Sunday November 23rd 2025

The mission I gave myself for the weekend was to visit Disney Springs. The shopping and entertainment complex is always decorated well for the holidays. The last few years I waited too long. The crowds grow as tourists and locals doing Christmas shopping flood in as the holiday approaches.

My first attempt to visit the Springs was late Saturday afternoon. My goal was to see the decorations before and after dark. Too many other people had similar ideas. As soon as I got off the highway I found a solid line of traffic. There was about a mile to the parking structures, so I tried a detour to the north side of the shopping district. I found a similar traffic situation on that side as well. It seemed easier to try again on another day.

Today I drove to Disney Springs with a lot less drama shortly after the noon hour. The backup started at the entrance to the nearest parking garage. The first four floors were full and all the traffic was getting directed to the top floor. I didn’t have any issues finding a place to park,but I would guess it was only a few minutes before the entire garage would be declared full.

Clearing security was quick and easy. Once I exited the parking structure into Disney Spring the density of the crowd was obvious. Navigation among the paths and shops was a challenge. Individuals and groups of individuals seemed to be wandering aimlessly or posing for pictures in front of the various Christmas trees.

The Christmas trees are the primary decorations at the park. Disney themes each tree to one of its intellectual properties. For example, there are trees for Star Wars, Marvel, Disney+ and many other things. They make a game out of finding all of the trees by providing a map with stickers. I didn’t play the game, but wandered around taking pictures of the trees. For some reason I didn’t find the trees as entertaining as previous years. Perhaps, because it was bright daylight they didn’t pop as well as at night.

I gave up my wandering after a couple of hours. It was still a long time until dusk and the start of the entertainment. All I was seeing were crowds that were unpredictable. I retreated to the relative safety of my car on the busy roads.