Recent Crowds

[jerseygal]

Thanks for any recent waterpark line waits/crowds recently...

TL/BB?????????????????????????

 

[nhdisnut]

Bump!

Curious how things are looking now....

 

[ScarletFire]

bump!

Any recent crowd reports? TIA

 

[TheCat]

I just came back yesterday (7/18). All the parks were pretty crowded. We went to the parks early. I usually arrived the parks around 8-9 am. I managed to get on most of the rides with less than 30 mins wait. I used fastpasses for the rides that the wait time exceeded 30 mins.

There were a lot of Brazilian tour groups in the parks. They filled up 1/3 of the Lion King theater in AK. They filled up one entire section of the Fanstasmic theater in DHS. MK was completely packed with people during SpectroMagic and Wishes.

 

[jak07]

We got back last night and honestly the crowds were bad.

Walking through the park wasn't bad, but the lines were LONG!!! We didn't find anything at MK under and hour. At DHS, Star Tours said 30 min, but it was probably 20. Everything else was atleast 60 minutes. TSM sold out of FP early and the wait was 80 min at one point while we were in line.

The tour groups were in full force and some were rude. No personal space and if you were looking at something that they wanted to look at, look out!! Several times I was cut in front of and knocked out of the way while looking at an item. Most people we came into contact with were nice.

So many people cut in front of strollers and wheelchairs and then are ticked when they get run over because they cannot stop in time. That happens any time we are there, not just the summer. It was esp. bad this time around.

 

[bellefan7757]

Just returned today and the crowds were lower than we expected. We followed the advice on touringplans.com as far as which parks to go to each day and it seemed to be on the mark. The longest line we waited in was for TOT and that slowed down after got in line because of mechanical problems on one side - it was about 60 minutes. Being just two of us probably helped and getting to the parks early helped too. The crowds picked up on Thursday and Friday. The rainy weather last week may have been a factor too.

 

[stitch1094]

Got back yesterday after 12 days at the world...here is what I observed...

MK: We went 4 different times. Each time, we got there between 9 and 9:30 AM. Lines were very managable. Wait times were 5 to 15 mins. One day, we did Buzz 4 times in a row. Another, we did Peter Pan, Dumbo, Pooh, Small World, Tea Cups and the Carousel in just over an hour. HOWEVER, as noon approached, the crowds and lines increased very quickly.

EPCOT: We went 2 different times. Once was very very busy, but we arrived around noon. The other was busy but not as bad as the first day.

HS: We went 3 times and this was by far the busiest park. We arrived one day just before 10 AM. Toy Story was 90 mins and fast passes were for 6:30 to 7:30! TOT and Rockin Coaster were all over 60 mins wait each day. Line for early fantasmic started at 7:30! Tons of tour groups @ HS.

AK: Went just once. Crowds were OK. Everest was a 40 min wait by lunch (when we arrived). Flying Dinos were a 10 min wait, but the Whirl was a 60 min wait.

MK was the least busy - HS the most. Best advice - get to the park as early as possible.

 

[swilphil]

We returned yesterday. I also found Studios to be very crowded though if you use FP, you can still get a lot done. We did EMH at the Studios on Friday, and it was kind of a waste of time. The line to get in was super slow, so we didn't get in the park right away. By about 8:30 a.m. the Toy Story Fastpass time was 11:30, so we just waited 30 minutes in the standby line.

We did get to HS about 20 min. before opening on two non-EMH days. I wish we would have waited until after 9 a.m. The first day, I went to get fast passes for RNR at around 9:45 a.m. and the return time wasn't until 2 p.m.! I'm guessing the large touring groups got all the fast passes.

The only problem I had with the touring groups was at MK. There was one group of about 300 in the Splash FP return line. I wanted to just leave and come back, but DH wanted to stay and the CM wouldn't let us go around them. When we were at AK, I noticed that the tour groups would wait off to the side until there was a break in the FP return line. If you have 300 people in front of you in the FP line, it kind of stops being fast. I also noticed many group leaders getting Fastpasses for several hundred people at a time. Should WDW have a rule about how many Fastpasses one person could get? I can see letting one person get 15 or 20 FPs, but hundreds???

We did MK last Saturday A.M, and the crowds seemed very low. We also went on Wednesday afternoon and it was way too crowded. We did Sunday at AK and the crowds were low in the morning. We never noticed lots of crowds in Epcot, though some lines had long waits. We really stuck to using FPs, so never waited long at all.

 

[sherabby]

We returned yesterday. I also found Studios to be very crowded though if you use FP, you can still get a lot done. We did EMH at the Studios on Friday, and it was kind of a waste of time. The line to get in was super slow, so we didn't get in the park right away. By about 8:30 a.m. the Toy Story Fastpass time was 11:30, so we just waited 30 minutes in the standby line.

We did get to HS about 20 min. before opening on two non-EMH days. I wish we would have waited until after 9 a.m. The first day, I went to get fast passes for RNR at around 9:45 a.m. and the return time wasn't until 2 p.m.! I'm guessing the large touring groups got all the fast passes.

The only problem I had with the touring groups was at MK. There was one group of about 300 in the Splash FP return line. I wanted to just leave and come back, but DH wanted to stay and the CM wouldn't let us go around them. When we were at AK, I noticed that the tour groups would wait off to the side until there was a break in the FP return line. If you have 300 people in front of you in the FP line, it kind of stops being fast. I also noticed many group leaders getting Fastpasses for several hundred people at a time. Should WDW have a rule about how many Fastpasses one person could get? I can see letting one person get 15 or 20 FPs, but hundreds???

We did MK last Saturday A.M, and the crowds seemed very low. We also went on Wednesday afternoon and it was way too crowded. We did Sunday at AK and the crowds were low in the morning. We never noticed lots of crowds in Epcot, though some lines had long waits. We really stuck to using FPs, so never waited long at all.

We returned yesterday too! Disney depression is setting in too! I also thought the crowds were very managable. We did not do any early hours this trip since my mom was traveling along with us and she is not an am person.

We went to MK every night of our trip...usually around 7 pm after our dinner reservations. Most rides at that time were walk on. People were already savaing seats for Spectro and Wishes. We saw Wishes every night..even our last night when we were in Epcot...we jumped to MK again!

There were a ton of Brazil tour groups! The weather at home (PA) was much hotter than in Florida for the week! It did rain every day...Tues it rained for almost 2 hours and we were stuck in DHS. Ended up buying umbrellas and glad we did since we had quite a bit of rain this week.

Most every ride we did in Epcot was a walk on and we got there about 9:30am. OUr last night at MK had late hours and the park was pretty crowded even though a ton of guests had already left. It was after 11pm and the ride lines in Tomorrowland were about 30 min waits for Buzz and Monsters Inc. Stitch had a 5 min wait time. My son's favorite ride is the transporation authority transit ride and that was a walk on.

We also did Typhoon Lagoon on Thurs before the 2pm rain storm.
If anyone has any questions feel free to ask.

 

[sherabby]

We were just at TL on Thursday before the 2pm rain storm. Didn't do many slides so cannot tell you about the lines. Get there early at 9am though and ride whatever you want for about one hour. We did the lazy river and the wave pool. The wave pool didn't make big waves for about 1 hr. Not sure what was going on but they finally got it going again. People were starting to chant waves waves waves!

 

[Mr. Pig]

Thanks for any recent waterpark line waits/crowds recently...

TL/BB?????????????????????????

Just got back. We were at TL last Monday (7/14) and the crowds weren't too bad. I will repeat the common mantra of getting there earlier. The wave pool was not bad before noon. Later afternoon it was a bit more crowded. The slides had 5-10 minute waits (didn't do the family raft slide). Crush n Gusher was 10 minute wait in early PM. We happened to pick a good day because there was no afternoon thunderstorms. It did rain but that was later in the day.

 

[Mr. Pig]

We just got back from 10 days at WDW. This thread was started before we left and I was interested in seeing the posts. The seemed inconsistent and after returning I can see why. We had some days that I thought that crowds were very light for what I expected then there were days when crowds were up. We did Epcot on a Friday, got FP for Soarin, did TT, MS, went back to Soarin and used the FP all before 11:00 after walking in at 9:00. We found that evening EMH days were busier all day.

Even the busy days were not too bad. I will again repeat the mantra of get there early and do your favorites in the morning. You don't have to always be there at rope drop but those first couple hours are good times. Get fast passes for later but do rides standby as they are shorter and move quicker at this time since there are fewer FP being used.

 

[della]

People were starting to chant waves waves waves!

Oh no! Now the American tourist are chanting too!!

 

[jezebella]

Ok...I was at Mk Saturday night and DHS Sunday...I have a theory about why there are inconsistent reviews of park crowds. I've noticed that, in general, all rides in the parks are fairly short for the time of the year....with the exception of all the "major" attractions (ie stuff you would fastpass, Space Mtn, Splash Mtn, RNRC, TOT, etc.) and the major attractions seem to be very high wait times for stand-by in correlation to the rest of the attractions.

Here's my theory: The tour groups, I've noticed fast pass all of the "major" attractions. While the fastpass distribution sets the limit for the amount of passes in any given time, it was not designed under the assumption that everyone who got a fastpass in a particular window would show up at the same time. It was the design that they would trickle in during their alloted one hour window time. When an entire tour group shows up at the fastpass return at the same time, it clogs up the fastpass line, which in turn increases wait times in the standby.

Now...no flames here, I"m not knocking the tour groups for using the fastpass, as they have every right to, I'm just explaining what is happening..

 

[sherabby]

We just got back from 10 days at WDW. This thread was started before we left and I was interested in seeing the posts. The seemed inconsistent and after returning I can see why. We had some days that I thought that crowds were very light for what I expected then there were days when crowds were up. We did Epcot on a Friday, got FP for Soarin, did TT, MS, went back to Soarin and used the FP all before 11:00 after walking in at 9:00. We found that evening EMH days were busier all day.

Even the busy days were not too bad. I will again repeat the mantra of get there early and do your favorites in the morning. You don't have to always be there at rope drop but those first couple hours are good times. Get fast passes for later but do rides standby as they are shorter and move quicker at this time since there are fewer FP being used.

We were at Epcot the same day too! I was so surprised that most of the rides at Epcot were walk on. Did you happen to see the Dream Team? they were in the Land and we saw them award the Castle to a family of 6! That is how I got the photo below with my son.

 

[sherabby]

Oh no! Now the American tourist are chanting too!!

The Brazil tour groups at one point almost took over the shallow end of the Wave pool to play games and sing and dance.

 

[Desnik]

DH and I just got back. We were there from Fri. to Sun. We were surprised to see that it was no where near as crowded as we had remembered July to be. There were times we forgot it was July! Fri. we went to Epcot, it was dead for a July day. We went on Soarin and it was at about 11am. It said 40 min wait. We waited around 25 mins. The countries were dead. We were able to stroll leisurely. We only saw a few tour groups and they weren't the large groups, just smaller groups of 4-6 kids. We had no problems at all. We went to MK at around 7pm. We then saw where the people were!LOL They were all at the MK. It was so crowded, but I have to say it didn't bother us at all. The crowds were all waiting for the parade and fireworks. So, we were able to ride Dumbo with about a 15 min wait, and walk onto Mickey's Philharmagic. We did notice Peter Pan had a huge line, but that was normal, it always seems to have a long line. We also went on the Haunted mansion. We stayed to watch Wishes and left before the next parade. You really couldn't even walk on Main Street. All the tour groups were sitting in the street and they completely covered the whole area. It was crazy, but no bad behavior that we saw. The whole weekend we noticed the crowds were all due to the tour groups, there were so little families on vacation. At least that was our observation. On Sat it was too hot to go to a park during the day for us so we went to Epcot in the evening. It was a little busy but not bad at all. The waits for Test Track, Soarin were around 40-60 min. We watched Illuminations and it was crowded but again not bad at all. On Sun. we went to DHS. At 11am TSM had a 40 min wait and the fast pass return time was between 5-6pm. By the time we got off the ride the fast passes were gone. We waited and got fast passes. It was about 40 min wait and it was worth it. We both loved this ride. We gave our fast passes to a mom and daughter just entering the park. They were so happy, we did this twice with Soarin too. It was fun to spread a little magic! And the people were very grateful. After DHS we went to MK and it was not crowded at all. We walked onto Pirates at 2:30pm!! Then we rode Magic Carpets of Aladdin, it was a walk on too!

So it was a great trip. Yes it was hot, yes the tour groups are there in full force, but you can still have a great time. It was not as busy as we thought it would be and we would go back again. I will say that I wouldn't take my kids with us in July because that would be a recipe for disaster!LOL My kids with huge crowds and heat don't mix.

Oh, one really enjoyable thing was getting to ride the attractions and see the fireworks with the large crowds. They were all so into it all. Clapping after Soarin, gasping and laughing in enjoyment during it. It was so much fun to look at Disney through their perspective. Everyone seemed to be having the time of their lives and DH and I just enjoyed watching them.

My tips: Go during parades and firework times. The rides were pretty empty at these times at the MK. Also go early, leave in the afternoon for a nap, then go back at night.

Let me know if anyone has any questions!

 

[Mdlex]

subscribing

 

[harleyquinn]

Thanks for all the reports! Keep em coming!

 

[lissiesmum]

Great idea for a thread! I hope it keeps going until my trip in October