California - Disneyland on Chirstmas day

My SO wants to go to Disneyland on Christmans day. I've told her it's a bad idea as it will be packed.

I haven't been to the park in years, so any suggestions on how to get around and what to see/avoid in one day.

We're all adults and only plan on going to Disneyland (no CA Adventure).

Also, is fastpass still free at Disneyland? I was surprised that Magic Mountain charged for it.

My SO wants to go to Disneyland on Christmans day. I've told her it's a bad idea as it will be packed.

I haven't been to the park in years, so any suggestions on how to get around and what to see/avoid in one day.

We're all adults and only plan on going to Disneyland (no CA Adventure).

Also, is fastpass still free at Disneyland? I was surprised that Magic Mountain charged for it. Well, I normally wouldn't have told you this (but since I don't plan on going to dland again on x mas) ;) but having been an annual passholder for the last 5 years, I can safely tell you that disneyland on x mas is EMPTY. ^^ Shhhhhhhh. We went to Disneyland on x mas for the last 5 years and it was awesome! We got to stay on rides for as many times we we wanted. The electrical parade at DCA was dead and so we became part of the parade :D

As far as what to check out there....they redid the space mountain (with the music actually working!) so definitely check that out. They decorate the Haunted Mansion with Jack Skellington stuff from Halloween to after New Years...There is a new ride called Winnie the Pooh (sort of new) next to splash mountain. Hmm....that's all I can think of....and Oh you have to try the turkey legs!! They are good :D If you have specific questions in where to park, what to do around the area etc, feel free to PM me

And yes, fastpass is free. Just insert your ticket into machine and you will receive one.

The fast pass works a bit differently at Magic Mountain...MM sometimes have extremely long lines so the fastlane passes are worth every penny (I once used it to by pass a 3 hour wait for X). Disneyland's fastpass allow you to by pass the line but you still have to wait...

okay, just got done. for future visitors on xmas day, it was PACKED.

even the castmembers comented on how they didn't expect the flow and that it was many more people than last year. I'm sure it was to do with the better economy and more people traveling. when we got there about 30 minutes before the gates opened, the line for people getting in was half way between Disneyland and CA Adventure...by opening, the line was all the way to the other gates

we were able to get to indiana jones, the river boat, and pirates each with a 10-15 minute wait. space mountain was out of issuing fast pass tickets by about 4pm.

the annoying thing was some of the rides kept breaking. splash mountain, space mountain, and materhorn were all broken in the middle of the day for some time. the materhorn was broken part way through the day and we didn't see anyone riding it after about 5pm indicating they either shut it down or it was still broken. even the parade was delayed due to technical issues and fantasmic was canceled completely for the same reason.

1 day is definetly not long enough to do everything in a peak period. we probably could have gotten through all the big rides, but the smaller stuff and taking it easy isn't possible in 1 day.

for the parades, fireworks, or fantasmic, start lining up at least 30 minutes before they start, 60 minutes if you want a prime spot...it is a great time to get to the rides though, especially if you skip the afternoon parade.

for food, it's expensive, but that's not surprising. estimate at least $10/person/meal without drinks...make reservations for your meals, many of the sit down places aren't any/much more expensive than your other choices; some of the carts though (turkey legs, pizza, etc) are a few bucks cheaper

in the end though, it was a good experience. christmas day wasn't anything extra special, but seeing the decorations at the christmas time period are nice.

hope this helps someone

is there a list somewhere of the days with the LEAST number of visitors??

no list, I don't think dland publicly discloses visitor numbers, but weekdays during non holiday and non summer days have been stated to have the least visitors based on a few websites I looked at.

i think christmas eve was probably lighter too, they closed about 4 hours earlier than they did on christmas day and downtown disney didn't seem as crowded that night. i suppose you could look at the dland website for their daily hours and figure those with the shortest operating period are the quietest days, but I haven't verified this.

similarly, dland sells their cheapest annual pass that's good only on certain preselected days. those are probably also light days, but again, I don't go to disney parks often enough to verify this.

Is the early entry stuff worth it? I got a free day, trying to decide if I should buy a few more days worth.

Wow, good thing I didn't go this year! I swear that X mas a couple of years ago was empty though!