How insane are the insane crowd days?

[jenniferyawn]

We were looking at going the week of Thanksgiving and/or Christmas but I'm worried because Kenny the Pirate has those days listed as insanely crowded! How bad is it? Strategies for those days? Can you still enjoy the parks?

 

[dprincessmom]

Google some wait times from last year to get an idea. Hour waits or more for most things, extended ques for lots of rides.

 

[rwdavis2]

Get to each park before it opens to do some popular attractions without a fastpass. Use fastpasses for a little later in the morning or afternoon. It's unlikely you will get a fourth fastpass for anything you'll want to do.

You just have to lower your expectations on what can be accomplished when it's crowded. As the PP mentioned, google is your friend.

 

[austinsmommie]

We have gone the last 2 years during Thanksgiving. It is crowded, but using fast pass+ and getting to the park as early as possible helps. Lines will be longer, we waited 40 minutes for Living with the Land (I think fast pass is partly to blame for this). They usually extend the hours. So we do try and do a few late nights, some early mornings and some resort time in the afternoon. We are going again this year for Thanksgiving.
We have never been during Christmas, but I think that is busier.

 

[itchin2go]

We went during Thanksgiving week last year, after numerous trips in so-called low season in January and October.

We didn't notice an appreciable difference in crowds. Now, we go for rope drop and bounce out after lunch, only to return later in the evening. If we stayed for the worst part of the day, maybe we would've noticed a difference. As it was, we had a great time, rode and experienced tons of stuff.

I will say that it helped that MK opened at 8:00 - lots of opportunity to get lots of stuff done while others are sleeping.

 

[JimmyBean42]

I agree to go at rope drop. And if you are eating meals in the parks, eat at odd times as the restaurants will be less packed at odd times and rides will be easier during peak eating hours.

 

[Lucius Best]

We've been during Thanksgiving weekend, it was busy, but didn't seem any more busy than February President's Day week. Christmas week was a completely different animal. We were at MK on New Year's Eve one year when they closed the park because it was at capacity. We wanted to go back to resort for food/jackets, but there were a few hundred people at front gate waiting to be let in, so we decided to stay. Then we got stuck in gridlock on bridge to Tomorrowland, so many people moving in both directions that no one could move, trapped for 5-10 minutes not being able to move, that was insane.

Having said that, my parents go to WDW at Christmas almost every year. MK usually has morning EMH every day at 7am. My parents are there for 7am rope drop, ride a bunch of rides (they don't care about big thrill rides) before the crowds get crazy, then wander around, relax, eat, do less popular rides/shows.

 

[SmallWorld71]

We went Dec. 23rd-Jan. 1st last year and we were amazed at how much we were able to accomplish. We got to do so much more than we ever thought possible. How? We dragged ourselves out of bed before the crack of dawn. MK opened at 7 am each day. We were able to basically walk on everything until about 9 am. The only things that got lines right away were the Mine Train and Anna/Elsa.
Now, the crowds in the afternoons/evenings were unlike anything I've ever seen! Picture an extended queue for Stitch that is completely full!
If you go Christmas week, be prepared to be up really early and/or stay up extremely late if you want to get a lot done. It was a fabulous trip, but an exhausting one and we will likely stick with our much less crowded summer or April vacation trips in the future.

 

[BarbieGal457]

To me, how bad the insane crowd days are completely depends on your attitude.

I was at MK this past NYE, and boy was it crowded! My boyfriend and I are very go-with-the-flow, so I had planned our 3 FP for as early as possible. Besides those, every time we saw a crowd, we went the opposite direction and it worked pretty well. We ended up with 6 FP by 8pm, and then just wandered on whatever we were near that had a short-ish line. I made dinner at Tony's for 830p and it took us over 45 minutes to get there from Splash. This was a result of many routes being blocked off for the start of all the nighttime activities. However, during that time period, since everyone was camped out for fireworks we ended up walking on a ton of stuff - we were even the only people on some things! We watched the fireworks at midnight from the bridge in New Fantasyland, and had an overall amazing time.

If you get there early, prepare with some meals and FPs, and try to be as relaxed and patient as possible, you can have a great time. We saw a lot of people having absolute meltdowns because they were trying to be so regimented and stick to a crazy schedule that just was not possible with the crowds. My boyfriend and I on the other hand had a relaxing fun-filled day with nary a disagreement or fight because we just rolled with the punches!

 

[BuckeyeBama]

If your focus is on the thrill rides, you could really hate it. If your focus in on the atmosphere, give it a shot. WDW at/near Christmas time is truly magical. That said, I would never go the week between Christmas and New Years.

 

[disneygolfer1985]

I have gone over both Thanksgiving and Christmas, and I think the crowds are not that bad during Thanksgiving. We have learned to avoid MK on either those days by going to the AK and it is pretty empty over there. Usually by the time we are leaving AK (around 1pm), the crowds are starting to pick up because MK may be close to capacity. However, it is a great time to go, but I prefer Christmas because everything at Epcot everything for Holidays Around the World is in full bloom.

 

[jenniferyawn]

Thanks yall! Sounds like early is best! I think we will definitely give it a try!