Crowd Report

[kimmar067]

...any updates??

[...I'm especialy interested in updates on SE...]

 

[Shelly D.]

We were there Dec 9-16th and found it moderately crowded (more than we expected). We went this same week in '99 and '03 and the crowds were extremely light then, so this was much different for us.

Monday the 10th, we had an early ADR at Crystal Palace and entered Fantasyland when the park opened. We walked on to the carousel first, but then waited 20 minutes for Dumbo. Ariel had a 30 minute wait after that, but everything else was 5 or so minutes. We were surprised to walk right on Peter Pan, Haunted Mansion, & Splash Mountain, but by the time we came around to Adventureland, the lines were much longer. We left right after lunch for Epcot because it was getting more congested. Character lines seemed long all week wherever we went.

We park hopped and used fast passes as much as possible the rest of the week and we were able to get everything done with minimal waits (several things twice), but the common areas felt crowded while walking around. Mornings were great, evenings felt a little stressful.

Overall, a great trip!

 

[Priorityonecb]

We were there December 14-16th. Our longest wait was 15 minutes for Spaceship earth! We wandered over one time during the day to see if it was by chance open...and it was!!

We were chosen to be the Epcot family of the day, so we got front of the line access to Test Track (twice!), Mission Space and Nemo. We also got two dream fast passes to any attraction, which we used to ride Soarin' twice with no wait.

Every other attraction was either a walk on, or less than 5 minute wait. The only exception was Malestrom for us, but we got a FP and then that became a 5 minute wait for us when we returned.

It was a good day! The weather was perfect! It poured while we were standing in line for Spaceship Earth, and then sprinkled (misted??) for about 5 minutes later in the day.

 

[lovemesomedisney]

We were there from Dec 9-16 and I found Animal Kingdom to be a bit busy but we won Dreamfastpasses so it was okay. Didn't even need them on Kali river. We used touring plans and found that we didn't have hardly any waits at Epcot or MK. But I knew AK would be more crowded b/c that is what the touring plans said. Pop Warner ended on the 9th and Mousefest on 10th. So that is why we planned parks on the 10th-13. We got on and off mission space and test track over and over. We also got on and off space mountain, haunted mansion,and buzz lightyear over and over. Go to rides during the parade is a big plus. Buzz light year had 1min wait time and space mtn 5min. A little busy at AK and MGM but overall we waited very little. Using fastpasses for Soarin helped b/c that ride loads so slow.

 

[dreambound]

We used Tour Guide Mike each day last week and walked onto absolutely everything all week. It was the deadest I had ever seen it and we usually go in January. I will always be using TGM now!!!

I second that! We followed TGM religiously except for yesterday because we wanted to go to MK on our last day. He was spot on about EVERYTHING. We walked on to so many rides. The crowds were great. Enough to be festive but not enough to be overly crowded. We ran into very, very pleasant people. Awesome week!
We were there the 7th to today, btw.

 

[kimmar067]

I second that! We followed TGM religiously....

....guess I gotta try out TGM, too....

 

[UrsulasShadow]

....guess I gotta try out TGM, too....

I followed UOG's best days. Worked very well, as I've posted earlier.

 

[dreambound]

I followed UOG's best days. Worked very well, as I've posted earlier.

We also used UOG along with TGM. They agreed for almost every day of our trip. The one time they didn't agree, I found TGM to be correct.

 

[mouselovenfamily]

We were there Dec 8-16 and found it to be crowded. We also went last October and it was worse this year. We were not expecting it to be so bad. Fastpass was gone by 2 or 3pm for the remainder of the day for some rides and sometimes waiting for 2 or 3 busses. Busier than what we were hoping. The word is out about Decmeber. I spoke with a CM who said he has be on overtime having him work 6 days a week for the last 6 mo with no end in sight.

 

[kimmar067]

I followed UOG's best days....

...what's this??

 

[jakenjess]

Unofficial Guide

 

[disneyfantotheend]

We were there from the 7th-16th. I thought the walkways in the parks were pretty crowded, but we never had to wait longer than 10 minutes for anything, except M:S once which was experiencing technical difficulties, so it was not due to crowds. We had a great time and the weather could not be better. I would not do the MVMCP again. We spent all the extra money and it was probably the most crowded time we spent in the parks for the whole 10 days. Rides were walkons, but we were more interested in the parades and such.

I would go again in early December but opt out of the party.

 

[kimmar067]

Unofficial Guide

....ohhh

 

[JustMickey]

Several rides were in fact "walk ons" and we found that most rides were posted with the wrong wait times. We also took note that between detailed queues and preshows... what felt like a walk-on was really a 15min line/walk/show wait.... gotta love Disney for that!

We also noticed this. We were there last week and noticed that most rides, especially ToT and Mission: Space, posted about 20-30 minute waits when actually it was walk-on. We felt bad for people using fastpasses on these rides since the fastpass and standby lines were exactly the same. At one point we got in line for ToT intending to use our fastpasses but once we saw there was no line we hopped over to the standby line...we repeated this about 4 times, during which they never reduced the posted wait time from 25 minutes!

 

[binwinbinwin]

We got back yesterday and the crowds were fine. No super long waits. Most rides yesterday at Magic Kingdom were moving quite smoothly in the morning with maybe a 10 - 20 minute wait, depending on the ride. Crowds increased by 12 Noon and Fastpass became necessary for the popular rides. Last night's MVMCP was sold out. From Dec 19 until the end of the year, the crowds will be huge for Christmas and New Years.

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

I just got back and I thought crowds were incrediby good (but I've been three other times in my life, and two were during spring break and one was a school band trip in the end of May so those were probably really busy times. Dec. 12 was our first day and we walked onto everything in MK. I agree with a previous poster, I think the listed wait times were deceptive, Space Mt. said 15 minutes and we walked right on. Our only crowded day was Epcot on Friday, which I think is understandable because it was a weekend and an extra magic hours night. We got fastpasses for Soarin three times and were on the ride within 10 minutes of our time coming up.

I loved this time of year, even though I have never been in early December before so I can't compare it to other times. All I know is what I experienced and I really don't mind waiting 10-20 minutes for bigger name attractions like Soarin (with a fast pass of course). Great decorations, great weather (cept for Monday), great experience.

 

[kimmar067]

I just got back and I thought crowds were incrediby good (but I've been three other times in my life, and two were during spring break and one was a school band trip in the end of May so those were probably really busy times. Dec. 12 was our first day and we walked onto everything in MK. I agree with a previous poster, I think the listed wait times were deceptive, Space Mt. said 15 minutes and we walked right on. Our only crowded day was Epcot on Friday, which I think is understandable because it was a weekend and an extra magic hours night. We got fastpasses for Soarin three times and were on the ride within 10 minutes of our time coming up.

I loved this time of year, even though I have never been in early December before so I can't compare it to other times. All I know is what I experienced and I really don't mind waiting 10-20 minutes for bigger name attractions like Soarin (with a fast pass of course). Great decorations, great weather (cept for Monday), great experience.

...thanks for the update....

 

[Bellybee]

We were there from 29th November to 14th December.

To us it seemed dead we could do rides like 3/4 times in a row and the longest queue we saw was Buzz at 15 mins at the MVMCP on the 4th December which was sold out and very crowded.

If we had known how busy the christmas party would be we might have skipped it.

The weather was wonderful not very festive though as we are from the UK where its meant to be cold at christmas.

One night we went to MGM EMH and walked through the osbourne lights (not busy) and rode Star Tours with a 5 min wait which was great.

Every single ride we went on had a five minute wait posted some had no waiting time.

Universal was the same (am I allowed to say that) and Seaworld (oops) was slightly crowded.

We used TGM to plan and went on green days to the parks suggested.

It was way better than early february.