The Infamous Christmas - New Year's Week: Share Your Crowd Stories (and Pics)

A

Arthur Wellesley

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
For many who have experienced the Christmas thru New Year's week in the past at the parks, I simply could have just said: "Hell Week" or "THE Week", and you would've immediately known what I meant. That one time of year when EVERY educational institution on the globe from preschool all the way to the most elite college is closed, many government offices and other businesses are closed, Christmas presents have been opened, so...the world decides to travel!! And travel we do. From the smallest tourist town to the busiest resort city, that week alone brings memories of standstill traffic, long lines for the simplest of errands, and abundant amounts of people as far as the eye can see.
For those of you brave enough to have experienced The World during this seven to ten day stretch of population overload, share any stories (whether horrific or merry), and preferably some pics of crowd levels.
 
A

Arthur Wellesley

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
p.s. And to any CM's, hospitality workers, service workers, or anyone who works with crowds during "The Week", and who's nights have felt like this as The Week rapidly approaches:
AfraidofDark-300x199.jpg

Just know that we appreciate all the hard work you do, and you shall endure!
 
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photomatt

photomatt

Well-Known Member
DTD traffic starts to back up on I-4 just past the 535 exit and it is only 5 pm. It's insane. Here's a pic for those that don't know what I'm talking about.
image.jpg
 
photomatt

photomatt

Well-Known Member
One of my passengers told me that there was a 20 minute wait at 11am just to get into Pecos Bills. He said he had no idea what the wait time was once you actually got inside.
 
PhilharMagician

PhilharMagician

Well-Known Member
Cmdr_Crimson said:
I've went during 2003...And all I saw where Lines.......So many Lines.....*shudders*
Click to expand...

and in 2003 WDW was still suffering from 911. That was WDW's slowest year between 1996 till today. I cannot imagine being there in these crowds. I have done Thanksgiving many times and that was crazy. Never will I go during this week or Easter.
 
PhilharMagician

PhilharMagician

Well-Known Member
photomatt said:
One of my passengers told me that there was a 20 minute wait at 11am just to get into Pecos Bills. He said he had no idea what the wait time was once you actually got inside.
Click to expand...

I remember the Saturday the Christmas day parade was filmed in 2007 and the line for Columbia Harbor House was around the side of the building and over to the Hall of Presidents entrance. it had to be 45 minutes to even get into the building. We took pics and left MK.
 
photomatt

photomatt

Well-Known Member
I just picked up a family at the MK and took them to their hotel in LBV. They had no idea it would be so busy this week. That's the third family today that was surprised by the crowds.

On an unrelated note, the MK parking lot is nowhere near full. Back in the day, they used to have cars parked on the grass by this time in the day.
 
Sage of Time

Sage of Time

Well-Known Member
I was in town until Tuesday and found everything manageable. Lots of higher than normal wait times, yes, but the parks weren't terrible to navigate. FP+ helped.
 
K

kettcobb

Member
We went to MK today and didn't find it too bad really, obviously it was busy but it was manageable. We got there around 7:30 and made it into the actual park about 8:10. Managed to do mine train, buzz Lightyear, speedway, Anna + Elsa, Belle, Thunder Mountain, Splash Mountain and a couple of smaller attractions. We left the park around midday. Definitely wasn't as busy as I'd expected and if you plan properly and get there early you can have a very enjoyable time.

I guess it's different if you rock up in the middle of the day expecting it to be quiet.
 
ImagineerDude

ImagineerDude

Well-Known Member
We were in MK this very minute on Christmas last year. Our offsite resort had a back road which I was very glad we found that lead to the Flamingo Crossing/West entrance to WDW so we didn't encounter much traffic until after we passed Coronado most days. We would get up early, stay until 11 or 12 go back to resort, hit up another park around 4, come back for dinner around 8, then back to MK by 10 because it's open so late. Believe it or not, I though the crowds we had during my early May trip this year were just as bad as last Christmas. The wait times weren't terrible, but the actual parks were packed with kids galore (shouldn't they have been in school?? ;) ) We learned how to navigate around the crowds over Memorial Day, Christmas, 4th of July, but not yet Easter (maybe this year!). Crowds don't bother me all that much, I'm one of those "if I'm away from home I'm happy" people. :)
 
Matt_Black

Matt_Black

Well-Known Member
photomatt said:
I just picked up a family at the MK and took them to their hotel in LBV. They had no idea it would be so busy this week. That's the third family today that was surprised by the crowds.

On an unrelated note, the MK parking lot is nowhere near full. Back in the day, they used to have cars parked on the grass by this time in the day.
Click to expand...

I imagine more people are taking advantage of the WDW transportation. That or they're cheating by parking at one of the resorts.
 

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