Week of December 13 crowded or not?

[tinkalicious]

I just booked Dec 14-20 on the recommendation of Your First Visit (certainly not my first visit, but I like his crowd calendar.) So I'm checking some other crowd calendars for dining ressies and such, but UT has it as a red week! 7/10 and higher. So who's right???

 

[scrappinmom]

Well I'm hoping everyone except UT is right! TP was good until the 22nd, & Easy looked good as well. We're going Dec 17-23 & I'm hoping crowds don't pick up until the 22nd.

 

[tinkalicious]

I was shocked when I saw that! I've always heard that week is the calm before the Christmas storm - crazy low crowds. I decided to finally let the kids miss a few days of school and try it.

 

[nkereina]

The closer you get to Christmas, the more crowded it gets. Since Thanksgiving is late this year like it was last year, we lose a week between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Last year, crowds during December were higher than normal and many attributed it to the shorter time frame between the two holidays. I wouldn't expect it to be slow, but it won't be Christmas day crowds either.

 

[nkereina]

I was shocked when I saw that! I've always heard that week is the calm before the Christmas storm - crazy low crowds. I decided to finally let the kids miss a few days of school and try it.

I've always heard the opposite - crowds ramp up every day the closer to Christmas. This is true for the week before Thanksgiving though, which makes sense since Thanksgiving kicks off the holiday season.

 

[tinkalicious]

I just broke down and joined TP. Crazy low crowd predictions! Only a few 5's all week. I do think they know better than the rest. We've done the week before Thanksgiving, and it was pretty great. Hopefully this one will be the same. I'm getting the heck out of Dodge on the 20th though LOL.

 

[jtowntoflorida]

I picked that week based on posts I saw on here last year about how low the crowds are. Easywdw.com bases his crowd predictions on data from Disney, and he's predicting 4s for most of the week, so that's what I'm going with. To me, it makes sense. Early December will be busy(ish) with Pop Warner. Christmas falls on a Thursday. Most schools won't be starting Christmas vacation/winter break until the week of Christmas, and most people likely won't pull their kids out of school just a week before the long winter break starts, because that will mean a 3 week gap from school. Plus, holiday pricing starts at Disney that week, so it's more expensive to go then. I think the week of the 14th is going to be a gap week between Pop Warner and winter holiday breakers, and I think that TP is just flat out wrong.

 

[Sandy Fisher]

I'm betting it will be more crowded this year. We used to try to get our time at the parks in before the 15th. It gradually got more and more crowded. And I predict this year will be even more so than last year. Thanksgiving coming late has that kind of effect, but FP+ seems to have ramped up the crowds so that it's hard to compare "last year" with what's happening this year.
We were there the first week of May and we've been going to Disney since '82 and it was way more crowded the first part of the week than we expected.

 

[kathy884]

I hope TP is right. I looked at my son's college final schedule, saw that he could go this week, checked TP, and said wow -- OMG, and booked a trip. lol // This will if TP is right be a paradigm shift for me. I mostly go on crowd level days between 7-10. Can't wait. With the low predictions, I'm even going to do a day at the Universal parks to see a few highlights. Disney and SeaWorld are our favorites, though. // In the past I have found the week before Christmas to be more like a crowd level 7 (less crowded than spring break, sooo much better than Christmas week, and a little lighter than most summer weeks)

 

[MichelleVW]

We went the week before Christmas last year and the crowds weren't bad at all.

 

[Life is good]

Will be there the 12th through the 19th- hoping for the best.

 

[pigletto]

Crowded is relative to what you've experienced and what you are expecting. We went that week last year and are going again this year. The crowds were moderate and got busier the closer it got to the holiday starting. By the last weekend it was very busy but we expected it and worked with it. I wouldn't go expecting "low" crowds. But it wasn't mobbed until the weekend we left (the 21st and 22nd).

ETA) TP bases their data on last years crowds at least in part. And like I said, last year was 8's and 9's by the weekend. We are taking the kids out for the week before their break starts but it will have started by Friday the 19th. I expect a lot of school districts will be the same. It just means we'll get our "must do's" in early in the week, and have a more detailed plan or non park plans for the last 2 or 3 days before we go home on the 22nd.

 

[tinkalicious]

Sounds promising then. We always do RD anyway, so with FP+, crowded rides/characters aren't a huge issue. We ride like crazy the few hours in the morning, have lunch, do BBB or PL or character meets, take a nap, then go have dinner, get pics, shop, fireworks. It's almost crowd proof LOLOL.

 

[scrappinmom]

That's my plan as well - get in our absolutes dec 17-21 and the 22 &23 hit the resorts, maybe rope drop for a few then leave. Hoping it works. I am pulling dd out of school for 3 days so we'll see how that goes. With one in college and one in high school, their band schedules, & work it's getting hard to find a time that we can all go. We've done spring break for 5 years, so I figure no matter what crowds have to be lower than THAT

 

[maryj11]

We went for a short trip that week in 2010. We were there that Monday and left on Thursday. We stayed at Pop Century and it was crowded, we had to stand most times on the buses, food court was always busy and the store there. But the parks did not seem packed, busy but not packed. The crowd calendar said it would be 4's but I would say the parks were a 5 or 6. When I was researching that week I was told the crowds start to increase on Friday and build from there.

 

[tinkalicious]

That's my plan as well - get in our absolutes dec 17-21 and the 22 &23 hit the resorts, maybe rope drop for a few then leave. Hoping it works. I am pulling dd out of school for 3 days so we'll see how that goes. With one in college and one in high school, their band schedules, & work it's getting hard to find a time that we can all go. We've done spring break for 5 years, so I figure no matter what crowds have to be lower than THAT

There ya go!

 

[GWhitten98]

We went that week last year and it was GREAT! Crowds were super managable. We didn't wait more then 10-15 minutes even for headliners(except TSMM) and walked on almost anything that wasn't. The most crowed we saw it was at MVMCP, osborn lights(after early fantasmic) and MK the Sat we left.

 

[JennyDrake]

I have been several times the 12th-16th. BELIEVE THE HIGHER CROWD PREDICTIONS. Crowds will thicken noticeably each day.

 

[mom2rtk]

It's all about when schools start letting out. While some schools will be in session for a day or two the week of Christmas, many will let out Friday the 19th. So expect much larger crowds to start pouring in on the 20th. If Disney thought crowds would be low, they would have tacked on one more party Sunday night the 21st. But they must expect it to be busy enough not to allow them to close the park early that night.