Here now - INSANE crowds. (Jan 8-17)

[MermaidMommy]

Josh posted wait times on Twitter on January 11. Most of them were quite low: 5 minutes for Everest, 10 for Soarin', 20 for RnR, 20 for BTMRR and Jungle Cruise. This was at 4:00. Seems pretty good to me....

 

[megs1313]

Josh posted wait times on Twitter on January 11. Most of them were quite low: 5 minutes for Everest, 10 for Soarin', 20 for RnR, 20 for BTMRR and Jungle Cruise. This was at 4:00. Seems pretty good to me....

my sister was at MK on the 12th and it wasn't bad at all according to her. Hardly anything was more than 30 minutes with the normal exceptions. I'm hoping for the best this week!

 

[Suzanne74]

Last week was a 5 day school week. This week is either a 3 or 4 day school week. Many more vacationers this week than last is my guess.

 

[WhispyPixie]

I am sure the 3 day weekend has something to do with the crowds being increased! But, with that said... a crowded day at Disney is better than a non crowded day at home

 

[mco65]

we were there the 31st through the 8th.. the weekend (31st and 1st) were not as bad as the weekdays. Obviously there are no more slow times.. but It was crazy busy.. i am thinking spring break for 2018.. we have done spring break before it was NOT as busy as the first week in Jan.. not even close IMO..

 

[chiisai]

Yeah, while the week before and after Easter are pretty darn insane crowded (but I did it once and am doing it again, we have a solid strategy), other spring time weeks fare better since schools spread out their breaks. Weeks on any fixed holiday are very busy. This one worse than usual likely due to inauguration days off, as other have said. Though any time around a fixed holiday will be wild.

 

[maloned]

I'm here too. It seems busier than past January's. Last night was topped off by a 30 minute wait to order a hot dog at Casey's Corner.

But as a whole, this past year seemed much busier than normal. I don't understand the reports of lighter crowds. There was a time when we visited in January/February .. September/October and we could find many attractions with only a 15 minute wait time. Those days are long gone.

 

[North of Mouse]

I am sure the 3 day weekend has something to do with the crowds being increased! But, with that said... a crowded day at Disney is better than a non crowded day at home

Some people say the same about rainy days - not for us on either - but to each their own!

 

[TwoMisfits]

I'm here too. It seems busier than past January's. Last night was topped off by a 30 minute wait to order a hot dog at Casey's Corner.

But as a whole, this past year seemed much busier than normal. I don't understand the reports of lighter crowds. There was a time when we visited in January/February .. September/October and we could find many attractions with only a 15 minute wait time. Those days are long gone.

4 things -
1. Disney is "right-sizing" employees, so they no longer staff the same way every day of the year. They staff for expected crowds and provide a certain wait level for those crowds. If they make a mistake, you can feel like the park is REALLY crowded when it just might be slightly more than normal...and vice versa - if they overstaff, you might feel the crowd is empty, but it's not.
2. The little sisters are not dragging people away from MK - so MK is continually going to feel packed - the more days you do there, the more you feel it. You can see many posters saying HS and AK felt fine - and that's b/c they were.
3. The park hours are not long, so few are leaving mid-day or only coming for day/evening. If MK is open only 9am-8pm (or 9am-9pm), you will have the vast majority of guests try to stay for the duration and not have waves of crowds like you would on an 8am-midnight day (where you might get shifts of 8am-3pm and 3pm to midnight)...this will make it feel different than a Spring Break or Christmas crowd (if you've been in them before)...
4. Florida is warm in winter - winter should always be its prime season, especially now that the population ages b/c people like warmth - that's just a gimme. We have an aging population and it will only continue to age and Florida will get more full in these Jan-Mar months...

 

[aviva5675]

How can you check TP for actual crowd levels on previous dates?

 

[Cadaverous Pallor]

How can you check TP for actual crowd levels on previous dates?

They have a section called "Historical Crowds"

 

[DisneyKoolaid]

Another contributing factor to extra crowds at Epcot this weekend might also be due to the first weekend of the Festival of the Arts, but you'd think if that was true, it would help thin out the crowds at the other parks.

My barometer for insanity at Epcot is the wait time for Figment. If people are waiting an hour for Figment, it's time to go home (or to a different park).

 

[Myke]

Also here now, though my first time in forever. Planned around crowd calendars and expected it to be busier on the weekend than the week. I have no preconceived expectations but it has felt extremely crowded in most parks. We're managing okay thanks to planning and strategy gratefully accepted from you all combined with strict rope dropping and midday breaks, but the crowds (and buses!) have slowed us down a fair bit no doubt.

So far the only park that has felt remotely 'quiet' has been Blizzard Beach!

 

[scrapquitler]

We're here for our first January trip, and the crowds have been at summer levels practically the whole time. We've been going in November the last few years and have enjoyed the lower crowds then. (I spent most of my 30 years of trips coming in summers, though.)
But I always thought January was supposed to be super slow season. Nope.
Lines for popular rides are between 90 min and three hours. Fast passes are long gone, so we had to stick with the ones we made ages ago or forego any. We can barely walk through all the crowds. May need to reconsider next year's trip timing if it'll be like this!

We were there this week, too. From Wednesday to Sunday. And the only place/time we thought the crowds were bad was at Epcot in the World Showcase on Friday night, around the food carts and exiting MK after EMH on Wednesday night. We never waited more than 20 minutes for any ride, and we rode all the 'big' rides in MK, plus several of them in EP, HS and the Safari in AK. We went this weekend last year, and we happy with the crowd levels both years.

We rode Soarin' 2 times on Wednesday afternoon without fast passes and had about a 15 minute wait each time.

ETA: On Sunday morning there was a sea of people outside MK waiting to get in. DH and I both sad, oh no, we picked the wrong park! But I timed it, and from getting in bag check line to standing in front of Tony's actually only took 7 minutes. It looked worse than it actually was.

 

[mombrontrent]

I'm here now, yesterday was our first park day, we went to MK at about 1:00. Used out three fast passes and got a couple more for the evening. Wait times were posted high but actual wait were lower, for example we got in line for haunted mansion around 3:00 when the posted wait was 70 minutes, actual wait was about 30 minutes. Crowds felt heavy but not insane, we knew it was busy when we heard the park was extending hours until midnight instead of closing at 11:00. We stayed until midnight and from about 1:00-midnight rode these rides using 5 FP:
Jungle cruise x2
Splash
Thunder mountain x2
Haunted mansion
Tomorrow land speedway x2
Space mountain
Buzz
People mover
Asto orbiter
carousel of progress
Dumbo
Barnstormer
Pirates
Also ate dinner at skippers

Hanging out by the pool today before heading to Sanaa at 5:00. Going back to MK after dinner to do some favourite repeats and some rides we missed. Our plan for 7 dwarfs is to get in line before 10:00 close and wait it out. It was only posted at a 25 minute wait at 10:30 last night. Hopefully the rest of the week is lower crowds for the other parks!

 

[jlnten17]

We check in Thursday. Will be watching this thread to see if it gets any less crowded. Luckily this is not our first trip so we can enjoy resort hopping, pool time etc if the parks are crazy.

 

[kayteekt]

If i remember correctly this was the case last year too. I remember because we had a trip planned for 1/25 thru 2/1 so I was keeping an eye on crowd levels. Was starting to get really worried but everything had leveled out by that last week of January.
My opinion...they've bridged the gap between new years and MLK day crowds with the marathon and that's keeping the first 2-3 weeks of January consistently very busy.

 

[Ds4angels]

Glad to hear it leveled out the last week of Jan/1st of Feb..... I'll just hold onto that hope

 

[NYCANC]

Been here since the 5th- marathon weekend was fine. Only felt the crowds get larger going into this weekend.
But even so- kept on adding FP's and I think with all day in MK yesterday- was able to get 10 FP's all together.
Rope drop! And use that app for FP's quickly.

 

[pezgirlroy]

I was there all last week and it did not seem that bad. There were definite waits but when you would expect them. Saturday was our last day and you could def. tell the crowds were picking up.