Here now - Crowds are nuts

[Callalily6]

I got here about 5 days ago. The 1st day was totally quiet...no lines, hardly any waits, etc. The next few days were SWAMPED.

My question - Are the parks that do NOT have extra magic hours less crowded?

THANK YOU!

 

[Cmbar]

Yes,usually. We try to avoid EMH at all costs. Good luck, I can't understand how it would be swamped in September ever

 

[copperbrick]

I got here about 5 days ago. The 1st day was totally quiet...no lines, hardly any waits, etc. The next few days were SWAMPED.

My question - Are the parks that do NOT have extra magic hours less crowded?

THANK YOU!

I hear tell they are.

Which parks were the most crowded for you, and on what days?

 

[Callalily6]

I hear tell they are.

Which parks were the most crowded for you, and on what days?

We were going to the parks on EMH days - mostly MK and Epcot. And OMG. MK was down right scary and Epcot was packed. It looks like the lines that I used to see when we came in late May. Shortest lines were 20 mins long. Wasnt expecting that. We went at rope drop, too. So did lots of others.

Planning on avoiding EMH and see if its better...

PS - Never seen so many drunken mean folks at epcot, ever.

 

[Stinky_Pete]

This makes sense. A lot of people want to maximize their park time so they go to the EMH park. This makes those parks more crowded than non-EMH parks.

This is why I always purchase the hopper option. I go to the park with morning EMH then, when that park starts feeling crowded, I hop to another park.

 

[twokids0204]

We were going to the parks on EMH days - mostly MK and Epcot. And OMG. MK was down right scary and Epcot was packed. It looks like the lines that I used to see when we came in late May. Shortest lines were 20 mins long. Wasnt expecting that. We went at rope drop, too. So did lots of others.

Planning on avoiding EMH and see if its better...

PS - Never seen so many drunken mean folks at epcot, ever.

Sounds like the BEER and WINE passports are in full effect.

 

[bouncycat]

AK today was a madhouse, and it wasn't an EMH park....maybe because it was a weekend day...I wasn't expecting that today at all!

 

[tink771]

Wow, this certainly differes from what I've seen lately on the boards. Oh well, free dining must have been a big hit!

 

[seadd67]

Lots of People enjoying the Mouse

 

[PAcpl]

Maybe today was just a fluke

 

[aanderson5]

According to UG today should be a 4. I guess they are a bit off.

 

[jwfla422]

I don't know about other areas but I know most schools in Florida are closed tomorrow (Monday) for Yom Kippur. I'm sure many schools in other states are also closed It's a "3 day weekend" and for us Floridians that are regular Disney goers, it's a great opportunity to go for a quick visit.

I'm sure many other people thought the same thing with all the great resort rates (not just free dining) going on right now. I bet it'll slow down drastically later this week.

 

[FozzieFan]

We don't know how far off touring plans was until OP tells us what park they were at today. A 4 is 35-45 minutes at MK, 60 at Epcot, 35 HS, 55 AK so between 35-60 min wait at peak times.

Maybe I've been around the WDW block a few times but I'll take a 20 minutes wait, rather that than 120 minute .

I think a lot of people are down for the first week of Food and wine. This also used to traditionally be the last week of free dining (last day was in the 20s of Sept. and you could extend out), they moved it a week back this year to Oct 3rd.

Take a deep breath, have a cool drink and enjoy WDW while you're there, crowds or no, because before you know it you'll be home

 

[Bagheera23608]

We were there two weeks ago and I was surprised at the crowds myself. We did take advantage of EMHs tho. Not much choice when the parks close so early and the heat of the day just absolutely drains every ounce of will from your body.

I did notice - that with a few exceptions, the parks were swamped, but ride lines were not too bad. They got progressively worse as the day went on, but not middle of summer bad.

 

[Steelersfan43]

Just got back and did the MNSSHP and it wasn't crowded at all . Sat went to Epcot and was too bad for the first day of food and wine. We didn't wait very long for any rides. Maybe because we are used to summer crowds. I know are school was off fri and this mon

 

[Feralpeg]

Food & Wine has started. The crowds always pick up big time when it begins. I went to Epcot on Saturday night. It was packed. There were long lines for most of the food stands. I'm going back tomorrow night to see Richard Marx. I'll report on crowd level when I get home.

 

[Callalily6]

epcot was better tonight (it poured on and off all day). no emh. woulda said it was a 5 about now - closes in an hour. MK was no where near a 4 last week. Way closer to a 6-7. Ive been here at this time of year exactly before with free dining and there are a lot more people here this time. I expected a weekend hike. Hoping it drops off tomorrow. We'll see.

 

[lfwhipp]

we were there from 9/19-9/25 and never saw a line longer than 25 min except for thursday at epcot where soarin got to around 45 min. it was the least crowded i have ever seen the parks. we also did two MNSSHP's and they were great, very low crowds all around. we did not utilize EMH's escept for 9/21 at DHS and with that still we rodae TSM 4 times, only once with a fast pass and never more than a 25 min wait.

 

[JeffZ]

I made the same mistake back in '05 free dining ---didn't check the calendar for any holidays specifically The Jewish Holiday. It was the first year for free dining and I was checking here on the Dis before we left. The trip reports were great---walk-ons ,ghost town ....until we got there!The buses were packed and the driver said "you should have been here last week--it was empty" Who knew?

 

[aja319se]

Wasn't this weekend the Expedition Everest marathon? I wonder if that also contributed to the crowd levels???
We leave next Sunday and I'm hoping for low crowds!