Parks for the Holidays

[myjourney]

We are considering Disney for Christmas and New year. What is the weather generally like? How late are the parks open on New Years eve, do you have to show up at RD and stay all day to avoid the risk of the park closing due to capacity?

 

[Robo]

We are considering Disney for Christmas and New year.

1- What is the weather generally like?

2- How late are the parks open on New Years eve,

3- do you have to show up at RD and stay all day to avoid the risk of the park closing due to capacity?

1a- Can be ANYTHING.

2- Past Midnight for MK, Epcot and DHS.

3- At MK and DHS, be inside before 11AM.

1b- Clothing in Dec.

There is no simple answer that takes all situations into account.

"Layers" will be the most versatile clothing to bring.

Consider the difference in what you will be doing at
WDW compared to the way you spend your time outside
while at home.

At home, you might be used to walking from a car, up a
sidewalk a certain distance, and then, walking inside a heated building.

So, you don't usually simply stand still outside,
waiting in the same spot for 45-60 minutes at a time.

You will be doing that kind of thing at WDW, if you
want to hold a spot a bit early and then watch
IllumiNations or MSEP and/or Wishes.

My wife and I are naturally "warm-blooded" and hardly
ever wear a coat at home in the winter until the
temperature gets to be constantly below 30 degress...
but STANDING outside at night at WDW for the evening
events, if the temp is in the 40's or lower (plus it
can be damp and windy,) can chill you to the bone
after about 15 minutes.

We're from the midwest and have learned to EXPECT ANYTHING as the weather goes in off-season Orlando.
We always pack winter and summer-wear.
In Dec/Jan/Feb we have even worn LONG THERMAL UNDERWEAR (after sundown)... we now pack it for any off-season trip.

Typical day:

Cool outside at 7am.
Wear shorts and Tee's.
Over that add a thin nylon wind-breaker
We put our "chilly-wear" and RAIN ponchos in a back-pack.
(Rain ponchos are REALLY cheap in hunting section of discount retailers.
You can buy BIG THICK ones to allow covering large jackets... more later.)

"Chilly-wear" is a nylon cotton-lined warm-up suit with zipper legs and a cotton-lined windbreaker.
We buy OVER-sized in these so they can easily be put on OVER other clothing.
After standing in the sometimes chilly "early-entry" lines we can usually take off the wind-breakers.
We always rent a locker at the park(s) and leave our "chilly-wear" in the locker 'til sun-down.
If it looks like rain (in Florida? Who'da thunk?) we take the Ponchos.

Much later, if its a warm night, we're just fine in the shorts.
If it turns windy/cool... we can visit the locker and choose which level of "chilly" OVER-WEAR to add to our clothing.

If it turns really COLD (windy 30's-40's not unheard-of at certain times of the year) we can make a restroom trip and slide-on the long underwear... OR... we can even add the final outer-layer of the RAIN ponchos (with their HOODS)... OVER everything else.
That trick (along with ear-muffs and gloves) has allowed us to "comfortably" stay and enjoy Fantasmic! or IllumiNations when others (less-prepared) have been "frozen-out."

 

[*pixie*dust*]

The weather is unpredictable. It could be a gorgeous 70 degrees or it could be in the 40s. Crowds are the heaviest of any week of the year. If you plan to go to parks on Christmas Day or NYE plan to go and stay ALL day, into the night. MK could reach total capacity well before noon.

 

[jfeasel]

We've been there several times and one year it was the coldest on record and we froze. This past holiday season the temps were in the 70s during the day and 50s at night but it was very humid.

It is very crowded but if you go knowing that, you will be OK. If this is your first time to Disney and you have small kids, I would not recommend going during the holidays because of the crowd.

There will be a lot of sports teams there because the bowl games in Florida all have a Disney day and ESPN's Wide World of Sports hosts soccer, basketball, wrestling and baseball tournaments during this time. That's why we go, my husband takes his entire high school basketball team for a tournament and then we go to the parks.

New Year's at EPCOT is incredible and the highlight of the trip. They do fireworks at 9 and then at midnight. The early fireworks are for those who can't stay up until midnight! Each county has a special celebration, there are lots of bands and DJs - very safe and fun atmosphere but it is packed. We usually get there around 11 am and stay for the entire day.

There have been times when we are there when the parks close because they are full, but that has only happened at MK and HS. Downtown Disney is fun to see as well as it is all decorated for the holidays.