12/25/18+ here now!

[a1tinkfans]

Glad to hear that those at disney are enjoying the experience!!

 

[mixmastertoy]

I just think crowd sizes dont matter as much as proportion of crowd who knows how to use FP and refresh. Seems like the more people in the parks, the less proportionally who know how to use the system.

Agree with this! We barely wait for anything anymore as long as you know how to work the refresh.

 

[AngiTN]

Doesnt look bad at all.

What happened to the days of 4 hour queues around Christmas and parks at capacity?

Parks haven't been at capacity (not truly closed) in over a decade. To 1 day ticket sales yes, but not others.

I bet there are still several 4 hour queues out there.

All in all, I understand Christmas Day and New Years Day are not all that bad. It's the days between that are. We don't go at Christmas but do go at New Years. NYE is always the most crowded of the days we go. More than July 4th

 

[kandb]

Before we left MK yesterday, the line for HM was all the way over to the area around the riverboat. They had filtered it down the ramps and back up the steps. Splash Mountain was backed out to past BTMRR and had every one of the inner loops for the line open. Space was backed up to the area around the raceway. By 430 getting in and out of any of the lands from the hub was awful. That being said, prior to 2PM, the park was easy. Not overly crowded, easy to get FPs, and pretty laid back. Thats why I think there were a lot of first timers or people who assume once FPs are made they cant change the FP or adjust the time. We walked into magic Kingdom at 555AM and had zero FPs. We started making them around 7 and between 8 and 130/2ish we had used 12. So while it was crowded, due to it being a lot of people who did not know how to use the system, FPs were available if you just refreshed. We were standing in the FP line for BTMRR at 1245 and I pulled a 7DMT at 1:20. I was able to consistently move FP times up even after they were made and we just went from FP to FP riding stuff and having fun without waiting in Stand by Lines. Had it been a lot of "low end" attractions, I would have said oh well and people watched. But when you can pull Space Mountain, Splash Mountain, BTMRR, POC, HM, Jingle Cruise, Pan, and even 7DMT just by refreshing and watching for 2 or 3 minutes, it makes it well worth it.

You seemed like you got a lot done but the problem is most people don't want to be at a park at 5:55am in the morning. I would imagine unless staying on site you had to get up by around 4:45am??? We did that once with an early flight coming to WDW and the whole family was exhausted for the day. It works for some people tho.

 

[Dave F1000]

Parks were more crowded but not terrible on 12/26. Out of sheer curiosity we walked to DS where things were pretty ugly. However, the hot chocolate flight at Fairfax Faire made it worth dealing with the crowds. It seems most people are taking the crowds in stride.

 

[Disneylover99]

You seemed like you got a lot done but the problem is most people don't want to be at a park at 5:55am in the morning. I would imagine unless staying on site you had to get up by around 4:45am??? We did that once with an early flight coming to WDW and the whole family was exhausted for the day. It works for some people tho.

I think the point is, you didn’t need to be there that early to do a lot as long as you used Fp’s constantly because they were easy to get.

We were at the MK tonight (the 26th). We arrived at about 8:30pm. The only two rides we couldn’t get fp’s for between 8:30pm and 11:30pm were Seven dwarves and Space. For every other attraction there were immediate fp’s available with multiple time choices. I’ve never seen anything like it during the holiday week.

 

[Disneylover99]

Parks were more crowded but not terrible on 12/26. Out of sheer curiosity we walked to DS where things were pretty ugly. However, the hot chocolate flight at Fairfax Faire made it worth dealing with the crowds. It seems most people are taking the crowds in stride.

We went to DS for lunch. It wasn’t too crowded early in the day. AK definitely seemed more crowded then MK to us today.

 

[Dave F1000]

On a more serious note, one of the young choir members at the 6:45 CP became ill on stage and needed to be escorted off. Our prayers are with her. Jody Benson did a great job.as narrator!

 

[Momma2PrinceNPrinces]

We’re here now as well. 7DMT was consistently close to a 200 min wait all day yesterday and Pan was 95 min. In the afternoon Thunder mountain and Splash were 70+.

 

[Disneylover99]

We’re here now as well. 7DMT was consistently close to a 200 min wait all day yesterday and Pan was 95 min. In the afternoon Thunder mountain and Splash were 70+.

Yes, all the rides at all the parks have consistently long wait times this week.
I’m just so suprised at fp availability, especially at the MK.

 

[bkfamilyof5]

We didn’t have such FP availability. Had FP planned for mid-morning to early afternoon and when I tried to get more even for one person there was barely anything available, even if I tried modifying a FP early in the day. None of the mountains, 7dmt, etc were available. Occasionally saw space or splash after 10 or 11pm.

 

[Disneylover99]

We didn’t have such FP availability. Had FP planned for mid-morning to early afternoon and when I tried to get more even for one person there was barely anything available, even if I tried modifying a FP early in the day. None of the mountains, 7dmt, etc were available. Occasionally saw space or splash after 10 or 11pm.

Wow! I’m so sorry. I just assumed everyone at MK would have easy fp’s yesterday. We were a party of four last night.

 

[Remy is Up]

We didn’t have such FP availability. Had FP planned for mid-morning to early afternoon and when I tried to get more even for one person there was barely anything available, even if I tried modifying a FP early in the day. None of the mountains, 7dmt, etc were available. Occasionally saw space or splash after 10 or 11pm.

On Christmas day? Sorry it didnt work for you. Not sure why refresh doesnt work for some people. I was finding FPs for pretty much everything all the way to the time we left around 430.
As far as getting there at 5:55AM, it just depends on what you want to accomplish. We knew we were not going to stay till close since we had already been to a Christmas party earlier in the month so we had already seen the parade and fireworks with much smaller crowds. Our goal was just to be in MK on Christmas day and have some fun. I was pretty shocked that there were all the FPs readily available with the stand by lines getting so long.

Overall I think ANY day at a WDW park requires planning. We have gotten to the point that getting up early and going to an EMH park and using FP/refresh helps us knock out rides in a couple of hours, gives us time to then just walk around and see things, then take a midday break, have a nice dinner, and go to a park at night for a few hours. We rarely stay in one park more than 4 hours and accomplish a ton.

 

[bkfamilyof5]

No, 12/26 in MK. We were in HS on Christmas and didn’t really try for anything extra there (when i did it said everything was already gone!). I and a couple of kids are also sick so we haven’t been spending the whole day in the parks.

 

[yulilin3]

On a more serious note, one of the young choir members at the 6:45 CP became ill on stage and needed to be escorted off. Our prayers are with her. Jody Benson did a great job.as narrator!

At least one kid has to be taken out per performance. They have hand signals and monitors back stage, when the kid gives the signal the CM comes out and takes them back. They are fine, just tired because they lock their knees and get dizzy and hot during the performance

 

[Disneylover99]

No, 12/26 in MK. We were in HS on Christmas and didn’t really try for anything extra there (when i did it said everything was already gone!). I and a couple of kids are also sick so we haven’t been spending the whole day in the parks.

I wonder if a lot of people ditched their MK fp’s yesterday afternoon and left. The reason we hopped over to MK from AK last night was because wait times seemed so low and fp’s were plentiful.

 

[dm1996]

During our visit, the only place that was awful was DS. Went to all the parks and they were busy, but manageable. DS was packed beyond anything I’ve seen before. There was no parking anywhere, the overflow lot was full. We managed to get a spot after 45 minutes of waiting...that was a huge mistake, not taking a bus.
Walking around was worse than MK after fireworks. I would love to know what the overall capacity of DS is. When that next parking garage opens, that place is going to be unbearable.

 

[tarak]

I would think for those who do not frequent yearly to WDW, that they will be putting trips off until star wars land is open. I am hopeful as well this upcoming Spring trip will not be so bad, watch out for the year 2020. Im sure the crowds will be pretty much insane all year long lol

We originally planned to go in 2020, but none of us are such hardcore SW fans that we want to deal with that mess. So one trip will be in part for my oldest daughter's 16th birthday and she's bringing her best friend who's never been.

I'm glad to see folks had such successful trips this year. I've always avoided this time of year like the plague based on the crowd photos I've seen.

 

[Dave F1000]

for those who are wondering where everybody is, since the parks are more manageable than expected,I have figured it out. We are at Disney springs, the "world of Disney" store is absolutely packed! worse than any of the parks I've seen.

 

[Disneylover99]

for those who are wondering where everybody is, since the parks are more manageable than expected,I have figured it out. We are at Disney springs, the "world of Disney" store is absolutely packed! worse than any of the parks I've seen.

Great! Tell them to stay there. We’re heading to the MK.