Disney World ISN’T as Crowded as It Used To Be at Christmas — Here’s How We Know

You hear it every single year — Christmas Eve and Christmas Day are two of the most crowded days to visit Disney World. We tell you it year after year, and you probably hear it from your friends too. You haven’t experienced Disney crowds until you’re in the parks at Christmas.

But is that STILL the case? Here’s the thing: Disney World is changing all the time. Yes, that means attractions are changing, snacks are changing, prices are most certainly changing, but crowds can change too. We’ve seen it happen during other times of the year, so the question stands: Is Disney World really as crowded around Christmas as it used to be?

Now, we’re in Disney World every single day. That sounds like an exaggeration, but we promise it’s not! We have reporters who head into the Parks every single day to check out everything new, and that includes holidays.

So, when we started to see photos coming through from Christmas, just a few days ago, and compared them with photos from previous years — 2021 and 2022 to be specific — we noticed that there was something different. As shocking as it seems, crowds don’t look as large as they used to be.

But that can change, depending on where you are in the park, right, that’s true, it absolutely can! But then we took a look at wait times and realized the same thing was happening. Yes, wait times were certainly still high, especially for Disney’s most popular attractions, but they weren’t as wild as we’ve seen in previous years. In fact, when we look back at our reporting from last year, it seems that this trend has been going on for at least two years now. This year, around 9 AM, Pirates of the Caribbean was a 20-minute wait, and Jingle Cruise was 50 minutes — not bad!

One of the biggest examples is that Gran Fiesta Tour, a ride that most people couldn’t care less about on a normal Disney day (which isn’t to be mean, we love this ride, but it’s just not super popular), was suddenly seeing a line out the door right around Christmas in previous years. This was something we had come to accept, and it was why we warned you how intense crowds and wait times could be.

This year, though? It wasn’t getting above a 30 to 40 minute wait, which is certainly much higher than this attraction is normally at, but nowhere close to the wait times we’ve seen in previous years. And that’s happening all over the parks! Do you remember the days when Flight of Passage used to be 300+ minutes near Christmas time, and that was totally normal? The highest we’ve seen that attraction get this year? 190 minutes. Again, that’s certainly a long time to wait, but demand has gone down significantly.

With all that being said, should you go to Disney World during Christmas time? Like many things, the decision is up to you. While we joke that Disney decorates for Christmas far too early (in some of our opinions, others of us on the team love it), it means that you get to see those gorgeous decorations, even if you’re not traveling the week of Christmas.

However, traveling closer to the holiday does get you special experiences in some cases, like getting to see entertainment that’s usually only reserved for Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party. If you feel that your family would have a magical celebration of the holiday by being in Disney World, then go for it! It will be more crowded than other times of year, but instead of being more intense than summertime now, we’re seeing it to be pretty on par, which is not something we could’ve said a few years ago.

All in all, Disney is still going to be crowded around the week of Christmas, and we don’t think it ever won’t be, but the worst of the crowds, the ones that we saw a few years ago, seemed to have dwindled pretty drastically.

We’ll be sure to keep you updated on all the latest Disney World news so you know exactly what to expect on your next trip, so stay tuned to AllEars!

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Have you noticed a similar trend? Tell us in the comments!

 

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