Crowds Memorial Day weekend?

[Synonymous]

Anyone been at this time of year? What should we expect? How does it compare to Easter time?

Thanks

 

[2gether]

We went for Memorial Day weekend two years ago, but only visited the WDW parks for one of the three days. We went to Magic Kingdom on Monday and it was VERY crowded!

We spent the other two days doing smaller parks....we visited Discovery Cove for a swim with the Dolphins on Saturday and went to the Holy Land Experience on Sunday. There were far less people at both places (Discovery Cove is limited to 2000 people). We had a great time, and visited the Disney Parks the rest of the week with no severe people jams.

One idea: try one of the water parks. It will probably be very warm that time of year, and there seem to be more things to do without waiting in line.

Good luck!

 

[Synonymous]

Thanks, 2gether. Can you give me an idea what "very crowded" means to you? Everybody has different ideas of what is crowded. Did you get there at park opening? What was your experience with lines and fastpass?

 

[2gether]

I have this incredible picture right in front of It's A Small World...there are so many strollers parked there that there was literally a five minute wait to walk through to the carousel area!

We still had a good time, though....by judicious use of Fastpass (as you noted), we were able to get on most of the rides early in the day. One piece of advice, though...if you want to get on any of the family rides...a.k.a. Pooh, Snow White, Peter Pan...the time to get a Fastpass is RIGHT AWAY...we tried to see them in the early afternoon and the Fastpasses were gone for the day.

Not to say we didn't have a great time, though....After catching the really big rides we had a nice sitdown lunch and then explored Mickey's Hometown Square. After catching a few autographs, we rode the Tommorwland rides and then settled in for Spectromagic (which I'd never seen in 10 or more trips, as we usually went during the off-season).

All in all....long lines (the longest I've seen at MK) from 11-4 or so, but otherwise not too bad. Go early, take a break in the afternoon, and late!

 

[Synonymous]

Thanks for the detail, 2gether, now I know what to expect. Sounds not too different from our trip last year at Easter time, during which we had a great time by managing our time carefully.

I suspect the difference is that the other parks won't be as crowded as MK for Memorial Day weekend, while at Easter they're all pretty full.