Just got back...

[DISNEYDAD101]

My wife and I just got back from Disney World last night. We had an excellent time at the Coronado Springs Resort. Crowds were pretty lite for this time of year. I was very surprised. Weather was typical Florida weather and our favorite ride was "Soarin" at Epcot. (A must see!)
Anyone have any questions they need answered?

 

[dixiedizfan]

Crowds were pretty lite for this time of year.

Really??!! Explain, please ...

 

[BostonTink85]

glad you had a good time.....we stayed at Coronado Spring last summer and loveddd it

 

[SqueakyMouse]

Yea!!! This is good news. We leave in a week.

 

[PolyAddict]

Really??!! Explain, please ...

I am curious too because June 30th is our anniversary and we honeymooned there 18 years ago but have never been back on that date before because it falls during July 4th and I figured the crowds must be bad.

 

[GrowingUpDisney]

I heard last week was HORRIBLE...weird...

 

[Tinkerbell_Girl]

How was Coronado Springs?

 

[DISNEYDAD101]

I had no problems with crowds. Most time I spent on a line was 30 minutes. I did use FastPass a bit, but hit the parks at rope drop. No problems here. Weird... We even went to Illuminations on Sunday night and we had the best spot we had ever gotten for that show. I had picked up a "half yard" of Bass from the "Rose" in the UK and watched the show.

Coronado Springs was great! We loved it. We went to the main pool at like 10am on Monday the 2nd and there were maybe like 10 families there. My wife and I had a nice section of pool all to ourselves. We even had lunch there at the bar and had a drink.

Funny thing was, the quiet pool had more people then the feature pool. LOL. I bet those guys didn't even bother going over there. Sad thing was, it was "quieter" there than the quiet pool!

One thing, there was a mad dash on July 3rd for the "Soarin" ride at Epcot at rope drop. It was funny because we were all racing each other to get there first! Hehe. Oh yeah, this is now my favorite ride!!! A MUST DO!!!

All in all, it was a good crowd, not OVER crowded by any means. I was pleasantly surprised!!!

 

[Amyg]

From what I have heard, the week BEFORE and during July 4 is horribly crowded but the week AFTER get a lot better.

We were there last July 5-13 and although I had no previous WDW experience, I didn't think the parks were as bad as I initially had anticipated! But we did use TourGuideMike so that may have been instrumental in having us avoid the worst case scenario during that time of year. We pretty much walked onto most of the attractions!

Oh, and I agree with Soarin' being a must ride! My favorite! We rode it twice but unfortunately my 9 year old son didn't care for it since he got a bit nauseous! And this boy rode ALL the other major headliners in each park with no problem at all!

 

[Michelle2]

This is so good to hear, and I am glad you had a good time, DISNEYDAD101!
Now that my kids are getting older, I will not be able to go to Disney at the off times anymore, and will have to start braving the summertime. Hearing reports like yours makes me feel alot better about it. Thanks for posting!

 

[la79al]

We went June 23-30 and we have to agree with the light crowds. Evening EMH at MK everything was a walk on or had a 5 minute wait. Never got to a park at rope drop and did most of the rides in one day per park without any rushing.

 

[Laugh O. Grams]

I was there this last week (June 29 thru check out this morning), I found both MK and Epcot to be very busy. MK reached capacity early afternoon and stopped admitting guests on the 4th, if that tells anyone anything. We did early morning magic hours (we were Poly guests) at every park and left at around 1 pm each day and hit the pool at the resort. We hadn't done a summer trip in years and the heat and crowds were too much for us...

 

[DISNEYDAD101]

I was there this last week (June 29 thru check out this morning), I found both MK and Epcot to be very busy. MK reached capacity early afternoon and stopped admitting guests on the 4th, if that tells anyone anything. We did early morning magic hours (we were Poly guests) at every park and left at around 1 pm each day and hit the pool at the resort. We hadn't done a summer trip in years and the heat and crowds were too much for us...

We avoided the parks on the 4th for obvious reasons. We actually went to the Poly Spirit of Aloha show that night. One of the best things we did. All you can eat ribs? Yum!

I guess when it comes down to it, you need to know when/where to go at certain times. Being there at rope drops and managing our fast passes helped us alot. I can tell you we went straight to Splash Mountain then BTMRR immediately afterward. That must haved shaved off an hour off our wait time from the day alone!

 

[punkin]

I was there 6/24-7/2 for the first time in high season and I thought the crowds were BAD. Maybe that was because we are used to going off season.

 

[Tam1067]

I find it interesting that people have such different experiences with crowds!

But it's not surprising. We had two bad crowd experiences last year on the same July trip--one when we got to Animal Kingdom at 9:40 (way too late I realized) and another on EMH day at MK when we arrived at 9:00, so after all the early folks had gotten there. Other than that, we toured very pleasantly.

We'll be there in two days. I'm hoping that with early arrivals, FPs, and good touring plans, we'll do OK.

 

[dumbo33]

Good lord man, now wonder you thought the crowds were lite!! Just kidding.
We just got back last night from a 9 day stay. Since we go all the time we don't hit the parks as much as we used to, so we really can't say much about the crowds. We did go to MK on the 4th to hit LTT for dinner and watch the fireworks. It was sure crowded then. If you didn't make priority seating ahead of time, then it was tough to get into places. We did snag a spot on the 6th at Artist Point. Not a bad place to eat, but I didn't think it was worth the price.
We stayed at VWL and it did seem that the pool was a bit quieter than usual at times. We met some great people this year, just hanging out at the pools.