Crowd Report

[Southernswthrt1]

We're here now, and the crowds are NOT what I would consider light. We were at AK Sunday, and it was crowded. We went to MGM yesterday (hoping Monday would bring lighter crowds) but no such luck.

The secret is definitely out that early Dec. was a nice time to go. This will definitely be my last trip at this time of year... (at least with DH).

 

[TheGoofster]

We've been in the parks for the past 8 days now, and even though the crowds are a bit higher than I had imagined, they still aren't that bad. We've not had to wait more than 25 minutes for any ride that we've been on (true some of them have been up to 85 minutes long, but only the headliners, and only at the busiest times - but we would go to other rides during the busiest times, and miss most of the crowds). We have used fast pass quite a bit, but honestly, if you time it right, you could still do the standby for most rides, and not wait that long.
Probably the most crowds we've seen were at the AK park. We were there last Wed. and were amazed at how crowded it felt. I think a part of that is the narrower walkways that were jammed because of the huge number of strollers and EVC's. The rides themselves weren't really all that bad, but getting to them was.

 

[UrsulasShadow]

I had walk ons on most rides all week. ToT yesterday was a walk-on/20 min or less all day. RnRC the same. Rode HM 3 times in a row on Tuesday afternoon, then again Wed. am with no line at all. I have to call that good. The worst one was Soarin', although I got to ride twice bc of FP. My friends didn't get to ride it at all, bc they refused to get up in the a.m. and get moving. Their loss.

Gotta go pack and come home now.

 

[Southernswthrt1]

I think you guys are right about AK seeming more crowded. We went to MK yesterday, and it was quite managable. The longest wait was at Thunder Mountain...about 20 minutes. MK seems to handle the crowds a whole lot better.

 

[Mister Skellington]

I agree we went to MK yesterday and the crowds were pretty light until 5:00 when MVMCP was starting fill the park. MVMCP was sold out and very heavy with people. Even then we walked on to Splash Mountain a few times. We didnt ride any other rides. The Fireworks were realllllllllly wonderful!!!!!

 

[MiaSRN62]

I just got back.......70-90 min waits for Soarin' and Test Track.......Fast Passes gone by 2 pm (this was Sat 12/8). MK on Saturday was a zoo as well ! I agree.....this time period used to be much lower crowds.
The MVMCP on 12/6 was nice though....we got to go on most rides with no waits.
I remember the late 90's when we went during early Dec and it was on the quiet side. Miss those days.

 

[landryfam]

GEAUX TIGERS!!!!!!!!!!

Hope you are enjoying your trip We leave out Friday morning...hoping for nice crowds and weather.

 

[Jason71]

Monday, EPCOT was unusually crowded in the morning. Not holiday packed, but a lot busier than, say, October. 70 minutes for Soarin', 15-20 for Nemo.

That afternoon/evening, MK was also somewhat jammed (30 minutes on Spash and Thunder, even HM was posted 20, tho it was more like 10), but that may have been skewed by EMH. Spectromagic was a nightmare.

Definitely not the "dead" time of year this once was.

 

[Priorityonecb]

We are leaving Friday morning too! I am seeing thunderstorms for Saturday, so packing the poncho's!

 

[Mich Mouse]

Isn't it interesting how people have such different experiences at WDW at the exact same time? We are leaving this afternoon and my sister has been there for a week already and has reported extremely light crowds, walk ons all week.

 

[SummersMom]

For those of you who have posted (or anyone else) did you have a plan when you arrived at the parks each day or did you just wing-it. Did you attend lots of parades/shows or major rides? What areas of the parks did you find were crowded?

I'm just trying to figure out why there is such a difference in what different people say when they were in the same park as others on the same day. If you have any other ideas - feel free to add them.

We leave Saturday and have also thrown in rain ponchos after looking at the weather. We can't wait!!!

 

[Irishhockey]

It seems that it's all personal opinion/judgement...

I HATE crowds... I would rather not go at all then go in the summer or spring break. Just don't see how it's "worth it" to pay almost twice as much and deal with twice as many people!

We went Jan 20 - 26 and Sept 8 - 15 this year. We were surprised at how many people were there... theres no such thing as "dead" at disney. It was weird... lots of congestion, 15-40min waits on most rides with Soarin' and Test Track capping out at 60-75mins. I consider that to be pretty darn good these days!

Several rides were in fact "walk ons" and we found that most rides were posted with the wrong wait times. We also took note that between detailed queues and preshows... what felt like a walk-on was really a 15min line/walk/show wait.... gotta love Disney for that!

We're going to stick with Sept for now... that free dinning promotion is just too good of a deal to pass up!

 

[aimeeg]

We were at WDW 12/6- 12/9.

We found the crowds to be just as heavy as June 2007. I planned our trip very well so we knew what rides to do at what times. We spent a lot of time meeting characters. The princess line was not as bad.

We did see an overwhelming amount of wheelchairs and scooters. We had trouble negotiating the stroller throught the see of people on the streets. We brought our own stroller so it was not as large as Disney's.

All in all we had a wonderful time but it was hot and crowded. We did not expect that.

 

[kimmar067]

...how has the weather been?

 

[UrsulasShadow]

The weather has been spectacular. Actually breaking all records, in the 80's every day, and comfortably warm evenings (only needed a jacket once, on the Breathless).

I think the difference in experiences has to do with time of arrival (I'm always there at opening), and which parks on which days (I avoid all EMH). I also followed the UG for best parks/best days. But some days there was no explaining why a certain ride/attraction was a walk-on. For some reason, the day I arrived (12/4) I could walk on HM several times with NO WAIT WHATSOEVER. The same with PotC and BTMRR. I arrived at 4pm. Go figure.

 

[kimmar067]

The weather has been spectacular. Actually breaking all records, in the 80's every day, and comfortably warm evenings (only needed a jacket once, on the Breathless)....

...hmmm, one of my student's cousins lives in Orlando, who says that it's only been in the mid 60's and kinda cloudy/rainy there....

 

[LglBlonde]

WE are here now, and it seems busy, but we've not had to wait long for rides at all. Nearly everything has been walk-on w/ the exception of Soarin'.

Since Saturday, every day has had no rain & temps in the low-80's with low humidity too.

 

[UrsulasShadow]

...hmmm, one of my student's cousins lives in Orlando, who says that it's only been in the mid 60's and kinda cloudy/rainy there....

I arrived 12/4, left 12/11. The weather was always in the high 70's, low 80's during the day, never below the high 50's in the evening. The previous week was also mostly warm and sunny, although I remember seeing a couple of rainy days in the weather forecast. It sprinkled for 5 minutes one day in the afternoon. This was in WDW, Universal/IoA, Seaworld, and Busch Gardens (Tampa). The locals I spoke with said that this weather was very unusual, the weather channels all commented on it. So, take it for what it's worth...

Accuweather.com is predicting cooler temps later in the week. But they were predicting that for my vacation week, too, at 10 days out. Never did cool off.

 

[LGH1946]

I was at WDW Dec. 2-Dec.7. 6 days in the parks. The weather was wonderful, even though a bit too hot for Dec. Bit there was not a drop of rain and no wind. So it was my kind of weather.

As for the crowds, I didn't wait very long for anything. We used fast pass as much as possible. The only really crowded park was Animal Kingdom on Thursday, Dec. 6. at least during the first half of the day.

I used Tour Guide Mikes plan. The only thing wrong with it was he had said there was extra magic hours at AK on Wed. so there should not be as many there on Thursday but there WAS.!!!

I really think the Safari has gotten a LOT bumpier. You could not even hold a camera steady at all!

The MK castle lighting was so beautiful, the lights are just so very pretty!!

There is just no place like Disney with Christmas decorations.

 

[dburg30]

We got here Sat 12/8. Messed around at Epcot some, road soaring, I would say the crowds were a little high, was the last day of pop warner and all that though. We finished the evening with MGM, it was packed. We just hopped over for the heck of it, BUT we did walk to the end of the Streets of America and saw the Osborne Lights. Decided to go ahead and do the 2nd fantasmic, should be lower right? Wrong, it was crowded, not packed, but lot of people there. Sunday AK, walked onto Everest and Safari, Did the safari a 2nd time, had to wait about 20 min or so. Monday headed back to MGM, took longer to walk the path for ToT then to get in, longest line I waited in that day was the FP line for RNR , headed to epcot again for a while and, I will admit was single rider, but literally walked right onto M:S and TT over and over and over, this was around 7 or so.. But the standby lines were still only about 10-20 it looked like. And I'll agree about the 11th at MK, during the day, was low, but with the sold out MVMCP (what's up with that?) that parks were much busier last night then during the day. Took today off, well we had breakfast at the castle, so cant talk about the crowds today.
I've been pretty happy with the crowds so far.