****Official December 2025 Thread****

[PPFlight75]

Just booked my New Year's Eve trip yesterday! December 30-Jan 1 at Port Orleans Riverside!

New Years sounds fun and crazy! Have fun celebrating NYE! Added you to our roll call.

 

[PPFlight75]

Hi fellow December travelers!
We are booked for Dec 15-21 @ OKW
Our largest family trip to date! First 3 nights we will have 5 and the last 3 we will be a party of 7. (As a family of 3 this is huge to us! LOL!)
We are splitting WDW & Universal this trip but staying OKW w/DVC points the entire time.
Ok, now that my "intro" is out of the way. Heading back to read everyone elses posts!
Also...when does the December park hours come out? Am I missing it?

Sounds fun! I love going with a big group (sometimes lol!) I'm not sure about park hours but I think they come out a month or so out but someone may know better. Added you to our planning post!

 

[PPFlight75]

December 19-24, Riviera Studio, party of 3.

Got you added to our roll call on post 2. Have fun planning your trip!

 

[PPFlight75]

Hi all! Planning a December trip for 19-23 at Wilderness Lodge and I have a few questions specific to Christmas trip planning and this maybe seemed like the place to post them? Apologies if not and I can move to the main thread! But if anyone knows, my questions are:

1) Do I need to prebook winter summer land mini golf? Website seems to suggest I can book 60 days out by calling a number. Is that necessary? I’d prefer to have more flexibility on time and just show up but not sure if that’s smart.

2) Do the Christmas sled rides at Fort Wilderness usually book up?

3) Does anyone know when the Christmas parade will be moving to regular park hours? The last party is on Dec 21 so does that mean it will be there Dec 22 during regular hours for sure or might it be later? And is it usually at both 12 and 3?

4) Any favorite Christmas snacks or activities I should plan on??

I added you to the planning page. I'm sorry I can't answer most of your questions, but as far as activities go, I love the storytellers around world showcase. My favorite is La Befana in Italy. Listening to these stories of Christmas while snacking around the world is my favorite thing to do at Disney at Christmas time. My other favorite is to take the monorail around all of the monorail resorts to check out their decorations. This is fun too! The sled ride sounds fun too. I've never done that one.

 

[Mtraynom]

Staying at AKL November 30th - December 6th. My mom, aunt, cousin and me. My aunt and cousin have never seen Disney at Christmas and have never been to Epcot or AK, and I'm so excited to play tour guide Going to MVMCP on Dec. 4th.

 

[PPFlight75]

Wi

Staying at AKL November 30th - December 6th. My mom, aunt, cousin and me. My aunt and cousin have never seen Disney at Christmas and have never been to Epcot or AK, and I'm so excited to play tour guide Going to MVMCP on Dec. 4th.

ll get you added. Sounds like a great trip!

 

[HannaBelle]

I am anxiously waiting for the December park hours to be released. Why does WDW wait for the last possible second to release the schedule?

The hubby is happiest when he is well fed, and I am happiest at early entry with low crowds. So, we typically do brunch 3 hours after park opening. A girl needs to plan!

 

[hauntedcity]

Are we mad?
Probably! But we are going December 26 - January 2, family of 4 at AKL Kidani.

We know it's the busiest time of the year, but it's something we have never done before. We're trying to set expectations, and focus less on rides, and more on the holiday experience. When the wait for the Mine Train is 846 minutes, what are some suggestions for experiences unique to this time?

 

[FireflyFi]

@hauntedcity we have similar plans. My partner wants to go at Christmas time, while it's always been a "never, ever at that time of year" for me So we're booked in 12/21-12/30 and my plans are focused on soaking up the atmosphere and spending most of our time in EPCOT and Animal Kingdom. And Disney Springs as we'll be staying at Wyndham Lake Buena Vista.

I'm still debating so many things...

• Do we try Jollywood nights? Maybe it's the YouTubers I watch, but there seems to be a strong emphasis on the special food, and I'm stuck on whether to pay $200 for a ticket and then $$$ for food. But then I see there are multiple shows that might make it worth it. If they would show Jingle Bell, Jingle BAM in the week before Christmas in regular park hours, like I think they do with the fireworks for MVMCP, I'd probably easily skip it. But I'm a sucker for special fireworks...
• What restaurants should we book? I've secured Raglan Road for Christmas Day (thank you, OpenTable) and am hoping to get Steakhouse '71 for Christmas Eve. We always like to get to Biergarten, so we will try to get a Candlelight Processional ticket for there. The updated menu for Space 220 has us tempted to try that again. I'm also thinking about seeing if we can get a GEO-82 reservation for a fireworks time (the special ticketed version doesn't appeal, currently).
• Should we bother going to MK at all? We always spend the least amount of time there due to the crowds, and they'll be especially bad during the time we're there.

Anyway, I hope everyone is having a relaxing Sunday! I look forward to reading about the plans everyone has

 

[HannaBelle]

Are we mad?
Probably! But we are going December 26 - January 2, family of 4 at AKL Kidani.

We know it's the busiest time of the year, but it's something we have never done before. We're trying to set expectations, and focus less on rides, and more on the holiday experience. When the wait for the Mine Train is 846 minutes, what are some suggestions for experiences unique to this time?

We did a post-Christmas / over NYE trip several years ago and had a great time.

On Dec 31, we went to EPCOT and did a couple of tours, it was a great way to spend the day while avoiding the really long lines. We loved the Behind the Seeds Tour. We did not stay for the NYE celebration.

We hit MK at rope drop on Jan 1, and it was absolutely dead for hours. It was awesome!

We typically arrive 30 minutes before rope drop or early entry, spend 3 hours riding everything we can, then have brunch / rest a bit, and then tackle the afternoon.

 

[PPFlight75]

We did a post-Christmas / over NYE trip several years ago and had a great time.

On Dec 31, we went to EPCOT and did a couple of tours, it was a great way to spend the day while avoiding the really long lines. We loved the Behind the Seeds Tour. We did not stay for the NYE celebration.

We hit MK at rope drop on Jan 1, and it was absolutely dead for hours. It was awesome!

We typically arrive 30 minutes before rope drop or early entry, spend 3 hours riding everything we can, then have brunch / rest a bit, and then tackle the afternoon.

We've done a between Christmas and New Years trip and definitively did rope drop for MK and left when it got too busy. Also spent time at EP and AK. We skip HS for short trips. We love just soaking in the Christmas atmosphere, riding a few rides, and snacking lol!

 

[PPFlight75]

Are we mad?
Probably! But we are going December 26 - January 2, family of 4 at AKL Kidani.

We know it's the busiest time of the year, but it's something we have never done before. We're trying to set expectations, and focus less on rides, and more on the holiday experience. When the wait for the Mine Train is 846 minutes, what are some suggestions for experiences unique to this time?

I agree with focusing on the experience. We enjoy taking the monorail around and looking at the Christmas trees/decoration at the hotels, the Christmas tree trail at DS, hitting up BC, YC, and Boardwalk to look at their trees/decorations. I can't remember when the storytellers are over at Ep, but we love this too! You'll have a great time