I got a lot of information from this site before our trip last week, mostly looking at crowd levels and park planning. I wanted to return the favor for those of you in the planning stages so I registered just to post this for you:
We got back yesterday (family of four with two small kids). At Epcot, a Soarin CM outside The Land told me that there were about 30,000 visitors to Epcot on Monday (one week ago) and they were expecting about the same all week. Animal Kingdom was pretty empty mid-week, but it felt crowded at times because we had two strollers and some of the walkways are narrow. Magic Kingdom was the busiest by far, especially in the hours just before EMH evenings. We did not do MGM because of the Star Wars Weekend.
By Thursday night, Downtown Disney was packed. Rainforest Cafe had waits of over two hours and it was shoulder to shoulder in the Disney stores. Several of the attendants told me that this was the beginning of the "high season" and I assume they were referring to this past weekend when schools let out.
Here are my two tips from the trip for those with small kids: #1) if you are leaving MK after a parade or after Wishes, walk to the Contemporary and catch the monorail from there. You'll avoid the crowd crush and give the kids a chance to wind down on the walk. #2) when you get to MK at park opening, take the train back to Toon Town. Walk to Pooh and ride it while one person in your group (Dad) takes the strollers to the parking area by Peter Pan, parks them there and gets a fastpass for everyone for Pan. Meet back up at Philharmagic, see the show (it's great), then head back to Toontown for opening (it was an hour later than park opening). You'll be able to see all of the characters right after the kids see them in the movie, but without lines and without lugging strollers around. After Toon Town, you can leisurely walk back to Peter Pan with your fastpass and your stroller will be waiting for you when you come out. Worked great for us and was a great start to the day.
Hope all of you have great trips and let me know if I can answer any other questions.
We got back yesterday (family of four with two small kids). At Epcot, a Soarin CM outside The Land told me that there were about 30,000 visitors to Epcot on Monday (one week ago) and they were expecting about the same all week. Animal Kingdom was pretty empty mid-week, but it felt crowded at times because we had two strollers and some of the walkways are narrow. Magic Kingdom was the busiest by far, especially in the hours just before EMH evenings. We did not do MGM because of the Star Wars Weekend.
By Thursday night, Downtown Disney was packed. Rainforest Cafe had waits of over two hours and it was shoulder to shoulder in the Disney stores. Several of the attendants told me that this was the beginning of the "high season" and I assume they were referring to this past weekend when schools let out.
Here are my two tips from the trip for those with small kids: #1) if you are leaving MK after a parade or after Wishes, walk to the Contemporary and catch the monorail from there. You'll avoid the crowd crush and give the kids a chance to wind down on the walk. #2) when you get to MK at park opening, take the train back to Toon Town. Walk to Pooh and ride it while one person in your group (Dad) takes the strollers to the parking area by Peter Pan, parks them there and gets a fastpass for everyone for Pan. Meet back up at Philharmagic, see the show (it's great), then head back to Toontown for opening (it was an hour later than park opening). You'll be able to see all of the characters right after the kids see them in the movie, but without lines and without lugging strollers around. After Toon Town, you can leisurely walk back to Peter Pan with your fastpass and your stroller will be waiting for you when you come out. Worked great for us and was a great start to the day.
Hope all of you have great trips and let me know if I can answer any other questions.
