Memorial Day and Gay Days 2016

[eeyore81]

We have gone the last few years the week of Memorial Day. This year Memorial Day is late and therefore it looks like the week coincides with Gay Days. I'm trying to decide if the holiday along with Gay Days will make the parks much more crowded. We plan to stay May 29-June 4. Trying to decide if we should move our dates. Also does anyone know the Gay Days park schedule for 2016?

 

[disnut8]

You can check out the official gaydays.com website but when I did, there wasn't any schedule as I didn't sign up. I really wouldn't worry about it too much, there's not going to be a ton of people in the parks other than the "park of the day". I would suggest you email the gaydays website and ask for their "park of the day" and then plan around that. It's still eight months away and I'm sure you want to plan things but you might have to wait a bit.

 

[OKW Lover]

The big day during Gay Days at WDW is the first Saturday of June (June 4 2016) at the MK. Since Memorial Day would be the Monday before that (May 30), I'm not thinking crowds will be any worse than prior years.

 

[eeyore81]

Thanks for the replies. I figured out the designated park for each day and we are just doing a different park. Looking forward to our trip!

 

[lovethattink]

Personally, I think Memorial Day weekend will be less crowded this year, at least DHS should be. There is no SWW.

 

[ohboyx3]

Thanks for the replies. I figured out the designated park for each day and we are just doing a different park. Looking forward to our trip!

Do you mind sharing the days you found out were the designated days?

 

[Hootch]

What are your alternative dates? The week after Memorial Day week will likely be a little less crowded, but not much. The week before should have smaller crowds up until the weekend.

 

[SJSloan]

We have been during Gay Days our last 2 trips. I scheduled our park days around their scheduled days and it worked great. I'm not sure how much more crowded the parks are on those days but didn't want to take my chances.

 

[eeyore81]

Do you mind sharing the days you found out were the designated days?

The calendar for this year is not out yet but from my research it appears that they schedule the same park on the same day every year. So if this holds true for this year it will be Thursday Animal Kingdom, Friday Hollywood Studios, Saturday Magic Kingdom and Sunday Epcot.

 

[Skywise]

I was there for gay days at MK this year on the day it was *AT* MK during SWW and it was pretty packed. That surprised me as I was at DHS on the specified day for the previous year and it wasn't as bad - I'm thinking MK and Epcot are a bigger draw for gay days. (But that was the first day that Mark Hamill was going to be there so that might've scared some non-fans off thinking it was going to be super crowded. It was a heavy day too but nowhere near as bad as the crowds at MK.) I think so long as you're not at the selected park that day the crowds should be fine.

I'm still never going to forget that surreal scene where the Country Bears show was so packed people were lined up outside of the theater to get in and I was trying to fathom why the attraction was so packed when it had been practically dead any other time I'd gone and then I realized that they were all... "bears". (Many were wearing T-shirts that said as much which was my first clue but I first thought it was some sort of Country Bears merchandise )

 

[MickeyWaffles]

We have traveled during Gay Days twice and we usually avoid the park of the day and have no issues with wait times.

Once we were at HS when it was park of the day because it was the only day it worked for us to go there. It was crowded but not overwhelmingly so. I think a lot of people who don't participate avoid the park of the day so it somewhat balances out. Of course there are also people who aren't aware it even exists and still unknowingly do the park of the day, but if you avoid the park of the day I think you're safe from a crowd perspective.

Like I said, we have been during Gay Days twice and we would go again someday using the avoid the park of the day strategy to experience lower crowds.

 

[LumosQ102]

We happened to be at Magic Kingdom on the day the Gay Day's crowd were heading that way this year. We rope dropped as we usually do and found it to be a pretty quiet morning. Once the crowds did start coming in it was one of the most fun atmospheres we've ever experienced there. It was also entirely family appropriate, just lots of alternative family groupings having a lovely day in the Kingdom. And lots of red t-shirts

 

[Darklord77]

Once the crowds did start coming in it was one of the most fun atmospheres we've ever experienced there. It was also entirely family appropriate, just lots of alternative family groupings having a lovely day in the Kingdom. And lots of red t-shirts

That time of the year is our preferred vacation time. Partly due to SWW at HS. We have been at Disney during Gay Days in 2010, 2013, and 2014. We just caught the tail end in 2012. We usually avoid the "park of the day" also and it has worked. In 2013 we had to venture to MK on the Saturday that it was "park of the day" to get some merchandise my wife couldn't find anywhere else. It was crazy busy at the MK that day and I did not see very many "alternative family groupings" engaging in "family appropriate" conduct. I was appalled on the ferry ride to the MK before we ever even entered the park. Massive amounts of PDA and over the top behavior. Hard to explain things like that to a couple of 9-year-olds.

Avoid the "park of the day", especially MK and Epcot.