Can these wait times be right?

[madge]

I'm looking on the Disney app to see what approximate wait times are right now for various rides (doing a little pre-planning for my November trip). I'm surprised to see the following and just wondering if this is accurate? If so - why so long for a mid-week in October? (I'm posting this Wed. 10/14 at 12:30 pm central time). Most of the outrageous times I'm seeing are in Magic Kingdom. Maybe this is an EMH day or something???

Haunted Mansion 80 minutes
Space Mountain 120 minutes
Splash Mountain 130 minutes
Journey of the Little Mermaid 60 minutes
Jungle cruise 85 minutes
Enchanted Tales with Belle 70 minutes
Meet Mickey 95 minutes

Tower of Terror 80 minutes
Toy Story Midway Mania 90 minutes

Ellen's Energy Adventure 80 minutes (okay this one's a joke)

it was busy last Wednesday at the MK, because it was one of few nights without a Halloween party.

and yes, it's PM EMH today. I got a twitter update that said Disney extended the closing time by an hour tonight ... so park close is now midnight. it's entirely possible those times are correct.

 

[Aurora0427]

Wednesdays during party season always seem more crowded. They usually have EMH and there's no party. We were there last year over two Wednesday's during party season and the crowds at MK were noticeably thicker.

 

[Meeko5]

Any guesses if midweek EMH during a week where there are 3-4 parties (like today) will be more crowded than Friday without EMH of that same week?

Trying to plan which night to see Wishes and MSEP week of 10/25, and (like everyone else) would like to go when it's not quite as insane...if that's even a possibility these days :/

 

[Colleen27]

Just saw this from Touring Plans... http://blog.touringplans.com/2015/10/13/disney-world-crowd-calendar-report-october-4-to-10-2015/

In their "what we saw" on the blog, they noted that MK hit a "10" twice last week. Welcome to the new normal - summer level crowds year round.

 

[SmallWorld71]

It's posts like these that make me second guess my planning! We are looking at late January 2017 when it *should* be low crowds. With four kids at that time ranging from 3-11, I don't want to spend an hour in line for It's a Small World. And the trip will cost us over $7,000 (). DH is all Disney all the way for our next big vacation, but for that money, and with the price changes and the crowds being heavier than normal, I'm really starting to think about other vacations we can take with that money. We loved our last trip in November 2011, during free dining, and waiting no more than 20 minutes for anything. We got lucky, and spoiled, I guess. But I just don't know...

If it makes you feel better, I was at WDW over the Christmas/ New Year's holidays last year when the wait times mid-day would have put those in the OP to shame. We were able to ride everything (including the headliners multiple times) without any long waits. Our wait for IASW was 5 min.
The biggest keys are to get to the parks for opening and know what rides build lines fastest and do those first. (I like Josh's cheat sheets over on easywdw.com. kennythepirate has some good touring plans as well; especially if you are interested in characters.)

The biggest way to avoid the long lines (and I am not being snarky) is to not get in them! With a few exceptions, lines will ebb and flow. Small World is notorious for this. People are notorious for getting in long lines; they figure if everyone else is in one, they should be too. If you see a line that is past your limit (mine is 20 min. for most things, 30 min. for a few special things) don't get in it and check back later.

 

[scrappingbuckeye]

I was there on the 4th a party day and it was quite pleasant actually.

 

[Colleen27]

It's posts like these that make me second guess my planning! We are looking at late January 2017 when it *should* be low crowds. With four kids at that time ranging from 3-11, I don't want to spend an hour in line for It's a Small World. And the trip will cost us over $7,000 (). DH is all Disney all the way for our next big vacation, but for that money, and with the price changes and the crowds being heavier than normal, I'm really starting to think about other vacations we can take with that money. We loved our last trip in November 2011, during free dining, and waiting no more than 20 minutes for anything. We got lucky, and spoiled, I guess. But I just don't know...

So far, January hasn't been like that. There are no parties to drive traffic to specific days, so as long as you avoid the marathon weekend the crowd predictions tend to be accurate.

It really is the parties that make things so nuts... Vacationers who only have a week at WDW don't want to go to the MK on a day when it closes at 7 with no evening entertainment, so the full days get crazy busy. But party days are much lighter crowd-wise because a lot of people with party tickets take it easy during the day in anticipation of the late night or choose not to use a regular park ticket that day. So until 4 when the party guests start arriving the wait times are on the low side of seasonal norms. Our MK plan for Dec is to do most of our riding on a party day, leaving around 4 to swim and have a resort dinner, and then go back on an evening EMH night just for the entertainment, the nighttime ambiance, and maybe a few lower-demand attractions that we aren't likely to have time for on the short day.

 

[staceyrhood]

Typical for Mid October anymore...very busy time with food and wine and fall breaks, and a holiday week.

 

[Adrieske]

I was there yesterday and it was crazy crowded. We got there for rope drop (which was originally scheduled for 9, but then changed to 8 within the last week.) Hours were extended at the last minute as well. We knew it would be crowded, but it was much more crowded than expected. They even had the back-back entrance open (the one with the loading docks and employee parking) when my husband got to the park just in time for Wishes. It took us about 20 minutes around 8 p.m. to get from Main Street to Frontier-land. We rode a lot before 10:30, and then spent the day doing the things we usually skip (Hall of Presidents, Philharmagic, People Mover, Magic Carpets, etc.) We stayed for the evening EMH and rode 7DMT, PP, SM, teacups, and the Speedway, in less than two hours. Going in with the attitude that we knew it would be crazy helped. We just planned to do some of the things we normally wouldn't slow down to do and let the kids play SMK, then used our FP as we could. It was a 19 hour day for us....AMAZING! It was nice to do some of the things we wouldn't normally do, and other than ADR's, we had very loose plans, so it worked and I was able to keep my three kids (10, 7, 4) there for 19 hours with no meltdowns. Definitely a win!

 

[jemlover]

We're headed down on Monday and we're going to be park hopping almost every day. We are doing MK on party days then hopping to another park for evening activities hoping to avoid the high crowd days at MK. I've used Easy WDW for best park days and it has always worked well. Definitely doing rope drop every day.

 

[starsweeper]

It's posts like these that make me second guess my planning! We are looking at late January 2017 when it *should* be low crowds. With four kids at that time ranging from 3-11, I don't want to spend an hour in line for It's a Small World. And the trip will cost us over $7,000 (). DH is all Disney all the way for our next big vacation, but for that money, and with the price changes and the crowds being heavier than normal, I'm really starting to think about other vacations we can take with that money. We loved our last trip in November 2011, during free dining, and waiting no more than 20 minutes for anything. We got lucky, and spoiled, I guess. But I just don't know...

I took 4 kids by myself during Easter week this year. If you're willing to get there early, you can get a lot accomplished. We noticed parks getting busy around 11:00am. We would arrive by 7:15am and have Fantasyland, Circus area, Tomorrowland done by then. This was strictly rides, maybe browsing a shop or two and a quick snack thrown in, then we have lunch around 11:30am-12:00pm. I'd make FP+ for Haunted Mansion, Jungle Cruise, and BTMRR for after lunch and we'd slow down and do things like the Monsters Laugh Floor, Liberty Bell, 3:00pm parade, etc.

 

[smellyia]

I was just there the last 2 weeks, spending more than 4 days at MK alone, and those times are indicative of midday waits on non-party days. The first 2 weeks of October are no longer "slow" times. They are the majority of southeast's fall breaks in addition to F&W and MNSSHP. Every flight from my area was sold out to Orlando a week before we were set to go. That being said, plan for busy fall breaks with the first 2 weeks of October mirroring spring break more so than Sept/Jan. We still got 98% of our touring done successfully each day by 1pm. Rope drop, stay ahead of the crowd, and realize previous walk-ons like PotC and THM are no longer due to FP+. Some minor adjusting in touring and most should be fine. Those going in slower times like Sept or Jan shouldn't use these times as a guide to their trips as crowds are totally different.

 

[lugnut33]

Here's an explanation about it, but many of you will not like the reason for the long waits:
http://www.easywdw.com/uncategorize...15-wait-times/comment-page-1/#comment-7841434

 

[ArwenMarie]

Here's an explanation about it, but many of you will not like the reason for the long waits:
http://www.easywdw.com/uncategorize...15-wait-times/comment-page-1/#comment-7841434

That is a really well-written article. So it really is FP+ that is driving up wait times?

 

[lugnut33]

I could be wrong, but I think the point is as soon as you do 3 FP+ rides you're put into the standby lines which are much longer due to FP+ utilization and attendance increases.
That said, I just talked to a friend who went to WDW a week ago and him, his wife, and 15 month old had a great time. They stayed off-site and rented a car. They can't wait to go back.

 

[vinotinto]

We were there oct 8 - 12 for my kids Fall Break. It was busy,hitting 8-10 s at multiple parks, but very early and very late we were able to ride things stand by.

I just don't think there are slow periods anymore at WDW. 9-10 is the new 7.

 

[Polydweller]

The website's also having lots of problems today; I'm sure if people in the parks are losing their FPs en masse that it can drive up wait times substantially.

Except I was there and that wasn't happening. It was very busy because it was a non-party night. Most other nights were party nights.

 

[mesaboy2]

Here's an explanation about it, but many of you will not like the reason for the long waits:
http://www.easywdw.com/uncategorize...15-wait-times/comment-page-1/#comment-7841434

Thirty minutes for SSE tonight as I was leaving at 8:30p--line wrapped around both sides. Virtually unheard of before FP+. No one's ever going to convince me that's not a big factor, Josh and his data seem to agree.

 

[Nata]

I am in Disney world right now. Let me tell you - it is incredibly crowded, much more so than our trip in August last year. With good planning we are able to accomplish everything without any wait, but the crowd level was very unexpected. This Wednesday we left Magic Kingdom after second electrical parade, and the wait for express monorail was over 45 minutes. We, of course, used resort monorail to get to TTC, that took us at least 20 min. I could really use a fastpass for that;(

 

[Dreamer & Wisher]

We just got back from our trip, we were at Beach Club from Oct. 9-13. The parks were really crowded, but we are experienced WDW visitors, we got there early, used FP+ and took an afternoon break. We went back to the parks at dinner time and were able to ride many rides.

We have taken 12 family trips plus numerous trips before our kids were born, and as kids. We were surprised by the crowds especially at EPCOT. I have never seen a 25 minute wait for the little boat ride in the Mexican Pavailion. We had a good time though.