Just back!

[SOnotLayuh]

The crowds from the 24-28 were AWFUL. We used touring plans for the first time, and they were so far off base that I'm a bit annoyed that I spent money on it. Sunday, for example, was "best park of the day" and I think it was a 1.2 day or something.... and the day was so much more packed and crowded than every summer trip we've ever taken!

We've gone 5 times in the past year, and this was by far the worst crowd levels we've had. I'm not sure I'll be doing a late February trip again in the future! So much for trying to avoid the March crowds early

 

[LaurenT]

Wow, sory you ran into the crowds! We just got back too..we were there the 20th to the 26th and had the exact opposite experience..also following TP mostly..
Were you there for rope drop? We made rope drop every day and didn't notice significant crowds until lunch time....

 

[Hockeyman]

We were there the 24th thru the 27th and the crowds didn't seem overly bad. They got busier later in the day Saturday at MK but other than that it didnt seem to crazy. I have been there when it was packed and if you think last weekend was busy youd keel over if you went during some of those crazy busy days lol

 

[Horizons16]

The crowds from the 24-28 were AWFUL. We used touring plans for the first time, and they were so far off base that I'm a bit annoyed that I spent money on it. Sunday, for example, was "best park of the day" and I think it was a 1.2 day or something.... and the day was so much more packed and crowded than every summer trip we've ever taken!

We've gone 5 times in the past year, and this was by far the worst crowd levels we've had. I'm not sure I'll be doing a late February trip again in the future! So much for trying to avoid the March crowds early

Sounds like TP has been having a few issues lately with their predictions.

 

[kmk1180]

The crowds from the 24-28 were AWFUL. We've gone 5 times in the past year, and this was by far the worst crowd levels we've had.

We just got back too..We made rope drop every day and didn't notice significant crowds until lunch time....

We were there the 24th thru the 27th and the crowds didn't seem overly bad. They got busier later in the day l

Just goes to show how good crowd predictions are.
One person's bad is anothers good is anothers average.
Just depends on what your used to to decide if it works or not.
Not an exact science.

 

[SOnotLayuh]

Yeah, we were there at RD every morning.

And thanks for the sarcastic comment about keeling over... I've been in "busier times", thanks

 

[Disney_Jill]

We were there from the 17th - 21st and used TP and TGM. I found TP to be a little more "off" than TGM, sort of. The 19 and 20th were 10s and they really were. Sunday morning at Epcot was the worst and all sites said it was the best park. We ended up at DHS and it was much better. I just used my lines aps to see where the waits were the lowest. AK was much more crowded Sat. and Sun. than any site said. We took one look at that parking lot and drove right through.
In TPs defense, the days were listed as 10s, so I guess they were correct. Of course, I know President's day weekend would be packed, that's why we got there Thursday. Thost first 2 days were awesome!
Sorry you had more crowds than anticipated. We were at MK one night and it was really crowded and we left. Same with Epcot that fateful Sunday morning.

 

[GoofyKidd]

We just returned from Feb 24-Mar 1 trip and it was PACKED. No matter what park we went to, it was shoulder to shoulder people everywhere, especially both days we went to the MK. We've been there with extremely light crowds (mid-Sept) and heavy crowds (over Christmas and Memorial Day) and these days of our trip rival those past trips. According to the crowd calendar I consulted, these dates were among the top 10 dates to visit in 2011-ha! Supposedly it'd be after the President's Day rush but before spring break. Well I can say this Princess Half Marthon brought out scores of people as did this hot weather and the Free Dining. It was still a great trip because at home it's cold & snowy, but it was wasy more crowded than we expected. The busses were SLOW and the lines were long. Thank goodness for Fast Passes & my DH skill at getting and using them! Will never stay at another moderate-but that's just personal preference-no objections to the property itself-beds are just too small as our kids are getting older and bigger, rooms are too small, too many people fighting to get on the busses, no monorail, and we like being inside a hotel where we can just take an elevator to the gift shop-never even got to our gift shop once as our room was too far away. Amazed too at the gall of some people-they don't hesitate to cut in front of you, run you over with their strollers or scooters, not wait their turn. But I still love Disney more than any other place on earth! Our meals were terrific, the service wonderful and every castmate we encountered was gracious, helpful and welcoming. Can't wait to go back-but at a less busy time.

 

[DreamSweetsLove]

What were the wait times like?

 

[thej]

We were just back after a visit 19-26 feb and while things were crowded, they were no where near as bad as Christmas-new years 2009. Busiest day was the 21st in MK. It was perhaps an 8. You could still walk between Peter pan and small world without having to shove between people. Good luck with that Christmas week. The 20th in epoch was busy but not insane. We walked on several rides (Nemo, Land, 3 calaberros) and short wait for spaceship earth.

wWoHP on the 22 was a different story. Wall-to-wall people. Made WDW look empty, so maybe my perspective is different

 

[cuchu2005]

Hi, I'm posting some parts of another post of mine:

We did MK on Fri 25th and Epcot on Sat 26th. MK opened at 8 and closed at 10. We were there for RD, so we went for Fantasyland first, ran forsome FPs and always had our tickets busy on a FP machine. By noon Fantasyland was crowded, hard to get from one place to other. Peter Pan had a posted wait time of 80, Pooh 40, IASW 30. We saw the 3PM parade, and found an acceptable last minute spot in Frontierland. There were other free places but you had to be willing to get some tanning.

For Wishes, the hub area was packed (shoulder to shoulder)

If not for rope drop and FP running, we would have ended up waiting in line all afternoon.

The longer we waited was 25 mins for Tomorrowland speedway @ 10AM and more then 1 hour to meet Rapunzel and Flynn.

On Sat we repeated rope drop, but we had an easier day. We did Soarin' and Mission Space twice, and we could have ridden Soarin' an additional time. We met Characters, rode the other attractions, tried. The segways, and strolled by almost every country at the showcase. We had no problems finding a good spot for illuminations.

TP predicted easier days from Sunday on, but apparently, Saturday turned out to be a pretty manageable day, even though the parks where not desserted by any means.

We've always visited WDW on slow periods and we expected it to be worse. Our rope drop and FP strat worked really well for us. Granted, it took some effort running for FPs, but that gave us an easy afternoon.

We had the best of times on our shortest visit to WDW.

Mx

 

[civileng68]

Actually I felt like Sunday was a pretty fair day at MK.

 

[Tinkarella]

I assumed the parks would have been busy last week, a lot of schools up north had the week off for winter break. It has always been a week we avoid. Might be a good note for people to make for next year.

 

[dolphindan1]

This whole thread sounds like a huge endorsement for TGM.....

 

[LaurenT]

We were there from the 17th - 21st and used TP and TGM. I found TP to be a little more "off" than TGM, sort of. The 19 and 20th were 10s and they really were. Sunday morning at Epcot was the worst and all sites said it was the best park. We ended up at DHS and it was much better. I just used my lines aps to see where the waits were the lowest. AK was much more crowded Sat. and Sun. than any site said. We took one look at that parking lot and drove right through.
In TPs defense, the days were listed as 10s, so I guess they were correct. Of course, I know President's day weekend would be packed, that's why we got there Thursday. Thost first 2 days were awesome!
Sorry you had more crowds than anticipated. We were at MK one night and it was really crowded and we left. Same with Epcot that fateful Sunday morning.

We were supposed to be there Sunday morning! But we lost a day due to a canceled flight and didn't get to Epcot until after 4 pm...we must have been touring against the stream (maybe the crowds had migrated to WS by then) because the park was very manageable for us. We were handed FP's by a family heading out that did look exhausted...so I think we just got lucky and managed to be where the crowds weren't....

 

[LaurenT]

I also wanted to add that we went to MK on Fri, the 25th for the general public 8 am open....it was practically empty....in fact, when I went to get my Splash FP, I was THE ONLY guest I could see...it was me and the cast members! We walked onto peter pan, dumbo, buzz, etc....by the time we headed for lunch though we were weaving between people, and after lunch we were glad we were headed for the pool.....

 

[cuchu2005]

I also wanted to add that we went to MK on Fri, the 25th for the general public 8 am open....it was practically empty....in fact, when I went to get my Splash FP, I was THE ONLY guest I could see...it was me and the cast members! We walked onto peter pan, dumbo, buzz, etc....by the time we headed for lunch though we were weaving between people, and after lunch we were glad we were headed for the pool.....

100% agree to that! But why are you ignoring me? My Splash FP has a posted issue time of 8.03, so we must have crossed our paths! In fact, when I was heading back to Fantasyland I turned and took a picture because I had never seen Frontierland that way. Now that I think of it, I should have taken a pic at parade time to compare!

We also walked onto almost everything until lunch time, and we also noticed the boost in crowds from that moment on. But, we stayed until park closing.

We managed to collect lots of FPs so we didn't have to get in lines during The Afternoon.

Mx

 

[LaurenT]

100% agree to that! But why are you ignoring me? My Splash FP has a posted issue time of 8.03, so we must have crossed our paths! In fact, when I was heading back to Fantasyland I turned and took a picture because I had never seen Frontierland that way. Now that I think of it, I should have taken a pic at parade time to compare!

We also walked onto almost everything until lunch time, and we also noticed the boost in crowds from that moment on. But, we stayed until park closing.

We managed to collect lots of FPs so we didn't have to get in lines during The Afternoon.

Mx

lol..we must have walked right past each other.... I took the wooden plank walkway, but I didn't go straight to SPlash, I escorted Christine and the girls to Dumbo first. We had been there on Wed and I had gone for Space FP and sent them to go straight to Dumbo...well, when I got to Dumbo they weren't there yet...the girls had talked Christine into letting them try the sword (which Becky finally pulled out on Fri!)..the line was too long for Dumbo by the time they walked up....so I wasn't going to leave them on their own again!

 

[GaSleepingBeautyFan]

Sorry you hit all the crowds. We were there too. We were going to use touring plans too but quickly noticed that so many people were using them, it wasn't working well. We did better when we did the opposite of the touring plans suggestions.

My teenage son and I just got back last night. We arrived on Friday evening Feb. 25th and left yesterday afternoon.

Friday evening at Epcot for Evening EMH wasn't too bad. It was only a 20 minute wait for test track by 11pm. We don't like Soarin' so didn't even look at that line.

Saturday we went to AK until about 3pm. We arrived at 10am. EE had plenty of FP's available and was only a 15 minute wait. Dinosaur was a 20 minute wait posted but we were in line less than that. KS had a 50 minute wait when we got over to it by noon but FP's were available for only an hour and a half from then so we got one. As usual AK paths seemed very crowded but the lines weren't too bad until around noon. We skipped KRR. ITTAB only had 10 minute waits every time we walked by. We kept seeing the same gaggle of girls. I guess they were cheerleaders? My teenage son didn't mind waiting in line when they were around.

After AK, we took a break at the hotel and went to MK for the evening. POTC was down but we rode most of the bigger rides with no more than a 30 minute wait or used FP's for longer wait times. My son didn't care about wishes or the new preshow so we skipped it and did rides during that time instead. It didn't feel very crowded to me but I've gone in June when it was much busier.

Sunday was Hollywood Studios. I couldn't get my son out of bed until late morning so when we got there at 11:30am, FP's for TSMM were gone as expected and the wait was up to 70 minutes so we skipped it. RnRC was at 45 minutes, ToT was at 50 minutes. FP's were available for both so we easily did 2 rides on each. It was more crowded than we expected but since it was the only Fantasmic night of our trip I shouldn't have been surprised.

Monday was our Epcot Day. The crowds all seemed to have gone home. We didn't get to the park until nearly noon. Test Track waits then were only 30 minutes and FP's were available all day even at 8pm. Mission Space orange only had waits of 15 minutes. World Showcase was crowded at 2pm and I hate that the new CS in Mexico had very little seating. I'd hope they would enlarge the seating area. Tons of people were just using it as a place to rest so those of us with food were putting it on top of garbage cans to eat. Yuck. I liked seeing some of the topiary up already for the F&G Festival. My son was not interested in Illuminations so we left before it started.

Tuesday was a rainy morning but we went back to MK anyway since we were leaving that afternoon. Crowds were non-existent until about noon. We were riding BTMRR and walking right back on to ride again. Space Mountain was only a 10 minute wait so my son rode that several times in a row. Buzz said it was a 15 minute wait but we walked on as was POTC and HM. It was fabulous.

Overall we had a great trip, the crowds were heavy on the weekend but the weather was nice. I learned that it's better to sleep in and do late nights with my teenage son. I wouldn't hesitate to go back at this time again.

 

[cuchu2005]

lol..we must have walked right past each other.... I took the wooden plank walkway, but I didn't go straight to SPlash, I escorted Christine and the girls to Dumbo first. We had been there on Wed and I had gone for Space FP and sent them to go straight to Dumbo...well, when I got to Dumbo they weren't there yet...the girls had talked Christine into letting them try the sword (which Becky finally pulled out on Fri!)..the line was too long for Dumbo by the time they walked up....so I wasn't going to leave them on their own again!

This is what Frontierland looked the morning you referred to.

Tell me that you are one of the people on the picture walking towards Splash Mountain and I'm outta here!

Mx