I Challenged the Crowds on a Sold Out Disney World Day and WON

We know a lot of people worry about visiting Disney World during more crowded times (but we all do it anyway).

The truth is the crowds can often get overwhelming, particularly around the holidays when things ALWAYS start to pick up in the parks. However, we visited Disney World, well, Magic Kingdom, on a day when it was COMPLETELY out of park pass reservations, and you know what? It wasn’t THAT bad.

Okay, first, we need to explain how park pass reservations work for those not familiar with the system. If you have a date-based theme park ticket, you do not need to make park pass reservations in advance when you visit a Disney World park. This includes most Disney World visitors. However, Disney World Annual Passholders and those without a date-based ticket have to choose a park to visit and reserve it IN ADVANCE. One caveat about Passholders: there are also “good to go” days when a reservation is NOT needed.

There are only a limited number of park pass reservations available for each park per day, so when they’re gone, those folks who need a reservation and do not have one cannot enter that park. So when the park pass reservations are sold out (aka gone), that’s an indication that a particular park might be extra busy on that day.

The Main Street, U.S.A Train Station in Magic Kingdom

That was the case for today, November 9th: park pass reservations were completely sold out for Magic Kingdom. However, we went to the park to see how crowded it was. And, yep, it was crowded. We parked at the Transportation and Ticket Center and got in line for the Monorail. The line was long.

When we reached the Magic Kingdom entrance, we also saw some pretty long lines to get into the park.

Main Street, U.S.A. was pretty busy, but not as bad as we might have expected. Still, there are a lot of people in Magic Kingdom today.

The crowds got thicker as we started to walk to Cinderella Castle. Okay, yes, things are crowded now.

However, we didn’t let it ruin our day. There are a lot of things you can do to battle the crowds in Disney World. If your priority is rides, you’ll want to consider purchasing Lightning Lane Multi Pass, as well as Lightning Lane Single Pass for those rides that have it. This will allow you to bypass long standby lines at rides and use the shorter Lightning Lanes.

One of the best parts of the day is that we got to see the Christmas Parade because Disney was filming the parade for its Christmas Day special on ABC. SCORE. However, Main Street, U.S.A. was blocked off for parade viewing except for crew and Cast Members, so we had to watch from another location.

So facing the crowds was worth it! The holiday season is one of the most magical times of year to visit Disney World, and if you go in with flexible expectations, priorities, and a plan, you’ll be able to navigate the crowds this time of year brings with no problems.

Check back with AllEars again soon for more.