Not only is it almost the Most Wonderful Time of the Year in Walt Disney World… it’s also still the BUSIEST Time of the Year!
Magic Kingdom during the Holidays
Crowds are so thick it can be hard to walk in some areas of the park, and wait times get up to over 5 hours!
5-hour wait times for Flight of Passage in Disney’s Animal Kingdom
And if your plans for 2019 include a trip to Walt Disney World during peak crowd seasons such as Spring Break, the Christmas and New Year’s holidays, or even a long holiday weekend such as Memorial Day, then we’ve got some information that can help.
Welcome to The Ultimate Survival Guide to SUPER Crowded Days in Disney World!
Animal Kingdom Entrance during the Holidays!
And, as always when the parks are busy, there’s no time to waste, so let’s dive in!
Make the Most of Early Mornings And/Or Late Nights
You may be surprised by how much you can get done in any of Disney World’s four theme parks by being among the first to arrive.
A Beautiful Magic Kingdom Morning
Even on the busiest days for the Disney World parks, the early birds who are already at the park for “rope drop” (the park’s official opening time) stand the best chance of being among the first in line for their choice of attractions.
Big Thunder Mountain in Magic Kingdom
Conversely, consider staying at the park as late as you can in the evening! In a vacation spot that’s especially popular for families with young kids, many groups need to leave in the early evening due to the stamina of their younger group members.
Animal Kingdom’s Tree of Life at night
And remember, if you’re staying in a Disney World Resort, be sure to check which park is hosting Morning or Evening Extra Magic Hours throughout the week, as these are a benefit only available to Resort guests.
Try a Mid-day Meal in a Resort
When lunchtime hunger strikes for your group… well, it’s pretty likely that it’s striking for just about everyone else in the park at the same time 😉 ! The typical lunch time rush goes through the noon hour; however, in peak crowd times it can extend well beyond. Consider eating your lunch at a nearby Resort Hotel, which are typically much less crowded than the parks.
Contempo Cafe in the Contemporary Resort
You needn’t be a guest at a particular Resort to dine there (nor to use Disney Transportation to get there), and each park is located close to at least one or two Resorts with Counter Service restaurants (and, in most cases, with Table Service option, too).
Monorail Orange at Disney’s Contemporary Resort
This is especially handy advice for Magic Kingdom, where the Monorail can easily get you to the Contemporary, the Polynesian, and the Grand Floridian Resorts — and each of these have several restaurants to choose from.
Use Mobile Order
But let’s say you do find yourself at Pecos Bill Tall Tale Inn and Café — or any of these select Counter Service restaurants — during a busy mealtime.
Pecos Bill Tall Tale Inn and Cafe Sign
Mobile Order (available within the My Disney Experience app) allows guests to pre-order and pre-pay for their food at participating Counter Service Restaurants around Disney World.
Mobile Order sign at Woody’s Lunch Box in Hollywood Studios
Upon arrival to the restaurant, guests using Mobile Order can then bypass the ordering queue and go straight to a designated Pick Up Counter to get their food.
Mobile Order Pick Up sign
One DFB fan told us that she saw the counter service line wrapping around the building, but mobile order only had two guests waiting.
See our step-by-step guide to using Mobile Order here!
Advance Dining Reservations
If you’d prefer to eat any of your meals at a sit down Table Service restaurant (as opposed to Counter Service), keep in mind that many restaurants are not able to accommodate walk-ups during these busy seasons.
Be Our Guest Restaurant
Avoid disappointment by making Advance Dining Reservations for Table Service restaurants throughout Disney World! The booking window for most Table Service locations opens 180 days in advance, so the further out you are able to make your reservations, the better your chances are for getting your top choice.
But don’t be discouraged if you’re taking a last minute trip. You should be able to find an ADR for SOMEWHERE last-minute just about any time.
FastPass+!!!
FastPass+ is a service that allows guests to book up to three attractions for one day in one of the four theme parks in advance when tickets are linked to a My Disney Experience account (online or via the My Disney Experience app).
Guests in the parks this week are telling us that with up to five hour wait times for rides, fastpasses have been a lifesaver…and many of them have shared with us that they’re just doing their fastpasses and then leaving.
Seven Dwarfs Mine Train
Guests booked at a Disney World Resort are able to schedule FastPasses for linked tickets up to 60 days in advance, while non-Resort guests are able to book attractions for linked tickets up to 30 days in advance.
Guests are able to choose a designated arrival window of time (in one hours slots) and bypass the Standby Lines for their chosen attraction. And these Standby lines are no joke during the holidays, my friends…
Flight of Passage Standby Wait Time sign
So even on the busiest of park days, you can have confidence that you’ll be able to enjoy at least 3 attractions. And remember, as long as you have a ticket that is linked to the My Disney Experience account, this service is free.
Life is Better with Fast Pass T-Shirt
Wondering how to best use your FastPass+ allotments? Check out this video!
After Hours and Early Morning Magic Add-on Experiences
Over the past couple of years, several Extra Hours experiences have opened up for booking at three Disney World parks: Hollywood Studios, Animal Kingdom, and Magic Kingdom.
Early Morning Magic at Toy Story Land in Hollywood Studios
These extra-ticket events — available for “Early Morning Magic” or “After Hours” — offer limited-to-no wait times at popular attractions in the parks due to capping the event at a low guest capacity.
Jessie and Woody at Hollywood Studios After Hours
And food is a definite bonus! Unlimited snacks and beverages are included for the After Hours events, while Early Morning Magic attendees enjoy a full breakfast!
Fried Chicken and Cinnamon Sugar French Donut Bowl at Early Morning Magic — Toy Story Land
While these events are enjoyable any time of year, they do come at a fairly high cost (especially for larger groups or families). But they also make a lot of sense when the parks are quite crowded. These super busy seasons are probably the most logical time to forego getting a regular park ticket and attending one of these events instead since you’re not managing fastpasses or insane crowds during the hard ticket events.
Find out more about Early Morning Magic in our DFB YouTube Video!
Designate a Meeting Spot
The parks are so packed with fun things to see and do… and they’re also packed with guests. All of these things contribute to making it easier than usual to lose track of your group due to distraction or even being accidentally separated by passersby.
Hollywood Studios Chinese Theater
Before your park adventures begin, pick a designated meeting spot that everyone in the group knows to go to in case your family gets separated, along with specific check-in times. If a check-in time comes around and you’re missing someone, head over to the designated meeting spot to find them.
Let us know your tried-and-true tips to survive the busiest days of the year in the Disney World and Disneyland parks! We’d love to hear them in the comments!
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Although costly, doing a VIP tour is priceless!!
I know you get the extra morning hours for free if you stay in one of the Disney Resorts but what about the after hours? We’ve only ever been to Disneyland so we’ve done the Extra morning hours but I’m not sure how the after-hours works.
Carrie, this is a great question. Extra Magic Hours are the morning or evening hours added to a park each day that are available to all Walt Disney World resort guests. Early Morning Magic and After Hours are separate, ticketed events that cost extra. Early Morning Magic and After Hours are limited to a certain number of guests and typically feature short wait times so guests who opt to pay for this extra time can accomplish a lot in the short period of time.
I love Mobile Ordering, but I’ve emailed Disney a couple of times to ask them to PLEASE set it up so you can add gift cards to your payment option. Right now, they don’t allow that, and it’s awful! You must choose to stand in line to use the gift card you received, or use mobile ordering and pay out of pocket. I reminded them that Starbucks has a lovely “wallet” feature in their app, so I hope Disney will figure out how to make mobile ordering more user friendly!
I can see why you might say to go to a nearby resort for lunch but if the park closes for capacity you might not get back in!
Elizabeth, that’s a great idea!
We just returned from a 6-day trip (12/31-1/5), which we literally planned on 72 hours notice. I’m glad we had the experience of spending NYE in the Magic Kingdom, but this is not a time of year I would choose to visit again. We have spent the week leading up to Christmas (12/19-12/26) at Disney World before, and that was much more manageable in terms of crowd level. Because our trip was so last-minute, we couldn’t get every FastPass that we wanted, but we still managed to ride almost everything we wanted without an excruciating wait by arriving at rope drop and making a beeline for those “E-Ticket” rides we couldn’t get FPs for. The noteable exception here was Flight of Passage — we didn’t even try, having seen the 4-5 hour waits over the weekend. But we did get on Slinky Dog Dash by heading there at rope drop, and we waited only 15 minutes to ride.
In terms of dining, I was surprised at the availability of table service restaurants for dinner at “normal” dinner times. We snagged ADRs for Diamond Horseshoe on NYE (a new restaurant for us), Les Chefs de France, Tiffins(!), Mama Melrose, and STK Orlando. In addition, we had great luck walking in for lunch at a couple of places by arriving as soon as they opened (Yak & Yeti and Sci-Fi). For other breakfasts and lunches, Mobile Order was a life-saver! The only exception here was Casey’s Corner, which was a zoo on Friday 1/4. It seemed like they were just struggling to handle the volume of orders, both at the counter and mobile. Also, something to note if you mobile order a Dole Whip at Aloha Isle — place your order and get in line. Because of the melty nature of the product, they do not prepare it until you reach the counter and provide your order number. Don’t stand aside and wait for the app to tell you it’s ready for pickup — you’ll be waiting forever!
Shayne, thanks for the feedback! I love the spontaneity of planning a trip just 72 hours in advance, and it sounds like you had a lot of luck/made a lot of smart choices! Go, you, for making the most of it!
If you could only do after-hours at one park which would you choose? we are a family of five with 4 adults and 1 teen. We’ve never been to Disney World before and likely won’t be able to visit again. We will be in the park 4 or 5 days.
Hey Do you think the weekend 3/1-3/5 it will be very busy, I’ve seen mixe3d reviews
Grace, weekends are generally a little busier than week days, and in March you may run into cheer and dance groups. But generally speaking, March is a decent time to go.
Hi I was just wondering if you have a list of the rides with the longest wait times in Disney world?? I was going to go to disneyworld next February but because of funds and unexpected surgeries, we had to postpone till 2021. And I’m trying to plan ahead.
Rochelle, planning is half the fun! 😉 The longest wait times generally speaking are the coasters in Magic Kingdom, Flight of Passage in Animal Kingdom, Frozen Ever After and Test Track in Epcot (Soarin’ can be long, too!), and — when you visit in 2021 — the Galaxy’s Edge rides at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. You might want to familiarize yourself with Touring Plans; they’re great about tracking wait times!
Were planning a trip on 12-1 to 12-5. Is this considered a busy holiday?
Rob, typically the beginning of December is not a peak time for crowds, but of course anything can happen!
Hi! We are going from 12/23-12/28 and I’m worried about the crowds… I know its after the Holiday parties/events… but will it still be super crazy and unmanageable?
Adelaide, that is definitely still a busy time of year. But with some thoughtful planning, it’ll be a lot of fun!
After Hours events are not offered during Christmas or New Year’s Eve weeks.
Early Morning Magic is not offered during Christmas or New Year’s Eve weeks. Also, for Christmas and NYE weeks it is really important to book exactly at 180 days out for ADR’s. Otherwise your ADR choices will be either very early or very late, and/or only the less popular restaurants will be available. Book your FP+ at exactly 60 days right when it opens or you won’t be able to book the most popular attractions. We’ve been going for Christmas/NYE every year since 2004 and the level of planning required in order to secure the ADR’s and FP’s you want has become more intense and competitive.
Book Liberty Tree Tavern late lunch; 3:00 parade route. Great to sit down & relax in air too.
Wilderness Lodge Roarin Fork quick service lunch option to leave magic kingdom by water taxi.
We love to shop resort store; less crowded.
Polynesian resort for Dole Whip treat!!
Magic Kingdom rope drop with two daughters 18 & 15 and spouse. June 30th
Castle & Tomorrowland area – power walk behind cast members!!
We were first on ride; to my girls surprise!
Avoid strollers and parents with small kids
Walk on left side; everyone always doesn’t to their right!!
For NYE, we Just booked a dessert party for 9 just to ensure we had a good spot for the late fireworks show. I feel like it will be worth every penny.
We managed to get on all the rides we didn’t have fast passes for within that first hour with rope drop
At animal kingdom we rode flight of passage (being one of the first 30 in line) and Na’vi river journey (walk on!) and walked to the other side of the park, they hadn’t even dropped the rope for Everest yet!
@DFBSarah. Please, please, please edit this article/post and remove the After Hours and Early Morning Magic section. Those are NOT offered or available during the busiest times of the year.