Disneyhappy
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jan 29, 2000
- Messages
- 2,146
All I can say is - WOW, was it crowded! This is our third trip this year. This was the big one for this year lasting 8 days. DS14 friend joined us for his first trip so we tried to get in as much as we could in one week. We are DVC members and had our week picked out in January and had air booked before they came out with free dining or we would have tried to switched weeks.
We are park veterans and know the best strategies to follow. We would make sure we were at the parks before opening to make sure we hit the biggies first. On trips in the past, we were often able to do some attractions twice before moving on. Not this time! Usually by noon, we would call it a day due to the crowds and wait times. Fast passes helped but often the window of time was several hours out. The only park we enjoyed in the evening was Epcot World Showcase. MGM and MK had massive evening crowds! The Great Movie Ride had a 65 minute wait on Tuesday night at 7:30 PM. I asked the CM if why the wait was so long and he said all the CMs at the attraction were scratching their heads. Friendship boat operators in the Epcot resort area also commented on the crowds they saw this past week.
Last night, the MK streets were full for Spectro and Wishes. At 9:25 PM last night, the wait for Buzz Light Year was 50 minutes and Space Mountain was 60 minutes. We raced to Soarin at park opening on Wednesday. DH was the fast pass volunteer (he gets nauseous even on Soarin, poor guy!) and the rest of us got in line. Even getting there with the masses at park opening, we waited 55 minutes. We never thought it would take that long! We were glad that we stayed in line since the attraction broke down at least through the late afternoon.
Disney accomplished what they set out to do with the free DDP. It really is genius and a hard lesson learned by us. Don't get me wrong, we really did have a wonderful time. We just ended up spending more time at the resort that in the parks as we had planned for this particular trip. I also imagine that the crowds will thin out weekly through the end of September. Also, make sure that you have your ADRs. So many people were upset because they could not into any table service restaurants.
To be honest, my gut told me the crowds were going to be bad last week due to the free DDP and kids were still out of school. I just did not think they were going to be as bad as they were. I expected them to be around the same (or a little less crowded) as our long July 4th weekend but the crowds were definitely worse.
And of course, crowds + heat + crankiness brought out the worst in the guests. But that is an entirely new post. I know this post seems fragmented and rambling but I wanted to post before real life takes over again.
We are park veterans and know the best strategies to follow. We would make sure we were at the parks before opening to make sure we hit the biggies first. On trips in the past, we were often able to do some attractions twice before moving on. Not this time! Usually by noon, we would call it a day due to the crowds and wait times. Fast passes helped but often the window of time was several hours out. The only park we enjoyed in the evening was Epcot World Showcase. MGM and MK had massive evening crowds! The Great Movie Ride had a 65 minute wait on Tuesday night at 7:30 PM. I asked the CM if why the wait was so long and he said all the CMs at the attraction were scratching their heads. Friendship boat operators in the Epcot resort area also commented on the crowds they saw this past week.
Last night, the MK streets were full for Spectro and Wishes. At 9:25 PM last night, the wait for Buzz Light Year was 50 minutes and Space Mountain was 60 minutes. We raced to Soarin at park opening on Wednesday. DH was the fast pass volunteer (he gets nauseous even on Soarin, poor guy!) and the rest of us got in line. Even getting there with the masses at park opening, we waited 55 minutes. We never thought it would take that long! We were glad that we stayed in line since the attraction broke down at least through the late afternoon.
Disney accomplished what they set out to do with the free DDP. It really is genius and a hard lesson learned by us. Don't get me wrong, we really did have a wonderful time. We just ended up spending more time at the resort that in the parks as we had planned for this particular trip. I also imagine that the crowds will thin out weekly through the end of September. Also, make sure that you have your ADRs. So many people were upset because they could not into any table service restaurants.
To be honest, my gut told me the crowds were going to be bad last week due to the free DDP and kids were still out of school. I just did not think they were going to be as bad as they were. I expected them to be around the same (or a little less crowded) as our long July 4th weekend but the crowds were definitely worse.
And of course, crowds + heat + crankiness brought out the worst in the guests. But that is an entirely new post. I know this post seems fragmented and rambling but I wanted to post before real life takes over again.
We will stick to our regular end of May-first of June time from now on. 
