Disney Thanksgiving Crowd Breakdown

[mjhannaf]

We take a look at Thanksgiving crowd levels in case you're planning a trip for next year!
http://blogmickey.com/2014/11/disney-thanksgiving-crowds/

 

[OnSpaceshipEarth]

We take a look at Thanksgiving crowd levels in case you're planning a trip for next year!
http://blogmickey.com/2014/11/disney-thanksgiving-crowds/

Wow...Dinosaur was almost double the wait time of Expedition Everest and Kilimanjaro Safaris ?

 

[wisblue]

Wow...Dinosaur was almost double the wait time of Expedition Everest and Kilimanjaro Safaris ?

It looks like Dinosaur was down from 10 AM until noon, which would predictably create a backlog, especially from people with FPs that come back to use them later.

The posted wait time at Dinosaur was only 20 minutes at 10 AM (2 hours after the park opened), so anyone who followed the recommended holiday strategy of arriving early and hitting the headliners in the first couple of hours would have had success at DAK yesterday.

 

[mjhannaf]

It looks like Dinosaur was down from 10 AM until noon, which would predictably create a backlog, especially from people with FPs that come back to use them later.

That's absolutely correct.

 

[CanadianPaco]

A new site for me! Thanks!!!!

 

[disneyholic family]

look at the wait for it's a small world..

DD was there for 15 days, from nov. 10th to nov. 25th..

every single time during those two weeks that she was in MK, the line for small world was crazy long.
She noticed because she HATES the ride and couldn't believe anyone would wait 80 MINUTES....yes, 80 minutes....80 minutes....waiting 80 minutes to ride it's a small world????????????????????

 

[Laketravis]

I'm not finding the 'actual' wait times to be accurate at all. It may have been true for the person given the red line marker and at that moment in time, but the very next minute could see 100 people show up with FP and substantially more join the SB line.

Another thing I'm noticing is that evening EMH hours are not long enough to displace the wait times at headliners. For instance, 7DMT could have a 110 minute wait at the end of regular park hours, which means it will take 110 minutes of EMH time to service the existing line.

 

[mjhannaf]

I'm not finding the 'actual' wait times to be accurate at all. It may have been true for the person given the red line marker and at that moment in time, but the very next minute could see 100 people show up with FP and substantially more join the SB line.

Another thing I'm noticing is that evening EMH hours are not long enough to displace the wait times at headliners. For instance, 7DMT could have a 110 minute wait at the end of regular park hours, which means it will take 110 minutes of EMH time to service the existing line.

In general, what you're describing are surge times, and nobody can accurately tell you how long you're going to wait when there is a rush of people (due to the end of the parade, start of the day, after a ride re-opens, etc.)

The actual times do represent the last time someone went through with a red card, so there will be a natural delay in reporting.

That said, outside of surge times, the actual waits will give you a good general idea of how long the line will take.

 

[micheleq]

We were at AK on Thanksgiving and thankfully rode Dinosaur around 9:30 am in the standby line -- I'd say 10-15 minutes was the wait. By the time we got to EE for our 11:20 FP+ window the line was massive! Dino and Kali were both down (I think that's what one of the CMs was saying) so they were giving folks FPs for EE. The line was long but it went quickly given the number of people in line -- 15 minutes, 20 tops? There were at least 6 or 7 CMs (including a few suits) managing that line and they did a good job.

For lunch on Thanksgiving we went to Sanaa and around 3pm an AKV CM told us they had closed MK because they hit capacity. I don't know how long it was closed for?

We were at MK on Wednesday and the wait times were def on the conservative side. But, it was as rainy morning. Once the sun came out, the people started filling the parks. We arrived at 8:30 am on Wednesday (half hour after rope drop) and rode Buzz, Space, Tom. Speedway, Little Mermaid, IASW and PP by 11am.

 

[csjordan]

We drove to WDW Thanksgiving morning from a cruise out of Tampa. We arrived at MK around 10:45am and the crowds were heavy. We stayed until just past midnight and while the crowds lessened somewhat after around 10:30, they were still steady. We stopped at Starbuck's at midnight and left because the line was really long. While the crowds made it difficult to walk around, we still managed to get most things done on our list, despite getting there late and taking a 2 hour early dinner at GF Cafe. But I'm not gonna lie... It was crowded!

 

[Laketravis]

In general, what you're describing are surge times, and nobody can accurately tell you how long you're going to wait when there is a rush of people (due to the end of the parade, start of the day, after a ride re-opens, etc.) The actual times do represent the last time someone went through with a red card, so there will be a natural delay in reporting. That said, outside of surge times, the actual waits will give you a good general idea of how long the line will take.

I'm not referring to surge times at all - I'm finding over the last 10 days that posted times have been much more accurate than the 'actual' times being reported.

When I've been entering a line that already has a 30 minute posted wait time, I've been waiting closer to the 30 minutes than I have the 'actual' time, which I've been monitoring while standing in the line.

 

[Mambo Junkie]

We arrived Friday the 29th. MK was definitely a 9. Extremely crowded.
That said we were able to do quite a bit. I wasn't able to make one of my fps but I didn't try very hard. I'm here with a 4 year old, a 20 month old and a 60 year old child who is experiencing her (probably) only time ever being here. It's all about them. I am determined to have a good time. Not let crowds or bad tempers get the better of us. (Not our tempers: ops) we've experienced lots of pixie dust, acts of kindness and excellent service! I have engaged a lot of strangers in conversation and so far had a great time!
To name a few:
A CM worked very hard to get us a better location on our room and succeeded!
A very nice couple gave us 3 fps for any ride asking only that if they weren't used to pay it forward. We did; we had 1 left and gave it to a family and left the little girls plotting what to use it on.
A guest bought our lunch because she had several quick lunches left and was leaving that day
A CM took our autograph books and had Lady and the Tramp sign them for my over tired granddaughter
A CM brought us trays of different flavored slushees while we waited in the hot sun for a Jim Shore autograph
A guest helped me carry the stroller up a flight of stairs without my asking as did a bus driver carried it on the bus for me
That was only day number 2

Ready to embark on day #3 and more magic!

PS. Fps? Meh. Gotten more done without them. Did help us see Tinkerbell and get to dinner on time. Off to use our ToT and TSMM today.

 

[Laketravis]

We arrived Friday the 29th. MK was definitely a 9. Extremely crowded..

Friday was the 28th - but I know it's easy to lose track of dates when we're here.

 

[mjhannaf]

I'm not referring to surge times at all - I'm finding over the last 10 days that posted times have been much more accurate than the 'actual' times being reported.

When I've been entering a line that already has a 30 minute posted wait time, I've been waiting closer to the 30 minutes than I have the 'actual' time, which I've been monitoring while standing in the line.

Ok, good to know. Thank you for your feedback.

 

[Mambo Junkie]

Friday was the 28th - but I know it's easy to lose track of dates when we're here.

I know. I woke up this morning and had the horrible feeling this was our last day, lol. Then I realized I'd only been here 2 days.

 

[FlipHipster]

We had pretty good luck with the actual wait times yesterday. Entered MK at 8:30, hit 7DMt at ~8:40, 60mins posted, 22 actual, we waited 22.

Got in line for Space Mtn. at 12:30, posted 35mins, actual was 11. We were on in 22 mins. Ton of Fp+ riders came through. Seems like they kept them on the right track, we were too far back to see for sure but SB was moving faster than I expected given the number of FP users showing up. Went back, ride went down so we bailed. 1/2 our group went back around 2 and rode SBx2 with short waits.

Buzz at 1:08 posted 15, think actual was 15, we waited 22 but it went down for a few(like 2) mins when we were next in line at the merge point. Several FP+ riders showed up while it was down. CM held SB until all the FP riders cleared. It was def less than 15 if it hadn't gone down.

Hit Casey's at around 11:30ish and there was no line at all. Walked through the castle at 3:05 and watched the parade from the castle ramp near liberty square great spot along the fence, nobody crowding us at all.

Other rides like HM and BTMRR, waits were low enough I didn't even bother keeping track.

Overall, very happy with the crowds until about 4 when the party folks started arriving in waves. We were headed out when they were headed in though so no biggie. Awesome day.

 

[wareagle57]

In general, what you're describing are surge times, and nobody can accurately tell you how long you're going to wait when there is a rush of people (due to the end of the parade, start of the day, after a ride re-opens, etc.)

The actual times do represent the last time someone went through with a red card, so there will be a natural delay in reporting.

That said, outside of surge times, the actual waits will give you a good general idea of how long the line will take.

What happens when someone forgets to give the card back? I have genuinely forgot to do that a couple times as I can't stand to wear things around my neck and I put it in my pocket. I need to just start telling them no.

 

[hakepb]

What happens when someone forgets to give the card back? I have genuinely forgot to do that a couple times as I can't stand to wear things around my neck and I put it in my pocket. I need to just start telling them no.

Then ToT's wait time is reported as 13 minutes


I've always wanted to start a "hold this for a minute, and hand it to the party behind you" event.

 

[mjhannaf]

What happens when someone forgets to give the card back? I have genuinely forgot to do that a couple times as I can't stand to wear things around my neck and I put it in my pocket. I need to just start telling them no.

Not entirely sure. I've never seen ridiculous actual wait times. Generally they send a card every 5 - 10 minutes (sometimes faster), so one missed card doesn't throw everything off.

That said, keeping the cards happens more than you would think. A fair amount of people do it on accident (like you), but some just keep them as souvenirs!

 

[Laketravis]

MJ, the Android app won't work on my Galaxy for some reason, so I've just been pulling up your site on my phone,

But there are some misconceptions about 'Actual' times that I need to point out.

The value is actually the last measured time, and it can be for either the Standby queue or the FP queue.

It is of obvious computational value to Disney because they know which represents Standby and which represents FP. For the last 11 days I've been noting the 'Actual' wait times versus the posted wait times versus the time I spent in line and I've come to the conclusion that you really can't consider 'Actual' to mean reality.

I tested this when I was given the red card each time I entered the FP queue. I timed how long I was in the FP queue until I gave the card back. Then I checked the site and sure enough the 'Actual' time had been updated and matched the time I spent in the FP queue.

So when you get a Posted time of, say, 70 minutes for RnRC and see a reported Actual time of 15 minutes, that was most likely the last measured FP queue time. In fact, that is exactly what happened today around 3pm when I was given the red card in the FP queue.

I don't know if the API field schema will also let you obtain the type of last measured value, but as it stands now the 'Actual' wait times being reported are false indicators and do not represent actual Standby wait times at all.