Crowds are crazy !!!

[anomamatt]

We are here this week (sat to sat) and while it's been crowded, when isn't it crowded here? Wait times every day have been totally reasonable.

The only issue we had was transportation the morning of the half marathon. Took us just under 2 hours to get from contemporary to DHS. That sucked. But all else has been just fine...

 

[laracroft]

like an A-

For instance:
Low -
Low
Low +
Moderate -
Moderate
Moderate +
High -
High
High +

Ahh, thank you, now I understand...

 

[Kristine316]

I would rather be in a busy theme park than sitting at my desk.

But I get it. It's a drag when you think you timed something perfectly to be disappointed it's not as planned.

This is so true but, on the other you aren't paying anyone thousands of dollars to sit at your desk.. you are getting paid to sit there.

I get the "I would rather be at Disney than working" comments but, when a family pays big bucks for a WDW vacation you can sort of understand the frustration when things are packed.. the value for the buck isn't as good.

 

[SaintsManiac]

This is so true but, on the other you aren't paying anyone thousands of dollars to sit at your desk.. you are getting paid to sit there.

I get the "I would rather be at Disney than working" comments but, when a family pays big bucks for a WDW vacation you can sort of understand the frustration when things are packed.. the value for the buck isn't as good.

Oddly enough we pay MORE for the most crowded times. Oh the irony!

 

[wilkeliza]

Based on the wait times right now it seems like a 6 or 7. Busy buy manageable. 7DMT only has a 60 minute wait and Everest a 20. I guess when you've seen 3 hour waits an hour wait doesn't sound as bad.

 

[mickeyluv'r]

I totally forgot about Mardi Gras too. It's one of those things you don't think about if you are not in the area.

ER, the area? Mardi Gras is the day before Ash Wednesday. It isn't a place. It's a splurge before the start of Lent.
Among the biggest celebrations worldwide: Rio; Cologne, Germany; Venice; Quebec City, Canada; and even Goa, India! Multiple cultures around the world celebrate more simply with a special donut, pancake or split pea soup. You can get donuts pretty much everywhere.

Where WDW is concerned, threads like this one pop up every year on Mardi Gras week.

I suspect crowd prediction sites overlook it ever year because the date varies year to year. The prediction sites use a flawed formula, which probably also explains why their Easter numbers are often low.

Crowds are also relative to cost. Many families are happy to make a trade off between cost/crowds, and how much school their kids will miss.

A February trip can easily cost $1,000's less than an Easter week trip. Folks on the DIS love to talk about search up low-crowd weeks, but that isn't good for WDW, the airlines, car rental companies, etc. All of these businesses prefer even crowds. Nowadays, all of the above are using better and better pricing algorithms to better accomplish that goal.

 

[Chaoticsweetness]

I just got back from a 4 day trip.

Crowds are manageable, not to bad. FP+ comes in handy for the popular attractions.

My sister & I didn't have to bad experience with crowds, since we started out really early, took a midday break and then stayed until an hour after park closing (AK & Epcot).

Most people seemed to be in town for Mardi Gras and the marathon.

 

[tlmadden73]

I would hate to pay for a crowd calendar if they are not accurate.

After coming onto this site I cannot believe that people actually DO pay for crowd calendars.

That's like paying someone to predict what the weather will be like on your vacation .. and there seems to be enough free calendars out there to at least give you an idea.

You are going at that time for a certain reason .. odds are there are TONS of other people with the same idea (It's Mardi Gras, it's Spring Break, It's a holiday, it's summer, there is an event you want to go to, it's traditionally a low crowd time).

I'm going at the end of this month .. I have no doubts it will be crowded as it is "spring break" time for many (but thankfully several weeks before Easter still), but that is when my group can go (because the other families' kids have off that week (Year Round School).

 

[bryanb]

I'll agree that there aren't "slow times" anymore, not in the sense of the old days when the parks seemed ghostly empty. That said, I was really surprised last June when I went, at how tolerable everything was. Also, early December was really great. Only a few rides had significant lines, and even those were tolerable before lunch and in the evenings.

But IS attendance still down, or was that last year?

I can't bear to read the news right now, but given how difficult I'm finding it to book a cruise for the next few months, and all the threads like this one, it sounds like people are still traveling a lot. I know I believed after last year's terrorism, mass shootings, Zika virus, etc. that travel would be down this year. Good thing I don't work in any financial or betting sector. >.>

I think attendance was only down by 5% last year, which is significant. A lot of it was probably a weaker period early summer. Not sure if -5% will be remarkably less crowded overall though for most days.

Thats the thing, they have no way of being accurate. They just base it off of historical data. Nobody can predict the future, they just give the best guess based on prior numbers. Many things can happen to cause an uptick, or lower attendance. One day last year there were huge crowds at MK and nobody knew why, none of the calendars predicted a busy day at MK. Turns out quite a few states had a few days off for the Jewish holidays. What did everyone in those states do? They went to Disney. The calendars did not take this into account. One of the states that had days off was FL, so tons of locals went. the folks predicting had no way of knowing this would happen since they can't look at every school calendar in the country to see who has what days off.

So often people get mad when the calendars are off. I have seen so many posts saying, "We were in MK today and it was supposed to be a 6 and it was definitely an 8!!!!" I always say just plan for huge crowds and be happy for anything less!

Totally agree! Disney has a world-class forecasting and planning team that produces the best crowd calendars. Obviously, they need to be as accurate as possible -- down to the smallest detail of attendance. Their numbers help restaurants and shops plan for how much food and merchandise to order. Their forecasts help decide how many people to staff on a given day, and how early and late the shifts should be. And answer long term questions like how many cast members need to be hired in the months ahead to fill all the shifts in the summer, fall, winter, and spring. They plan the whole year in meticulous detail, and keep updating their forecasts whenever any new information comes in. They do beautiful work, much better than any website.

But even they are wrong quite often. Even with an experienced group of smart people, it's not that easy.

 

[anniemae]

ER, the area? Mardi Gras is the day before Ash Wednesday. It isn't a place. It's a splurge before the start of Lent.
Among the biggest celebrations worldwide: Rio; Cologne, Germany; Venice; Quebec City, Canada; and even Goa, India! Multiple cultures around the world celebrate more simply with a special donut, pancake or split pea soup. You can get donuts pretty much everywhere.

Where WDW is concerned, threads like this one pop up every year on Mardi Gras week.

I suspect crowd prediction sites overlook it ever year because the date varies year to year. The prediction sites use a flawed formula, which probably also explains why their Easter numbers are often low.

Crowds are also relative to cost. Many families are happy to make a trade off between cost/crowds, and how much school their kids will miss.

A February trip can easily cost $1,000's less than an Easter week trip. Folks on the DIS love to talk about search up low-crowd weeks, but that isn't good for WDW, the airlines, car rental companies, etc. All of these businesses prefer even crowds. Nowadays, all of the above are using better and better pricing algorithms to better accomplish that goal.

ER, I'm not Catholic. I have no idea when Ash Wednesday or Lent is. The only way I find out is tons of people on FB talking about eating fish and giving up chocolate. Not everyone is Catholic or knows the history of Mardi Gras as it relates to Catholicism. I am aware that Mardi Gras is not a place, but it is famously celebrated in New Orleans, so if you are from "the area" then you would know when it was coming up because school and business close down. Where I live? Business as usual, everything open. Had no idea it was Mardi Gras until I saw the post on DIS.

 

[mn51]

It seems there is no low crowd times anymore besides maybe a week or two in January/early Feb. and at end of August/early Sept.

I mean .. it is a self-fulfilling prophecy. Sites like this and places with "crowd calendars" advertise what the "slow" times were ... so guess what? A lot of people started going during those times.
Between that and good discounts and events during these slow times, Disney just has steady attendance. Just know you can't do it all and plan accordingly to deal with the crowds by going early and staying late .. or just having a long vacation with multiple days in some of the more crowded parks.

We were there from Feb. 5th - 14th and it was crowded. Caught us by surprise. Been around that time before and it was like Labor Day week. We were surprised.

 

[mousehockey37]

Unfortunately therere still days in September where schools will have off. Maybe not multiple days in a row (of course there could still be somewhere in the nation).

For example the school district where I live had September 5th,2016 off for Labor Day and September 30th,2016 off for Professional Day (teacher meet but students are out).

So while I won't speculate that many families in my area would flock at those times it would create an extra day for a quick trip down there should the urge be there.

A lot of parents are more inclined to pull their kids out right at the start of the school year because you're not exactly missing too much in the first couple weeks and things are relatively easy to catch up with.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

A lot of parents are more inclined to pull their kids out right at the start of the school year because you're not exactly missing too much in the first couple weeks and things are relatively easy to catch up with.

That's very true though I would imagine it depends on what age they are and the rules of that given grade level. Actually the one and only time my husband went to WDW as a kid with his family his mom took him and his sister (his other sister wasn't in school yet) out of school the very first few days of school though it was in August as schools around here typically start mid-August.

 

[mousehockey37]

That's very true though I would imagine it depends on what age they are and the rules of that given grade level. Actually the one and only time my husband went to WDW as a kid with his family his mom took him and his sister (his other sister wasn't in school yet) out of school the very first few days of school though it was in August as schools around here typically start mid-August.

Being a former teacher, I could tell you that once we got past state testing, teachers would use their days and students would go on vacations as from state testing to the end of the year was just review and field trips. It's a sad state of education now.

And being a parent, you can pull your kid out of school for whatever reason you want. When you book your vacation out 11 months or more ahead of time, how are you to know what the grade level rules are going to be? You don't. So you call in, tell the school your kid's gonna be out for a week or so and off you go, lol.

When we went at the end of January, I kinda looked around and was like... why aren't all these kids in school? lol. But you're gonna do what you're gonna do.

 

[elaine amj]

ER, the area? Mardi Gras is the day before Ash Wednesday. It isn't a place. It's a splurge before the start of Lent.
Among the biggest celebrations worldwide: Rio; Cologne, Germany; Venice; Quebec City, Canada; and even Goa, India! Multiple cultures around the world celebrate more simply with a special donut, pancake or split pea soup. You can get donuts pretty much everywhere.

Where WDW is concerned, threads like this one pop up every year on Mardi Gras week.

I suspect crowd prediction sites overlook it ever year because the date varies year to year. The prediction sites use a flawed formula, which probably also explains why their Easter numbers are often low.

Crowds are also relative to cost. Many families are happy to make a trade off between cost/crowds, and how much school their kids will miss.

A February trip can easily cost $1,000's less than an Easter week trip. Folks on the DIS love to talk about search up low-crowd weeks, but that isn't good for WDW, the airlines, car rental companies, etc. All of these businesses prefer even crowds. Nowadays, all of the above are using better and better pricing algorithms to better accomplish that goal.

ER, I'm not Catholic. I have no idea when Ash Wednesday or Lent is. The only way I find out is tons of people on FB talking about eating fish and giving up chocolate. Not everyone is Catholic or knows the history of Mardi Gras as it relates to Catholicism. I am aware that Mardi Gras is not a place, but it is famously celebrated in New Orleans and LA, so if you are from "the area" then you would know when it was coming up because school and business close down. Where I live? Business as usual, everything open. Had no idea it was Mardi Gras until I saw the post on DIS.

Exactly. I only vaguely knew Mardi Gras was happening even though I had a paczki on Paczki Day here (although I know they are related, I rarely correlate them in my mind as in our area, each is typically celebrated separately). Even though my kids go to a Catholic high school - Lent is not something they talk about as we are not Catholic.

More importantly, we don't get a holiday for Mardi Gras so it's not automatic for me to relate it to "higher crowds at WDW". I'm sure that's the same for many other folks.

 

[mousehockey37]

More importantly, we don't get a holiday for Mardi Gras so it's not automatic for me to relate it to "higher crowds at WDW". I'm sure that's the same for many other folks.

Mardi Gras isn't a holiday for most of the country, but it's on most, if not all, Disney crowd calendars. If you don't look at them, which people don't, you may not be aware then, but it's not a big secret that people from that area head for WDW to escape from the Mardi Gras stuff.

 

[Dug720]

ER, I'm not Catholic. I have no idea when Ash Wednesday or Lent is. The only way I find out is tons of people on FB talking about eating fish and giving up chocolate. Not everyone is Catholic or knows the history of Mardi Gras as it relates to Catholicism. I am aware that Mardi Gras is not a place, but it is famously celebrated in New Orleans and LA, so if you are from "the area" then you would know when it was coming up because school and business close down. Where I live? Business as usual, everything open. Had no idea it was Mardi Gras until I saw the post on DIS.

Exactly. I only vaguely knew Mardi Gras was happening even though I had a paczki on Paczki Day here (although I know they are related, I rarely correlate them in my mind as in our area, each is typically celebrated separately). Even though my kids go to a Catholic high school - Lent is not something they talk about as we are not Catholic.

More importantly, we don't get a holiday for Mardi Gras so it's not automatic for me to relate it to "higher crowds at WDW". I'm sure that's the same for many other folks.

FWIW, not ONLY Roman Catholics observe Lent. It is the term for the 40 days (minus Sundays) prior to Easter for the Christian calendar. I was raised United Methodist and am now Episcopalian and both denominations "do Lent".

 

[Ava]

My kids have 3 days off next Sept for fall break. I think it is like the 20-22? It ties into the Jewish Holidays.

NYC schools have off for Rosh Hashana & Yom Kippur, if they are during the week. We'll get 2 days for the former & 1 day for the latter. We're also closed for two Muslim holidays, one of which can occur in Sept. Which equates to a lot of partial school weeks in Sept/Oct, between the religious holidays and Columbus Day. A lot of families will choose those weeks to travel, because they can take a week-long vacation but their kids only miss 2-3 days of school. We went to Disney over Rosh Hashana in 2014 (last week of Sept that year) and the MNSSHP that Friday ended up selling out. We also don't go back until after Labor Day, which is why we are taking our Disney trip the last week of August this year.

 

[wilkeliza]

NYC schools have off for Rosh Hashana & Yom Kippur, if they are during the week. We'll get 2 days for the former & 1 day for the latter. We're also closed for two Muslim holidays, one of which can occur in Sept. Which equates to a lot of partial school weeks in Sept/Oct, between the religious holidays and Columbus Day. A lot of families will choose those weeks to travel, because they can take a week-long vacation but their kids only miss 2-3 days of school. We went to Disney over Rosh Hashana in 2014 (last week of Sept that year) and the MNSSHP that Friday ended up selling out. We also don't go back until after Labor Day, which is why we are taking our Disney trip the last week of August this year.

Rosh Hashana & Yom Kippur are also moving holidays and a lot of people don't pay attention to them unless they are in a district that give them off. It is back to September this year but was in October last year so September crowds this year were pretty manageable at least from our 7 day experience with little crowds.

(Total tanget but I've become all too familar with the complexities of the Jewish High Holy Days since we are Jewish and I wanted a late summer/early fall wedding haha. Couldn't find a single Rabbi to marry us in September this year)

 

[jrt1176]

No one likes dealing with large crowds, but it's still nice to be at Disney!

It's been a tad over a year since my last trip and I wouldn't mind being there for a few days!