How much will Soarin' and Maelstrom closures affect touring patterns?

[tentaguasu]

I'll be in Epcot in May, and it sounds like Soarin' will be down, and the new Frozen ride will not be up and going yet. That's one major, and one mid-level attraction less to occupy people.

Without those "people eaters," does that make everything else that much more congested? Should it change my touring strategy?

 

[PrincessWithABlaster]

I'm planning a trip in May and touringplans is not showing particularly long waits during the morning on anything other than TT. But 1) I don't know if they're taking the Soarin closure into account (Maelstrom has been closed at least a year), 2) last year we went at spring break so all the times look low to me in comparison. Epcot can hold a lot of people in WS but they also cut several WS characters so that's more people not doing what they would have been doing. I'm hoping easyWDW will do a blog post or something on it. It seems like it would feel more crowded on rides but maybe some people will skip Epcot entirely.

 

[tentaguasu]

I just noticed EasyWDW has a touring plan and a "Soarin closed" touring plan, so I'm going to check that out.

 

[BuckeyeBama]

The result, to date, has been increased crowds at MK.

 

[loves to dive]

I'm guessing it would depend on what your touring plan was before the closures. Epcot is one of those places, for us, that is not ride centric. We did ride Soarin but only because we were already there for the The Land. Yes we love to listen to the land (I know it's now living with the land but we are old school and you used to listen to it). We loved the old ride in the Living Seas but since they put nemo in it and you don't get to see a whole lot of real fish, we don't ride it and just spend hours in the viewing area, we have been diving there twice. We ride Figment because it was my son's favorite when he was little and the same for spaceship earth, although I liked it better when it was about transportation. We rarely even go to the section where test track is unless a festival is happening and we are going to the festival center. We spend most of our time in WS, especially since we go during F&G and F&W. So for us, it hasn't changed at all, we still spend every single night there.

 

[lovethattink]

It affects the FP+ tiering.

Many people are making Epcot and DHS half days due to closings. Which increases MK crowds.

 

[BigAlsGal]

From what I've been reading the frozen ride might be open may 1st.

 

[DannyDisneyFreak]

From what I've been reading the frozen ride might be open may 1st.

The rumor for a while was for it to open May 1st, and that was only a rumor, and it now being talked about as opening "Summer 2016". I think for anyone traveling in May (like myself) can at best hope for a soft open mid May, but that may be having high expectations. I hope Soarin' opens ahead of schedule in May also but not likely.

 

[MickeyWaffles]

It did not affect us in terms of wait times at all during the first week of Jan.

We had FP for Test Track and everything else was a complete walk on (not a super busy week, but it marathon week so there were actually lots of people around).

 

[mikerohlfing]

Make sure you see "Impressions De France!" I honestly think it's better than Soarin'. Sure the seats don't movie, but the film (and the accompanying music) is incredible!

 

[ajwolfe]

We are going in May and although we love both of those rides it won't have that much of an impact on us or the way we tour Epcot. We will just simply skip those 2 rides. Now I do think for some families that don't quite love Epcot as much as we do it will cause them to make it a 1/2 day park and spend more time in MK.

 

[awdwnut]

Make sure you see "Impressions De France!" I honestly think it's better than Soarin'. Sure the seats don't movie, but the film (and the accompanying music) is incredible!

While Soarin is my favorite attraction at Epcot, "Impressions de France" is my second. You are so right about the film and especially the music score, it is perfection!!

awdwnut

 

[anniemae]

Make sure you see "Impressions De France!" I honestly think it's better than Soarin'. Sure the seats don't movie, but the film (and the accompanying music) is incredible!

Ashamed to say I have never done this. Will definitely do in next trip. Thanks for the tip!