last week of august not empty!

[DisneyDetective]

I don't know if it matters what month it is anymore unless it's a weekend. We went to EPCOT in mid July and I swear we had World Showcase to ourselves however went to MK te following Sat and it was crowded. Is August usually a busy time?

 

[AlohaAnnie]

Could it be because of a combination of things?

Also, I am not sure but was a free dining offered for this week?

TIA

 

[ducky_love]

Last night between 9:30pm-10:00pm we were able to walk onto Peter Pan, ride Pooh twice (they let us stay on), and get a spot for the fireworks. The crowds have officially left.

 

[AllieMallie]

Last night between 9:30pm-10:00pm we were able to walk onto Peter Pan, ride Pooh twice (they let us stay on), and get a spot for the fireworks. The crowds have officially left.

Whew! This is what I want to hear! We're leaving in 12 days and I can't wait to tour the hopefully un-crowded parks!

 

[LaurenT]

We were there from the 21st to the 30th.
There were a few days that seemed more crowded that what the various calendars suggested, but there was also a hurricane in the area. That tends to warp the psychology of the guests. So, maybe people were planning on going to MK on a Monday, but then they hear that the hurricane is going to be creating heavy rain and high winds (there was actually very little of that, but you couldn't know it ahead of time) - then many of those people would decide to go to MK on Sunday to make sure they get the chance...
We had MK on our calendar for Sunday - expecting it to be a fairly low crowd day - it turned out to be pretty busy.
But we still did everything we wanted and never waited in a long line.
We'll be going again for the same timeframe in 2013.

 

[disneysteve]

I think the crowds can really vary day to day and park to park. I've had times where we were in MK, for example, and it was dead, and we talked to somebody else who was in EC the same day and said it was packed.

Also, don't forget about EMH. We ALWAYS avoid the EMH park. If MK has EMH, we head to EC or AK or HS, anywhere but the place the onsite crowds are heading.

Another issue is the South American tour groups. The groups from Brazil and Argentina that come up in August travel as a big pack. If you happen to hit the same park they are hitting on a given day, it will be a lot more crowded.

 

[mich723]

I was there from August 24th through the 28th, and I thought the crowds weren't bad. I was also solo, so it was different moving from ride to ride. The only place I really felt congested in was Fantasyland, but I think that was due to the construction still going on.

 

[rkrivas]

We were there from 8/25 - 9/1 and found it to be a mixed bag. AK, HS and Typhoon Lagoon were the worst in terms of crowds. If we were to go back again in late August, we would avoid the morning EMH parks, because it seemed like those were the most crowded parks/days. Now that evening EMH is being cut back to 2 hours, I'm not sure if I would go to those parks either ongoing.

 

[SarahJN]

We were there last week and some parks/days were more crowded than we expected them to be. Tuesday at MK was a mess. I'm guessing that most people who had planned to go on Monday went on Tuesday.

 

[SarahJN]

Could it be because of a combination of things?

Also, I am not sure but was a free dining offered for this week?

TIA

We had free dining.

 

[TeamTilson]

Another issue is the South American tour groups. The groups from Brazil and Argentina that come up in August travel as a big pack. If you happen to hit the same park they are hitting on a given day, it will be a lot more crowded.

YES! We were in AK when they were there on Wed 8/29. I have heard about them via the boards but it was the first time I saw the group in public! I am a very quiet and patient person and the first time I ever lost my cool at WDW in public was then about 15 of them tried to cut us in line for the bus to AKL. I just threw my arms to block the door and screamed "NO!!! My family was here first!!" My husband commented that he'd never seen me lose it in public before! I think the heat and the crowds and the pushiness of the tour groups got to me.

Sorry to go off topic - but we strategically chose the last week in August for the crowd calendar. I did notice it was busier than when we went in September of '08, but I knew that was going to happen. I did enjoy getting a hotel at value rate. And, yes, the parks were crowded on EMH days (which we were guilty of going on those dates). But we told ourselves to always expect a wait. WDW is super popular and I can see why everyone wants to go.

 

[jenjie]

We avoided emh parks. DH agrees with me that we didn't wait more than 15 minutes for any ride. That includes Soarin' twice, TOT twice, RNRC 3 times, and TSM 4 times.

However, we saw many many people waiting in long lines. None of us could understand why they would if there was fp available.

 

[RNicole1]

We just got home yesterday! We were there August 29-Sept.3. When planning our days, I used the crowd calendars on www.easywdw.com and found them to be pretty accurate. We avoided the parks it said to avoid and went to the ones that were recommended. Wednesday-Friday were great...we pretty much walked on to most rides and got Fast Passes early for the busy attractions, like Peter Pan. Saturday and Sunday got much more crowded, but it was manageable. We ended our trip with the entire afternoon/evening at MK...which was not recommended for Sunday and there was definitely a difference from earlier in the week. Once again we used the Fast Pass system and did a little end of the trip shopping. I think using the crowd calendar really helped and it also warned me of the crowd increase for the weekend.

 

[Emteach]

We found it very crowded and congested through the park (in particular MK and AK) but the rides were not too busy and we never had to wait too long. If that makes sense.

 

[jamnich314]

We just got home yesterday! We were there August 29-Sept.3. When planning our days, I used the crowd calendars on www.easywdw.com and found them to be pretty accurate. We avoided the parks it said to avoid and went to the ones that were recommended. Wednesday-Friday were great...we pretty much walked on to most rides and got Fast Passes early for the busy attractions, like Peter Pan. Saturday and Sunday got much more crowded, but it was manageable. We ended our trip with the entire afternoon/evening at MK...which was not recommended for Sunday and there was definitely a difference from earlier in the week. Once again we used the Fast Pass system and did a little end of the trip shopping. I think using the crowd calendar really helped and it also warned me of the crowd increase for the weekend.

We used Josh's suggestions as well and DW and I talked it over last night and don't think we waited in line for more than 15 minutes for anything. We avoided the EMH parks and were usually not in the parks between 1 and 6 p.m. Combine that with getting to the parks 20 minutes before opening and we were actually surprised at how NOT busy it was. We are used to going in March or June so the crowds this past week were a pleasant surprise.

We did go to a few Not Recommended parks while we were there because of dining reservations and boy could you tell the difference. We could leave a Recommended park where only a ride or two had waits of more than 20 minutes and walk into a Not Recommended park that had 20 minute waits for everything.

The worst was Sunday, Sept. 2 at the Magic Kingdom. It was open two hours later than the rest of the parks, had EMH added on after that (open til 2 a.m.), had two parades and it was the Sunday before Labor Day so nobody had to go to work the next day. It's hard to admit but we actually waited in line about 5 minutes to go on the TTA. That was a first for me.

Besides that though the crowd levels - at least from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. - were VERY manageable. We even managed to eat at Chef Mickey's and Le Cellier without reservations. Oh the things you can do if you are only a party of two at Disney.

 

[jamnich314]

More and more of us Brits are clicking on to the tip that the US schools are back end of Aug so it's a great time to go in our school summer break (schools go back start of sept here). I wonder if the Olympics played a part in it as well this year? There was so much talk of people getting away from the country when they were on, but when they actually happened, they were so incredibly popular with the home crowd that I would suspect that Brits, in reality, were around start of Aug and planned their trips away end of Aug.......it's a possibility!

I did notice a LOT of British accents in the parks the past week. I think the Olympics played a part in it too.