For those of you considering next year for Presidents week....

[DisneyObsessed]

DON'T. It was absolutely packed all week long. This was our fifth trip, so it wasn't that big a deal if we didn't get to do something. But I feel bad for people who went this past week and wanted to do everything. At one point, Test Track at Epcot was out of fastpasses and the line was 3 1/2 hours long. Most of the lines in all the parks for the bigger rides were about 90 minute waits. We really had to pick and choose our attractions. We had a great time, but we've had it with crowds

 

[DisneyAddict_M]

Thanks for the heads up. I've never gone in February, but I'll kee that in mind in case the idea ever enters my head.

 

[kilee]

This traditionally is always a busy week. Last year we went the week before and spilled a few days into Presiden't Day week. The crowds were 10X what they were the week before.

More and more school's are getting that week off. From here, certain airlines were booked with sold out flights for day's to Orlando. I tried looking for a flight in early Decemeber for this week. Most were booked and what I could find was in the $300.00 each way range. (Normal rates from here are about $79-100).

 

[zman]

DisneyObsessed,

We were there this past week and felt the crowds were very managable, particularly in the morning and early afternoon. We did stay away from whatever park had EMH. However, since you have been there so many times during February, you have a much better benchmark than us on crowds. The only time that we felt the effects of the crowds was during Spectromagic on Tuesday evening. That being said, the crowds would not hold us back from going during this timeframe again.

Just my two cents.

Paul

 

[DisneyObsessed]

Wow. I'm surprised to hear you say that. You must have been in all the right places at the right time. We thought it was absolutely crazy. But to be honest with you, we never thought about EMH. We just got up each morning and decided where we felt like going. But we've always done that, and never seen anything like we did this trip.

 

[antmaril]

We were there last week too. We did MK on Wednesday and MGM Thursday morning, with EPCOT on Thursday afternoon.

We had PS for 8:20 a.m. breakfast at the Crystal Palace on Wed. morning and we were on our way to Haunted Mansion by 9:10 a.m. Haunted Mansion was a walk on. We then headed to Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and that was also a walk on. We then did Mickey's PhilharMagic. Waited about five minutes for that and then we did It's a Small World. Five minutes for that also. We also did Pirates of the Caribbean with a short wait. After that, everything got crowded. Space Mountain was 90 minutes. Didn't wait. We did Carousel of Progress and the Transportation Ride. Since we've been to WDW many times, we just did those things that had short or no lines.

By the time we left, early p.m. - the place was packed!!

On Thursday we got to MGM a little after 9:00. We headed to ToT and RNR. Took a FastPass for ToT and stood in line 20 minutes (the sign said 55 min) for RNR. We did the Great Movie Ride and Muppets in 3D with no line.

Had lunch at 50's Prime Time and it was great.

Headed over to EPCOT in the afternoon and my son stood in the Singles line for Mission Space for just over an hour. TestTrack was a 90 minute wait.

Spaceship Earth was a walk on, as well as Universe of Energy.

We walked around the World Showcase and were back in our car by 6:30 p.m.

I have to say we got a lot done in two days. There's no doubt about it - it was very crowded. However, I enjoyed it more than in the summer because of the weather. We didn't have a great week weather wise, but I would rather wear a light jacket any day than deal with the heat and humidity of July!!

I wouldn't want to visit WDW for the first time Presidents' Week, but since we are old pros it was fine.

 

[jaysue]

Sat afternoon (14th) it was packed at MK - Peter Pan was at 80 minutes+, Space at 95 minutes+ etc. The rain though started falling and steadily beat the crowds out of the park - by 6:30pm or so other than a few attractions, the lineups had disappered.

I have heard that the attendence was very high that week and might have been a new record for Disney for that period

thanks
jaysue

 

[oogieboogie]

I think what made it worse was it was valentine's day/weekend, daytona speedweek, and president's day all rolled up into one long weekend.

We left WDW on Feb 15th and it took us over 3 hrs just to go from orlando to daytona from I-4 to get to i-95. It was bumper to bumper traffic. Yechhh.

 

[Cathy K.]

We just got back last night from 8 nights at WDW and I was surprised at how packed it was. The crowds did start to ease up on Friday and yesterday's EMH at MGM was great. We were able to walk on TOT multiple times like we are used to during EMH. Last year we were there for the week of Easter which coincided with April school vacation in many states. I knew President's week would be crowded but I didn't expect it to seem more crowded than what we experienced last year at Easter.

We still had an awesome time and between EMH and Fastpass we did just about everything at least once and our favorites multiple times with no more than 30 minute waits.

Use the singles line at Test Track and Mission Space if you don't mind riding separately. This allowed us to walk onto these rides a few times during the late evening at Epcot when most of the crowd had headed up to view Illuminations.

We really missed not having an E-ticket night. I hope they restart those again soon.

It was sad to come home but I've only got 25 weeks before I get to go back so I guess I'll start planning!

Cathy K.

 

[MouseClubMom]

We have also sworn off President's Week at WDW. The last time we went we got stuck in traffic coming into town because the BUSCH race at Daytona had just let out. It took us almost 4 hours to get down I-4 from Daytona to a point in Orlando where I could scoot off and hit the back roads.

NEVER AGAIN! We will pull the kids out of school for a long weekend when it's not so crowded. Trying to convince DH we need to do that soon!

MCMom

 

[MickeyB426]

Our experience on the rides last week:

Magic Kingdom, afternoon

Carousel of Progress - walk right in
Tomorrowland Speedway - 30 minutes
Buzz Lightyear - 45 minutes, tops
Tomorrowland Transit Authority - walk right in

Magic Kingdom, early entry AM

Mickey's Philharmagic - walk right in, 5 min wait
It's a Small World - 10 min
Peter Pan's Flight - 20 min
Winnie the Pooh - 50 minutes (and NOT worth it!)
Cinderella's Golden Carousel - 1 ride wait, 5 min
Dumbo the Flying Elephant - 30 minutes (another one not worth it)
Hall of Presidents - 15 minutes

EPCOT, 11AM

Honey I Shrunk the Audience - 10 min
Journey into Imagination - 10 min
Living Seas - 20 minutes
Spaceship Earth - walk right in

 

[FatCow]

Really, really, really bad crowd experience.

Feb 15th, MK: Crowded but manageable.

Feb 16th, MGM: More crowded than the 15th but still manageable.

Feb 17th, MK: Less crowded than the 15th.

Feb 18th, Epcot: About as crowded as the 16th.

Feb 19th, MK: So crowded we could not walk... "People, walk on your right!!, Strollers are NOT battering RAM!!, One teensy towel is not enough to save 10 spaces for Spectromagic!!"

Feb 20th, AK and MGM: Much less crowded than the 15th, very manageable, almost pleasant, actually. Got much better seat than the 16th for Fantasmic although arrived only 45 minutes prior to the show.

Feb 21st, DTD and MGM: Where's the crowd? I can get used to this!

Conclusion? NEVER AGAIN on President's Week (unless I'm the president)

 

[lisareniff]

We have to fly in from the north east with high airfares so have to take longer trips to make it worth while. I also feel too guilty to take my DD out for more than 2-3 days.

Shoud we go during Thanksgiving or President's Week?? (I'm assuming Easter and Christmas would be worse!)

TIA

 

[crzy4mk]

I don't consider myself the "master planner" by any stretch, but I worked on our trip for the past 6 months (my DW says for the past 9 years!). Because we planned out many of the things we did, and had a workable but flexible schedule, there was nothing we did not get to do that we wanted to, and the longest we waited in line for anything was 30 minutes (Jungle Cruise and Great Movie Ride). Many things we walked right on (being there when the parks open is a MUST!) and we fastpassed everything we could. Staying late was great as well, and we did Splash Mountain back to back one night with no line at all. Yes, there were crowds, but I too thought they were very managable with a good plan. If this was an overly crowded week, I feel great! I think we handled it marvelously. I would go back again during President's Week anytime.

 

[FatCow]

In terms of number of rides I can ride in a day, I have no complain. However, just seeing the number of people, getting bumped so many times with Disney-approved battering ram (some peopple call them 'strollers'), daughter got accidentally shoved by people who didnt' see her... I'll never going to go during President's Week ever again.

It's not about careful planning, it's about room to breathe and personal space.

 

[mark smith]

From Friday the 13th through Tuesday the 18th, the crowds were thick(we managed), but I will definetely be going back to our normal week before Presidents(last week of value season, by the way)

 

[2minny]

You guys are scaring me, do you think it will be that bad the 2nd week in March?

 

[DazedandConfused]

We were there too but we left before the bulk of the crowds. We thought the latter part of our vacation was way tooo crowded, too!
We arrived at MK on Thurs the 12th - crowds were ok went to Fantasmic at night and there were only a few seats empty. Fantasmic almost didn't happen they had technical problems but after about 40 minutes it did go off - great show- I think they made it a little too scary just my opinion.
Fri 13th - MGM crowds were bad but not terrible - almost got shut out of playhouse disney because stupidly, I didn't think that we had to get there early. A cast member told us to get in line. We were in line for 35 minutes and got in. Great show for little ones. One complaint- if you have a bad back or other problems - you have to sit on the floor, I had to ask to stand in the back away from my family - I have a back problem and couldn't sit on the floor. Missed out on Indiana Jones- no fast passes to be had for while we were in the park - it was too crowded to get into that show.
Fri PM Epcot for illuminations - VERY CROWDED! We enjoyed it anyways!
Sat 13th Epcot - No crowds at all. Walked onto everything except test track and mission space about 20 minutes each (single rider) - DH went while I took the kids to imagination and living seas.
Sat PM MAgic Kingdom RAIN, Lots of RAIN we arrived at 7 just in time for everyone lining up for spectro we got fast passes for buzz then went and in the soaking rain did all tomorrowland and fanstasyland rides with no lines longer than 5 minutes! Boy, I hated having wet sneakers but loved the rain that night anyway!
Sun 15th MK Early - we ran through all the frontierland rides and by noon we hated the crowds and left at about 1:30! Came back around 6 and had a better night. We couldn't stand the croweds Sun! So, I can't imagine what it would have been like later in the week. All in all we had a great time except the crowds later in the vacation and that my six year old lost his backpack at the magic kingdom on Sun with all his souviners in it. It was incredibly sad - he still gets teary eyed when we talk about it. He lost his autograph book (with 4 days of autographs), his new buzz lanyard with all his pins, his buzz lightyear dogtag necklace with his name prnted on it and about 10 Pressed pennies! It was a horrible afternoon. My poor six year old - just cried and cried. I felt terrible because I should have never let him be in charge of his own bag - he was so tired and cranky from the crowds and with it being our last day everyone was pretty fried. Anyway, We would do Feb again but we would go a few days eariler to miss most of the crowds I think. We are planning on going back in about 3 years. We will see then where the kids are in school but Feb will most likely still be our choice.

 

[zman]

I guess beauty, or in this case crowds, is in the eye of the beholder.

To my fellow Rochesterian, lisareniff. My two experiences with trips to WDW, one Thanksgiving week '98 and the other this past President's week, I would opt for Thanksgiving. Two reasons: 1) I think the weather is more predicable and better and 2) Christmas decorations are an added bonus. I feel the crowds were about equal.

Paul

 

[dreamalittledream]

Ya'll are making me so glad we left on the 14th! LOL.
The week before President's week was not so crowded but I could tell by Friday that it was gearing up for the weekend.
Has any one been the 1st full week of Dec? NOT the week of Thanksgiving. I'm considereing then for our next trip .