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Planning a trip can be all consuming, especially when Disney World makes last minutes changes. Take a look here to see how to make the best use of your time during holiday crowds.
Navigating Holiday Crowds
Disney World can become insane during peak holiday seasons. And this Thanksgiving week is no exception! While there’s never a bad time to visit Disney World, you need a plan of attack so you won’t be waiting hours in line for attractions, food, and more when it’s super busy!
Most importantly, you need a solid touring plan to maximize your time when visiting Disney World. If you’re not sure how to build these plans, check out Character Locator. Here, you can build your own plan or use/modify plans already on the website.
Be sure and use Character Locator touring plans to make the best use of your time on your next Disney World vacation.
While it may cost a bit more when it’s busy, I (Susan) recommend purchasing Genie+ to cut down on attraction times and booking a few table service restaurants to escape the crowds for a bit.
Navigating Parks
In my frequent Disney World visits, there’s one thing that is evident about Disney World crowds. As the day gets later, people begin pouring into the park. However, the opposite also holds true. People are on vacation, and many choose not to get up early.
If you want to avoid holiday crowds though, I highly recommend getting up early and “rope dropping” your park each morning! You’ll be amazed how empty the parks seem first thing in the morning compared to later in the day and evening.
If you’re staying at a Disney World Resort, then be sure and take an advantage of the “Early Entry” each morning too. This allows Disney Resort guests to enter the park 30 minutes earlier than everyone else.
More Time in the Parks
Disney releases park hours months ahead of time, but as dates get closer, they revise these hours. And today, Disney is giving guests more time to enjoy the parks by opening up several parks earlier! Take a look below to see which parks/dates are opening hours along with updated park opening times:
Magic Kingdom
- November 26, 28, 30 and December 1 – opening earlier at 8:00am until 6:00pm (Park closes early due to Christmas Party.)
- December 2 – Magic Kingdom opens earlier and stays open later now. Park hours are 8:00am until 11:00pm.
Animal Kingdom
- Animal Kingdom also opens earlier on December 1-2. Operating hours these days are from 8:00am until 7:00pm.
Hollywood Studios
- On December 1-2, Hollywood Studios opens earlier with current hours from 8:30am to 9:00pm.
Take advantage of these earlier hours and you may be surprised how much you can get done early in the morning!
What do you think of these tips? Do you have any other tips to share? Please let us know in the comments and share this post with a Disney holiday loving friend.
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