Crowd level comparison

[frechley]

For anyone who has been there during the week this week, do you know how the feel compares to the times of year when the park is considered "empty"? I am thinking about the first week in December and early in the year after Christmas.

We have been hoping to go one of those weeks where crowd calendars predit a couple of days as a "2" or "ghost town", but am now curious if those days feel way more crowded than I would have thought.

 

[DisSurfer878]

"This" week is a little tough, because Memorial Day can be a little all over the place. So some years we are encroaching on MDW during "this week". Next week for sure. Just not a great time for good crowd measures because there's always a spike around this time and it's a bit sporadic for these next couple of weeks depending on the year.

 

[Skyegirl1999]

I am not there this week, but I have a friend who was another frequent AP guest who was there May 3 and then last Friday. She said that May 3 was “empty unlike anything we’ve ever seen,” and that last Friday was “more like a normal day, not exactly crowded but not just walking onto rides anymore.”

I have another friend there today, so I’ll ask him his impressions.

But also, I have to say that DL crowd calendars have always been awful. If you’d been here pre-pandemic talking about taking a trip based on crowd calendar predictions, I would have told you not to bother. Absolute rubbish that I feel often did more harm than good by setting up false expectations. If I had a dollar for every bewildered tourist I’d chatted with in line saying, “but the crowd calendar said....,” I’d be able to afford a few more days of parkhoppers.

But also... EVERYTHING about DL crowds has now changed forever.

 

[Mulan's Ma]

I was at DCA yesterday and while it wasn't empty, it didn't feel anywhere near crowded. Grizzly Rapids was running with many empty boats. Soarin' was a 27 minute wait from the moment we got in line to the moment we boarded the ride.

 

[Skyegirl1999]

I'm going to say one more thing about crowds/crowd calendars because I'm waiting to pick someone up and I'm bored. In my opinion, pre-pandemic, the holy grail of Disneyland days was a day when Disney expected crowds that did not completely materialize. Long hours, full staffing, everything open and running at full capacity... but not actually completely packed. THOSE days were the magic. It wasn't like the parks were empty to look at, they often had a lot of people in them, but you could often hit a ton of rides/shows/experiences, and things generally ran quite smoothly.

Those days were unpredictable by nature, and anything that showed up as a "low crowd" day on a prediction calendar would definitely NOT qualify as one of these days. The trade-off for "less people" was always less hours, less staffing, less offerings... and no actual guarantee of less people. (The past few pre-pandemic years as so many people looked at them, these calendars CREATED crowds.) The worst days were when the parks were in "low-crowd" mode, and then "slightly more crowds" showed up and created a lot of strain.

I think both of those extremes are gone because I think reservations are here to stay. I think that now, Disney will always know how many people to plan for. On the one hand, that will help prevent the "totally overwhelmed" days that would randomly happen in February or something, but on the other, the Summer of 2019 Glory is never coming back.

 

[Katiebird]

We were there last friday 5/14 and it felt like around a 4/10 day. Walkways etc were not crowded, tables were easy to find, no lines or crowds in bathrooms (that was always my indicator of how busy it really was, how crowded the bathrooms were), but the lines were not short (now crazy long either though), and the lines LOOK extremely long due to distancing.

By comparison the summer 2019 crowds right after GE opened felt similar, but with that summer had shorter lines (plus fp/mp) except for GE. The whole Adventure/frontier/NOS are felt less crowded in 2019 but I think that was because people were in stores, lines, etc and not visible.

 

[deejdigsdis]

I'm going to say one more thing about crowds/crowd calendars because I'm waiting to pick someone up and I'm bored. In my opinion, pre-pandemic, the holy grail of Disneyland days was a day when Disney expected crowds that did not completely materialize. Long hours, full staffing, everything open and running at full capacity... but not actually completely packed. THOSE days were the magic. It wasn't like the parks were empty to look at, they often had a lot of people in them, but you could often hit a ton of rides/shows/experiences, and things generally ran quite smoothly.

Yes! I remember taking my then-5-year-old son for a few days directly after Easter one year. Monday, the day after Easter, hours were 9am-12am. Clearly Disney planned for large crowds. That wasn't the case. We did 32 rides (including repeats) and had 2 extended breaks in the park. It was a dream day. No way would that kind of day happen had there been reservations in place, allowing them to plan according to a specific number of guests.

 

[dieumeye]

I'm going to say one more thing about crowds/crowd calendars because I'm waiting to pick someone up and I'm bored. In my opinion, pre-pandemic, the holy grail of Disneyland days was a day when Disney expected crowds that did not completely materialize. Long hours, full staffing, everything open and running at full capacity... but not actually completely packed. THOSE days were the magic. It wasn't like the parks were empty to look at, they often had a lot of people in them, but you could often hit a ton of rides/shows/experiences, and things generally ran quite smoothly.

Those days were unpredictable by nature, and anything that showed up as a "low crowd" day on a prediction calendar would definitely NOT qualify as one of these days. The trade-off for "less people" was always less hours, less staffing, less offerings... and no actual guarantee of less people. (The past few pre-pandemic years as so many people looked at them, these calendars CREATED crowds.) The worst days were when the parks were in "low-crowd" mode, and then "slightly more crowds" showed up and created a lot of strain.

I think both of those extremes are gone because I think reservations are here to stay. I think that now, Disney will always know how many people to plan for. On the one hand, that will help prevent the "totally overwhelmed" days that would randomly happen in February or something, but on the other, the Summer of 2019 Glory is never coming back.

THIS! If there’s ever a FAQ or something for this board. This should be at the top of the crowd section!

 

[Spokker]

I went on 5/18 and my impression of it was that it depended on where you were on the park. Because the queues for Pirates and Haunted Mansion spill out into New Orleans Square, that area of park felt very much like a busy summer day despite the 25% capacity. Fantasyland felt similar in that the dark ride lines seemed to snake in random directions, and the Carousel line wrapped around itself.

Over in Tomorrowland, Space Mountain can take advantage of the concourse area, Astro Blasters isn't open, and the Star Tours line did not seem to impose itself on the land. It felt like a light weekday.

 

[frechley]

I went on 5/18 and my impression of it was that it depended on where you were on the park. Because the queues for Pirates and Haunted Mansion spill out into New Orleans Square, that area of park felt very much like a busy summer day despite the 25% capacity. Fantasyland felt similar in that the dark ride lines seemed to snake in random directions, and the Carousel line wrapped around itself.

Over in Tomorrowland, Space Mountain can take advantage of the concourse area, Astro Blasters isn't open, and the Star Tours line did not seem to impose itself on the land. It felt like a light weekday.

Thank you very much! THIS is exactly what I had hoped to hear and is in line with my memories of summer trips from 15 years ago. Fantasy Land was just nuts, given the capacity was 25%. Tomorrowland, on the other hand, was empty like you said. (On that note, I wonder why they feel the need to ruin Star Tours. The original ride (and queue) was way better than what they have updated it to.) We also had some time in DCA where the park felt very, very quiet, but it got to be insane once we headed over to Cars Land.

Thanks again for the comparison. That helps a lot, as I was also there on 5/18.

 

[socaldad949]

I was there yesterday, 5/19, and it seemed to be longer lines everywhere. Indiana Jones went to queuing system during the day. Pirates was 60 minutes mid day. Lines were wrapping so long they would prevent people from queuing.

I believe Disney actually let more people in yesterday to 35 percent based on news reports. So all experiences prior to that may not be valid.

The problem is they still are limited on the rides like Pirates and will only out one party per car/boat which just makes all lines significantly longer, as the park has 40 percent more people.

 

[reluctantoranges]

We went on 5/16 and the lines seemed moderate, definitely not light.

 

[pindecisive]

I was there 5/20 and the crowds felt slightly higher than July 4th, 2019. The walkthrough for Adventureland was most definitely much better than any time I've visited in the last 15 years, but Fantasyland was exactly the same as any other visit. New Orleans square was busy, but Pooh corner was empty. DCA at 3pm was nuts. No seating, hard to find food to mobile order. But there was almost no line to get in around 2pm.

If DL was actually at 25 % capacity I would be shocked. It felt much more like 50%, likely because so many stores were closed and most people were on the ride or in line. I also personally really liked how they had the characters separate and up high. That way people could take pictures of themselves with them without needing to get into a line. I think it really helped with crowd control.

 

[JWelch62]

We were there on the 20th, too. Most lines were 30 minutes. The lines for Haunted Mansion, Pirates, and other big ticket rides were almost always 30-45 minutes. In DCA RSR was 100+ every time we looked. Guardians was a solid hour.

 

[pindecisive]

We were there on the 20th, too. Most lines were 30 minutes. The lines for Haunted Mansion, Pirates, and other big ticket rides were almost always 30-45 minutes. In DCA RSR was 100+ every time we looked. Guardians was a solid hour.

We did POTC first thing in the morning, like 9:30am and had about a 20 minute wait. And Haunted Mansion around 10:15am or so with a 5 minute wait. Totally agree on the DCA rides, we switched over around 2pm and didn't even bother with Carsland or Guardians - everything was swamped.

 

[JWelch62]

We did POTC first thing in the morning, like 9:30am and had about a 20 minute wait. And Haunted Mansion around 10:15am or so with a 5 minute wait. Totally agree on the DCA rides, we switched over around 2pm and didn't even bother with Carsland or Guardians - everything was swamped.

We were lucky to get early BGs for RoTR and IJ. So, we went over to Galaxy's Edge first thing (We cleared the gates around 9:15ish) and did Smuggler's Run. After that it was a mess.

 

[luckyharri77]

the last time I remember the parks being empty (like deep seated memory) was October 2007 Halloweentime. It was just…deserted. Going on Sunday/Monday so I’m kind of curious how it will compare!

 

[JWelch62]

the last time I remember the parks being empty (like deep seated memory) was October 2007 Halloweentime. It was just…deserted. Going on Sunday/Monday so I’m kind of curious how it will compare!

My wife took our daughter in October of 2001. Just one month after the attacks on the WTC and the Pentagon. People were very afraid of large public gatherings at the time. As a result DLR was absolutely empty. I don't think it will ever be that level of "empty" again.