First Day Here, It's so Crowded!

[busyshrew]

We are heading up this weekend and will be trying our best to avoid BTG (Big Tour Groups).

I'd also love to know when the school year starts in Brazil - our trip overlaps into the first few days of February and I'm wondering if I will have to be vigilant those days as well.

 

[Steve's Girl]

We are here this week also. Touringplans totally mislead us for this week! Every other year we have had great luck using it.

We were there Jan 2-8 and I followed TP, TGM and EasyWDW. We're WDW vets and generally know how to avoid crowds, but man it was way busier than I expected. We've used TP and TGM for years and they've always been a great guide for us. But, I don't think anything would have helped the week we were there. One day was rated a 1 by TP and we went to DHS which was a recommended park and it was awful. We got there at rope drop, avoided an EMH and Fantasmic day and all the normal stuff. A rating of a 1 just doesn't mean what it used to a couple years ago! I think this January was far busier than any of the the planning sites anticipated. I don't think we will be going back in January any time soon.

 

[tjmj9801]

^^ Adding a bit to what Steve'sGirl said, I was thinking that it's awfully misleading to rely on data from previous years to determine what days a park will be crowded. That data doesn't know how many families and groups are planning to come to the parks any given day, only what's been experienced in the past. No way to know that 15 groups of 30+ people are planning to all go to a certain park on what day. This will be our first visit during this time of year...what if 50 other families also had that idea??

You just never know what others have planned. You could say to avoid a certain park because of EMH or F! or parades, etc. But what if you have never stayed on property, like us, and want to take advantage of EMH because you never have been able to before and don't know when you'll be able to do it again? I think solely relying on a data calendar to decide what days to do what parks will make you miss out on doing a lot of things.

 

[dizzyredhead83]

We experienced the same when we were there in January last year. We had just come back this time last year but the week prior it was extremely busy with groups. It spoilt it a little bit because they were quite rude and got in the way of the children a lot, but all in all we just ignored them. When it came to queing for rides etc it wasn't too bad because they seemed to have a plan so if you just avoided them you didn't have to wait long

 

[PIRATEGIRL007]

I concur with everyone else that it was crazy there with the BTGs. We were at DHS on 1/23. I would have definitely have chosen another park but I was with a gathering of 11 who wanted to see Fantasmic (only day showing during our stay) so that is what I had to plan for. TSM running of the bulls went fine, I don't think the tour groups were there yet. Group moved to RNR while I got FP for TSM. The BTGs have arrived and a mob scene at that end of the park. My group was in line and CM opened up the single rider line, but get this they were only letting in the BTGs. I was gonna ride singer rider but they would not let me and closed it off after the BTGs. Well that didn't fly with my group and they had a manager and argued with him. He actually said that I should have gone thru the FP line (without a FP) to join up with them. Yeah right. He avoided every time they asked him way the BTG got to go in but no one else. He finally gave our group instant FPs to use. Then later at TT fp machines they had one machine that was only allowed to be used by the BTG tour guides, that is how they announced it too. Unbelievable. Do they pay more for their packages than us? I was there in July with them too but this trip they were much more rude, I banged shoulders with them after dealing with them the 1st day. We usually have a long weekend at this time every year but I'm done with Disney in January, shame too cuz its my birthday.

oh girl I would have been in Guest services in an instant, we usually let everything fly at disney and don't bother to complain but that would have been IT for me. No way any group regardless of tours or any other status should receive prefferential treatment, unless its a VIP paid disney tour thats different at that hourly rate they can do what they want and I highly doubt those BTG's were paying an hourly VIP tour guide.

 

[PIRATEGIRL007]

We were there Jan 2-8 and I followed TP, TGM and EasyWDW. We're WDW vets and generally know how to avoid crowds, but man it was way busier than I expected. We've used TP and TGM for years and they've always been a great guide for us. But, I don't think anything would have helped the week we were there. One day was rated a 1 by TP and we went to DHS which was a recommended park and it was awful. We got there at rope drop, avoided an EMH and Fantasmic day and all the normal stuff. A rating of a 1 just doesn't mean what it used to a couple years ago! I think this January was far busier than any of the the planning sites anticipated. I don't think we will be going back in January any time soon.

A 1 sure doesn't mean what it did a couple of years ago, until late last year there hasn't been a '1' day since the crowd calendar was created (2.0 released in May), based on the previous model a 1 was never possible, with 3 being the lowest and very very rare, none in the past few years.

 

[kmermaid]

oh girl I would have been in Guest services in an instant, we usually let everything fly at disney and don't bother to complain but that would have been IT for me. No way any group regardless of tours or any other status should receive prefferential treatment, unless its a VIP paid disney tour thats different at that hourly rate they can do what they want and I highly doubt those BTG's were paying an hourly VIP tour guide.

What I can't believe is how they just would not admit they were giving special treatment to the BTGs. Later we were in the TSM FP line and had another run in with six brazilian teens who tried to push in and separate our group. We were single file and I guess they didn't realize that all eleven of us were together, we told them flat out to wait. Then the language went flying but I just stared them down. I had had it by that time. Sorry if they thought we were rude but start following the rules of the park like everyone else.

 

[LuvLDM]

We just returned from WDW. We were there 1/17-1/23 we went to the recommended (TouringPlans.com) parks everyday & encountered very few crowds, in fact many rides were walk-on.

 

[cm8]

We just returned from WDW. We were there 1/17-1/23 we went to the recommended (TouringPlans.com) parks everyday & encountered very few crowds, in fact many rides were walk-on.

There are a lot of posters who also said they used TP and the crowd predictions were off. I wonder if TP will need to be revamped once more or used only during "certain" times at WDW

 

[katherine52478]

We've been here the past two days and the parks have been great! We went to Animal Kingdom yesterday at 2:00 p.m. and Dinosaur and It's Tough to be a Bug were 5 minute waits. We did the Jungle Trek and walked around and it didn't feel crowded or crazy at all.

We did rope drop at Magic Kingdom today and it was amazing! We rode Peter Pan twice, Snow White once and It's A Small World all by 9:25. We got a fast pass for Winnie since it was being fixed at that time and we headed over to Haunted Mansion which was a walk on. Then Pirates (10 min posted, but we walked right through) and then lunch at Pecos (which had express ordering). We did Jungle Cruise (had a posted 10 min wait but I got fast passes before lunch so walked right on). then in tomorrowland, we met stitch and chip and dale, rode Buzz Lightyear twice (5 min posted, walk right on) and my favorite, the TTA. We left the park at 2:30 where we saw people lining up for the parade but plenty of room still available. the busses have been working great (we are at the Beach Club) and we saw Hoop De Doo tonight. I have only seen a couple of groups in yellow and they all stayed together and out of the way. The weather has been great. It did thunderstorm last night, but it was late, so didn't affect us at Animal Kingdom. It was misty this morning, but then got sunny. It was 67 by the afternoon.

We are so glad to be here instead of snowy NJ!

 

[Pig Pen]

Please say it isn't so! The tour groups were in full force when we were there in July!

 

[stasijane]

Yeah, they were everywhere when we were there over the july 4th weekend. After a while we made a point to stop trying to get out of there way, and just cut right in the middle of there groups. We are planning on going back last week of March hopefully there wont be so many this next trip.

 

[dairyou]

OP here...

Monday we went to Epcot and it was perfect Yesterday we took a "relax" day and went to DTD. We saw all the tour groups there buying as much as they could. It must had been their last day

Today we went to MK. Now, this is the January I'm used to. Everything was a walk on but the Speedway. That was 30 minutes. Not bad. I couldn't believe my 17 year old who can drive wanted to wait and ride

Doubtful that we will be in the Early/Late Magical hours. It seems you just wait longer because everyone is there also. This time we didn't get Park Hoppers either so we were just trying to get the most out of our tickets.

Deb

 

[n2mm]

Yes also went to MK on Wednesday and it was perfect. Walk on everything. Even when we left at 3:00PM it was a 5 minute wait for Buzz and SM. Only 20 minute for PP. No wait anywhere and we never saw a single tour group today. It was so nice we hated to leave to take our afternoon break. We left around 3:00PM and it is rare for us to stay that late. We circled the park 3 times and rode all of our favorites over and over and over again. It was grand.

 

[jpolak]

We just got another 18" of snow so I would trade that for Disney trip with Brazilian tour groups.

 

[heathsf]

Same problem here with the snow but I'm supposed to be leaving tonight and plenty of flights are cancelled. If my flight isn't cancelled and I get there on time I'll be THRILLED to see any tour groups, crowds, whatever....just get me there!!!!

 

[VroomVroomLightning]

Same problem here with the snow but I'm supposed to be leaving tonight and plenty of flights are cancelled. If my flight isn't cancelled and I get there on time I'll be THRILLED to see any tour groups, crowds, whatever....just get me there!!!!

Good Luck!! I hope your flight isn't cancelled!!

 

[cuchu2005]

Brazil's economy is surely in great shape. Add to that the fact that their currency is pretty high, meaning USD prices are more affordable to them than for the rest of South America, and there you go!

I would say that July is not that popular as jan-Feb, and I woul expect late Feb to have more SA visitors, as air fares tend to be cheaper as high travel season goes by.

I live in Buenos Aires, Argentina and we have lots of visitors from our Neighbour country, cause it's cheap for them to buy here.

As for south american summer break, see y'all on Feb 24th, don't worry, not in a group, just DW and DDs. We are totally DISers and looking forward to having a great time!

Have fun!

Mx

 

[Maleficent1974]

OMG... We were just there 1/22 - 1/26. It was insane!!! I have never seen such in all of our trips. I bet 90% of the people there were from Brazil. They had their own line on the Pirates of the caribbean ride. It really makes you mad when every single website you visit says that is the best week to go, and you get there and have to deal with that. We got to HS first thing in the morning and I went to get my FP for TSM and there was one lady in line at the kiosk next to me that was from a brazilian tour group, and I bet she had at least 200 tickets in her hand and the cast member was just feeding them in one after another getting her FP for her. There should be a limit on how many one person can get. It has really made me reconsider ever going in January again.

 

[crazedprincess]

We were there 1/25-2/2 and we didn't encounter very many groups. We saw a lot of families from Brazil and maybe a few groups here and there, but nothing stuck out to us. We followed the recommended parks and most of our rides and attractions were walk on. We never waited longer than 10 minutes and we used fast passes when necessary. There were people there and the parks did not seem empty at all but the lines weren't bad for us.