First Trip Question

[disneyguy23]

Hello all,
Noob here with a question or two.

My girlfriend and I are going on our first trip to WDW together for just over a week (Sept. 6th-14th) just after Labor Day Weekend. We were hoping most kids would be back to school by then and crowds would be pretty minimal. Is there anyone out there that’s been the week after Labor Day and know how the crowds are?

Next question: We are planning on spending our first day at the MK mainly because we thought it would be a good park to start out with and compare to Disneyland. We live about 45 minutes from Disneyland and go weekly and are soooooo excited about our trip. Anyways, it turns out our first day at MK has the EMH or whatever its called where they are open later to guests staying at the Disney Resorts. At first I thought this was great but now I'm reading that the park with the extra hours later at night is usually a lot more crowded than the other parks that day. Do you think that because it’s the week after Labor Day weekend and the crowds are supposed to die down the crowds that night would be tolerable? Or do you think we should plan on going to another park that day and come back to the MK another day?

Thank you so much in advance for any advice or opinion you all have to offer. I love reading all these comments and trip reports. Looking forward to being able to put in my own two cents after our trip we've been planning for the last 6 months or so.

 

[KIRSTIN'S MOMMY]

We've been a couple of times during that timeframe because my birthday is the second week in Sept. That being said, one of those times was the week of Sept. 11,2001, and one was last year. The difference in the 2 was unbelieveable! I personally avoid the parks with the EMH, but others take advantage of them, so you'll get differing opinions on that here. We always end our vacation with MK, just because to us it's the most Disney park.

 

[wdw4us2]

Welcome to The DIS!

Yes, we have found WDW to be less crowded during Labor Day week. Before our kids were in school, that's when we used to go.

As for the EMH question, you can usually tell how crowded the park is when you arrive. Walk down Main St. to the tip board located just beyond Casey's Corner. Check the wait time for the 3 mountains, and you can judge by that how crowded the park is. The park is usually not crowded until right before the evening EMH which you should avoid at all costs if the park is crowded during the day.

Have a great trip and make sure you take your time so you can compare our MK to DL's MK!

 

[LiteBrite]

Hi, and welcome to the DIS!

I think historically the week after Labor Day is a great time to go, with very low crowds.

I think there's a good chance that evening EMH will much more bearable by the time you get there, but it's hard to know for sure. This time last year, there wasn't any evening EMHs, so we can't go by history. I'd say keep watching the boards - this is a hot topic that comes up a lot, and hopefully we'll have reports from people between now and then about how the crowds are.

 

[grinningghost]

Hi Welcome to the DIS!

I'm sure you will both have a very magical time no matter what the crowds.

I just wanted to say that it's great you're finally getting to WDW after so many DL visits. I recently visited DL for the first time after several WDW trips and it was fun to experience the original Magic Kingdom.

You may be surprised at the actual size of WDW. It's easy to read that it's huge in guidebooks or on websites, but when you're actually THERE, it is actually a tad mindblowing. It really is a whole city in itself.

I can't wait to hear how your trip was afterward. Be sure to post!

 

[luv2nascar]

I would normally think the crowds would be light but this year with free dining in Sept I think alot of people switched to Sept. I'd be prepared for crowds and hope you made you ADRs for the restaurants.
We found in June park with EMH was crowded all day. I really think that is due to people not buying hopper passes. So in order to stay late at night they are in the park all day. I would avoid MK on EMH.

 

[sunkissed212]

I was at WDW last year the week after labor day (9/10-9/14) - It was just after Hurricane Frances so the crowds were probably even lower than they would normally be during that time. A lot of people had cancelled reservations for that week according to the CM we spoke to at check in. In fact, we stayed at POR and our resort was EMPTY! There were tons of empty rooms and most of the time, we were the only 2 people on buses (with the exception of the bus coming back after Illuminatins-that one was full).

The weather was very hot and humid but if you're staying on site you can always split the day in 2 and come back to your resort during the heat of the afternoon and go for a swim or take a nap or just take a shower and head back to the parks after dinner. That's what we did most of the days. We had a 4:00 thunderstorm every single day that we were there but it lasted about 10 minutes and then cleared right up and was beautiful for the rest of the evening.

You'll have a great time!!

 

[annie1995]

I agree, I think its going to be pretty busy this September with the free dining plan, but I still don't think it will compare to summer crowds. Lets just hope we can dodge the hurricanes