Christmas 2010 @ Disney World are we going to Survive?

[kaliepooh]

Our family of four, dh, dd age 7 and ds age 13 will be traveling to the world this Christmas. We will be arriving on December 23rd and leaving on January 5th. We have never visited during this very busy time.

We have always wanted to experience the Christmas atmosphere at Disney. The kids are school age and it would be very unethical for us to pull them out of school for a vacation. We usually visit during the last two weeks in August.

Will we be able to survive the large crowds? When we visit during August the crowds are very light. We've been spoiled rotten. We visited once during July and the crowds were a bit heavy.

I've done some research and I recognize that this period is one of the busiest at Disney. Does any have any tips? I really hope that we can survive it. I consider us veterans during the not so peek seasons.

Help!

[Strmchsr]

You cannot imagine how busy it will be until you've experienced it. However, it is very magical to be in WDW on Christmas morning. The key is to use fastpass and don't try to do everything. Also, on the busiest days - Christmas and New Year's Eve - remember that the parks often hit capacity so pick one park and stay put. Don't try to go back to the room or you might not get back in to that park. Most of all - relax, have fun, and you'll enjoy your trip.

[Jeff]

My family has been every Christmas for the last 8 or 9 years, and we will be there this year too. Obviously, we love it. As mentioned, it will be more crowded than you have imagined but the decorations, shows, parades, special fireworks, long hours make it well worth it.

#1tip, be at the parks for opening. You can do most big attractions in first two hours.
#2, as Chris said, use FP wisely (send one adult to get desired FP)
#3, make ADR's now. Sit down places to eat make for a nice break from crowds
#4, MK on Christmas day becomes so packed it is hard to move. We always go there at opening, get family picture in front of castle with Santa Mickey hats on, stay 2 hours then head to Epcot for the day, see Processional n have a nice meal.
#5. be prepared for possible cold weather.

NEw Years Eve fireworks n atmosphere are awesome!!!!

Have a great time.

[DizneyRox]

You cannot imagine how busy it will be until you've experienced it.

Even then you don't realize... We go every summer and know exactly how hot it's going to be, we'e done it for years. Yet, every year, it's hotter than we imagine. Same with XMas crowds. You can't really gear up for the crowds, you just can't imagine how crowded it will be.

You'll probably experience a huge swing in leels over a day or two. It will go from almost dead to capacity crowds over night, and back down. The dates depend on the calendar which I'm too lazy to look at right now.

[SoaringDisney]

The best advice I can give you is to be at your desired park of the day as soon as it opens. I was amazed last year during the week of Christmas how empty the parks were in the mornings. We rode all the rides in Magic Kingdom that we wanted to ride by lunch on a Saturday morning and some we rode twice. Take advantage of extra magic hours if you are staying on property. The parks and resorts are so beautiful and it will be worth it to go during Christmas at least once

[kaliepooh]

Thank you guys. We are certainly late sleepers but we will try to get to the parks early in the morning. I believe we may have to add park hoppers to this trip. We usually don't need park hoppers. This may help us to get the best experience during the christmas season.

[magicalmom]

When we were there over New Year's the crowds dropped off quite a lot on Jan. 2. (It was also about 30 degrees F, which may have contributed to lower turn-outs)