Sept not low crowds anymore?

[Dislover1991]

I thought it was extremely busy considering what the crowd levels show! We chose this time because we wanted to go to the first MNSSHP, Night of Joy, and celebrate my birthday but we thought it would also be great because crowd levels were rated low. That didn't seem to be the case this time! It was extremely busy.

 

[anniemae]

I also wonder if a lot of people who cancelled their end of Aug/beg Sept trips due to Hurricane Erika rescheduled a week or two later.

 

[vleeth]

The crowd level just compares it to the rest of the year. A crowd level 1 means it's the least crowded time of the year...not that it's not crowded. Go Chrismtas week when it's a 10 and you will feel like September was low crowds. Every year the numbers go up. Every year it gets more crowded. But it's still the least crowded time of the year to go.

 

[Dentam]

The crowd level just compares it to the rest of the year. A crowd level 1 means it's the least crowded time of the year...not that it's not crowded. Go Chrismtas week when it's a 10 and you will feel like September was low crowds. Every year the numbers go up. Every year it gets more crowded. But it's still the least crowded time of the year to go.

I think that even the least crowded times of the year are changing as people do more research and plan their trips according to crowd calendars.

 

[TurnedToStoneGirl]

Disney is booked all year long, imo.

 

[Accident]

Refurbs and expansions are making it more exciting to visit. Frozen has a whole new generation really excited about disney again. New things coming has made it really exciting. basically I think it's going to be many many years before we'll see predictable low crowds again.

I'm just hoping they have some surprise under their hat for how they expect some of these crowds to grow because I don't think MK will handle the surge. There's some times it's miserable and not worth staying now and bringing in new fans for starwars isn't going to make MK less people...

 

[Dentam]

I'm just hoping they have some surprise under their hat for how they expect some of these crowds to grow because I don't think MK will handle the surge. There's some times it's miserable and not worth staying now and bringing in new fans for starwars isn't going to make MK less people...

Yeah, it's definitely a little scary to think of what the crowds will be like once all the expansions at DTD, HS and AK are completed.

 

[kandb]

Perhaps when people heard about the hurricane coming, they pushed their trip off for a week or so and that's why the week after labor day had a higher attendance then in the past? Just a thought.

 

[dizprincess717]

My husband and I are here now, it's our last day. We arrived Thursday. I've worked at Disney during Easter, been here over 4th of July and Christmas and Jersey week. I was so excited to come in September for "low crowds" but we honestly are a bit disappointed. MK was a total zoo last night. I understand it's because of EMH and the Halloween party, but seriously it was like a summer weekend crowd. It was nowhere near a 1, 2, 3 or even 4 that most calendars had posted.

We are here on our babymoon, I'm 23 weeks pregnant so in all honesty we were napping at the hotel during the afternoon. Evenings in the parks was when we had thenough least luck with ride times.

However I do know that there were a ton of conferences going on. Most deluxe hotels were at 100%. We are at the GF and it is at 100%.

If we go in September again I'd go 1 week later, or maybe not over a weekend.

FWIW, DHS was pretty manageable today. We are just waiting for our dinner at Beaches and Cream and are ending in Epcot before heading back to the GF to watch the Halloween party fireworks and head back to reality tomorrow!

 

[kandb]

I think it's a good idea to never "expect" low crowd levels in Disney. People get their hopes up that they are going to have low crowds and think they are going to walk onto everything and then when they don't, they are let down. I hate crowds too, so I get it but you can't depend on it EVER.

 

[LadyDiznee123]

I beg everyone to pardon me if I am stating something that someone else may have already noted in this thread. But due to the extreme popularity of the MNSSHP (which was sort of new when I went in 97-98-99-00 )... I am wondering this same thing. I have never gone except at the end of Oct to early November and the minimal crowds are absolutely HEAVENLY. But I am wondering if this is still true. I will be there from Oct 28 to Nov 5th. Right smack in the middle of Halloween. In fact I am going to the party on one of those days (not the 31st). Certainly it can't be like the months of July and August. I just hope my anticipated low-crowd-joys will not be dashed.

Anyone know?

 

[LadyDiznee123]

My husband and I are here now, it's our last day. We arrived Thursday. I've worked at Disney during Easter, been here over 4th of July and Christmas and Jersey week. I was so excited to come in September for "low crowds" but we honestly are a bit disappointed. MK was a total zoo last night. I understand it's because of EMH and the Halloween party, but seriously it was like a summer weekend crowd. It was nowhere near a 1, 2, 3 or even 4 that most calendars had posted.

We are here on our babymoon, I'm 23 weeks pregnant so in all honesty we were napping at the hotel during the afternoon. Evenings in the parks was when we had thenough least luck with ride times.

However I do know that there were a ton of conferences going on. Most deluxe hotels were at 100%. We are at the GF and it is at 100%.

If we go in September again I'd go 1 week later, or maybe not over a weekend.

FWIW, DHS was pretty manageable today. We are just waiting for our dinner at Beaches and Cream and are ending in Epcot before heading back to the GF to watch the Halloween party fireworks and head back to reality tomorrow!

Oh my gosh. You are answering some of my questions. Albeit I wont be going until Oct 28th - that is right smack in the middle of the heart of Halloween. I myself am going to the party one night

 

[Dentam]

I think it's a good idea to never "expect" low crowd levels in Disney. People get their hopes up that they are going to have low crowds and think they are going to walk onto everything and then when they don't, they are let down. I hate crowds too, so I get it but you can't depend on it EVER.

This is SO true. We seem to do this to ourselves every time. After this last trip my mom said that she'll never get her hopes up about low crowds again and will just expect it to be crowded. Seems like a good plan and then you can always have the chance of being pleasantly surprised.

 

[Kebby]

We also were there the 2-7 and found from the 2-6 it was dead- like we did tsm 4 times in a row at 7 pm dead. I do agree though by the Saturday it was more crowded. Solidified for us we will go pre labour day from now on!

 

[anniemae]

I think it's a good idea to never "expect" low crowd levels in Disney. People get their hopes up that they are going to have low crowds and think they are going to walk onto everything and then when they don't, they are let down. I hate crowds too, so I get it but you can't depend on it EVER.

so true!

 

[123SA]

I was there the 3rd-12th. It was definitely more crowded than my trip last year the 19th-26th. But it was not wall to wall people and everything except 7DMT, Peter Pan, at times Winnie the Pooh and the Mountains, TSMM, Test Track and Soarin' was walk on. All day. Every day. The only exception was 4-7 on the 11th when the NOJ people came in. I'm going again next year. I love Sept.

I was there the same time period (8/29 - 9/12). Yes, we walked on several rides, especially in the morning. However, several rides frequently had more than 30 minute wait posted. Posted test track wait after 10am was never less than 1/2 hour wait for us 8/30, 9/10, 9/11. Posted TSMM wait after 930am was never less than 30 minutes and by 130pm FP were gone 8/31, 9/8. Splash Mountain had long waits at times on 9/4. Space Mountain had several 30 minutes waits posted on 9/2, 9/4, 9/5 and 9/9. Kali River Rapids posted 60+ waits in the afternoon on 9/3, 9/5, 9/11.

Peter Pan was never under 40 mintues except close to park opening/park close and was usually 50 - 60minutes. Character lines were the longest I had ever seen.

Yes, I still think it is a better time to go than most any other time, but for us, it was not walk on rides all day every day.

 

[wendow]

Perhaps when people heard about the hurricane coming, they pushed their trip off for a week or so and that's why the week after labor day had a higher attendance then in the past? Just a thought.

I wondered this too. That week was supposed to be super low, and being the week that the NE kids were now in school really should have made the crowds low. But they weren't so I do wonder if some of those people from the week before pushed their trip out a week. All reports are that the week before Labor Day was super low, and that week coincides with the potential hurricane.

 

[andiraye]

I beg everyone to pardon me if I am stating something that someone else may have already noted in this thread. But due to the extreme popularity of the MNSSHP (which was sort of new when I went in 97-98-99-00 )... I am wondering this same thing. I have never gone except at the end of Oct to early November and the minimal crowds are absolutely HEAVENLY. But I am wondering if this is still true. I will be there from Oct 28 to Nov 5th. Right smack in the middle of Halloween. In fact I am going to the party on one of those days (not the 31st). Certainly it can't be like the months of July and August. I just hope my anticipated low-crowd-joys will not be dashed.

Anyone know?

I can't say from personal experience because I have not give during that time BUT I am helping a friend plan a trip for the first or second week of December, when MVMCP is going on. On party days, touring plans predicts a 1 or 2 in MK. On non party days, they predict a 6. Basically, very low crowds on party days and high crowds on non party days. I would expect the same for MNSSHP, but I would expect overall crowds to be higher over Halloween weekend itself. Why don't you check touring plans?

 

[wendow]

I think that even the least crowded times of the year are changing as people do more research and plan their trips according to crowd calendars.

I think this is a huge factor, and maybe I posted about this earlier in the thread (cannot remember lol). Most people we know who are going to WDW, and there are lots more than there used to be, are using crowd calendar sites. I remember years ago when no one knew about tp's. Now, most not only know about tp's but they are using that and other free sites to help plan their time of year to go and park days. I often wonder if going against the tp's recommendation (or easywdw) would be better. I just haven't had the guts to do it yet. If we went more than once a year, I'd have to try it just to see.

 

[anniemae]

I wondered this too. That week was supposed to be super low, and being the week that the NE kids were now in school really should have made the crowds low. But they weren't so I do wonder if some of those people from the week before pushed their trip out a week. All reports are that the week before Labor Day was super low, and that week coincides with the potential hurricane.

Kids from NE were not in school yet. Our school, as well as many in NE started AFTER labor day, on the 8th or 9th of Sept. Also, kids from Canada and the UK did not start until after LD as well. We ran into TONS of Canadians and UK folks.

I think many people rescheduled once they issued the state if emergency for hurricane Erika as well. We were told that there were many many cancellations that week due to the hurricane. So maybe folks pushed their trip out a week or two.