No more low crowds?

Agreed. I waited only 30 minutes for Flight of Passage this afternoon. Yesterday and today have been walk-ons or under 10 minute waits at a lot of the rides with rides like Big Thunder, Space Mountain, and even Toy Story Mania frequently around 20-30. I might actually catch Happily Ever After from the front of the castle for the first time tonight.

THAT was actually a pain .. even though not crowded everyone in the one area afterwards was a nightmare.. will stick to poly beach for sure
 

Yeh it rained on Tuesday for a few hours but we had walk ons and almost no crowds the entire sun-thurs .. pretty much all day .. weds night we had the run of DHS .. and no crowds watching the end of night shows .. it was great .. I posted these photos randomly not always “ at the moment “
 
@Fldisneyfamily4321 All I can say to your pictures is: wow! Any explanation for why it was so uncrowded?
I wonder if the week after Easter has traditionally been quiet like this?

I’m guessing because it was right after Easter and after most spring breaks ( especially Florida spring breaks ) I did notice more then anything else the people that were there majority uk visitors.
 
You should listen to Len Testa interview from one of the Dis unplugged pod cast in early March. Very interesting information. There is a lot of statistics that goes into the crowd calendars, but he noted that from some of their research they have noticed that when there are lower crowds that the capacity of rides is also lowered thus less staff - saving the park money. So you could be going at a lower crowd time say a 3 or 4, but your wait times could still be similar to a 7. You best tactic is to expect heavy crowds, plan your day with that in mind, use your FP wisely to allow for 4th and 5th FP. Going at late September should be better crowds compared to most times of the year. So there will be people there, rides will not be walk on, you better snag your TS ADR (or should have done that already), Use the MDE app to check wait times so that you are not walking up to splash MT to find a 60 minute wait. The app will help you hit those rides with lower waits and save you time from running all over the park.

He didn’t really say that. He said that during the week, capacity seemed to be reduced about 5 percent. There was no statistical change during the weekends.

And he said nothing about the reasons or causes of the capacity reduction — the DIS guys suggested reasons, but Len didn’t.

Standby wait times are up because a large percentage of riders are using FP, therefore increasing standby times. There are a finite number of seats, and if a larger percentage of them are going to FP riders, standby wait to ex are going to increase accordingly.
 
The last time I went to Disney was in early December 2011 and with the exception of MVMCP the crowds were non existent, Fast Passes weren’t needed except for a few rides and there were a few that we just walked on. DH went in 2011 and 2014 both times during Christmas week and it was predictably insane (both times with his girls and before we got married). We are going for the first time together at the end of September for our much delayed honeymoon (no kids!!!) and I keep reading that low crowds no longer exist, yet crowd calendars show the end of September as one of the lowest of the year. What does this mean in reality? Will we be shoulder to shoulder in the parks? Will walk ones be possible? I keep scouring YouTube for videos that show the crowds from the end of September last year and they seem really light. Am I just being optimistic?
We started taking our kids to Disney in December 2010 the week before Christmas and for the first couple of years it seemed like the best kept secret especially when it got warmer than the first year we were there. Low crowds, beautiful decorations, free dining but the year they opened the new fantasyland in December it was like opening the floodgates that year and IMO has not been low crowds since. We have tried one year at Spring break which was crowded and another year over Halloween that was low crowds but it stormed really bad which made for low crowds a couple of days but when the sun came out on that Sunday it was like masses of people. Last year we went the second week of October and I have always went to MK on Wednesday because it is the late night, fireworks etc. I have never seen so many people in the park at one time. It literally was shoulder to shoulder sweaty people, we had a fast pass for space mountain and the fast pass time was over 2 hours so the guys told us we could just come back later in the night and ride. During the fireworks I am pretty sure there had to be some sort of Fire Marshall laws broken for being over capacity! Lol
I think every year we go to Disney it gets more and more crowded and it cost more and more so I don't really get it but I don't see it slowing down anytime soon. Avatar has turned AK from a leisurely park to a mad house can you imagine what Toy Story and Star Wars is going to do to HS? But yet I am planning yet another visit for Decemeber which is by far our favorite time to visit.
 
Not sure if it was a fluke but we just left after a sun - thurs stay and we encountered almost zero crowds or long waits .. did RNR 4 times I’m a row no wait ( they didn’t even run the pre show ) 15 minute wait times for space Mountain and walk ons for BTM and most rides ..
Glad you were there at a slow time! We were there last week and it was insane. We had to wait 20-25 minutes for every FP. We have APs and have gone 3 times this year and it has been incredibly crowded each time. Granted we are going at busy times.
 
Last week was pretty dead. FOP had a posted 150 minute wait but I'm sure it was much less than that. NRJ had a posted of 60 minutes but it was more like 25.

Yes! I also noticed even when the signs showed longer times it was much shorter.. the living with the land said 45 minutes , line was at most 10 ..
 
Traditionally my family has always taken our trip from the Friday prior to Thanksgiving through the Thanksgiving weekend and it's a pretty busy time of year. This year my son will be in college so we will be taking our trip from Dec. 30th - Jan 7th. I am hoping that after New Year's the last few days of the trip won't be so bad, but after reading threads around here I am thinking we simply traded one busy time for a more busy time. Oh well. We'll tour as strategically as we can and still have a great time.
 

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