Just returned....HUGE crowds

[bksomody]

We were in Disney for our 17th trip from Feb 9-15th. This is normally a low-crowd time (Presidents week is the exception), and we were completely taken off guard by the crowds. Every park was crazy busy, and my friend who is a manager in the MK said they're all scratching their heads over the enormous crowds. She said there has been no down time in Disney since last October, and Christmas was completely 'nutty'.

We waited 20 minutes for the People Mover. There was a 20-40 minute wait for Spaceship Earth all day long. Moving around in Fantasyland was nearly impossible....you just get swept up in the throng, then when you need to stop, you are stepped on (or in my case, cursed at). Fast passes in all parks were usually given out completely. My friend also makes the announcements over the main speaker in MK as well, and I heard her all three days we were in MK announce that park hours were being extended.

We have always gone in January or February because of low attendance, so the crowds were such a surprise to us. We still had fun, but that's because we know what we want to do, and skip what doesn't thrill us. If it was our first time, I doubt we'd go back for quite a while. I witnessed several parents in epcot who had hoped to get pictures of their kids with characters and such, but lines were crazy long. And the new fast pass enforcement and rules about holding 2 at a time make it difficult to do everything.

And BTW, the line for the new Enchanted Tales with Belle is killer. Half of it has no cover from the sun, and the line only moves every 15 minutes as they let a new group in. We waited an hour for that one. On the plus side, the new Ariel ride has a pretty constant moving and interesting queue. Wait time was listed at 50 minutes, we were in within 30. Couldn't get near the Be Our Guest restaurant.

So....be prepared with your touring plans. Even this fairly seasoned Disney tourist was overwhelmed. I think Disney would do well to build itself a new park instead of more resorts/dvc.

Just curious, did you go to parks with EMH? A lot of people say to avoid the parks with EMH because crowds are bigger but I'm wondering if thats true.

 

[ForMyBoys]

I just looked at touringplans.com and this is what I see for the parks he visited.

Saturday night: MK - Crowd level 6.9, park to avoid
Sunday: Epcot - Crowd level 3.3, best park recommendation
Monday: AK- Crowd level 4.3, nuetral park (had EMH)
Tuesday: MK- Crowd level 3.2, best park recommendation
Wed: HS- Crowd level 3.4, best park recommendation
Thurs- Epcot- Crowd level 4.4, best park recommendation
Friday: MK- Crowd level 6.7, nuetral park


So out of all of that the only day that had extra hours was AK, which probably explains why it was so bad in the morning and cleared out at night. But for most of the rest of them seems he picked ok days given the recommendations. I liked comparing it, seems the historical predictions may not always be accurate.

Does anyone have an alternative to Tourplans to compare this to?

 

[harvey]

Just curious, did you go to parks with EMH? A lot of people say to avoid the parks with EMH because crowds are bigger but I'm wondering if thats true.

We usually avoid them, but this trip we were working with my kid's schedules, when my dad was joining us and where he wanted to go, etc.

 

[harvey]

I just looked at touringplans.com and this is what I see for the parks he visited.

Saturday night: MK - Crowd level 6.9, park to avoid
Sunday: Epcot - Crowd level 3.3, best park recommendation
Monday: AK- Crowd level 4.3, nuetral park (had EMH)
Tuesday: MK- Crowd level 3.2, best park recommendation
Wed: HS- Crowd level 3.4, best park recommendation
Thurs- Epcot- Crowd level 4.4, best park recommendation
Friday: MK- Crowd level 6.7, nuetral park


So out of all of that the only day that had extra hours was AK, which probably explains why it was so bad in the morning and cleared out at night. But for most of the rest of them seems he picked ok days given the recommendations. I liked comparing it, seems the historical predictions may not always be accurate.

Does anyone have an alternative to Tourplans to compare this to?

That's interesting! Tuesday at MK was as bad as Monday at AK, though. And I'm a 'she'....harvey is my last name

 

[Brian_WDW74]

I've moved this thread to the Trip Reports board.

 

[ForMyBoys]

I've moved this thread to the Trip Reports board.

Intresting- I thought this was more about park crowds vs. a trip report ....I guess its a fine line

 

[harvey]

Intresting- I thought this was more about park crowds vs. a trip report ....I guess its a fine line

Yeah, it could prolly go either place. I orginally posted it on the Strategies board so others could adjust their own strategies to deal with the higher crowd levels. Sorry if it crossed the line....

 

[ForMyBoys]

Sorry for the he..... you'd think I'd notice the Cindy in your siggy

 

[bluezy]

I watched Live with Kelly & Michael since they were filming live in Town Square at MK this week.

I was shocked at how crowded the entire Main Street was at 9am all week...there were so many ppl it looked like it was hard to move toward Cinderella Castle.

I am going to be there in 12 days. Looks like making Rope drop everyday will be my priority.

I think Kelly & Michael taped all 4 shows on Monday & Tuesday so some of the crowds that you saw were most likely afternoon crowds posing as morning crowds.

I just looked at touringplans.com and this is what I see for the parks he visited.

Saturday night: MK - Crowd level 6.9, park to avoid
Sunday: Epcot - Crowd level 3.3, best park recommendation
Monday: AK- Crowd level 4.3, nuetral park (had EMH)
Tuesday: MK- Crowd level 3.2, best park recommendation
Wed: HS- Crowd level 3.4, best park recommendation
Thurs- Epcot- Crowd level 4.4, best park recommendation
Friday: MK- Crowd level 6.7, nuetral park


So out of all of that the only day that had extra hours was AK, which probably explains why it was so bad in the morning and cleared out at night. But for most of the rest of them seems he picked ok days given the recommendations. I liked comparing it, seems the historical predictions may not always be accurate.

Does anyone have an alternative to Tourplans to compare this to?

You can compare to this crowd calendar at EasyWDW.com. Josh does a really good job of suggesting which parks to go to and which ones to avoid on any given day. You'll need to scroll down the page a little bit to get to the calendar.
http://www.easywdw.com/category/calendar/02-february-2013-crowd-calendar/


At quick glance, it appears that the parks the OP felt were really crowded were listed as "Parks to Avoid" on Josh's calendar and the days that the parks didn't seem as crowded the OP was in the parks that Josh recommended as "Best Park" for that day.

 

[ForMyBoys]

OK I updated in red what EasyWDW said for those dates.

I just looked at touringplans.com and this is what I see for the parks he visited.

Saturday night: MK - Crowd level 6.9, park to avoid Park to Avoid
Sunday: Epcot - Crowd level 3.3, best park recommendation Green
Monday: AK- Crowd level 4.3, nuetral park (had EMH) Park to Avoid
Tuesday: MK- Crowd level 3.2, best park recommendation Green
Wed: HS- Crowd level 3.4, best park recommendation Park to Avoid
Thurs- Epcot- Crowd level 4.4, best park recommendation Green
Friday: MK- Crowd level 6.7, nuetral park Green

The only one that seems counter to touringplans is HS on Wednesday. Touring plans listed it as a best park and EasyWDW listed it as a park to avoid. OP mentioned that while there was a long line getting into the park that the rest of the day wasn't bad at all... so it seems touringplans had it right for that one. And based on OP's assessments both Touringplans and EasyWDW had Sunday wrong for Epcot.

 

[bksomody]

Seems pretty crowded for such a low crowd level.

 

[Colleen27]

And based on OP's assessments both Touringplans and EasyWDW had Sunday wrong for Epcot.

Weekends are a crapshoot as far as predicting crowds because weather is such a wild card. The planning sites could be 100% accurate in terms of all known crowd patterns for a given date, but if it is a beautiful Sunday the influx extra local day guests can throw the overall crowd levels way off. The same thing happens, though somewhat less dramatically, in unusually bad weather - locals and those on longer trips who can afford to "lose" a day avoid the parks in favor of staying home or seeking out indoor amusement, making the actual crowd conditions lighter than predicted.