Just Returned - Crowds Worse Than July 4th!

[Harambe]

This is really weird, as there have been a few "we're here now" thread from folks at WDW, and they are saying the crowds are not that bad, with 10 to 20 minute wait times at the big attractions.

Oh well! Here's hoping the crowds shrink at least a tad this week and next. And yes, I do live in a dreamworld . . .

 

[kaysmommie]

Thanks for the update. I hope the kids getting back to school keeps the crowds down. Going over Labor Day weekend and we have alot to do in a short time.

Also going over Labor Day weekend , hoping the crows thin out. I was only taking advantage or free dining becuase we thought the crowds would be low. I hate this time of year for Disney because it is way too hot & humid. Next trip will be in November or December for optimal touring.

 

[lunchmomd]

We were at the World 8/12-8/18 and the only day we really felt the crowds (at least as far as ride times went) was Thursday, 8/18 at Animal Kingdom. I managed a last minute ADR at Donald's so we could get into the park early, but the busses from the Contemporary were running really slow, so we got there a little after 9:00. My oldest son flew to EE for fast passes and by the time he got there, the line for fast passes took 20 minutes and the stand by line was already 120 minutes!! It worked out, though, because their fast pass return time was 10:30-11:30. We ate breakfast and had enough time to stroll over to Asia. And we had no choice but to stroll - people everywhere!!!

They loved the ride so much that they got fast passes again for 2:45 - 3:45. We managed the Safari (40 minute wait) and they went on Kali River Rapids (40 minute wait), checked out some shops, ate lunch, and back to EE. While it was difficult to get around the park, and the lines were longer than we are used to, we didn't think it was too bad.

As far as the other parks, we didn't have much trouble doing everything we really wanted to do. We skipped Epcot this trip, so we did MK twice without any real problems. Had to skip Space Mountain one day, but didn't wait more than 20 minutes for anything else we wanted.

We got to MGM around 6:00 for our dinner ADR and went on Star Tours in 10 minutes. We attempted the Great Movie Ride, but there was a 60 minute wait (never seen that before!). Then fast passed RnR and waited about 15 minutes for ToT. Then fast passed ToT for a second ride while on RnR.

I will agree with everyone else that the parks themselves were very crowded, but we really didn't have trouble riding the things we really wanted to do. I would do it again!!

 

[Todd&Copper]

I just got back, too (in WDW 8/13 - 17) and I must have missed the unbelieveable crowds, too. We, of course, took advantage of FP, and I don't think we waited for more than 20 minutes for anything.
8/13 at EPCOT - FP Test Track, went on Soarin (10 min wait TOPS), did JIYI and SSE, then went around the countries Canada to Mexico. Did Universe of Energy (to rest) and then went back to World Showcase for dinner.
8/14 at MK - did not find the crowds bad at all. Went on Pirates, SpM and BTMRR, HM, then to Fantasyland and no wait was longer than 20 minutes (although some had 25 mins. posted). Continued around to Tommorrowland, which was a littel crowded, but used FP to eliminate waits.
8/15 at AK - FP for Everest, then did Dinoland (no on there AT ALL), then did some trails and FP safari. Walked right in to ITTBAB and saw the final FOTLK show after walking in 10 mins. before the start.
8/16 EPCOT & MK - we split the day and did the stuff we missed at each place. It was dreadfully hot, but not overly crowded.
8/17 at MGM - this was the only place I thought was really crowded, and it really had to do more with the shoddy layout of the park than the crowds. I waited about 20 minutes for Great Movie Ride at about 4:30 / 5:00 in the afternoon. Crowds grew to gargantuan size anytime the new stunt show let out, so I made sure I was already in a queue or doing something before the crowds surged.
Not that anyone on this board cares, but I went to USO on 8/12 and was able to get on all of the rides by 6 pm, going on a few twice or three times, and waited no longer than 25 minutes for anything.

There were a lot of people there, but my wait times were not too bad at all.

 

[taximomfor4]

I just got back, too (in WDW 8/13 - 17) and I must have missed the unbelieveable crowds, too. We, of course, took advantage of FP, and I don't think we waited for more than 20 minutes for anything.
8/13 at EPCOT - FP Test Track, went on Soarin (10 min wait TOPS), did JIYI and SSE, then went around the countries Canada to Mexico. Did Universe of Energy (to rest) and then went back to World Showcase for dinner.
8/14 at MK - did not find the crowds bad at all. Went on Pirates, SpM and BTMRR, HM, then to Fantasyland and no wait was longer than 20 minutes (although some had 25 mins. posted). Continued around to Tommorrowland, which was a littel crowded, but used FP to eliminate waits.
8/15 at AK - FP for Everest, then did Dinoland (no on there AT ALL), then did some trails and FP safari. Walked right in to ITTBAB and saw the final FOTLK show after walking in 10 mins. before the start.
8/16 EPCOT & MK - we split the day and did the stuff we missed at each place. It was dreadfully hot, but not overly crowded.
8/17 at MGM - this was the only place I thought was really crowded, and it really had to do more with the shoddy layout of the park than the crowds. I waited about 20 minutes for Great Movie Ride at about 4:30 / 5:00 in the afternoon. Crowds grew to gargantuan size anytime the new stunt show let out, so I made sure I was already in a queue or doing something before the crowds surged.
Not that anyone on this board cares, but I went to USO on 8/12 and was able to get on all of the rides by 6 pm, going on a few twice or three times, and waited no longer than 25 minutes for anything.

There were a lot of people there, but my wait times were not too bad at all.

We were at the same places some of the days...and as I stated earlier, I didn't think the crowds were horrible. But then again, we have been at this time of year 2x, and at Easter 1x (DH will NEVER do Easter again he says.)

8/13: Epcot
8/14: MK
8/15: AK
8/16: Epcot
8/17: Epcot
8/18: MK
8/19: MK (The rain did not clear up the crowds much at all...we stayed till 8pm though, it was our LAST few hours before driving home).

We had scheduled MGM on 8/16, but when that day came nobody wanted to bother going there.

Perhaps we didn't mind the crowds much because we only saw the MK daytime parade 2x in Frontierland, and the AK parade 1x in Africa. Only saw Illuminations for fireworks (3x) but we are sitting, not milling in the crowds when waiting for IllumiNations to start. We did a Magical Fireworks cruise on 8/12 (non-park day) to catch Wishes. I would say it seemed a bit busier than last August, but not terribly so. Last August, we went the same week but the Free Dining started a week AFTER.


There were a lot of people there, but my wait times were not too bad at all.

 

[CarolinaBlue]

We were there 8/13-8/18. This was our first time in August, so I really don't know what it's normally like this time of year. We have been in March, June, and the week before Christmas. I didn't find this week to be any worse than in June. We were at Epcot on Monday and Thursday and MK on Tuesday and Wednesday. We started at park opening except for Thursday. We used fastpass when necessary, but still didn't wait more than 20 minutes for anything else. We walked on several rides including Pirates. Alot of people are saying it was really crowded, but I guess it depends on what you are used to dealing with. I didn't think the week before Christmas was crowded either, however, some people did.

 

[KimWDW]

Anytime kids are out of school = crowded.

 

[StacyPop]

FYI-I go every year 5 times a year. Every year the week of Labor Day for the last 10 years. In South Florida, schools started last week-My kids' not till last Friday. So I think a big part of the crowds is because school had not started yet. I have never noticed a difference because of the free dining.

 

[Disneyhappy]

Anytime kids are out of school = crowded.

There are different levels of crowds and last week was the most crowded I have ever seen the parks in my over 30 plus visits. Many students in FL returned to school as early as 8/7/06 so I was expecting the crowds to be less than they were July 4th week when we were there. There were attractions that had minimal waits like COP. The fact that COP was open for the full park hours should have been a clue for us. WDW only keeps COP open for the full park hours during peak times so they were expecting larger crowds. During non-peak times, COP is open limited hours - I think 11 AM to 7 PM. This trip was the first time I have experienced a wait time for the Tiki Birds in at least 10 years. We went back later and got in on the first entry but again, the show was full. I am so used to that show having limited attendance that I am afraid that they will do away with the attraction. I was glad to see it was highly attended if for no other reason than to secure it's place at the MK.

Please understand that I am not complaining. I am only trying to share our experience to help others and I guess to vent a bit. We still had a magical vacation. DH got tagged to be in MGM's Backlot tour show yet again. DH and DS got on some radio show (Smack Talk?) at ESPN that was taped for affilates nationwide which was really cool.

And to all those that did not find it crowded last week, I am happy for you and wish I would have followed your itinerary or had your perspective! Glad you all enjoyed your vacation!

 

[KimWDW]

What did the crowd blog say for last week? This coming week looks like all 7's. I wonder if last week was 8 or higher???? It's deleted now but maybe someone remembers.

 

[Prince Eric1]

We went on:
Monday 8/14- MGM- Crowds huge, lines huge,fastpasses gone for RnRc by early afternnoon, late hours the lines were longer than during the day. It was our worst day for crowds
Tuesday 8/15- Epcot- crowds pretty big again but we managed. One person said the lines for Soarin were almost 3 hours in the afternoon (we did it twice at opening, one standby one fastpass). The only way to do any of the bigger rides was to fastpass them and come back.
Wed 8/16- AK- a mob to Everest at opening and it was mobbed all day after. We did good with the fastpasses and did everything, but the paths were mobbed and there were ten minute waits in line to get some of the fastpasses
Thur 8/17- MK- not too bad, managable throughout. Many of the attractions were walkons (Philharmonic, Haunted Mansion, Caroussel of progress, Pan and Poo about 20-30 minutes), and we were able to fastpass the bigger rides to do them a couple times each (Splash, Railroad, Space Mountain)
Fri 8/18- Downtown Disney (no one really there)
Sat 8/19- MGM for opening, good crowds, hit Aerosmith and Tower twice each at opening then went to MK. MK managable also, smaller attractions walkons or short waits mixed with one hour waits for fastpasses for bigger rides.
Sun 8/20- Epcot before leaving- average crowds, 40-50 minute waits for bigger attractions, smaller like Figment walkons.

 

[Lynn4Mel]

Oh boy... I better prepare my friend who has never been there when I pick her up tomorrow to head to WDW for the just in case. She tends to get overwellmed in certain situations. I can happily say I have all of my ADR's all set. The good thing about my friend is that she has the "if I haven't seen it or been there then I do not know what I am missing and going to worry about it and will have fun with whatever I do" attitude All she wants to see anyways is the Tree of Life. Oh she's in for a quite the awakening when we get there on Wed! I honeslty think, she thinks WDW is about the size of 6 Flags.

 

[wdwobsessed]

I would have expected last week to be a zoo with a great deal of kids not back in school yet + free dining = people getting in the trip right before schools starts.

I bet as each week goes by crowds will thin out. This week will be a little better as some kids went back today. Next week will be even better since a lot of kids go back next week. Labor day week will be even better since just about everyone goes back by that week.

August is a huge vacation month for people in the Mid-Atlantic states. I can see where last week was insane.

WDWO

 

[tacomaranch]

I can't stand the heat so I tried to make our trip later but the free dining got me. We are going the last week in Sept. first week of Oct. I heard the heat is even worse then but we are praying most folks are back home and in school so the crowds will be light.

Sorry your trip was so crowded and wishing you a better trip next time.

 

[MermaidMommy]

Disneyhappy - Wow, you took the words right out of my mouth. I've never been when the parks were that crowed, and a lot of the people did seem to be a bit on the cranky side... We will stick to our regular end of May-first of June time from now on.

Can you tell me what I should expect crowd/weather-wise early June? We've only been in wintertime before, but now that DD is in school, we're banished to the Siberia of summer (or should that be the Sahara of summer ). We're looking at going June 7-14 this coming year. I've searched the boards and have gotten some general June info, but I'd love some feedback on this particular time. After being spoiled by no crowds and great weather in the off-season, I'm nervous about switching to summer. Thanks!

 

[LSUmom4kids]

We were there from 8/4 - 8/12 and we took full advantage of the FastPasses! You basically need to do some research ahead of time to see which rides offer FP and as soon as you get into the park, send someone in your party with everyone's tickets, to get the FPs. We basically ate, shopped, saw other things and even got character autographs ALL timed around our FP times.

We saw very long lines for the most of the very popular rides, but when we entered the "FP Return Line" there was NO ONE in front of us and we felt like we were cutting the line! I'll never understand why more people don't do a little research and use the FP system!

But that's okay if they don't... that means the FP Return Lines will be shorter for all us "FastPassers"!! We all really enjoyed NOT waiting in lines, and the kids enjoyed "cutting"!!

On second thought...DON'T TELL ANYONE ABOUT USING FASTPASSES!! Let's keep it a secret!!!!!!!

 

[sweetheart2576]

Prince eric

we were in epcot also on the 15the and we were one of those people that waited 2 1/2 hours inline for soaring. All FP's were gone.

We also did AK on the 16th. THe line for FP for EE was ridiculous, but i stood there. Never did get a chance to ride Kali, did not do conservation station, or flights of wonder, but got done what we wanted to. We were also there before the park opened for donald's. We used FP for everest and kilimanjaro.

took a break from the parks on the 17th. Did boggy creek airboat tours

18th MGM(got there late 10am) Didnt do half the stuff in the park. watched action car show and rockin roller coaster, star tours, and muppets. Left for TL got there about 3pm and was soo nice, not crowded. it was great.
19th was Mk stayed until closing with a break at 5:15 for dinner at O'hana's.
Skipped some stuff, but did most. I love MK at closing, we were able to ride both Splash and BTMR 3 times in a row. Didn't watch spectro, only what we could see on splash. Decided we would go to late park hours on Sunday the next day.
20th DQ in morning and headed to TL at 3 again. Worked good before. This time was little more crowded but i love those new water coasters. Able to do everything. Left at park closing and went to change for MK extra magic hours. BIG MISTAKE! It seemed more crowded then during the day. The entire family was soooo disappointed. Got on 3 rides (HM, Spash, BTMR) left at closing 1am busses were horrible. Stayed at POR. They had 2 ques going for that and took 6 busses before we got on. No more extra magic hours for me.

 

[mrsltg]

Ok, I've got a fairly different take on the entire week. We were there 8/14-8/21. Here's what we did, when...

8/15 - BB until noon - couldn't believe how empty the place was! Don't get me wrong, we were far from being alone, but it wasn't standing room only.

We went to MK at about 4:15 for a 4:30 ADR at LTT. I ran ahead and got fastpasses for Splash Mountain. After dinner we rode PoC (about a 10 minute wait). Then we did Jungle Cruise (about a 10 minute wait). DH and the kids walked onto Carpets. At this point younger dd needed to go back to the room and it was time for older dd and to go on Splash Mountain. We went on twice and were back in the room at about 8:15. So, over the course of about 2.5 hours we rode 5 rides. We weren't rushing between anything, just meandering through stores and enjoying ourselves.

8/16 - MK in the evening. We arrived at about 5:30. We rode the TTC (there's never a line for that) while we waited for our Buzz fastpasses. Went on the teacups, went back to Buzz after fp'ing Winnie. After Buzz we meandered a little, went on Small World, went back to Winnie. We were back in the hotel by 8.

8/17 - AK. We had breakfast at Donald's at 8. DH and dd did EE while I got fastpasses. I waited in line for about 5 minutes for the fp's. When they got off (they were on the first train) I swapped with DH and dd and I rode again. We went over to Kali, waited for about 10 minutes, rode, swapped with dh. I took the baby over to the Safari and got fastpasses and returned to dh and dd. We went back to EE and rode for the second time. Wandered around, had lunch, went on the safari at the end of our return time. Somewhere in there we got dh and dd fastpasses for EE for between 2-3pm. I was back in the room by 1 with the baby. Dh and dd were at AK until after the parade.

8/18 - BB - much more crowded but still not standing room only. We stayed until about 12:30.

Epcot - there were crowds here on this day. Of course, we didn't get to Epcot until about 4:30 so there were no fastpasses to be had for Soarin. We went on Spaceship Earth, wandered the Living Seas, took a slow stroll to our dinner in England. By the time we were done Imagination was closed for the evening. DD was tired so we headed back to the room.

8/19 - MK - no problems. We had breakfast at 8am and were in Fantasyland at nine. We did all of Fantasyland (I had gone to get fp's for Splash), Pirates, Space Mountain, Buzz (twice), Big Thunder Mountain, TTA, and Splash Mountain before lunch (11:30). We fastpassed Splash again and dh took the baby back to the room. DD and I stayed for about 2 more hours riding Splash, TTA, and Winnie, followed by ice cream on Main Street and a stroll through the shops. We left at about 2:15.

8/20 - Epcot - no problems. At rope drop I went ahead and got fp's for Soarin. We went on Imagination, played in the pavillion for about 20 minutes, joined the line for Turtle Talk with Crush, saw the show, went on Soarin (had to swap), walked over to TT and got fastpasses. We had lunch in the World Showcase, wandered around a little, walked into MouseGears (spent $$$$$ like we had it!), and dd and dh went on Test Track. We left the park at 2.

Honestly, it wasn't as though we were the only people there, and it was definitely crowded but manageable. Get to the parks at opening and do what you want to do. I wouldn't worry about it, though!

 

[n2mm]

We too just returned last night. We were there 8/17 to 8/21. The crowds were unbelievable. We are veterans and go to WDW 4-5 trips a year. We never go during Easter or Christmas times. We only go the first 2 weeks of May and the last 2 weeks of October, a week early February and then a week either August or September (sometimes December). So we are use to moderate crowds of the early spring or fall times of year. We avoid all holidays and school breaks. The crowds we saw were larger than our May and October trips. The waits were long for most rides (meaning more than 30 minutes and sometimes longer than 1 hour). We also tried AK on 8/17 and wow. We got a FP and rode the safari, that was all we did. We arrived after 2:00PM and no FP left for EE. We left at 4:00PM. We did early morning tot time at MK on Friday 8/18. This was the only time we did not encounter crowds and most of MK was no wait, for the first couple of hours. This was nice as I don't think folks knew that MK had openned at 8:00AM that day. We did all of our favorites and left around 1:00PM. After that it all went downhill. Went over to MK on Saturday after lunch and waited 1 hour for POC because our friends wanted to see the new changes. Waited 30 minutes for HM (wasn't too bad), then left. Sunday night, YUCK! EMH at MK. We decided to try to arrive around 9:00PM. It took 30 minutes to get down mainstreet as it was a sea of people. After the fireworks the wait times doubled at all attractions. 45 minutes for buzz, over an hour for SM. We left around 10:30PM after waiting in line to ride the people mover...which is never a good sign. Monday 8/21 back to AK. Got to do a few things because of FP and single rider line. Left at 11:00AM as the sea of people were pouring in. The crowd level was much higher than any of our other trips, except for the December trips of 2005 and 2006 (first and second weeks of December). I will be very curious to see if free dining is offered next year, I think Disney factored in some cancellations, but it did not happen at least during my timeframe. My only tip is to avoid EMH as much as possible; arrive early; use FP; and don't be too disappointed if you can't do as much as you plan to. I kept saying, there's always the next trip...in my case, the next trip is only 8 weeks away.

 

[sweetheart2576]

We too just returned last night. We were there 8/17 to 8/21. The crowds were unbelievable. We are veterans and go to WDW 4-5 trips a year. We never go during Easter or Christmas times. We only go the first 2 weeks of May and the last 2 weeks of October, a week early February and then a week either August or September (sometimes December). So we are use to moderate crowds of the early spring or fall times of year. We avoid all holidays and school breaks. The crowds we saw were larger than our May and October trips. The waits were long for most rides (meaning more than 30 minutes and sometimes longer than 1 hour). We also tried AK on 8/17 and wow. We got a FP and rode the safari, that was all we did. We arrived after 2:00PM and no FP left for EE. We left at 4:00PM. We did early morning tot time at MK on Friday 8/18. This was the only time we did not encounter crowds and most of MK was no wait, for the first couple of hours. This was nice as I don't think folks knew that MK had openned at 8:00AM that day. We did all of our favorites and left around 1:00PM. After that it all went downhill. Went over to MK on Saturday after lunch and waited 1 hour for POC because our friends wanted to see the new changes. Waited 30 minutes for HM (wasn't too bad), then left. Sunday night, YUCK! EMH at MK. We decided to try to arrive around 9:00PM. It took 30 minutes to get down mainstreet as it was a sea of people. After the fireworks the wait times doubled at all attractions. 45 minutes for buzz, over an hour for SM. We left around 10:30PM after waiting in line to ride the people mover...which is never a good sign. Monday 8/21 back to AK. Got to do a few things because of FP and single rider line. Left at 11:00AM as the sea of people were pouring in. The crowd level was much higher than any of our other trips, except for the December trips of 2005 and 2006 (first and second weeks of December). I will be very curious to see if free dining is offered next year, I think Disney factored in some cancellations, but it did not happen at least during my timeframe. My only tip is to avoid EMH as much as possible; arrive early; use FP; and don't be too disappointed if you can't do as much as you plan to. I kept saying, there's always the next trip...in my case, the next trip is only 8 weeks away.

We also got to MK at around 9 on emh sunday. It was absolutely unbelievable. I kept telling my DH before we went that we shouldn't have too long of waits. was i wrong! We did do the people mover, didn't wait but when we exited the line was really long. I never seen a line for that ever.