Merry Christmas Eve, everyone!

We’ve been celebrating the holidays in Disney World for WEEKS now, but the busiest weeks of the year have now arrived. The parks are decked out in decor, there’s gingerbread everywhere, and you can hear Christmas music pretty much everywhere you go. But just how crowded are things in the parks the day before Christmas? We’re about to find out!

We headed into Magic Kingdom this morning to see what crowds are like on Christmas Eve, and if you’re planning a holiday trip in the future, you’ll definitely want to check this out! We first arrived at the Magic Kingdom parking lot at 8:28AM, and the line of cars was backed up. We made it through the parking booth at 8:40AM and were parked by 8:44. It took less than 20 minutes to get in line and to be parked. So, while it was busy, we have seen worse lines for parking over the holidays.

Our next stop was the Transportation & Ticket Center! There were lots of trams running from the parking lot to the TTC, so if you’re parking, you will likely be able to easily hop on one to get to the TTC. We got to security and made it through in 3 minutes!!

5 minutes later, we were hopping on the Monorail! It was certainly busy, and there were lots of people, but we made great time considering that.

Next stop — the Magic Kingdom! The park opened at 8AM, and we arrived there by 9:10AM. By then, the line wasn’t super backed up, but it did move fairly slowly, mostly due to scanning in issues. We still made it through the line in 8 minutes!

By the time we got inside Magic Kingdom, things were pretty similar. Main Street, U.S.A., was definitely busy but not packed. You can walk around and get where you need to go just fine.

The line for Starbucks at Main Street Bakery, however, was a different story. A Cast Member told us it was about a 30 to 40-minute wait! But when you need coffee, you need coffee.

By 10AM, wait times weren’t terrible, either! Haunted Mansion had a 20-minute wait, Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin was a 25-minute wait, and Astro Orbiter had a 30-minute wait.

As for the bigger rides, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad had a 40-minute wait, Jingle Cruise was 45 minutes, TRON Lightcycle / Run was 55 minutes, and both Seven Dwarfs Mine Train and Space Mountain had 60-minute waits. On a busy day like Christmas Eve, the wait times aren’t too bad for these more popular rides!

But most surprisingly, the longest wait at Magic Kingdom so far on Christmas Eve is the Mickey Mouse meet-and-greet! If you want to meet Mickey right now, you’ll have to wait in line for 70 minutes.

Over in Liberty Square, we noticed that the crowds seemed to pick up a bit…

…but still nothing too chaotic yet! Even the queue for the Haunted Mansion wasn’t as bad as we’ve seen it on regular park days sometimes.

Be prepared on days like Christmas Eve and Christmas Day to see lines way outside the queue like this line for Jingle Cruise!

Frontierland, especially by Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, was pretty full of people. But luckily, the wait time for the wildest ride in the wilderness was still only 30 30-minutes, around 10:30AM! Cast Members had the queue prepped for longer lines with ropes outside the queue, just in case it got wilder throughout the day.

Thanks for coming along with us to Magic Kingdom on Christmas Eve! Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all, however you’re celebrating this year. Stay tuned to DFB for more updates from Disney World.

Click Here to See Our Reviews of All the Holiday Season Snacks!

Are you going to Disney World this holiday season? Tell us in the comments!