Anyone know why it's so busy right now?

[DisneyOma]

I don't mean to laugh at your post, but this cracks me up. The hurricaine effected one week at a slower time of year. And people have been using that theory for every busy week since. I personally don't think that is a factor anymore.

I disagree - the hurricane caused damage to homes, so people cancelled vacations well into the next month because: #1 they had to stay home to get the damage assessed and repaired, and #2 the added expenses of the damage meant some people could not afford to go away right away and so they rescheduled their trips. The hurricane affected people's lives for more than a week. Look at Puerto Rico. Only 65% of the island has power, still.

 

[focusondisney]

I disagree - the hurricane caused damage to homes, so people cancelled vacations well into the next month because: #1 they had to stay home to get the damage assessed and repaired, and #2 the added expenses of the damage meant some people could not afford to go away right away and so they rescheduled their trips. The hurricane affected people's lives for more than a week. Look at Puerto Rico. Only 65% of the island has power, still.

Oh I understand that. I just mean every time someone says a week is busy, the response is that it is hurricaine people who rescheduled, all for that week. Every busy week for the last 3+ months is not busy because of 1 (or a few) weeks worth of rescheduled vacations. Even for the month after the hurricaine, it was the same thing. People were saying it was busy due to rescheduled trips.

 

[anomamatt]

Seriously though, is it normal to be wall to wall traffic in the parks?

In certain places for each park (e.g., Main Street in MK), yes, it's always wall to wall people. They are the literal choke points. Disney is almost always crowded enough that those points are difficult to walk freely.

I'm kinda mad about planning with touring plans for an entire year and all plans went to the pooper. Weve still have a great time, done almoat wverything, but I am so tired of being run into.

The problem is that everyone has the same idea. Everyone hears that January has no crowds and there goes that! It used to be that the Fall wasn't as crowded and that is no longer remotely true. The summer now seems to be the less crowded time (until people start repeating that en masse).

But yeah, Disney is always crowded. You have to embrace it and make the best of it!

 

[lindsey]

Yesterday around 4:30pm, Magic Kingdom/ Tomorrowland

 

[anomamatt]

View attachment 296109 Yesterday around 4:30pm, Magic Kingdom/ Tomorrowland

I know it's all a matter of opinion and perspective, but that looks pretty empty to me... (maybe that is why you posted that pic?)

 

[hllb]

I know it's all a matter of opinion and perspective, but that looks pretty empty to me... (maybe that is why you posted that pic?)

I thought that looked quite light too.

I did post on the TP forums about that one really bad miss AK day (they've had a few more misses with AK too, though not that significant). Len said they were really disappointed with those results and are currently rerunning the AK models. So we might see updates coming out soon.

 

[SarahC97]

I thought that looked quite light too.

I did post on the TP forums about that one really bad miss AK day (they've had a few more misses with AK too, though not that significant). Len said they were really disappointed with those results and are currently rerunning the AK models. So we might see updates coming out soon.

I really wonder if Pandora has thrown it for a loop. Seems like you hardly see a day under 4 or 5 there since it opened. Maybe those wait times are just throwing it all out of whack!

 

[ArwenMarie]

Yeshiva Week starts this week into next.

 

[SarahC97]

Yeshiva Week starts this week into next.

What's that?

 

[anniemae]

I don't mean to laugh at your post, but this cracks me up. The hurricaine effected one week at a slower time of year. And people have been using that theory for every busy week since. I personally don't think that is a factor anymore. More like Disney is heavily marketing the park, improved economy has people spending money & Disney has introduced new events to get people there at different times of the year (Festival of the Arts, sports & cheer competitions in the winter, spring & fall, expanded Food & Wine festival, holiday parties & how many runDisney events are there now??). Plus using data like fastpass & ADRs they can staff up or down more predictably & keep wait times pretty consistent year round.

I believe the effects of the hurricane are still carrying over. I saw post after post after post of people re-booking for Dec/Jan time frame. It was not a slow time of year. Sept is increasingly busy and it was a very large volume of people re-booking. Add that to an already increasingly popular time of year and you have yourself a very crowded park.

 

[shocker]

I'm gonna take a stab for why "I" think it's busier now:

1. Check your retirement plan performance.
2. The US's largest employer gave a $1,000 bonus to their employees and raised their starting wage.
3. EVERYONE is hiring right now.
4. Most will see their tax bill go down this year.

 

[SarahC97]

I'm gonna take a stab for why "I" think it's busier now:

1. Check your retirement plan performance.
2. The US's largest employer gave a $1,000 bonus to their employees and raised their starting wage.
3. EVERYONE is hiring right now.
4. Most will see their tax bill go down this year.

Perhaps some of that, but the average income of families that travel to Disney is around $90,000 a year. I don't think $1000 bonus at $11/hour is going to inspire a lot of folks to drop $5000 or more on a Disney vacation. Just my opinion.

 

[SaintsManiac]

I'm gonna take a stab for why "I" think it's busier now:

1. Check your retirement plan performance.
2. The US's largest employer gave a $1,000 bonus to their employees and raised their starting wage.
3. EVERYONE is hiring right now.
4. Most will see their tax bill go down this year.

Lots of layoffs are still happening. Just an FYI.

 

[ArwenMarie]

What's that?

Yeshiva Week is when all of the Jewish day schools have off. It's a big thing around here (NY/NJ). I know it affects the cruises that go out of NYC.

I'm not sure how much it would affect Florida but I imagine it has some effect

 

[Linkura]

What's that?

Orthodox Jewish families with kids/young adults in yeshivas (schools that focus on Judaism) have the week off.

Welp, good luck with those crowds!

 

[revdon64]

Simple answer from a CM friend - "This is actually what a slow time looks like now. This is the new normal."

Throw out your crowd calendars because they don't work anymore. With all the add-on events and festivals and such, Disney has effectively made them all obsolete.

 

[MainMom]

View attachment 296109 Yesterday around 4:30pm, Magic Kingdom/ Tomorrowland

Looks not crowded to me.

 

[hllb]

The waits at AK right now are short! Under 1.5 hours for FoP! 73 minutes for Navi. 20 minutes or less for most others. Not sure if that rates as the predicted “3”, but definitely not bad. Not sure if it’s been like that all day though.

 

[anniemae]

Simple answer from a CM friend - "This is actually what a slow time looks like now. This is the new normal."

Throw out your crowd calendars because they don't work anymore. With all the add-on events and festivals and such, Disney has effectively made them all obsolete.

So true. I have been saying this for a while now, but most people live and die by crowd calendars. They obsess over a 7 vs. an 8. they get upset when a day was supposed to be a 6 but was "really more of an 8!" People need to just plan for huge crowds and be happy with anything less and stop obsessing over crowd calendars. Its always crowded now. Especially with all the new stuff on the horizon like the toy story land, star wars, gondolas, hotel re-furbs, parties, discounts, free dining .........and on and on and on.

 

[disneyvoice]

This year we have been to WDW for a week the end of June, the middle of July, the end of October, and January 7-14. Last week was by far the busiest we have seen it. What we noticed was that it wasn't necessarily the wait time for rides that were drastically increased but just the sheer volume of people walking around. We know the marathon affected things the beginning of our trip and then the UCF parade made things at MK so unbearable we left, walked to the Contemporary and hung out at the The Wave bar (that wasn't necessarily a bad thing - LOL!!). On the 7th and 8th Main Street seemed just as crowded as the week leading up to Christmas. We seriously stopped moving several times because of how crowded it was. It did get better later in the week but still much more crowded than any other trip we have had in the past year. The good news, at least for us, was that it didn't do anything to ruin our trip. We just accepted it was busy and went about our vacation. We did find that it was a bit more tiring to maneuver through the heavy crowds. We were all definitely ready to head back to the resort by about 6:00 every night. There were several days when I actually went to bed at around 7:00 - which was actually HEAVEN!!! I think it may have been the first WDW vacation where I felt like I actually slept more than when I am at home.