Anyone else scared about the all new crowed levels?

[Took]

Absolutely not- I probably wouldn't want to go for New Years or Christmas but the first week of November- January- February I've had no problems with my trips regarding crowds the last year

This year, I found the crowds much higher than expected all the way through Jan 5! Really ridiculous.

 

[labattblue]

This year, I found the crowds much higher than expected all the way through Jan 5! Really ridiculous.

I thought the same thing. I will include 1/6 to the "crowded days", as that was our last park day(we flew out that evening)

 

[momof2n2]

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!

Enh... for us it's the rides.

 

[Mac30188]

I am curious if it will feel better once you start seeing some of the expansions. For example, when AK is open at night with a new show, will that pull attendees from other parks? Not to mention you have several large expansions (i.e. Avatar, Toy Story, Frozen, Star Wars) that will become black holes of people. While these areas will be insanely crowded at first, I suspect the rest of the WDW may get slightly less crowded. I suspect it will just bring in more guests so you still won't find "dead" areas of the park, but it may help secondary attraction wait times to go down slightly.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I do feel as a whole from all the comments I'm reading here and elsewhere that the crowds are higher than in years past. That being said I've seen people absolutely outraged at having to wait 30-45 minutes for a ride. To me that is normal, with a wait less than that a complete bonus, even though I know some rides were basically walk-ons before and now aren't (I'm guessing a mixture of the new FastPass+ as well as increased crowds). For others this is just not worth their money spent to get into the park.

I go in September and when I last went in 2011 in the third week there were some longer waits for that expected time period.
1) Soarin' 90+ minutes
2) TSMM NEVER less than 75 minute wait except for we walked on 5 mins before park closing
3) Test Track 60 minutes (though part of that was a rain delay the three times we rode it)
4) POTC anywhere between 20 and 45 minutes
5)Haunted Mansion anywhere between 10-50 minutes
6) It's a small world anywhere between 10-60 minutes
7)Peter Pan 45-90 minutes
8) BTMR was anywhere between 5 to 60+ minutes
9) Expedition Everest was a 45 minute wait and we got there just after the park opened
10) Space Mountain anywhere between 20 and 60 minutes

These are just ones that I remember.

But to me these were all manageable except we purposely waited for TSMM because I did not want to be in a long long line with a bunch of younger children-which is all we saw who were in line (Peter Pan had more of an adult to children mix at the time). Also I should note I'm speaking in terms of my personal wait time patience both when I was a child and my patience to wait as I got older- which has stayed roughly the same through growing up and into my adulthood. Having children with you though can dramatically impact your ability to wait in a line (as a no brainer).

It's not like I like to wait in lines but to me at a theme park I expect to be in lines. However, I purposely don't go during the really really busy times because waiting 2+ hours for ride after ride after ride is just not my idea of fun. I think also people's idea of ability to move around or be "packed in like sardines" can vary and I've heard the line of "they just don't stop letting people in" a bunch in the last 4-5 months that I've actually been paying attention to reviews and blogs. I try not to let this get to me though because this can be a mix of truth and one's perception of crowdness and as my next trip is 2017 so things can really change by then and who knows what crowds will be drawn with all the new attractions coming to WDW and Universal between now and then.

As for taking kids out of school I think it depends on a lot of factors and I don't begrudge the parents that choose to do this:

1) Age of kids because this impacts what they would be taught during the time they would be out of school
2) How quickly can your child catch up or in some cases get the lessonwork done before going
3) How far into the semester, trimester, quarter, etc you are when you are traveling
4) When does your school start and end- For example where I live school starts mid-August so traveling anytime after that would be considered taking the kids out of school. School then lets out anywhere between the third week in May (though usually it was the fourth) to the beginning of June depending on the amount of snow days used or not used.

and the list goes on.

I would honestly just try to keep your cool if you go and find the crowds heavier than what you are normally comfortable with. It may just mean a shift in how you plan out your days or how long you can take being at a particular park on a given day (this is why I love hopper passes but that's just me).

 

[Accident]

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

someone recently started a whole discussion on just this: http://www.disboards.com/threads/why-avoid-emh.3474049/

My experience is the crowds feel lower and I seem to achieve more when I go on emh vs non-emh.

 

[mickeyluv'r]

We aren't scared about crowds, but we do think WDW has become a lesser value than it was just a few years ago.

Maybe when more new attractions open, it will again be a better value, but current WDW is a lesser than value. No doubt.

In truth, I'm not optimistic. Even when the new attractions open, FP+ isn't going anywhere, and the prices are not going to go down. Room prices, food prices, ticket prices, restrictive ADR policies, long waits....put it all together and our family has consistently gotten less value than we did just a few years ago.

A few years ago, we mostly went to WDW and stayed onsite the whole time.

The way we NOW get value from trips to Florida is to branch out. Universal and offsite options are a great value. We have immensely enjoyed broadening our trips to include assorted cities in FL. Travel an hour east or 90min west of WDW and you'll be at the beach. Both sides are beautiful but different. All of Florida is full of fun things to do and visit. There's many natural wonders, parks, amusements, history, great dining. Step outside WDW, and food+hotel costs are less than half!

 

[Tarheel girl 1975]

I am curious if it will feel better once you start seeing some of the expansions. For example, when AK is open at night with a new show, will that pull attendees from other parks? Not to mention you have several large expansions (i.e. Avatar, Toy Story, Frozen, Star Wars) that will become black holes of people. While these areas will be insanely crowded at first, I suspect the rest of the WDW may get slightly less crowded. I suspect it will just bring in more guests so you still won't find "dead" areas of the park, but it may help secondary attraction wait times to go down slightly.

It might help when ALL of the expansions are done. I think Arendelle is going to be a nightmare after it opens. I just don't see how that area is going to handle the crowds well. I think that making AK an all day park with night time entertainment will help, but I'm not sure it will be enough to compensate for all the shuttered areas in DHS.

I do feel as a whole from all the comments I'm reading here and elsewhere that the crowds are higher than in years past. That being said I've seen people absolutely outraged at having to wait 30-45 minutes for a ride. To me that is normal, with a wait less than that a complete bonus, even though I know some rides were basically walk-ons before and now aren't (I'm guessing a mixture of the new FastPass+ as well as increased crowds). For others this is just not worth their money spent to get into the park.

I go in September and when I last went in 2011 in the third week there were some longer waits for that expected time period.
1) Soarin' 90+ minutes
2) TSMM NEVER less than 75 minute wait except for we walked on 5 mins before park closing
3) Test Track 60 minutes (though part of that was a rain delay the three times we rode it)
4) POTC anywhere between 20 and 45 minutes
5)Haunted Mansion anywhere between 10-50 minutes
6) It's a small world anywhere between 10-60 minutes
7)Peter Pan 45-90 minutes
8) BTMR was anywhere between 5 to 60+ minutes
9) Expedition Everest was a 45 minute wait and we got there just after the park opened
10) Space Mountain anywhere between 20 and 60 minutes

These are just ones that I remember.

But to me these were all manageable except we purposely waited for TSMM because I did not want to be in a long long line with a bunch of younger children-which is all we saw who were in line (Peter Pan had more of an adult to children mix at the time). Also I should note I'm speaking in terms of my personal wait time patience both when I was a child and my patience to wait as I got older- which has stayed roughly the same through growing up and into my adulthood. Having children with you though can dramatically impact your ability to wait in a line (as a no brainer).

It's not like I like to wait in lines but to me at a theme park I expect to be in lines. However, I purposely don't go during the really really busy times because waiting 2+ hours for ride after ride after ride is just not my idea of fun. I think also people's idea of ability to move around or be "packed in like sardines" can vary and I've heard the line of "they just don't stop letting people in" a bunch in the last 4-5 months that I've actually been paying attention to reviews and blogs. I try not to let this get to me though because this can be a mix of truth and one's perception of crowdness and as my next trip is 2017 so things can really change by then and who knows what crowds will be drawn with all the new attractions coming to WDW and Universal between now and then.

As for taking kids out of school I think it depends on a lot of factors and I don't begrudge the parents that choose to do this:

1) Age of kids because this impacts what they would be taught during the time they would be out of school
2) How quickly can your child catch up or in some cases get the lessonwork done before going
3) How far into the semester, trimester, quarter, etc you are when you are traveling
4) When does your school start and end- For example where I live school starts mid-August so traveling anytime after that would be considered taking the kids out of school. School then lets out anywhere between the third week in May (though usually it was the fourth) to the beginning of June depending on the amount of snow days used or not used.

and the list goes on.

I would honestly just try to keep your cool if you go and find the crowds heavier than what you are normally comfortable with. It may just mean a shift in how you plan out your days or how long you can take being at a particular park on a given day (this is why I love hopper passes but that's just me).

It depends on which rides you are talking about. I expect Soarin, TT, Splash, SM, BTMRR, and TSMM to have longer lines. They used to be like that before. Although with the exception of TSMM, I never had problem pulling a legacy FP, so I never had to wait that long. We never used to experience lines like that for POTC, HM, or IASW. And I'm not waiting more than 5 minutes for things like Journey into Imagination or Nemo at Epcot.

 

[mickeyluv'r]

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 now have multiple summer trips under our belt.

One trip, the August weather was SO cool- we felt we needed long pants at night! That was a surprise!

Other times afternoons were so hot/humid it was almost hard to breathe.

One trip no rain at all, another had absolute deluges every afternoon and a few days it just poured almost half the day/night.

In summer, it pays to bring water tolerant quality walking shoes!

We've also discovered the World Showcase is a big place when it is POURING. Just expect that you might show up to the $200+ dinner looking like a wet rat!

Years ago, I had a wonderful swim suit top that looked like a nice summer shirt. If you happen to find a swim top like that, buy it!

 

[pmaurer74]

the crowds are not like they were in 2012 but if you do rope drop you will be fine. We went Halloween weekend and from 9-11 rode 12 rides... it was great!

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

It depends on which rides you are talking about. I expect Soarin, TT, Splash, SM, BTMRR, and TSMM to have longer lines. They used to be like that before. Although with the exception of TSMM, I never had problem pulling a legacy FP, so I never had to wait that long. We never used to experience lines like that for POTC, HM, or IASW. And I'm not waiting more than 5 minutes for things like Journey into Imagination or Nemo at Epcot.

I think you misunderstood my point while at the same time proving my point (if that's possible lol).

With respects to wait times listed I was speaking in regards to Standby times not accounting for people who used the legacy FassPass. Of course wait times depend on the type of ride which is why I tried to put in a variety of ones (I can't remember all the rides and wait times from my last trip so I had just put in the ones I remembered).

With respects to what the ride is and what wait times were like in the past, while you would expect to wait longer for a bigger ticket ride that amount you expect and are wiling to wait varies a lot. Like I had said to some people waiting 30-45 minutes was too long and I meant that generally whether it be for a big or small ticket ride. You said you would only wait 5 minutes for Imagination or Nemo but to me 5 minutes is nothing at all and if the ride was not one I would want to go on anyways I'm not going to speak to the amount of time I would wait for it because that's a moot point (I don't want to go on that ride ergo I won't go on that ride no matter the wait time). I did list large variances of wait times for the rides that I remembered which accounts for time of day, weather, events going on as well as the fact that a ride might be considered a small ticket ride but at times drawls large enough crowds, etc.

The experience I had will be different from your experience depending on the time of the year and the actual year you visited with regards to less wait in the past versus more wait in the present.

I've visited sometime before 1993, then again in 1995, again in 1999, again in 2004 and again in 2011 and my next will be in 2017 but the only time I can remember the actual wait times was from 2011 and that's why I went that year's wait times.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

For everyone as a reference point from Wikipedia here are the attendances from the past (2015 hasn't been added yet but I'm sure it's higher than 2014). I'm thinking pre-2008 the attendace was less than what is listed for 2008 though I'm not going to search high and low for those statistics:

 

[Mambo Junkie]

Yes there are a lot of repeat visitors here - and they will continue to go. I do think the crowds have exploded but from what I have observed and heard there may be more one timers now. A lot of people don't know "how it used to be" so for them what they're experiencing now can be perceived as the norm. A lot of people will have the "been there, bought the t shirt" attitude and go elsewhere. I know I spend hours extolling the wonders of WDW to my clients but I have a lot of them tell me they just don't enjoy the crowds, the hectic pace, the feeling that they realize they should have planned better but have no idea how, etc. Many will not go again (which is sad to me). At least people like me who are repeats have the benefit knowing how it used to be and (I'm) hoping to recapture the ease and pleasure that touring used to be.

ETA: As I said before, if not for my grandchildren I would probably not go again or at least not go for a very, very long time.

 

[loveshak22]

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.

We're the same way. When my DH and I go to WDW, it's just the 2 of us. We used to love the end of January, but now it's too crowded and filled with the larger tour groups. We'll still visit WDW, but just not as often or to stay as long.

 

[loveshak22]

For everyone as a reference point from Wikipedia here are the attendances from the past (2015 hasn't been added yet but I'm sure it's higher than 2014). I'm thinking pre-2008 the attendace was less than what is listed for 2008 though I'm not going to search high and low for those statistics:

View attachment 144492

I agree that I bet the pre-2008 numbers are lower, maybe even significantly lower during some of those years when the recession first hit. When we were there in 2006 there were very low crowds.

 

[epcotty]

I don't know if FastPass+ is really doing what they intended. Wait times at the headliner attractions hasn't gone down and it's just raised wait times at other attractions. They still give way too much priority to the FastPass+ line so it can seem like forever in standby. If they want it to work better they should implement it more fairly to standby lines

 

[MickeyWaffles]

We just got home from a 1/4-1/9 trip. we have travelled many times on these dates.

The only park that felt more crowded than usual was MK on one of the two days we went there.

I have zero issues with crowds. We've been there on NYE, Easter Sunday. No matter if there are low crowds or high crowds you can still have a great time.

I'd take a crowded Disney trip over no Disney trip every time. Do I prefer lower crowd times? Sure. But I would
never stop going because other people who love Disney are going too.

 

[gorkt]

I have gone to WDW many times over the last 20 years, but usually sporadically, like every 3 years or so, and usually at around the same time of year, late fall. This has allowed me to see trends more gradually and maybe provide a different perspective.

Initially, when the old fastpass was introduced, I noticed that while you spent less time standing in lines, the parks suffered from more congestion overall. You were fighting with more people and it took longer to get from place to place. Concession lines were longer too. In general, that is getting worse and worse with each trip.

My 2013 trip was the first trip with FP+, but it was in late stage testing and a lot of visitors did not have it. I thought it was fantastic then, but I am a bit concerned now that it is out of testing phase. On the last trip, I FPed ahead of time the three rides I really wanted to ride then went to the others which still had low wait times.

Now that it is out of testing, it seems that I will FP the big three rides, then I am either stuck with running to kiosks to book more FPs or waiting in long lines for rides I used to be able to get on with 15 minute waits, like HM. I am curious whether these overall longer wait times at all rides translates into lower park congestion, which might be a decent trade off for me, but I have a feeling that is not the case. I think I will just have to come to terms with the fact that I will be doing "less stuff" in the parks.

 

[Laura353741]

We went between Christmas and NYE and crowds were NUTS. With fast pass planning we were able to ride all we wanted to just walking through the crowds was madness, that was the worst part.

 

[epcotty]

Strangely enough even with increasing crowds and wait times we still have been able to do as much or more than we always did before FP+ in every park (and no, we don't constantly go running to the FP+ machines). I guess that's still possible since it is with us