Share Positive Experiences with Current Crowd Levels

[yorkieteacher]

we are at MK on March 17 and we don’t arrive till early afternoon. What are your lucks with refresh during March break season? Do you think we will have a lot of difficulty? My goal is to get pooh, HM, IASW and under the sea, and potentially pirates.

We were able to get IASW and Under the Sea on March 6 after our 11:20 third FP. IASM at 1240, later Under the Sea about 2 something. Haunted Mansion was off track from March 3 until we left today-we got on Pooh early so not sure about FP's there.

 

[720L]

We were there Feb. 29- March 6. It was busier than summer but not Thanksgiving busy. We got to parks at rope drop & stayed until maybe 6 or 7pm. We are starting to take things slower otherwise I get very cranky lol. We even did 3 sit down meals (which we've always thought of as a time & money waster) We got on RotR, ST ,ToT twice,SR, RNR , Beauty & Beast show, SDD, Alien Saucers & TSM once and rode MMRR once. Watched Indiana Jones twice. We spent 2 days at HS (this was the park we were worried about the most because of MMRR opening crowds). The only thing we didn't get done was Frozen at Epcot, Splash Mtn & Little Mermaid at HS.

 

[NYCMOMMA]

This is our first trip ever. We are traveling with 5 different groups of family and friends. We were at mk on 3/6. We got on shuttle at 707 and got to park early for emh but they didnt let anyone in till 8am. We rd tomorrowland speedway, astro orbiter (ds3 dd1 got scared at last minute so only db+gf rode) and buzz lightyear. We finished buzz at 839 and couldve tried for another ride but since we had 2 young kids in tow who wanted to walk instead of sitting in the heavy stroller we brought from home, we decided its best to head over early for adventureland rd. We were held until 9am did jungle cruise and pirates. Then we headed to fantasyland to meet with sil and her family. Rode standby for mermaid and then barnstormer (only db+gf rode this one since dd1 too short and ds3 wasnt interested) then we used peter pan FP+ and was off by 1113am. We did a ts lunch to relax while db+gf went to bog. Dh, db+gf went to space mtn for the next FP+ while i took ds3 dd1 to move it shake it dance party. It was too loud for ds3 so we left. They got off space at 1240 and watched dd1 who was napping in stroller while i took ds3 to speedway for our FP+. Then we went to monsters inc laugh floor while dh stayed with napping dd1. Afterwards we left tomorrowland and went back to fantasyland. Db+gf went to philharmagic while i took ds3 on carousel. Ds3 wanted to ride again and dd1 woke up so dh and i took both kids on carousel. Met back up with db+gf and rode teacups all together. Went to wait for pooh ride but that broke down when we were in standby line so we got anytime FP+. By then it was time to use our 7dmt FP+ so db+gf rode first while i got cinnamon roll and lafou brew to feed kids. Me and dh got off 7dmt at 430pm. I was able to get 4th FP+ for iasw for all of us so we went there next. Got off at 506pm decided to use the anytime FP+ for BTM
since i was able to get a 5th FP+ for pooh ride later in evening. However, pooh was down again and we were not able to ride it after our dinner at crystal palace. We left after dinner and got back to aoa 752pm.
I am very happy with how well we managed park day 1. We never did standby for longer than 25 minutes. We chose to skip aladdin, dumbo and splash mtn. We didnt get to do Enchanted tales or winnie pooh ride but i think we did more than i expected. Haunted mansion was closed all day so we missed that unfortunately. I am not sure what was the crowd level for that day but it was more than manageable for this first timer thanks to all the info posted on disboards!

 

[Revan46]

So my main Park was HS on Friday and knew that I wanted to rope drop MMRR as I had been lucky enough to get a MFSR FP and ST FP. I’ll be honest didn’t care too much about SDD (not a big roller coaster guy) so I could nix that. I arrived at 5:55 and this was the crowd
I was fourth in line at my tapstile. So kind of had good feeling I’d have a good day. When rope dropped at 7 I booked it to MMRR and ended up I think sixth in line? So that started my good day but I think it helped it took until 7 before the lines even reached past that area in the picture behind the people walking towards tapstiles (not security but whatever that extra posts are, ticketing?), it meant there wasn’t a flood of people as it was in January. I then got off MMRR (let on about 7:45) and it was 7:58. Booted MDE up (though I think I hadn’t hard closed it so no load time) then went to My Status and started refreshing. 8 came, refreshed and nothing, clicked Back and Join BG was red. Got group 3. I found walking to GE it was a bit of a bottleneck naturally with so many heading there at 8 BUT again once I got through that I was on RotR quickly. No wait in line at all. Then off to droid build, followed by ST, lightsaber build, my first MFSR as pilot using FP, then Oga’s, another lightsaber build and then one more MFSR using my multiple experience FP. Again as pilot.

I would say in part I got to do so much also cause of crowds. I noticed outside of the bottleneck at entrance it wasn’t too bad and fairly easy to get around compared to just two months ago. When I went to Epcot too I got my first two FP done super quick (Soarin had a delay but not cause of crowd but I think due to a reset needed) and was able to get SE swapped without much issue. And meeting Tiana and Rapunzel went smoothly.

Overall the crowds were quite good and had probably one of my best Disney days as of late.

 

[LSUmiss]

People who use the system and have realistic expectations are having good trips. Which is nice to see

And who have mostly adults or older kids in their parties.

 

[disneyseniors]

We have been to WDW several times at the end of feb through the first week of March. The crowds have never been this bad. However, with rope drop and 3 fp's and some standby's under 45 minutes, we managed. We even slept in and still got all done that we wanted. However, we have been to Disney many times and it isn't real important to us if we miss something we wanted to do. The stress level must be higher for first timers, however. We left the parks at noonish when it gets really crowded, rested, and went back to the parks in the evening. This worked for us.
I have to say that even with the crowds, we did not encounter any rude people or behavior. We met some lovely people and did have a great time despite the crowds.

 

[kdfogliano]

We were at MK today (3/8) with a BOG 8:15 breakfast. They opened mine train at 8:30 we rode twice walk on. (We were not expecting this) Could have done it 5 times if we wanted before everyone was let into park! We were then first ones on Peter Pan. Successful fantasy land morning!!

 

[5forDis]

We just came back from Disney yesterday. The parks were crowded but we were able to experience everything we wanted; even getting day before fast passes for Flight of Passage. We did get Boarding Group 20 for Rise of Resistance. We rode Rock n Rollercoaster (early fastpass) , Smugglers Run (single riders) before our boarding group was called. Magic Kingdom seemed most crowded to me.
I think it depends on the Number of people in your travel party, ages of the people.
We were a party of 3 (us and our 20 year old son) so it’s easy to park hop, change plans, etc.
If this was 12 years ago when we had 8 yr old, 7 yr old and 3 yr old it would have been more challenging.

 

[CalSea12]

It is great to hear so many trips going so well! I really believe its the outlook you bring into the parks. If you know it will be a little busy and get done as much as you can but actually enjoy what you do then your trip will go well. I understand its busy and its not the best thing but I am really glad to hear how others days are going.

What I don't understand is what the ages of the party has to do with anything?

 

[alwayssmile]

We just got back yesterday from a week with 6 park days. We had zero issues with crowds. I honestly wondered if I went to the same Disney as other people because I kept seeing on FB how bad crowds were this week?!
This was our first trip as a family. We have 4 kids ages 9, 7, 5, and 2. We didn't use a stroller which I truly feel was a huge positive for getting around faster. We wore our 2yo in a baby carrier when needed. Other kids had no issues walking. We had touring plans for every single park day and we followed them all morning. For the afternoons and evenings we use our TP as more of a list for what else we wanted to do that day and picked up FPs for those attractions one after another. I think the longest line we waited in all week was for the peoplemover when space mountain was down. ha ha. We got a RotR BG (26 I think?) thanks to the BG thread suggestions here. DHS was a CL 8 according to TP that day and we still accomplished SO MUCH because we had a plan and we stuck to that plan. Seriously had an amazing week and did more rides and attractions than we thought we could.

 

[hertamaniac]

I'll share my experience at the resorts. We were onsite all last week and wanted to visit Riviera, CBR and Pop. It was an easy boat ride to MK and then took a bus to Riviera. We then rode the gondola to POP through the transfer at CBR. We then returned from Pop (lunch) to CBR and investigated part of the resort and the lobby. We then took a bus back to MK and finally a boat ride back to FW. At no point was it crowded for any leg of these trips.

The next day we went to Wilderness Lodge and then had dinner/drinks at Geyser Point. We did have to wait about 20 minutes for a lakeside view table. Watched the fireworks and then boated back to FW. Again, no issue with crowds.

We did go to HS on MMRR opening day and it was crowded (got there about 11 AM), but not to the point of uncomfortable. Granted all we did is ride MMRR and had a FP for MFSR and then left for the day.

So I feel we had a positive experience for last week's trip.

 

[LSUmiss]

It is great to hear so many trips going so well! I really believe its the outlook you bring into the parks. If you know it will be a little busy and get done as much as you can but actually enjoy what you do then your trip will go well. I understand its busy and its not the best thing but I am really glad to hear how others days are going.

What I don't understand is what the ages of the party has to do with anything?

You don’t understand how a party of mostly adults or older kids would be more able to adapt to larger crowds than a family with little kids/toddlers??? I feel like that should be pretty obvious.

 

[wilkydelts]

No reason to dismiss people's thoughts because there family's dynamic does not match yours.

I want to thank everyone for sharing their positive experiences battling the high crowds so far. This information will be even more helpful as well as additional experiences as we enter the Spring Break Seaon. I have even read some other really positive experiences on other threads as well.

 

[Remy is Up]

And who have mostly adults or older kids in their parties.

That wasnt the point of the thread. Geez. Its about positive experiences without any qualifiers. Take the negativity and qualifying commentary elsewhere. I dont think this thread is one that suits some people because they just cant help themselves.

 

[LSUmiss]

That wasnt the point of the thread. Geez. Its about positive experiences without any qualifiers.

Right but some ppl keep saying how easy it is despite crowds. That doesn’t apply to everyone.

 

[Remy is Up]

And the thread makes no qualifiers. You made the qualifiers by interjecting it doesnt work for families. Well noone in the thread has asserted that. The title says share positive experiences with crowd levels ( not with or without kids) And even your assertion is blown out by a post a few up of a family with 4 kids. Geez, is it so hard to believe some people do plan, use the system, and even in current crowd levels have fun??? Or is it just so important to beat the drum mantra of Disney is terrible right now??? If its so bad, stop going.

 

[wilkydelts]

@Remy is Up, Thanks for sticking up for the intention of this thread. Continual counter posting will just lead to the derailment of this thread and its original purpose. It is best to make your point and don't get in a back and forth. People on this thread know when to ignore a clear dissenting opinion that is intentionally throwing negativity in.

My family of 6 is going over spring break with ages 8, 6, 4, (leaving 1 year old with Grandparents cause HS with kids under 40in is hard/pointless) and I am set up for great success and can not be more excited. Everything I said above regarding FP+ refresh and my success is with a group of 5!

 

[LSUmiss]

And the thread makes no qualifiers. You made the qualifiers by interjecting it doesnt work for families. Well noone in the thread has asserted that. The title says share positive experiences with crowd levels ( not with or without kids) And even your assertion is blown out by a post a few up of a family with 4 kids. Geez, is it so hard to believe some people do plan, use the system, and even in current crowd levels have fun??? Or is it just so important to beat the drum mantra of Disney is terrible right now??? If its so bad, stop going.

See that’s it. Saying things like that implies that if ppl aren’t having positive experiences then they must be doing it wrong. We do use the system, we do plan, we do know what we are doing & currently it’s still a mess. We did actually have fun this past trip despite the unprecedented crowds but that’s b/c we made the best of a bad situation. We did very little b/c of the crowds & traveling with a 22 month old. We were ok with it b/c we go often. But, that might not be the case for other families. So, the dynamics of your traveling party absolutely makes a difference. The family of 4 you’re referring to mentioned being there last week. In other reports on these boards, it seems that crowds have subsided a little.

 

[LSUmiss]

@Remy is Up, Thanks for sticking up for the intention of this thread. Continual counter posting will just lead to the derailment of this thread and its original purpose. It is best to make your point and don't get in a back and forth. People on this thread know when to ignore a clear dissenting opinion that is intentionally throwing negativity in.

My family of 6 is going over spring break with ages 8, 6, 4, (leaving 1 year old with Grandparents cause HS with kids under 40in is hard) and I am set up for great success and can not be more excited. Everything I said above regarding FP+ refresh and my success is with a group of 5!

You said it yourself. Leaving 1 yr old at home b/c it’s harder. I was there with a 22 month old. So that’s my only point. We did have a positive experience b/c we chose to despite the situation.

 

[parasail_of_congress]

That wasnt the point of the thread. Geez. Its about positive experiences without any qualifiers. Take the negativity and qualifying commentary elsewhere. I dont think this thread is one that suits some people because they just cant help themselves.

The person who started the thread didn't bring his/her own daughter/son to Disney World because it was too much trouble ...