Anyone else scared about the all new crowed levels?

[kj2mom]

This is the week we will be going this year. I worry more about the weather being hot and stormy. How was the weather when you were there?

We went the week after (July 4th-10th) and it was hot, hot, hot and humid! It rained a lot, more than just your average Florida typical summer storm. It rained!!! All of that said, we were prepared with Brita water bottles, cooling towels, dressed appropriately and had quality ponchos/umbrellas as needed. There were a couple of times my daughter (13) would mention she was hot so we would head into a shop/ride/restaurant to cool off/regroup a little bit before heading back out. It was actually Sea World where she got the most hot (we walked completely from all the way to the left to all the way to the right and we were almost there when she began to suffer a bit so we decided to take a break and stop for a snack. We took advantage of the free water at the counter services and made sure our Brita bottles were full pretty much all of the time (we froze one over night so it was literally ice cold for the better part of the morning). All of that to say, planning and going with the flow (not being afraid to take a break if needed) were the keys for us not to let the weather get us down!

 

[Accident]

I've been in some heavy heavy crowds and it hasn't been too too horrible. Avoiding EMH does help. There is still phases where morning is lighter, afternoon is more packed and evening can go either way. I suspect as AK's evening entertainment comes up a lot of people hopping from AK to another park near dinner will start to lower the surge of people near dinner time in other parks..

Weekends have been a little tricky. I do hope if they open a 5th gate it'll be just as disney as MK. I thikn the new lands will just make people who never came to disney pack in the mk even tighter. They also need to sort out how to spread the crowds during food and wine better, I think they might need to start making better use of future world. and the walkways leading into world showcase.

 

[epcotty]

Oh well, we've still gotten in just as many attractions as we used to at each park even with the crowd levels being higher. It hasn't really seemed to affect us much. I think it must be tough on kids who miss school after they get back, having to make up so much work.

 

[linznjody]

We went the last week of May this year. It wasn't horrible, but it was hot and humid (which I will avoid from here on out). We had our extended family with us, but we split up. I had a plan for each day, and our immediate family did RD every day. The longest we waited for anything was about 30 min. Some of our family slept in and just went to the rides they wanted whenever, and they waited over an hour for pretty much everything.

All of us had a good time, but it is easy to avoid the lines with a little smart planning - even during higher crowd times.

 

[Tarheel girl 1975]

We have gone in late September/early October for the 4 years. I am getting a little worried about the crowds. They seem much harder to predict. There were several level 10 days last year in the early fall which has never happened before. The shorter park hours due to the hard ticket parties also seem to negatively affect FP availability too. Makes me wonder if we would be better off switching to a different time of year with longer park hours.

 

[loveshak22]

I personally think the crowds are horrible. But, we are a couple that can travel at any time of the year and remember when we used to go when there were truly "low" crowds. Now we can't seem to find any low crowd weeks because it always seems busy to us. I mean it's not Christmas or summer busy, but busier than we like. I will agree though that it doesn't really affect our wait time on rides because we plan well. We were there in November and had pre-park opening breakfasts. We were able to plan hitting popular rides and use of FPs well so we got a lot done in the morning. However, at MK we had to leave at 1:00 because the park was just so crowded. Even if we can plan around wait times for rides, it's still not enjoyable for us to not be able to walk around and enjoy ourselves because we have to fight through crowds. And DHS was horrible. There was a 75 minute wait to use our FP for TSMM! There are just so few rides there now that lines are ridiculous and walking around is unpleasant. We were able to plan well at Epcot and enjoy ourselves at the World Showcase without feeling like we were in a hoard of people, but sadly we were expecting 70 degree weather and low humidity and the east coast warm spell made it 87, with a feels like 90 temp with humidity at 97%. I feel like everyone equates crowds with wait times and it's really so much more - how long do you have to wait for a bus, can you walk without feeling like you are swarmed by other people, can you stop and get a Coke without waiting 15 minutes, etc.

With all that said, I'd still go to WDW! I just may not go back for awhile and I won't stay as long.

 

[Disneylover99]

We have gone in late September/early October for the 4 years. I am getting a little worried about the crowds. They seem much harder to predict. There were several level 10 days last year in the early fall which has never happened before. The shorter park hours due to the hard ticket parties also seem to negatively affect FP availability too. Makes me wonder if we would be better off switching to a different time of year with longer park hours.

That's one of the reason we love Christmas week. MK open from 7am - 1am every night. Early mornings or late nights. Pick your pleasure.

 

[gdrj]

I am a little nervous because of all the horror stories lately. But like the PP we are going in with lower expectations and anticipating high crowds. If they are low great surprise, if not we will be with great friends and family so we will just be thankful that we are able to be there at all. We usually do parks open to close and get what we can done and not worry about the rest. Of course this is easier for us since all the kids in our group are usually older (16-20)

Crowds/wait times have increased. That probably is due to a number of factors. I think the strategy of open to close doesn't work as well with wait times be crazy in the middle of the day for practically every ride (probably partly due to FP+) . With that said when we do want to make a day of it we will go to the park early hit what we can and schedule FP's for later in the morning. We know pretty much avoid the middle of the day and go back to the pool.

 

[3 DD love princesses]

We are going the first week of February and I'm nervous about crowds.

We are pulling the kids to avoid crowds and horrible temps, plus lower prices and sneaking in a trip before our youngest 2 turn 3 in June.

I'm very worried about the crowds. We were last there the first week of June in 2010. We never waited more than 30 minutes with the exception of soarin which was about 45-50 minutes because we got to epcot in the evening when all of the fast passes were gone (old system.) The 30 minute wait was for Dumbo which I could have skipped but the THEN 5 year old wanted to ride and our disney trips are all about the kids. Other rides were 20 minutes if we couldn't get fast passes. I'm very worried about long waits with the new fast pass system and huge crowds.

We went last week of Jan and first week of Feb. want to say 26-6 and was surprised how crowded it was compared to what we expected. wait times were ~30min min for many of the rides. It could have been we went in expecting 10-20 min from everything that we were told. we did RD and closed the parks many days of the trip. we were able to ride a lot in the first couple hours but after that waits were longer. jungle cruise had a posted 40 min wait but we ended up waiting over 2 hours one day. we did more kiddie rides since they were 4.5yr, 2.75 yr, 13 mo. oldest was tall enough to do all the 42" rides.

 

[soniam]

We always go in the summer or Spring Break. Using FP+, rope drop, EMH, and a good touring plan, we rarely have problems. I don't recall waiting in any lines longer than ~30 minutes and that would have been for something without an FP+. I did get stuck in the Pirates line with an FP+ for over 45 minutes, but the ride was broken. I especially like Touring Plans.com. We typically do most of the attractions too, especially at MK and Epcot. If you don't like a lot of people, then avoiding the parks is probably good. However, crowds do not equate to long lines during the entire day at every park.

 

[Babydreamz]

We are going at the end of April which is supposed to be a fairly low crowd time so I'm excited. We were at Disneyland for 2 days after Christmas and the crowds were a definite 10 and we felt that. Went on 2 rides with FP but was able to meet all the characters that DD wanted to as that was the priority. It definitely helps to have a plan but it's still doable. Know what your priorities are and aim for those first.

 

[Tarheel girl 1975]

That's one of the reason we love Christmas week. MK open from 7am - 1am every night. Early mornings or late nights. Pick your pleasure.

I can't see us ever doing that, but now that my kids are getting older we'll probably have to think about going over summer break or spring break.

 

[Mambo Junkie]

Is it free dining? If so, that's probably one of the reasons. I should say we went in December 2014 and it was a lot more crowded than I have ever experienced. I was mostly disappointed and frustrated, basically because I wasn't able to tour in the style I like. I don't like the planning that has to go into it, I like spontaneity. That said, plan smart and you'll be ok.

 

[caroline1851]

We went in June and crowd level was an 8. We never waited more than 15 min for anything because of: choosing right park, rope drop, fast passes, planning. but...that being said, not sure I ever need to go back. Had fun but too much work for a vacation. As well as the fact that there are way too many awesome places to experience in the world to keep going back to the same place....
The only ride we never got on was...It's a Small World. The line was longer than expected and not worth a 40 min wait to me and we just ran out of time and didn't want to waste a fp on it.

 

[MermaidMommy]

Is it free dining? If so, that's probably one of the reasons. I should say we went in December 2014 and it was a lot more crowded than I have ever experienced. I was mostly disappointed and frustrated, basically because I wasn't able to tour in the style I like. I don't like the planning that has to go into it, I like spontaneity. That said, plan smart and you'll be ok.

No, there's not free dining right now.

 

[MarissaMarissa]

I also think its important to remember that there is so much more to do on a disney trip than just riding rides! Even if the lines are longer than you would like you can still find things to do! Also, it's not about the number of rides you ride, but the memories you make!

 

[big_ol_lineman]

So reading yall post, I don't know if I should be worried or not. I use to be an Annual but my last time was back in 10. When we would go ( and we went every other weekend and major holidays ) yea it would be busy sometimes but it was never horribly bad. Have the crowds gotten worse over the past 6 years or have they kinda stayed the same?

 

[howaboutme]

.......Avoiding EMH does help. .

Newbie here..just wondering why avoiding EMH helps? I thought the benefit of this for guests is to avoid the crowds??

 

[Mambo Junkie]

From my experience, they have steadily increased. A level 6 is way more crowded than what a level 6 in 2010 was. Disney has come up with discounts, packages, free dining and other perks to fill the parks, especially during what used to be traditionally slow times. It's all in what you're looking for, and how you choose to tour. IMO, gone are the days when you could stroll into the park at 9-ish, 10 am and walk up to rides or pull passes and go see other attractions while you wait for your fast pass time. You don't just go for a couple of hours and do a few things, go back to the room to chill, then go back in the evening to do all the things you hadn't done while parades or fireworks are going off. Walking up to a sit down restaurant and getting seated within a couple of minutes is a thing of the past as well (unless you're very fortunate), Everything needs to be planned now and if your touring style is a relaxed, play it as you go style, you will probably be disappointed and frustrated as I have been the last couple of trips. For me, it's a whole new learning process and it's sort of bittersweet because "YAY" I'm getting the hang of it, but "BOO" that's not my style. I think if I didn't have 2 little grandchildren, then WDW would, for me, be a thing of the past. However, I put my personal experiences aside and as long as they are happy and are enjoying themselves, then I'm fine. So, for now, I'll rope drop, pre park ADR, fill a schedule with fps, ADRs and plan our every step but reluctantly. This time, though, we're doing early (really not my style), working in down time (resort and pool - a must for my sanity) and later evenings while skipping crowd attracting events in order to catch a few more attractions.

ETA: Correction - walking up to a restaurant OF CHOICE and getting seated...

 

[MIGrandma]

DH and I used to go to WDW in January (not yearly, but several times) and absolutely loved it. Low to non-existant crowds, very little wait time for rides - usually 5-10 minutes, maybe 30 for the really popular major rides and rarely ever needed a fastpass.

Then DD went with me (her first trip, she was 34) in September 2013 and it was extremely busy and HOT and HUMID. Loved being with her for a week, but wouldn't do September again.

Then last January we were invited to go with her and her DH and their two kids plus the other set of grandparents for 8 nights. Loved being there as a family and would go again in a heartbeat if asked, but DH and I have no plans to go back anytime soon. The crowds were bad, and thankfully we did have faspasses every day for the major rides, but wait times for other rides were sometimes 30-45 minutes, and for the major rides like Soarin' it was quite common to see a 120-minute wait. Wow. Things sure have changed. I'm not sure there's any "slow" time at Disney anymore. For us as a couple it's just not as fun as it used to be and there are too many other places we want to go. I'm not saying we'll never go back, but it'll probably be a l-o-n-g time.