Crowd Levels Down?

[bdrex28]

These are great to know, I appreciate everyone's contribution!

I get how it can be hard for sites to do crowd calendars ahead of time, but to say "this is what we saw" and for it to be so far off is very interesting!

 

[WilsonFlyer]

Here now, since Friday, and so far, crowd levels are VERY high. Maybe the highest I've seen for the first week of December (I come every year at this time). Far higher than my Feb, June, or Sep trips this year. DHS on Friday was packed enough that entering the park at 3pm there were lines at the scanners about 40 people deep at every spot. Wait times for standbys were mostly 45 min to over an hour. All quick serve spots were packed. AK on Saturday was absolutely mobbed - only Kali had 5 minute standby line, I think because people didn't want to get wet on a somewhat cool day. The safari ride standby exceeded an hour pretty much the whole day - it dropped once to 50 min, but the line was extended out past the main entrance tunnel, so I suspect it was still over an hour based on past experience. Even just getting on Nomad lounge's walk-up list was 65 min. I only wanted drinks so I hovered around the bar and scored a seat after 10 minutes. It's one of the rare times I went to AK and didn't go on any ride - took the train to Conservation, did the two wildlife walks, walked around the various lands and animals, then left around 5pm as I had dinner reservations at Disney Springs at 7.

Today, I'll be hitting Epcot - late start probably around noon...we'll see how the crowds are there. Tomorrow I'll do MK. But so far, I'd say there are the highest crowd levels for the first two weeks of December in at least 7 years.

We got here yesterday and I concur. We're at BLT. We walked over to MK about 6:00 and even the line at the turnstiles was 15+ minutes, and the crowd was insane last night. Like you, we come this week almost every year. If last night was indicative of the week to come, it's going to be a long week. We have MLM at AK tomorrow night. hopefully, that will be good and less crowded. It's going to be cold (for FL standards) so we have that going for us.

 

[PolyRob]

Here now, since Friday, and so far, crowd levels are VERY high. Maybe the highest I've seen for the first week of December (I come every year at this time). Far higher than my Feb, June, or Sep trips this year. DHS on Friday was packed enough that entering the park at 3pm there were lines at the scanners about 40 people deep at every spot. Wait times for standbys were mostly 45 min to over an hour. All quick serve spots were packed.

I've been here since December 3.

Thursday 12/4 was the least crowded I've ever seen MK. The only rides with more than a 10-15 minute standby wait were Jingle Cruise and 7DMT.

MK on Tuesday and Thursday were light crowds. We did a lightening lane multi-pass on Thursday and got through Pirates, HM, Peter Pan, Winnie the Pooh, Ariel, and Jingle Cruise in 4 hours. Like the previous Thursday, both Tuesday and Thursday had mostly short standby lines at MK, with the exception of 7DMT, HM, and Jingle Cruise, which were about an hour on Thursday.

DHS on Wednesday wasn't crowded at all (IJ stunt show they only used the middle set of bleachers, and ToT was a standby walk on!).

It's important to note how paid ticketed events affect day crowds.

DHS has Jollywood Nights on Wed and Sat, and MK has MVMCP on Sun, Tues, Thurs, and Fri. Daytime crowds are usually lighter on those days since non-hoppers tend to avoid the parks. On the other hand, days with full park hours usually feel more crowded.

 

[Judique]

I was there from Dec 3 to Dec 10 and I was in MK, AK and Epcot with one excursion only to DHS on a party night just to do Fantasmic. That did not work out as the sky opened after being seated and myself and 5000 or so (number not accurate) of my friends bailed after getting drenched to the bone. Walked back to Boardwalk almost beating the boat I would not have gotten a ride on because of so many people leaving.

Went to a park every day but only noted crowds at AK when I looked at doing Safari around 10am and the wait was over an hour so I did food and the Tiger walk and left. Made sure to get there earlier a couple days later and got on in 20 minutes.

Did Jingle Cruise twice in a row one day at opening with the first being a walk on and the second 35 minutes. I was hoping for a different skipper just for variety and got the same guy. Whatever day this was, Haunted Mansion was down when I went to ride so I did something else, had a lunch at CHH and then checked again and still down so crossed the park via Toontown to see what else I could find. Ended my time there by riding the WDW Railroad for nostalgia's sake as I'd done it with my little kids on my first visit in 1988.

No planning whatsoever. No paid rides for me. I'm not stressed to do anything. Can't say I was bothered by any crowds. In fact, I thought most were fairly medium with some being lighter than last year. This was my third 'week' trip on my Incredipass with one more week coming, end of January. (October week was not 7 full nights but previous trip in Feb 2025 was a total of 17 nights so evens out.)

Made no reservations except the DVC Hoop DD, which I attended with some friends. Enjoyed it and my ornament is on my tree. Walked into a couple of restaurants for food when I felt hungry. Did take out at Il Mulino. Won't get the breakfast sandwich at BCV Marketplace again - mediocre with those dried up potatoes. Had some Upper Crust pizza one day.

Overall a good trip but I go fairly often 2 or 3 or 4 times a year if I feel like it. Crowds were not bad.

 

[J-Dog]

Agree, we were there the week before Thanksgiving and TP was calling 4’s 3’s 2’s even a couple of 1’s midweek to the end of the week and there is no way they hit the mark Not even close. So disappointed in their ‘lines’ app as well that we are probably not going to renew this year Admittedly did not use LL save for a single individual LL but based on TP we didn’t feel we would need it. Even the MM even at AK was way more crowded than other events we have attended in the past. Long lines at Pandora and food locations throughout the event

I haven't subscribed to Lines since right after Covid, because I found the accuracy to be significantly worse than before Covid. Not sure if it's gotten better or not, but there are multiple free crowd prediction websites that are free - at least if they're wrong, I didn't waste any money on them.

 

[Joroc0801]

I've been here since December 3.

Thursday 12/4 was the least crowded I've ever seen MK. The only rides with more than a 10-15 minute standby wait were Jingle Cruise and 7DMT.

Friday 12/5 at Epcot was similarly uncrowded until about 5pm and then it was the worst crowding I've ever seen, worse than weekends during Food and Wine.

During the week starting 12/8, we hit all the parks.

MK on Tuesday and Thursday were light crowds. We did a lightening lane multi-pass on Thursday and got through Pirates, HM, Peter Pan, Winnie the Pooh, Ariel, and Jingle Cruise in 4 hours. Like the previous Thursday, both Tuesday and Thursday had mostly short standby lines at MK, with the exception of 7DMT, HM, and Jingle Cruise, which were about an hour on Thursday.

Epcot on Monday wasn't crowded until 5pm, but Friday was packed solid all day (GoG was a 110 minute standby wait!).

DHS on Wednesday wasn't crowded at all (IJ stunt show they only used the middle set of bleachers, and ToT was a standby walk on!).

Saturday at AK was more crowded than I ever remember, and am very glad we bought the LL for FoP and the LL multi-pass for the other rides we wanted to go on. We left at 5, and it was a burden to get through the huge crowd to get to the exit!

Friday 12/5 was the last day of our trip and Epcot has become my 4 year old favorite park so we figured that's where we'd do our last rides. After fighting to get from the gate to Grand Fiesta tour and striking out on finding a churro(another request of my daughter's) at several stands, my wife nearly walked back to the bus. Luckily we had a lightning lane for Soarin and Living with the Land for the end of the night. LWTL was a 90min standby. That was the worst crowding I've ever seen at a park and it didn't seem the concessions were prepared.

 

[zackiedawg]

I just got home today, and to follow up on my last post, Sunday at Epcot and Monday at MK were both very crowded - in line with Fri and Sat crowds at DHS and AK. Even not just on the ride lines, but walking around - there are just oodles of people milling around, all the food lines were packed at quick serves and drink stands. Definitely the most crowded the parks have felt in the last 6 years, at any month. It's not as big a deal to me since I go so often, I don't mind if I need to skip a ride because the lines are too long - I'll just hit them next time. I'll be there again early Feb, so I hope it's quieter as it usually is.

BTW - I also saw the longest lines to get into Candlelight ever - beating Sinise, Patrick Harris, and other popular narrators. Huge lines on the standby side that reached all the way to Norway, and on the dining package side, reaching Italy. It was for Henry Winkler. As I walked around later, the people were completely blocking the World Showcase walkway trying to watch him from outside the stadium.

 

[CraigInPA]

Friday 12/5 was the last day of our trip and Epcot has become my 4 year old favorite park so we figured that's where we'd do our last rides. After fighting to get from the gate to Grand Fiesta tour and striking out on finding a churro(another request of my daughter's) at several stands, my wife nearly walked back to the bus. Luckily we had a lightning lane for Soarin and Living with the Land for the end of the night. LWTL was a 90min standby. That was the worst crowding I've ever seen at a park and it didn't seem the concessions were prepared.

We bailed on LWTL all five times we got to Epcot during our two week trip. The shortest standby line was 40 minutes, and I saw the 90 minute standby show up also. We couldn't chose it as one of our lightning lane multi pass choices because we bought LLmp during our vacation and all the spaces were gone by then! For a ride that is normally almost a walk-on when we usually go in February, I can only ascribe this sudden popularity on the fact that Disney advertised it with a Christmas makeover.

 

[Joroc0801]

We bailed on LWTL all five times we got to Epcot during our two week trip. The shortest standby line was 40 minutes, and I saw the 90 minute standby show up also. We couldn't chose it as one of our lightning lane multi pass choices because we bought LLmp during our vacation and all the spaces were gone by then! For a ride that is normally almost a walk-on when we usually go in February, I can only ascribe this sudden popularity on the fact that Disney advertised it with a Christmas makeover.

I promise you that the Christmas lights around your neighborhood at home will more than suffice for the amount of decorations in LWTL. I would have been really mad if we insisted on waiting in the standby line for what it was.