Here now - Crowds are nuts

[famsen]

Just want to chime in and say it is also VERY HOT right now here too.
Tomorrow is forecast to be 93 degrees. The weather guy said that it would tie a long held record for the hottest September 28th.
They are talking about a "cold front" coming through Thursday and Friday. The highs those days are expected to be 86-88!
I think the unusually high temperatures for this time of year is a contributing factor to my crankiness on this trip.
I'm so glad to be here and and fortunate to be able to but with the crowds, heat and long wait times for the buses, I am taking a half day off from the parks tomorrow and will just hang out at our resort and hit a park in the evening.

 

[Callalily6]

Just want to chime in and say it is also VERY HOT right now here too...I am taking a half day off from the parks tomorrow and will just hang out at our resort and hit a park in the evening.

The heat has been killer. Its crazy humid too. I look like side show bob if I try to take my hat off.

We've been doing the same thing. Some days we go early, then come back and swim til dinner, and then head back.

Thanks for the tips on EMH.

 

[letsgoagainsoon]

I couldn't believe how packed mk was tonight! I remember when you could walk on most rides on EMH nights. Guess that has changed! Epcot tomorrow...and also EMH...yikes I sure hope it's not too bad!

 

[rosiep]

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.

This was my experience too. I was there from the 19th until the
26th . It's just so hard to predict!

 

[disneynutz]

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!

The least crowded parks seem to be the ones that had EMH the night before. At least that's our experience.

 

[lovebuzz]

We were there on Friday and Saturday 9/25 and 9/26. Friday we went to the MK and then stayed for the MNSSHP. MK was dead. We walked onto all rides with maybe a 5 min wait. Then the party started and it got a little crowded.

Saturday we started out at AK and it was a little crowded. The safari only had a 30 min wait. We then left and went to HS, that place was a ghost town. After that we hopped over to Epcot and really did not notice any major crowds there either. We had a great time !!

 

[Peace Mickey Lovers]

We leave is 3 days hoping for smaller crowds, but just happy to be going and ready to have fun.

 

[shelemm]

Beginning of F&W (or other special events) has nothing to do with it. I've been there when it was easy going. It is a combination of three things:

Holiday
EMH Day
Free Dining


In that order.

September this year was more crowded than last and the Fall (because of Free Dining) is getting to be more hopping than the first week of March.

Non-EMH parks will be less crowded.

Buying park hoppers may or may not be a good strategy, but they are definitely not free.

 

[Dorisk3]

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

With all due respect to the Underground Guide, I think their numbers are a bit unreliable of late. We were there from 9/6-9/13- with a few days listed as 7 and 5's and everything was a walk on. I wouldn't treat those numbers as gospel anymore.

 

[SecretPoohLove]

We specifcally targeted the day after an EMH for a park day. Good low crowds until Thursday (AK was very busy but ride lines manageable). Sat was nuts at Epcot. We went the previous Sunday and 10 minutes for test track. Sat was 50 minutes....

 

[pilesoflaundry]

With all due respect to the Underground Guide, I think their numbers are a bit unreliable of late. We were there from 9/6-9/13- with a few days listed as 7 and 5's and everything was a walk on. I wouldn't treat those numbers as gospel anymore.

Same here except we didn't get there until the 14th and left the 19th. Days were 4-6 but we found nothing to be bad at all.

I'm really glad we went when we did now! We had thought about last week or this week for dd's birthday but chose to try and avoid the F&W and not take the kids out of school.

 

[vcgirl925]

My cousins are there now and they said on Saturday the waits were 5 - 10 minutes, not sure what park that was though.

 

[connie1042]

We were there from Sept. 19 thru 27th. We walked on everything. We did go to MK on Sat. morning for a dis meet, and thought it was more crowed then the previous Sun. We did do fastpass for TSM. We collected a few FP for the evening on the 20th. We rode everything we wanted then left for the hotel pool. Went back that night and used our fastpasses.We were done with SM, BTMR, and jungle cruise in about 15 min. I will write more later. I will say the HEAT was very bad!! It just really wore you out.

 

[cel_disney]

We were at the parks 9/21 - 9/26, we did not go back on 9/27.

It was HOT!!

We had the following schedule:
- 9/21 - MK afternoon, Epcot evening
- 9/22 - MK morning (ropedrop) and MNSSHP evening
- 9/23 - DHS day, Downtown night
- 9/24 - AK day, EPCOT night
- 9/25 - EPCOT day (almost ropedrop), DHS night
- 9/26 - MK day, EPCOT night

We had no problem traveling through the world the first 5 days...mostly...Downtown Disney was busier than we had ever seen it - so busy that we left cause you just couldnt even navigate around the stores without bumping into people left and right..

And Saturday at MK the waits were MUCH longer than they had been on Monday and Tuesday - still not horrible when compared to summer, but MUCH longer than we are used to (we are spoiled going in September - when the 5 minute small world wait time goes to 30 minutes, its a HUGE increase in people compared to what we are used to). We still found that some of the posted wait times were higher than actual wait and that with smart touring and fast pass usage, we managed to get around fine, it was just much busier!

EPCOT world showcase was of course busier when food and wine started, but it didnt seem that much worse than I remembered last year! I think that the heat was making everyone crankier than usual though - not so much the beer/wine, but the heat!!

 

[Tigers317]

We were from 9/23 -9/27. It wasn't all that packed for us except for Saturday at the Magic Kingdom. It was really hot!

9/23 Magic Kingdom - Splach Mountain and Thunder Mountain were walk on and the longest wait was Peter pan at 20 minutes.

9/24 - Animal Kindom - Walked on to the Safari and Rapids. About a 10 minute wait for Expedition Everest.

9/25 Epcot - Walked on all rides except for soarin which was 30 minutes.
MNSSHP - Wasn't at all packed. Rode Thunder mountain and they didn't even make us get off and let us ride it again.

9/26 Magic Kindom - Was very packed about an hour wait for splash mountain.

9/27/09 - HS - Wasn't too bad Roockin Roller Coaster and Tower of Terror were about 30 min and Toy Story got up to 80 min.

 

[Febe]

I just got home from being there Sept 19th to 26th. And having never been before and not knowing what it was like I would say it was crowded. But the waits weren't too bad, our worst was 20 minutes for Jungle cruise. We did see 50 minute plus waits for rides but we took advantage of fastpasses to get on those rides. The worst was for soaring at epcot Friday and Kilimangaro Safaris at AK on Tuesday.

The heat and the humidity were high. And I think that impacts how tolerable people are.

 

[diamondpixienc]

You see this is why I love this forum Now I must admit I chose our travel dates based off the suggestions and advice I have read here and I must say that now, I am a little worried about Sept 2010. Should I take into consideration the F&W fest and tweek my dates? As if the dates are same as this year's it would start in the middle of our trip and it sounds like the crowds went from mild to crazy w/in a day or two. What do you think? Would be our first trip w/ DH, and kids 7,5,& 11mo.

 

[pilferk]

We were there from the 16th - 25th. The weekend crowds and the crowds at the EMH park (we only did one day of that) were larger than we've normally seen this time of year. And the crowds seemed to swell just as we were leaving the parks (around 3 - 4 PM, each day).

But, overall, it didn't seem crazy busy. We never waited more than 20 minutes for ANYTHING (even Toy Story at DHS)...but we also typically ride "big", early.

Still, 40 minutes after Epcot opened there was a 5 minute wait for Soarin'. We basically walked the que, walked onto a concourse, and walked into our seats.

The restaurants, on the other hand, were absolute ZOO's! Free dining was packing them in.

All that being said: We left the day food and wine started (though we were at Epcot for the soft open, at around 1 PM, on the 24th...got to try some GREAT stuff!!). It typically gets busier, especially at Epcot, when F&W starts.

 

[pilferk]

The heat has been killer. Its crazy humid too. I look like side show bob if I try to take my hat off.

We've been doing the same thing. Some days we go early, then come back and swim til dinner, and then head back.

Thanks for the tips on EMH.

I'm 100% with you on the heat. Average temp while we were there was in the low 90's. HOT, HOT, HOT and humid like you wouldn't believe. It wasn't unbearable, but it was darn close. If it's WORSE than that in June - Aug...I can't imagine going during that time frame!

Next trip: FEBRUARY!!

 

[Barbara C]

We were there from 9/19 until 9/27 and I didn't think the parks were that crowded. We went to MK on Saturday and went on our favorite rides multiple times without more than a 15 min wait. I can't remember which day we went to Epcot but we went on Soarin' 3 times and only one of those was with a fastpass.

I will say there seemed to be a lot of people in the park but the lines for rides were not bad at all.

I have to agree it was HOT! My hair took on a life of it's own!