See below for my thoughts on rides, hotels, crowds and such at Disney World in 2016.
NEW RIDES AT DISNEY WORLD IN 2016
The opening of the redo of Epcot’s Maelstrom as a Frozen ride is targeted for early 2016.
Maelstrom is a tight fit to its show building and there doesn’t look to be a lot of scope within this building to expand capacity—or even add much in the way of vistas of Arandelle.
Maelstrom had a pretty good hourly capacity, but without capacity expansion, waits for the Frozen ride will be spectacular.
Rivers of Light—the new evening spectacular at the Animal Kingdom along Discovery River between the Tree of Life and Expedition Everest—is in construction, and is expected to open in 2016.
“Avatar Land” at the Animal Kingdom is in construction in the former Camp Minnie Mickey, and currently has an opening target of early 2017
An announcement about more Star Wars and Toy Story in Disney’s Hollywood Studios came out in August. Although the release date for Star Wars Episode VII is December 2015, it’s hard to imagine we’ll see much of this in 2016–or even 2017, for that matter.
DISNEY SPRINGS AND THE DISNEY RESORTS IN 2016
Most of the Disney Springs reconstruction of Downtown Disney will be complete in 2016.
I’m not seeing much profound change on the resort front for 2016.
DISNEY WORLD CROWDS IN 2016
Presidents Day, February 15 in 2016, is as early as it can be, meaning fewer good January and early February dates, and more good late February dates. Crowds for this week actually begin the Thursday before, and in 2016 Mardi Gras–which some southern school districts have off as a single or multi-day holiday–is Tuesday the week before. The combination makes me see the week beginning 2/6 as worse than this part of February usually is.
Easter in 2016 is early, on March 27. As a result of the overlap between March breaks and Easter breaks, March other than the first week will be even more of a zoo than usual, but most of April—after the 3rd—will be great.
Summer crowds will continue to be rough, as more and more South Americans take advantage of their winter breaks to come to Disney World and join the hordes of US families on summer breaks.
Thanksgiving, November 24, is earlier in 2016 than it has been recently, giving more good late November dates but fewer good early November ones.
Christmas is on a Sunday in 2016.
- Many, many school districts that take long holiday breaks will begin their breaks on Monday December 19, so holiday crowds at Disney World will begin to roll in on December 16th—a few days earlier than we’ve seen the last couple of years with mid-week Christmases.
- Districts that take shorter breaks will be off something like Friday the 23rd through Monday the 2nd. This means that the week between Christmas and New Years—always the worst of the year at Walt Disney World—will be an especially crazy mess in 2016.
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78 Comments on "Walt Disney World in 2016"
we are planning another trip to wdw with some friends that have never been and we want to go when the crowds aren’t too bad but we have to take the trip when we are on vacation from work, my family has been twice and both times in july for the 4th and know how bad the crowds are then. my question is would it be better for our group to go 12-27 -2016 or stick to our july dates.
Dave,
My oldest is in school and my husband is a farmer so picking a good time to go to WDW is like finding a needle in a haystack. The best we can do is pick the best of three awful times: Feb. 10-15th, March 26th-April 1st or Thanksgiving week. Which of these would you go with in 2016 if you had no other options? Also, this is not our first trip and will most likely not be our last.
Hi Spencer, construction happens all the time at Disney World, and is sometimes not announced much ahead so you can’t really frame dates to avoid it. All of 2016 will see construction at AK and, I except, HS.
Dave,
Your site is amazing!!! My fiance and I were planning on going to WDW May 7-14th 2016 for out honeymoon. We are just worried about the new 2016 changes and are hesitant to book our honeymoon. We don’t want our honeymoon to be filled with construction, and we don’t want to miss out on anything. I would appreciate your insight regarding the 2016 changes to WDW in May. Again, your site is great, and I continue to find myself referring to it. Thank You!!
Sara, I usually post substantial preliminary material about 15 months before the beginning of the year (so in September for 2107) and may put something more thin up before then. I can comment on specific dates if you are weighing a few periods.
There’s been enough movement in pass prices lately that I’d say just compare upgrading your DLR pass vs buying straight WDW tix when the 2017 prices come out.
I’d go sometime between the Saturday after Thanksgiving and 12/21/17 to see WDW’s Xmas program!!