Magic Kingdom lines will be worse than ever!

[Kenny1113]

this was for 2/7? Journey was at 20m or longer at 11:15, 1:15 and 1:30. 20 minutes and under from 2:45 to close and opening until 11:15. This according to Josh's wait time blog post. doesn't seem that bad.

I don't remember what time it was when I checked the MDE app on 2/7. It was either late morning or early afternoon. This afternoon it said 35 min.

Sorry, but I'm of the mindset that ANY wait for Journey is "that bad."

I agree. In general 20 min wait for a ride is not bad, however when speaking of a ride that has always been a walk on...then yes 20 min is bad.

 

[ArwenMarie]

Cutting it short - will be here 8 nights instead of our originally planned 10 nights - just don't have the feeling we usually have - think we just need a few years away, and to give time for most construction to be done. Know it is usually 'on going', plus normal ride closures, but this is too much - the worse we have ever seen (since our first trip in 1972).

Also the cold blustery winds are not helping any!! The boats were actually shut down for awhile this evening.

Yeah sometimes it's better to cut your losses. We went home early once for a variety of reasons and didn't regret it.

 

[DoingDisney]

We've been here all week. We did MK two days. One recommended, one not (by Josh). We had great success both days. Less on the second day, but it wasn't due to crowds, it was due to break downs. Its low season, granted, but we didn't wait more than 20 minutes for anything, and that wait was for our fourth time on Mine Train.

Bolded and underlined ... thats all. Your experience really doesn't transfer to basically the rest of the year.

 

[starjazz]

Bolded and underlined ... thats all. Your experience really doesn't transfer to basically the rest of the year.

Except that all I keep hearing here on the Dis is how there's supposedly no more low season. "Its ALWAYS busy" seems to be the chorus. I saw 20 minute Mine Train waits last week in the evening, but we also saw 40 minute IASW waits, and 20 minute Living with the Land waits, so go figure.

 

[DoingDisney]

I can't see Frozen helping THAT much. It will be low capacity and people will probably head back to MK once they see it. I hope for those who are going later this year that I'm wrong though.

I was thinking it would help a good deal, but maybe you are right. I do remember when the A&E M&G was going on in EPCOT it was drawing people to stand in line for hours and hours. I do wonder though if enough of the hype has passed this wont be such a major draw, might it lure a couple thousand people out of MK though ? Sure ... will that make a huge difference ? Probably not ...

 

[theyoungs07]

Hmmm ,I think we will just skip doing our planned non-park/Disney Springs day and do a third day at MK on this trip. We have a 2 year old in tow again so we will most likely be spending a lot more time in FL than we did on our last trip anyway. I see the Dumbo play area and the Casey Jr. splash area being a bit hit with her. I have to figure out how I am going to plan this now since we have a month left before we do our FP+ selections. A third day at MK will make up for the increased MK crowds and allow us to cater to everyone's interests since the age range of our kids are toddler up to teens. We'll probably do Disney Springs in the afternoon/evening of either our Epcot or HS day depending on the FP+ times we get for the stuff we want to do. If Rivers of Light isn't running yet then we'll do Disney Springs in the late afternoon/evening of that day. We were considering skipping AK on this trip but the kids said Everest is a must do ride for them and I think DD2 would love FOTLK and the safari.

Remember that with your age range you can really take advantage of parent swap to help you out. We used it this past year with FP+ and it worked great. I scheduled myself and a couple bigs for something like Mine Train, then my wife and the littles for something else. They were able to do the something else and then my wife and 2 kids who may or may not have had the original FP+ for Mine Train were able to ride it anytime after that (even a different day). This worked great with the coasters since they have parent swap.

 

[akadada]

I guess I don't follow the original post theory.

I understand Epcot is missing Soarin and there's SWLand and Toy Story Land construction, but when I look at ride and attraction closings for the parks, it doesn't appear to be that big of deal or anything out of the ordinary. It seems rather normal.

I just don't understand how 2016 is any worse than any other year where there's a major ride refurb. Why would there be a huge increase at MK because of what's going on at Epcot and HS? There's not much else besides those going on.

I think ride wait times are primarily driven by FP+ plus simply higher attendance levels.

 

[North of Mouse]

Bummer. Do you always do 10 day trips and do you stay on property? I'm amazed at those who spend so many days at Disney. Don't get me wrong I love it! But 4 - 5 days is enough for me and we don't spend every minute in the park either. Are there special things you love and do in the parks. I'm always looking for new ideas?

We haven't always stayed 10 days, but we have stayed 12 before also, but we are always ready to come home. The last few years we have gotten AP's and come and go from the parks and 'don't' get there early anymore. Not necessary for us to ride everything now. We also love to go to the other resorts and Disney Springs - just relaxing, etc.

But this trip has been different. Even though our first 3 days were 80 degrees and perfect, it turned cold and extremely blustery - 25-30 mph wind gusts are no fun when it's 50-60 degrees. Also the crowds moved in mid week (Mardi Gras) and the lines remained long for the main rides - 7DMT, Toy Story, etc. Low times don't mean short waits unfortunately LOL. Lot's of cheerleader groups there also - mostly well behaved, but adding to lines none the less.

We just wanted one more trip on our current AP's. Now, we'll probably wait a few years until most of the current construction is finished.
There are so many other places we also go to and enjoy.

Yes, we do stay on property. We stay at Fort Wilderness in our motorhome. We are not big eaters, but we do eat out - no cooking for me at Disney!

 

[MKRuns 26]

Was at MK today and lines weren't bad at all. For example, 7DT @10:30 listed a 30min wait, our actual wait was just over 15min.

We are long time AP holders who go to the parks at least once a week if not more and we have not noticed increased crowds at MK this year or last.

 

[North of Mouse]

Was at MK today and lines weren't bad at all. For example, 7DT @10:30 listed a 30min wait, our actual wait was just over 15min.

We are long time AP holders who go to the parks at least once a week if not more and we have not noticed increased crowds at MK this year or last.

Guess the wait times were lower today because of the extreme blustery cold conditions. We left this AM - couldn't take it anymore. The boats were even shut down yest. evening, don't know about today. The lines were no where near your posted times this whole last 8 days.

 

[gdrj]

I guess I don't follow the original post theory.

I understand Epcot is missing Soarin and there's SWLand and Toy Story Land construction, but when I look at ride and attraction closings for the parks, it doesn't appear to be that big of deal or anything out of the ordinary. It seems rather normal.

I just don't understand how 2016 is any worse than any other year where there's a major ride refurb. Why would there be a huge increase at MK because of what's going on at Epcot and HS? There's not much else besides those going on.

I think ride wait times are primarily driven by FP+ plus simply higher attendance levels.

The theory is with less things to do and with construction (primarily at HS) guests will tend to visit MK more during a trip. With HS it has been something that has been occurring for a while with fewer shows, attractions closed, and more areas of the park to be closed or limited. I just think (rightly or wrongly) that there will be a tendency to just visit HS briefly and hop to MK or just bypass HS completely. With EPCOT again a number of exhibitions in Future World have closed (Innoventions) and have been worthless for sometime. With Soaring being such a draw for many will this also push guests to MK.

 

[2Pirates2Princesses]

Remember that with your age range you can really take advantage of parent swap to help you out. We used it this past year with FP+ and it worked great. I scheduled myself and a couple bigs for something like Mine Train, then my wife and the littles for something else. They were able to do the something else and then my wife and 2 kids who may or may not have had the original FP+ for Mine Train were able to ride it anytime after that (even a different day). This worked great with the coasters since they have parent swap.

Thank you for reminding me of this. We didn't have to use rider swap on our last trip so I am now having to refresh my memory on how to use it effectively, especially with FP+ which wasn't rolled out yet on our 2013 trip. In retrospect, three MK days might be overkill for us and I have a gut feeling we should also skip Disney Springs all together for now. If we were doing a long trip or able to stay at one of the MK area resorts it might be more practical for our family to do three MK days .

 

[TGM]

When we booked, crowd calendars said 5-6, now they say 8-9 for the week we are going!

 

[beachfan]

We are headed down March 15 - 20 and staying at the Swan - which is sold out! So I think your theory about high crowds during that time is correct! Beachfan

 

[Huggups]

I'm so hoping MS will back to a Tier 2 attaction after Soarin reopens. But of course, you never know.