The week leading to Christmas.. is it crazy?

[ColoradoErin]

We are thinking about taking the kids to DW this upcoming holiday season, it will be the first any of us have been. Due to school and work schedules the best week for us to go is the week leading to Christmas, we could probably get there the 15th or 16th at the earliest. Be honest, are the crowds as bad as actual Christmas week? My girls will be 8 and 3 if that matters

Thanks!

 

[jaceraden]

Yes

But still wonderful in my opinion

 

[gap2368]

I feel disney has 4 times of year
busy
crazy
insanely busy
and why the ____ did I come
I feel ( and I was there last year before christmas that the park was between crazy and insanely busy

go at rope drop plane FP for around 11 and then hoe to get some more after you use your 3 find a place about 2 hours early ( if they are doing the christmas) for the parade have a snack and maybe have some one go get a FP for after the parade.

 

[Lumiere Lover]

We were at Disney last December 12-19. By the 19 the park attendance had jumped! I hadn't seen the parks that busy in a long time.

 

[christianweecare]

We have done the week leading up to Christmas on many occasions. We always do rope drop and have half the park done before the late-comers show up. We have our trips into the parks done before Dec. 23-24 which completes our trip. My best advise is to always head out early and it will be manageable.

 

[FreeDiningFanatic]

We were there last year 21-29, and we saw an extreme jump on the 26th. It's such a magical time with the Christmas decorations. If you go, do as other posters have said, and do rope drop until 11 or 12, then head back to the resort or lunch to rest.

We've done Disney many times, but I'd say I'm a little nervous for you being it's your first time.

 

[js]

Not a week before but we were in MK on December 26 last year, but our kids are older.
We were at RP at least an hour before opening.
We did everything we wanted twice and was really done by 11 am.
But, this also meant that we were up at 5 ish and walking over to MK (from BLT) at/before 6 am but
we had the rest of the day for other things.

 

[autkidd]

We were there from the 13th-21st. That was a Saturday to a Monday.

From the 13th-19th crowds were awesome. We didn't wait longer than 30 min for a ride. then the 20th hit and it seemed the crowds doubled in size over night.

 

[MelanieRI]

I'm going against the majority with saying that the week before Christmas is usually pretty good crowd wise. It depends on when Christmas lands that year during the week and how soon the schools will be letting kids out before Christmas. Generally, the closer it gets to the big day, the more crowded it gets. It's nice because after the last MVMCP, they start doing the parade and shows throughout the day at MK. Disney usually does a room discount or free dinning that ends right before the big Christmas rush (12/22 or 12/23). I find it much cheaper and less crowded to get my Disney Christmas trip in right before Christmas. Some years, depending on when Christmas falls on during the week, we can't go beforehand because DD would miss more then a day or two of school and we go during Christmas vacation (12/26-1/1) and it is so crowded! It's a big difference to go before XMAS vs between XMAS and NY. I would say with Christmas being on the weekend this year, a lot of schools aren't going to be let out the week of 12/18-12/23 and that the crowds won't be too bad.