I'm thinking of planning a trip for my wife and I from Dec 26th-Jan 1st. Right now we have a decent quote of $3600 for the Animal Kingdom Lodge, Disney Dining plan, and Park Hopper tix for 6 days. My question is, when is the best time to book? Will the price only increase from hear on out or should I wait a bit? This trip isn't a definite yet but just trying to get an idea. Also, does anyone know if they offer payment plans? Lastly, has anyone been to Disney for Christmastime? How is it? We were there last April and had a great time.
If you book through Disney Travel, I think it's about $200 down and the rest is due about 45 days before the trip, and you can pay online between those two times with a credit card, so in a way they have a payment plan. I've done that before. Disney between 12/25 and 1/1 is crowded beyond belief. You will experience wait times beyond your wildest imagination. But if you're brave enough and bright enough you can withstand the crowds on 12/31, where MK will close its doors before noon, DHS shortly afterwards, and Epcot by mid-afternoon because Epcot can hold a lot more people. I don't think prices will change between now and then. Bookings will get harder to obtain the closer it is, and waiting means gambling on how the economy (okay really how jet fuel prices change) does between now and then.
I was over last Christmas and yes it was very crowded but not as crowded as I thought it was line times were long, but it was well worth it
I think between 12/25 and 1/1 is the busiest time for WDW. Because almost every American has time off during that time. Spring break is different for many school districts and can last for 4-6 weeks spread. We were there in 2006 to New Years 2007. Every park was busy.
Well....... kind of. It was our kids' first visit to Roy's park, so it was kind of special. But the crowds distracted from everything. We were able to do so much more in less time the first week of June!
Disney is pretty busy between Christmas and New Years. I was there once over Christmas, and the parks were insanely crowed on Christmas Day and New Years Day. I was actually pretty surprised because it wasn't all that crowded in the middle of the week between the two holidays. Now, that was about 10 years ago, before the MVMCP and the special edition of the fireworks, so it may not be that way anymore. Regardless of the crowds, Christmas at Disney is something that I think everyone should do once. To me, its worth the trip just to walk around and look at the decorations. As a side note, I was there over Easter two years ago, and it was really crowded, so my family went to the all of the attractions with the short lines during the day and rode the E Ticket rides at night during Extra Magic Hours. There were very few people in the park from midnight to 3am.
We were there at that time last year. Only on the Sunday AFTER new year's did it begin to calm down. Most e-ticket rides were 180 minutes plus. We were only able to get on SW, HM and CoP in under an hour. Everest was 190 minutes, PoC was 150 and Sorin' was 230 minutes on various days. But to your question of if it was worth it or not, I'd say seeing the Osbourne lights, and the resorts with their decorations was well worth it. Would a week or two after t-giving be better....
