Walt Disney World in 2016

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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