Here now and OMG ITS CROWDED!

[HayGan]

Speaking of the large Brazilian groups...

I have noticed them in the past, but didn't notice them this past week. I did, however, notice what appeared to be Disney CMs in green polo shirts (with the Brazilian flag) and hats on several occasions. Anyone know if they were for the groups or not?

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They do have them out when it is peak Brazilian season.

We just beat a LARGE group of them on to RnRC last night. Must have been 50+ of them getting into the fast pass line behind us. That's after they thought it best to ALL stand in front of the guitar for 15+ min before that. It was annoying as no one could get the shot of anyone even close to the guitar for the entire time

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[goofydad99]

I'm curious about something. I wonder if you went to the park to avoid, it would be less crowded than the recommended park? It seems like everyone uses Josh's site and tp.............just a thought.

 

[HayGan]

I'm curious about something. I wonder if you went to the park to avoid, it would be less crowded than the recommended park? It seems like everyone uses Josh's site and tp.............just a thought.

Actually as a percentage of the overall crowd at the parks, very few people use a site like Josh's. for every 1 person you speak to or encounter in the parks who knows what they are doing you can find another 20 who don't!

I'm at Epcot right now (the park to avoid for the day because of EMH pm) and it is no more crowded than it was on a recommended day. However, IMHO, it's because the majority of the crowd won't arrive until later to take advantage of EMH. I think the mornings for EMH pm days are best because of this.

Despite the crowds, we have had an absolutely wonderful time on this trip. We weren't always able to do what we wanted but that was ok. We eventually got most things in. Those that we didn't, we know we will back again to conquer them another time

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[LSchrow]

Despite the crowds, we have had an absolutely wonderful time on this trip. We weren't always able to do what we wanted but that was ok. We eventually got most things in. Those that we didn't, we know we will back again to conquer them another time

that should be DVC's slogan
glad to hear you had a great time!

 

[starbird]

that should be DVC's slogan
glad to hear you had a great time!

Agreed! Plus, that attitude is what makes the trip even more enjoyable!

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[goofydad99]

Despite the crowds, we have had an absolutely wonderful time on this trip. We weren't always able to do what we wanted but that was ok. We eventually got most things in. Those that we didn't, we know we will back again to conquer them another time

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I agree that this should be our DVC slogan. It is will be warm and crowded. I don't commando tour but our kids are getting to the point that they would rather stay up late and sleep in instead of going to rope drop. I am not sure how I am going to tour this time around............

 

[michelleiada]

is that the South American contingent rolled in later than normal this year. They tend to be large groups and all come at the same time. I was in Epcot Saturday and to be honest, it wasn't crowded at all, but a deluge had just moved through and maybe that was the reason.

We usually come October-February and it used to be slow then, but I honestly don't think there is a slow time anymore. With the cheerleaders, sporting teams, dancers, singing groups etc. coming down they have pretty much eliminated them.

We were also at Epcot on Saturday prior to heading to the airport around 5:00. I agree, it wasn't bad. However every other day was crazy crowded.

 

[michelleiada]

Speaking of the large Brazilian groups...

I have noticed them in the past, but didn't notice them this past week. I did, however, notice what appeared to be Disney CMs in green polo shirts (with the Brazilian flag) and hats on several occasions. Anyone know if they were for the groups or not?

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I never saw a Brazilian tour group all week. I saw them last year every day for 10 days in July.

 

[michelleiada]

Actually as a percentage of the overall crowd at the parks, very few people use a site like Josh's. for every 1 person you speak to or encounter in the parks who knows what they are doing you can find another 20 who don't!

I'm at Epcot right now (the park to avoid for the day because of EMH pm) and it is no more crowded than it was on a recommended day. However, IMHO, it's because the majority of the crowd won't arrive until later to take advantage of EMH. I think the mornings for EMH pm days are best because of this.

Despite the crowds, we have had an absolutely wonderful time on this trip. We weren't always able to do what we wanted but that was ok. We eventually got most things in. Those that we didn't, we know we will back again to conquer them another time

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We also still had a fabulous time with many laughs and memories made! Although I prefer it to be less crowded I was still thrilled to be at my favorite place in the world and whatever we didn't catch this time around we will next time!

 

[Duchie]

We left as soon as the kids got out of school (June 6) and were there for 5 days before moving over to Universal to give it a try. We've always gone in the off-season before (Sept/Oct, or early Feb) so we had mentally prepared ourselves for really hot, humid temps and outrageous crowds.

Maybe it was our mindset but it just didn't seem as bad as we were expecting. Sure, it was hot but being from TX we're used to it. It was crowded but again, just not as bad as I had psyched myself up for. It rained the day we went to MK which cleared out a lot of folks, so we were able to just walk up to a curb 5 minutes before the parade and easily find a spot. But even before the rain we were able to do whatever we wanted to do easily. I will say we were there at rope drop because we had a breakfast ADR and it was a scary mob scene - never again.

Epcot was more challenging to ride Soarin' and TT more than once. We were disappointed but just did other stuff instead. I think because the park itself is so big, the crowd seemed dispersed a bit so less noticeable.

HS was the worst. People seemed to be jam packed everywhere. But even with that, we road ToT 4 times, RnR twice, Star Tours twice, TSMM once. We did have a second FP for TSMM but decided not to use them, so we waited by the standby entrance and gave them to someone else to use.

We didn't notice tour groups too much until we got to Universal. They were EVERYWHERE, mostly what looked like summer camp kids. Every. Where.

Will we do it again? Probably. With school schedules now it's just too hard to take the kids out to go in the off times. So if we want to go, it will unfortunately have to be summer or Spring Break. But since we have DVC we know we'll be going back and don't feel as pressured to do it all.

 

[heathers4um]

We are going this summer and we NEVER do that. The most I have done in the summer is a day trip while visiting my dad in Winter Park. We are bringing my stepdaughter-11, my niece-12, my son and DH's son and his girl (all 3 adults now) and we had to use up points before July's end so will arrive the morning of 7/26 and we extended out to late night departure on 8/3. We will be there for my stepdaughters 11th birthday! And for both girls, it is their first time!

I'm sure there will be the tour groups running around, but I am concerned for crowds since its considered high. We plan on getting to all parks by rope drop, go back to the villa for an afternoon break and then head back out in the evening. I am going to warn ALL of my family that they shouldn't expect to get on everything, and reiterate the importance of getting there early so we can at least get a couple of FP's in before leaving. I'm imagining wall to wall people with little to no opportunity to hit the big things. I hope I'm exaggerating to myself but these early crowd reports are freaking me out a bit!

 

[Lucia_27]

We have travelled to WDW the 3rd week in June 4 out of the past 5 years. We are halfway thru our trip and I agree that it is more crowded this year than in years past. Not out of control crowded, but I was surprised at how many people there were waiting for rope drop at 8:15 at MK today (we had an early breakfast ADR). Epcot was crowded last night too.

 

[keishashadow]

It was crazy crowded for our visit too that began on 6/7almost to level of President's day weekend

not to mention the oddly long FP return lines/heat/record-setting rain/guest services messing up our PAP redemption that took hours to fix...

still we had a wonderful time, wish i was there now.

 

[Kimmielee]

Today is our 4th and final day of this trip. We typically never come in the summer (we are local) but my son's BFF was here from Michigan and how could we not??

Crowded? Yes. For me... Being a local... If a line is too long we bypass that particular ride and do it on the next trip. With an out of town guest... Not an option. I will say the queue/staging areas of the lines keep you distracted and the waits don't seem as long.

The worst part this time of year is the summer rain/storms and the high humidity!!! We lost out on HS last night due to a nasty storm. That will cost another $90 since he doesn't have a ticket for today... It was supposed to be a pool day!!!

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[ABE4DISNEY]

The worst part this time of year is the summer rain/storms and the high humidity!!! We lost out on HS last night due to a nasty storm. That will cost another $90 since he doesn't have a ticket for today... It was supposed to be a pool day!!!

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I concur! We were there last week, and it was our running joke that thunder/lightning were due because we were headed to the pool. Usually, during the summer we have lots of pool time in the evenings, but we had several nights where there wasn't a drop of rain but lightning had shut the pool down. The weather was quite temperamental. Thankfully, the Community Hall was there for the kids.

 

[TavieP]

I was just there 6/15 - 6/18 and I thought the crowds were kind of relatively reasonable - then again, my last trip was in JULY 2012 so maybe by comparison, they WERE! Also it was cloudy and drizzled (turning to thunderstorms) every day at some point and I think that chased a lot of folks away.

Either that, or we got lucky. Epcot was SUPER reasonable on Monday the 17th. The worst we had was Studios on Saturday the 15th and even that really wasn't too bad because I think the weather drove folks away.

We welcomed the drizzles. MAN was it hot and sticky!!!

 

[michelleiada]

I was just there 6/15 - 6/18 and I thought the crowds were kind of relatively reasonable - then again, my last trip was in JULY 2012 so maybe by comparison, they WERE! Also it was cloudy and drizzled (turning to thunderstorms) every day at some point and I think that chased a lot of folks away.

Either that, or we got lucky. Epcot was SUPER reasonable on Monday the 17th. The worst we had was Studios on Saturday the 15th and even that really wasn't too bad because I think the weather drove folks away.

We welcomed the drizzles. MAN was it hot and sticky!!!

I'm the original poster of this thread. We were there 6/8 - 6/16. On out last day at Epcot it wasn't bad but the entire week before it was very crowded. Like you, whew we're there July 2012 for 10 days. I thought It was much better then than last week.

 

[BEASLYBOO]

Just got back, 6/17-6/21 and the crowds were no worse than the last 8 Junes we visited. We did the same thing we always do in this heat, we go to am EMH, stay till 12 noon and back to the resort, swim, relax and the head back to the parks around 4:30! Made a couple of ADR's for late in the day 8-8:30 pm, with no more than 5-10 minute waits! We did TL and the crowds were the same, very manageable, no difference than previous years! Visited the new Fantasy Land, manageable crowds, did all the fave rides no more than 10-15 min waits, left the park at 12:30. Same for Epcot and DHS! Though rain was advertised at 50% every day it only rained twice, beautiful weather though quite hot! Great vacation!

Sat/Sun are always worse than mid week and 12:00 to 4pm the sun is brutal, as are the crowds and the wait times!

We did Buzz, Space Mountain at 10:30pm, no wait!