Did the MK seem 6% busier in 2013?

[lugnut33]

Because that's what the estimated attendance increase was over 2012. "The Magic Kingdom continues as the world's most visited theme park, with just over 18.5 million guests in 2013, a rise of 6% from 2012. Epcot saw a rise of 1.5% to just over 11.2 million guests, Disney's Hollywood Studios was up 2% to 10.1 million guests, and Disney's Animal Kingdom saw a boost of 2% up to nearly 10.2 million guests."

Here are the rest:

(1) Magic Kingdom: 6%
(2) Tokyo Disneyland: 15.9%
(3) Disneyland: 1.5%
(4) Tokyo Disney Sea: 11.3%
(5) Epcot: 1.5%
(6) Disneyland Park at Disneyland Paris: -6.9%
(7) Disney's Animal Kingdom: 2.0%
(8) Disney's Hollywood Studios: 2.0%
(9) Universal Studios Japan: 4.1%
(10) Disney California Adventure: 9.5%
(11) Islands of Adventure: 2.0%
(13) Hong Kong Disneyland: 10.4%
(16) Universal Studios Florida: 14%
(19) Seaworld Orlando: -5%
(21) Walt Disney Studios Paris: -6.9%

Euro Disney says "Ouch".

 

[MightyGitis]

Yes it felt more than just 6% busier at times. Two trips during normally lower crowds and it was immensely busy.

 

[FLchick415]

Yes it felt more than just 6% busier at times. Two trips during normally lower crowds and it was immensely busy.

Agreed. It wasn't unmanageable, but definitely more busy than I was expecting at the supposed "low crowd" times that I went.

 

[PrincessV]

I can't say as I'd have immediately responded with "6%" if asked, but yeah - that does seem about right!

 

[OKW Lover]

Nah, it only felt 5% busier to me.

Seriously, I don't think anybody could discern a 6% difference in attendance.

 

[jtowntoflorida]

Seriously, I don't think anybody could discern a 6% difference in attendance.

ITA. That's only about 3000 people per day. We did two visits in 2013, and both times the MK didn't seem as busy as I expected. Even a June evening EMH day didn't have the wall to wall people I expected. I wish that they'd publish a monthly breakdown, because that would be pretty interesting to see.

 

[Crystal824]

Yes.

 

[kmb584]

Yes. We visit in the spring and fall, and both times have always fallen into the lower crowd category, and that certainly wasn't the case in '13. The parks weren't a wall of people but the wait times were definitely higher than we'd grown accustomed to.

 

[DavidNYC]

Remember that 6% is average. There were probably weeks where attendance was about the same and weeks where it was up by about 12%. But I thought it was noticably busier but not to such an extent it greatly affected my experiece (but I was there at "low" times).

 

[NavyDad]

September 2012 vs. June 2013

Our experience was probably skewed due to different expectations:

September 2012:
Visited late in the month when crowds were supposed to be about a 2 or 3. Did rope drop every day, left when crowds got heavy and came back for dinner in the evening and some more ride time. Felt more crowded than we expected. Free dining was going on I think (we didn't have it due to military discount) and in general the lines were still very long. Some of the NFL stuff at MK was open and that area felt VERY crowded.

June 2013:
We prepared for the worst crowd wise. Again we were rope drop every day. More of the NFL stuff was open including BOG where we had a dinner reservation. My wife and youngest daughter ran to NFL in the morning and did Enchanted Tales and the new Little Mermaid ride. Older kids and I were able to ride Space Mountain about 4-5 times before meeting DW and DD8 in NFL a little bit after 11. NFL was SUPER crowded by 11:00. Headed towards BTMRR and was able to ride that and Splash twice each. This area of the park felt basically deserted until Noon. Other than NFL the rest of the park didn't feel any more crowded than our September trip for the rest of the day. I will say that this was the first trip I used the Lines App for my phone so that helped us a ton as far as managing ride wait times. Ate dinner at BOG - NFL still super, super crowded from 4 pm until Wishes.

Our verdict was that heavy crowd time in 2013 did not seem that much more crowded than a low crowd time in 2012. The big exception was NFL which tended to be a crowd magnet. If you can avoid that area was not too bad.

I do think that Disney has managed to "smooth out" the peaks and valleys of crowd size somewhat through Free Dining and other promotions. I would make a guess that a lot of the increase in attendance came from the traditionally slower times.

So the short answer after a long reply is No - we didn't feel like it was more crowded.....

 

[JennyDrake]

Yes it felt more than just 6% busier at times. Two trips during normally lower crowds and it was immensely busy.

DITTO!!!