Returning to Disney World after 5 year hiatus... what to expect?

[Me 'Earties]

I was at WDW in Dec. '14, basically the same dates. We had never gone during this time of year (well, at least not since I was a kid, when my family lived in FL and just did day trips; now live in NJ) and expected low crowd levels. But, we were surprised it was busy (should have known better ). Like others have said, no slow times really any longer and so expect to still wait in lines; just perhaps not as busy as the heights of summer. Take advantage of the magic bands and download the My Disney Experience app to help book your FastPass+ and any restaurants you'd like to visit. And check weather before leaving! We assumed it would be warm and didn't quite have the right apparel for a cool evening around EPCOT (it just happened to be a bit cooler than the normal average for that time of year ). We also took advantage of the beautiful Christmas decorations at the MK, and did Mickey's Very Merry Christams Party there one evening-it was fun.

Hope you enjoy it!!!

 

[Chef Mickey]

Just have fun and ignore the naysayers. Many people will tell you it's worse than 5 years ago, but there are new positives to enjoy.

 

[POLY LOVER]

Nobody goes there anymore it's to busy,

Yogi Berra

 

[SyracuseDisneyFan]

I agree with Chef Mickey about ignoring the naysayers.

 

[KenW]

We went there just about the same time you did. From the day after Black Friday through the first week of December.

The Saturday that we arrived was the -least- busy the Magic Kingdom was our whole trip. I was hoping for a madhouse, but I would have put the crowd level on that evening as a 1/10. Very odd...

Unless you go early or stay late, you will not walk onto many things. Within the first hour of each park opening, we were able to walk onto Star Tours, ToT, Killamanjaro, and the Mountains. However at rope drop, things like 7 Dwarfs, Peter Pan, Toy Story will have waits. By an hour after opening, waits were 20-30 minutes and climbed as the day went on.

Fast-Pass the new rides. I would never waste an hour+ waiting in standby for 7 Dwarfs. Even with a fast pass, expect to wait 20+ minutes for things like Soarin'.

20 minute waits are short. Don't let those deter you.

Very Merry Mickey was the most crowded time for MK. Prepare to weave and bob through crowds in the dark.

If you're staying on property, you get a band. I found it useful, as I didn't have to carry my wallet.

Be prepared for both warm and cold weather.

It gets dark early.

If you plan on eating somewhere, get your ADR as soon as possible.

 

[jloucks]

We went to Universal Studios (US) last year, it was pretty awesome. We went to WDW the late in 2014 and it was ok. We are going to both this year.

What I have seen changing in WDW over time, and why I do go less often, are the ridiculous crowd levels. It is a cattle car experience as opposed to a quality experience. We do go off season, may 2012 (WDW) and october 2014 (WDW) and even then, it was pretty crowded. So we skipped WDW all of 2015 and did US instead. US was really nice crowd wise. Still a bit crowded from noon to 4, but not near as bad as WDW (harry potter land was pretty bad until after dark). WDW has the inner city bus style service that also degrades the overall experience. At US you have a nice walk along a canal to the parks, zero buses.

Oh, and then there are the scooters. Scooters running over your feet (had this happen, hurt a lot less than I thought it would), scooters ramming your ankles, scooters cutting in line at the rides, scooter cutting in line at the buses. I have heard rumors the cutting loophole has been closed. If true, it will be a nice equitable change that will surely lower frustration levels.

However, I am suffering some serious WDW withdrawals, so we are braving early November for a trip. It will be the last trip for a long time (to WDW) if none of the above has changed.

 

[thomas998]

Assuming you are staying onsite then be ready to fill up your fastpass card as quickly as you can if you want any of the popular rides. 7 dwarves mine train is likely to still be running out of fastpasses even in a low crowd time so don't just assume you can waltz right in unless you are fine with a 90 to 120 minute wait.

Don't go to Be Our Guest expecting good food, you are paying for atmosphere so if you are fine with that go for it.. but if you want value for the money skip it... Park hours may be shorter when you are there, so look at the calendar and plan accordingly.

If for some reason you are into the meet and greet stuff and want Anna and Elsa then use a fastpass for it, otherwise it tends to be a long wait because of the kid factor.... flip side to that is we went in the summer and had maybe a 10 minute wait for Olaf which I had expect to be as popular as the princesses but apparently he just isn't that big a draw.

If you are a star wars fan you can try and trade stuff with the Jawas so you might bring something with that in mind...

Oh and if you see any alligators, don't feed them.

 

[StarshipDisney]

I am right there with you. We have not been since 2010 (6 years). Planned the trip as best I could to try and catch as much as I could. Hopefully I will not miss much...other than the Star Wars Galactic Spectacular simply because I like Fantasmic.

 

[SyracuseDisneyFan]

I also agree with the advice on Advance Dining Reservations, especially at very popular places.

 

[parkhopper1213]

The My Disney Experience App and Magic Bands- You can get fast passes 30 days before your trip. The whole fast pass thing is very different. You get 3 fast passes in 1 park. When those are used then you can get more. But if you want to park hop, then you have to get your additional fast passes at the other park. By then, you know most of the fast passes have been distributed.

 

[disneyspirit]

5 years since we last went to Disney World. WoW! Had no clue!

Anyways, my wife and I are going Dec 1st to Dec 9th.

We're hoping crowd levels will be low as it's been recommended that's one of the best times of the year to go + we want to experience Christmas @ Disney.

My wife has a 7 day pass, I *think* it has ParkHopper option (bought it 3-4 years ago)... I'm hoping she can use it at Disney when we go and I'll need to buy a pass+park hopper.

Do we also need the MagicBand? If so, what benefit will it lend us in December? I imagine with low crowd levels we can get on everything we want in a day without much waiting. Advise?

We also plan to go to Universal Studios for a day or two... are crowd levels similar to Disney parks in December?

I could be wrong, but if you sign up for My Disney Experience, you can enter the code on your wife's ticket to see if it's still good? Then, if you purchase your tickets, enter your code, you'll be able to make fastpass reservations before you go. Sorry if I'm mistaken. If you haven't already, you might want to make restaurant reservations, too.