Question about current crowds.

[hismattjesty]

Hello all. My wife and I are leaving for WDW in 4 days (8/24-9/2), and were wondering wht the crowds have ben like. We were there the same dates last year, and there were no crowds at all. The longest we waited for an attraction was about 20 minutes, and never used a Fast Pass. Can we expect the same situation again this year? The reason I ask is because it is so enjoyable to not have swarms of people around you all the time, and to have the luxury of taking in all the ambient music throughout the park. Thanks for any info.

John

 

[Daisy&Donald]

I have the same question...we are leaving on the 27th and last year the crowd level was so low!

 

[barbanm]

We are leaving on the 24th as well and wondering the same thing?

Barbara

 

[zookeeper]

We're leaving Aug.26th and all along I anticipated lower crowds because of the experience of others in previous years during the last week of August. I was hoping that I wouldn't have to worry too much about fastpass, but it looks like it will probably be a little more crowded than usual. I'm still hoping that crowds will thin out a little after the first 2 weeks of Free Dining.

 

[Harambe]

We were ther last year at this time (heading down Wednesday, so see you all there!) and we found it to be pleasant, crowd-wise. The parks are open longer which helps to stretch out the crowd levels.

I think folks are still wary of travelling at this time due to weather (dare I jinx us - looks to be no activity is the tropics as far as storms go), and the new threats to air travel won't exactly draw in tons of people.

We took a quick trip once the middle of Septmeber. We were on the walkway at Epcot world show case near Italy - and we were the only people! No one in front of us or behind us, and this was during Illuminations. Totally creepy! I don't like huge crowds, but absolutley no crowds is too bizarre!

 

[ainmama2001]

We were there on Tuesday (only in MK) and the crowds weren't bad at all. It was HOT, but we basically walked on to everything.

 

[LBAK]

We were there from August 9-16 and the crowds were very light until Monday when the frr dining started then it picked up. It was still very managable though. Enjoy your trip!

 

[lisaross]

staying at the CBR

see you all there - keep the crowds away.......................

lisa

 

[purpliequeen]

Aug 13-18. We checked in on the worst day ever to check in IMHO (first day of free dining). The crowds were manageable; at times it was very crowded- I think the heat had something to do with it.

We were not on free dining (DVC points-savings in itself ) and had a great time during lunch and dinner hours because that was when everyone was eating. No joke... from 6-7pm, the lines weren't bad at all. However, when everyone started coming out of restaurants with full tummies, the lines got big again for attractions (around 8pm). Epcot was always packed in the evening because there are like 14 table service restaurants. We did join in the crowds on some nights by eating at table service restaurants, but we were staying concierge and were always quite full from the snacks.

If you utilize fast pass, it should be no problem. This is what we managed to do on the "dreaded" Mon, as everyone checked in on Sun and wanted to see MK. We had non-exp passes and on a whim decided to go:

1) Quick pace to POTC after rope drop (10 min wait)
2) Thunder Mt. TWO times (walk on)
3) Grabbed a fast pass for Splash Mt.
4) Small World- hey it was a walk on
5) Dumbo- hey it was 5 in, embrace the inner child.
6) Mickey's Philharmagic- 10min (we actually rode dumbo so we wouldn't have to wait 20 min)
7) Funnel cake in Sleepy Hollow
8) Splash Mt- fast pass, 5 min

I was with my parents the whole time and we are athletic and quite knowledgeable about Disney so we didn't really run into any long waits. We did Epcot on Wed, it wasn't so bad. DTD on Tues, not bad either. Got crowded at night though b/c of all the restaurants. Here was our Thurs at AK:

1) We did the Sunrise Safari for Concierge guests
2) Private breakfast at Tusker House
3) I grabbed EE fastpasses- Asia was awful. I wanted to see what they did since it was all new compared to our previous visit. It was literally bodies of people. Horrible. I wish they did something about this bottleneck. I waited 30 min in the FP line. Within 10 min of the park opening, EE aready formed a line 80 min long. The line wound around Anandapur FP were prob gone around 10 or 10:30 am.
4) Went back to eat the rest of breakfast with parents
5) We received Kilimanjaro Safari FP's from the Sunrise Safari so we rode it to compare it to our concierge tour. Standby 40 min
6) Rode EE on FP standby around 2 hr, FP 10 min wait
7) Grabbed FPs for Kali River- standby was already over 60 min
8) Rode Primeval Whirl- 10 min
9) Rode Dinosaur- 20 min, but ride broke, took 10 min extra for them to fix it. No prob- it was a/c
10) Kali on FP- 90 min standby
11) Shopped and went back for a swim

Hope this gives you an idea of what to expect. I bet it will be less crowded in Sept as this was the first week and we haven't started school up north yet. As you can see, it's manageable. We went on the super headliners, which always seem to need FP when we're there. We've only gone during Christmas times and we found that more manageable but that's b/c it's cooler weather and the decorations are beautiful. Aug isn't as much fun to go- it's really hot and people get cranky in the evenings (along with kids) .

 

[Dorisk3]

Purpliequeen- thanks for the specifics- all good info to know! We are going next week and I'm mentally planning for plenty of people and hope I'll be pleasantly surprised! This is slightly OT- but who on earth would wait 2 hours for EE? I'd do anything to work out getting there in the a.m. for the fastpass even if I had to come back a few days later. No wonder people say that people in the standby line are nasty to the FP'ers- but its their own fault for not trying to get one!

 

[ceegee]

Hi all, Just got back on Friday night from a 10 day trip.
8/9 - 8/18. There were no real waits for anything the first 7 days.
They stated 20 mins for most things but we only really waited about 10 minutes instead. The only real wait were at MK on Thursday the 17th we hit Big Thunder Mountain Railroad about 6 pm and had the longest wait of the entire trip about 50 mins.

I will say that during our stay they had some major technical problems at teach of the parks, Space Mountain was down on the 14th for a long time,
the 15th Soaring was down until the late evening and on the 15th Dinasaur had a few moments of technical difficulties.

All in all it was a great trip and were planning our next one for 2008!

 

[jonbil]

Crowds Crowds Go Away...Come back Another day

Crossing fingers!!!!

 

[MariaEllerºoº]

See you all down there! Hubby and I at WL on Aug. 27th and then CBR the 28th through Sept 2nd! WooHoo!!!

 

[momof4va]

We are leaving on the 27th too. It seems like there will be alot of us down there. I really hope there are not too many crowds. My family has been at christmas, easter, and president's day.. all really busy times. I was hoping for once to go when it was manageable.

 

[Brianne]

I just posted on another thread---be prepared for the crowds. In the very least, if it turns out that you hit a park on a light day, you won't be disappointed. It was a sea of people at MK on Saturday though, which is normally a light day for that park. Same thing at AK this morning.

 

[Wish Upon A Star]

We are leaving on Wednesday (8/23) and I figure the crowds cannot be as bad as Easter Week . . .but, if they are, we've had plenty of crowd experience . .just looking forward to a nice end of the Summer vacation.

 

[jcriket]

We were there friday, our seasonal passes came off their blackout on Thursday, and we had to see pirates. I think lots of other FL res. did also there were lots of cars in the parking lot, and lots were FL tags. The crowds were IMO above average, but manageable, then again we only went to see pirates. Was a 15min. wait, SpM and TM were about 50 min. waits, peter pan 60 min.. We didn't stay at MK too long, and went to epcot, Which was EMH (didn't know that or might have avoided it). 90 min. for soarin' 80 min. at TT and even had a long wait at Mexico.

 

[ReneeA]

We went last year from Aug 21-28, and our longest wait was 15 minutes. I don't think we ever used fastpass, either.

Leaving in one week and hoping for the same!