Anyone who says Jersey week isn't more crowded....

[Cantw8]

another thing I forgot to mention....does anyone know what was up with Splash Mountain on Wed night Nov 3rd? When we fought our way through the CROWDS to Splash Mountain, it was around 5pm and it was closed...anyone know why?

 

[disneysteve]

Just my opinion here...

We were at Disney for Jersey Week, Oct. 30 - Nov. 6. This was our third year doing Jersey Week (DD is in 3rd grade). I would definitely say this year was busier than the last two, but we noticed somewhat of a disconnect between the apparent crowds walking through the parks and the wait times on the rides. Even though the parks seemed quite crowded, the waits were minor. Of course, some of the E ticket attractions had lines, but we just used Fastpass to bypass them.

We also noticed on a few occasions that the posted wait times were quite inaccurate. For example, BTMRR had a posted standby wait of 30 minutes. We got in line anyway. We were through the line, done the ride, and back in line to do it again in 17 minutes (yes, I timed it). So in under 30 minutes (which the sign still said when we went in the 2nd time), we actually rode twice. This same thing happened on some other attractions too.

Mid-day on Thursday, we walked right in to Mission:Space. There was no wait at all (Zero minutes on the board). We also walked right in, or had less than 5 minute waits, for many other rides and shows in every park.

So all in all, I agree with those who say the park was more crowded, but I disagree that it made it hard to get on rides or get into shows. Of course, judicious use of Fastpass is a must. Anyone not familiar with FP probably did waste a lot of time standing in lines.

 

[Tinkerbellmom33]

I just got back too. We were there from the first til the 8th. The first two days were good and Sunday at Epcot was nice too. Magic Kingdom was a disaster Sat nite. We went for dinner and tried to stay for Spectro. What a NIGHTMARE! I wasn't feeling to Disney like after that. We didn't even bother staying for the fieworks, luckily we had a great view Tuesday night. We got to see Spectro as we were leaving and finally found a spot by the exit. That was the worst night there. We went back Monday for the day before we left, Aain, HUGE crowds. A big waste of time in that park. The good side was that we got to go on the Stitch ride before we left. Ther weather was excellent. I would go there again at that time. I might just plan my park days a little different. NO MK on a Sat. nite

 

[Harley-Mouse]

this year it will fall on halloween and the rest of that week. This is called Jersey week because the schools are closed on the Thursday & Friday Nov 3-4 so the kids will only miss 3 days of school. Me on the other hand go when the kids have of one day and they will only miss 3 days eather way it's still a week in WDW.

 

[disneysteve]

Originally posted by Harley-Mouse
this year it will fall on halloween and the rest of that week. This is called Jersey week because the schools are closed on the Thursday & Friday Nov 3-4

If you are referring to the 2005 dates, I believe you are incorrect. NJEA conference dates for November 2005 are the 10th-12th, so it won't be Halloween week in 2005.

 

[Tinkerbellmom33]

PS, We met Peter Pan and he made a joke about the whole state of New Jersey being there. Too funny!!! All in all it was a good trip, MGM Thursday and Magic Kingdom at the end of the week was crazy.

 

[gjerseygirl]

We utilized early entry every day and during that time..yes the crowds were manageable. However, after 9:00.....forget about it. I don't know how anyone can do 6 rides in one hour. For example.....Went to MGM on...hmmm...I believe Sat. Nov. 6th....if that was the EE day then that was it. Rode TOT and Aerosmith. By that time it was 9:00 and TOT had a posted wait time of 100 minutes. We couldn't get into the first two shows of VOTLMM so used fast past for the third show. Went to have a bite to eat. Did VOTLM and then went into Millionaire.......no wait.....well maybe 10 minutes just for the show to start. The crowds getting to these spots were so bad I was clutching on to my 8 year olds hand for dear life. Thank goodness this day wasn't hot. At this point we had been there since 10/30 doing all the parks all week and I was done with MGM. So left and spent the day at the pool and went back for Fantasmic at night. This was about our best day at the parks. The day at AK's EE was also pretty good. However, we didn't get to see A Bug's Life because the wait was too long, we didn't want to do FP because we were done with everything else and didn't want to sit around for two hours (the FP return time). The day of MK's EE I think Wed. Nov. 3rd. was the worst. It was the hottest day and although the line waits were not too bad...I would say an average of 10 to 20 minutes(except the 90 minutes for Splash Mountain) it was just maneuvering through the crowds in that heat that got to me. Now I personally thought that MNSSHP on the 31st was GREAT!! It was cool and I thought not that crowded at all, especially considering it was sold out. I only wish that was the crowd level for the week. And someone posted about being packed in the buses and monorails like sardines......you're not kidding!!

 

[disneysteve]

Originally posted by gjerseygirl
And someone posted about being packed in the buses and monorails like sardines......you're not kidding!!

Its funny how different various people's experiences were. We stayed offsite so we never had to ride a bus so I can't comment about that. But we rode the monorail a few times and it was never crowded. I even commented to my wife as we were leaving MK one nite that on prior trips the ramp up to the loading area was usually packed and this nite it was practically empty. We got right on the train that was already sitting in the station and off we went.

We drove to the parks each day. Except for MK of course, we always got a parking space within 5 rows of the front so we never even had to ride a parking tram - we just walked to the front gate at EC, MGM and AK.

The only park we did on EE day was AK. Since we were offsite, we didn't know when the EE days were. The park was more crowded at regular opening time since resort guests were already in, but it still didn't cause any major problems or delays.