Here now! (plan well and take heart Spring Break people!)

[humboldthny]

We've spent last evening and this morning in MK and haven't found the crowds at all difficult to manage...

Last night we got into the park about 6pm and managed to ride Jungle Cruise, Peter Pan, Small World, Pirates, Haunted Mansion, eat dinner and watch the 9pm parade all by 10:45. Used FP for JC and PP, the rest had minimal waits (walk on to 15 min). We were leaving as the 11pm parade started and people were only about 2-3 deep off the curb in the Hub!!

This morning we walked into the park 15 min after rope drop, got in line for Tangled and send dh for FP....Between 9:15 and 1pm we managed to ride Tea Cups (dh and dd while I held our place in line for Tangled), Thunder and Splash Mountains (both FP), Pooh (10 min), Buzz (FP), and Pirates (walk on), meet Rapunzel/Flynn, Alice/White Rabbit, and Tiana/Naveen, as well as fit in a little shopping! Crowds didn't start to pick up until about 12:30 or so when we were heading out....hopefully this evening will be like last night (we already have 2 FP's (TM and SpaceM) ready to go that we picked up earlier).

I was really worried about the crowds after reports from last week...but so far by getting there at RD and are smart about picking up FP and using in-between times to meet characters/eat/etc. it's working really well. Can't speak for afternoon crowds.....and don't plan on finding out!

 

[NaLisa]

Thanks for sharing. We'll be there in less than two weeks. Enjoy the rest of your time at WDW!

 

[Missish]

Good to know! We leave on Tuesday. We've often done WDW around Spring Break and, like you, we get there for rope drop, do as many rides as we can, picking up FPs along the way. It works well and we've usually done all we want to by 1 or 2pm. If your experience is anything to go by, looks like we'll be able to do just that

 

[cricket00]

We've spent last evening and this morning in MK and haven't found the crowds at all difficult to manage...

Last night we got into the park about 6pm and managed to ride Jungle Cruise, Peter Pan, Small World, Pirates, Haunted Mansion, eat dinner and watch the 9pm parade all by 10:45. Used FP for JC and PP, the rest had minimal waits (walk on to 15 min). We were leaving as the 11pm parade started and people were only about 2-3 deep off the curb in the Hub!!

This morning we walked into the park 15 min after rope drop, got in line for Tangled and send dh for FP....Between 9:15 and 1pm we managed to ride Tea Cups (dh and dd while I held our place in line for Tangled), Thunder and Splash Mountains (both FP), Pooh (10 min), Buzz (FP), and Pirates (walk on), meet Rapunzel/Flynn, Alice/White Rabbit, and Tiana/Naveen, as well as fit in a little shopping! Crowds didn't start to pick up until about 12:30 or so when we were heading out....hopefully this evening will be like last night (we already have 2 FP's (TM and SpaceM) ready to go that we picked up earlier).

I was really worried about the crowds after reports from last week...but so far by getting there at RD and are smart about picking up FP and using in-between times to meet characters/eat/etc. it's working really well. Can't speak for afternoon crowds.....and don't plan on finding out!

that's great news! i didn't realize there would still be FPs left at 6 pm. were there other FPs available? like splash or BTMRR? we're arriving next week and hoping to hit MK by 3:30-ish. i'm cautiously optimistic now!

 

[indigoxtreme]

Our schools have not had spring Break yet. We get out the week of April 4th, North GA area. Have a grea time.

 

[humboldthny]

that's great news! i didn't realize there would still be FPs left at 6 pm. were there other FPs available? like splash or BTMRR? we're arriving next week and hoping to hit MK by 3:30-ish. i'm cautiously optimistic now!

I'm sorry I can't say as we didn't make it over there last night...the waits on the UT line app seemed pretty long (45-70 min) throughout the evening so we never went to get FPs. Sorry I can't help!

 

[cricket00]

I'm sorry I can't say as we didn't make it over there last night...the waits on the UT line app seemed pretty long (45-70 min) throughout the evening so we never went to get FPs. Sorry I can't help!

oh, no worries....glad you're having a wonderful trip!

 

[OB1]

WOW - great news. Thanks for the updates.

 

[mlittig]

Thanks for the update and have a magical trip

 

[beansmom]

it was super crowded early in the week but didn't seem so bad friday night. We did the 11pm parade in the MK and the people weren't even 1 deep. It was the least crowded parade I've ever seen. Right after that, we had 20ish min wait for Peter Pan but walked right on to Splash and Pirates earlier in the evening.

This morning we got to Epcot at about 10am and by 10:30 FP's for Soarin were already at 4pm. We walked right in to the San Angel Inn for lunch at noon and right on to Captain EO.

Good luck...and have a magical time.

 

[Barnhill9586]

We're here too and I have to give a big second to this! We did AK today (which according to TP was the park to avoid)...arrived at 8:15 for a scheduled 9:00 am opening and rope drop. We were very pleasantly surprised when the RD ceremony started at just after 8:30 and the dropped the ropes and opened early. By 8:50 we had EE ride number one in the books. We got back to the AKL just after 4pm and we did every ride at AK (including EE 4 times, KS 2 times and Dinosaur 2 times). We have dinner ressies at 8:35 at LTT so we're headed to MK soon and will stay until 2am for EMH. We also had great wait times Friday night at MK and Saturday at DHS am and MK Saturday night. Since we usually have Spring Break on either side of Easter so far the crowds seem great to us!

Maybe we'll run into you at the MK later humboldthny!

 

[GOOFYsince71]

What a difference a week makes,,Even Disney didn't expect so many people last week! They called in all their "earning our ears" workers to help with the crowds! You never really can tell when people will all decide to go to a park,,and if they all end up at the same one!!!
When we were at MK the week of the 12th...the wait time for most everything was 120 minutes and up!!!! JOB SECURITY~!

 

[Phillygrl23]

TP has today as a 9, so its good to know its managable!! Hope it stays that way for 3 more weeks for our trip (I dont expect it to though)

 

[DisNikki]

that's great news! i didn't realize there would still be FPs left at 6 pm. were there other FPs available? like splash or BTMRR? we're arriving next week and hoping to hit MK by 3:30-ish. i'm cautiously optimistic now!

If it helps at all, the TP Lines app says that right now (7:07 pm ET) the wait for BTMRR is 20 min or FP time of 8:20. Splash is a 45 min wait with a 9:30 FP time.

 

[juliebug1997]

We were there on Saturday the 12th and didn't find it terrible. We also left for the fireworks (we had a theme park view at the Contemporary) and came back after and ride all of our favorite rides once (Pirates, Carpet, HM, PP, IASW, Pooh, Teacups). During the day, we had lots of FPs and never had to wait more than ten minutes.

 

[texaslonestar]

My man friend is a server at a MK area resort. He said that tonight the restaurant has 200 - 300 less reservations on the books than a normal night. I know that last night was also slower for the restaurant and he was cut much earlier than on most Saturday nights.

 

[homedad]

love these live updates, 11 days to go!

 

[Toad_Passenger]

We just returned from our trip, and were there from 3/10-3/20. Some in our party were sweating the crowds, since the calendars were going crazy the last few weeks.

In the end we found the parks to be easy, peasy everyday. Rope drop, and FP meant we rode all of the major attractions, and even got to do some multiple times. We walked on most of Fantasyland right after rope drop.

As I said, we just got home, so I haven't read a lot of reports, but I'm surprised to hear that some thought the last week was really busy. It certainly was not September crowds, but getting up and down Main Street USA was pretty easy, which, to us, means not crowded at all.

As an aside, we also did the Universal rope drop on Sunday the 13th (as non Universal resort guests), and we walked right on the Harry Potter stuff, so even they weren't too busy.

 

[neptuneflame]

My family is here now, as well, and we have also noticed that the crowds are not as bad as we had feared. We are not "rope drop" kind of people (love us some late morning sleep), but we've still been able to do everything we've wanted and then some (with a 10-month old in tow, to boot!). Heck, yesterday at AK midafternoon, the standby for EE was only 20 minutes! I was really worried after seeing the reports for last week, and how many people compared it to Christmas season crowds. I have been here during Christmas season, and this is NOTHING like Christmas season

 

[Princess Me]

We are also here now. Went to AK Sunday 3/20/11 at rope drop & did Kilimanjaro Safaris, Pangani Forest Exploration Trail, Expedition Everest, Dinosaur, It's Tough to be a Bug, three separate character meet & greets, multiple photopass sessions, lots of shopping & table service lunch at Yak & Yeti all before 2:00pm. We did not do any fast passes & the longest line we waited in was the one to meet Goofy and Pluto (15-20 minutes). Crowds seemed to be getting thick as we left, but I was really surprised at how much we were able to do before lunch. Monday we go to Epcot & hopefully it will be just as smooth