Never Again in February

[dolphindan1]

I will always go in February. But I sympathize with the fifteens problem. I am very straightforward with them. They do not have enough chaperoning, so I've decided to be assertive with them. They are just kids in a foreign country and need to be told things. And they listen well when you do. I tell them that when a child's sleeping on the bus, no chanting. I tell them they can't sit for the parade right in front of a group of 6 year-olds. Etc. someone needs to tell them. Their chaperones don't. and sometimes i will even tell their chaperones. A lot of times they are kids themselves, and also want to be welcome guests in our country. But I understand that most people aren't as bold as me. I think Disney will get it sorted out soon. We just need to keep bringing it to their attention.

Can you elaborate any on this.....I hope you are not telling a group that is already sitting for the parade and you come up with kids that they cant sit there cause they are in front of your kids....I also hope you are not telling people to be quiet cause there is a kid/baby sleeping...I dont think anyone has to be quiet on a bus or a themepark cause a kid is sleeping....

Ask them politely to hold it down please...I can understand

Just getting clarification cause your post just sounds wrong...

Oh and Disney will never do anything about these groups as they make a ton of money off of them, more than you and I throw at the parks...Disney will try and keep us happy but these groups will always be coming....

 

[Sparkly]

Epcot yesterday was less crowded thankfully. I think the longest we waited was about a hour (!) for Character Spot. Everything else was <20-30 minutes.

 

[Padric]

Early September anyway.

The first week of September seems to be the one true slow week left. That's because a larger number of schools start the day after Labor Day and most parents, even those who will take kids out for a week, are hesitant to do so the very first week of a new year.

By late September, kids are settled, and F/W is starting, MNSSHP is going on, and crowds are picking up.

I agree. DW and I went for our 10 year anniversary in 2007. We arrived the Thursday before Labor day. There was a noticeable drop off in crowd level after Labor Day.

We then went again in 2009 but this time in mid September and we were surprised with the crowd sizes. It wasn't ridiculous by any means, just not what we were expecting.

 

[wesjohnson]

We were there from 1.24-2.4 and we thought the crowds were worse than usual. We've traveled to WDW in February numerous times and we love it because the crowds were so low. The weekends were NUTS. I think the warm weather brought out all the locals. 120 min wait for Test Track, 100 min wait for Peter Pan, 90 min wait for Big Thunder Mountain. We got fast passes to Little Mermaid but the line was 60 minutes at 9am. We did Enchanted Tales with Belle at 9pm at night after Wishes; wait time posted as 55 min but we were in within 20 minutes.

It definitely was much more crowded than normal during this time. I checked Easy WDW and the crowd calendar predicted 2-3 on weekend; 1-2 during the week. NO WAY. I would say it was close to 6-7 on weekend and 4-5 during the week.

We did not have any problem with touring groups...didn't even see them. There were massive crowds at the main attractions and also after the fireworks.

We also need a break from Disney after that trip...may wait 2-3 years before returning. Too much money, too much waiting, not enough relaxing.

 

[mjallemand]

Troubling if true, currently planning on the last week of January 2015, supposedly the second slowest week of the year.(outside of September)

That being said, next trip will be much more relaxed, as last trip was my girlfriend's first time, so we felt a bigger need to hit as many attractions as possible. This go-round we'll be able to skip a few that she went on once before...allowing us to take our time a bit more.

 

[chloelovesdisney]

We were just there 2/10 - 2/16 and didn't find it all that bad. I guess I am used to being there at busier times. The only time it seemed crowded was Monday afternoon at the MK, in the evening it was empty. We were able to get adrs each day at reasonable times for our group (usually 11) just 5 weeks ago in park restaurants. I'm usually scrambling for a party of 4 or 5 months ahead of time.

When we saw the tour groups we went a different way.

 

[meowmarie]

We were there the first week of Feb and found the crowds to be busier than expected, especially during the week. Our resort (POP) was sold out every night I believe, and the food lines were crazy long until nearly closing time. The shots below were taken on Monday Feb 4 about 10pm in the food court. We hit MK on Tuesday the 5th at rope drop, ran back to Belle and had an hour wait. Got in line for BOG lunch before 10:30 and had an almost 45 minute wait. LM was an hour at that point, luckily we had grabbed fast passes. Went over to circus area, dumbo was almost an hour, barnstormer was 35 minutes. Peter Pan was about an hour all day, as was Space Mountain and BTMRR. Luckily we used our fastpasses to the max and besides Belle and BOG we hardly waited in any lines. But we were with friends who come at this time every year and they were beyond shocked at the lines. We heard from countless CM's that they weren't planning on the crowds being that large, and one night they stayed open an extra "surprise" hour too. Epcot on Wednesday was ok. Plenty of stuff to walk on but TT and Soarin was 45+ all day. Thank you again fastpasses lol. We still had a great time but I did expect it to be slower.

 

[4kids4karen]

I will always go in February. But I sympathize with the fifteens problem. I am very straightforward with them. They do not have enough chaperoning, so I've decided to be assertive with them. They are just kids in a foreign country and need to be told things. And they listen well when you do. I tell them that when a child's sleeping on the bus, no chanting. I tell them they can't sit for the parade right in front of a group of 6 year-olds. Etc. someone needs to tell them. Their chaperones don't. and sometimes i will even tell their chaperones. A lot of times they are kids themselves, and also want to be welcome guests in our country. But I understand that most people aren't as bold as me. I think Disney will get it sorted out soon. We just need to keep bringing it to their attention.

The chaperones don't don't them because they are not doing anything wrong. Chanting on a public bus is acceptable. Sitting on the sidewalk where there is room is acceptable. I am sure these kids are more polite than American kids who would just blow you off if you tried to correct them.

 

[MacClemsons]

We were originally scheduled to be in WDW from 2/6 – 2/9. When we heard more about the nor’easter that was heading in our home area, we extended our trip to 2/11. We are DVC and were staying at the VWL on points. We tried to get a cash room on property, but the only one available when I called on Thursday evening was in the Contemporary tower with a Bay Lake view; that would have set us back over $1000.00 for 2 nights (no discounts available). We called DVC MS to see if any rooms on points were available; all we could get was a 2 bedroom at SSR (we are only 2 adults). Sure, having the extra bathroom was nice; but it was weird having all of that space.

We had a mixed bag with crowds. For the most part, we are not RD people; I will usually get to the parks earlier than DH, but I rarely arrive before a park opens. We also have been to WDW many times over the last 15 years (sometimes 3-4 times in one year) so we don’t feel that everything is a “must do”.

My DH and I went to MK after we checked in at VWL about midday on 2/6; it was pretty quiet. We had no problems getting food or a table at Cosmic Ray’s for lunch. We were able to do a few attractions in the short time we were there.

On 2/7 we went to Animal Kingdom. We got 1:35 pm lunch at Tusker House through a walk-up to GR. No issues with lines or wait times.

Friday 2/8 we went back to MK. We utilized FP twice and waited in reasonable lines, but we did notice that wait times were longer than Wednesday’s. I was a bit intimidated by the line outside of PotC, but it really ended up being only about 15 minutes long. Having gone to WDW in November, we had already done the Little Mermaid ride (with no waits). This time I wanted to do ETWB so my husband humored me while we waited in a 40 minute line.

Saturday we headed to Epcot for the day. We grabbed a FP for Test Track, but the wait times were really long all around the park. We headed to WS and rode Maelstrom, which had a 20 minute wait. We really just walked around and soaked in the atmosphere.

Sunday was our take a break day. We didn’t head out until after 3 pm and went directly to DTD. We have DVC PAPs so we stopped in DQ and played a few games. We also checked out the new bowling alley. Despite the bus stop at Marketplace being closed for renovations, the PI bus stop wasn’t too bad when we left.

Monday I thought we were just going to relax at SSR until ME picked us up, but my DH wanted to head back to MK. Wow. Wow. Wow. The crowds were even bigger than Friday’s. The line for HM stretched back even further than the photo posted by a PP. We had lunch at Pecos Bill; the CMs were walking people with food to tables. I commented to him that for us it’s not a big deal if we can’t do anything except walk around because we will be back two more times this year; I thought about all of the families who might have expected lower crowds in February and planned their big vacation around it. Not everyone knows about websites like the DIS or about touring plans.

Experiences with different types of crowds in the parks vary. We encountered large groups of cheerleaders, who in the past were loud and doing their cheers while waiting in line. Not this time. All of the cheerleaders we encountered were really well behaved. We even had a group of them on our plane home, and they were all quiet once they were seated. We also saw quite a few tour groups, but they were also very quiet. I’m not saying that they were all like this; the ones we saw were.

These crowds would not stop me from going in February again; it was my birthday, and I love spending it in WDW.

We were also at MK 2/6, AK 2/7, MK 2/8 and EP 2/9. How funny! Agree that MK lines were significantly worse on 2/8 than 2/6. We went back on 2/10 and 2/12 and they were even worse. We were able to stay ahead of most of the crowds (seemed most people headed to FL first which we did our first day) so other areas of the parks didn't get busy til lunchtime. Went to HS 2/11 and they opened 20 min early. We got FP for TSM and rode it all before 9am. Rode it again by 9:30. Crowds picked up and we were only able to ride RR and ToT once. Even LM was so busy, we used a fp. Granted we usually go in slow times but this was the first time we ever saw the fp machines working for LM. Fantasmic that night was standing room only 30 min before show.

While the crowds may not have been comparable to 4th of July, it certainly was more crowded than we expected.

 

[GOLFDISNEY72]

Crowds are just part of it now. No more slow times. We go in the morning then relax in the afternoon. Then do what we can at night. It not going to stop us from going.

 

[mom2rtk]

I am sure these kids are more polite than American kids who would just blow you off if you tried to correct them.

Now who's generalizing?