Crowd Question

[chapie1968]

As if there aren't 1,000 crowd questions...LOL

We are going the last week of August, which is historically a low crowd week. Looking at a Fast Pass availability page it seems there are Fast Passes available all week for every attraction, at every park, at every time, except for the two difficult to get FP's , Frozen and 7 Dwarfs.

I guess this is a good indication that crowds should be pretty light, correct?

 

[annemce118]

That sounds Like a good indication to me! Most kids should be back in school that week!

 

[mikedoyleblogger]

Yep. (TP concurs as well.) We're going 8/25-8/30 and we got every single FP we wanted in all four parks except 7DMT. ADRs are surprisingly open as well (though we're doing a last-minute counter-service trip, aside from the almightly Beaches and Cream.)

 

[DrivenByDisney]

We were at the parks the last few days and the crowds seemed pretty light to be honest. Yesterday at Studios we were able to single ride RnR in less than 15 minutes which is pretty good.

We walked right in and set down at the bar at the Tune In Lounge and at one point, it was just my wife and I and two other people in the entire section of the restaurant right up until the Star Wars fire works.

As others have already stated, most kids are back in school by then so I would think the crowds should be "light" during your visit. Enjoy your trip!

 

[TavieP]

I'm going 8/26-8/30 and this is music to my ears!

 

[tlmadden73]

I went pretty much those exact dates a year ago and I felt crowds were pretty light (lighter than I've experienced in October) (despite Labor Day being much later last year).

Fast Pass availability is probably a good indication.

There were many rides I didn't need the Fast Passes I got because lines were generally short and getting a 4th (or more) Fast pass wasn't an issue.
At MK . I felt the area around the carousel wasn't jam packed shoulder to shoulder .. strollers weren't everywhere. Probably the longest line we waited in was Tomorrowland Speedway.

At DHS the only FP we really needed was TSMM, the other two were "wasted" as the rides were walk-ons .. Our 11:45 AM Fast Pass to Star Tours was not needed as standby was 10 minutes.
I was able to get a RnR Fast Pass at 7:30PM (and I made the fast pass at 7:25!)

Our main issue was the weather and just moving slowly as a large group (with three preschoolers).

Really, your main challenge with end of August, is the weather. Hot, humid in the mornings and afternoons and near 100% chance of thunderstorms every afternoon or evening.
It literally rained (thunderstormed) every day of our trip (but only for 1-2 hours). We dealt with it and it didn't ruin our vacation (sometimes made it exciting!).

 

[Jadyreen1282]

It's never horrible when we go late Aug early Sept. It's why we bounce back yearly

 

[CrabbyPatty]

Glad to hear this! We'll be at WDW August 22-26th and in looking at the Disney wait time app, I've been surprised how short some of the lines have been this past week for rides.

 

[Accident]

fastpass has become easier to get adn they've fine tuned it to be fair. dont' read into fastpass availability as a sign of crowd size or your going to be hugely disappointed when you get there and it's crowded. I commonly find anything I want the same day I need them.

 

[CAS239]

I really wouldn't compare fast pass availability to crowd lightness. Usually every (aside from the really hard to get ones) at every park has full FP selections still about 2 weeks out. It's not until a couple days out that the FP selection starts slimming down

 

[Klayfish]

I agree with the two posts above. I would not use FP+ availability as a crowd gauge. We have been at WDW for the past two 4th of July holiday weekends...one of the busiest times of year. With the exception of FEA and 7DMT, we were able to get most rides on FP+. In fact, because we were AP holders who stayed off property, we were limited to 7 days worth of FP+ selections in a 30 day period. Our most recent trip was from June 17th through July 4th. That meant we could only book FP+ 30 days out for June 17th through the 23rd. We couldn't even book June 24th until after we used up our FP+ selections on June 17th...so 7 days in advance. While we didn't have a complete pick of the litter, we were very pleasantly surprised to find we could get all kinds of good stuff. RnR, TSMM, Splash, BTMRR, etc...