Recent Crowds

[harleyquinn]

Thanks for the tips ciera. July is supposedly school break for the tour groups, so hopefully they will all be heading back home by the time we get there Thursday. We'll make sure to avoid any long lines like that whenever possible, though!

Make sure to post when you get back! I hope you have a great time!!

 

[M2DD's]

 

[harleyquinn]

Bumpity bump

 

[ScarletFire]

Just back!

The crowds are not horrible. On a scale of 1 - 10, I'd give it a 7. Wait times for the popular rides are 30 to 60 minutes and FP are available throughout the day.

The exception is Toy Story Mania. There are no FP's left by noon and the wait is easily 90 minutes. At closing time, the posted wait was 70 minutes. It's a not-to-be-missed ride. If you don't want to wait, ride it at rope drop. Get a FP because you'll want to ride again. Since our dog was at the DHS kennel, we were there every morning. One morning, we went to early entry to get a TSM FP and made it to AK for rope drop. TSM is that awesome.

There are barely any lines at the counter service restaurants. And, we made same day ADR's.

The tour groups are still around. They were large but well behaved.

The afternoon showers do not clear the park.

We drove; the interstate traffic is light.

Any questions?

 

[jmskinner]

Just back!

The crowds are not horrible. On a scale of 1 - 10, I'd give it a 7. Wait times for the popular rides are 30 to 60 minutes and FP are available throughout the day.

The exception is Toy Story Mania. There are no FP's left by noon and the wait is easily 90 minutes. At closing time, the posted wait was 70 minutes. It's a not-to-be-missed ride. If you don't want to wait, ride it at rope drop. Get a FP because you'll want to ride again. Since our dog was at the DHS kennel, we were there every morning. One morning, we went to early entry to get a TSM FP and made it to AK for rope drop. TSM is that awesome.

There are barely any lines at the counter service restaurants. And, we made same day ADR's.

The tour groups are still around. They were large but well behaved.

The afternoon showers do not clear the park.

We drove; the interstate traffic is light.

Any questions?

I didn't realize there were kennels at all of the parks, do you know what the charge is? I looked on WDW website noticed the one at DHS requires you to walk them twice a day, did you have any issues with that? Do you ride the tram over or drive over in order to walk them? We are thinking of a day trip tomorrow, and hadn't thought of boarding.

Thanks.

 

[ScarletFire]

I didn't realize there were kennels at all of the parks, do you know what the charge is? I looked on WDW website noticed the one at DHS requires you to walk them twice a day, did you have any issues with that? Do you ride the tram over or drive over in order to walk them? We are thinking of a day trip tomorrow, and hadn't thought of boarding.

Thanks.

Since we boarded our dog overnight, we had to walk and feed him. This was not an issue since we stayed at The Dolphin; a quick walk or boat ride. We never drove. If you are boarding for the day, I don't think you are required to walk unless you want to. I believe it is $13 for the day. Prices are on allearsnet.com.

The kennels are very clean. They were cleaning every time we went in the kennel. There was no smell at all. The workers are extra nice and we were more than comfortable leaving our dog with them.

If you get to the park early, you'll park close enough to the kennel that you will not have to take the tram. I'm fairly certain all the parks have kennels. We chose DHS kennel because it was close to out hotel. I believe some of the kennels offer to walk your dog.

 

[Purseval]

When we went in July the only time we noticed the tour groups having an impact was at Fantasmic, other than that they did a lot of singing and cheering in lines but the groups themselves are pretty easy to avoid. Get there at opening and you will be through the major rides before the tours show up, that holds true no matter what park you go to (as long as you aren't an outsider going to a park that has early opening that day but you can check on that in advance). We didn't go this July we went during July of last year, this year we went in February and we're going back in October. Both of those time periods are a joy compared to July

 

[jmskinner]

Since we boarded our dog overnight, we had to walk and feed him. This was not an issue since we stayed at The Dolphin; a quick walk or boat ride. We never drove. If you are boarding for the day, I don't think you are required to walk unless you want to. I believe it is $13 for the day. Prices are on allearsnet.com.

The kennels are very clean. They were cleaning every time we went in the kennel. There was no smell at all. The workers are extra nice and we were more than comfortable leaving our dog with them.

If you get to the park early, you'll park close enough to the kennel that you will not have to take the tram. I'm fairly certain all the parks have kennels. We chose DHS kennel because it was close to out hotel. I believe some of the kennels offer to walk your dog.

Thanks for the info. Wish I could persuade my DH to do this, then I wouldn't worry about getting home to let the poor dog out. But, I may use it the next day trip we go on. Plus, my Mom will love this service when they come out.

 

[disneylover74]

My family and I went last Friday just for the afternoon and night and we were expecting it to be ridiculous with crowds. We had no wait for any of the rides we went on. Mind you we have a 3 year old so we didn't go on any of the big rides. We parked at MK around 5p.m. and took the monorail over to Epcot. Went on Spaceship Earth because my daughter or husband had never been on this and I haven't since the redo. Then we went over to Nemo and then walked over to WS to get a beer at Rose and Crown. Love Guinness. Then it started to rain. We ducked into a store and shopped a bit and then in about 20 minutes headed back for the monorail. Got to MK in time to see the last 10 minutes of SpectroMagic and then we headed to get something to snack on. My husband saw the "big legs" so we split this between the 3 of us. We watched Wishes for the bridge in front of the Country Bears which surprisingly was a good place. Nothing was centered but it doesn't have to be for a three year old. We then headed to IASW and there was no line. When we got out anad headed back to get our stroller, a CM asked if we had been on PP and I told him that was my daughter's favorite ride but it was too long. He then gave us 4 FP for PP so we headed on over there and got right on. We were thrilled and felt like we finally received a DREAM. Not a real one but close enough. When we got off, we decided to find 2 people to give the other 2 FP too since we didn't want to be greedy. Found a dad and daughter and it made their day too. That made us feel good. We left around 11p.m. so we were officially there 6 hours and we did all of that in that time frame. It was not crowded to me at all!!

 

[marvali]

We are here now. So far we did DHS on Friday and AK today. Those were the parks with MEMH and we are trying to do the parks early and get out before it gets too crowded and hot. So far it is a good plan and we haven't noticed the crowds being too large (compared to other times visiting during July/August. The long waits so far have only been about an hour, but those were later in the afternoon when the crowds had picked up some. By that time we had already done most things and were getting ready to head out. Most everything we rode we had either fastpasses or had to wait about 25 minutes at the most in standby. TSM got pretty crowded and fastpasses were already about 5:00 by 9:30. But we were there at ropedrop and got our fastpasses, rode it in standby, and then rode again with the fastpasses.

We are trying to avoid the parks that are historically crowded on certain days, and don't plan to go to the ones that have EEMH, so either we have been lucky so far and the plan has worked, or the crowds are somewhat smaller. One CM yesterday told us that early in the week at DHS most people go to the right towards ToT and RnR until they learn how hard it is to get on TSM and then later in the week they head there first.

 

[M2DD's]

We are here now. So far we did DHS on Friday and AK today. Those were the parks with MEMH and we are trying to do the parks early and get out before it gets too crowded and hot. So far it is a good plan and we haven't noticed the crowds being too large (compared to other times visiting during July/August. The long waits so far have only been about an hour, but those were later in the afternoon when the crowds had picked up some. By that time we had already done most things and were getting ready to head out. Most everything we rode we had either fastpasses or had to wait about 25 minutes at the most in standby. TSM got pretty crowded and fastpasses were already about 5:00 by 9:30. But we were there at ropedrop and got our fastpasses, rode it in standby, and then rode again with the fastpasses.

We are trying to avoid the parks that are historically crowded on certain days, and don't plan to go to the ones that have EEMH, so either we have been lucky so far and the plan has worked, or the crowds are somewhat smaller. One CM yesterday told us that early in the week at DHS most people go to the right towards ToT and RnR until they learn how hard it is to get on TSM and then later in the week they head there first.

Are the brizzian tour groups still there? I think I read a post awhile ago they they leave at the end of July.

 

[inkkognito]

I was at DHS this morning from 9 till around 1 and there were NO NO NO tour groups!!! The decrease in crowd size was noticable...TSM FPs didn't run out by 11, and I did six on ToT, three on TSM and one on GMR all by 12:30 (I used FP and single rider to help that along).

 

[Eeyore's My Favorite]

We were at MK on 8/1 - got there about Noon - of course within 1/2 hour it was pouring. Surprisingly the crowds didn't disappear & neither did the tour groups. There were tons of them at the MK & our group went the opposite way when we saw them. Also, noticed the tour guides getting fast passes at Space Mtn, too & thanks to reading about that here on the boards we waited just a wee bit to get ours.

MK was open until midnite with EMH til 3am. About 12:30am the park seemed to really thin out. By 1am my niece & her friend were able to ride Splash Mtn & Big Thunder practically continuously & loved it!! We finally dragged our tired selves out of the park about 2:30am & caught the bus back to CBR. This was our first time staying for the EMH & we loved it!!! However I did notice some of the children about age 2-3ish who weren't really happy to be in the park about that time of day..........................

 

[polynor]

Just drove back to Texas from 1 week in the world. Crowds were manageable and so was the heat.

Longest wait we saw was 140 minutes for TSM. RnRC was 70 min; TToT was 55 at the same time. This was on a Wed (7/30 mid-day; FPs were long gone). Note, DHS had the Evening MH that day and the park seemed in general more crowded.
We also noticed that a park was more crowded in the afternoon hours if they had the EMH. We tried to do the parks the "day-after" they had their evening magic hours.

We got to every park within 5 minutes of opening and were able to do what we wanted with minimal waits -- note -- we had a 2 yo - so we were not after the big rides (though we did ride them).

The tour groups were there -- but they are slow (they had to herd 40+ people while I only had to herd my group of 7).

SpaceMtn - generally seemed to be about 40min. Buzz was about 30 most of the time. Did not do Splash or Big Thunder. My sister and BIL stayed for MK EveMH -- they said everything was walkon except Space.

For those who are on their way -- enjoy!
oh- and this is the FIRST time I have been bitten by mosquitos at WDW. My son got bit alot and developed some sort of rash. Not sure if their pest control is down or if it was where we stayed/went (stayed at WL).

 

[stitchrulz]

For those who are on their way -- enjoy!
oh- and this is the FIRST time I have been bitten by mosquitos at WDW. My son got bit alot and developed some sort of rash. Not sure if their pest control is down or if it was where we stayed/went (stayed at WL).

Uh-oh! Did you get bitten in the parks, or just at the hotel? I'm "skeeter-bait" (actually, bug-bait in general) and have never been bitten in the parks, but I did get eaten alive several years ago watching the fireworks from the beach at the Poly. I'd hate to have to wear bug stuff all the time. Thanks for the info!!!

 

[harleyquinn]

Uh-oh! Did you get bitten in the parks, or just at the hotel? I'm "skeeter-bait" (actually, bug-bait in general) and have never been bitten in the parks, but I did get eaten alive several years ago watching the fireworks from the beach at the Poly. I'd hate to have to wear bug stuff all the time. Thanks for the info!!!

I would love to know this too. Since I'll be at the concrete jungle resort of All Star Sports maybe I won't need to worry if this was a resort related problem.

I've been watching the forecasts on weather.com and right now it says that the 12 and 13 will only have highs of 86! Which means it'll be raining a lot more than normal. Good thing I bought the sturdier ponchos!

I want to hear more reports!

 

[jkstewart1800]

this is my first trip during peak season and with kids! August 17th -23rd

I am worried about crowds....

not so much about the heat... today was 106 degrees here in SW texas

 

[disreport]

this is my first trip during peak season and with kids! August 17th -23rd

I am worried about crowds....

not so much about the heat... today was 106 degrees here in SW texas

Remember, however, you're not out walking around all day in the 106 degree Texas heat (+ the Florida humidity).

 

[harleyquinn]

this is my first trip during peak season and with kids! August 17th -23rd

I am worried about crowds....

not so much about the heat... today was 106 degrees here in SW texas

Don't be worried. It's really not that bad. But go with my motto, Expect the Worst and then you'll be happy with reality. The only trip where I felt overwhelmed with crowds was my END of January trip. I expected it to be dead and it was extremely busy due to the soft opening of EE. All of my summer trips have been great!

Just go with a plan and you'll be fine.

 

[joenan88]

this is my first trip during peak season and with kids! August 17th -23rd

I am worried about crowds....

not so much about the heat... today was 106 degrees here in SW texas

Your dates are considered "value season" and remember you are going after most kids return to school in the south and the week before free dining..the crowds should be very manageable...I hope! I will be there the same week as you 08/15-22

Value Season
January 1 - February 13
August 3 - October 1
November 30 - December 18
Martin Luther King Weekend Jan. 18-20