How were crowds this past week?

[rutgers1]

My parents are down in Disney right now. They bought a new RV and are staying in Fort Wilderness. Despite my repeated offers to help plan the trip, they showed up with no dinner reservations, no fast passes, and no plan. That's how they roll. They are having fun, but they claim it is "very crowded." I have a feeling that it only feels crowded because they are scrambling to find places to eat and don't have fast passes.

Anyone down there now?

 

[Hisgirl]

Well, bless your parents hearts! Good for them for being 'adventurous'!

We arrived this past Monday morning may 5 and came home yesterday May 9. I have been to WDW this past October, January, February and this was the least crowded time I have seen. We went to Universal one day but spent many days and nights popping in and out of all the parks except HS.

At AK we didn't need our FP for Kali nor Everest. Of course, later on, things got busy but not crowded compared to our other visits.

Peter Pan always had 50 minutes but for the most part the crowds were way down and I would go this week again.

Epcot was great! We finally saw vast almost-empty walkways in the countries just prior to lunch, instead of the shoulder to shoulder we've been seeing.

The crowds have changed at Disney. I've been seeing them grow and grow mainly due to the large impact the South American tourists are having. I don't expect to ever see them go down to what they were in the 1990s.

Your parents learned a lesson this visit, especially regarding dinner reservations. I'll bet next time they'll be asking for your help.

 

[Sandy Fisher]

We were in FL May 2 to 9, but at Disney (Caribbean Beach) from the 3rd through the 8th. It was rainy on Saturday -- really rainy. So we didn't go to Illuminations as planned.
We went to each park, some twice, sometimes different parks in the a.m. and afternoon and then different in the evening.
Crowd calendars before we left called it 5 each day all week. I beg to differ. We were surprised at the crowds waiting to get in (we do rope drop every day) each day. The buses from CBR were often full and standing in the aisles when they got to our stop (Trinidad North). We have NEVER. I repeat NEVER stood to go to the parks in the a.m. because we usually beat the crowd. That was discouraging. Didn't bode well for an uncrowded park.
We've been doing Disney since spring of '82 and I have a pretty good idea what a 5 is.
It did come down a little by Wednesday evening and better by Thursday. Everything was crowded before that. We didn't do FP+ because we were able to do our favorites mostly getting their early each day. By early afternoon we were ready to call it a day. The first couple days the weather was gorgeous -- after the rain stopped. It got hot (91) and humid Thursday. Our flight left Friday a.m. so I can't speak for how it was Friday.
We never make reservations. Had lunch at Rainforest Cafe' at AK one day and had no problem whatsoever getting good seating. However, we tried to do that for supper one evening at Downtown Disney and failed miserably!!!
We don't do reservations. We rarely used FP (legacy) when we lived down there and had APs. This year I thought it was more crowded than expected and long lines for lots of things that we didn't want to do. Yay for not wanting to do those things!

 

[ivanaernmore]

We were there from 4/29 through 5/7. At MK on 4/30 (a Weds) the crowds were not awful, espcially after it rained around 3:30-8 pm (we saved indoor rides for that time). Was very crowded at HS on 5/1, but that was 25th anniv day. We did Epcot fri 5/2, where it pretty much poured from 11 am - 10pm, mainly restaurants crowded and mission space. That also was the day the MDE system went down and no one could get or switch FP+. We took sat 5/3 off and went to downtown disney, where it was mobbed. Sun 5/4 at MK was insanely busy, and the first clear hot day. Lines on most rides hit 50+ minutes by 10 am (we had 9:20 fp for anna/elsa so were there early). We were at AK on 5/6 and it was very busy, as well - mainly for safari, rapids, and EE, all of which we had FP for.

I have not been to Disney in 30 years so my perspective may be "off", but I noticed a marked difference between a mid-week day at MK and a weekend day, and between MK and, say, Epcot or AK. Based on this I'd never do MK on a weekend day again.

 

[MKMountainBoy]

We were at MK Tuesday (5/6) and it was packed. When we got to the turnstiles for rope-drop around 8:20 the waiting area in front of the train station was full with tons more people streaming in behind us. Anna and Elsa are drawing them in looks like!

 

[cah5525]

4/26 - 5/9

It was crowded. My kids 17, 11, 10 wanted out of the parks. Didnt even care that they were missing their favorite rides. Our last trip was 12/16-25, 2012, which seemed so easy and less crowded. these past two weeks were hard, the pool was the more popular choice for my kids. our first park day HS, we left after 3 hours, i added the WP option to our tickets just in case we werent going to use the park days. With 3 kids, i just go with their flow.

 

[bshawcrew]

We leave tomorrow, got here on the 3rd. Sat through Tuesday were extremely crowded. The last few days have been better. Way more than summer crowds we have seen.

 

[CAS239]

I was just there May 4th and 5th and it was really crowded at MK and Hollywood Studios.

 

[OnSpaceshipEarth]

My parents are down in Disney right now. They bought a new RV and are staying in Fort Wilderness. Despite my repeated offers to help plan the trip, they showed up with no dinner reservations, no fast passes, and no plan. That's how they roll. They are having fun, but they claim it is "very crowded." I have a feeling that it only feels crowded because they are scrambling to find places to eat and don't have fast passes.

Anyone down there now?

rutgers1...as usual...looks like if they stay out of the MK and go to the other three parks they'll have smooth sailing. It sounds like DHS was busy for one day because of the 25th Anniversary celebration but immediately became half-empty again the rest of the week.

 

[momjee]

We got to WDW on Mon 5/5 and this is our first trip as a family with my kids 8, 11, and 14. The last time I was here was over 20 years ago so it all feels new to me to. If my son and I hadn't educated ourselves via various websites and been keeping track of all the changes to fastpass+ we would have had a very different trip. This one has been great but a lot had to do with maximizing the system. I can't imagine coming with no plan, we would have been so disappointed, especially with it being our kids first and possibly only trip.

At MK on 5/6 & 5/7, both days were very crowded, but we we were able to do everything we wanted with a combination of rope drop, 3 fastpasses, and then adding a 4th and a 5th pass both days. AK felt really cramped on thurs 5/8 but HS wasn't bad on 5/9, more room to breathe. Today, 5/10, we were at Epcot and got to do all rides in Future World that we wanted and even scored a 4th fastpass for soarin tonight but only because you have to play with the system on your phone after getting it at the kiosk.

Since we aren't disney veterans it's hard to really say what the crowd levels are but MK isn't how I remember it and you definitely can't take a relaxing stroll through the park and expect to really experience much without planning ahead. I know that they have been 1-2 levels higher than predicted on touring plans each day, at least for the parks we chose (except HS, they were right on).

We are heading back to MK tomorrow for our last day and expect it to be really busy with it being a weekend and also Mother's day.

 

[OnSpaceshipEarth]

We got to WDW on Mon 5/5 and this is our first trip as a family with my kids 8, 11, and 14. The last time I was here was over 20 years ago so it all feels new to me to. If my son and I hadn't educated ourselves via various websites and been keeping track of all the changes to fastpass+ we would have had a very different trip. This one has been great but a lot had to do with maximizing the system. I can't imagine coming with no plan, we would have been so disappointed, especially with it being our kids first and possibly only trip.

At MK on 5/6 & 5/7, both days were very crowded, but we we were able to do everything we wanted with a combination of rope drop, 3 fastpasses, and then adding a 4th and a 5th pass both days. AK felt really cramped on thurs 5/8 but HS wasn't bad on 5/9, more room to breathe. Today, 5/10, we were at Epcot and got to do all rides in Future World that we wanted and even scored a 4th fastpass for soarin tonight but only because you have to play with the system on your phone after getting it at the kiosk.

Since we aren't disney veterans it's hard to really say what the crowd levels are but MK isn't how I remember it and you definitely can't take a relaxing stroll through the park and expect to really experience much without planning ahead. I know that they have been 1-2 levels higher than predicted on touring plans each day, at least for the parks we chose (except HS, they were right on).

We are heading back to MK tomorrow for our last day and expect it to be really busy with it being a weekend and also Mother's day.

@momjee

So, Epcot and DHS, don't seem very crowded to you(as far as you can tell)?

 

[rutgers1]

Thanks for the replies. When I was a kid in the 80's, we would take off from school in October and the place would be empty. It seems like there really aren't any empty times of the year anymore.

Judging from the responses in this thread, it is hard to tell whether it was packed or reasonable. The responses tend to mirror what you see at all other times of the year - including the busiest seasons. During most seasons, if you time it right, hit the right park, or use your fast passes well, it isn't that bad.

We have gone down in July a few times in recent years. When we go, the crowd calendars always hit the top. By arriving early, using fast passes, and tempering our expectations, we never feel like the crowds are "unbearable." But I could see how someone who doesn't do their research or arrives at the wrong place/time could feel that crowds are unbearable on even the lightest day.

 

[pluto377]

We were in the parks from the 4th to the 9th and I felt they were insanely crowded after 11am. Before that was fine. Maybe it was the heat or spending the whole week with my MIL or my first time navigating with a double stroller, but I felt like it was so much more crowded than what I've ever seen before and I've gone at all different times of year. That said, we arrived with a great plan in mind and did not wait more than 20 minutes for anything, although we did skip a lot of headliners b/c we have 2 small kids. It just felt like getting from one place to another was torture.

 

[Hisgirl]

We used TP crowd calendar recommendations and I think that helped. We honestly had not seen Epcot so slow in quite a long time. We were there on Wednesday and arrived at RD. We took our time walking through the countries and from 11-1 we were shocked at how sparse the crowds were.

In January, I was literally shoulder to shoulder in MK. It was still crowded late Monday and also late Thursday, but nothing like what I saw in Jan.

AK was great early in the day and looked crowded by the time we were leaving. Like I said, we walked onto everest and kali....literally walked on. But...later in the day, it wasn't so.

Go early, and miss the heat ...and the crowds!

 

[JennyDrake]

We were in the parks from the 4th to the 9th and I felt they were insanely crowded after 11am. Before that was fine. Maybe it was the heat or spending the whole week with my MIL or my first time navigating with a double stroller, but I felt like it was so much more crowded than what I've ever seen before and I've gone at all different times of year.

I was there April 29-May 5th and ditto to everything above. World Showcase at Epcot was by far the most tolerable. MK, AK and DHS were all insane. I thought the crowds were thicker than my usual mid August trip and on par w/ federal holiday weekends in the fall.

 

[margaret07013]

I was from May 4th to 10th. I went against Josh's recommendations on 4 out of 5 park days simply because my assumptions were rather simple:

- get to park early to avoid crowds and the heat
- go on rides early and use FP+ for the afternoon and evening

each day we were able to get on major rides without more than 10 min wait. for example my son went on BTMR 3 times as walk on both MK days 5/5 and 5/9 at 9:05am. on 5/9 we took advantage of EMH and did 2 rides in Fantasyland without the wait.

than we moved to Frontierland and did Pirates and Jungle cruise and Carpets before 11am.

than we went to see the street parade at 11am and Wish Come True show.

I must point out - we knew it where we wanted to go and what we wanted to do and took advantage of RD and first 90 minutes of lower crowds.

overall crowds? I don't know how to judge the crowds - but I have 2 kids ( 2.5 and 4.5 ) and waiting more than 10-15 min for any ride is not doable. I mean my kids are normal kids but waiting 20 min in the middle of the day in the Florida heat is simply asking for meltdowns.

Each day in MK we were able to do 10-12 rides.