How crowded are the resort pools?

[Adlergray]

How crowded are the resort pools over the summer months? Is it equal to how crowded the parks are? Or are there times of the day that are generally more crowded then others?

 

[Kimberle]

Yes, they can be crowded. It depends on the time of day and the weather. I find the best time to come is when the afternoon rain starts letting up. The pools are open in the rain as long as there is no lightning in the area and the guards can see the bottom of the pool.

 

[Sammie]

The pool at the Yacht and Beach and the pool at the Polynesian can get very busy during the summer. Sadly some of the people at the Polynesian pool are not even resort guests.

 

[CR Resort Fan 4 Life]

I would also say it depends on which resort you are staying at, how popular the pool is and it's overall size to fit all the guests staying there.

 

[ciera321]

We've stayed at many of the resorts and the Poly and WL pools seem to be crazy full a lot of the time. As Sammie said, Poly seems to get a lot of people from other resorts, which makes it uncomfortably full. We were chatting with a little girl when we were at the Poly pool who told us (probably a lot more than her parents would have liked )that her Mom and Dad bring her and her siblings to swim in a Disney pool, because the pool at their resort isn't very nice. I asked her where they were staying and she said a hotel close to Universal...

 

[tami82]

We stayed at CR and the pools were not packed at all the whole week we were there in August last year. They also had a quieter circular pool near the lake which was nice.

 

[SmallWorld71]

The pools do get pretty busy although I've never found them to not be enjoyable. Evening seemed to be the busiest on our August trips. Even the "quiet" pools would be quite full. (This was at POR as well as the values.)

 

[a1tinkfans]

the AUg time period seems to get busier at pools.
We just returned from Poly and it was busy, but near the 4th holiday. I hear its busy a lot AND that some are not even resort guests....(which personally I disagree with).

Anyhoo, we enjoy POR because of the available other pools on property (quiet pools) and I find that "sometimes" moms and dads that apparently need a break use it as a babysitting service and late at night, the noise is loud (and rude, others are retiring for the nite) but its disney after all.....so the GOOD thing is, many options to choose from .......choose a resort wisely, I say.....
we still love POR despite the "people" sometimes

 

[kaligal]

They get pretty crowded at all the resorts, especially on hot afternoons.

 

[huntconn]

We stay at the Poly every Summer and the Volcano pool can get very crowded. And yes, some of it is due to "pool hoppers" which can be annoying. However, I kind of like it when the pool is crowded...lots of people to talk to and watch. Sort of fun in a Disney kind of way. I've never found it to be uncomfortably crowded but it's been close on several occasions! Unfortunately the Volcano pool is not as large as it should be, especially considering the fact that it is one of the best themed pools at WDW, making it all the more attractive to guests and hoppers alike. The quiet pool is just that. Much less used due to the popularity of the Volcano pool.

 

[sunshineNJ]

We stayed at the Poly in Aug of 08. The pool was crowded all the time. It is a cool pool with a great slide but the pool itself is too small for the size of the resort. I am also very sure that pool hopping was happening. CMs need to police this better.

 

[Donna3271]

Ugh..... This is frustrating. We are staying at the Poly in Jan., but I assume the pools will be empty then. Disney should make everyone wear wrist bands, and be as stringent as they are at the BC & YC pool.

 

[OllieDannyandMe]

We stayed at Bay Lake Tower last August and used the Contemporary pool. It wasn't crowded at all. It's a pretty big pool and every time we swam in it there were less than 10 other people. Lots of empty chairs, too!

We were out there during the morning and afternoon on several occasions. We never made it out for an evening swim, but looking at the pool from our balcony, it never seemed crowded at night.

 

[jcriket]

We stayed at Bay Lake Tower last August and used the Contemporary pool. It wasn't crowded at all. It's a pretty big pool and every time we swam in it there were less than 10 other people. Lots of empty chairs, too!

We were out there during the morning and afternoon on several occasions. We never made it out for an evening swim, but looking at the pool from our balcony, it never seemed crowded at night.

My dd's had this pool to themselves for about 2 hours one afternoon about 5 years ago. It's not their favorite pool, but they used that slide about 50 times without waiting.

 

[Sammie]

Ugh..... This is frustrating. We are staying at the Poly in Jan., but I assume the pools will be empty then. Disney should make everyone wear wrist bands, and be as stringent as they are at the BC & YC pool.

They definitely need to do it during the summer.

 

[Dizfan4life]

I have known of so many people that have pool hopped and I am not a fan of it. I am a person who doesn't want to inconvenience other guests and if I pool hopped I would just feel completely guilty. I would feel like I am taking chairs and spaces from the guests who have paid to stay at that certain resort. I am really surprised that Disney hasn't policed it better and maybe require guests to slide their home resort key to enter pool areas. So many hotels around the US require a key for entry and I wonder why Disney doesn't?