Visit for the Christmas Holidays?

[disneygal55]

Could those of you DVC'ers who have visited for the Christmas Holidays advise me? We are planning to spend the holidays (12/26-1/01) in WDW.
We have visited for Thanksgiving and did't find the crowds too bad. Is that week...especially New Year's ...horrible with the crowd factor? Our son starts college this year so we can't take expect him to take off days from school this Thanksgiving. We would love to enjoy the Holiday festivities.

 

[CarolMN]

You will find the week between Christmas and New Year's Day to be significantly busier than the week of Thanksgiving. 12/26 -1/1 is the busiest time of the year for the WDW parks.

If possible, go the following week. Most colleges (on the semester system) have the first few weeks of January off as well as the week between Christmas and New Year's Day. The crowds nearly disappear after New Year's Day.

If you must go during the week between, just plan to enjoy the festive atmosphere (and the shows, parades, fireworks & decorations) and leave the rides for another time.

Best wishes -

 

[conciergekelly]

I have had to resort to the holiday travel periods now too. Takin 1 high schooler and 2 middle schooler out is getting too hard. So that said we went for our first X-mas trip last year. It was much more crowded than we were used to but it was tolerable. We avoided parks on X-mas day and took advantage of EMH. We took it easy and enjoyed the little things, the resort decor, music and just did what we could handle. We each picked one those funny santa mickey minnie, goofy etc hats and wore them. Drank lots of hot cocoa and Bailys. We had a ball. I would do it again. The crowds actually made us slow down and do things we usually don't do.

I am going at Easter and I m sure I will be needing to take my own advise. Have fun planning.

 

[RCM]

WE've been to Disney once between Christmas(day after) & NewYear and loved it. The resorts and Main Street are great. I think I loved the snow and the Christmas music the most. This Easter will be our 3rd visit and I think Easter is far more crowed. It doesn't bother us now that we belong to DVC. We take it very slow and see what we see and plan ahead a lot. We know we will be back to see the parts we miss.


RCM

 

[laceemouse]

Also, when it is that busy park hours are long. Some parks stay open until the wee hours of the morning, and with no little kids you can do that! We went the week before Christmas last year and it was wonderful. You will love all of the holiday stuff!!

 

[Melynny]

Yes it will be very crowded, BUT you get the festive atmosphere of the holidays. We have been several times between Christmas and New Years and we just plan our time differently. We have our old favorites that we must do, but then after that we spend most of the time viewing the decoratons, swimming, dining and just generally relaxing. Several times, we have entered the parks and not seen a single attraction, just the special parades and shows. It is definatly different than vacationing in a slower time. I say try it once, you'll get to see the decorations special shows and the party atmosphere that time of year. If you don't like it, Hey you will be back and you don't have to go over Christmas again!

 

[Ms.Mouse]

We went for Christmas twice. Both times we found that up until Christmas Day, the crowds were very managable. Christmas Day, the parks are elbow-to-elbow. I guess it stays that way until Jan 2 or 3. BUT we also found that even on Christmas Day, we were so overwhelmed by the crowds that we went back to the hotel and hung around there and went back into the park for EMH. We were able to just walk onto any ride we wanted to so where it took us all day to get on 5-6 rides, we went on that many PLUS during the EMH.

 

[tomandrobin]

We went the past year between Christmas and New Years. It was very crowde, but we expected that and planned accordingly. We absolutely had a blast and are doing it again. It was one of the our best family vacations. Loved the decorations, loved the atmosphere, loved the parades, loved the many extra hours of the parks, and loved the New Years fireworks!

FYI - book your dinner reservations early!!!! Don't wait until you get there to make reservations. The resturants book up months in advance during that week!

 

[byoung]

I'll stay with going in mid Dec.

 

[Happy Birthday Cat]

This will be our fourth year in the last five during the period you are talking about. Make your ADR's as soon as they are available, go to the parks early, have lunch, get out of the parks in the afternoon, relax, have dinner, go back to the park of your choice. Remember too the fast passes sell out early.

Good luck. It is a great time of year but avoid the afternoon crowds and plan ahead.

HBC

 

[karrit2000]

I've never spent Christmas there. I did go for New Year's. My suggestion would be that if you want to get to some of the Christmas Events like the Candlelight Processional that end before the new year go from the 28, 29, or 30th so you get a chance to do those things but stay over past the first when everyone else is leaving. That way you get some really busy days & some much slower ones as everyone else heads home.

 

[dvc guy]

This will be our fourth year in the last five during the period you are talking about. Make your ADR's as soon as they are available, go to the parks early, have lunch, get out of the parks in the afternoon, relax, have dinner, go back to the park of your choice. Remember too the fast passes sell out early.

Good luck. It is a great time of year but avoid the afternoon crowds and plan ahead.

HBC

This will be our seventh trip and Happy Birthday Cat has it right. TRy to start early if possible, last year we did MK at Regular opening timne 8 AM, and were able to do all the mountains and Buzz by 9:15, by 10 AM the crowds coming in where so heavy that I could barely walk back to the lockers( to grab some breakfast food. We love WDW over the holiday, been back 7 times, you need to pay attenion to all the advise. ADR are a MUST, be prepared NOT to see everything and most of all have fun