How Crowded at DHS on Star Wars Weekend?

izzy

“I slapped Ouiser Boudreaux”
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Dec 9, 1999
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I made my plans months ago to go to DHS on May 21 and I'd rather not change at this late date since I already have an ADR at the Sci Fi that day. I don't plan on doing any of the Star Wars events, so I'll probably stay out of that area of the park. Will the rest of the park be ridiculously crowded?
 
me too, im expecting the worst. i went one year for my birthday with my family...i only have to mention starwars weekend to my dad and he imediately :scared1: he was not happy when we went, you couldnt move in the area where star tours is located i mean it was bad! i have a good time at disney anywhoo so although im expecting the worst im going into it with a very posative attitude, its my sister an her bf first starwars weekend(first trip to disney compleatly for the bf) and the bf loves starwars, im excited to see his reaction to it. my sister an i love the parks so i cant wait to go :)
 
I was there for the first day of SWW last year. Here I thought "How cute! It will be all star Wars and a great time" Now I love Star Wars( I even entered my wedding reception to the Throne Room music) but....OMG!!!!! It was insane. You could barely move. We waited online to buy something for 45 min bc it was Star Wars merchandise. We were trying to get to our ADR at H&V and got stuck in the parade. We were trying to get around it but the cast members made us stop. There were people cursing at me and my family (including a 3 year old) bc we stopped and were now blocking their view. We tried to move again but were told by the cast members that we had to stay where we were until the parade was over. We ate our lunch, passed off our TSM FP and hauled butt out of there!

Bottom line.... People are FANATICS about Star Wars!!! Sure it was nice to see the parade and characters (from afar) but it was really too much.
 

Will it be a Fatasmic night too? This really made the crowds heavier at spring break.

Over spring break (DS wanted to see Fatasmic) and we didn't have park hoppers, so went to DHS on a Fatasmic Day. We were there at rope drop and had a touring plan. My general observation, though, was that it seemed like everyone else was there at rope drop or at least an hour after park opening too. Usually at the parks we experience two hours of shorter lines when we get there early. But that wasn't the case here (This is the first time for me in 22 trips to WDW since 1970 that I saw park crowds so heavy that early). This is also the first time I've ever actually skipped rides in my touring plan (2nd ride of the day recommended was Tower or Terror), but because the line was already over an hour and we didn't want to wait that long we skipped it and went to the next recomendation. (Picked up fast pass for TOT later (two in our party weren't interested in doing Voyage of the Little Mermaid) and got fast passes when other went on that and rode in in the evening after Fatasmic.) Even being there at rope drop, the line just to pick up a Toy Story Mania fast pass was 15/20 minutes long (first thing we did). Crowd level was a 10 per the Unofficial Guide, and it felt like it too.

The weather was wonderful, we still had a fantastic day, but even with good planning didn't do everything we were originally planning to do (not a problem for us / had been before in 2008 over Christmas) During Christmas 2008 crowds were lighter then I think because at that time Fatasmic had two shows a night going every day (Unofficial Guide said that the crowd projection for that day was a 9). I actually if that was acurate saw a huge difference between a 9 and a 10 day. We didn't fit in the Stunt show or Beauty and the Beast which were on our plan on this spring break trip -- did get to do the animation class which we love -- not on the plan, but a favorite of ours and something we added in.)// With the exception of Voyage of the Little Mermaid -- That was our worst line of the day (Wasn't posted as being that long but took about an hour and 10 minutes), other lines with our plan were 30 to 35 minutes (not that terrible) for popular attractions // shorter for smaller attractions or we got fast passes (Tower of Terror and Toy Story Mania).

I don't want to scare you off, though. Believe it or not it despite how crowded it was, it was really fun.
 
We made the mistake of going to HS on a Star Wars weekend and it was a nightmare, the crowds were unbelieveable...we high tailed it to Epcot where there were no crowds.

We are going back in a few days and I plan to avoid HS on that weekend, the first weekend it starts, we will go back on Monday instead LOL
 
It is CRAZY! We went last year, and it was about 3 times as crowded as MK was the day before. You can't move, its at least a 30 minute wait to check out in any gift shop, (an hour at the star tours gift shop) and insane at all the restaurants. If you want to see any of the star wars characters? Good luck. An hour wait min to get a photo and autograph with them. They had some lesser know characters just walking around that didn't sign autographs, but you could snap a pic with them. My verdict: unless you have a star wars fanatic in the fam like we did (my son), stay far far away.
 
Blech. Well that really screws up my plans. I was hoping if I avoided the Star Wars/Tour area that the rest of the park might not be so bad, but it sounds like that won't be the case. Maybe I'll just have an Epcot day with lunch at Beaches and Cream so that I can get my burger (and Milky Way sundae!) fix.
 
Maybe I got lucky cause last year when I was there it wasn't too bad on the friday. I'll be there this year too and if push comes to shove (literally) I'll head to another park.
 
Yes it will be crazy busy all over that park... We were not Star WArs fans at all but wanted to see what the fuss was about... never again! It was unreal... It took almost an hour to get there on bus transportation b/c the traffic was bumper to bumper.. coming and going!
 
I was planning on DHS on the 27th, but I might be rethinking my plan. We were going to avoid the Star Wars stuff, but looks like doing DHS on the 26th might be the better option, then do MK on the 27th.
 
I was planning on DHS on the 27th, but I might be rethinking my plan. We were going to avoid the Star Wars stuff, but looks like doing DHS on the 26th might be the better option, then do MK on the 27th.

I would avoid DHS on that day; I originally scheduled my DHS day for the 27th, but ended up switching it to the 26th. I like SW a lot, but not enough to deal with those crowds.
 


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