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

[momto2js]

We are here now and I agree. I was expecting slower. We have walked on talmost nothing and waited as long as 45 minutes for pooh on Monday afternoon. We did HS and EP on sunday AK and MK on Monday and MNSSHP Tuesday. It wasnt holiday busy but it wasnt exactly quiet eithor.

In the past we have done the party in october, maybe September is always like this, but last night was really busy. We didn't do the character pics but the lines were impressive. It it was a quiet night i understand why u might need 2 parties.

 

[nkereina]

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".

This. TP bases, at least partially, their recommendations on EMH because EMH are notoriously busier.

I think crowd levels are really subjective. If you've never been during a slow time, you aren't sure what to expect - the people who usually go at Christmas probably report how crazy empty it is now, while people who go in January or have never been might say "not as empty as I thought". Even crowd predictors like TP are subjective.. one might find crowd level 5 tolerable while others might not.

 

[Good Morning Dewdrop]

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.

We were there from the 4th (late) until early afternoon on the 15th and I agree with the PP. We had a lot of walk on rides and one day I remember TSM they were working on getting people into the ride you'd come off and they'd say "ride again the wait is only 20 minutes (or less)". We rode it 6 times before 11:30 am. We did find rides seemed to be going down more than usual which may have added to / confused the wait times a bit - POTC, BTMRR, Splash Mt, and IASW were all down at one or more points during our trip.

I think it does depend on what parks you go to and if you're at RD. I had easyWDW's information (best to worst parks) with me and we worked off of that for the most part. Did go to HS on Saturday (early EMH) and had a great time with low crowds - things did pick up a lot towards the end of our trip but no way would I call it "really busy".

 

[tinka-belle]

Hmmmm, just speculation here, but seeing a few reports citing lots of foreigners and many reports of the parks being more crowded from last Thursday on gets me thinking. A seasonal air fare drop in mid September for incoming USA flights might have something to do with it?

FWIW, we saw lots of foreigners too around Labor Day, and lots of them travel in August. Don't know if there was an increase in offshore visitors last week or it's just the same as we experienced.

 

[BoardWalkBelle]

i was at the MK on Friday and it wasnt crowded at all. Sure, there were pockets of congestion, fantasyland mostly. MOst of the rides were way less than 20 min wait...HM was pretty much a walk on...i rode the train and there were alot of empty benches, pooh had a wait of 25 mins (i FP it) peter pan had a 30 min wait, which is to be expected for that , Splash was about 15 min, BTMR was 15 min..so not bad,,i had lucnh at Pinocchios in FL and it wasntc rowded at noon..so, to conclude, the MK wasnt crowded at all..i was there from around 11 am until 4.

 

[BoardWalkBelle]

I work at Park fare , and last night there were at least three large groups of japanese tourists..apparently they love Halloween at Disney! So there may be an increase in japanese tourist groups during sept and Oct.

 

[DisneyFive]

I think the parks might be busier now then they were earlier in the month due to free dining. The two original free dining offers ended on 9/29 and 9/24 respectively. Lots of people don't know that as long as your first day of vacation falls within the deadline, then you get the free dining for your entire stay.

...so I'm guessing that many people probably are trying to take advantage of free dining, and keeping their visit all within the FD dates up to 9/24 or 9/29 in order to take advantage of FD.

Dan

 

[2Pirates2Princesses]

This. TP bases, at least partially, their recommendations on EMH because EMH are notoriously busier.

I think crowd levels are really subjective. If you've never been during a slow time, you aren't sure what to expect - the people who usually go at Christmas probably report how crazy empty it is now, while people who go in January or have never been might say "not as empty as I thought". Even crowd predictors like TP are subjective.. one might find crowd level 5 tolerable while others might not.

I agree with this. I also don't think there is really a slow time at WDW. The weeks/months that were traditionally "slow" in the past are now picking up in crowd levels because of promotional offers and word of mouth. I think the various WDW planning guides and fan websites also fill people in on the "best" or "least crowded" times to go to WDW, so people will follow those suggestions. In another thread discussing crowd levels in November and how slow the week before Thanksgiving has been in the past, I mentioned how I personally knew several families in my inner circle (non-family members) that all went during the week before Thanksgiving, so I think the word is getting out about that week. My oldest two children have classmates that went to WDW last week and this week and one of my DD4's preschool classmates will be in WDW next week. We also considered September for our trip this year after hearing and reading about how low the crowds are, but had to change our vacation dates due to my DH's work contracts. We went towards the end of August and felt the crowds and wait times were moderate and reasonable. Not everything was a "walk on" or a 5 minute wait, but we also had realistic expectations and made it a point to be patient and enjoy the atmosphere as much as the attractions we wanted to do. We realized this is WDW, the most visited vacation destination in the world, so no matter when we go there are always going to be some sort of crowds.

 

[WTP]

We just got back and we found the crowd levels to be very low!

We used easywdw for our park choices, except for when the reason I wanted to go to a park was the reason it was not recommened, ie, MK on an electrical parade night. We never waited more than 10 minutes for anything and were able to literally walk on Soarin a few times in the evenings. I have unused fastpasses for about 15 rides because they were either not needed (ie ride was at walkon) or not collected (because lines were being mashed together) We skipped most afternoons though--we did RD until lunch, napped, and then sometimes hopped for ADR's in the evenings.

The only rides we consistently needed to use FP for was Peter Pan and TSM. But at RD, even Peter Pan was walk on for a good 30 minutes.

 

[2manydaves]

We were there 9/10-9/17 and I found the crowds to be the lowest that I've ever experienced. We generally go in May or October, but have been in June and January, too.

On 9/13, we walked on every ride at the MK. That was a party day. We literally covered the entire park from 9:30-6:30. At a leisurely pace.

I agree that people often have unreasonable expectations of what "low crowds" means at Disney.

Evening EMHs will always be busy. During holiday party months, the MK will always be busy on non-party days and nights. Downtown Disney is always going to be busy on Saturday nights. You get the idea.

I'm a firm believer that if you plan well, you can see everything you want to see, regardless of the time of year you go.

 

[mking624]

This. TP bases, at least partially, their recommendations on EMH because EMH are notoriously busier.

I think crowd levels are really subjective. If you've never been during a slow time, you aren't sure what to expect - the people who usually go at Christmas probably report how crazy empty it is now, while people who go in January or have never been might say "not as empty as I thought". Even crowd predictors like TP are subjective.. one might find crowd level 5 tolerable while others might not.

I've gone in September several times now. The crowds this year were much lower than the previous years I've done September. The only exception would be the first year I did free dining back in 2006...crowds were just as low. I was there the 9th-14th. The "busiest" day we experienced was the 14th when we went to MK for a few hours before departing...and that was still not really bad, maybe 20 minutes tops for a ride, but more on par to what I've been used to seeing for this time. That was the day after the first party. We did Epcot evening EMH on the 9th and it was pretty dead. I would definitely agree with your statement for those who don't normally travel during September. Since I have been regularly going in September now, I definitely noticed it was much more "empty" than I have previously experienced for the same time frame.

ETA: We never use crowd calendars... we hit the parks with evening EMH as we enjoy doing those, otherwise we just go where we want. So someone else's advice on the "best" parks never came into play.

 

[taylor3297]

I just got back from a trip Sept 16-20 and the crowds were great! We never waited more than 10 minutes for any attraction or ride. We were seated within 5 minutes of checking in for our ADRs.

The days we visited parks:
Fri 16th: MK from about 11AM until 7PM. The longest wait we had that day was for our lunch at Columbia Harbour House. We walked on to every ride we did that day.

Sat 17th: HS even though it was morning EMH. We got there at rope drop and left when the park closed. Got FP for TSM at rope drop, then rode RNR twice with no wait, then TOT. When back to TSM and used FP, when we got off we got another FP for TSM. The crowd level for the day was a 4 but it didn't feel like it.

Sun 18th and Mon 19: EPCOT both days and not crowded at all. Never used a fast pass for anything. Even managed to ride Soarin twice with no wait.

Mon 20: MK again and still walked onto everything. We did notice when we left about 2:30 PM that day that Pooh had a 30 minute wait.

I was very pleased with the crowd levels.

 

[Tink_Or_Belle]

thats so weird... we were there the 14th til 20th and only had 4 "long" lines (over 20 minutes) Space was closed 2 of the 4 times we were in Magic Kingdom

on Monday my Disney Mobile Magic said Thunder Mountain had a 160 minute wait but we were standing by it at the time wnd the actual wait was 5 minutes ... not sure what was up with that

 

[Brian Noble]

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

I just checked Touring Plans (I'm a subscriber): they also had Epcot as a Park To Avoid on the 16th, and Studios marked Avoid on the 17th, both predicted *and* actual.

I'm not sure how OP "used" TouringPlans...

 

[taylor3297]

I just checked Touring Plans (I'm a subscriber): they also had Epcot as a Park To Avoid on the 16th, and Studios marked Avoid on the 17th, both predicted *and* actual.

I'm not sure how OP "used" TouringPlans...

Even though HS was the park to avoid on the 17th it still was only a crowd level of 4 and was very manageable. Like I posted earlier we didn't have to wait long for anything. We used FP just for TSM.

 

[darlaya]

Hi All. OP here. I used the TP as my guide when I first made my plans in June right after our trip in May. On that trip, we used TP as well and found that parks that were listed as neutral were quite empty and we did avoid the parks to avoid. After reading many posts leading up to our trip before we left, I thought the parks were going to be quite slow and didn't have to adhere strictly to any plan. I do believe that the crowd levels were higher as the week progressed and found that I wished I had access to a computer to revisit TP while we were there.

Don't get me wrong, we still had a great time on our trip and enjoyed everything we did. It was precious time with my two DS's (16 & 13) and DH. I just wanted to let people know who may be travelling down at this time that it might not be as empty as you may think and you may want to be prepared for being strategic. We did manage to ride all the rides several times with the exception of TSMM. At the times we went FP were already gone and the waits were 60 minutes. We didn't wait becaus eit was just too humid and the family was getting cranky. What struck us the most were the crowd levels just walking around. We were there in Mid-may and didn't encounter as many people walking through all the parks.

Any ways,a trip to Disney is always a good trip IMO. I am jealous of all those just starting their trip,

 

[proud_canadian]

No matter what time of year, if you want to ride TSM with minimal waits, you defnintely need to go straight to the ride and get a FP. If you don't get into the line within the first 10-15 min of RD the line builds very quickly.

If you want to make the most of the time, no matter what time of year you go, always arrive prior to RD, make smart use of FP and have a touring plan that generally involves riding the more popular rides first (right after rope drop). If you do that, you should have manageble waits.

We went last September and are going again next week. Hopefully with smart planning we can avoid some long waits, but our trip also involves universal and sea world which are harder to plan for with not as many crowd calendar resources and no fast pass without paying!

 

[2Pirates2Princesses]

Our trip was during the third week of August. I already knew before our trip that it is common knowledge that you should be at HS at rope drop if you want a chance of riding and/or getting a good fast pass return time for Toy Story Mania. On our HS day we got to the park around 10:15am. We just couldn't make it out the door early that day. I assumed that the fast passes for Toy Story Mania would probably be gone for the day, but since this was one of the few family rides we all could do at HS we decided to give it a shot. The fast pass return time was 5:30pm. We didn't plan on coming back to the park later in the evening or staying that long so we got in the standby line which was showing a wait time of 60 minutes --we were through the line and on the ride in 35 minutes. I know for some people 35 minutes is too long of a wait, but that was the longest we waited for any ride all week and figured that wasn't too bad considering it was Toy Story Mania and that we showed up at the park at 10:15am and didn't have any fast passes. We also thought it was one of the best queues to be in too, the air conditioning was heavenly and all the different props and talking Mr. Potato Head were fun too!

 

[LilyU]

We arrived yesterday afternoon and headed to MK and it was packed

 

[katt789]

We were there right around the same time, with park days being the 14-18th
14th we were at MK all day, and basically walked on everything
15th -DHS, same thing
16- Ak, barely any crowds, then we were at MNSSHP, which had some big lines, but cleared out after the fireworks
17- Epcot, 2 of us park hopped over to MK for dinner & that was when we noticced the crowds were huuuge, we figured it was cause it was Saturday
18- we did all 4 parks, and managed to basically walk on everything up until MK, where it was definitely the longest waits, but nothign over 30 mins, and even that, it wasn't actually a 30 min wait.

We just figured crowds were bigger as it was the weekend, and EMH. I planned my days mainly using undercover tourist app, and not doing any red parks, and that worked great!