Crowds on July 3rd & 4th?

[BLTtinkerbell]

I am wondering what the crowds were like this year as I am thinking of visiting WDW next July. Please share your experience with July 3rd & 4th at the World. What is it like at the parks? Resorts? Thanks

 

[hakepb]

Looking at wait times, this year appeared to be record low crowds (for the July 4 holiday)

And I thought my July 4th trip in 2012 was better than average, but 2013 was busier.

 

[tinkerhon]

Looking at wait times, this year appeared to be record low crowds (for the July 4 holiday)

And I thought my July 4th trip in 2012 was better than average, but 2013 was busier.

Definitely the lowest crowds we've seen in years for July 4th weekend ! Arrived on June 30th, and the parks have not been crowded at all !! Epcot was crowded later today due to the fireworks --- they were amazing !! And gotta love chip and dale in Patriotic attire !!

 

[supersnoop]

Maybe My expectations were unrealistic, but the crowds seemed extremely low. We've done NYE before, and compared to that, tonight wasn't crowded at all. Sure, Soarin, Test Track, and Frozen (when it was working) had somewhat long wait times, but we walked on to Nemo, Turtle Talk, Living with the Land, Figment, and even Mission Space (green). Literally no wait at all for those. We ran out of things to do by dinner time. I think the only thing we missed was Ellen.

 

[famy27]

My DH and I kept commenting that it was less crowded yesterday and today than it was for everything other than Labor Day. Even our one late September trip was busier. We walked right up to Belle in France today, and we were the only ones there. Yesterday at HS was great as well. There were no waits for Disney Junior characters. Only RNRC had a wait over 40 minutes for most of the day. MK was fairly crowded last night, but we still got on lots of rides with no waits.

Saturday was particularly great. It rained in the afternoon, and Epcot completely emptied out. Temperature dropped to high 70s, so rides were mostly walk on and it was so pleasant out.

We considered not going this weekend because of the horror stories about crowds, but it was terrific. We'd go back again for the 4th in a heartbeat

 

[Accident]

I was at MK on july 3rd and I expected to not be able to move or do anything.. It was very full, the highest crowd I've ever experienced but it was still enjoyable. I got in early afternoon as people were leaving. rides were long waits of 20+ minutes with more being around 30ish and everything had a line. the ride operators were the best they had and really efficient at keeping the lines moving so while it looked like 90 minute lines because people were out of the building, they were moving through twice the speed of normal if they ride could support that. at 5pm is when it really changed and the place really started to get packed.. still doable but now people were starting to claim there fireworks spots 4 hours early and the hub was pretty much shut down to new people coming in (and main street). the only way out of the park was to exit from the bypass near the plaza and if you were on the other side of hte hub, you had and were told to walk the long way around to tomorrow land and over to it.

without 30-40 minutes after the fireworks I would say half the crowd was gone and it was back to what 5pm looked like.. at 10 they ran an electric light parade and 11 a celebrate the magic.. then it really cleared out and looked like normal post fireworks large crowds.. rides like small world was back to 10 minutes at max.. most things were 15-20... now, this was also the time all the other parks were closing and with a 1am end or 3am for EMH I have no clue what it went back up too as I left near 12ish but took my time getting out.. not so many people coming in from the ferry but a lot coming from the buses..

If your expectations is your there for the fireworks and your doing nothing else, everything is a bonus and you'll have a great time.. it's going to be crowded... I can't speak for july 4th or the days leading up to the weekend (or the rest of this week coming up). I'm not going to be around the parks.

picture is behind the castle minutes before the fireworks went off... I'm about 20 feet from the carousel.

 

[Klayfish]

We were just there and drove home yesterday morning. It was our second 4th of July holiday weekend in a row there. It was busy on July 3rd for sure, but not as bad as it was in 2015.

 

[Skywise]

Here now. I don't have a comparison to other July 4 crowds but it's definitely less than NYE crowds and seemed less then last June when I was around for Star Wars Weekends (which coincided with gay days)

I was really surprised that Ohana had empty tables around 6pm even with no ADR availability. Not sure if that was just a throughput problem (not seating as fast as they could) or they're keep more "stand-by" seats around from the ADRs and they weren't getting filled.

 

[anniemae]

I was shocked to see the wait times on July 3rd. Soarin was 30, tt 30 etc.

 

[njmousefest]

We hopped from AK to MK on the 3rd. I was expecting a full parking lot and it was not. I was able to get a 7pm fp for rapunzel and then one right after for cinderella. fireworks were crowded but awesome. Absolutely no problem getting back to TTC after. I have been here since June 26th and would not hesitate to do this time of year again. Last week we did hop to epcot for dinner and fireworks and walked on to soaring, twice.

 

[xApril]

I was there last night and we were in MK from about 2pm until 12:45am. There was a lot of people walking around, but the wait times were around the typical summer crowds. We used our 3 FPs and then just continued making more. We made about 10 or 11 for the whole day and the only ride we ended up waiting for was Haunted Mansion, and it was a walk on at 12am. The firework crowd was nuts, we were on Main Street around 8pm and everyone was sitting down so there wasn't room for people to join. We ended up making the decision to watch in New Fantasyland, which was a good choice because then we could actually spread out and have room to breathe. I really didn't find the crowds to be all that bad. The CMs were doing a lot of crowd control to keep things efficiently moving.

 

[Regan117]

We were in the Magic Kingdom and Epcot on July 1, 2, 3 and 4 and the crowds were VERY low. None of the wait times were more than 90 minutes on the most popular attractions, and I didn't have any issues getting around through people. The only time it was very crowded was during fireworks on July 3 and 4, and then that cleared out quickly afterwards.

 

[AtlantaDisneyDreamer]

I was there July 4th for fireworks and after. Fireworks were packed- they closed Main Street and routed foot traffic back to the area that is usually closed behind the Main Street Shops. After the fireworks, there were lots of people walking around, but I met Ariel with a two minute wait and had a walk on or less than five minute wait at UTS, IASW, HM, POTC, and JC. I was expecting far worse crowds.

I think Disney was, too. They did a great job in handling the crowds. They chartered some Mears busses to help transport people. During the day of the 4th we had an entire Mears bus all to ourselves from HS to our resort. The driver said they had been chartered to help with crowds. Got another Mears bus back from MK to our resort July 4th night. No waiting, no standing. Very nice.

July 3rd was significantly less crowded at MK than both our February and April trips. Though it was also so much hotter. I suspect that many people have moved their trips to Spring, Winter, and Fall based on weather and crowd level predictions and possibly avoidance of tour groups.