compare it to)...

1 - Christmas through New Years
2 - Two weeks around Easter
3 - Pres. Week
4 - Thanksgiving Weekend

 

[beachblanket]

O.K., we can debate the prioritization of the "worst" to "the very busy" dates at WDW until we all turn blue. But whatever the actual order (which may very well vary by year, each can a little different depending on when holidays fall) we can all agree that wherever President's day week sits in the list, it's definitely up there in the club of the busiest times at WDW.

Which the OP should take into account in making their plans.

Frankly, in my humble opinion, the best time to go to WDW is during "transtitional" periods, e.g. the time when the resort is moving from a higher to a slower season (or vice-versa). Examples: early May and late August,

Why?

You get the best of both worlds - smaller crowds, but longer park hours and better entertainment schedules. Yes, going in mid January means no lines, but also having to leave the the parks by 6 and having to possibly miss Spectromagic. Take the same trip in late August, and you can walk on to the tower of terror at 7pm like we have, and enjoy MGM until 10.

 

[Doctor P]

O.K., we can debate the prioritization of the "worst" to "the very busy" dates at WDW until we all turn blue. But whatever the actual order (which may very well vary by year, each can a little different depending on when holidays fall) we can all agree that wherever President's day week sits in the list, it's definitely up there in the club of the busiest times at WDW.[/B]

Which the OP should take into account in making their plans.

Frankly, in my humble opinion, the best time to go to WDW is during "transfer" periods, e.g. the time when the resort is moving from a higher to a slower season (or vice-versa). Examples: early May and late August,

Why?

You get the best of both worlds - smaller crowds, but longer park hours and better entertainment schedules. Yes, going in mid January means no lines, but also having to leave the the parks by 6 and having to possibly miss Spectromagic. Take the same trip in late August, and you can walk on to the tower of terror at 7pm like we have, and enjoy MGM until 10.

Back on topic--the OP's question was simply whether President's Day or Christmas holidays are busier. The answer, unambiguously, is the Christmas holidays with NYE the single busiest day of the year and Xmas day right there with it. Two of the years we have been EVERY park closed to day guests, and onsite visitors only had one choice of park (at least for part of the day).

 

[ruddydvc]

We were there for President's week last year and will be again this year. the only day I found to be unbearable crowd wise was President's day itself. You couldn't move in the Magic Kingdom. there ws definitely a lot of Daytona 500 traffic.

However the rest of the week is very manageable and by the following weekend I would say the crowds are not bad at all. My main advice is the avoid the MK on the 19th if you can.

 

[twinx4]

We were there for President's week last year and will be again this year. the only day I found to be unbearable crowd wise was President's day itself. You couldn't move in the Magic Kingdom. there ws definitely a lot of Daytona 500 traffic.

However the rest of the week is very manageable and by the following weekend I would say the crowds are not bad at all. My main advice is the avoid the MK on the 19th if you can.

We were trying to go for the 14th or 15th and leaving out on the 19th. We figured maybe we could avoid a bulk of the crowd by coming in mid-week. We figured by the weekend the crowds will start to grow, we usually visit every Christmas but this year we weren't able to and I'm going through WDW withdrawal So I'm looking forward to the much needed vacation

 

[twinx4]

O.K., we can debate the prioritization of the "worst" to "the very busy" dates at WDW until we all turn blue. But whatever the actual order (which may very well vary by year, each can a little different depending on when holidays fall) we can all agree that wherever President's day week sits in the list, it's definitely up there in the club of the busiest times at WDW.

Which the OP should take into account in making their plans.

Frankly, in my humble opinion, the best time to go to WDW is during "transtitional" periods, e.g. the time when the resort is moving from a higher to a slower season (or vice-versa). Examples: early May and late August,

Why?

You get the best of both worlds - smaller crowds, but longer park hours and better entertainment schedules. Yes, going in mid January means no lines, but also having to leave the the parks by 6 and having to possibly miss Spectromagic. Take the same trip in late August, and you can walk on to the tower of terror at 7pm like we have, and enjoy MGM until 10.

That sounds like some good advice, now that I'm a DVC member I'm looking forward to visiting more that once a year.

 

[MOQu]

We will be going for our third year in a row during this President's Week. I have never had any problems and barely had to wait in any lines, but I subscribe to TourGuideMike.

 

[magsmom]

We leave on February 19th and have been for President's week many times. It's crowded the beginning of the week, but then quiets down.

It's NOTHING compared to the week up to and including July 4. I have never seen MK so insane.

What I did notice is that DVC was full for this week at pretty much the 7 month mark. That, and air is $$.