Crowds at MK after a Spectro FW Night

[Tonyspad]

I will be in the MK on May 22, from what I have see on the Disney site that will be the day after an evening of FW and Spectromagic. I will be taking advantage of early entry and am wondering what to expect from the rest of the day.

 

[Tonyspad]

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[JungleMansion]

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[MelissathePooh]

Its really hard to predict. We were just there ay 4 - 12. There was a Spectro and FITS on Tuesday May 6 as well as Sat May 10. Assuming that Saturday would be a nightmare day at MK - as any other Saturday is, we went over on Tuesday. We walked in and almost fainted - I don't think you could even see a spot of uncovered ground for all the people. In all honesty its as crowded as I have EVER seen the MK regardless of the day! We walked in and pretty much walked out.

DR and I braved it back that night and were able to make it over to Frontierland - we were able to get a fairly decent spot for the parade - which was pure luck, and had a decent view of the fireworks with some trees in the way. We waited around for about 1 1/2 hours after before even attempting to head out. For whatever reason our bus line was cleared out, but there were still thousands of people trying to exit. We saw an ambulance in the gateway as well.

DR took some pictures of the crowd that are almost hard to believe! To make things worse - most of the fast pass attractions were available for fastpass. It was insane to say the least!

Now the Saturday was also an e-night so we knew we had to go over there and just planned on getting there during everything and swimming up stream when it was over. To our astonishment the crowd was maybe a third of what it had been on Tuesday. We were able to see the end of the parade (we got there at that time) and get a great spot for fireworks with no trouble at all. E-night was virtually empty! There may have been a 1000 people there I think.

I believe what happened was everyone was so afraid of Saturday that they ALL showed up on Tuesday. They were terrified of Saturday after what happened on Tuesday and stayed away. Normally it is a chaotic zoo on Saturday anyway let alone with a parade and fireworks. MK hours were extended an hour extra Saturday as well - I don't think anyone knew what was going on or how to have predicted the attendance. It was pretty strange.

Sorry to be so long, but it was an amazing sight to have seen!

Melissa

 

[DebbieB]

I was at MK today (Tuesday). We like Tuesday for our MK day because it usually is not crowded. Not the case today. It was very crowded, I assume because Spectro & FITS were tonight. I would pick another day for MK and just go for Spectro & FITS at night.

 

[miko]

Any early entry day is likely to draw larger crowds to that park. If you can, go to early entry and leave before noon for another park. Since Spectro and FITS are now not shown daily those nights they are scheduled will get very crowded.

 

[Disney Fool]

i must reply to this post. I was there Tuesday night (May 6th) for Spectro and it was pretty bad. And yet, when I spoke to a security guard, he informed me that it was not at capacity, and I've been there when Magic Kingdom had to close because it was too crowded. Frankly, I think the problem was low staffing of Disney employees. There was only one poor guy trying to keep order at the end of Main Street and the crowd was totally out of control. People were standing 5-deep on the sidewalks, so the walking space behind them was extremely narrow (single file only) and if one person decided to stop, the whole line of traffic ended. It was close, practically unbearable, and tempers were flaring. After the fireworks, we purposely waited 45 minutes to leave, thinking that the crowd would disperse, but when we reached the exit, the ramps to both monorails were packed right back to the turnstile, and the path to the ferry boats was incredible. We didn't get on a ferry until the fifth boarding. By then, I had nearly fainted due to being packed in like sardines, waiting to board. I really think Disney goofed on this one, because they definitely needed more people working to control the crowds and direct people. As I stated, I've been in the Magic Kingdom when it had to close because it was at top capacity, and the crowds were managed much better than this, and the park emptied far better and more orderly than this time. So, I don't think it was a problem with how many--but how the many were managed.