Here Now & Just Back - A Place To Share Your Recent Experiences

[2vets]

I'd say things are pretty much what we'd expect - some Magic Kingdom wait time stats courtesy of thrill-data.com:

• LAST FRIDAY IN FEBRUARY 2021 vs:
  • LAST FRIDAY IN JANUARY 2021: +46.0%
  • LAST FRIDAY IN FEBRUARY 2020: -23.6%
• LAST FRIDAY IN FEBRUARY 2020 vs:
  • LAST FRIDAY IN JANUARY 2020: +48.8%
• LAST FRIDAY IN JANUARY 2021 vs:
  • LAST FRIDAY IN JANUARY 2020: -23.2%

So we see that on both the last Friday in Jan and last Friday in February of this year, wait times are down 23% vs. the prior year - this is probably due to a combination of no FP+ (which helps standby lines move faster) plus reduced ride capacity due to social distancing (which hurts some standby lines).

And we see that the last Friday in February wait times increased by 48.8% last year over the last Friday in January last year and so far today they are up 46.0% over the same Friday this year.

Of course this data could change as the day goes along - they only have about 4 hours of data so far - but I think we are often confusing "FEELS LIKE" with the actual data. I have a friend there this week who was also there back in late January for a week+ (the same week we were there) and they said it's slightly busier FWIW. And it probably should be slightly busier because crowd levels the last week of February historically are about 20% higher than the last week of January.

Nothing like data to show that it's the use of space playing a big role (which we knew, right?). I suppose it's just seeing things like the quote above ("In 10 years of trips, I have never, ever been in close proximity to this many people in a WDW park.") that makes it seemsort of frightening. The reality is that we saw it get very "crowded" in early Nov a few times as well. I suppose it's all about gauging comfort and taking the initiative to get yourself out of a situation that you aren't enjoying. I'm going back in April....but I'm still surprised at myself!

 

[Ecomommy09]

Nothing like data to show that it's the use of space playing a big role (which we knew, right?). I suppose it's just seeing things like the quote above ("In 10 years of trips, I have never, ever been in close proximity to this many people in a WDW park.") that makes it seemsort of frightening. The reality is that we saw it get very "crowded" in early Nov a few times as well. I suppose it's all about gauging comfort and taking the initiative to get yourself out of a situation that you aren't enjoying. I'm going back in April....but I'm still surprised at myself!

Right! We went in December of 2019 and it was so crowded in Epcot that I couldn’t walk through the park without my disabled 10-yr-old touching everyone from her wheelchair. I got so fed up I just stopped apologizing. I couldn’t prevent her and if they didn’t want to be touched they were just going to have to try to move. I will be interested to see if it’s that bad in March or if it’s just personal perspective.

 

[Orion Nebula]

I consider Friday to be a weekend, for all intents and purposes.

Ya It's always been pretty crowded on Fridays. Obviously things have been a bit crazy right now anyhow, but I wouldn't go to a park Fri-Sun if I could help it. Although I couldn't help it this trip and will be at AK this Sunday. lol

 

[dmbgotfan41]

My wife & I took a trip back from November 6-14th staying at CBR & wanted to share some observations. I'll make a separate post for each observation. Sorry in advance for this being LONG

This was my first ever trip to WDW & her first since 1994 as a kid. WE BOTH LOVED IT! I think not knowing the park pre-pandemic was a plus for us. Yet, now we are hooked on WDW… it only took once!

1). Rope Drop/Ride Wait Times: Thanks to the awesome advice on this forum, we got creative to take advantage of rope drop.
Sat 11/7 at MK:

• Caught an Uber to Contemporary at 7:00am after mobile ordering for Contemp Cafe. The gate attendant waved through our driver & it wasn't an issue.
• Walked from Contemporary & were let in the park at 8:15
• Went right to 7DMT waiting 10-15 minutes.
• Walked on PP
• 10-15 minutes for BTMRR
• Were on Splash after 10 minutes but the ride broke down while we were sitting in our log in the station. We were given anytime fast passes to come back which we did after lunch
• 15 minutes for Pirates.
• Posted 50 minutes for Space & waited 40

We were in the park for two-plus hours and rode the five biggest rides with a FP for a sixth. The rest of the day was decently crowded, but not unbearable:

• 30 minutes for HM,
• 35 for Jungle Cruise (probably my least favorite of the classics)
• 20 for Tiki
• 25 for Country Bears
• 15 for Presidents
• 10 for Tea Cups
• 20 for VoLM
• walked on Dumbo,
• 15 for Pooh,
• 35 for Buzz (biggest letdown of the day for me).
• Left around 530

Sun 11/8 at Hollywood Studios:

• Took an Uber to Boardwalk after mobile ordering from BW Bakery
• Driver tried to say we were guests, attendant went to check his list & I showed him my mobile order. Attendant told us to "leave the property once we had our food."
• Ate our food (delicious) on the boardwalk (technically off the resort property).
• Walked to HS arriving around 7:50AM (we were the 3rd group in line)
• More people started coming & a big, rude family stood off to the side instead of getting in the already formed line. Myself & a few others tried to remind them of the line unsuccessfully.
• Through Temp checks at 8:30am
• 15 minutes for MMRR
• 20 minutes for Slinky (Got BG 1 for ROTR called while in line)
• Was a continuous walk through the ROTR queue
• Explored Batuu before our Ronto mobile order at 11 I placed while we were waiting outside the gate that morning

The rest of the day definitely had some longer lines & some not so bad. HS was at capacity this day.

• Posted 80 for ToT, waited 60
• After going to Oga's, waited 35 for MFSR
• 20 for TSM
• Left after a delicious "dinner" at Brown Derby

Mon 11/9 Epcot:

• Got into the park right before 11am opening & headed right to TT. Unfortunately, it was down for a while due to weather & we got out of line right before it started working.
• Went to Spaceship Earth & waited 15
• Walked on Nemo
• Soarin x2 walk on (had a 35 minute wait the first changed to 15 for 2nd)
• Walked on Living with the Land
• Went back to TT where we waited 35 minutes just beating another storm
• Posted 60 for Frozen, waited 30
• Left around 6pm

Tues 11/10 AK:

• Got to CBR Main Bus Stop at 7:45 & were second group
• Waited 30 minutes for bus
• Enter AK around 8:30
• Went right to FoP waiting 25 minutes
• 30 for Safari
• 2x EE at 10 minutes apiece
• 30 for dinosaur (cleaning cycle)
• FoP posted 25, waited 15 after lunch
• 5 minutes for 2nd Safari
• Gorilla Trail was crowded but no wait
• Left around 2ish

Drank the World on Wednesday & got to a much less crowded MK later on Thursday (I think we all know why).

Fri 11/13 HS

• Woke up at 6:45 & got RoTR group 60ish
• My wife noticed at 7:01 HS was opening an hour earlier at 8:00am
• We got ready (15 minutes) & power walked to CBR Skyliner from Aruba (10 minutes)
• There was almost no wait at the Skyliner station which was very surprising
• Arrived to park at just after 8:30 just as they started letting people in
• 20 minutes for MMRR
• 35 for Slinky
• 30 for RnR
• 45 for ToT
• 20 for Muppets 3D
• 15 for RoTR but were stuck on Star Cruiser for 25 minutes when ride broke down
• Went back to CBR to relax
• Came back to TSM walk on
• 30 for ToT

I'm one of the most impatient people you will meet & I didn't have an issue once during the whole trip. Of course, I have no basis for comparison. Again, thanks to everyone on this forum for the rope drop advice!

I left off any details of our Food which I'll cover in the next post. Thanks for reading

 

[MomOTwins]

Nothing like data to show that it's the use of space playing a big role (which we knew, right?). I suppose it's just seeing things like the quote above ("In 10 years of trips, I have never, ever been in close proximity to this many people in a WDW park.") that makes it seemsort of frightening. The reality is that we saw it get very "crowded" in early Nov a few times as well. I suppose it's all about gauging comfort and taking the initiative to get yourself out of a situation that you aren't enjoying. I'm going back in April....but I'm still surprised at myself!

But you can't really compare wait times from Feb 2020 and compare to Feb 2021 and say there are lower crowds now, because wait times in Feb 2020 were at a time with fastpass. Hasn't everyone on these boards always said how much fastpass slowed down the standby lines, and how much faster standby queues would be without fastpass? On top of that, without character meals and meet and greets and parades to absorb crowds, all those people are adding to the "it's crowded" feeling. So it absolutely makes sense that people would say it feels more crowded now, even if standby wait times (on average--which remember, includes ) are the same or lower.

Would be interested to know what the data showed after a full day, since the prior poster noted the data only included the first four hours of the park open, since wait times in the first hour are much lower than the rest of the day.

 

[2vets]

But you can't really compare wait times from Feb 2020 and compare to Feb 2021 and say there are lower crowds now, because wait times in Feb 2020 were at a time with fastpass. Hasn't everyone on these boards always said how much fastpass slowed down the standby lines, and how much faster standby queues would be without fastpass? On top of that, without character meals and meet and greets and parades to absorb crowds, all those people are adding to the "it's crowded" feeling. So it absolutely makes sense that people would say it feels more crowded now, even if standby wait times (on average--which remember, includes ) are the same or lower.

Would be interested to know what the data showed after a full day, since the prior poster noted the data only included the first four hours of the park open, since wait times in the first hour are much lower than the rest of the day.

Agree, but to be fair, the original poster specifically mentioned the absence of FP. Another impact to keep in mind is the lack of certain attractions (e.g. shows) and diminished restaurant space.

 

[KerryCM]

I want to thank everyone who has posted here. It has been eye opening, to say the least! I wasn’t planning on going back until things were better, but my son has promised his kids a trip after my granddaughter’s cheer team opted out of Nationals the end of April. We are going March 25 for a short trip, thanks to my cast discount, I am retired! I am thankful that his job position allowed him to book a VIP tour guide for one of our days. Now the children will get to ride all their favorite rides during that day and Nana will be able to have a relaxing pool day another day during this short 5 day trip.

 

[Brittany Fata]

Okay, so based on reading this thread, I have decided that I am not ready to spend 5 days in the parks, which is what I originally had planned for my March trip. I am thinking of shortening my trip to a 4 night resort stay. My dates will be Monday March 22nd - Friday March 26th. I am thinking of doing a one day park ticket to kind of test the waters and see overall how I feel.

Based on crowds, is there any park in particular that seems to better at crowds/congested areas? I understand it won't be perfect, but I'm interested in people's opinions. My park day will either be Tuesday or Thursday.

 

[Akck]

Okay, so based on reading this thread, I have decided that I am not ready to spend 5 days in the parks, which is what I originally had planned for my March trip. I am thinking of shortening my trip to a 4 night resort stay. My dates will be Monday March 22nd - Friday March 26th. I am thinking of doing a one day park ticket to kind of test the waters and see overall how I feel.

Based on crowds, is there any park in particular that seems to better at crowds/congested areas? I understand it won't be perfect, but I'm interested in people's opinions. My park day will either be Tuesday or Thursday.

I’d go with Epcot first, then AK for less crowds. The two other parks are likely to be more crowded.

 

[dhutchin12]

Okay, so based on reading this thread, I have decided that I am not ready to spend 5 days in the parks, which is what I originally had planned for my March trip. I am thinking of shortening my trip to a 4 night resort stay. My dates will be Monday March 22nd - Friday March 26th. I am thinking of doing a one day park ticket to kind of test the waters and see overall how I feel.

Based on crowds, is there any park in particular that seems to better at crowds/congested areas? I understand it won't be perfect, but I'm interested in people's opinions. My park day will either be Tuesday or Thursday.

We are here now. I booked 4 days at the parks over 6 days. We originally had: MK, Epcot, HS, MK. After 1 day at the MK, we decided to move the MK day to a second Epcot day. We left MK at 1 pm. We stayed until 8 PM at Epcot. Today was HS. We left at noon. We literally only rode 1 ride. Tower of Terror was 60 minutes before the official opening. It was like that with almost all of the rides.
Epcot was much more pleasant for us and we felt that we had our space there, for the most part.

 

[parkluvr]

I see a lot of posts on the boards about the CDC limiting capacity to certain numbers like 50 percent. It seems to me that somewhere a while back those restrictions were lifted and the capacity numbers were essentially left to the discretion of Disney. The reason I ask is because my wife and I were in the Magic Kingdom this past Saturday, Feb 20th and Epcot Sunday Feb 21st, and the crowds were amazingly large. Saturday, walking through Adventureland and Fantasyland, was essentially people shoulder to shoulder. The crowds in the world showcase on Sunday for the last week of the festival of the arts were even worse. Both of us commented that the amount of people seemed to far exceed what we have experienced in previous years going in June and July. My wife actually commented that around Mexico, it seemed like the most crowded she had ever seen the world showcase. If these numbers were truly anywhere around 50 percent, I think it would be truly scary to experience 75 percent or more during this pandemic.

 

[mom2rtk]

The CDC doesn't control capacity in Florida. Florida does. And unless I'm mistaken, they're leaving it up to Disney.

 

[DCLMP]

Okay, so based on reading this thread, I have decided that I am not ready to spend 5 days in the parks, which is what I originally had planned for my March trip. I am thinking of shortening my trip to a 4 night resort stay. My dates will be Monday March 22nd - Friday March 26th. I am thinking of doing a one day park ticket to kind of test the waters and see overall how I feel.

Based on crowds, is there any park in particular that seems to better at crowds/congested areas? I understand it won't be perfect, but I'm interested in people's opinions. My park day will either be Tuesday or Thursday.

I would tell anyone that's worried about congestion and social distancing not to go. I've been twice during this pandemic and I've felt like most of the people that are there are the percentage of the population that isn't really concerned about those things. If wait times are your concern than rope drop is key.

 

[Upatnoon]

There are no state capacity or COVID rules in Florida. Disney could pack the parks, throw away the plexiglass and remove all social distancing efforts if it wanted.

Orange County and individual cities and counties in Florida have mask mandates, but they do not have enforcement provisions.

Disney is a private business and it sets the "house rules" for its guests to follow. It can ban guests for any reason, such as refusing to wear a mask.

When you go to a store or restaurant in Florida, usually the staff will be wearing masks, but that isn't required by any law. These are safety precautions the businesses are doing.

Florida businesses have different policies. For example, one resort may close the hot tubs for social distancing, while others leave them open. One restaurant will space out customers, while others will pack every table.

 

[winterwhite]

Just went to change our park pass for tomorrow and everything but Epcot is unavailable for passholders. MK and DHS unavailable for everyone.

 

[TikiRob]

Someone somewhere shared some interesting info about capacity. Basically, even with the parks at 35%, we are used to seeing them at only 75-80% on the busiest of days (besides the closures on Xmas/NYE/etc). Plus, reduced offerings and dining, socially distanced queues means the sense of more people everywhere.

 

[MomOTwins]

Okay, so based on reading this thread, I have decided that I am not ready to spend 5 days in the parks, which is what I originally had planned for my March trip. I am thinking of shortening my trip to a 4 night resort stay. My dates will be Monday March 22nd - Friday March 26th. I am thinking of doing a one day park ticket to kind of test the waters and see overall how I feel.

Based on crowds, is there any park in particular that seems to better at crowds/congested areas? I understand it won't be perfect, but I'm interested in people's opinions. My park day will either be Tuesday or Thursday.

I’d go with Epcot first, then AK for less crowds. The two other parks are likely to be more crowded.

Seconding that Epcot is very pleasant on weekdays. Much more room to spread out than other parks and a lot of it is outdoors (festival eats, music etc.) Only caveat is if they debut the fireworks show or ratatouille, that could change.

 

[wilkydelts]

Disney isn’t lying to you.

 

[lovethattink]

The parks are at 35% of full capacity. Consumer confidence is up from where it’s been. Disney has restaurant capacity at 50%. The rest of Florida my be 100% as long as tables are 6 feet apart.

Since this is a just back experience. I’m merging it to the existing thread.

 

[debdebdebby13]

Any thoughts about why things are so crazy now? President's Day is over, and Spring Break isn't for another couple of weeks. What gives? Are people trying to take advantage of work/school flexibility anticipating that things will soon go back to normal (normal-ish, I should say)?

This might be old news around here, but I follow this blog and they have a pretty good explanation about why its been crazy.

https://www.disneytouristblog.com/mardi-gras-crowds-disney-world/