DVC & ESPN the Weekend

[Quiksilvr]

Has anyone here done ESPN the weekend while staying on points? I'm thinking about going on points in '09 and I am curious if anyone has any input on the event, how busy it gets, and if it's actually as fun as it looks on TV I assume that booking at 11 months wouldn't be a problem (I can't imagine it's that popular, but if that's an incorrect assumption, please correct it!

Thanks.

 

[dianeschlicht]

We've been there then "by accident" and didn't notice a significant increase in crowds other than at the event in MGM.

 

[tjkraz]

We've been there then "by accident" and didn't notice a significant increase in crowds other than at the event in MGM.

Ditto. We were there for the Friday start two years ago and will be there for Saturday & Sunday this year.

In '05, I really didn't notice any differences. They had a big stage set-up in front of the hat and were doing live broadcasts. At any one time you'd have a couple hundred people watching, but no great crowd.

Back on the city streets they had NFL players taping some sort of skills competition that was broadcast later in the spring. They were playing basketball and that sort of thing. We walked thru that area once and the onlookers were only 2 or 3 deep.

Granted this was Friday and I'm sure things pick-up for the weekend. The general rule of thumb for these sort of events (Star Wars Weekends, Soap weekend) is that the crowds at the park where the event is held will be heavier, but ride wait times are not terribly impacted since the extra guests are not there to ride. Other parks are not impacted to any noticable degree--it's not like people will come to WDW for ESPN the Weekend and then flock to the Magic Kingdom.

Hope that helps.