Current Crowd Levels

[Dory92130]

We were there today until about 2:30 when we had to leave for the airport. It was a whole lot better today than yesterday. We didn’t want to leave today. We were having fun. Yesterday was miserable. We were there Wed-Sat. Wednesday and Saturday were the worst. We hated the park reservations, not having fast pass, and the virtual queques. If there had been fast pass it might not have been so miserable yesterday- we have been on a crowded day before and it felt nothing like yesterday. We really wanted to ride ROTR a 2nd time after finally getting it for the first time on Friday. I got it today but too late of a boarding group- called called 30 minutes after we had to leave. At least we got to ride it once because for a while it wasn’t looking like we would. The park reservations really stink because you can see the lines are shorter in the other park and can’t hop- can’t switch your park day to try for ROTR the next morning when you completely fail on a day - and for years we would start at DL and hop over to CA around 11:00 or 12:00 for lunch and we can’t do that which was a source of irritation and stress. Park reservations may work okay at WDW where hopping isn’t easy anyway and the parks are spread out- but we have always felt like DL/CA were more like one big park. . We had some fun moments this trip- but there was also a lot of stress and disappointment for the first time ever on a DL trip. I felt like from 6:50 am to 12:01- I was s ball of stress every day. I hated having to disappoint DD 4 out of 5 mornings telling her I failed to get a boarding group for either ride. We have gone to DL 11 of the last 12 years (no 2020) and this was the first time we have ever had a stress filled trip. I was taking to a CM who asked how our trip was when we were leaving and she said she is hearing the exact same thing from a lot of people.

Sorry you had so much stress. It's hard to address all the challenges we have at the parks currently with the staffing challenges that are in place and ability to do the parks pre-pandemic simply isn't there.

Reservations hamper and no hopping until 1PM putting crimp in prior year hopping style? yes. Imagine if those guardrails weren't there -- the wait times and crowding would be that much more stressful than we all currently witness.

No BGs? Remember those 3+ hour wait times for rides? With the coming of LL, those who are willing to pay a little more won't be 'losing out' of the BG lottery.

Will this get better when Disney is able to fully hire and train out its crew? Yes. It will take some time to get there.

 

[ktlm]

Reservations hamper and no hopping until 1PM putting crimp in prior year hopping style? yes. Imagine if those guardrails weren't there -- the wait times and crowding would be that much more stressful than we all currently witness.

Thanks--- but I don't agree as far as hopping based on our experience. I think the lack of hopping adds to the problem- it basically takes away a pressure release valve.

As crowded as the parks were, I can see why they might need a reservation system for your first scan in--- although they certainly are no longer at reduced capacity. We had some people tell us they were at the park between Christmas and New Years pre-covid and the crowd level Saturday was significantly worse. I'm not sure that the old system of just saying the park is at capacity is worse than telling parents of kids under 5 that they can't come in because they didn't understand the reservation system and didn't have reservations. More than one morning we saw sobbing toddlers leaving with parents trying to explain the park was "full" and they couldn't go. I will say that I can see how park reservations could help with staffing to give them an idea of how busy a day it might be at the parks.

BUT hopping is different--- it can release the pressure at one park and even the crowds out. For example----- say park reservations fill at CA, but not at DL. The lines get crazy crowded at CA, but people look at their app and see the lines are low at DL. Many with hoppers will hop to go where the lower lines are which relieves the pressure from the CA lines and food orders etc. We used to do that all the time.

Both parks had no reservations on Saturday-- but we were at DL Saturday and it was ridiculously crowded and we could see on the app that the lines were much shorter at CA. I looked at the wait times for both parks after hearing several people complaining about how much shorter the lines were at CA, but they couldn't hop. If we all could have just hopped over-- it could have relieved some of the congestion at DL. We had another morning where the lines were shorter at DL and we were at CA- it was very frustrating not to hop.

Plus-- now everyone hops right at 1:00 and the lines are huge to get into the other park-- and there is an immediate ride line surge which makes the lines awful for a couple of hours. If hopping wasn't restricted it would be more spread out, and you would have the sudden crowding.

I think the problem with restricting hopping is especially true now that annual passes are back with Magic Key---annual passholders often come and go at different times of the day. We have friends that live near WDW that often just pop over for dinner. They have to make a park reservation which would assume they will get there at opening at 9:00 a.m.--- even though they plan to just pop in after work at 6:00 p.m. to eat and go on a couple of rides and go back home. So-- even IF both parks have reservation capacity levels and are at those levels-- the crowd levels can be very different in the morning at either park. Disney has completely taken away the guests ability to even out the crowding in the morning.

We are used to freely hopping if we see one park has much shorter lines. It was very frustrating to look at the app-- see much shorter lines in the other park and be stuck in a huge crowd unable to hop. We are also used to often starting in DL and then hopping to CA around 11:30 or 12:00 for lunch --- my family was not happy that ability was gone. Waiting until 1:00 p.m. after a busy morning when they have been starving for an hour and a half --- when the lines to hop were crazy at 1:00 and then the hoppers are all flooding the gates and lines-- doesn't work.

 

[asumom]

We have interacted with some really great CMs. A few not so great - but mostly fantastic. We feel like park management no longer cares about us- but a large part of the CMs still do.

What I have discovered over the last 3 days is that I am saving a bunch of money this trip. Without fast pass and with the crowds as big, or bigger, as they are in July when we usually go, we have not really had much time to shop. We are spending much longer in line and trying to get all the attractions done we want to do. We usually buy a ton of stuff and we really haven’t bought much at all this trip because we’re don’t have time for the stores.

Found this out on our recent trip to WDW. Spent 7 days in the parks and didn't shop at all. Looked through the emporium quickly on the way out one day and the hotel gift shop. Pictures are our souvenirs this trip and, the silhouette of our granddaughter.

 

[ktlm]

Found this out on our recent trip to WDW. Spent 7 days in the parks and didn't shop at all. Looked through the emporium quickly on the way out one day and the hotel gift shop. Pictures are our souvenirs this trip and, the silhouette of our granddaughter.

We are lucky enough to be one of the few places that still has an open Disney outlet. I always bring my Mom back something from our DLR and WDW trips and today I had to run out to the outlet really quick to get her a Disneyland shirt as we didn't have time to shop on our 5 day trip. Technically the shirt is "from Disneyland"--- just not from when WE were at Disneyland.

 

[twodogs]

We are flying home today after being in the parks Thursday night until today. I agree with OP that not allowing park hopping at any point until 1pm is a real problem for the reasons she mentioned. I understand capacity limit, however, if they just said you need a reservation for the day but you can go to either park, hop when you want, that would cap the number of people total but would allow self-correction if one park is too crowded (as very nicely detailed in the post above).

I also think park reservations only help with staffing if Disney actually staffs according to the amount of people who have reserved. If they are allowing capacity at 80% and staffing at 50%, it is going to be a fail. We have never seen crowds and lines like we saw this weekend. We always only travel at school breaks, holidays, summer, so we understand large crowds. This was just awful. We won’t return until some type of G+ is in place. I will post a longer report later. We still had a lot of fun, but riding rides was pretty darn miserable with the waits. RD’d every day and this really only allowed one or two rides and then lines were insane for the rest of the day until one hour before closing (and even then lines stayed pretty long for the headliners).

 

[twodogs]

What we found interesting on this weekend’s trip was that rides were not running at obviously reduced capacity like they were on our trip in July. But wait times were MARKEDLY worse, all day long. So I don’t even know if it is a (ride) staffing issue, but rather that just way too many people are in the parks with nothing else to do but ride rides. I guess they may be having staffing issues bringing back the stage show workers etc? I don’t know. But there is very little else to do but shop, ride rides and eat. And there are not enough rides to absorb all of those people. And the waits to eat were not pretty (we did fine because we Mobile Ordered early, or had TS booked). There were roped lines to get a churro at almost all of the stands, for goodness sake!! I have never seen every table (all of them) taken at DCA on the pier, the bakery area and Ghiradellis, all at once at lunch time.

As I said above, we are a rides family, were MP experts, and we won’t be back until some kind of FP. We still managed a good time because we are very Disney savvy, but there were a large, large number of very miserable people out there this weekend.

 

[twodogs]

So Disney should reduce capacity if they can’t staff things so that people aren’t miserable, IMO. They know exactly how many people are going to be in the park; no excuses.

 

[SOCALMouseMommy]

So Disney should reduce capacity if they can’t staff things so that people aren’t miserable, IMO. They know exactly how many people are going to be in the park; no excuses.

I wonder if they did initially, then raised it because of the negative press about Magic Key holders not being able to get in (as evidenced by repeated reservation drops after October was already "sold out" to MK holders? But the recent intense crowds cannot be due to MK alone, right? It is all very interesting (and frustrating!). I do think the lack of entertainment/shows has something to do with the problem. No stage shows, no parades, limited character interaction (so less people waiting in long lines for characters). The food issues seem entirely staffing/training related to me. So many times I have been at restaurants and there were hardly any CMS working there despite crazy lines and many seemed confused/slow with the operations. It feels like Disney wasn't at all ready for the increased capacity. Should they have even offered the MKs yet? It's all very mystifying.

 

[ttig34]

I saw a few minutes ago Guardians had a 175 minute wait. Wow, people actually wait in line 3 hours for a ride. No thanks.

 

[dina444444]

I saw a few minutes ago Guardians had a 175 minute wait. Wow, people actually wait in line 3 hours for a ride. No thanks.

I wonder if it’s actually that long. On Saturday afternoon incredicoatser had a posted 65 minute wait. I was on in about 25 minutes.

 

[Dory92130]

Guardians and Incredicoaster have been way off throughout reopening. I still haven't seen a timed lanyard done for either.

Totally agree that the shows and parades typically suck up several hundred of folk at a time and those have been out of production all this time. The knee jerk reaction of opening up MK reservations these two weeks clearly is backfiring. They blinked at the negative PR IMHO. They it appears pretty clear they are WAY overselling MKs for current capacity and MK holders are all hoarding the weekend reservations.

No point of having a reservation system and system holds (1pm park hopping) if you simply ignore the staffing balance.

For those wishing to game the system for rest of October - I would say start DCA, especially on OBB nights then move to DL while the mass of humanity descends on DCA between 1-6pm.

 

[ktlm]

There were roped lines to get a churro at almost all of the stands, for goodness sake!!

As I said above, we are a rides family, were MP experts, and we won’t be back until some kind of FP. We still managed a good time because we are very Disney savvy, but there were a large, large number of very miserable people out there this weekend.

In 5 days I never got the Mickey Head Ice cream bar that I get every DLR or WDW trip because there were not that many ice cream carts and the lines were HUGE at the ones that were there. I was not standing in line for 30 minutes or more before that.

We aren't even a total rides family- DD loves the characters, shows, and just soaking in every little detail of the theming and we agree with you that there is no going back without some type of FP. There were a lot of miserable people who paid a lot of money to be miserable.

So many times I have been at restaurants and there were hardly any CMS working there despite crazy lines and many seemed confused/slow with the operations. It feels like Disney wasn't at all ready for the increased capacity. Should they have even offered the MKs yet? It's all very mystifying.

We saw the CM confusion too. We went to Oga's 3 times (DH and DD LOVE Ogas-- I do too). I had set alerts and the week of our trip available reservation alerts were popping up like crazy so I booked us more than one time. The first 2 times trying to get in was a mess They seem to be taking walk ups all the time and having a line for those, but they don't know what to do with the people with reservations. We checked in-- were told to wait for a table text, then when we got the text our table was ready one of the CMs sent us to the back of the long line and said we had to wait there even though our table was ready. Then another CM came looking for us and telling us we should have gone to the front-- not the back of the line and that they had been waiting for us and looking for us. Our next time, the exact same thing happened again and when we tried to tell the CM we were pretty sure we weren't supposed to the back of the line when we had a reservation and had gotten a text- they told us we were wrong and we did--- again we stood there and we could see 3 CMs by the door looking confused like they were trying to figure out something or find someone and again it was us-- they finally talked to the other CM who had sent us to the back of the line- and that one pointed at us and they came and got us and apologized. Our last night-- they seemed to have that figured out finally- maybe they had a procedure change.

For those wishing to game the system for rest of October - I would say start DCA, especially on OBB nights then move to DL while the mass of humanity descends on DCA between 1-6pm.

Crowd wise that might be good--- but if ROTR is a priority it cuts off your ability to try at 7:00 a.m.- which was a source of frustration on one of our CA days, since we had already been lucky enough to get Webslingers on our 2nd try and were having trouble getting ROTR at all.

 

[Dory92130]

Yeah, have to make priorities -- hard choices.

FYI - Gibson Ice cream has the mickey ears bars and mobile order.

 

[JJ2017]

For our one day park hopping trip on 11/4 (Thursday), I have the mindset of - whatever we get to do will be good enough......but, I was a little more hopeful for lower crowds than what we typically see on our yearly WDW trip at this same time (which is Jersey Week and typically super crowded). I was also hopeful for Genie+ to be available to at least help with some reduced waits. Small World is closed as well as Big Thunder. Will we be OK to enjoy some of our "musts" - Web, Incredicoaster, Guardians, RSR, Indy, Matterhorn, HM, Pirates??

 

[cruisehopeful]

Will we be OK to enjoy some of our "musts" - Web, Incredicoaster, Guardians, RSR, Indy, Matterhorn, HM, Pirates??

The key word is some and the answer is yes. Do single rider for RSR and Matterhorn (if it's being offered) and that will cut out at least an hour of waiting in line. Pirates line still moves kind of fast. HM has been a long line, but I hear it's walk on at the end of the day. Not sure how you'll get Webslingers. You have to grab a boarding group at either 8 am or Noon. I don't know if there's any other way to get on it.

 

[dina444444]

The key word is some and the answer is yes. Do single rider for RSR and Matterhorn (if it's being offered) and that will cut out at least an hour of waiting in line. Pirates line still moves kind of fast. HM has been a long line, but I hear it's walk on at the end of the day. Not sure how you'll get Webslingers. You have to grab a boarding group at either 8 am or Noon. I don't know if there's any other way to get on it.

It’s 7am or noon for web slingers boarding groups. As of now it’s all boarding groups but there was an article recently that said they could flip to standby before the end of the day.
The line for haunted mansion moves quickly.