The week following Princess Half Marathon [2/25/19-3/1/19]

Just thought I'd post our experience with going the week immediately following the Princess runs.
Our first day was MK on Monday and the park was packed. Lots of people walking around with their medals to get pictures taken with characters. Most waits were an hour. People Mover had at least a 10 minute wait, but usually longer.
Tues was HS, Star Tours was pretty much 15 minutes all day. TT and RRC were over an hour, no problem getting into the shows right before they started.
Wed back to MK and crowds were better. We had a late start at 10AM, bag check was backed up about 10 people per line.
Thur Epcot, EMH TT was down, so we did Soaring with about a 20 minutes wait. SE was down twice so that built.other lines up. WS wasn't too crowded.
Fri AK was very pleasant, not the 10 that TP had predicted. EE was a 10 minute wait for the first 45 minutes. Road FOP with a FP and then again end of night. Got in line at :7:45 and we were off the ride by 9:33. The banshee shop was closed, so only shopping to be down was at the front of the park.

Also refreshing for FP didn't really work well for me at all. MK all I could get was Tea Cups or Philharmonic on Mon. Tues HS was Star Tours or the shows. Wed I was able to snag a Jungle Cruise for around 6. I had the most luck at AK with getting EE, no Pandora at all

I was at MK at RD on Thurs and we walked on BTMRR, SM, JC, and POC. By the time we where done with those the lines has started. I felt that the park wasn't that crowded at all. We had a 12:20 at lunch at Liberty Tree Tavern and it was really quiet in there. By the end of lunch there was 55-65 minute waits for most big rides. I got a 4th FP for POC for that evening but nothing else really popped up when I was looking for more FP. Never got on FOP at AK on Friday as I didn't have a FP but I didn't think it was to crowded there either. This past week seemed like a great week to be there. (gorgeous weather didn't hurt either!)

We were in MK 2-24, HS and Epcot 2-25, MK and AK 2-26, & MK 2-27(half-day).

It did seem crowded but we did EMMs both the 25 & 26 so that helped immensely. We also did the HEA Desert Party the night of the 24th. I've read in another thread that people were having MDE/FP issues, but that wasn't the case for us. I was grabbing Kilimanjaro and Soarin' FPs last minute without issue using the refresh trick.

I'd say the parks were a 6/7-10 overall the days I was there(Touring Plans was right on the nose with their predictions). Right on the border of too crowded but manageable for me.

10 minute wait for the 3 Caballeros is always a sign that Epcot is crowded that day : )

Rope drop on Monday at MK was nuts. They were so backed up that they weren’t even using fingerprints for entering the park. We didn’t have much of a problem getting the rides we wanted that day, but we used FastPass and did shows.

Tuesday and Wednesday at Animal Kingdom were pretty light. We did EE 4 times in a row because the wait time was under 20 minutes.

Friday at AK was a different story. EE was at 40 minutes by 10:00. The Safari was at 115 minutes by 11:00. I was able to refresh and get an EE FastPass about 15 minutes out. We ended up dropping our safari FastPass because even the FastPass line was ridiculously long.

We RD safari, so it was about 9:25 when we got to EE. It did build quickly as we were leaving .We did take an afternoon break for a couple hours I caught EE and PW FP for after 6

We were at MK Monday and AK Wednesday. We went with friends worth toddlers and made it until 2ish and then headed back to WBC. The lines were getting too long and no addl FP for rides we wanted until end of night. AL was great. Forecast was for thunderstorm and rain and we almost changed our plans, but then Wednesday morning it adjusted and we went ahead with our plans
We had a great time and I think we made it until 3-4 that day. We did after hours MK on Thursday which was amazing and we rode everything we wanted at least once if not twice. We spent some time at Epcot yesterday and MK for fireworks dessert party last night. We went to HS today for a few hours. It was mid 80's and pretty packed. Over 100min for HToT, RNR. 110 SDD. Decided to come hang out at Poly we leave Tuesday and are enjoying the resort now that we've done the things we wanted. Animal kingdom again tomorrow for FOP fp.

I found this past week pretty busy even just walking around, I'd call it a 7-8 at the parks. I was expecting the crowds to be a bit lower. I wish the parks had been open another hour each night, especially MK and DHS.

The week after Princess marathon will be busy next year. Mardi Gras will be Feb 25 so Louisiana schools will be out. Presidents day is the week before so NE schools will be out.

Malestrom Troll said:

The week after Princess marathon will be busy next year. Mardi Gras will be Feb 25 so Louisiana schools will be out. Presidents day is the week before so NE schools will be out.

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Southern NH schools were out last week, granted that's not a ton of volume but I know a TON of families who were down there last week.

chloelovesdisney said:

I found this past week pretty busy even just walking around, I'd call it a 7-8 at the parks. I was expecting the crowds to be a bit lower. I wish the parks had been open another hour each night, especially MK and DHS.

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Agreed in regards to busy day at MK. Epcot was quieter because garden show hadn't opened yet.

We were in parks from 2/26/2019 to 3/3/2019 and, overall, it felt crowded but wasn't usually oppressive. We had ADRs lined up at 180 days and had gotten FPs for the headliners at 60+ days out, plus had a good touring plan in place so never waited in lines more than 15-20 minutes; we used mobile order for QS; a moderate refresh time worked for many rides but not the headliners on most days (I wasn't glued to my iPhone all day trying to refresh).
Tuesday, Feb. 26th, at MK: TP crowd level was 6; we had a BOG PPO and rode SDMT once without a wait, then headed to SM and could walk on. By 10 AM, Fantasyland/Tomorrowland felt crowded but wasn't overwhelming.
Wednesday, Feb. 27th at EPCOT: TP crowd level was 3; the park felt almost empty (relatively speaking), like WDW from 10-15 years ago! Easy to get 4th and 5th FPs on any ride.
Thursday, Feb 28th, at MK: TP crowd level was 6; we RD'd Adventureland/Frontierland and rode JC, PotC, BTMR without a wait. Peaceful for the first hour or so but felt crowded by late morning to afternoon; not able to get 4th FP at BTMR, but JC, HM, and PotC popped up using refresh.
Friday, March 1st, at AK: TP crowd level was 9 and the park felt crowded bordering on oppressive; we RD'd Navi (no wait) and had FPs for FOP, KS and EE; not able to get 4th FP at major rides.
Saturday, March 2nd, at HS; TP crowd level was 8 and park felt very crowded; I can't imagine HS when Star Wars opens!
Sunday, March 3rd, at HS (half day); TP crowd level was 8 and again felt very crowded; using refresh, only a few shows and rides popped up for 4th FP.
Bottom line, we had a lot of fun despite the crowds.

We were in the parks 2/25- 3/2 and found the crowds to be very manageable. The only day that felt super crowded to us was Saturday 3/2 in MK. We used our FPs then got out of there around 330pm. This continues to be my favorite time of year to visit WDW.

I was there also the week of 25-1.

Monday at HS. We did EMM at toy story. If anyone is on the fence...do it!! It was awesome. My boy got 6 rides on mania. 4 on aliens. And my one son did slinky 2x. We did the forever show and stunt show, TOT, Jedi training and met Olaf and then got out of there. It felt packed. My kids were exhausted so we didnt even try for any other FP

Guess we did MK. We rope dropped and got jungle, pirates and carpets all done by 10. FP for BTMR at 10:15. Had an early lunch or snack before FP at PP. We waited 5 min for Philharmagic. Then FP for dwArves. After that they did standby for tea cups while waiting for the 4th FP at dumbo. Followed by 5th FP for IASM

We hoped to Epcot for garden grill reservations and were able to standby Nemo and turtle talk with a 5 min wait each. They played in the Aquarium for 25 min till it was time to eat. I got the 6th FO for Soarin for after we ate. It was evening magic hours but it was pouring so we left around 9.

We’d: AK. While everyone ran for pandora we rope dropped safari and was in the second jeep. We walked to Dino land and dropped dh off at Everest to single ride. While he did that’s we didn’t didn’t wait at all for triceratops spin and 10 min goofy meet and greet (which was a great one!!). Then the boys played in the boneyard and I found a cute daisy and Donald greet for my daughter which was the highlight of my whole trip.
It was starting to feel hot and crowded send my kids wanted to swim. So we did our Tusker hours lunch and went to swim.

Thurs Epcot. We weren’t early enough to really get the EMH so we just started a line for baymax at 8:45. We did him and then joy and sadness and was out by 9:20. Wait time said 30 min. We did the spaceship earth with no wait. Then did our frozen FP. And waited for Ana and Elsa. It was the only wait we did all week. We walked back for mission space FP. Did the 4d movie with no wait. Did the princess meal in normway (not good planning today with all the back and forth). Played in a fountain. Snagged an extra FP for my dh to do mission space orange. Got him an extra for test track as well. Did the boats in Mexico. And Chinese acrobats in China. And ate yummy food in Morocco. It never felt crowded here at all to me. But my kids also aren’t into too many characters so we didn’t try any of those lines.

Mk. Felt crowded on Friday. But we did Tomorrowland first, coming in after the EMH crowd and just strarted with FP for Space mountain at 9:45. Did Buzz FP also. Watched Monsters inc with 5 min wait and same for people mover which was so fun. We did our Ariel FP. Then went to chef Mickey. Came back for the fantasy parade which was my favorite. Got a fourth FP for Pooh for later so we could do Tom Sawyer island. Such a hidden gem of fun!!!! We stayed there an hour. Got another FP for Buzz so ended the day on buzz and people mover before checking in to garden party.

We did the whole week with one wait. And lots of extra FP. But I also had young kids who didn’t need to do all the mountains over and over and were not really interested in characters. We had a great time!!!