Disney Christmas Crowds

We are now in the busiest week of the Disney World calendar. Christmas week is traditionally the most crowded time of the year to visit any of the 4 theme parks of Disney World.

During this time of year, standby wait-times easily reach over 180 minutes (3 hours) and in past years, parks, especially Magic Kingdom have been closed due to being a capacity.

Magic Kingdom

As of 1:00 PM on Wednesday, December 26, 2018, no gate closures have been reported and the longest wait at the moment is 140 minutes (2 hrs 20 minutes) for the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train in Magic Kingdom.

 

Epcot

Epcot is currently busy, but there are no wait times over 90 minutes.

Animal Kingdom

Animal Kingdom which in years past was the “quietest” of Disney World’s four theme parks is currently the busiest in terms of wait times for its attractions.

Currently, Avatar Flight of Passage is currently at 195 minute wait… That is 3 hrs and 15 minutes. Animal Kingdom also has three other attractions that are in the 2 hour wait range.

 

Hollywood Studios

Currently in Hollywood Studios there are two attractions that have 140 minute (2 hr 20 min) wait times (Slinky Dog Dash and Tower of Terror) and one with 115 minute wait, Toy Story Mania.

Dec. 26, 2018 Park Hours

Below are the the hours for the four main Disney World Theme Parks for Wednesday, December 26, 2018

Hollywood Studios	9am – 9pm	EMH 8am – 9am	Hours Open: 13
Animal Kingdom	8am – 10pm	EMH – NONE	Hours Open: 14
Epcot	9am – 10:30pm	EMH – NONE	Hours Open 13.5
Magic Kingdom	8am – 12am	EMH 7am – 8am	Hours Open 17

Is It Worth Visiting?

Is it worth the time and cost to visit Disney World during the Christmas week? As mentioned above, there are currently wait times over 2 hours on the most popular rides throughout the parks. With the increased number of visitors during this week, the Disney World Transportation Systems will be beyond full. This means that it is possible if you are depending on a Disney bus to shuttle you from your hotel to one of the four parks, it may take up to two hours to get from point A to point B.

On top of the increase wait and travel times, Disney has now implemented their tiered pricing system which means that the busier the season, the more the cost of admission. With Christmas time being the busiest time of the year, you guessed it, the tickets are the most expensive of the year.

Disney also recently increased the prices of snacks, beverages and food across the board as much as 25%.

In my opinion, visiting during Christmas week is not worth the cost. Between the cost of Hotel and admission you would be looking at an approximate cost of $325, per person, not including food or drinks, to ride, if you are lucky, maybe 6-7 attractions the entire day. Although Magic Kingdom is quite beautiful during the holiday week, I would save my hard earned money and visit during January or February to get more value out of my vacation and much, much less aggravation.