Why is the first week of December so crowded?

[MOUSEGIRL]

I gotta ask: if you’re a travel agent, why on earth contemporary?

That’s an honest question...I’d like to hear your reasons over the other 10 or so in that category?

I love being able to walk to the Magic Kingdom, I love being able to see the fireworks and castle from my room. We have stayed at the poly, the grand, wilderness and bay lake tower while they all have their own perks I just love the Contemporary. We have also stayed in most of the moderates and all of the values and every time I find myself wishing I was at the Contemporary. I think when we go in 2019 for food and wine we will stay at boardwalk or yacht club. i have looked at changing resort just because I want to experience others but with the in laws in their late 70's and their first and probably only trip to the world I just cant see moving them away from the Magic Kingdom. another good thing about the contemporary is that most rooms are in the main building so it is just an elevator ride to go get coffee or a snack unlike the other deluxe's that have very few rooms in the main building. I know i am staying in the garden wing but it is just a short walk to the main building unlike the poly where I can wonder around forever trying to get to the main house. Thanks for the question I guess in short its just about location for me.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

I love being able to walk to the Magic Kingdom, I love being able to see the fireworks and castle from my room. We have stayed at the poly, the grand, wilderness and bay lake tower while they all have their own perks I just love the Contemporary. We have also stayed in most of the moderates and all of the values and every time I find myself wishing I was at the Contemporary. I think when we go in 2019 for food and wine we will stay at boardwalk or yacht club. i have looked at changing resort just because I want to experience others but with the in laws in their late 70's and their first and probably only trip to the world I just cant see moving them away from the Magic Kingdom. another good thing about the contemporary is that most rooms are in the main building so it is just an elevator ride to go get coffee or a snack unlike the other deluxe's that have very few rooms in the main building. I know i am staying in the garden wing but it is just a short walk to the main building unlike the poly where I can wonder around forever trying to get to the main house. Thanks for the question I guess in short its just about location for me.

Ok...just simple curiosity.

I’d switch still to Beach club if I were you, However

 

[Disstevefan1]

The first week of December used to be one of the best weeks to visit, previously documented as a off peak time, Disney done a great job of filling in all the off peak times with various group sales, making WDW crowded all year round.

These days, if you want to make the most of your time at WDW, you have two options:
1. Spend a lot of money; club level, hard ticket events, dessert parties, VIP tours, etc.
2. Extreme planning, fastpasses, ADRs, and most important, ROPE DROP every day!

 

[Maelstrom Troll]

We always visit the week after Thanksgiving and crowds are usually moderate. With our last visit in 2016, the first Saturday in December was the busiest that we’ve seen MK in years. 90 min for IaSW ! So we ended up just using our fast passes and enjoying the shows like CBJ, etc. We are headed down the same week soon, I’m curious to see what it will be like. If all else fails, we’ll go back to visiting in February.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

The first week of December used to be one of the best weeks to visit, previously documented as a off peak time, Disney done a great job of filling in all the off peak times with various group sales, making WDW crowded all year round.

These days, if you want to make the most of your time at WDW, you have two options:
1. Spend a lot of money; club level, hard ticket events, dessert parties, VIP tours, etc.
2. Extreme planning, fastpasses, ADRs, and most important, ROPE DROP every day!

Agree...

And neither of those options are particularly “leisurely”


The current state of disney travel reminds me of the college situation in the US.

You pay full price up front, Then the sales people kick in and tell you that is really just “phase I”...it doesn’t cover anything.

You really HAVE to go to the not so scary for “exclusive access”...and the best way to see the fireworks is the dessert party. But you already paid to ride the rides and see the fireworks. $125 isn’t a reasonable price to get access to the magic kingdom concrete.

Younger engineers/interns have repeated the “you really can’t do anything without a masters/MBA/JD” fed to them by their college advisors over the last 15 years it’s scary. Start life with a $500,000 bill.

The similarities are eerie.

 

[JohnyKaz2078]

We always visit the week after Thanksgiving and crowds are usually moderate. With our last visit in 2016, the first Saturday in December was the busiest that we’ve seen MK in years. 90 min for IaSW ! So we ended up just using our fast passes and enjoying the shows like CBJ, etc. We are headed down the same week soon, I’m curious to see what it will be like. If all else fails, we’ll go back to visiting in February.

Saturdays in MK are busy all year round. I went on a Saturday in May and it was the same case. 2 hours for Space Mountain 140 minutes for the Mine Train, 70 minutes for Haunted Mansion....

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

Saturdays in MK are busy all year round. I went on a Saturday in May and it was the same case. 2 hours for Space Mountain 140 minutes for the Mine Train, 70 minutes for Haunted Mansion....

That’s more days than not - actually. It’s not a weekend thing.

It’s the result of the current fastpass system.

 

[JohnyKaz2078]

That’s more days than not - actually. It’s not a weekend thing.

It’s the result of the current fastpass system.

Yeah but weekends make this problem even worse.

 

[Me 'Earties]

It's an interesting theory but DVC resorts run at near 100% occupancy year-round.

Pre-Christmas December is extremely popular among DVC members because of the holiday decorations and low points required. I can, for example, book any resort in August but, in December, I nearly always have to book at my Home Resorts because, at the 7-month booking window, most rooms are already booked.

My point (or theory) is exactly what you’re saying; that there’s now just a steady stream of people at all times of the year. What’s helping is the advent of DVC (amongst other factors, to be sure). As I said that previously (it was cut from what you quoted) is that at any given time of year, the parks are in the range of busy to extremely busy nowadays.

And yes, what helps is the low point requirement during the post-thanksgiving to pre-Christmas to draw DVCers during that time of year. We went with our standard 2 bedroom villa at BLT (not my home resort) and didn’t have an issue for our last trip during that time of year (2014)...or if we did, we were put on a waiting list but got the room type we wanted eventually. Another hypothesis of mine is that studios or 1 bedroom villas go much faster than the 2 or 3 bedroom villas due to the point requirement and financial outlay for the number of points, but I don’t have any statistics to back that up, or if that was the case for you.

 

[Disneyfreak Jen]

Saturdays in MK are busy all year round. I went on a Saturday in May and it was the same case. 2 hours for Space Mountain 140 minutes for the Mine Train, 70 minutes for Haunted Mansion....

Absolutely. I don’t bother with MK on Saturdays anymore...unless I’m going at a Morning EMH and am planning on hopping to another park by 10 or 10:30.

I went at the end of January a few years ago, and that day was insane at MK. Low crowds were predicted.

 

[ParentsOf4]

My point (or theory) is exactly what you’re saying; that there’s now just a steady stream of people at all times of the year. What’s helping is the advent of DVC (amongst other factors, to be sure). As I said that previously (it was cut from what you quoted) is that at any given time of year, the parks are in the range of busy to extremely busy nowadays.

And yes, what helps is the low point requirement during the post-thanksgiving to pre-Christmas to draw DVCers during that time of year. We went with our standard 2 bedroom villa at BLT (not my home resort) and didn’t have an issue for our last trip during that time of year (2014)...or if we did, we were put on a waiting list but got the room type we wanted eventually. Another hypothesis of mine is that studios or 1 bedroom villas go much faster than the 2 or 3 bedroom villas due to the point requirement and financial outlay for the number of points, but I don’t have any statistics to back that up, or if that was the case for you.

Just be aware that DVC makes up about 15% of all on-site rooms. Considering that a large percentage of theme park attendance comes from offsite hotels, DVC members make up a very small percentage of overall theme park attendance.

This percentage hasn't fluctuated much since the opening of Old Key West in 1991 because even as Disney added DVC rooms, Disney also added much larger Value Resorts. (Recent conversions at the Poly and WL involved a relatively small number of rooms, while the VGF is tiny by WDW standards.) Going forward, this ratio will change with what's going on at CBR and CSR.

Instead, what's driving crowds during the off-season, including early December, are changes corporate Disney has made to how it prices and markets WDW. The International Festival of the Holidays, Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party, Pop Warner, Run Disney, Food and Wine Festival, Flower and Garden Festival, Florida resident discounts, and the new Festival of the Arts are all designed to attract Guests during (the no longer) slow season.

The first week of December is crowded because of how Disney markets and prices that week.

 

[Disneyfreak Jen]

I also think people use it as a holiday celebration. Instead of doing gifts the family goes to Disney.

 

[Me 'Earties]

Just be aware that DVC makes up about 15% of all on-site rooms. Considering that a large percentage of theme park attendance comes from offsite hotels, DVC members make up a very small percentage of overall theme park attendance.

This percentage hasn't fluctuated much since the opening of Old Key West in 1991 because even as Disney added DVC rooms, Disney also added much larger Value Resorts. (Recent conversions at the Poly and WL involved a relatively small number of rooms, while the VGF is tiny by WDW standards.) Going forward, this ratio will change with what's going on at CBR and CSR.

Instead, what's driving crowds during the off-season, including early December, are changes corporate Disney has made to how it prices and markets WDW. The International Festival of the Holidays, Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party, Pop Warner, Run Disney, Food and Wine Festival, Flower and Garden Festival, Florida resident discounts, and the new Festival of the Arts are all designed to attract Guests during (the no longer) slow season.

The first week of December is crowded because of how Disney markets and prices that week.

Very interesting and good points. I didn’t consider the off site hotels, but more so was thinking the the number of DVC rooms have increased; that the ratio of DVC to standard WDW resorts have increased. Anyhow, good points indeed.

Now I did mention previously that are other factors at play in regards to increase in visitors in what used to be a historically slow period, in addition to DVC-I just didn’t go into those details like you did, so I’m not trying to contradict that point

 

[AceExplorer]

As others have said, the "slow period" during the first two weeks of December started disappearing roughly 2008-2010 timeframe. I have wrestled with this because for many years I carved out this time period to go and avoid the crowds. Some reasons I have found:

1) The parks are seen as reasonably priced in light of the many hours of fun and activities you get for your daily admission. Even more so for passholders.
2) A number of years ago Disney put an active and very successful program in place to schedule convention groups and other special events to increase attendance during traditionally slower times. This "revenue capture" program relies on a small but highly effective group of statisticians armed with amazing software to better encourage and to "manage" attendance.

Much more could be said, but in a nutshell, Disney targeted slow times and has successfully evened out attendance at the same time that attendance overall has grown.

So what's in the future for us? Even higher attendance is coming with Star Wars and other new attractions opening. Keep an eye on the stock price. Gate revenue and lodging revenue is setting us up for a boost in shareholder equity. At least until Universal opens up their rumored whiz-bang "new park." Isn't this fun?

 

[cogman62]

Cause I just booked my stay there in Dec.

 

[Bpmorley]

We have been the first week of December 2 times over the past 3 years and never seen the hotels so booked up. The crown calendars say the week is at 4 and below all week , however most hotels are booked solid. We are staying at the Contemporary but can't get another room type. I checked the poly and the grand and nothing there either. I know that it is pop football week but they usually stay at the all stars.

We bought DVC in 2004, the first 2 weeks of December were the best time to go. Low points, low crowds, Christmas decorations. Weather, well that's too unpredictable. The only crowded resorts were DVC. I'm gonna say about 5 years ago that started to change. maybe free dining, combo packages, not really sure but all of a sudden you couldn't get last minute party tickets, dining reservations etc....

 

[21stamps]

Yes i am aware of pop warner the first week it has been the last few times we have been in December but I guess I am wondering if there is some sort of big conference going on? Pop has never affected the Contemporary, Grand or Poly and really dose not affect the parks much at all.

It has been this way for the past 3 years.

 

[21stamps]

Crowd calendars and resort availability are two different things. Disney resorts have occupancy up around 90% all year long. The fluctuations in park crows is driven by off-property guests, not an influx at the resorts.

To add to this, the crowd calendars did jump up closer to the dates, in ‘16 and ‘17. They went from 4 and under to 8s and 9s about 60 days beforehand.

 

[Bpmorley]

I’m born and raised Jersey girl and I avoid Jersey week like the plague!! It’s bad enough I live with these people, I’m not vacation’ing with them too! Same reason I don’t cruise out of New York....I’d rather pay to fly to Florida. 🏖

Same reason I don't go to the south jersey shore during summer. Too many philly people there

 

[Disneyfreak Jen]

Same reason I don't go to the south jersey shore during summer. Too many philly people there

Yup!!
I used to live in Cape May, all they do is drive slow in the left lane. ALL the time. Refuse to move over when they’re doing 55 on the parkway and have a line of cars behind them.