Bad omen?

[wrighter]

Standing in line for ME now. This is supposed to be a slow time of year? Poppycock. Even our spring break trips have never been so insane. I'll post back later to let you know how long this takes.

 

[DebbieB]

Standing in line for ME now. This is supposed to be a slow time of year? Poppycock. Even our spring break trips have never been so insane. I'll post back later to let you know how long this takes.

Is this the first day for free dining? Alot of people probably delayed check-in until today.

 

[wrighter]

Hmmm. Didn't consider free dining. Guess we'll find out soon enough!

 

[mb187143]

we had an absolutely nutso scene at ME one year when we came down in early February - never seen lines like it - but the parks were less crowded than they even are in September. The ME lines were empty for our trip in June and the parks were a 7-8/10 crowd level daily. I don't use the ME lines as a barometer for park crowds, in our experience there's little correlation.

 

[lost*in*cyberspace]

Why would one of the last weekends for summer travel be considered a slow time? I would expect a mob scene.

 

[gmeh1]

Standing in line for ME now. This is supposed to be a slow time of year? Poppycock. Even our spring break trips have never been so insane. I'll post back later to let you know how long this takes.

No, this is not a slow time. It is still summer. The crowds don't start to really diminish until after Labor Day.

 

[OKW Lover]

The only thing a long line at ME is indicative of is a bunch of planes arriving at the same time. This weekend at WDW the crowd levels will be lower than they were last weekend, which was lower than the weekend before. Because so many schools have started already and the rest are starting soon, the crowd levels go down starting in mid-August.

 

[DebbieB]

Alot of schools are already in session. Not a great time for a family vacation. People in the DME line would not be locals. Looking at touring plans for the next week, no day is higher than 5. One day is actually 1. I would not expect big crowds.

 

[gmeh1]

Alot of schools are already in session. Not a great time for a family vacation. People in the DME line would not be locals. Looking at touring plans for the next week, no day is higher than 5. One day is actually 1. I would not expect big crowds.

We have huge daily flights from Virgin, at least 3 a day. And from the rental forecasts for the next 10 days, it is not going to be all that quiet. And, as I sit here and watch the crowds entering the garage, I am not so sure it is going to be all that quiet.

 

[DebbieB]

We have huge daily flights from Virgin, at least 3 a day. And from the rental forecasts for the next 10 days, it is not going to be all that quiet. And, as I sit here and watch the crowds entering the garage, I am not so sure it is going to be all that quiet.

What garage?

 

[gmeh1]

What garage?

At this moment A side. Why? I am talking about the amount of people at the terminal and garage, not the one's heading to B side for ME. Cannot get a handle on that.

 

[DebbieB]

At this moment A side. Why? I am talking about the amount of people at the terminal and garage, not the one's heading to B side for ME. Cannot get a handle on that.

I thought you meant a garage or parking lot somewhere at Disney indicated large crowds arriving at the parks today. I didn't realize you meant the airport.

I just looked at easywdw and since it's free I guess I can post it. They have a 6 for today, 4 for tomorrow, and 3 for the rest of the days in August. 6/6/5 for next weekend. The days around July 4 were 9's and 10's. Park crowds can be people staying onsite, offsite and locals. I don't think this week will draw the locals, I think southern kids are back at school. Onsite will be more because of free dining. Not sure about offsite, more will probably be onsite due to free dining.

 

[gmeh1]

I thought you meant a garage or parking lot somewhere at Disney indicated large crowds arriving at the parks today. I didn't realize you meant the airport.

I just looked at easywdw and since it's free I guess I can post it. They have a 6 for today, 4 for tomorrow, and 3 for the rest of the days in August. 6/6/5 for next weekend. The days around July 4 were 9's and 10's. Park crowds can be people staying onsite, offsite and locals. I don't think this week will draw the locals, I think southern kids are back at school. Onsite will be more because of free dining. Not sure about offsite, more will probably be onsite due to free dining.

That looks like a great site. Yes are little darlings here in Fl have been back in school since Monday last. You can bet this local won't be at the parks next weekend. I rarely go in the summer, too crowded and too hot. The airport has been very busy, but, that is not to say everyone is going to Disney. They might be going to Universal or Sea World or other places. But, of course, you knew that.
I has been a very long hot summer and very very busy. Nice to see the economy improving. Have a great day!!!

 

[wrighter]

OP here.

We'd read that the last week of August generally produced smaller crowds because so many schools were back in session. In no way did we think it would be SLOW slow - but boy were we surprised at the ME line yesterday! For the record, we waited in line for 30 minutes/3 buses. We had expected it to be much longer actually, based on the length of the line.

Stated at SAB all day yesterday, and it was very crowded there, too. Hitting up MK today so we'll see what crowds look like there. We figure it will ease up after the weekend - and of course we're hoping that Isaac scares some people away.

 

[delilah]

Alot of schools are already in session. Not a great time for a family vacation. People in the DME line would not be locals. Looking at touring plans for the next week, no day is higher than 5. One day is actually 1. I would not expect big crowds.

This is so true. In our area, the public schools started on August 8, the parochial schools started on or around Aug 15, and I checked, and the schools in every place that I have ever lived started in early to mid August, which includes Chicago, IL, Columbus, Ohio, Gainesville, Florida, Indianapolis, IN, and Ft. Myer, FL . I think they changed the school starting time to August about 30 years ago, or so. When I taught school in the early 80's, they said it was to finish the term before Christmas break. Another reason supposedly had to do with air conditioning or something (which didn't make any sense, since none of the northern schools were air conditioned at the time. Let me tell you, you haven't lived until you've taught the summer chemistry course with 30 bunsen burners in a non airconditioned space; the freshman chemistry labs at the university weren't airconditioned, either, but, at least they had sky lights and 30 ft ceilings).

 

[carrie6466]

This is so true. In our area, the public schools started on August 8, the parochial schools started on or around Aug 15, and I checked, and the schools in every place that I have ever lived started in early to mid August, which includes Chicago, IL, Columbus, Ohio, Gainesville, Florida, Indianapolis, IN, and Ft. Myer, FL . I think they changed the school starting time to August about 30 years ago, or so. When I taught school in the early 80's, they said it was to finish the term before Christmas break. Another reason supposedly had to do with air conditioning or something (which didn't make any sense, since none of the northern schools were air conditioned at the time. Let me tell you, you haven't lived until you've taught the summer chemistry course with 30 bunsen burners in a non airconditioned space; the freshman chemistry labs at the university weren't airconditioned, either, but, at least they had sky lights and 30 ft ceilings).

I'm in NY and we don't start school until Sept. 6th this year. We will end on June 24th. We have no air conditioning in our schools, although we do have summer school

 

[Tara]

Crowds are fairly light. This IS a slower time of the year - the slowest time during the summer for sure. I don't think you can really correlate ME lines with park crowds because locals can have such a big influence on them. I've been here since Friday. The MK crowds Friday afternoon were a little thick, but nothing like late June.

I'm at BCV right now - SAB was pretty crowded on the 25th too - but it was very hot, so that's understandable.

 

[scrapper2k]

I can't tell you about this week but I was at the MK on Thursday and it was packed. The crowd exiting after Wishes was huge. I don't start school until Sept 6, btw.