Crowds REALLY large right now?

[palavra]

It is busy now. MK and Epcot were busy during the day, but the crowds thinned out considerably in the evening. My teens were able to get on Soarin' last night with a less than 30 minute wait around 8:00 last night.

 

[ChristineOH]

Epcot had light crowds, probably a 3. All the kiddie rides had almost no wait, but the "adult" attractions were mostly an hour+. The unfortunate thing was that there were so many people who were drunk by 6PM, especially near France. Dont think Ill go back during Festival of the arts.

I think this is Epcot all the time, because that's my experience, and I've never been during a festival. FW doesn't really have any lines unless you are there mid to late morning or early afternoon. Test Track is the big exception, but even Soarin' isn't too bad with the third theater. And WS is okay in the afternoon, but in the evenings, everyone seems to be in big groups clogging the sidewalks, drinking around the world. It's definitely worse on the weekends.

 

[Delirium]

Shorter hours in January compare to summer and holiday season contributes to a spike in wait times since there are fewer hours of operation to spread the crowds. And, it's possible many rides don't run at full capacity when crowds are expected to be 'lighter'

 

[hllb]

Shorter hours in January compare to summer and holiday season contributes to a spike in wait times since there are fewer hours of operation to spread the crowds. And, it's possible many rides don't run at full capacity when crowds are expected to be 'lighter'

I can say this past week, nothing was running at half capacity that I saw.

 

[Shanti]

I remember the days (late 90s, early 2000s) when January was a ghost town. I remember CMs telling us we could just stay on the rides after they were done if we wanted to ride again because there was no one in line. Just walking onto any and every ride, those were the days.

It was like that when we went in January 2009. Never used a single FastPass. We walked onto Soarin'.

 

[Rwethereyet?]

Was at Disney springs 2 weeks ago and we were elbow to elbows. Couldn’t get into Blaze pizza and had a 40 minute wait for earl of sandwich. It was miserable and I had a little disney melt down. We usually go in June and it isnt as bad as what we experienced.

 

[crazedprincess]

It was like that when we went in January 2009. Never used a single FastPass. We walked onto Soarin'.

YES! When we went to WDW in January of 2011, I kept telling my family, "this is what you call a walk on" as we walked on every single ride. LOL! It became a little family joke between us.

 

[SoCalDisneyFan2708]

Was there this past week and there were a ton of groups from Brazil and Argentina. The people from Argentina all wore pink. During the Indiana Jones show an entire section was filled with Brazilians. The stand by wait times were higher than I expected but that didn't affect us because we had FP's for all the big rides anyway.

 

[hllb]

Lots of dance or cheer groups started arriving on Thursday too. Had no issues with any of the groups.

 

[theone74733]

Was there this past week and there were a ton of groups from Brazil and Argentina. The people from Argentina all wore pink. During the Indiana Jones show an entire section was filled with Brazilians. The stand by wait times were higher than I expected but that didn't affect us because we had FP's for all the big rides anyway.

Just back from a week long WDW vacation. Yes, I think the international tourists (families, tour groups, dance troupes) added a good chunk to the crowd intensity as I felt like American tourists were in the minority. The chanting Enjoy Quince "pink jacket" groups were only at my AK day on Tuesday and MK on Wednesday. Luckily, I didn't see any tour groups at Epcot both days I went on Monday and Thursday.

Lots of dance or cheer groups started arriving on Thursday too. Had no issues with any of the groups.

I agree; the dance troupes coming in this weekend were noticeable, but didn't make a huge dent in the parks. The All Star Sports resort was mostly quiet until they arrived on Thursday. Most of the girls I saw were headed to Disney Springs on the buses at the resort.

Even though the crowds did feel like 7-8's, you can still get everything done with a good strategy (rope drop, maximizing FP's, single rider, visiting certain rides at the end of the day, etc.). I was able to do all of the things I wanted including riding multiple times on the headliners without spending more than 15 minutes in any one line. The only ride I spent 30 minutes waiting for was Splash Mountain on the day back from refurb last Friday.

 

[evilqueenmindy]

I was at animal kingdom today, and it was the busiest park we visited this trip, by FAR.
On the other hand, stayed at OKW, I don’t think we had a single bus that had more than 15 people on it all week.

 

[wendow]

Go in January they said, it is a slow time they said. Well guess what they were wrong. This trip was booked to take the place of our cancelled September trip (due to hurricane). We thought it wouldn't be crowded as schools just went back after the holidays. Obviously people think nothing of taking kids out of school anymore even if they just went back from the holidays. I noticed many really small kids there, some looked no more than a few months old.

I agree that many people will pull their kids out of school now, whereas when I was growing up 'perfect attendance' was a huge deal. My mom sent me to school when I was sick. No way on God's green Earth would she have pulled me out for a vacation but it's commonly done today and very much accepted. Also, there are lots of homeschoolers. We are homeschoolers and we travel when the public schools are in session. I think between us and the parents willing to pull kids out and the year round school schedules, people are filling all the available times and I think most are looking at those 'used to be' slower times and thinking it will be slow. Unfortunately, that is outdated thinking. There is no slow time anymore at WDW.

 

[50surgeries2012]

I’m here now, and the crowds have been crazy. Driving a rental power chair. I’ve had to really watch out for people suddenly darting out in front of me.

 

[TropicalDIS]

How much refreshing did you do? There's no way there were absolutely no FPs at all, all afternoon.
We were at MK last November, crowd level 8, and were able to get 15 FPs that day. Sometimes it took a bit of refreshing to get something we wanted, but it always came up.

15 FP's on a CL 8 day is a rare occurrence. Was there this past friday, park was rammed. Had my 3 FP's done by 11:30. Next avail FP not until 4pm.

Last week was busy, especially for MK & AK

 

[hllb]

We just returned yesterday from a 1 week trip. I was used to empty parks (crowd levels on previous trips were typically 2’s and 3’s). I picked this week because it was supposed to be 2 to 5 crowd levels, with the average being 3. I hate crowds and get cranky pretty easily. Instead of 2 to 5, we saw 4 to 8 crowds, with the average being 5 to 6. As it turned out, the crowd levels were fine. We got to do almost everything we wanted (we dropped a few unimportant things, which probably had more to do with over planning rather than crowds). We did our favorites multiple times and generally didn’t wait more than 15 minutes for anything (waited 39 minutes for ToT once, I think because they had problems- the posted wait was 20 minutes and the Lines app said 13 minutes).

The only time we really felt the crowds was walking around in AK. It was an 8 day, and the walkways were a bit difficult to navigate.

Here’s what we accomplished as a family of 5:

Arrival Day:
Wander around Poly w friends
Disney Springs for T-Rex dinner
Illuminations Cruise

MK Day 1, CL 5:
Welcome Show
PP (RD)
7DMT (FP)
BTM (FP)
SM (FP)
Buzz (standby)
Small World (standby)
Magic Carpets (standby)
Jungle Cruise (FP)
Pirates (FP)
Tomorrowland Speedway (standby)
Tea cups (standby)
Dumbo (standby)
Haunted Mansion (FP)
HEA dessert party
Lunch @ BOG
Dinner @ Skippers Canteen

MK Day 2, CL 6:
PPO breakfast at BOG
7DMT (FP)
BTM (twice, standby and FP)
SM (4 times I think, all FPs)
Tomorrowland Speedway (FP for just 2 in our party while the other 3 hit SM)
Barnstormer (standby)
Buzz (3 times, combo standby and FP)
Pirates (FP)
Jungle Cruise (FP)
Under the Sea (standby)
Philhatmagic (standby)
Dessert only at BOG to meet Beast
Sorcerers of the MK for maybe 40 minutes
Left the park maybe 5 or so
California Grill dinner @ 7:40 (this ended up being too late for my 7 year old)

AK, CL 8:
Navi (RD)
FoP (FP)
Everest (3 times, FP and standby)
Dinosaur (FP)
Tough to be bug (standby)
Safari (standby)
Lion King show (standby)
Nemo show (standby)
Tusker House late breakfast
Satuli Canteen for dinner
Met Flik (happened upon him and no wait)
Primeval whirl (once for whole group, one addtl ride for 2 while rest went on Everest, both FP)
ROL show (dining package)
Didn’t end up doing the two walking trails we wanted to hit

HS, CL 5:
Rock coaster (3 times I think, RD, and FP)
TSM (FP, wished we could’ve done it twice but nope)
Star Tours (twice, FP and standby)
Jedi Training
ToT (twice, FP and standby)
Launch Bay theater for movie
Beauty & Beast stage show (FP)
Indiana Jones show (standby)
Muppetvision (Standby)
Kyle Ren meet (Disney Visa)
Sci Fi Dine in for lunch
Fantasmic dessert party

Epcot, CL 4, EMH morning:
FEA (RD)
Soarin’ (twice, once standby once FP)
Test Track (3 times, all FP I think)
Baymax meet (standby)
Mexico CS lunch
World showcase (didn’t do a lot here, stopped in Germany, Mexico, China, Japan, ate snack at Festival cart, mainly just walked around the loop)
The Sea w Nemo (standby)
Aquarium
Living w Land (standby)
Spaceship earth (FP)
Mission Space (3 times, standby and FP)
Left park around 5:30 or 6, relaxed at Poly in room for 45 min
Ohana dinner at 7:20 (originally was 8:30 but moved it as 7 yr old had trouble staying up that late)

AK and HS, CLs 8 And 6 respectively:
This day was about experiences, not touring
Ohana breakfast @ 7:30
AK around 9 on EMH day
FoP (FP)
Dinosaur (FP)
Everest (FP)
Pandora snack
Wild Africa Trek (3 hr experience w snack)
Back to Poly for late lunch @ capt cooks
Arrive at HS at 6
Rock coaster (FP)
Star Wars dessert party
Meet BB8
Meet Chewie
Star Wars fireworks

We also did a ton of photos with the Disney photographers, including magic shots.

 

[Karen46]

We arrived Monday 1/29 lines were good, Monday-Wednesday things picked up Thursday and Friday, by Saturday MK was very very crowded with tour groups.

 

[slpeters]

I think in a way maybe it was good that I hadn't been before for our trip so didn't have expectations regarding crowds. We went in November of last year and were surprised that people thought it was busy while we were there. I looked at TouringPlans projections before we went but never actually went back to see what they updated the crowd levels to after the fact. Apparently half of our trip was spent in 9 and 10 crowd levels and, with the exception of our last night in MK, it never really seemed all that crowded to us. It gives me new appreciation for all the great advise all of you gave us.

 

[PrincessWithABlaster]

We just returned yesterday from a 1 week trip. I was used to empty parks (crowd levels on previous trips were typically 2’s and 3’s). I picked this week because it was supposed to be 2 to 5 crowd levels, with the average being 3. I hate crowds and get cranky pretty easily. Instead of 2 to 5, we saw 4 to 8 crowds, with the average being 5 to 6. As it turned out, the crowd levels were fine. We got to do almost everything we wanted (we dropped a few unimportant things, which probably had more to do with over planning rather than crowds). We did our favorites multiple times and generally didn’t wait more than 15 minutes for anything (waited 39 minutes for ToT once, I think because they had problems- the posted wait was 20 minutes and the Lines app said 13 minutes).

The only time we really felt the crowds was walking around in AK. It was an 8 day, and the walkways were a bit difficult to navigate.

Here’s what we accomplished as a family of 5:

Arrival Day:
Wander around Poly w friends
Disney Springs for T-Rex dinner
Illuminations Cruise

MK Day 1, CL 5:
Welcome Show
PP (RD)
7DMT (FP)
BTM (FP)
SM (FP)
Buzz (standby)
Small World (standby)
Magic Carpets (standby)
Jungle Cruise (FP)
Pirates (FP)
Tomorrowland Speedway (standby)
Tea cups (standby)
Dumbo (standby)
Haunted Mansion (FP)
HEA dessert party
Lunch @ BOG
Dinner @ Skippers Canteen

MK Day 2, CL 6:
PPO breakfast at BOG
7DMT (FP)
BTM (twice, standby and FP)
SM (4 times I think, all FPs)
Tomorrowland Speedway (FP for just 2 in our party while the other 3 hit SM)
Barnstormer (standby)
Buzz (3 times, combo standby and FP)
Pirates (FP)
Jungle Cruise (FP)
Under the Sea (standby)
Philhatmagic (standby)
Dessert only at BOG to meet Beast
Sorcerers of the MK for maybe 40 minutes
Left the park maybe 5 or so
California Grill dinner @ 7:40 (this ended up being too late for my 7 year old)

AK, CL 8:
Navi (RD)
FoP (FP)
Everest (3 times, FP and standby)
Dinosaur (FP)
Tough to be bug (standby)
Safari (standby)
Lion King show (standby)
Nemo show (standby)
Tusker House late breakfast
Satuli Canteen for dinner
Met Flik (happened upon him and no wait)
Primeval whirl (once for whole group, one addtl ride for 2 while rest went on Everest, both FP)
ROL show (dining package)
Didn’t end up doing the two walking trails we wanted to hit

HS, CL 5:
Rock coaster (3 times I think, RD, and FP)
TSM (FP, wished we could’ve done it twice but nope)
Star Tours (twice, FP and standby)
Jedi Training
ToT (twice, FP and standby)
Launch Bay theater for movie
Beauty & Beast stage show (FP)
Indiana Jones show (standby)
Muppetvision (Standby)
Kyle Ren meet (Disney Visa)
Sci Fi Dine in for lunch
Fantasmic dessert party

Epcot, CL 4, EMH morning:
FEA (RD)
Soarin’ (twice, once standby once FP)
Test Track (3 times, all FP I think)
Baymax meet (standby)
Mexico CS lunch
World showcase (didn’t do a lot here, stopped in Germany, Mexico, China, Japan, ate snack at Festival cart, mainly just walked around the loop)
The Sea w Nemo (standby)
Aquarium
Living w Land (standby)
Spaceship earth (FP)
Mission Space (3 times, standby and FP)
Left park around 5:30 or 6, relaxed at Poly in room for 45 min
Ohana dinner at 7:20 (originally was 8:30 but moved it as 7 yr old had trouble staying up that late)

AK and HS, CLs 8 And 6 respectively:
This day was about experiences, not touring
Ohana breakfast @ 7:30
AK around 9 on EMH day
FoP (FP)
Dinosaur (FP)
Everest (FP)
Pandora snack
Wild Africa Trek (3 hr experience w snack)
Back to Poly for late lunch @ capt cooks
Arrive at HS at 6
Rock coaster (FP)
Star Wars dessert party
Meet BB8
Meet Chewie
Star Wars fireworks

We also did a ton of photos with the Disney photographers, including magic shots.

Thank you for taking the time to post all this. We are expecting CL 4-8 during our trip so it was really useful to see what you could accomplish in similar circumstances.

 

[hllb]

Thank you for taking the time to post all this. We are expecting CL 4-8 during our trip so it was really useful to see what you could accomplish in similar circumstances.

Hope you have a good trip!

 

[patrokls]

Was there this past week and there were a ton of groups from Brazil and Argentina. The people from Argentina all wore pink. During the Indiana Jones show an entire section was filled with Brazilians. The stand by wait times were higher than I expected but that didn't affect us because we had FP's for all the big rides anyway.

I was there last week too. That pink group was staying in my building at Pop Century. The crowds were pretty heavy in the parks. I was able to get everything on my list done but I still hit a wall Thursday afternoon where I was ready to swear off Disney for years and years. Of course when I got home yesterday I started planning my next trip which looks like 2020.