Over the Elder Christmas break my family and I went to the happiest place on earth, Disney World. My family is very Disney and all of us have wanted to go down during the Christmas season.

While I was there it was an unseasonably warm 80+ degrees.

I met a couple from Michigan in Disney for their honeymoon. They both said that their families are “Disney” families.

I started asking if they thought if Disney was better or worse during the holidays than other times of the year. The newlyweds said, “It is an experience to say the least. You can definitely tell that the parks are fuller.” On New Year’s Eve the Magic Kingdom was full by 10am.

The husband said, “This year is very different, there are so many more people in Hollywood Studios specifically because of the release of Star Wars.” Also there are some shows that will be discontinued due to the creation of the new Star Wars land.

In total they thought that everyone should come at least once if they truly love Disney; however, they would not come back more than twice. There are some very cool things that are only out during the holiday season.

Next I spoke with a family from Baltimore, Maryland. This was their first time at Disney World. It was clear by the way they talked about their trip so far that they were shocked at how many people were in each park daily.

After a few minutes of talking the oldest son said, “The lines are really long, I thought they would be shorter.” And it is true, during the holiday times the line seemed to be about 30-60 minutes longer than during the summer.

I asked the mother what she thought about the fullness of the park and how she thought Disney was handling it. She jumped up saying, “Disney’s service is impeccable, and everyone meets you with a smile on their face willing to do anything to help you with whatever you are trying to do!”

All in all their family loved their experience and said that they would probably try coming down in the summer for one of the less hectic times of the year.

Lastly I interviewed one of the workers who was mediating a character greeting line. I asked her a few things but before I could answer anything she warned me that she could only answer the question if it didn’t jeopardize the “magic” behind Disney.

So when I asked her what time of the year is the best to work she said that it was in fact the winter season. “It’s too hot in the spring, summer and fall. While in the winter the temperature usually hovers around 65-75 degrees. It’s actually been quite hot this past week (She added in regards to the temperature that day of 86 degrees).”

Next I inquired about any heightened security due to the holidays. She answered, “Clearly we have added metal detectors at the front of the parks, and as always we have all bags being checks. We also have our own police force and two fire engines.” However, she wouldn’t elaborate anymore because she said that it might jeopardize the magic of the parks.

Finally I want to list some of the fun things to see while in Disney during the holidays.

Hollywood Studios has a street full of lights including many little Disney Easter eggs, the giant trees at every resort and park entrances, and lastly the giant gingerbread house at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort. (It is made of real Ginger bread and tastes pretty good too.