August Crowds?

[coruth4]

I am planning a trip for August 2007 with the hopes of the Free Dining Plan being offered again. My concern is that everyone will have the same plan as I do and want to take advantage of the free dining without having to take the kids out of school. My thoughts are to go down around August 19th - did anyone go this year with the free dining plan? Where the crowds bad?
Last year I went in mid-July - so I not afraid of the crowds (I use TGM) - but would like to have an idea before hand. Thanks!

 

[Bob P]

Hi,

Late August crowds are the lightest of the summer, free dining or not.

In 2006, free dining was announced in late March for bookings made by June 4. The booking date was later extended until late June.

 

[outlander]

I agree with Bob. The crowds are light and free dining won't change that. There are still many of us who go back to school in August and going at that time isn't feasible.

 

[NJDad18]

We were there this year from 8/18-8/26 and the crowds were not too bad. At Epcot, Soarin' and Test track usually had all fast passes distributed by early afternoon. Just make sure that make all of your reservations well ahead of time, because that is where you will find the crowds. We usually arrived for our meals at least 30 min. prior to our ADR. Only at Coral Reef and Tepanayki did we wait more than 30 min.

 

[bethbuchall]

We were there from 8/13-8/26 this year and thought that the crowds were light. (We've only been in May before.) There was one drizzly morning that the World Showcase seemed almost deserted. If you time your rides right and use Fastpass, you will have practically no waits at all. I would definitely recommend that time of year.

 

[carol-lamb]

We were there last month from Aug. 15th thru 23rd. I have been to Disney many many times and we thought it was crowded. No way were the crowds light. MK was a little less crowded on the 22nd & 23rd, but it was still busy - although wait times were down a little from earlier in our trip. We attributed it to the first week of free dining, which by the way was the highlight of our trip!! I will say that we never had to wait longer than 5 minutes to be seated at any restaurants and had excellent service at each of our table service meals.

 

[matt&jakesmom]

We were just there from 8/28 to 9/4. The crowds were light and we hardly had more than a 10 to 15 minute on any ride. In fact it wasn't until the weekend that we actually had to grab fastpasses. Planning on going around that same time again next year.

 

[Mom of Sleepy Bashful and BabyDoc]

We were there last month from Aug. 15th thru 23rd. I have been to Disney many many times and we thought it was crowded. No way were the crowds light. MK was a little less crowded on the 22nd & 23rd, but it was still busy - although wait times were down a little from earlier in our trip. We attributed it to the first week of free dining, which by the way was the highlight of our trip!! I will say that we never had to wait longer than 5 minutes to be seated at any restaurants and had excellent service at each of our table service meals.

Wow. We had almost a totally different experience.

We were there Aug. 20th-Sept. 1. Now, I did follow TGM's advice, so maybe that was it, but we couldn't believe the low crowds.

The week of of 27th, I can't remember which days we were in Future World(we were at MK or FW most of the time this trip), but my family got FP's for TT at 1pm with a return time at 2pm..........we couldn't believe it!!! One night for Space Mt., we got FP's at 8pm for a return time at 9pm! And we got FP's for Soarin' and MS also in the evening to ride that night. I expected them to be out of FP's by 2!! That is what happened last December so I thought it would happen again.

Actually, I thought there had to be more people at WDW because of free dining, but that because they were all a sit down meals more than usual, that free'd up the park rides. I don't know.

I just know that I expected it to be a zoo because of free dining and it was our best trip yet. I hate the heat, but because of the low crowds we want to come back next year.

 

[MissyPrissy]

I was just there from Aug 23-sept 1 (for my honeymoon!!), and the crowds were not bad AT ALL. Lines were never more than 20 minutes at the most (except for Expedition Everest at AK which at one point was 70 minutes long...FAST PASS people!!!)

If you have ADR's there is no problem with dining either...unless of course you go to Mama Melrose where you wait for nearly an HOUR past your ADR time and they make you feel like a jerk for asking when your table will be ready...*sigh* letting it go...

We are going in August next year with the same hope that free dining will be available...we're taking the munchkins with us this time!!

OH and just on a side note...the day that Hurricane Ernesto was SUPPOSED to hit, DH and I went to MK...we ran through the EMPTY park...went on Space mountain 6 times in a row...just running on...they allowed us to just stay on Splash Mountain for four rides in a row (until DH couldn't stand the music anymore) and we were allowed to stay on Thunder Mountain until we were too dizzy and soaked to go again!! (we stayed on for six rides!!) It was SO GREAT!! We were soaked certainly, (we had our ponchos but our feet were soaked...my Teva mush flip flops STILL make a squelching sound!) but the park was so empty and the CM's were having fun with it. With our ponchos and a little shammie towel to dry off with when went inside different places we were set!! Most fun day of our honeymoon!!! They even did Wishes!! It was GREAT!!!

 

[Mom of Sleepy Bashful and BabyDoc]

Miss Prissy...........that is awesome!! We experienced the same.

The one day it rained a little (I think it was the day before Ernesto??) we were able to hop right on Jungle Cruise, which is famous for it's long waiting times. We had our ponchos on for the ride. The CM was so funny.......so sarcastic about the ride, it was so much fun. Then when we got off, it had stopped raining so we took our ponchos off.

We weren't there in the pouring rain though. But it sounds like you made a great memory. Love it!

 

[jordansmomma]

We were there Aug. 23- Sept 3, and the crowds were not very bad at all. I am planning a trip next year for the same time. We walked right on quite a few rides in MK and MGM. AK the only ride that was busy was EE, one day 8/31 it had a slow opening so grabbed a FP and headed for KS, and Dinosaur. Epcot the only ride that was busy was Test track and Soarin. But the wait times were not that bad. So hopefully i can take advantage of the free dining also, and hurricane or no hurricane it was a nice time to go, low crowds, except for the labor day weekend there was the Tom Joyner family thing, not quite sure that was but the parks were starting to get crowded on 9/1.

 

[Tinkerbell58]

I have been to WDW in August 2005 and this year (August 20-28). At first, the crowds were very noticeable over last year. However, toward the end of the week, crowd level dropped off. There were many times it was just my DD and I on the bus returning to SSR at the end of a day.

A CM told me free dining and other promotions going on added to the crowd level this year.

 

[loriandmatt]

agreeing with last poster. have been in late Aug before (when they didn't offer free dining) and it was slower than it was on the trip we just returned from.


was it monster crowded a few weeks ago??? (Aug 23-Sept 4?) No. Labor Day weekend (fri night, sat and sunday) we pretty tight and we left early on monday morning, but the rest of the trip was pretty decent. i would do that time of year again.

 

[Mom of Sleepy Bashful and BabyDoc]

agreeing with last poster. have been in late Aug before (when they didn't offer free dining) and it was slower than it was on the trip we just returned from.

WOW!! that is great news. If they don't offer it next year, we will have even less trouble with crowds. I didn't think about that since this year was so nice for us.

I never thought that I would want to visit again in Aug. after our trip in Sept./2004. I didn't think I could handle the heat again. But we had such a great time with low crowds and longer park hours, we're going to try it.

 

[carol-lamb]

I'm guessing that the later it got in August, more kids were returning to school. Here in southeastern Michigan, most of the schools started on Sept. 5th this year. However, for several years past, most of the schools started the last week in August. I'm guessing that was the reason for the drop in crowds that I noticed around the 21st. I'm sure the crowds tapered off steadily after that.

 

[bethbuchall]

We were there last month from Aug. 15th thru 23rd. I have been to Disney many many times and we thought it was crowded. No way were the crowds light. MK was a little less crowded on the 22nd & 23rd, but it was still busy - although wait times were down a little from earlier in our trip. We attributed it to the first week of free dining, which by the way was the highlight of our trip!! I will say that we never had to wait longer than 5 minutes to be seated at any restaurants and had excellent service at each of our table service meals.

Wow! That really surprises me. As I said before, we were there August 13-26. The first week we stayed off-site. We always were at the parks by opening and were in the 1st-2nd row of parking. I thought crowds were very light. At MK we almost never waited more than 10 minutes for anything, though we did make use of Fastpass. We started in Frontierland and rode Splash and BTM several times each with no lines. We went to the Fantasyland EMH twice, and there were NO waits for anything. The characters were all out playing games. I don't think that we went to any other Extra Magic Hours. At AK, we rode Expedition Everest at opening with no wait and also got a FastPass to ride it about 40 minutes later. Kali had no wait in the meantime. We rode the Safari several times with less than a 10 minute wait. On the 19th, World Showcase looked almost deserted. We road Soarin' at opening with almost no wait and also picked up FastPasses a couple of other times.

It was so much better than I was expecting.

 

[coruth4]

Thanks for al the great input! I am not too worried about the heat. We went last year in mid July and handled it pretty well. This time around it is only me and my two boys (last year was me, my two boys, daughter, boyfriend and parents!) so I expect to be able to follow the afternoon rest rule a little better. I also plan on following TGM's advise more closely this year. It worked great last year - but trying to get that many people to follow along didn't work so well.
The only down side is missing the Halloween party - but since I seem more interested in it than the boys - I guess it's no big loss.
Now I will have to go back to the drawing board for my itineray! I already had a tentative one based on this year's information! But planning the trip is half the fun right?!
Again, thanks for all the information! I will plan for crowds but hop efor lighter ones.

 

[carol-lamb]

Wow! That really surprises me. As I said before, we were there August 13-26. The first week we stayed off-site. We always were at the parks by opening and were in the 1st-2nd row of parking. I thought crowds were very light. At MK we almost never waited more than 10 minutes for anything, though we did make use of Fastpass. We started in Frontierland and rode Splash and BTM several times each with no lines. We went to the Fantasyland EMH twice, and there were NO waits for anything. The characters were all out playing games. I don't think that we went to any other Extra Magic Hours. At AK, we rode Expedition Everest at opening with no wait and also got a FastPass to ride it about 40 minutes later. Kali had no wait in the meantime. We rode the Safari several times with less than a 10 minute wait. On the 19th, World Showcase looked almost deserted. We road Soarin' at opening with almost no wait and also picked up FastPasses a couple of other times.


I agree - the parks were always less crowded early in the morning. We only got to MK and AK once for early morning hours. We were able to accomplish a lot in Fantasyland, and rode Expedition Everest without any wait. However, as it got later in the morning, the crowds really started increasing. We usually stayed in the parks for most of the day and night and they were always busy. We hopped around alot on this trip also because of our dining plans and it seemed like every park we went to on a particular day was crowded. It wasn't unusual to see 80 minute waits at the popular attractions. With fastpasses though we were able to do just about everything (we never could fit Test Track in - it just never worked out for us on this trip)!

 

[bethbuchall]

If this was a crowded time, then I guess I'm ready for any time! We really thought that the crowds were light. We also stayed in parks from open to close and hopped around. We never waited behind more than two people for CS which I thought was terrific! I still would highly recommend that time of year to anyone.

 

[ILVPOOH]

We went Aug 27 - Sept 2 for Free Dining. It was the best. Everything was so empty. We never had to wait for any rides. We only used one fast pass the whole time for Soarin. We would get to the parks when they opened, left in the afternoon to swim and back to the parks. We stayed away from EMH. I would go back again next year at this same time. Free Dining was wonderful. We could never afford to eat at these restaurants every night.