Never Again in February

[Lita]

Do you think the tour groups will be fading out this week and next. We leave in 8 days, Feb 19-23. I am going to the most recommended parks each day and trying to plan out our mornings and leaving the afternoons for less popular rides. Hope it works out, this is my 8 year old's first visit.

A lot of schools are out for President's week. I heard that is a very week at WDW. We almost went that week, but decided against it.

 

[CocosMeme]

for future reference - always go to easywdw.com before arriving - check the monthly calendar for best parks of the day and follow Josh's advice. I think the OP may have gone to the worst park of the day without knowing it. I have been following his advice (before him it was TGM) and have never been sorry.

 

[DisneyFave]

February is also Carnaval in many countries (if not all) in Latin America and the Caribbean. It is a big time to travel for them. The exact dates change each year and even by each city; for example, this year in Brazil it's Feb 8-12 for Rio de Janeiro and Feb. 7-13 in Salvador. In Venezuela, most people take this whole week (Feb. 11-15) off. I think the dates match up with the four days before we celebrate Mardi Gras, but they usually will take the whole week off or get the whole week off from their employers (sigh... other countries are so much more generous with vacation time...)

 

[disrev]

On our way home from 2/3-2/10 trip. 2/3 was busy at MK (touring plans park to avoid) and HS was dead inthe evening for Fantasmic (Touring Plans recommended). On 2/10, all parks were crazy as predicted, but did AK at Rope drop then did MK rides during first Electrical Parade, then Wishes and 2nd parade was very sparse crowd in Frontierland.

Tour groups were very sweet to us and our kids. Chanting was crazy, but nothing worth whining about.

We had a blast. Missing it already.

 

[2012bella13]

I checked with Josh's & T.P. guide, that is how I picked the week we are going, & I am going to use them for which park to go to on what day. The only thing I see is that there is only 1 day which they differ on the best parks.
My DH said, we are not going to follow any schedule are we??
I just said not really, except for wednesday, we have reservations at Cinderella's Table for breakfast, this is a suggested day for that park, I checked before I made them. I have certain things at each park that we will want to do, the only major rides will be Buzz & Peter Pan. Getting there at RD might be a problem.

 

[NotThatKevinSmith]

I was there 2/1-2/9 and didn't think it was bad at all. We were also there in September 2012 (less crowded), December 2012 (slightly less crowded), May 2012 (more crowded) and July 2012 (much more crowded). What were you expecting?

 

[NJ Stitch]

Oh boy hope there's no tours when I go, i will be down there on feb 27th-march 3rd. taking my fiance down for our first trip as a couple, so im hoping its not to bad. so sad to hear about the rude behavior of people, thats so ridiculous they blocked you on the bus

 

[NotThatKevinSmith]

On Saturday 2/9 the wait times were 75 minutes for Buzz, 90 for space mountain, 120 for under the sea which I thought was very cheesy, 90 for Big thunder mountain and about 45+ for Haunted Mansion. The weekdays were manageable in MK. On 2/2 it also was very crowded - we had to activate our passes at guest relations and the lines were unbelievable. Cast members were not expecting the crowds to be that large.

I was there on 2/9 as well. Space Mtn was closed all morning. So FastPass lines were crazy and the lines got crazy. I never saw 75 minutes for Buzz. I walked on with a 1 minute wait around 11am. Under The Sea was also broken for part of the day. So that messed it up. I waited 10 minutes for Haunted Mansion around Noon. Big Thunder Mtn also broke down.

I would say your problem wasn't with the crowds. More with rides breaking down a lot that day.

 

[Thumper_Man]

Ok but Saturday 2/9 was listed as a 7 on Touring Plans, was a weekend and the park to avoid on both easywdw and TouringPlans. Those wait times are congruent with a not recommended park at a 7 and my guess is they were at peak times. Nothing surprising there.

It could be surprising if you don't use sites like Touring Plans or easywdw. Not everyone that goes uses these sites or knows about them.

 

[diddldonna]

It looks like from research that this week alot of countries seem to have breaks all at the same time plus the cheer-leading competition at HS and world of sport see link below.
http://espnwwos.disney.go.com/sports/cheer/

I hope that the next few weeks bring less crowds, i expect them around presidents day but as long as we avoid MK then and go later on in the week it may help.

 

[NotThatKevinSmith]

It could be surprising if you don't use sites like Touring Plans or easywdw. Not everyone that goes uses these sites or knows about them.

Or if people don't understand what the numbers mean. A "1" doesn't mean the park is empty by any means. But some people don't look at what the difference between a "1" and a "5" is. Or a "3" and a "9". Etc.

 

[princessallegra]

On Saturday 2/9 the wait times were 75 minutes for Buzz, 90 for space mountain, 120 for under the sea which I thought was very cheesy, 90 for Big thunder mountain and about 45+ for Haunted Mansion. The weekdays were manageable in MK. On 2/2 it also was very crowded - we had to activate our passes at guest relations and the lines were unbelievable. Cast members were not expecting the crowds to be that large.

MK is always going to be really crowded on a Saturday, at whatever time of year pretty much. You said yourself the weekdays were manageable. Weekends are always always busy at a park like MK.

 

[pixarmom]

We were just there from 1/26 - 2/3 and thought this was our best trip ever! We've been going to WDW in January and February for years - it's always been our favorite time of year to go. But we've also been in March, April, May, July, August, October and December.

I do agree we no longer experience the truly "slow" times that we did in the past. But we still don't wait in lines any longer than 10-15 minutes. At this point, we're only in MK, DHS or AK in the morning and bailing after our lunch ADR. Epcot is usually fine for us at any time of day in January and February. With this strategy, we had a great trip and no problems with crowds.

There was one exception. I was a little surprised by MK the evening of Monday, 1/28. We usually avoid MK at night entirely, but we had a BOG ADR, so we went. Loved BOG, and dinner was relaxed so we ended up staying longer than expected. That meant we were leaving around the time Wishes was wrapping up. It was very crowded, and took us 1.5 hours to get back to Poly.

We're back to avoiding MK at night. We'll watch Wishes from the Poly beach from now on! Maybe this isn't surprising to evening MK fans, but as a loyal MK rope drop family, we were surprised:

 

[disrev]

I should have mentioned in my PP that crowds were very manageable (the 3s and 4s that TP predicted) during the week (2/5-2/8 ). We have classically gone during "low crowds" times and, with e exception of MK on 2/9, it was a totally normal low crowd feel to the parks.

And really, the tour groups stuff is really nothing to freak out about. We've gone three different times during the foreign tour group season. They are large groups of excited and loud teens. They will get out of hand, get in your way, and maybe even do a few things that infringe on your cultural Norma. We haven't allowed them to get in the way of our enjoyment, even when we have encountered what may be labeled "rude" (most over and misused word on the DIS) behavior.

 

[pigletto]

It could be surprising if you don't use sites like Touring Plans or easywdw. Not everyone that goes uses these sites or knows about them.

Which goes without saying. I guess I would research the crowds and best park days for my trips before declaring I'd never go in a certain month ever again. My point is that if you do that type of research it is going to be more enjoyable and easier to manage. I don't doubt that it was a miserable experience. I was pointing out that it doesn't have to be.

 

[scjo68]

It was certainly more crowded than I am used to when we were there the end of January. However, I was aware that we were in the "wrong" parks, on the wrong days, crowd-wise. But we really didn't have a choice since we were there for only a long weekend. We still managed to do everything we wanted without any significant waits.

Tour groups were definitely in abundance, but were not a problem in the parks at all. They were disruptive at the bust stop at Epcot and in the PoR room next to ours.

 

[Orsino]

There was one exception. I was a little surprised by MK the evening of Monday, 1/28. We usually avoid MK at night entirely, but we had a BOG ADR, so we went. Loved BOG, and dinner was relaxed so we ended up staying longer than expected. That meant we were leaving around the time Wishes was wrapping up. It was very crowded, and took us 1.5 hours to get back to Poly.

We were at MK that night too. It was so crowded. I think I know why. The MSEP was that night. Disney only had the MSEP a few nights that week: Sat, Mon, and Thurs. I'm guessing that attracted a larger crowd.
We weren't planning to go to the MK that night, but I wanted to see the Main Street Electrical Parade. Yikes! Me and thousands of other guests apparently.

On the other hand, we had a surprisingly easy exit. We caught a bus (to Boardwalk) right away and were back at the hotel by 8:35PM. We walked to Epcot and watched Illuminations too. That was kind of awesome.

 

[MIChessGuy]

I was at MK for part of the period from 1/20 through 1/25. Aside from MLK Jr Day, I did not feel that the crowds were especially out of line with previous January trips. One thing I did notice was that ETWB had to be done right at rope drop or you were looking at 45 minutes minimum, sometimes much more. Now and then Buzz would go to 30 minutes or more. Coming back later (or FP) generally took care of that. Under the Sea frequently had long waits, but FP took care of that easily enough.

I did see the tour groups. However, I did not see any of the aggravating misbehavior (arm-locking, chanting....) that many people here have noted. Maybe the chaperones are starting to put their foot down.

And in the interest of off-topicness, I'll mention very briefly that I made it to just over 239,000 on the classic Donkey Kong machine in the Space Mountain arcade, my best score in probably 30 years.

 

[mollygirl13]

I used to love going to WDW in February for my birthday (Feb 13) but has gotten too crowded that time of year.

Now we ditch the birthday trip and go Labor Day!

 

[Keke]

We were there 2/3 to 2/9. It was not bad at all. We took EasyWDW's advice on what park to visit which day. Our longest wait was to meet Ariel in Fantasyland. With the use of FP, we hit everything we wanted as many times as we could. We walked on many rides, and others took at most 15 minutes or so.

I have definitely gone during lower crowds (Labor Day week, Week before Thanksgiving) but this was by far the best weather we have ever experienced. I'd rather wait 10 minutes for a ride in perfect weather instead of walking on everything while I'm sweating and miserable.