Alternatives To Crowded Parks?

[foreverducky]

I went for Christmas once and yes, it was very busy.

However, what I enjoyed the most was touring the hotels and seeing all the decorations. They were so pretty. Definitely go to the WL (my favorite resort), as they really know how to have that Christmas feel.

[disney-fan]

Haven been to disney at christmas many times .If your staying on property
take advantage of extra magic hours .the crowd leaves after the fire works .
Head over to Fortwilderness camp ground for a sligh ride through the camping loops.The campers decorate there sites . You can see video on You tube. Get on the
monarail and go hotel hopping. Also remember the christmas day parade has been taped for TV weeks before

[Johnie]

Oh you know what would be fun? Afternoon tea and resort hop to see the decorations.

If you can get away, you SO NEED to go on the Christmas tour. It is awesome!

[Kate]

We usually go around thanksgiving time, its usually busy over that weekend but id imagine nowhere near as busy as christmas day!
We dont ever stay on site, but on that weekend we usually do waterparks, dtd, crazy golf etc - by the time the monday comes around we are all desperate to do some coasters!

[Isafari]

We've been Christmas day the past 9 years and get to the park early and stay until closing. We did miss out on Mk one year as we didn't get there until around 10am and the park had closed. We ended up at Epcot which was fine, we were still at WDW - however, it wasn't very Christmassy at Epcot.

The parades and shows make it for me above the rides so we just go with the crowded flow and don't expect too many rides. We fastpass a couple and just watch the entertainment etc. Actually, around 7pm last year, there was only about a 10 to 15 minute wait on rides in Tomorrowland. The rest of the day you were looking at 90 minutes plus.

[Tink]

We are ones who find EPCOT to be our favorite park on Christmas Day (there's a surprise).

We love making it a point to listen to the "Santa" stories that we haven't heard that year, and the stories of other countries too.

We love the lighting of the huge tree in the crossover.

Sometimes, if it's too silly crowded we'll go in the morning, have a walk around the world showcase when it opens, oooooh and ahhhhhh at the trees, and then leave. We then may go back to our resort and have a nice lunch (remember, we're DVCers) and poke around the resort. Often there is a special event for Christmas at the resort. Remember the IG for the WS. The WS doesn't open until 11:00 so that gives us a good space of time to have a leisurely breakfast and open any little gifties that Santa left for the Faeries to deliver. Oh, what? You didn't know that? Oh yes. Disney is so large, Santa just drops the gifties to the faeries and they take over.

Then we'll decide which resorts we want to visit. Fort Wilderness is awesome. The campsites are decorated six ways to Sunday and there is really so much to do there. Be sure to visit the animal area, especially the horse barn.

If elegance is more your thing, well you know where to find that!

We try to catch the electrical water parade, too.

Mostly we just "be" together. Loving life, and basking in Disney.

A word of caution though. It is at Christmas time when we've had our worst experiences with mass transit. We've been pushed off the trams (literally pushed, as in hands on shoving) by others at two different Christmases. (Both at MK). We try to avoid that now. It really can ruin the entire darn day.

[Watchinherskip]

Hope I am not getting too far afield here, but on our very first visit we stayed at the Disney Inn (Shades of Green now). It was the most magical trip...maybe because it was our first, or maybe Disney used to be more magic.

We checked into our room, went out and had a great day at MK. The resort only had minimal Christmas decorations. We came back later that night and turned in for the night. In the morning we woke up, and I went to get the paper (yes they used to give you a newspaper) and I couldn't believe my eyes. In the hall right near our door was the most beautiful Christmas tree! The eleves must have come out that night and just went crazy. Now the whole resort was decked out. It was really magical.

We walked over to the Poly and the same thing happened there. Over the years we have visited over Thanksgiving, but most of the decorations were already up. Never had a repeat of that wonderful event...but hey it happened at least once.

[Beccaberry]

We are ones who find EPCOT to be our favorite park on Christmas Day (there's a surprise).

We love making it a point to listen to the "Santa" stories that we haven't heard that year, and the stories of other countries too.

We love the lighting of the huge tree in the crossover.

Sometimes, if it's too silly crowded we'll go in the morning, have a walk around the world showcase when it opens, oooooh and ahhhhhh at the trees, and then leave. We then may go back to our resort and have a nice lunch (remember, we're DVCers) and poke around the resort. Often there is a special event for Christmas at the resort. Remember the IG for the WS. The WS doesn't open until 11:00 so that gives us a good space of time to have a leisurely breakfast and open any little gifties that Santa left for the Faeries to deliver. Oh, what? You didn't know that? Oh yes. Disney is so large, Santa just drops the gifties to the faeries and they take over.

Then we'll decide which resorts we want to visit. Fort Wilderness is awesome. The campsites are decorated six ways to Sunday and there is really so much to do there. Be sure to visit the animal area, especially the horse barn.

If elegance is more your thing, well you know where to find that!

We try to catch the electrical water parade, too.

Mostly we just "be" together. Loving life, and basking in Disney.

A word of caution though. It is at Christmas time when we've had our worst experiences with mass transit. We've been pushed off the trams (literally pushed, as in hands on shoving) by others at two different Christmases. (Both at MK). We try to avoid that now. It really can ruin the entire darn day.

I just printed this entire post to add to my itinerary

This line sums up our entire trip, "Mostly we just "be" together. Loving life, and basking in Disney." (and made me a little weepy)

I'll definitely warn the troops to beware the transportation grubs.

Fantastic suggestions and tips everyone, thank you soooooo much!

[Beccaberry]

If you can get away, you SO NEED to go on the Christmas tour. It is awesome!

OOH! You know how Jon loves his tours!!! I wonder if they'll make fun of me on this one? ;-)

[Tink]

'Skip, you are right. Disney was more magical in many ways, "back then." Their overnight transformations were legendary and were so darn powerful!

Back in early 90's... there was a frost that hit early in the night. By the next morning Disney had REPLANTED everything! (Or so it was sure made to look)l Now they put up signs apologizing for Jack Frost.

Anyway, all is still well but the old memories are powerful.