Crowds are crazy !!!

[maxiesmom]

I'd much rather be at a packed Disney World that in cold Michigan. From me to all of those complaining--Pretend it is a snowball.

 

[rtbreneman]

The other thing to remember about posted wait times is that they are almost always "behind" what is actually the wait time when you are reading the sign. They are posted based on the time it took someone to just go through the line, not what it will take someone entering the line right now. Say I get in line at 3:00 for Space Mountain and the CM hands me the little red card to time how long it takes. At 3:30 I hand the card to the CM at the front of the line, and they now post a wait time of 30 minutes for 3:30. The wait time at 3:00 was 30 minutes, but it could now be 60 because Buzz just broke, a parade just ended, or anything else. It could also be 10 minutes because it started pouring down rain at 3:05 and everyone went home. When you read the wait time sign, what you are most likely reading is "This is the time it took the last person we monitored to get through the line - unless we are deliberately manipulating the times to change guest behavior, so take that into consideration as well."

 

[eeyoresmom]

Are the crowds there now expected to lessen in the next few weeks? I know they will ramp up again the closer we get to Easter/Patriot's Day.

 

[SwanVT2]

I'd much rather be at a packed Disney World that in cold Michigan. From me to all of those complaining--Pretend it is a snowball.

Don't get me wrong, we are having fun! Beats cold VT! It is just incredible to be around so many people all here for the Mouse!

 

[pitpat]

Are the crowds there now expected to lessen in the next few weeks? I know they will ramp up again the closer we get to Easter/Patriot's Day.

the bulk of Spring Break crowds are still to come. Prediction calendars had 3/11 through Easter as a lot more crowded than last week.

 

[mn51]

I was at Magic Kingdom on Tuesday 02/07 and the wait time for 7DMT was 150 minutes. Who thinks that it is a good idea to even get in a line that long? We went about 5 years ago the same week and crowds were pleasant. This trip was elbow to elbow the whole week no matter where we are. It was not our most enjoyable experience.

We were there during the same time. We were very surprised at the crowds. It didn't matter which park we hit, it was the same at each of the parks.

 

[disneyAndi14]

We were there 2/16-2/23, it was busy but we did some different things like the AH party on 2/16 and a tour at Epcot on 2/20/17. We have been at Easter time the last few years and this just did not feel as busy as that so it was a win for us. I did see SE in Epcot at 75 minute wait on President's day.

 

[adisneyaunt]

Not what I wanted to hear...
I thought early march was lighter crowds lol

 

[Silver Queen]

We are at the World now and have been surprised by the heavy crowds. Thank goodness for Fast Past+! We made the best of it today and still got a lot done. We rode Pirates of the Caribbean standby at about 10:00-10:30 and there was a 40 minute wait, the longest wait that we've ever had on that attraction. We concur with the posters who have mentioned Mardi Gras as one of the causes for the crowds. There are many, many people here from Louisiana judging by the T-shirts we've seen and the conversations we've had with other guests.

 

[teammjs]

A LOT of Texas public schools are going to be off the week of the 13th for Spring Break, so prepare for a Lone Star Invasion soon

 

[anniemae]

Not what I wanted to hear...
I thought early march was lighter crowds lol

I think there was a lot going on at once this week. We had Mardi Gras, Feb breaks (some schools had last week of feb into march), Epcot's garden festival, people who did the marathon then stayed the week etc. I think it was just kind of a perfect storm.

 

[NDFamily]

I think there was a lot going on at once this week. We had Mardi Gras, Feb breaks (some schools had last week of feb into march), Epcot's garden festival, people who did the marathon then stayed the week etc. I think it was just kind of a perfect storm.

Fingers crossed it goes down for this upcoming week. We fly in tomorrow afternoon and while large crowds wouldn't ruin it for us by any means, it would be nice if the parks weren't as packed.

Either way I get to say goodbye to snow for a week!

 

[Spridell]

I was in the MK yesterday and it was nuts!!!

I had FP+ for Haunted and still waited 25 minutes with the FP

My family goes every year the week after Thanksgiving and yesterday was A LOT more crowded than when we have been there after Thanksgiving.

 

[WhispyPixie]

I think WDW has almost gotten to the point where finding a "slower" week or time period consistently is going to be a challenge. There is almost always going to be a celebration of some sort, a holiday or school break, a convention or a competition going on. It is a HUGE destination spot. Just picking up and heading to WDW without ADR's, FP and some sort of skeleton plan and having a successful day of doing what you want is more than likely in the past. Even so, looking forward to our trip in 2 weeks..lol

 

[dalyes]

We just got back yesterday and were fairly surprised by the crowds. We knew that Sunday would be busy, but expected a drop off that didn't really happen. And no, I didn't think about Fat Tuesday/Start of Lent falling when it did and closing schools in LA and Alabama. Having said that, it was fine for us. We only got fastpasses on Saturday night when we were heading to the park on Sunday - Wednesday. We only skipped two rides because of wait times - Frozen (and I only wanted to see what they did to the old Maelstrom) and Mine Train, because I'm not about to wait an hour for any ride.

We had two ride stoppages (and it happened a few times on each - Carousel of Progress - ha! We had to watch a scene more than once - and Spaceship Earth - which happens). There was one ride closure that impacted us to my annoyance, I admit. Apparently ToT went down and they issued paper fp's. We watched literally 50 people get taken out of the fb line to every 5 of the standby line. We did manage to wait over an hour when the posted ride time was 20 minutes for standby. We had a fp for later but wanted to knock it out earlier...at a certain point it didn't make sense to get out of line since we invested the time. Our reward? Riding it with a celebrity who was taken through a backdoor. Granted I didn't know WHO it was at the time but my 7 year old thought it was cool because she has an after school teacher who likes the band. Ha! (It was apparently Josh Dun from 21 Pilots.)

 

[JennLTX]

\Our reward? Riding it with a celebrity who was taken through a backdoor. Granted I didn't know WHO it was at the time but my 7 year old thought it was cool because she has an after school teacher who likes the band. Ha! (It was apparently Josh Dun from 21 Pilots.)

Ha! He was on the Disney Blog yesterday, too. I'm kind of surprised he's famous enough to get PEPed through the rides.

 

[wilkeliza]

Ha! He was on the Disney Blog yesterday, too. I'm kind of surprised he's famous enough to get PEPed through the rides.

He is in a pretty popular band right now so it makes sense. They are on the top 40 and selling out arenas so it isn't like he is the front runner of a garage band.

 

[JennLTX]

He is in a pretty popular band right now so it makes sense. They are on the top 40 and selling out arenas so it isn't like he is the front runner of a garage band.

True. I guess I've just revealed I'm the correct age to start yelling at kids to get off my lawn.

 

[laracroft]

Not sure if everyone saw, but I had a pop up on Facebook last night that said The View was going to be at WDW next week filming...

http://attractionsmagazine.com/abcs-the-view-at-walt-disney-worlds-animal-kingdom-on-march-6-10/

Sorry if it was already posted...

 

[mickeyluv'r]

Mardi Gras is not a a blip on anyone's radar here, so I agree with the sentiment of you forget about it unless you're from the area where it is celebrated.

Except I wasn't responding to an interpretation, I was responding directly to what a pp poster said.

I think you are making the same mistake that the pp was making. It doesn't matter if you or I personally celebrate it or not. The subject of this thread is WDW crowds.

Mardi Gras is an international observance, that is observed by multiple major religions, and two states celebrate it as a state holiday, as such, it is going to have an impact on WDW crowds. That's the important part.

I just typed, "Spring holidays USA 2017" into my search engine, and up popped a complete list of every observance and holiday day in the USA -by state. It took me all of 2 seconds.

I daresay, we would all do well to spend more time thinking outside of our own personal bubbles.