last week of august not empty!

[riogirl84]

We just got back from 8 days at wilderness lodge and noticed how off all the crowd predictors were. While the lodge was wonderful and pretty empty the parks were very crowded.I was shocked because in years past this week was so nice. I mean when wait times for little rides are long I don't consider that a 3 4 or 5 on crowd calendars. Did anyone else think the same?

 

[jomommy]

We were just there Sunday to Sunday and in the parks Monday to Saturday. Honestly, we didn't wait for anything. We fast passed BTMRR, Splash Mtn, Peter Pan and Soarin' and all our other lines were 20 minutes or less, except for one. We rode Dumbo a second time later in the week and the line was 40 minutes long, but we did that on purpose to have a nice air conditioned break while the kids played.

Last time we went end do September and it was a lot less crowded, but I don't think we waited in line a lot more this time. The crowds did look heavy, but we easily did everything we wanted, some multiple times.

We are early morning goers, long afternoon breakers, then late nighters, though, so maybe that makes a difference.

 

[sarmat1]

I agree with jomommy. We were in the parks 8/22 through 8/27 and they were fairly empty. Walk on for the non-headliners. And fairly easy fast pass strategies for the biggies with return times 40-50 minutes out (with the exception of TSM). We went RD to early afternoon and then went back to the resort for pool activities. Had no problem leisurely getting through essentially the entire MK in two half day sessions.

 

[amycakes]

We also found it more crowded than previous years. The MK was quite congested. Thank goodness for fast pass.

 

[autismgoesdisney]

We thought the parks itself were congested. Much more than in previous years! However, we booked again for the same 10 days do it wasn't that bad!

 

[jennyerin]

I thought the same. The crowds were definitely larger than last year at the same time. Even more noticeable, though, was POP. The food court was always packed and they ran out of desserts etc. pretty early. There were always a bunch of people in there. The week before was actually lower crowds when last year it was reversed. Probably because free dining started a week earlier last year...

 

[loveshak22]

That happened to us last September. I'd been wanting to go to WDW in Sept because the crowd calendars always showed it as a good time to go. I felt like the crowds were pretty heavy, not Christmas or July busy, but more crowded than I expected.

 

[Sam's_Mom]

I don't think there is a "low crowd time" any more!! We are going to try the first weekend in Nov this year. Last year we went the last week in Sept and it was much more crowded than in the past.

 

[jenjie]

We were there Aug 24-31. with judicious use of fastpass, we didn't wait very long for anything. Except for when POC experienced rough waters and they had to delay the rides. But even that was only 10 more minutes.

 

[loveshak22]

I don't think there is a "low crowd time" any more!! We are going to try the first weekend in Nov this year. Last year we went the last week in Sept and it was much more crowded than in the past.

That's the week we were there last year as well and it was surprisingly busy!And still so hot and humid!

My favorite trip to WDW was the 3rd week in January in 2007. The weather was perfect and there were hardly no lines! We are going the third week in January in 2013 and I'm hoping that we have the same experience. I'm hoping it's not true that there are no low crowd times because we will be so disappointed

 

[CrabbyPatty]

We were there the last week of August as well, and thought it was busier than other August trips during the same time period. MK, especially, was packed with strollers and doublestrollers, and the lines were quite a bit longer than in previous years.

We did a lot of parkhopping over to Epcot most days, which seems much more empty (probably because of the sheer size of the place) but one day there was actually a WAIT for Spaceship Earth, which I had never seen before in August. We did AK one morning only, and got there at RD, so crowds were fairly light, but it seemed very crowded when we left in early afternoon.

 

[mjp12831]

I agree with jomommy. We were in the parks 8/22 through 8/27 and they were fairly empty. Walk on for the non-headliners. And fairly easy fast pass strategies for the biggies with return times 40-50 minutes out (with the exception of TSM). We went RD to early afternoon and then went back to the resort for pool activities. Had no problem leisurely getting through essentially the entire MK in two half day sessions.

Agree with this, felt like the parks were empty. I actually think the low crowds were a problem for us because of new FP enforcement. We were pulling FP with return times too close to the issue time so we'd be done with an area of a park and have to backtrack to use the FP.

We had an AK day 9am open where we rode the safari, then did KRR 3x, EE 3x, Dinosaur and primeval whirl and hopped out by 1:30 all with using only 1 FP

 

[pigletto]

It was hit and miss but the calendars were really off for some of the days. Yesterday was jammed at the MK and August 26th was also very busy. This was our third trip during this exact same time frame and it was much busier than before.

 

[mjp12831]

It was hit and miss but the calendars were really off for some of the days. Yesterday was jammed at the MK and August 26th was also very busy. This was our third trip during this exact same time frame and it was much busier than before.

Yesterday at Mk was crowded, but not in the early am. BTMRR and SM were walk ons until 10am. It started getting crowded around 11 and by 2 it seemed very crowded, but factor in a Sunday on a holiday Monday weekend, plus pmemh at MK probably contributed. I still think overall the parks seemed far less crowded than last year. We rode a lot and never waited more than 20 minutes or so.

 

[stormer]

We were there August 19-27 and did not find it to be crwded at all. MK was mobbed on the first day we went ( I think the 20th), but other than that it was great. I take millions of pictures and love to get shots without other people in them. I was able to get so many great shots without the crowds.

 

[mdb07]

We just wrapped up a trip from 8/26-8/31, which we picked partly because the supposed low crowds. I was surprised at how many people were in the parks - it definitely did not feel like low crowds, and I remembering thinking that if this was a slow time, how awful must it be the week of Christmas. Still, I agree with the others the with even the most minimal of touring strategies, it was still easy to get on everything we wanted, with repeats as well. The crowds did not seem to materialize into long lines/waits. TSM excluded of course.

As a side note, we had never done TSM before due to the need to get to DHS very early (we always do DHS as the back half of an AK/DHS combo day). Thorough some lucky chance, we happened to end up back in Pixar Place about half an hour before closing. They had posted a 60 minute wait and I asked the manager at the entrance if it was really 60 minutes, and he said it was more like 30. We decided to go and it turned out to be more like 10-15 minutes, so I am guessing they are sandbagging big time at the end of the night to try and not end up with a huge line of people at closing. Great ride, by the way - I can totally see why it is so popular.

 

[katytrott]

More and more of us Brits are clicking on to the tip that the US schools are back end of Aug so it's a great time to go in our school summer break (schools go back start of sept here). I wonder if the Olympics played a part in it as well this year? There was so much talk of people getting away from the country when they were on, but when they actually happened, they were so incredibly popular with the home crowd that I would suspect that Brits, in reality, were around start of Aug and planned their trips away end of Aug.......it's a possibility!

 

[Minnie-Mickey]

We just returned home late last night went Aug 24-Sept 3. Yes, I agree the crowds are growing. It used to be a quiet time. Compared to years past when there was a 15 min wait for headliners it is a change. Labor day weekend on Sunday was a zoo at MK. We stayed til 2am and the crowds leaving were heavy at that time. Monday the park was deserted.

 

[Minnesota!]

We were there from the 23rd - 2nd and I have to disagree with you. The only time any park felt crowded to us was one night - Thurs the 30th - at MK. It was PACKED!!!!!!! We waited about 2 hours for a bus...after going to get one 1 hour after park close. People were STILL streaming out and Main Street was absolutely jam packed. Insanity!!

But other than that, the crowds were extremely minimal. We went with EasyWDW crowd predictors and never waited for anything *even Peter Pan was walk on*!!!

We usually go in late Jan/early Feb so we are used to very low crowds, and these rivaled those..

 

[Sparkly]

We went in late August in 2006 and it was very quiet but very hot.

*cough*febisawfulnobodygothen*cough*