Just Back...Not So Slow....

[darlaya]

Hi All. We just got back last night from a mini-trip (Thursday night to Monday night). I was very excited for a very slow pace...but not so, it was pretty crowded. Every park we went to we experienced failry heavy crowds. I guess the free dining promo has worked out very well for Disney.

On top of the crowds, it was also very humid so we spent most of our time in the parks early morning and evening.

Denise

 

[VeganCupcake]

Did you go on mornings/evenings that had EMH? Were the lines bad or just the walkways? We're going next week, we usually go one of the last 2 weeks of September(the last 2 weeks) and its always been empty. Crossing my fingers the lines aren't bad next week.

 

[mking624]

Hi All. We just got back last night from a mini-trip (Thursday night to Monday night). I was very excited for a very slow pace...but not so, it was pretty crowded. Every park we went to we expereinced failry hevay crowds. I guess the free dining promo has worked out very well for Disney.

On top of the crowds, it was also very humid so we spent most of our time in the parks early morning and evening.

Denise

Free dining usually only impacts the restaurants. We were there the 9th-14th for free dining and the crowds were VERY low. Everything we went on was either an immediate walk on or had only a 5-10 minute wait. We'd eat quick service for lunch at about noon and never waited behind more than a couple of people and usually we just walked right up. Our dinner ADRs were anywhere from 5 to 6pm and the restaurants weren't even half full. But I will be back for a mini trip next week (arriving next Thursday night, departing the following Monday morning). I do know the crowds will be higher...it's F&WF opening weekend, the half marathon weekend (which I'm going for the 5K) and MK should be busy on the 1st with Disney's announcement of "special surprises" that day.

I do hope you enjoyed your trip in spite of the crowds and humidity!

 

[PIRATEGIRL007]

Which parks did you visit on which days? Just curious if crowd calendars and best vs worst parks would have helped you as many other reports from this past week have the parks dead,slow,empty, etc. I also didn't notice any high wait times on my apps either, so were the crowds in lines for attractions or just in walkways, parade and firework areas?

 

[HallGirl]

Weekends tend to be busy. I also think a lot of parents decided to take their kids out of school since September tends to be slow. With MK closing at 6 on Sept. 15 and MNSSHP on Sept 16, I'm sure that affected the other parks on those days and then everyone went to MK Sat-Mon so they could see the evening shows and do evening EMH.

 

[darlaya]

Hi All. I used the touring plans site to plan our park visit days. Here is what we visited:

Friday, 9/16 - MK in AM and Epcot in Evening
Saturday, 9/17 - Hollywood Studios until 2pm
Sunday, 9/18 - AK in AM (fastpasses helped a lot) and MK in PM (very crowded for evening EMH)
Monday, 9/19 - Epcot in AM...very busy.

They also could not find out ADR for dinner on Friday night at the Biergarten. Waited 1.5 hours to be seated! Not worth the wait...food was not as good as other times we have gone. DH very disappointed that there was no bratwurst AND we had a server in training who didn't bring drinks until we were half way finished with meal , forgot coffee and spilled soda on guest next to us

We did have a good time because DH and I had been to Disney this past May and we were able to steer the decisions. Becasue of the humidity and crowds, I did find myself doing WDW Commando style. I could only imagine how it must be during the official high season...not for me.

We also noticed a lot of foreigners. I would say 2/3 of guests were not from US. We had one funny event happen on the night we were exiting Epcot. We waited on line to have our family photo taken by the photopass photographer. when the family in front of us were done, we handed our card to the photographer and I went to stand where he was takinhg the photos. A family jumped in front of us before I could turn my back and the mother started yelling in whatever her native language was. She went on for about 15 minutes. The photographer and my family were dumbfounded. At first, I thought, did I skip the line...was I unintentionally rude? The photographer was like...just ignore it. Ahh, ok

 

[goldrings]

We were there during the same time. We did epcot on Thursday afternoon and it was fine - almost great actually. Friday we spent 15 hours in Magic Kingdom, and didn't wait more than 30 minutes for any ride. The trick or treat trails at MNSSHP were very crowded and long waits. We spent most of our time at the dance parties (DD's fav). Saturday we tried Animal Kingdom and it was really hot, fast pass machine for Kali was closed, and we only stayed a couple of hours. Sunday was Hollywood Studios and crows were manageable - only long wait was TSM and RNR. Monday was back to MK until 3 - crowds were more than Friday but still okay to deal with.

I went this same week last year and it was much cooler (or felt that way anyway) - I thought we would roast in AK.

 

[Luv2Diz]

Hi All. We just got back last night from a mini-trip (Thursday night to Monday night). I was very excited for a very slow pace...but not so, it was pretty crowded. Every park we went to we experienced failry heavy crowds. I guess the free dining promo has worked out very well for Disney.

On top of the crowds, it was also very humid so we spent most of our time in the parks early morning and evening.

Denise

I agree with you. We were there last week and in the parks on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. We found the crowds to be heavier this year than for trips we made in September 2008 and 2009. Almost no rides were walk ons this year. You know its a busy September when Pirates of the Caribbean, Maelstrom and Small World have 20 minute waits -- they were all walk ons in previous years. We noticed even more foreigners this year than usual, which definitely impacted the length of the lines.

 

[Day-Day]

We visited September 10-16. Somes days seemed more crowded than others for the same parks. There was 5-minute standby wait at Soarin one morning around 10:45. One morning the standby line for Toy Story Mania did not form until passing the spot where the FP line merges with standby (where the 3-D glasses are distributed). Other times these rides had 40 minute waits and TSM was 90 minutes one day due to technical issues earlier.

We had many rides that were walk-ons and many that were less than 10 minutes. MK had very low crowds on the day that Nights of Joy was scheduled but a couple of hours before closing for regular guests, the Nights of Joy guests were piling in and the lines got long really quick. Space Moutain was a less than 10 minute wait most of that day until late afternoon.

I was guessing at least 60% of guest were from outside the US. In general, the parks were a little more crowded than I was expecting them to be.

 

[LovetheMouse12302]

We are here now and it's busier to me than how I always pictured September. We have moments when we seem to walk up to things and a few minutes later the line will somehow grow. Sunday was horrible to us at Magic Kingdom. I know it was evening EMH, but we always to MK evening EMH and never experienced this. I think our next trip we will go back to visiting the end of February.

 

[SashaFarce]

Interesting. My girlfriend went Friday night to the MK party then spent Saturday at MK and Sunday at Epcot and I think she said she didn't wait more than 15-20 minutes for anything.

 

[Celine]

Well, I have to agree with the OP. We just got back ourselves and while we had a fabulous time and wouldn't have traded it for anything, it felt packed! There were lines that were 45 minutes long.. Kali River being one of them.. it was soooooooooooo hot and humid, too. (I'll never go in the summer again.) Same at HS for Star Tours and TSM. MK's Fantasyland was BRUTALLY packed and ALL of the QS places were mob scenes. Of course, let me say that I was probably at the wrong park each and every day as we tried to take advantage of all the EMH days. Oh, and we BARELY got into Tutto Italia (sp?) because they were booked (as were any and all other good restaurants in EP that night)!!! I mean, to the point that the lady out front was pissed at all of the people trying to see if they could get a table even though they didn't have an ADR. I avoided her and spoke to a man that was out there and by some miracle, he was able to seat us. We'd gotten stuck at DTD cause of some bus problem and couldn't get out of there to get back over to Epcot in time for our ADR, so I was so grateful to have been able to get that seating!

 

[dolphindan1]

Hi All. I used the touring plans site to plan our park visit days. Here is what we visited:

Friday, 9/16 - MK in AM and Epcot in Evening
Saturday, 9/17 - Hollywood Studios until 2pm
Sunday, 9/18 - AK in AM (fastpasses helped a lot) and MK in PM (very crowded for evening EMH)
Monday, 9/19 - Epcot in AM...very busy.

Just an FYI...thats why I dont use TP...if however you would have used easywdw.com you may have had a better experience...

for example you would have known not to hop to Epcot on the 16th due to evening EMH....You would have also know to avoid DHS on the 17th due to morning EMH...Just saying

Oh...I would never wait 1.5 hours to eat anywhere...I dont care where it is...If they couldnt find my ADR and couldnt seat me in 20 mins...I would have went somewhere else....plenty of good places in Epcot to eat to wait that long for any one of them.

 

[Jabba20000]

We were there from the 11th-18th and found that the beginning of the week was much quieter than later in the week. It seemed like a flood of people were checking into the Beach Club on Wednesday and Thursday night and a once deserted club lounge on the 11th was packed by the evening of the 15th. Still, if we were at the park at or close to rope drop we didn't have a problem and got on pretty much everything we wanted. We even got right in to see Rapunzel without going at rope drop.

 

[mom2rtk]

From here forward, MNSSHP will drive the crowds at the MK more than anything else.

Even during this slow-ish time of year the MK can easily turn into a zoo on non-party days. This is because people tend to not want to "waste" their park day on a park that closes early. Additionally they want to be there on nights they do the light parade and fireworks, so they all go to the MK the same few days a week. It stinks, but if you want lower crowds, go on a party day (or any other day with early park closure).

 

[Bonniec]

I think there is just something in the air. We have passes everywhere and the last 2 weekends we took a break from Disney and hit Seaworld. The first weekend it was dead. But last weekend it was completely packed. I have no idea why. sounds like it was like this at all the parks. Hopefully this Saturday will be betterl

 

[Day-Day]

Just an FYI...thats why I dont use TP...if however you would have used easywdw.com you may have had a better experience...

for example you would have known not to hop to Epcot on the 16th due to evening EMH....You would have also know to avoid DHS on the 17th due to morning EMH...Just saying

Oh...I would never wait 1.5 hours to eat anywhere...I dont care where it is...If they couldnt find my ADR and couldnt seat me in 20 mins...I would have went somewhere else....plenty of good places in Epcot to eat to wait that long for any one of them.

I've never known TP to recommned parks with EMH's. I can't go back and check these dates though. I've always seen these parks on the TP site noted as a "Park to Avoid" and occasionally as a "Neutral Park".


I noticed as mentioned elsewhere that when the MK had an early closing time (6pm or 7pm), that it was fairly empty most of the day.

 

[MikeP22]

Just an FYI...thats why I dont use TP...if however you would have used easywdw.com you may have had a better experience...

for example you would have known not to hop to Epcot on the 16th due to evening EMH....You would have also know to avoid DHS on the 17th due to morning EMH...Just saying

Oh...I would never wait 1.5 hours to eat anywhere...I dont care where it is...If they couldnt find my ADR and couldnt seat me in 20 mins...I would have went somewhere else....plenty of good places in Epcot to eat to wait that long for any one of them.

For what it's worth I did check TP after reading the post, and it looks like most of the days the OP visited were either contraindicated or neutral. So unless TP changed their ratings after the date to reflect conditions, I don't know how one could have picked those parks on those days using TP.

 

[Delilah1310]

From here forward, MNSSHP will drive the crowds at the MK more than anything else.

Even during this slow-ish time of year the MK can easily turn into a zoo on non-party days. This is because people tend to not want to "waste" their park day on a park that closes early. Additionally they want to be there on nights they do the light parade and fireworks, so they all go to the MK the same few days a week. It stinks, but if you want lower crowds, go on a party day (or any other day with early park closure).

I'd agree with this.
We were in MK on 9/12 arrived around 3 and left before the parade ... wasn't too bad, but we didn't really do any "headliners." This was not a party night.

We were at rope drop on 9/13, left around 1 and came back around 4 ... was what I imagine empty is for MK. We just walked through the queue and then right on the rides. this WAS a party night.

on 9/14, we got there around 9:30 and it was packed all day! lines for everything had a wait, although nothing was too terribly long ... but it was NOT a party night and also an electical parade night.

on 9/17 (Saturday) it also seemed more crowded. waits for everything. Nothing unamanageable, but still it wasn't just walking through the queue.

So in our experience, the least crowded were the days of the party nights.

 

[Radiorox]

Hey gang!

I got back on Sunday for our "real" Dis vacation. Real because, for once we actually stayed on property, did the dining thing... etc. Usually we stay on property and not do the parks or stay off property and do the parks... I have to say,I hated the idea of being a passholder because I would not get much use for it... I was dead wrong. 3 trips this year, with park hopping and one more trip in the works before Christmas.

Thurs Sept 15 we did AK just after RD and were able to do EE and KRR without waiting. That was it. After that, the lines started to hike up. That night we went to Akershus and even with an ADR we waited for over an hour in the humidity!

Fri - Sept 16th - EPCOT, Soarin' and TT we walked on, twice each. When trying a third trip to TT before heading to MS, the wait went from 10 mins to 35. On MS, team Orange was a 15 minute wait that turned into a 45 minute wait. God bless, indoor queues!

That afternoon we headed to HS, Toy Story had a 90 min wait so, we did The Little Mermaid (LOOONG wait!), The great movie ride (walk on) RR w/single rider. Star tours around 8pm which had ZERO wait (there were only 6 people in our ride vehicle.)

Saturday - Sept 17th - MK - now this was a nutty park after 11am. We were able to get there for RD, ride SM twice without wait. Buzz without waiting, BTMRR twice without waiting. Then did Fantasyland and after that... almost every ride had a 30-45 minute wait. Around 12pm-ish even Pirates had a line OUTSIDE the building in that covered courtyard area.

We did the Pirate's League which also had a very long wait. After that decided to get in line for Pirates and head for the hotel to chill. We went back later that evening and the lines had gone down some but, the park felt crowded. After seeing the fireworks while waiting for Dumbo, we walked around a bit (bad idear!) and wound up heading to the busstop for a good hour wait.

I didn't expect to be the only person at the park but, I wasn't expecting it to be that busy given that kids just started school. I shudder to think what the parks are like over Christmas.

Jackie