Crowd Report...Just returned

[Chad&Janet]

We were at the world 10/29 to 11/7. Since I haven't been to WDW in over 15 years before this trip, I don't know if my opinion will mean very much. Everything got progressively more crowded as our vaction progressed; which I didn't expect! On our 1st Thursday, we went to Epcot, walked on Mission Space and about every other attraction at Epcot. We did use FP for Test Track. But that was the only one we needed to use FP for. We had arrived around 2 pm. It was a really great day. Next day(Friday), we went to MK. (in case you haven't noticed, I did adopt the advice of a fellow DIS member: went to each park the day AFTER it had EE) got there at opening. walked on every ride we wanted to do. used FP for Space Mountain and buzz lightyear only. rode Splash mountain, Peter Pan, HM, Pirates, Philharmagic, timekeeper, all with no wait and no FP! But around noon, the park really picked up. we got back to the Lodge for some food and a nap. We noticed that on Saturday, the AKL lobby was getting more and more busy. It seemed the influx of ppl continued throughout the rest of our stay. At AK, we walked in to ITTBAB, and dinosaur. Used FP for KS, gave us a return time of 45 mins from our scan time. To illustrate how things changed toward the end of our trip, our last day was spent @ Epcot. On the way in, a couple of girls with Brittish accents gave us their FP's for TT. Their scan time was 4:08, their return time was for 8:18-9:00! We visited Downtown Disney a couple of times after 7, and it was always a complete madhouse. I got the impression a lot of locals go there, so that might not have been a result of resort crowding. We did see the new Matrix movie on opening night to a sellout theatre at 9:30 pm.

We did return to MK again to do Winnie the Pooh, (Use FP, this ride is terrible for crowd control!), and Jungle Cruise, and to repeat our favorites: HM, PP, POTC, SM. We did all of our favorites without FP with all less than 5 minutes wait times. This was in spite of the park seemingly very crowded.

Overall, we had a great time. AKL was transporting and inspiring. Wishes and Illuminations were awesome. (I especially loved Illuminations) Wife loved Jiko. California Grill was excellent. I was also very impressed with our FTP keepsake. a very nice framed limited edition print...certificate said it was limited to 20 artist proofs. I really think the FTP is to blame for higher than average crowds for you regulars who usually go around this time. Since the dates were extended to Nov 12 for last day to book FTP (from oct. 31) I would expect for crowds to stay crowded up through the beginning of thanksgiving. week. MGM was the absolute worst of any park because its good rides seemed to be the most inefficient in handling crowds. Upon entering park at opening, ToT had a 20 min. standby wait. when we finally boarded with FP, the standby was @ 60 minutes. waited for Aerosmith coaster in standby for about 15 minutes. walked in to stunt show, used FP for millionaire and star tours. (part of the problem at ToT seemed to be the fact they were only using 2 out of what seemed to be 5 or 6 elevators)

One bad thing: our chevy avalanche truck got vandalized in epcot parking lot during illuminations. see separate post for recommended safety tips.

 

[jfulcer]

We experienced the same thing you did - our trip was Oct 28-Nov 6 and we started with almost no lines and it steadily increased.

The reason(IMHO)? The last few days of yours and our vacation were the influx of people for Super Soap Weekend at MGM and the beginning of New Jersey Week. Pretty much everyone we talked to the last few days were from NJ....

 

[heart4dis]

due to the weekend? More locals?

 

[Dan Murphy]

What is New Jersey Week? Do we have an Illinois Week?

 

[mom2of2]

"Jersey Week" is the first Thursday and Friday in November. We have a teacher convention. A lot of pple go then since they can get in a short trip or only pull the kids for 3 days out of school.

 

[DiznEeyore]

Jersey Week was a lot more than just Thursday & Friday. It started the first day of November (Saturday) and continued throughout our trip, which ended the first Wednesday of November.

We talked to one woman from NJ and she said they were down for two weeks and her kids were only missing 4 days of school.

 

[mom2of2]

lucky her! We only had off for 2 days, had we had more then I might have considered going down as well.

 

[Chad&Janet]

and in case anyone was wondering, the final matrix movie was *awesome*

 

[danny1649]

For sharing your experience,sounds like you had a good plan and a great time.

 

[Dan Murphy]

Thanks for the Jersey explanation.

 

[Keke]

We were there the same time frame (6th-9th) and we thought it was crowded. We didn't really have to wait a long time for any of the rides. We used FP for the major ones. But the crowds in the park were really bad. It really tires you out to have to navigate through the sea of people and dodge the strollers, etc.

We were at Magic Kingdom on Friday also. We arrived around 9:30 and crowds were pretty bad already. The stand-by wait for Peter Pan was an hour all day. It gets really congested in that area of the park b/c there isn't enough room. But we were able to walk onto Jungle Cruise, Haunted Mansion, and a few others. We weren't quite sure why Pan was so darn popular all day! Even with a fastpass it took us about 15 minutes to get on the ride!

 

[Chad&Janet]

No problem, Dan. Hope you weren't offended.

Keke,

my wife had never been on Pan before...and she LOVED it! she demanded we do it a second time the next time we went. It is a favorite of mine as well. The technology is old school, but there is some charm in the odd squeaks of the ships and stiff movements of the animatronics.

 

[kilee]

We were there 10/30-11/7 too--- I didn't encounter any crowds . Other than MNSSHP 10/31. That seemed packed for the first 2.5 hours. Then it got better after the fireworks. As for the other days, we walked on most everything-- or had up to a 15 minutes wait. We were there the 1st week in Feb this year (supposed low season) and found that to be more crowded than this past week.

Maybe we just picked the right parks on the right days-- who knows . Mission Space & TT 10 minute waits. Pooh 10 minutes-- Snow White-- walked right on. HM 5 min, Philharmagic was our longest wait at 15-20 minutes (well worth it though). Buzz walked right on!! SpMtn. walked right on-- granted this was during a rain storm (they offered to let us stay on since nobody was in line for it) We walked right into 2 character greeting rooms at the Judge's Tent w/o any wait. These were all on non EMH days. We did a lot of rides at MNSSHP-- but I didn't include those wait times. SInce that was a "special occasion".