How crowded is the week before Christmas?

[chepar]

I am planning waaaaay in advance because I have airline vouchers to use that are expiring soon.

Always wanted to but never yet seen Disney at Christmastime. I am thinking of either the week before Christmas (arriving on Sat. 12/18) or a couple of weeks before (arriving sometime around Friday 12/10). If I go the week before Christmas, I can stay for 6 days, which I would prefer. If I go earlier in the month, it would be more like a long weekend.

If we go the week before Christmas, it looks like the AP blackouts are in effect. If we go earlier, there are no blackouts except on Saturday. I used to think conventional wisdom was to visit Disney in early to mid December to avoid the crowds, but I've been reading about the various APs available and how they affect crowds, so now I'm unsure.

So, how crowded will it be the week before Christmas? I know the week between Christmas and New Year's is the worst, but is the week prior to Christmas almost as bad? Are we talking 2 hour waits for rides and it being so crowded you can hardly walk? (This was the description of how Disneyland was during Christmas several years back from a friend).

In comparison, how will AP attendance levels affect the crowds earlier in the month? I would like to stay for a longer period, but the crowd level is also going to play a major part in my decision of when to go.

Thanks for any information you can provide.

 

[Eeee-va]

That's a great question and I don't know the answer. In late 2009 most of the AP crowding issues were in effect, and the second week of December (Wednesday - Sunday afternoon) was pretty wonderful.

That said, on that week, it rained on Friday and Saturday, which surely kept crowds down then. Wednesday and Thursday were delightful, but if you are only taking a long weekend, you'd probably miss a lot of that.

(All predictions were that the weekend we went would be TERRIBLE as far as crowds, and it did look like things were getting busier by the time we left Sunday afternoon and the sky was clear. But our Friday and Saturday turned out to be quite good.)

There are a lot of days that aren't blocked for Deluxe before Christmas (if you arrive on 12/18), so I think there might be some crowding issues just based on those, but someone who was THERE that time last year can probably give you a better idea.

Have fun whenever you go!

 

[Queen Elisabeth]

I am planning to arrive on the 17th, so I am interested to know, too.

 

[chepar]

There are a lot of days that aren't blocked for Deluxe before Christmas (if you arrive on 12/18), so I think there might be some crowding issues just based on those, but someone who was THERE that time last year can probably give you a better idea.

Yes, the Deluxe APs won't be blocked until the last day of our trip, though the SoCal APs would be blocked through our entire trip.

I think either way will be really crowded. Wish I could go midweek in mid December, but my daughter can't miss school to go.

 

[Todd Lee]

My wife and I are looking at going Dec. 6-11. We went a few years ago on the 2nd week of december, and it didn't start to get crowded until Friday-Sunday.

I'll be keeping my eye on this thread, if I need to change the dates a bit, I will.

 

[the donut]

We went this year the week before christmas. I thought it might not be too bad since the SoCal AP's were blocked out, but it was very busy. I remember space mountain being a 60 minute wait and when we flipped over to DCA to check out TSMM, it was also a 60 minute wait within a few minutes of open. I don't think I'll go again the week before Xmas, though we generally only go when it's not too crowded. Will local schools be out the days you're thinking about going? I saw carloads of teens being dropped off as we were parking in the DTD lot.

 

[Disney Dreams]

Very simple: Crowded.

That doesn't mean don't go. It's beautiful, fun, and a great time to be at Disneyland. But it willl be crowded.

Just know that, plan accordingly, and enjoy.

 

[Sherry E]

Well, I can tell you that I went to DLR on the weekend right before Christmas for the last 3 years. Both 2007 and 2008 were very crowded, but for some reason I could handle it. It didn't seem so oppressively crowded that I had to get away. However, 2009 on the same exact weekend was a different story. That day was far busier than the previous two years on the same weekend. The line for POTC - which moves fast, thankfully - was longer than I have seen it since the late '80s or early '90s, winding around in all kinds of ways. That was not helped by the fact that Tiana's Showboat Jubilee was attracting all kinds of people to congregate in that main walkway around the Rivers of America to watch, despite the CMs trying to wave them through. Haunted Mansion Holiday's line was already 45 minutes long before 11:00 a.m., which was a total shock to me compared to the previous 2 years!! The crowds were so dense everywhere we went in DL that it really deterred me from looking in any shops or taking as many photos as I wanted to.

The crowd that formed in front of It's a Small World Holiday at night was literally impenetrable. It was unreal. I have been riding IASWH since 2000, and while there are always lots and lots of people around it at night (because the colored lights are breathtaking to see), I have never seen this many people - it was a wall of people blocking any access to the whole IASWH area, let alone the line for the ride! I even had my PhotoPass picture taken at night in front of IASWH in 2008, and there were lots of people in the background but it was not as bad as 2009's crowds because at least I could get to where the photographer was set up. In 2009, we couldn't even get through the wall of bodies to get a closer look at the topiaries with the lights and all that.

Since the probable reason for the hideous crowds in 2009 was the economy and people choosing to visit DLR rather than spend more money to travel elsewhere, I would imagine that, unless we see a dramatic improvement in the economy in the first half of 2010, this years' holiday season will be a madhouse of epic proportions again!!

 

[chepar]

The crowd that formed in front of It's a Small World Holiday at night was literally impenetrable. It was unreal. I have been riding IASWH since 2000, and while there are always lots and lots of people around it at night (because the colored lights are breathtaking to see), I have never seen this many people - it was a wall of people blocking any access to the whole IASWH area, let alone the line for the ride! I even had my PhotoPass picture taken at night in front of IASWH in 2008, and there were lots of people in the background but it was not as bad as 2009's crowds because at least I could get to where the photographer was set up. In 2009, we couldn't even get through the wall of bodies to get a closer look at the topiaries with the lights and all that.

That sounds daunting. I'm assuming that as with this year, last year the SoCal APs were blocked the weekend before Christmas, correct?

There's crowded, and then there's CROWDED. If it's crowded like getting caught in a bottlneck crowd after Fantasmic or the fireworks (wall to wall people, shuffling along with some people calling out "Moo!") - don't know if I want to experience that (at least on an all day basis). Maybe going earlier in the month for a shorter time would alleviate some of that.

 

[Disney Dreams]

I would say CROWDED.

But again, who cares?

Plan accordingly. Know it will be crowded. Know everything will take longer. Know that you will not get EVERYTHING done. Know that you will see Disneyland during a unique time of year, get to see things you can only see a few weeks a year, be able to buy and eat things that are only there a few weeks a year, and enjoy.

That's just how I roll. Better to see Disneyland at Christmas crowded, than to not see Disneyland at Christmas at all.

- Dreams

 

[Sherry E]

That sounds daunting. I'm assuming that as with this year, last year the SoCal APs were blocked the weekend before Christmas, correct?

There's crowded, and then there's CROWDED. If it's crowded like getting caught in a bottlneck crowd after Fantasmic or the fireworks (wall to wall people, shuffling along with some people calling out "Moo!") - don't know if I want to experience that (at least on an all day basis). Maybe going earlier in the month for a shorter time would alleviate some of that.

Yep. CROWDED. See, prior to this past experience in December, right before Christmas, I was of the mind set that Disney Dreams shared with us. I would have said that I would rather see Disneyland during the holidays when it is crowded than to not see it during the holidays at all (because the holidays at DLR are my absolute favorite time to be there - more than any other time). But when I got there on 12/19 it was a different story, and I was thinking to myself, "Wow. If I had known it would be this crowded, I wouldn't have come." And even though I had a great time seeing the friends that I see annually during that time of year, the crowds were not anything like they had been the previous two years at the exact same time, as I said in my earlier post. The park reached capacity early on, and there just seemed to be mobs of people wherever I wanted to go in DL, unlike in the past. So my enjoyment of the park at that time of year was impacted because I was too daunted to deal with the crowds in the shops to buy any special holiday merchandise (too many people to push through in the NOS area to poke my head in the shops back there), and my friends - who LOVE Haunted Mansion Holiday, who LOVE POTC and who LOVE IASW Holiday - didn't want to go on any of those things because the crowds surrounding them was just too much to deal with by the time they met up with us.

This isn't to say I won't do it again if I have to. Once I have been away from DLR during the holiday season for a while, and the lure of holiday season 2010 starts to call me, if I cannot get everyone together earlier in December to go, then that same weekend may be what we are left with again. I am going to try everything in my power to NOT go on the weekend before Christmas again because I have NO clue what the crowds will be like this year with World of Color opening and all, but if there is literally no other time to do it for my group than that same weekend, then I guess I will have to bite the bullet and do it. (However, the one time I can say I will NEVER do again is New Year's Eve at DL - nope. Too much to handle!!) And you never know - the financial tides could turn and maybe there won't be such a mass descending on DLR, in particular, this year. Maybe more folks will end up at WDW or at some other amusement-type of place. It's still early in 2010, so anything could happen.

Now, on a positive note - even though DCA was more crowded than it had been the previous two years as well, it was less so than DL, as is usually the case, so it was a welcome relief in that we could at least walk a few steps at a time without being swallowed up in some mob.

Oh, to answer your question - yes, the SoCal APs were blocked out on the weekend before Christmas in 2009, but the Deluxe APs were not blocked out yet, so that got me wondering if some of the SoCal AP holders had upgraded to DAPs and perhaps that contributed to the larger than normal crowds.

 

[Miss SD]

Sherry E is right! My family and I have been to Disneyland the week before Christmas four years in a row and 2009 was by far the worst. So much so that my husband doesn't want to go this year.

We did early entry one day and it was noticeably more crowded at 7 a.m. That was when I knew we were in trouble. DCA also was more packed than usual--not a good sign.

DD still wants to go at Christmas, but I'm leaning toward DH's view on this one. If I could go earlier in the month, I would, but we're stuck with DD's school schedule.

 

[chepar]

If I could go earlier in the month, I would, but we're stuck with DD's school schedule.

Yep, that pesky thing called school! (just kidding)

Ok, you guys have given me stuff to think about. I can handle crowds up to a point, but if it's going to be that crowded for the majority of each day then I can see where I might start feeling claustrophobic and agitated.

The benefit if we go the week before Christmas is that I have 5 or 6 days in the park, so there's no rush to see everything - not that it sounds like you can rush anywhere that time of year. If we go earlier in December, it's just 2 or 3 days in the parks.

Thanks so much for all your help.