Planning for next December

[alyssainwonderland]

Hi all!

I am planning a vacation for next December (2019) with my husband and sister. My husband and I love visiting WDW in early December due to nice, cool weather, (typically) lower crowds, and the ability to experience the Christmas magic before the mad rush during Christmas week. My sister has not visited WDW since 2004, so I want to make sure our trip is fun for her.

My question is: with the opening of Galaxy's edge next year...do we have an opening date yet? Nobody in my vacation party cares for Star Wars, so we will likely not make it a part of our park plans. I really dont want to go during another month...but with the opening of Galaxy's edge...I'm worried that the crowds will spread out into other parks. Will the crowds for all of the parks be even more unbearable than normal? Should we just stick it out and go for it?

Apologies if this has already been asked. Thanks for your help in advance!

 

[FCDub]

No announced opening date yet.

 

[DizFan13]

I think this is still the most current info.

https://disneyparks.disney.go.com/b...on-just-announced-for-star-wars-galaxys-edge/

 

[JeanfromBNA]

There's no way to know with an expansion this big and this anticipated. I'd plan to go anyway. Early December is usually not when families are taking Disney trips.

 

[iheartglaciers]

Early December has gotten really popular, so I don’t think it’s lower crowds anymore. I felt like it was more crowded than my early June trip.

But that said, it’s a fun time to visit the parks (which is why it has gotten so popular!), so you may as well go for it. It seems like SW land will be open by then, but I would imagine the crowds will be concentrated in HS.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

as others have said, there is no way to know yet. Disney has only set "Late Fall" which means they have until December 22nd (and I saw at least one report they may be running behind, pushing it to January ... plus one big Hurricane and things get pushed back further)

I do think the opening of it could add to crowds - and could impact room availability (I assume increased interest in getting FP at 60 days for the Star Wars rides and for the opening of Pandora and (albeit later after opening) for Toy Story Land) where they have EMH every day for the new area for onsite guests

 

[Moliphino]

We're planning to go in September next year instead of our usual second week of December trip. I don't want to be anywhere near the crowds when this land opens.

 

[alyssainwonderland]

Aww man. I did notice that the resort rates were significantly higher (about $60 per night more) than when we went last year. I wasn't sure if this was attributed to the opening of Galaxy's edge, or the fact that I am trying to book really far in advance (do rates adjust over time? similar to airline tickets?). I know rates for everything have gone up recently, but that seemed a bit steep.