Just back after a week at WDW

[orbital62]

Found the crowds much less than I expected with all the reports of the previous few weeks. We did early entry/extra magic hour at all the parks and it delivered what was promised - less crowds and virtually no lines. There was rain, sometimes quite heavy but it followed the familiar pattern of a few hours in the afternoon - again with a couple of exceptions...;-)

Thanks for all your help and hints on these boards - they were extremely helpful!

Michael

 

[Baloo]

Glad you had such a great trip despite the rain!!!

 

[Gary M]

I thought the FTP had filled the resorts to near capacity and the parks would be packed. Are the hotels full, but the locals aren't showing up?

 

[cindala]

Welcome back!!! Glad you had a nice trip!! I know the rain can be an annoyance, but August is know for being rainier.

I guess with alot of kids back in school already, that may have been the difference of you not experiencing crowds.

 

[jaclark]

It's funny how opinions differ - we are also just back - we were there 8-17/22. We did the MK on early morning Sunday and got a ton done before we felt we should leave. That was our only good day!! Animal Kingdom on Monday was crowded and hot - no fun... We did Epcot on a rainy afternoon so our plan to see characters etc in the WS didn't work since they weren't out - no test track because of the rain - DH did Mission Space while we waited since the line was short and he went in the single riders line.

To be fair, we usually travel in the off season so I expect for summer, the crowds weren't bad but we felt it was crowded, fast passes were gone a lot and some wait times were up around 60 minutes for the big rides. We heard other comments on how people thought it was crowded for that time of year. For us, it was not our best trip - we'll stay in November again next time

Any other thoughts on last week?

thanks,
Annette

 

[orbital62]

We did early entry every day and found that even as close to noon, we were virtually walking onto rides. Animal Kingdom was crowded - and hot - but we did the Safari, did a Fast Pass for the rapids (which I found disappointing) and Bugs Life and we walked right into Dino with a very little wait. MGM was similar, we only did a Fast Pass for Tower. Epcot the same. We left the parks by 12:30 and returned to the hotel, so maybe we just missed the very large crowds. Our hotel, was crowded - ;-)

Michael

 

[Dopey's twin Dippy]

As i posted earlier, we were there from 8/13 to 8/22 and it was JAM PACKED every day. We might of had a day or two with little or no rain. We had major rain and thunder storms. We seemed to do ok with FP, but at MGM usually by 3 or 4 ,the FPs were gone. We stayed at the Movies. It was much much busier than last summer. We usually go the last week of Aug. into Sept. I would not go back again if I knew FTP was going on. Even the locals we talked to said they could not believe this summer compared to last. We still had fun all in all, but it was certainly BUSY.

 

[donac]

We were there fromt the 17 th throught the 23rd and I did not find the crowds to be that bad. About the same as they were last year at this time. We got to the parks early and got to see everyting that we wanted to do.The longest waits we had were for MS (due to technical difficulties) and JC because we wanted to see it in the dark. and that was only 30 minutes. Everythin else was 20 minutes and most were a lot less. We went back to the tent every afternoon and then to a park in the evening for dinner and some rides.

Yes there was a lot of rain but no more than last year. There was only one night last week where most of the afternoon and evening was a wash out. Everythin else was livable just like last year.