Travel on Christmas Eve

[fwm]

Has anyone had experience returning from WDW on Christmas Eve as far as airfare and airport crowds?

 

[ducklite]

Let me guess. you're masochistic?

Christmas Eve is a TERRIBLE day to travel, second busiest travel day of the year, right behind the Sunday after Thanksgiving.

Expect incredibly crowded airports and planes, lots of extra security, high fares, and general insanity and inconvenience.

Christmas Day is actually a better day to travel if you can arrange that.

Good luck.

Anne

 

[dznyacct]

My son and I were at WDW 12/18 -12/24 last month. I was really concerned about flying home Christmas Eve, especially with the increased security warnings. We got to the Orlando airport ~ 2 hours before our flight which left at 8 pm. There was ONE person in front of us at the ATA counter to check our luggage. I actually got out of line because I realized that I had put our film in our checked luggage and I was concerned that the x-ray machines would damage it. Most of the stores were closed so we headed to our gate. There was NO ONE in the security line. We actually chatted with the security person for a few minutes about how deserted the airport was. She said that the day before (12/23) was HORRIBLE with two hour security lines. I definitely made a mental not to NOT travel on 12/23!! I don't know if we were lucky because we had a late flight, but it was almost eerie how empty it was.

 

[Nick@ VB+OKW]

I sort of agree with dznyacct.......that most normal years x-mas eve night wouldn't be crowded. But this year(04) x-mas eve is a friday so it may be more crowded than normal.

We plan on flying to Florida to visit sister(West Palm Beach) on the 24th or 25th of December, whichever day we get the best fares. We will be there for 7-8 days so either of those days(24-25) will be OK with us.

 

[ducklite]

Keep in mind that this year Christmas is on a Saturday, Christmas Eve is on a Friday. That makes a HUGE difference. When Christmas falls mid-week, people stagger their travel dates.

This year you'll see some travel on 12/23, and a LOT of travel on 12/24, especially earlier in the day.

Anne