Christmas Time Advice

[Airblue1]

We are planning to go to Dinseyworld Dec 19 -Dec 26. Can anyone give us some advice about what to do and where to go? Thus, giving us the whole Christmas feel of Walt Disney World.

Thanks a Million Dreams

[Mousemates]

Christmastime is a wonderful time to visit WDW and the massive crowds that are there will certainly bear witness to this fact. :mickey: When visiting the parks at this time of year it is important to be early birds (get to the gates prior to opening) if doing any serious riding is important to you or your family.

Another thing I'd point out is it really is well worth your while to do a bit of resort touring to take in the Christmas decorations...WL, AKL, and the GF are each worthy of a bit of time and attention. So what I might suggest is hitting the parks early in the morning and then when the parks start to get that packed feel, use an afternoon or two to visit a few of the resorts, and then return in the early evening hours for fireworks, fantasmic, osbourne lights etc.

[casey@bat]

I agree. Get there early.

Go to Fort Wilderness and take a carriage ride around the campground. All the campers have their sites decorated. You could even plan to go to the sing along with Chip and Dale. They sing Christmas songs! You can roast marshmallows and then watch a movie outside. We love Fort Wilderness during Christmas!

[DDuck66]

Also since it can be one of the busiest times in the parks, make sure you take advantage of the morning EMH. We went at Christmas 06 and were able to get to the parks and ride almost every attraction before noon when the parks would get completely full. That left us the afternoons to "people watch" and visit the nicer resorts. Christmas time at the world is an unique experience to say the least.

[Bringonthemouse!]

We really enjoyed EPCOT last Dec. My favourite was Holidays Around the World. Storytellers from the different countries tell of their holiday traditions... very interesting and extremely entertaining!!
As others have posted, use the days that the parks will be incredibly crowded and do some resort hopping. They are all very beautifully decorated.
Disney World during the holidays.....:cloud9: Definately a magical experience. Have a wonderful time!

:tree::santa2::santa3::santa2::tree:

[tss22]

Call me crazy, but I always read the days leading up to Christmas were among the LEAST crowded. With the exception of the 26th, why is everyone warning of huge crowds? Am I mistaken in what I have read?

[Dopeysgal]

CHRISTMAS is the BEST!


Definitely leave some extra time to take in the Christmas decorations, especially the lights at MGM. I honestly spent HOURS there last year and did not want to leave. The hotels are also so beautiful, especially the gingerbread house in the GF!

I absolutely loved the Candlelight Processional and MVMCP. The Holidays around the world at EPCOT were also wonderful. Just thinking about it is bringing tears to my eyes! Disney at Christmas time is WONDERFUL.

[Mousemates]

Call me crazy, but I always read the days leading up to Christmas were among the LEAST crowded. With the exception of the 26th, why is everyone warning of huge crowds? Am I mistaken in what I have read?

Nope your not crazy....the week before Christmas is supposed to be a very light week, but I think that what is generally referred to as "the week before Christmas" is the week that ends on the Sunday prior to the actual holiday...this year Christmas day falls on a Thursday which likely means things will start picking up (big time) crowd wise during their stay....let me check something....yep, the big attendence jump this year, according to those folks who attempt to predict such things, will begin on Sunday December 21...which would give them one day (saturday the 21st) of truly smaller crowds (assuming they don't get into Orlando extra early on their arrival date).

SO I suppose this is an instance where everyone is right :mickey::thumbsup:

[krose78]

Don't even attempt MK in Christmas Day.

Take it all in.

And if possible take advantage of EMH.

[goofygirl64]

I definitely think that MVMCP is worth doing, but the last day for it is December 19th, so you would have to go the night of your arrival. My husband and I have done this twice, and I would definitely go again. Also, we love the Candlelight Processional at Epcot. It is so moving. It always makes me a little misty eyed. You really should see the HUGE gingerbread house at GF. It is amazing! :mickey:

[FutureCorpsFan]

We went the first week in December last year and it was mobbed. We thought, based on the research we had done, that it would not be very busy during that time and it turned out to quite busy. I think they had both the Heisman Trophy and the ESPN award voting being done at Disney, as well as some international kids soccer event. Needless to say it made getting things accomplished rather difficult.

With the above stated, it was great to see the parks and hotels decorated for Christmas. There was Christmas music everywhere so if you don't dig that, you're going to have a hard time! The party was great and the Osborne lights we simply fantastic.