Is this unusual?

[erosenst]

We are going to WDW at Christmas for the first time. I have been 'iffy' about it - thinking that it may be too crowded to enjoy it - but am trying hard to go with the flow.

Our FP+ window opened today (we're staying on premises) and I booked for the 25-29th. I thought that I would have limited choices, especially toward the beginning of the trip. Literally everything was available within 10-15 minutes of my preferred time. The only thing unavailable at MK was the Meet and Greet with Cinderella when I went back to look at noon. Frozen Ever After is still available with a number of options. I didn't check 'hard to book' at other parks.

I then did a quick look at hotel reservations - all but Bay Lake and Villas a GF are available (and most of those rooms are DVC so not a fair comparison).

I'm shocked - I expected everything to be totally booked. Is it Zika? Is "massively crowded" still 'not close to full'? Or...what am I missing?

 

[Accident]

don't worry, it's going to be massively crowded. You'll see last minute discounts you can't pass up starting to come out if it's currently lighter than they want it to be. I never decided to come for the fall until after halloween when I'm in that fall holiday mode with thanksgiving and xmas planning.

fastpass+ has been improved to be more fair so your seeing improvements in that area. You really need to be asleep in your planning to not find good stuff right away. Although you said the time you wanted, are you factoring in the time of parades or fireworks that you might be overlooking it does get darker earlier that time of year. Your window opened for a visit starting on christmas so everyone that is doing christmas at home and them flying out the next morning because of how the school holidays fall this year don't get their window until tomorrow. many schools aren't back in until several days after new years so it opened up a lot of options to different arrival dates this year.

It's not empty, since the hurricane this place has been a zoo and made a lot of the summer look a little emptier than it really was.