Anyone else just back and think it was crowded?..

[TinkHappy]

We just returned from a week at WDW we stayed at the VWL and it was CROWDED!! I can't belive how many people were there. It seemed like a lot of foreign tour groups and conventions. There were just people everywhere. We have gone in August, May, December, October and November and this is the most crowded I have seen the parks.
I went with 1/2 a plan, because I didn't think the parks were going to be that crowded.

The only ride we walked on was the Transit Authority (DD's favorite) everything else was 40-50min wait. Soarin' was a 70min wait. We did do fast pass for most of the rides we could, but a lot of the FP rides were not offering FP as this is considered "Off Season"

For Dinner last night we ate in Canada (Yummy, by the way), our PS were for 7:30pm, we weren't seated until 8:15pm. They were turning no-PS people away. When we left at 9:30, people were STILL WAITING to be seated. WOW.

Besides the crowds, we had a wonderful time and the VWL are just beautiful. Our weather couldn't have been better and we were able to ride Everest (fantastic BTW). I was just suprised at how many people were there.

Who says our economy is bad? I saw people buying up stuff left and right.

 

[Maria395712]

my sister was there from jan 15- to today and said it was sooo empty no waits for anything. this will be her month to go she said.she goes in march and oct. she said the weather was perfect and the place was empty made me want to go this time in jan next year
maria

 

[mgkkgdm]

my sister was there from jan 15- to today and said it was sooo empty no waits for anything. this will be her month to go she said.she goes in march and oct. she said the weather was perfect and the place was empty made me want to go this time in jan next year
maria

Ditto, we were there for DW birthday (1/22 thru 1/26) and the parks were empty, including Sun 1/22 EMH. The only thing we had to wait for was the Dole Whip booth to open.

 

[cdvictorin]

The longest wait my DH and I found were 40 minutes for some of the rides in fantasyland (Peter Pan, etc), which we did not want to ride. We found the majority of the rides to have a maximum of 20 minutes to wait in line. We went to the parks on January 23-27. It was great because there was not a lot of people at the parks when we visited each day. We went to AK on Monday, MGM Studios on Tuesday, Epcot on Wednesday, MK on Thursday, and AK and MGM on Friday.

 

[HugsForEeyore]

Wow!! I am at WDW right now at Pop Century, and I thought this week was so empty and wonderful!! Today was a tad busy at Magic Kingdom, but being a beautiful Saturday, that's to be expected. But I don't just hit the big rides, as I like to eat at nice restaurants, swim, see shows, meet characters, etc., so sometimes I am oblivious to crowds. I wouldn't hesitate to go this week again next year!

 

[Feralpeg]

I visited both MGM and MK this week and noticed several large tour groups. They were wearing matching outfits and carrying flags. One group must have had 40 people.

 

[Tiziminchac]

I went this evening, actually last night now because it's after midnight. When I showed up after dinner at MK I thought the place was packed. But we didn't wait for anything. I was happy I went. It seems like the middle of the week would be even better.

 

[magiclives]

We just returned and couldn't believe how empty it was. Last Tuesday Magic Kingdom seemed empty all day. Even Saturday was slow until afternoon, it was great.

 

[Dopey420]

Who says our economy is bad? I saw people buying up stuff left and right.

DisneyWorld is not a good place to make a judgement on the economy.

 

[dizneycc]

The only thing we had to wait for was the Dole Whip booth to open.

 

[MinnieGi]

With this weekend as the AP/DVC preview of Everest, I wouldn't be surprised to find the parks especially AK much more crowded than normal for this time period. The past two years we went the end of Jan beginning of Feb. and always found the parks with few crowds.

We were there the second week in January and found the park crowds light. Soarin still had long waits, but thats to be expected with the newness of the ride.

 

[MickeyFlirt]

we just returned and thought the crowds were great didn't use the first fast pass and the longest wait was under 30 min. we walked on to many rides several times even in fantasyland. AK was busier than normal, but do to the EE preview. Although we rode this on Thurs. with 20 min wait times.

 

[ahappydisneymommy]

We went from Jan 15 to Jan 20 and the most we waited for any ride was 20 minutes. We walked right on to Splash M and Pirates. We did do all of our Fantasyland rides early in the morning so I have no idea how the rides were later in the day. In Epcot we only waited about 5 minutes for Soarin. We did notice a bunch oftour groups from Brazil but it wasn't overwhelming. Overall it was a wonderful time to go.

 

[dizneekim]

DH and I were there Jan 23-26, and we thought the crowds were very low. We have never seen so much pavement, even in early Dec. and Feb. The longest waits we saw were for Soarin' and Living with the Land, which we thought was odd. We thought maybe folks were passing the time until their Soarin' fastpasses were up? We got in line for EE at 9am on Thurs. and got on in 20 mins-way cool! We had super fast service everywhere we ate,too. Two thumbs up for this week!

 

[JustEngagedNicole]

I went yesterday to the MK, Epcot, and MGM and it was wonderul! It wasn't crowded at all!

 

[gshanny]

We were there this week also and we walked on almost every ride. We waited 20 minutes for Soarin' and got fast passes to ride again since the line was backing up a little. Part of that problem was because they broke ours and had to move us to the other side and it really backed up then.
We rode Pooh and it said a 20 minute wait, but we rode, shopped in the store and were still out before 20 minutes had gone by. We loved how easy it was to get on rides.

 

[njchris]

How can one person experience massive crowds and long waits and everyone else had walk-ons?

 

[canda]

I did not wait 15 min. for RnR during EMH and the line was backed up past the line entrance. Not sure why you had any waits other than when Soarin broke down. I did skip the land boat ride because it had a 20 min wait. that was not worth it to me. I also found that the wait times were either dead on right or even better than that, they were listed for longer times than we really waited.

 

[Markstudy]

How can one person experience massive crowds and long waits and everyone else had walk-ons?

I was there Jan 15-21st and no lines.

Didn't the orginal post mention the WL and AK ... I know they had all kinds of crowds for EE. I went on Jan 18th because I heard all the pre-tours were starting on Jan 19th.

( someone that didn't have that info and stayed at AK and WL would be suprised by huge crowds durring third week of Jan)

But what is VWL?

 

[Dizneydaz]

We just got back from 8 day trip. It was more crowded, I think, this time than our trip at same time last year. We went to MGM and Epcot on Fri. 20th for EM p.m. and it was pretty empty except Soarin'. Mission Space was basically a walk on. Test Trak was closed. We went to AK on Sun 22nd and it was very busy due to CM preview day (we got to ride EE though) We didn't stay very long and went to MK after-it wasn't too busy. Went to BB on Mon 23, not too busy-weather was a little iffy in the a.m. Went back to AK on Tue, 25th. crowds were lighter than Sunday (as we expected). Went back to Epcot Wed. 26th and The Living Sea was packed! I have never seen so many people in that area. Everyone was waiting for Turtle Talk with Crush. We didn't stay there long. Went to the Land and it was almost as busy. Everyone waiting for Soarin'. Skipped riding it since we have original here at DLand. Rest of Epcot was pretty empty. (Everyone was at the Sea and Land). Went to MK in afternoon-crowd level was pretty low-walked right up to 5:30 Cinderellabration 5 min. before and got a good location. Also got a good location for Wishes about 30 min. before.

So basically, we felt crowd levels were pretty good except for AK on Sunday-(CM preview) and Epcot-Land & Sea. All things considered, still better than the summer time.

Just my opinion.