The ONE Post You Need to Read If You’re Going to Disney World During Christmas Week

Look, no one said visiting Disney World during Christmas was going to be easy… but we’ve got a few tips that could certainly help.

Knowing how to best plan your park days around the higher crowds, wait times, and experiences we’ve seen from years past at Disney World is half the battle. But when you stick to our tips, you’ll be an expert on how to handle it once you’re in!

Budget For Genie+

If you’ve never heeded any advice from us before, PAY ATTENTION THIS TIME! We’re not joking when we say all of the Disney World parks will be very crowded so plan to buy Genie+!

Even if you think you could get through the entire day doing what’s most important to you with ease, the longer lines may not leave extra time to eat, shop, or take a quick break, and making lightning lane reservations with Genie+ will at least allow you to do just that if nothing else.

Get A Short Game Plan Together NOW

Setting your expectations with a short list of “must-do” attractions is key this week.

You’ll probably do best choosing a few things that really stand out to get done during your day and consider anything beyond that a bonus that you didn’t plan for but happened anyway.

Know The Party Schedules

Knowing which days to visit which parks is pretty crucial right now with the park pass reservation system still in place, but knowing when those park days could be shortened is a whole other level.

Both holiday parties at Disney World for Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party and Disney Jollywood Nights will shorten the day hours for those folks visiting during the regular park ticket hours. Unless you’re planning to extend your evening with a special event ticket, you might do best to get the most hours out of your ticket use by avoiding these select parks on these party nights leading up to Christmas. Double check the park hours in the app before making your park reservations.

Don’t Skip The Hotels

There’s SOOOO much to do around Disney World for the holidays WITHOUT needing a ticket to the parks and if you don’t believe us, just try to fit it all into one day. You’ll probably exhaust yourself — we certainly do!

Between the ginormous gingerbread displays at the Disney World hotels, tasty treats to track down, and the decor of the trees to check out, you’ll be busy for hours having so much fun you’ll feel like you’ve spent a full day in the parks by the end of it.

Pay Attention To When You Can Get In Early & Stay Late

If you’re looking to get the most bang for your buck during this week knowing when you can enter or stay longer than normal visiting folks is crucial.

Early entrance allows people staying at Disney World hotels to get into the parks 30 minutes early before the park’s regular operating hours and take advantage of the head start to knock out a few rides before more people flood in.

Additionally, select Disney World hotels allow their visitors the option for extended evening hours in certain parks throughout the week. Knowing if your chosen hotel is compatible AND taking advantage of this perk could easily help you feel like you’ve given it your best effort to “do it all” in one day at the parks.

You Might Get A Peek Into Select Experiences From Special Ticketed Events

In past years park visitors that were in Magic Kingdom the week of Christmas have caught a few experiences that could only have been seen at Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party until then.

Select stage shows like Mickey’s Most Merriest Celebration which happens on the castle forecourt stage…

… Mickey’s Once Upon a Christmastime Parade performs twice daily starting on December 23rd…

… and Minnie’s Wonderful Christmastime Fireworks shows are all borrowed to plus up the excitement Magic Kingdom has to offer to the influx of crowds.

This could be a great opportunity to get those pictures you may have missed during the party night or just relive the fun over again!

You Could See 2 VERY Different Fireworks Shows

While we’ve mentioned having multiple opportunities to see Minnie’s Wonderful Christmastime Fireworks spectacular most of the week if you’re planning on staying through the weekend closest to New Year’s, you may be in for another treat.

Currently, Fantasy In The Sky fireworks are scheduled to perform for the first time to kick off New Year’s celebrations starting December 30th and will perform again on December 31st.

So depending on how long your trip is, you could have multiple holidays to see this week.

Get Into A Park & STAY There

Remember when we said Disney’s parks will most likely reach capacity this week? Yeah, that’s going to make park hopping very tough.

Park hopping between Disney World parks can happen after 2 PM as long as the park you’re hopping to is not at capacity. If you make a reservation to visit a park and decide to park hop only to find that the park you wanted to travel to is at capacity you could have made a dangerous choice.

When you exit the park, even after scanning into your first park for the day, if that park is full, there’s no guarantee that you could even get back into that same park when you leave. So our best advice here is not to chance it. If you DO decide to park hop, pay attention to your Disney World app — you should get a notification there if a park reaches capacity. We also recommend calling the park capacity hotline — (407) 560-5000 — before you leave your first park. You’ll get a recorded message there detailing if any parks are at capacity.

And there you have it! That’s our best tidbits of advice for visiting Disney World during Christmas week. Be sure to stay tuned with us at All Ears for the latest updates, news, and more!

The Problem With Going To Magic Kingdom The Day AFTER Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party

What’s one OTHER piece of advice you would give for visiting Disney World Christmas week? Leave us your best in the comments below!

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