We forget this sometimes after neverending planning, budgeting, and preparing but going to Disney World is meant to be a VACATION. It is a destination meant to leave us relaxed, invigorated, and an escape from the pressure of the everyday. But, as we know, it can also be a little stressful at times!

Sure, there are things that happen that are out of our control (like bad weather or ride closures), there are things we can plan for, like days when we know the parks might be crowded, during a season with notoriously bad weather, or days when park pass reservations are full. But here’s the thing: there’s a reason that these days are stressful.

So we’ve put together a list of the days that are the MOST stressful at Disney World and will tell you WHY. But we’ll also drop in some tips and tricks if you can’t avoid Disney World on these days so that you can still get the most out of your Disney World vacation. Because in the end, vacations aren’t supposed to stress you out — they’re supposed to be fun!

Holidays

Here’s the thing: holidays are hectic enough anyways but they are going to be also SUPER busy at Disney World. We’ve seen holiday park pass reservations fill up completely, meaning that the parks are all at capacity. This includes New Year’s Eve, New Year’s Day, Easter weekend, the 4th of July, Labor Day weekend, Halloween, Thanksgiving weekend, Christmas Eve, and Christmas Day.

Granted, crowd numbers in 2020 and 2021 don’t compare to the holiday crowds before Disney World closed in 2020, but these are the days that tend to bring the most people into the park — kids are generally out of school and, well, what’s more fun than celebrating a holiday at Disney World? If you go to the parks during this time, just be prepared, make sure you’ve made your Advance Dining Reservations early so you will be able to sit down (relax), and eat. And just remember to be flexible.

For us, a major source of stress on these days is getting FOOD. Hotel rooms cost more, tickets cost more, pretty much breathing air in Disney World costs more (LOL, it’s not THAT bad yet!) but one thing we CAN control is food. Another tip we highly encourage is that if you know you’ll be eating a fast food meal in the parks, make your Mobile Order for your quick service meal early in the day (like while you’re eating breakfast or waking up!) so you can select the pick-up time that works for you and your family.

The longer you wait in the day to make your lunch (or even dinner) Mobile Orders, the later your pick-up time will be, and you might not be able to collect your meal until well after your whole family is hangry and on each other’s last nerve. Just don’t forget when

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Party Days

Let’s say you’re at Magic Kingdom on the day of a Disney After Hours Event (like the upcoming After Hours Boo Bash). You might not realize that this means your park day just got a good bit shorter because the parks close to regular guests early on party days. And that might suck if you’re not prepared for it!

The best advice we can give is KNOWING when there are party days by looking at Disney World’s calendar and then planning accordingly — go to a different park on those days. Or go to the event (but be aware of the extra ticket costs!), if that’s your thing. But here’s a warning: crowds get particularly thick JUST before the party because you have a mingling of party guests who get in early AND regular Disney World day crowds before they leave. So basically if you’ll be in Magic Kingdom before a party, you might want to dip a couple hours before park close to save yourself some gray hairs.

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First Day of Festivals

Sure, it might seem exciting to be at EPCOT on the very first day of the 2021 EPCOT Food and Wine Festival, but guess what? EVERYONE else thought that, too. PLUS people like us and reporters are going to be there on day one covering the event. That means that the first days of festivals can get crowded.

If you want to go to a festival early on, though, consider going a few days after it opens.

By then, crowds will have died down a bit, some of the novelty and hype have died down, and you’ll be able to enjoy the festival with shorter lines and less hassle. Also try to avoid Fridays and weekends, especially in the evening. Locals love Disney too, guys! They often head to the parks for date night, dinner, or just a stroll around World Showcase to nibble on a few things at the fest. So brace for those local crowds on off-hours.

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Ride/Land Opening Days

Likewise, people always want to be the first to ride a new attraction or check out a new land at Disney World. But we will recommend that if you can avoid visiting a park on a ride or land opening day, AVOID IT ALL COSTS. There are going to be MASSIVE amounts of people checking that new thing out and you’ll just end up standing in line and fighting crowds all. day. long.

And here’s the thing — if it’s a new ride that just opened? You may find yourself not even able to ride it on day one because the lines and wait times are already so long. When Pandora opened, we saw wait times for Flight of Passage up to three and four hours and even longer! Frozen Ever After? People (us included) roasted in the sun for hours just for a chance to rideo n opening day! Do you really want to waste perfectly good park time that way just to be one of the first people to see that land or ride? The flipside here is that when some new hotness opens in one park, you can bet a lot of guests will head there to see it. This means OTHER parks can be much less stressful.

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Departure Days

So this is a day that’s stressful for entirely different reasons. It’s not about crowds but it’s a pain and sad and stressful so we’re talking about it too! It’s already sad when that last day at Disney World rolls around and you’re getting ready to leave. But there’s a lot you have to do — finish packing up all your bags (and stuffing souvenirs wherever they will go to fit), making sure your travel plans are taken care of (checking into flights, fueling vehicles, etc.), and don’t forget to scour through your room to make sure every sock and stuffy is accounted for (don’t forget the drawers!)!

And if you’re like us, you’ll also spend a morning trying to squeeze one last Disney thing in, even if that means having a character breakfast, going to the parks for a little bit, or hitting up Disney Springs to pick up that last-minute souvenir that you just decided that you HAVE TO HAVE. But even if you do that, you’re on a time limit and that can stress you out.

We recommend that you make sure you actually HAVE time to do what you want before you need to head to the airport or hit the road to drive home. Don’t cause yourself undue stress by trying to shove more stuff into your vacation. Plan for that last day ahead of time. This is where the alarm in your phone can come in super handy! Plug in little reminders throughout your departure day for check-in time, any reservation notifications, and that final call for when you have to be back to your hotel to head out.

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Days When Park Pass Reservations Are Full

Other times to plan for crowds are days when park pass reservations are full in a given park or (gasp!) ALL 4 PARKS. Love it or leave it, the Park Pass system works in the sense that it’s a clear indicator of just how busy a day could end up. This is when YOU KNOW there will be crowds, so you’ll need to make yourself a little more prepared for them. So take a deep breath, know that you might not get to do EVERYTHING you want to, and relax.

This is the key to getting through a crowded day at Disney World. Be flexible and plan around the crowds by making sure you have Advance Dining Reservations in place and are ready to possibly wait a while if you use mobile order. And that’s for IF you were able to get a Park Pass Reservation for the day. A GREAT example of this was Disney World’s massive 50th birthday. If you were IN Magic Kingdom that day, most guests had their sites set on entertainment, food, and merchandise…not rides. So if you were on top of things, you could swoop in and ride a LOT of rides — which could be awesome — but just know you might have to wait almost 2 hours for a burger. Like we did. Basically, make a realistic game plan and be OK with plans getting tossed up. in the air. 

The narrative changes a bit if you WEREN’T able to get those coveted little Park Passes. And that, friends, is when PARK HOPPING can come in handy. First, get a Pass Reservation for the park you CAN get into. Trust us, there are plenty of fun things to do at that first-runner-up park, too. Then at 2pm, Park Hopping becomes available for you to scoot over to that park you REALLY wanted to go to.

Now, there are some caveats. First, you need to have the Park Hopper Option on your ticket. And second, that park can’t be at capacity. In our experience, the parks haven’t really hit capacity before EXCEPT for Magic Kingdom on the 50th Anniversary (park hopping was totally closed to Magic Kingdom after capacity was quickly hit following 2PM). Maxed-out Park Pass days can be a ball of stress, but with some faith, trust, and pixie dust, you’ll be on your way!

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First Day of a BIG Anniversary Celebration

This kinda’ goes hand-in-hand about what we were saying with park pass reservations. Sure this one JUST happened, but heads up: another big anniversary is right on its tail!

Crowds on Disney World’s big anniversary day last week were bad. They were just flat out bad. TONS of people crammed in tight spaces all trying to see and do the same things. It was an interesting day, to put it lightly. Souvenirs sold out lightning fast, food took HOURS to get at fast food locations, and the crowds! Just WOW. It was not as smooth as many likely hoped.

How can you avoid that? Well, the 50th anniversary celebration lasts until 2023. If you can, put off your trip until later in the celebration, great! You’ll still be able to enjoy all the festivities, but with fewer crowds. But what we get to keep on our horizon now is EPCOT. The second Disney World park celebrates its 40th Anniversary exactly one year later on October 1st, 2022! This park has been under a massive transformation seemingly forever now, with bits slowly being revealed. You can bet early October of next year, the Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow will be CROWDED.

If you want to avoid the mess, here are the biggest tips we gleaned from our hectic day in Magic Kingdom on October 1st. First, plan for breaks. Head back to your resort for lunch (especially if the day started for you before the sun was up!) or a swim. You’ll head back refreshed and ready to tackle the evening. Second, make plans ahead of time and be OK when they go south. Have a backup-backup plan! For example, some of the anniversary merchandise for the 50th was on sale at other locations for days or even weeks before the actual day, yet many guests waited until day of in the actual park to purchase.

We saw highly coveted items that sold out in Magic Kingdom at other spots all day long. Some pre-planning (like when we tell you the merch has dropped online and in stores) can save a headache on the day of. And if the lines are bonkers for merch? Make the best of it and enjoy some rides! You’ll have a memorable experience regardless of if you got that 40 dollar cup or t-shirt or not. (Besides, like we said, most people will be waiting in line to shop, so you can likely skip on a lot of rides easy peasy!).

We witness Disney World’s 50th Anniversary and lived to tell the tale! Click here!

So there you have it — these are some of the dates that might be a litttttlllle more stressful than usual at Disney World. But the key to minimizing these stressors is planning, and that’s why we’re here! So feel free to ask us questions, and keep reading DFB for more tips and tricks to make your Disney World trip as magical as possible — even on stressful days!

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How do you cope with “stressful” days at Disney World? Let us know in the comments!

The post There’s a Reason These 7 Days in Disney World are SO. STRESSFUL. first appeared on the disney food blog.