Welcome back to Mickey Visit Disneyland This Week! Each week at Mickey Visit, we share key happenings and dates for the week you might have missed completely. We have all of the essential dates for your visit. See our last Mickey Visit Disneyland This Week here.
For this update, we are going to take a look ahead at the next two weeks. This is your resource for everything happening at Disneyland the week of December 15 through the remainder of 2025. These are a big few weeks for Disneyland with some of the highest crowds of the year, special New Year’s Eve offerings, and more. Our weekly updates in this style will be on hiatus until 2026, but our daily news articles and coverage will continue. Make sure you are on our Mickey Visit newsletter.
See news from this past week you may have missed, including multiple ride closures and other updates Disney just announced, plus an “it’s a small world” ride closure added to the refurbishment calendar.
Important Disneyland Dates For Remainder of 2025
More holiday blockouts will go into effect for Magic Key holders soon. Enchant Key holders will be blocked out of the parks starting on December 17th, and Believe Key holders will be blocked out starting on the 19th. Inspire Key holders are blocked out on the 22nd. The Inspire Key blockout lifts first on New Year’s Day, then all of the other blockouts lift on January 4.
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Generally, crowds will start to really spike starting around the 19th. This is around when many schools are out on winter break. In our Mickey Visit Disneyland crowd calendar, this is one of the rare stretches of the year that we project will be all “Massive” crowds. These high crowds will continue all the way through the remainder of the month, through the Christmas and New Year’s holidays.
Three dates in this timeframe in December were in the top 10 highest average wait time dates when looking at the 12 months from December 14, 2024, through December 14, 2025. December 27, 2024, had a peak wait time of 240 minutes and a 29.5-minute average wait time for all rides. December 28 and 30 also had similar numbers, with peak wait times of 200 minutes and 180 minutes, respectively. We are bringing more of this data to you soon in a separate article, but we wanted to include this to share a look at just how crazy this stretch of time of year is at the parks.
The mix of visitors during this period is very different than the mix throughout the rest of the year. Guests visiting during this period all purchased one day or multi-park tickets. All Magic Key annual passholders are blocked out. This means that more visitors will be taking a more intense approach to the day and attempting to get on major attractions. For these two weeks of the year, Disneyland is more tourist destination than locals park. This will be an important time to use our Mickey Visit Disneyland Morning Strategy and Mickey Visit Disney California Adventure Morning Strategy.
To accommodate these peak crowds, starting on the 19th, both parks will switch to full hours (12 AM and 10 PM closing) through the rest of the month. If you have a visit planned during this time with peak crowds, you can still get a lot done with a solid strategy. If you employ several of our top tips for visiting Disneyland when it’s crowded, you’ll be surprised by how much you accomplish.
A few locations will have special holiday meals on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. The Great Maple at Pixar Place Hotel has a holiday prix fixe dinner menu, served nightly from December 24 – 28, including items like yellowfin tuna crudo, brown butter gnocchi, and sticky toffee pudding.
Jazz Kitchen Coastal Grill & Patio has a Three Course Christmas Dinner on December 24 and 25, including a Reveillon Salad, Grilled Ribeye, and a Gingerbread Pudding, and Gingerbread Old Fashion. Paseo has a Holiday Special, featuring Cornish game hen stuffed with a chorizo-date stuffing, orange beurre blanc, pickled jalapeño, and shaved fennel salad with chicken chicharron available December 24 and 25. You can see all of the general 2025 Disneyland Christmas foods here.
Disneyland distributes hand-pulled candy canes this week on December 16 and 22 at Candy Palace at Disneyland and on December 17 at Disney California Adventure. The distribution schedule alternates between Candy Palace at Disneyland and Trolley Treats at Disney California Adventure. You can see details on how to get a candy cane this year and the full distribution schedule here.
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New Year’s Eve has unique hours and entertainment. There will be festivities throughout the park like dance parties, free hats, etc., throughout the day, and adjusted showtimes for A Christmas Fantasy Parade at 12:45 PM and 3 PM.
Both parks will have longer hours. Disneyland Park will be open until 2 AM, and Disney California Adventure will be open until 1 AM. Disneyland Park will have a special fireworks show called the New Year’s Eve Fantasy in the Sky Fireworks Spectacular at 9:00 PM and 12:00 AM that includes a DJ countdown on Main Street U.S.A., followed by Auld Lang Syne playing.
Disney California Adventure also has a special countdown during the same times at the World of Color viewing area. You can see our full guide to Disneyland on New Year’s Eve here, including tips to navigate the crowds and a description of entertainment offerings.
Santa’s last appearance at the resort is on December 24. After this point, he will no longer appear for the holiday celebration. Through Christmas Eve, you can find him at Pixar Place Hotel (in the main lobby), Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel & Spa (in the Great Hall), the Disneyland Hotel (in the main lobby), Redwood Creek Challenge Trail in Disney California Adventure Park, Fantasyland Theatre in Disneyland Park, and Breakfast With Santa experience at Naples Ristorante e Bar.
Though Santa leaves the Disneyland Resort after December 24, Santa Goofy will take over his spot at Redwood Creek Challenge Trail starting December 25.
A new holiday sweet treat has arrived at Jolly Holiday Bakery Cafe! The Milk and Cookies Tree-shaped Macaron is filled with milk buttercream and has a chocolate cookie dough center. You can get this now through the end of the holiday celebration on January 7.
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