Just back from 7 days at the world, crowds were LOW!

[chuckml]

We just returned from another Disney vacation from 9/4-9/11. Stayed at Pop for the first time and loved it.

This was our first trip on Labor day week, and the crowds were absolutely non-existent. We went to MK on the Labor Day, and didn't need FPs for anything really. I went and got FP for SM when we arrived while DW and DD did fantasy land. When we got into Tomorrow land to ride Space, the standby was 5 minutes, so we did that. Rode 3 times in a row and it was a complete walk on. The whole park was like that on Monday and on Friday when we went back. Didn't need Fast pass for anything.

Went to Epcot on Wednesday and Thursday, and Soarin' had a posted wait time of 5 minutes all day both days, which I've never even seen before. I didn't think Soarin' was ever less than 30 mins. TT was the same way, never used Fast pass at all for it.

Went to studios on Tuesday, and it was so dead there that the FP machines were shut off for TT, and that and RNR were both walk ons throughout the day. TSM posted a max time of 40 minutes around 1:00, but the line didn't look nearly that long. This is the only ride that we really needed to use FP for the entire week.

AK was somewhat busy on Sunday before Labor day, but that park always seems busy to me. EE was about 15 minutes all day, and the safari was no more than 20 at any time during the day. The rapids had a bit of a line, prob because of the heat, but it wasn't more than 20 minutes though.

Any questions, feel free to ask

 

[BLAMBKY]

Did you happen to check Tplans before you went to WDW? Was it predicted to be low crowds? Just curious. Glad you had a great time!

 

[chuckml]

We did check TP. We have a subscription to the site since we got the UG 2010. They were predicting fairly low crowds, but the new way that they number the crowd levels is a bit confusing to me.

We just avoided the extra magic hours parks, and didn't do the Studios on Fantasmic days as we've seen it so many times already. I'm sure that this helped with the crowds that we experienced.

It was by far the lowest crowd levels we have seen in our many trips to the parks. I think we'll probably go back the same week next year.

 

[chiamarie]

As a local, I love this time of year! Once labor day hits, all the parks are dead to the point that it almost doesn't even matter which park you go to which day. The weekends will pick up a little depending on what park your at (Ie, Seaworlds weekends will pick up in Oct for Spooktacular) but for the most part, from now until Thanksgiving, I will have the parks to myself! I love the fall!

 

[SuJo]

We were also there last week and were surprised at the low crowds although we did find some parks that were kind of crowded (MGM on Saturday was bad). We walked on Soarin' at 1:30pm on Friday for the first time ever. My DH was just floored that it wasn't busy. Unfortunately his favorite ride TSM usually had a wait of around 40 min. One time he waited and it took the 40 min and another time we decided to wait and it only took 20 min so it is hard to tell if the lines will move fast or not. I agree that you should stay away from parks with EE mornings as those seemed to be crowded compared to the other parks. More wait times for rides than non-EE parks. If you can stand the heat, this is a good week to visit WDW.

Susan

 

[ohanaMAMA]

I am SO excited to hear that. We have only ever gone during Spring break and had BIG crowds. We leave WEDNESDAY! soooo excited!

 

[jlkhorn]

We were there too, 9/7-9/11, also stayed at Pop. We were super excited about the nonexistent crowds. Most rides were "walk-on" I think the max wait we saw was 20 minutes, other than Toy Story Midway Mania which was up to 60 minutes. Though we waited until about 6:40pm to get in line (park closed at 7:00) and were able to get on in about 40 minutes. There were several rides we were able to get off and right back on. Our kids LOVED the Buzz Lightyear ride in MK. We rode it 3x in a row...off, back on, off, back on... 2 different days. The only time we used FP was for Peter Pan's Flight. The wait was 40 minutes. We were heading to eat anyway, so I just grabbed a fast pass on our way past it. When we came back there was no waiting in the FP return line and we were on the ride within 5-8 minutes.

Though it was HOT HOT HOT, we definitely loved going this time of year.

 

[dsneygirl]

We were there 8/28-9/7 and loved the low crowds. The only thing we FP the entire week was TSM. Almost every thing else was a complete walk on. The only busy times were the EMH nights at MK. We did that twice and saw lines of about 20min. During the day they were 10 or less for almost everything.

This is our favourite week of the year to go.

I also love the low crowds because the CMs are all in a much better mood We encountered so many who really seemed to be loving their jobs.

 

[TLinden16]

I'm going to move this to our trip report board.

 

[acejka]

We were in the area on the Sunday before labor day so we tried to go to the MK and it was nuts. None of the transportation was working correctly. First we went to the monorail (actually we walked to the Poly from the TTC so we could take a stroll around the Poly and enjoy the atmosphere)they told a huge group of people to go to the boats. Then they were only running one ferry so that took a while and once we got in there everything had around 20-30 minutes wait so we just did the tiki room and left and figured we'd come back some other time since it was so HOT. Trying to leave was a disaster too, the monorail was sitting there with the doors open, nobody could get on because they were bringing the police up for someone who was already on, so we went back to the ferry and waited for that and since only one was going, it took about 20 minutes (they were waiting for a crowd to gather on the other side)


I'm happy to hear that crowds are thinning out now. We want to go back and enjoy some time at the parks, we are used to going in October and January when we've never needed a FP for anything, glad to be almost back to that

 

[arielmomma]

Thanks for sharing!

I love going in September! Only 3 days!

 

[Princess&JackMom]

We were there last week, too, and had similar experiences of walking on to most rides (except Dumbo, which was about 15 minutes). We saw an hour wait for TSM, too, so that was the only ride we did once with FP.

AK was a ghost town when we went on Thursday (the day after its night EMH). We went on Kali Rapids 4 times in a row and could have stayed as no one was getting on it (it was after 4). So great to not have to do lines with little ones.

I would love to do this week again next year but alas my twins will be starting school so no September trips for us for some time.

 

[brockash]

We were there 9/3-9/11, and we thought the crowds were heavier than usual. We always do MK the Sunday before LD, and this year it seemed much more crowded than in previous years. We also did DHS on Thursday (basically to see Fantasmic!) and it was really crowded (although, I'm sure it was because it was a Fantasmic! night.) I really enjoy the show, but I don't know if we'll see it next year...I'm not sure it's worth the crowds. Mon.- Wed. was really nice and low crowds to us, and Fri. was until the 4:00 hr., when they started letting the NOJ ppl. in and then it was crazy busy.