How are the crowds next week

[Catzle]

We are going from the 13th to the 16th wondering how bad the crowds are going to be. Have never been this time of the year.

[Strmchsr]

Normally I would say not bad on the 13-14th. Weekends are always a lot more crowded with locals coming in. Expect the evening of the 15th and 16th to be fairly crowded. The only question I would have is whether there are a lot more people attending this year due to the new Fantasyland and Test Track. Not sure how this will impact crowds next week.

[epceddie]

We'll be at WDW Dec. 9-16 and we're expecting crowds to be very manageable. The crowd calendar that I subscribe to has most days ranked 2 to 4, with a 7 on Saturday. The crowds really pick up after the 21st, with straight 10's from Dec. 22-31. Glad we'll be getting out of Dodge before it gets really crazy.

[DisneyDawgette]

We'll be at WDW Dec. 9-16 and we're expecting crowds to be very manageable. The crowd calendar that I subscribe to has most days ranked 2 to 4, with a 7 on Saturday. The crowds really pick up after the 21st, with straight 10's from Dec. 22-31. Glad we'll be getting out of Dodge before it gets really crazy.

Crowd calendar? Say what? And where?

We're planning a trip for next Christmas, so I'd love access to one...

[Strmchsr]

Crowd calendar? Say what? And where?

Don't put too much stock in those. Sometimes they're helpful and sometimes they're really off. I've found it hit and miss. The better ones, like Touring Plans, are a subscription service (like $10/year) but you can Google them and check it out. The problem is crowds aren't always following historical patterns, which is a lot of what those sites use, so you can get a nasty shock to expect a 2 and get a 7.

[epceddie]

I've found Touring Plans to be pretty reliable. Not that they're perfect or anything, but they give me a decent idea about what kind of crowds to expect and that helps with my planning. As always, you never know what kind of day it's going to be until you pass through those turnstiles and see for yourself.

[TexansInNY]

The second week of December is always great - see ya there!

[epceddie]

Hey TexansinNY, hope we all have a great week. Happy Holidays!

[DisneyDawgette]

Don't put too much stock in those. Sometimes they're helpful and sometimes they're really off. I've found it hit and miss. The better ones, like Touring Plans, are a subscription service (like $10/year) but you can Google them and check it out. The problem is crowds aren't always following historical patterns, which is a lot of what those sites use, so you can get a nasty shock to expect a 2 and get a 7.

Yeah, that's what I would have figured. I knew they were probably based on past numbers, and there's a lot of things that might throw that off this year! :/

[Fangorn]

I'm here now, and my experience has been that crowds are pretty light, even with all the openings. On Friday, MK was nice, as long as you stayed away from Fantasyland (and even that wasn't stay-away-at-all-costs-horrible). Yesterday (Saturday) Epcot didn't seem crowed at all, even at Test Track. At 3pm, the standby time for Test Track was 60min, fastpasses were gone for the day and the single rider line was about 30min. Soarin' was also a 60 min standby, but there were still fastpasses. In other words, just about normal.

DHS on Saturday night was crowded for the Osborne Lights, and they had 2 showings of Fantasmic. We went to the first one, got there about 25 minutes before the show and sat in the middle section - great seats. The theatre was only about 75% full.

We ended Saturday night at DTD, and frankly, there were more people there than we've experienced in the parks for the past 2 weeks.

Steve

[Catzle]

Great! We are really looking forward to our first "Christmas" experience at Disney!