Crowds Now

[WeLoveNemo]

Earlier this week, there was a bit of stress about South American tour groups and unexpected crowds. How is it now? We're coming in 2 weeks. Frankly, as long as it's not snowing, I'll be happy . But, let's face it, low crowds would be wonderful!

 

[disneyj914]

Visited all three parks on tues 1/25....rode everest 3 times in 15 minutes using single rider line.....tower of terror and rock n' roller coaster shut down fast pass lines because they were walk-ons all afternoon....everything at mk was a walk-on besides peter pan's flight (45 minutes posted wait)

soo....crowds have been awesome! usually in the parks at least twice a week and i can't believe how low the crowds have been! my advice is definitely invest in the touring plans lines app for your smart phone (if you have one). wait times are super accurate and they update themselves during the day according to user submitted times....also really accurate about which parks to go to on which days.

 

[n2mm]

We are here now and the So. Am tour groups are still here. We went to EPCOT last night and the line for Soarin was 70 minutes and no fast passes left. We have seen the crowds go up and down this week. One day we walked on everything at MK (Wed) and on Thursday we could not get on anything at DHS and many, many tour groups. A 60 minutes wait on most big rides by 11:00AM. FP for TSM were gone by 10:30AM. The weekend is here now, so the crowds are higher.

 

[krissy1254]

Hi... We just got back yesterday from spending a week in Disney. The crowds were manageable in the morning but by mid-afternoon they were horrible! We started our vacation by going to Epcot on Saturday (1/22) and it was GREAT... got there for rope drop... I ran to fast pass sorin, while the family went and rode test track, by the time I got back with the fast passes we walked on test track and rode again. Mission space had no waits... then we headed over and used our fast pass for sorin... rode Nemo... and headed to the Countries. The weather was chilly... but the park was almost empty! Then on Sunday we went to Hollywood Studios... again crowds were manageable for the first hour or so, then it took a turn... there were SOOOOOOO many RUDE tour groups in the park that we had to leave. I called and cancelled my Fantasmic dinner reservations because there were so many people in the park! Magic Kingdom was the same on Monday... Animal Kingdom was great on Tuesday... hardly any waits... then we did Universal's Islands of Adventures on Wednesday, and waits were good for the first few hours of opening. Then we decided to go back to Hollywood Studio's on Thursday and it was better than Sunday. We were able to ride the big rides once... and see more shows. My husband and I were VERY surprised on how many tour groups were there. There were THOUSANDS of them in every park (except Animal Kingdom) each day. I had planned my days around Magic Hours and apparently so did the tour groups. Once I realized that I switched everything up mid week and changed what parks we went to each day. Good luck! I hope a lot of the groups clear out before you get there!

 

[jnorman76]

We're heading out early this morning. Probably not rope drop, but we're going to make the best of it.

 

[philandjd]

I would have to agree with Krissy. We just got back from a 13 day trip a couple of days ago. If you missed the tour groups everything was fine, but if you see one you are best to turn around and head out of the park. I can't believe the behavior I witnesses from most of the groups. If those would have been my children I would have been imbaresed.

 

[TinkPearl]

Just got home 2 hours ago from 9 nights at Caribbean Beach The Brazillian tour groups were awful BUT we went against Magic Hours all but one day and the crowd level was amazingly low! The one day we did MK on the "wrong" day because all the tour groups were there and boy it was a huge difference! Crazy crowded and long waits......think we're going to go back to going in February because of them

 

[bonitag]

Visited all three parks on tues 1/25....rode everest 3 times in 15 minutes using single rider line.....tower of terror and rock n' roller coaster shut down fast pass lines because they were walk-ons all afternoon....everything at mk was a walk-on besides peter pan's flight (45 minutes posted wait)

soo....crowds have been awesome! usually in the parks at least twice a week and i can't believe how low the crowds have been! my advice is definitely invest in the touring plans lines app for your smart phone (if you have one). wait times are super accurate and they update themselves during the day according to user submitted times....also really accurate about which parks to go to on which days.

Thanks for mentioning that they work well. Which App do you find is the best? I am going in May and I was wondering which one I should download.

 

[idchafee]

Which App do you find is the best? I am going in May and I was wondering which one I should download.

We got home yesterday, used touringplans.com lines app. It was OK, it gave me the basic info.

I saw more than enough little green flags to last me a lifetime. But we also had some days where the parks were a tomb - Epcot on....I think it was Wednesday....was deserted. AK on Tuesday was a zoo, which in a way I suppose is fitting.

 

[DisneyCowgirl]

Florida schools were out on Monday the 24th! I had not heard about that anywhere and thought I had done plenty of good planning. MK was CROWDED! And touringplans had it marked as a 1.6. That was WRONG! That was the first day in the parks of our week-long vacation that was supposed to be during the least-crowded time of the year. Left the park pretty early and came back for EMH--the park had cleared out by then.

The rest of last week was just fine and as I had been expecting. Waits for some things by mid-afternoon, but no problem in the morning or after about 4:30 or 5pm. No problem getting good viewing spots for parades or fireworks right at the last minute either. Toy Story Mania was crazy though!

Saw plenty of groups of Brazilian tourists (it's summer vacation there now, right?), but they didn't cause us any trouble--they were no more rude or loud or anything else than anyone else.

 

[cadek]

We stay on-site but prefer to avoid the parks that have EMH that day. We also avoid DHS on the days they have Fantasmic. Last year it seemed like the tour groups were all there that day!

Our first day there was 1/22 and we went to Magic Kingdom. It was crowded for what we are used to, but it was a Saturday and I think there are probably a lot of locals there on weekends as well. When we were leaving the park Main Street was lined with the tour groups waiting for the parade. We went to MK again on Saturday 1/29 and ended up riding two rides and leaving for Epcot, and less crowds.

We went to MK on Wednesday 1/26 for park opening and everything was walk on. I had gotten fast passes for Space Mountain and when we used them later that day, it was walk on. The people in the stand by line got on before us because they could walk faster than my Mom!

I believe we went to Epcot again on Thursday 1/27 and walked right on Test Track twice, walking right through the rooms (skipping the video), and probably could have done it more.

We tried to be there for rope drop every day. Exhausting, but worth it.

 

[chiamarie]

I was at Hollywood Studios and Magic Kingdom on Satruday. Hollywood Stuidos was nice. It wasn't very packed. About an hour wait on RnR and walkon ToT.

MK was another story. When we got there, we decided to hit up pirates and head that way around the park. The line was outside at pirates. In the 5 years I've lived here, I can't recall ever having the line outside, with both sides open. There were long lines everywhere. And people were everywhere. None of us locals could figure out what event we werer missing as to why it was so darned crowded.

Eventually we caved and headed to Poly to watch fireworks. As we were exiting, our friend (who is also a seasonal employee) noticed that the tape on the ground meant they were planning on using the overflow exits through the parking lots behind the Mainstreet giftshops...she said that meant there were more than 75,000 in the park! It was nuts. There was even a line for People mover!

I'm thinking it was just the way we timed it. Based on park closing times, that was the only day that week that MK was open til 9pm. There were no PM extra magic moments. So everyone was either there or at epcot. Either way, it was crowded to the point that none of us were enjoying ourselves.