My family is headed to Orlando the week between Christmas and New Years, and I was wondering about people's experiences at Universal and Disney during that time. We've always done SEAS with our Platinum passes, but are considering other parks. I just don't want to pay a fortune and wait in horrendous lines. Any advice would be amazing. Thanks!!
United States Orlando over the holidays
- Thread starter tursiops
- Start date
The week between Christmas and New Years is the busiest week of the year for the Orlando parks. Its not called Hell Week for no reason. If you can vouch for Express/Lightning Lane, I'd highly advise getting it if you want anything done. If you can afford it, the deluxe resorts at Uni (Hard Rock, Portofino and Royal Pacific) provide free unlimited Express. Its expensive but well worth it.
New Years Eve is traditionally the busiest day of the year for the parks, followed by Christmas Day itself.
Just manage your expectations and you'll have a good time.
New Years Eve is traditionally the busiest day of the year for the parks, followed by Christmas Day itself.
Just manage your expectations and you'll have a good time.
Agreed that Christmas to New Years is insane in Orlando. Any idea if the Southern California parks are similar? KBF/MM/Disney?
They'll be slammed. Even though most of the Disneyland Southern California residents have local annual passes that are blocked out during the holidays, this doesn't deter the crowds. There'll be enough out of town visitors bringing the park to capacity. KBF and SFMM will benefit from this with bringing in locals. Also expect Universal Hollywood to be extremely busy this holiday season especially now that they have a major roller coaster to draw in crowds.
My experience was weird because it was pouring rain my whole trip but they're still fairly slammed. Going to DL 12/23 and DCA 12/24 they were both packed, but everyone left as soon as it started raining and we got a 10pm walk-on Space Mountain. Then Universal 12/26, although probably cause of the floods, was dead. No lines for much of anything except the tram tour and Potter.