Here now...

[pearljamin03]

PACKED!!! Epcot was a mad house yesterday and mk was nuts today. I'm talking summer crowds. Came same week last year and the place was empty. Very sad I can honestly say all the years I've used TP this is the first time I've been disappointed.

 

[pearljamin03]

Ps... I know Monday is a mk no no but TP had it rated as the best park so I gave it a try... Epic failure ;(

 

[Crystal Brewer]

Hoping all glitches in WDW tweaked as we are newbies yet MDE has helped I tried TP on main pc tho wasn't impressed also loaded Disney Mobile Magic today as a PP mentioned within the last month it seemed most accurate?!? I'm a HUGE planner tho this will be my first to tackle this destination Good Luck on better days of Magic

 

[parkhopping]

Yep, MK was Josh's least recommended park today. Epcot was ranked third for yesterday. http://www.easywdw.com/calendar/february-2013-walt-disney-world-crowd-calendar/#more-8834

 

[pearljamin03]

Josh 2 TP 0! Oh well I guess

 

[Shannon12]

Mardi Gras week s this week too....that changes yearly by when Ash Wednesday/Lent begins so it would be different than this week last year.

 

[pearljamin03]

^ yeah learned that lesson too. LSU and Saints shirts everywhere.

 

[livndisney]

PACKED!!! Epcot was a mad house yesterday and mk was nuts today. I'm talking summer crowds. Came same week last year and the place was empty. Very sad I can honestly say all the years I've used TP this is the first time I've been disappointed.

Interesting..... we were in World Showcase yesterday afternoon and did not think the crowds were bad at all. Now traffic headed to Universal on Saturday (very happy we were going to opposite way). Hope your week gets better.

 

[JennyDrake]

NOT scolding you but I think most people put WAY too much faith in touring plans and crowd predictions. I go to WDW 3-6 x/year never during peak season and I rarely find the predictions accurate.

Sadly there are few "slow" times anymore and really no "dead" times as we used to know and love.

 

[LaurenT]

Have to ask....were you there for rope drop? If so, how were the first few hours? Even in the least recommended park, the first few hours should have been ok....

 

[catherines_mama]

We leave Thursday and I've been getting knotted up over all these crowd posts, but then I remember: I've been to WDW so many time. Summer, Christmas, Spring Break, random non-busy weekends. Just go with purpose, use your brain, be flexible and have fun! With kids, we get limited. We're headed back this summer right smack in the heat of summer break, not much we can do. At least with this busy weekend, it won't be so hot .

 

[nooneshome]

Happy Mardi Gras people!!! Now go earn your beads the Nawlins way!!!

 

[Kay1]

Happy Mardi Gras people!!! Now go earn your beads the Nawlins way!!!

Ha Ha. We'll be doing that this weekend. Steve Miller Band, y'all. Guess we'd better be ready for some big crowds!

Have fun, everyone.

 

[pearljamin03]

Yes we have been at rope drop every morning. Packed, no joke. Today was our best day. We went to AK. I never put much stock in crowd predictors either till I tried it. I've been coming every year forever and my mom is a cm so I'm not a rookie. I've just thought TP has been dead on but not this trip. We park hop often and you can see the differences in crowds. I agree w/ you tho. Just never know I guess... I know one thing tho. Who's holding the fort in Louisiana because everyone is here!!!

 

[hoosll]

We were there last week and I really feel that Disney has underestimated the size of crowds expected this time of years ... New Fantasyland has certainly increased interest in a time of year when many rides (Splash Mtn and a waterpark) are down for maintenance. Add in glitches to the monorail and the rides that are still running. There really isn't much to siphon the crowds away from the most popular rides. Did you pay big bucks to sit by the pool on your 4-day trip ....

It is clear that Disney is still tinkering with FP. I was amazed that the return times would shift by 5 minutes at a time about every 15 minutes ... so that means that when your return time comes around they are banking that the majority of people will be there at the beginning of their return hour. We often got behind a tour leader with a huge stack of tickets which meant the tour group would be back at the exact same return hour as us ... we lurked to get in at the exact return time to get ahead of a group.

If you are not there at rope drop, you can probably expect to get 2 FP rides, the rest of the time you will be stand by. Do single rider lines whenever you can... in fact be ready to volunteer as a single while in line.

I wish Disney had another park being secretly being built on property ... in a way they may now be counting on Universal to siphon away some people but they have maxed out the transportation system with the huge number of onsite hotel rooms. The fact that they are creating "experineces" like pirates, Agent P and star wars show that they are trying to keep people entertained besides doing the rides. The problem is that the walkways get clogged with watchers as well as the usual map readers and people who just seem to stop to confer with each other.

I will continue to go to WDW. We are now at FW so we can reduce our food and hotel bill. I will plan to do more days accomplishing less each day (this trip: 5 park days but only made it to 3 parks). A park hopper or AP is a must so you can change parks if necessary. You must know that for MK, expect larger crowds on the days that have the electrical parade, or DHS when Fantasmic has only one show. 2013 is going to be a busy year due to New Fantasyland although WE know it amounts to a new restaurant (booked solid) and 2 "eh" rides.

We did ride "new" Test Track again. We first rode on its first day in December. This time the ride had narration and more of the scenery was lit ... better this time but we still do single rider so skip the design phase ...

 

[rcraw45425]

Hubby and I made a visit in October without the teens. OMG, the crowds were like holiday levels! Granted it was food & wine but we never even hopped it was so packed and HOT and HUMID! Heat index of 105 at 1PM. We stayed in the tower at CR and the monorail stayed packed from opening to closing. Restaurants were insane even with ADRs. We used to love early October, never again!

 

[AmberHeartsDisney]

NOT scolding you but I think most people put WAY too much faith in touring plans and crowd predictions. I go to WDW 3-6 x/year never during peak season and I rarely find the predictions accurate.

Sadly there are few "slow" times anymore and really no "dead" times as we used to know and love.

I never use crowd calendars. I just pick a park and go. I am not much of a planner but we always have a good time.

 

[DisneyFive]

This seems to be a common theme the last two weeks, super high crowds. I'm not sure I would blame Touring Plans; it sounds like it has been busy everywhere on property.

Dan

 

[d_lairson]

We are here right now, I'm sitting at liberty tree for lunch and I think the crowds are very reasonable. It's busier than previous years but considering that its the true love week I don't think it's that bad.

With touring plans and the such they use algorithms to set the calendars and it can skew the results with the new fantasyland and limited time magic stuff.

 

[rainynight]

It was packed mid-september of last year. I think they need to do more to manage the crowds and put a stricter limit on the amount of people they allow in the parks at a time. Most people are not going to be willing to spend thousands of dollars on vacation only to ride a few rides and spend hours upon hours in lines.

We love Disney World and want to go back, but we are hesitant because of how packed it is these days. So I don't know. Sometimes I think I like the idea of Disney World more than actually going there.