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Hi Margie,

Welcome to the site and hope your Christmas was great.

I didn't go to WDW this year, but from what I've read on this and other boards, December has been really getting crowded in the last couple years. Not too long ago this was a relatively slow month (except between Christmas and New Year's Eve) with good but unpredictable weather and low crowds. But word has gotten around, and with the holiday decorations and MouseFest, early December has become as crowded as any time during the year.

Jim

I think Jim's right, that early Dec used to be a quiet time, but once people found out it was a quiet time, it ceased to be. It's actually a quite good time to visit if there aren't crowds, since there's so many holiday related things. We went last year right after Thanksgiving and it was heavier than I expected but not awful. How was Mousefest for crowds this year?

Perhaps that "end of November" time will become the best time to go. Christmas decorations are already up, the party's already started its dates, and the Christmas rush isn't there...yet!

Margie, sorry to hear about the crowded party. You never can tell with those. Sometimes they're completely empty and sometimes they're strangely full. I've never been able to predict based on daily crowd levels, weekends vs. weekdays, etc. It's always a craps shoot!

That's unfortunate. Sorry, Margie! Those are the nights we just people-watch and enjoy the craziness of it all!

Parties are so hit and miss. Sometimes they're practically empty and sometimes they're jam packed. Extra magic hours are the same way. I've never had very good luck predicting either.

There's one thing that one can do that I think may correlate between one of these things being packed, and when it isn't. See if that night's event is one that has the passholder discount.

From my anecdotal experience, when it is one of the passholder discount nights, it will be jam-packed. When it isn't, it won't be.

As for Extra Magic Hours, here's a tip. If a park has an evening extra magic hours, go to that park the next morning. Chances are, it will not be busy at all, even by Noon time.

Zz.

I'm kind of ashamed, in all my time going to WDW I'd never really thought of the rule:

Packed previous night = thin next morning. Makes perfect sense too. Thanks Zapperz!

Really?! I'm going to have to go back through my experiences to see if that's the case. Ever since the passholder discounted rate was introduced, I've taken advantage. Now I'm going to have to experiment...

I'd be happy to pay extra for parties if it meant lowerr crowds.

On the same idea....We really miss the "e ride" nights. That $12 was well worth it for the small crowds. I don't think we ever went to one where there were any sort of crowd. The crowds for the EMH are so much more than what the e ride nights were.

Agreed.
What was great about e-ride nights was that they really weren't advertised very much, and they weren't very predictable (as I can recall). So you had to 1.)Know they existed, 2.) Know when they take place, and 3.) Be willing to pay the extra cash for the evening.

Ah yes, E-ride nights! They were just petering out when I started going to WDW so I never got to take advantage...

Could you only go to E-Ride nights if you were staying on property?

I believe so

Yep. They were only for resort guests. I can't remember how long e-ride nights were available, though... Anyone know how long they were around?

I guess they were kind of replaced by the parties.