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"
My family of 4 is looking to book a trip in the fall of 2016. We have the dates narrowed down to either the week of September 17 or the week of October 15. We want to be able to utilize water parks and resort pools. Noticed that it is significantly less expensive in September, but we also want good weather and low crowds. Any recommendations?
Thanks!
Conni, on an average day there are 140,000 people in the parks. As hard as it may be to believe, thus another ten or twenty thousand people from the running events makes no material difference in the crowds.
Can I also give a heads up on dates Feb. 18-21? It is Disneyworld Princess Half Marathon Weekend. The run is sold out across the board so there will be thousands and thousands of us there.
Thelma, it’s much worse between Xmas and New Years than even the fourth…
Hi Tiffany! Your March dates are out of the question. The February dates will be more crowded (by a little) and expensive (by a fair amount) than Thanksgiving week, and Disney will be all decked out for Xmas then, so I;d lean to Thanksgiving.