Lines short this week...unfortunately, though....

[over50visits]

Had a great time this week. Lines were short, weather warm, parks not too crowded, workers there were fantastic.

Unfortunately, though, we were at Universal.

We did go to the Magic Kingdom for one day (Wednesday), and the lines were looooong. A long wait for Pirates. Pirates! Long lines at security, getting in, and for almost every ride. Some CMs seemed, well, stressed.

I miss the days of short lines in early December and mid January. We visited WDW so many, many times and those were always the "go-to" dates to enjoy ourselves seeing and doing things, rather than waiting to see and do things. Over an hour wait for 7D this time of year??

We had a fun time at the Magic Kingdom, and our "over 50" count continues to rise. We'll be back. But we miss our old leisurely visits. Our four days at Universal were magical.

 

[TeachTink]

I was also at MK on Wed and have the opposite opinion. . We got there around 6:30pm and stayed through the EMH until 1am. I thought crowds were low and wait times were very manageable. At one point around 11pm, SDMT was only 20 min so we rode it again.

The afternoon may have been packed, but the evening was great. It was a non party day so you may have seen larger crowds from that.

 

[RachaelA]

Wednesday was MSEP and it only happens twice a week. What do you expect?

We were there Wednesday and did more then I thought we would in a few hours.

 

[over50visits]

I was also at MK on Wed and have the opposite opinion. . We got there around 6:30pm and stayed through the EMH until 1am. I thought crowds were low and wait times were very manageable. At one point around 11pm, SDMT was only 20 min so we rode it again.

The afternoon may have been packed, but the evening was great. It was a non party day so you may have seen larger crowds from that.

That sounds great for your! We left about the time you got there, so we helped keep the crowds down for you

 

[matheke]

Had a great time this week. Lines were short, weather warm, parks not too crowded, workers there were fantastic.

Unfortunately, though, we were at Universal.

We did go to the Magic Kingdom for one day (Wednesday), and the lines were looooong. A long wait for Pirates. Pirates! Long lines at security, getting in, and for almost every ride. Some CMs seemed, well, stressed.

I miss the days of short lines in early December and mid January. We visited WDW so many, many times and those were always the "go-to" dates to enjoy ourselves seeing and doing things, rather than waiting to see and do things. Over an hour wait for 7D this time of year??

We had a fun time at the Magic Kingdom, and our "over 50" count continues to rise. We'll be back. But we miss our old leisurely visits. Our four days at Universal were magical.

We started off at Universal on Saturday the 28th. It was good most of the morning. We started at IOA and took the train to US after hitting Harry Potter. Walked on most things at US except for Minions. We had the Express pass and used that for several rides when we returned to IOA in the afternoon. Waited in line for about 40 minutes to ride the train back. IOA was packed in the afternoon.

Now Sunday the 29th the place was a ghost town. We walked onto everything. The only big lines were Minions and of course Potter. Rode the train in the afternoon and whatever time it took to walk through the line was how long we waited. Highly recommend going to US at this time of year. The decoration were nice and wish I had known the holiday stuff started this week.

 

[metzgardesign]

Had a great time this week. Lines were short, weather warm, parks not too crowded, workers there were fantastic.

Unfortunately, though, we were at Universal.

We did go to the Magic Kingdom for one day (Wednesday), and the lines were looooong. A long wait for Pirates. Pirates! Long lines at security, getting in, and for almost every ride. Some CMs seemed, well, stressed.

I miss the days of short lines in early December and mid January. We visited WDW so many, many times and those were always the "go-to" dates to enjoy ourselves seeing and doing things, rather than waiting to see and do things. Over an hour wait for 7D this time of year??

We had a fun time at the Magic Kingdom, and our "over 50" count continues to rise. We'll be back. But we miss our old leisurely visits. Our four days at Universal were magical.

An absolute similar experience to our last trip to the Orlando area.

We, too, sincerely miss the way WDW used to be enjoyed (and I am not even talking 'way-in-the-past'.....but, rather the late '90's/early'00's....15 or so years ago). I understand some customer demand has dictated the way it is now....but I also believe the ridiculous crowd control/management systems across WDW's property now in place have also made it truly unbearable (for us, at least).

It's a shame.

 

[Planogirl]

I'm one of those who believes that certain changes have contributed to the overall more crowded feeling at the parks. The estimated percentage of visitor increase is actually quite small particularly when compared to the long lines.

We shall see though. We will soon be visiting both resorts splitting time between the two and it'll be interesting to compare.

 

[georgina]

Had a great time this week. Lines were short, weather warm, parks not too crowded, workers there were fantastic.

Unfortunately, though, we were at Universal.

We did go to the Magic Kingdom for one day (Wednesday), and the lines were looooong. A long wait for Pirates. Pirates! Long lines at security, getting in, and for almost every ride. Some CMs seemed, well, stressed.

I miss the days of short lines in early December and mid January. We visited WDW so many, many times and those were always the "go-to" dates to enjoy ourselves seeing and doing things, rather than waiting to see and do things. Over an hour wait for 7D this time of year??

We had a fun time at the Magic Kingdom, and our "over 50" count continues to rise. We'll be back. But we miss our old leisurely visits. Our four days at Universal were magical.

Not unfortunate at all that you were at Universal! I may consider Universal next year for early December. I will have to research what they do for holiday happenings.

 

[TwinPrincessMermaids]

Wednesday was MSEP and it only happens twice a week. What do you expect?

We were there Wednesday and did more then I thought we would in a few hours.

Only happens twice a week? Explain?

 

[RachaelA]

Only happens twice a week? Explain?

Actually it's 3 times a week right now with the parties. I forgot about Mondays. Christmas parties are 4 nights so there are only 3 nights for people without party tickets to see fireworks and an evening parade. So you will see a lot more people in the parks all day those days especially if they don't buy park hoppers.

 

[TwinPrincessMermaids]

Actually it's 3 times a week right now with the parties. I forgot about Mondays. Christmas parties are 4 nights so there are only 3 nights for people without party tickets to see fireworks and an evening parade. So you will see a lot more people in the parks all day those days especially if they don't buy park hoppers.

Yep, just wanted you to double check your facts. Mon Wed Sat, non party nights. Sats by far the busiest. Mon/Wed busy but not bad. We were there on 11/18 and yesterday 12/5 *but yesterday crowds were NOT nearly as bad as we thought they would be, at least in the evening.

Right now, I think DHS is taking all the crowds for the last yr of Osborne. EP is evening out the crowd too.

I'll know in the morning what the Monday crowd looks like (at least at MK).

 

[epcotty]

I think FP+ is largely to blame for wait times being longer, they still give way too much priority to the FP+ people on attractions. You can't FP everything really so you always feel that somewhat with ones you didn't/couldn't FP

Also don't know why MSEP is only twice a week now

We do enjoy Universal more every time we go, I think eventually we'll go there more often than Disney

 

[TwinPrincessMermaids]

I think FP+ is largely to blame for wait times being longer, they still give way too much priority to the FP+ people on attractions. You can't FP everything really so you always feel that somewhat with ones you didn't/couldn't FP

Also don't know why MSEP is only twice a week now

We do enjoy Universal more every time we go, I think eventually we'll go there more often than Disney

Just to be clear, MSEP runs typically twice a day on Mons, Weds, Sats.

 

[Travis B]

I'll take lines at WDW over walk-ons at USO any day. USO is just not as good of an experience for me, not by a long shot.

 

[Csaks]

Sadly our last trip was better at Universal than Disney. We both said Universal today, feels like Disney did back in the early 2000's. We found it spontaneous, the way we did back in the day at Disney. A Disney vacation feels more planned out than 10 hours at work these days. The standbys feel longer than they ever have and I suspect it is the new system doling out more FP's than the old system slowing down the standby lines. Real or not that's how it feels and it isn't going anywhere with the money they sunk into it.
It's to bad because this is the first time we are not dying to go back as soon as we came home, it's been over a year and neither of us have brought up the subject since. Other things bugged us over the last few trips, standardized merchandise, we use to be able to get a bunch of place specific stuff all over the World. Now it seems like every store has the same old crap you can get at any store, in any country and they are putting more stores in. Castmembers seem to not like their jobs as much as they use to. We really miss Pleasure Island, it as a whole was so much fun.
Anyway, it's the way we feel. It's like we watched it get institutionalized, scrubbed of that Disney uniqueness in favour of a streamlined accountants outlook on things. I realize it isn't the same for everyone, others still love their Disney no matter what and that's cool. For us it has lost something that made us want to save for years, getting excited like 12 year olds, forsaking other things just so we could get our fix in. Maybe we'll go back when the Star Wars and Blue people sections are done....

 

[briggscreek]

We had an amazing time at Universal a couple of weeks ago, never waited more than a few minutes for anything, didn't need reservations, no planning at all! My 9 and 11 year old want to go back and just do Universal and only a couple of days at WDW. They don't even really want to go back to Magic Kingdom at all, just AK and Epcot.

 

[KGeeLovesDisney]

I was also at MK on Wed and have the opposite opinion. . We got there around 6:30pm and stayed through the EMH until 1am. I thought crowds were low and wait times were very manageable. At one point around 11pm, SDMT was only 20 min so we rode it again.

I was also there on Wednesday. I rode SDMT when the wait was 20 mins, too. Although it was actually more like 15 mins. We probably crossed paths.

I got there at rope drop and rode everything I wanted with little wait. It did start to get really crowded around noonish, so we headed to the hotel for a break and then returned later. The waits were short. We were surprised to meet Elsa and Anna after about 10 mins, walk onto jungle Cruise and Pirates, and a 20 min wait for SDMT.

That being said, the crowds were larger than we expected for this time of year. The first 2weeks in December used to have lower crowds.

 

[BigAlsGal]

I'm really not trying to be awful but I just have zero desire to go to universal. Lol

When people say "Oh there was no wait at universal for anything!" to me is like saying "Oh there was no line to see the trees in my backyard!" They both have basically the same appeal. Again I'm not trying to be a jerk. I just love Disney and really there is no magic for me at universal.

 

[Goddesstree]

Well, Disney must be doing something right if it's crowded there, and what's going to happen to Universal if it's 'spontaneous' because the parks are so empty?

 

[Planogirl]

LOL, the parks at Universal are far from empty. It's just easier to tour those parks.

As for those who say they have no interest in going to Universal, nothing wrong with that. I am gradually losing my interest in the Disney parks so you can have my spot.