Crowd calendar reliability - Week before Christmas or 1st week of March

[pmanko]

Hi all! We are trying to plan for our next WDW trip and the two weeks we could go are: The week before Christmas (12/15-22) or the First week of March ( 3/1-8).

The crowd calendars favor the first week of March - basically having NO RED days while the December week has at least 3 red days.

But, today a Disney veteran and someone who knows more than I said those calendars are wrong - March is prime season and way busier!?

Now, I do understand, that yes - the cost is more for us to stay in March than in December and that is also a factor for us. But, I think we would stay less days at WDW since ideally it would be less crowded and we could do more in less time?

We are used to going during slower times and now that my son is older we seem to have to go when school is out and when the parks are more crowded...

So my question is - is she right?? Is Beg of March more crowded than week before Christmas?? Because by at least 2 different crowd calendars she is wrong!?

Also, pros and cons of each of the weeks.

 

[Klayfish]

WDW is always busy, there is no "slow season". There was actually a lot of discussion here recently about crowd calendars, discussing their lack of accuracy. My personal feeling about them is they're utterly silly, there is no way they can have any accuracy....it's impossible. So, IMO, ignore them.

Haven't gone in March, but did the week leading into Christmas in '15 and again this past year. It's busy, no doubt, it's Christmas time. The closer you get to Xmas Day, the busier it gets. However, that didn't stop us from having a spectacular time. WDW at Christmas is just fun...decorations, people in the spirit, holiday shows, etc...

 

[abminer]

I'd love to hear this response too.

We did an early December trip once and it was great, relatively low crowds but all the decorations and MVMCP. I don't know about getting closer to Xmas though with the week before. We're about to try March for the first time, 3rd - 7th. Crossing our fingers. We were told it was a sweet spot before the real March spring break crowds roll in.

 

[JK World]

Crowd calendars primarily convey historical patterns, but they can't see into the future. Crowd patterns have been changing over the last 2 years, so most calendars are not currently as accurate has they were in the past. That said, I would imagine that crowds will be lower that first week of March as you should beat most school spring break periods. The week before Christmas will have many kids out of school, thus higher crowds.

 

[pmanko]

I do understand it is a guess at these crowd calendars - but, it's also common sense too I think. It makes "common" sense to think the week before Christmas will be more busy than the 1st week of March. We have never been in March so we'd like to try it. We have been the 2nd week of December and it was lovely - low crowds and we were blessed to have good weather - even went swimming. This past year we came to Orlando - stayed at the WBC and went to the smaller parks (SW and BG) along w/ Disney Springs and we could not get over the traffic!
Last year we went to Universal over Spring break (last week of March) and we didn't think traffic was nearly as bad.
I only wish the lodging rates were NOT so HIGH in March! sigh.

 

[rexmism]

I haven't been in December, but we've been in the first week of June as well as the first week of March last year. Spring break wasn't going on yet, but I'd say it still felt about as busy as in June. It wasn't horrible by any means, but not dead like I was sort of hoping for. As someone else said, I don't think Disney is ever really slow. It will always have a sea of humanity. My gut would tell me that the March week would be less busy. I would be surprised if it were a 10 like Christmas time seems to be. But if you plan well, I think it's all fairly irrelevant in the end. Go for whichever works best for you and sounds more appealing.