We unknowingly went into Epcot on CM preview night, the night before F&W opened, when our kids were still in a double stroller. Honestly, the worst experience I have ever had at Disney (this current upgradable Magic Band debacle notwithstanding). I had hopes that, even with a larger crowd, we might be able to be out of WS around 3 and that that might be before most of the inebriation takes hold. That might be a bit too rosy a view.
Oh no! I had no idea about this and we have Epcot planned for August 28th.
Our experience was about 10 years ago so I'm not sure if they still do a CM preview night. When we went, the drunks were so bad that we left without seeing Illuminations, which was our main objective that night. It was insanely crowded and very difficult to navigate with a stroller. And it was just way more than we really cared for our kids to see and hear. Finally, when a guy tripped while goofing around with his buddies and poured a beer on my youngest, we were done. We swore to never go to F&W in the evening again, and we haven't. I'm still hopeful we can go midday on the first Saturday, get through what we want to and be out before too many people are completely wasted. If I were in your shoes, not knowing what ages your kids are, I'd see if the CM preview still exists and if so and it isn't a major hassle to switch, I'd probably do it.
Thank you for the info! We went to Epcot on a Saturday night during the arts festival in Feb 2018. I hadn’t been to Disney in 10 years and I was so confused. I walked into the bathroom and 20 something girls were everywhere dressed like they were going clubbing, there were people drinking everywhere, big groups just standing around world showcase all dressed up. I though we had accidentally gone during some kind of special concert or event. It was super weird. Come to find out, this is just the culture of Epcot these days.
