Shocked

[luvthemouse71]

The Op has no right to criticize the parenting skills of other people..especially when it seems the motivation was annoyance at the crowd level.

 

[piglet33]

Frankly I dont know why this is debated over and over again. It is no ones business when I take my child out of school. I am a loving, caring, hard-working mother who provides clean clothes, hot meals, homework help, moral guidance and who works very hard for all of it. I will not apologize to anyone (teachers included) if the only way we can provide a family vacation is to have the kids miss 2 or 3 days of school. The work is always made up and the kids don't seem to suffer for having done it once every couple of years.

And as for parents being to blame for the state of the education of children.....I think some teachers had better take a look in the mirror. All I hear from a good portion of them (at least locally) is "gimme more money, more time off, more benefits, etc." They seem so involved in what they are not getting for themselves that I'm not sure how any teaching is being done.

We are going next Thanksgiving and I'm not apologizing to anyone or feeling guilty about it.

 

[DisDeac]

Spent Sunday evening (10/3) at Food and Wine, busy but not bad in my opinion. Seated for a 7pm reservation outdoor table at Rose and Crown, at 8:30 server said if wanted to stay at table for Illuminations no problem even though we had finished eating.

Monday 10/4 spent the morning and early afternoon at Studios, sorry but not crowded at all during time we were there, hardly any wait times except for, of course, Toy Story Mania.

Monday night at Food and Wine, sort of crowded but not really bad, short waits at the kiosks or in a few cases no waits.

Would certainly not say wall to wall people, at least not where I was and not based on past experience.

DisDeac

 

[padawans]

I have been very entertained reading this thread. It has reminded why I chose to homeschool.

 

[dizneydiva2005]

I homeschool and take my kids whenever I want. I also do year round school. Fits our life style.
Kinda annoying for the OP to assume parents are just taking their kids out of school- and don't care.

Now with that said... Listen people - the week of Oct 16th- 22nd. Please do not go to Disney. I don't want to be bothered by the crowds. Thank you.

 

[DISNEY1975]

Spent Sunday evening (10/3) at Food and Wine, busy but not bad in my opinion. Seated for a 7pm reservation outdoor table at Rose and Crown, at 8:30 server said if wanted to stay at table for Illuminations no problem even though we had finished eating.

Monday 10/4 spent the morning and early afternoon at Studios, sorry but not crowded at all during time we were there, hardly any wait times except for, of course, Toy Story Mania.

Monday night at Food and Wine, sort of crowded but not really bad, short waits at the kiosks or in a few cases no waits.

Would certainly not say wall to wall people, at least not where I was and not based on past experience.

DisDeac

Thanks for this. I had to read through 11 pages to find out about crowds! Ill be there in 9 days, Im crossing my fingers for good weather and low crowds!

 

[d1gitman]

I find it comical that people sitting at home can tell the OP it isn't busy in Magic Kingdom when she's there staring at the crowd. Then when the OP again states that the parks are packed, some people feel the need to give her 20 lashes because she "chose the wrong park" that day.

great post!

 

[d1gitman]

Thanks for this. I had to read through 11 pages to find out about crowds!...

What? You didn't want to also read about how to be a good parent?

 

[wendy1974]

Every park is packed. We were here last year same time....about a third of the crowd then. It is shocking. Yesterday at 10:45 all fast passes for Toy Story were gone. Wait time was 130 min.

Wow, it's Amazing how 2 people can have two totally different experiences. We got here Friday and are leaving Thursday and I ran in the Wine $ Dine half marathon last Saturday night. I was also here at this same time last yer and thought last year was much busier! We went to MK last Saturday and were surprised at how much of a walk on most of the attractions were. We've only had to use Fast pass a few times and it was for things like Soarin' and TSM ( which is normal). We have been avoiding EMH and went to DHS today. Of course there was the usual mad dash TSM & FPs were gone by 11 am but that's year around. Yes there are a lot of kids here but it was the same way last year.

 

[Leajess99]

Honestly, I don't find the parks are packed. We were at MK last night and ride lines weren't all bad but Space Mountain was broke down while we were there for EMH. Today we did DHS and at 1:30 the line for TSM was not what I would consider bad as I have stood in way longer. Fastpasses did go quick today. My kids did RnRC with a 20 minute wait. We also managed to see a player off my 12 year old's soccer team and another family from back home. Of course we are on Fall break this week as well. Oh and the temps are almost 20 degrees cooler than this time last year and no 100 plus heat indexes. lol

ETA: I have planned around EMH and we have hoppers so if we want to hit EMH we can as we did last night.

 

[Leajess99]

Actually-there are still discounts available. I was able to get a room at POFQ this weekend with a FL Res Rate less than a week out. There are also AP room rates for this weekend still available.

I booked my POFQ reservation for this week this past Saturday. Several of the moderates were showing rooms available. I did not check beyond the 8th though so no clue on the weekend. We need to be home on the 10th for an important soccer game.

 

[dqpowell]

Wow, it's Amazing how 2 people can have two totally different experiences. We got here Friday and are leaving Thursday and I ran in the Wine $ Dine half marathon last Saturday night.

Hey, Wendy! How'd the run go? Hope everything worked out okay with the trip-planning issue you had.



David

 

[wendy1974]

Hey, Wendy! How'd the run go? Hope everything worked out okay with the trip-planning issue you had.



David

Hey! Run went good! I started hurting around mile 9 but I finished (which was my goal). Cool to run through AK and DHS late at night. Everything worked out with the issue I had and I really am glad for the support I got from everyone on the Dis.

 

[selina4disney]

Now with that said... Listen people - the week of Oct 16th- 22nd. Please do not go to Disney. I don't want to be bothered by the crowds. Thank you.

OK! We are going home on the 16th so that should work out good for ya!

PS I know that is MEA for some people (or whatever other states call it, teacher's meetings, but not sure that will affect your crowds too much...here's hoping we both have low crowds...or if not we have FUN ANYWAY!)

 

[Leajess99]

This is exactly what I am talking about when I say that most people don't get the dept of the problem. I am not talking about looking to graduate everyone college ready with a 3.5 GPA. I would just like the majority of high school graduates to be qualified to make change at McDonalds or read simple instructions. That is not happening on a HUGE scale! More and more students are leaving high school without the BASIC skills needed to hold down ANY job! Social security and welfare are going bankrupt under the weight of those who cannot or will not support themselves. Yes, if we all had parents that care this wouldn't be happening, but the reality is that there are many more parents who don't care out there than parents that do. I am arguing that if someone doesn't step in and insist that children get enough education to be self sufficient welfare and social security WILL collapse under the weight of those they support. It is not because we have too many people, but becuase we have too many people incapable and unwilling to be self sufficient.

This I have to say is so true. More and more kids are falling behind and it is sad to see. I see kids failing classes and no one, including their parents, seems to care. I thought about pulling my kids from school for a December trip and then came to the realization that making them miss days away from High school and middle school is not a good idea. I have smart kids but how can you make up a chemistry lab or an art project or whatnot?? My oldest refuses to miss school even for doctor's appointments as he did have missed class time last year for medical/dental reasons and it was hard to make up the missed work in science. My 12 year old is exceptionally bright but she does not want to miss school as she hates trying to play catch up. I am not as concerned about the youngest as she is only in 2nd grade and it is easier to supplement what she is being taught but it is still not fair to her. We have fall break so we decided at the last minute to come now. I was able to get the dining reservations I really wanted.

Oh and our school district does have an attendence policy but it seems that some can bypass it. I have seen a mother threatened with court because her daughter missed a week of school to spend it with her father and his family as her father was on R&R from the war.

 

[dqpowell]

Hey! Run went good! I started hurting around mile 9 but I finished (which was my goal).

Back when I was younger and skinnier, I used to run cross-country. Longest run I ever did was 12 miles - and that was a practice! My high school coach was nuts, but unlike most he actually ran with us.

Glad everything worked out for you.

Apologies to everybody else for going off-topic.

David

 

[mousireid]

I guess with differences of opinion on CROWD LEVELS, that it really does depend on which park, which days and how your plan went down.
As for children and school issues - well its really not MY business to tell another parent (unless we are talking abuse) when they can take their vacation - I am sure the have weighed up pros and cons, spoken with the school etc. SO MANY VARIABLES!
Its also true that other countries, other states and other counties have different schedules and may have a long weekend or week break which could also explain 'more' children being in parks than expected. This October 15 our schools have a teacher training day, for example, and thats a long weekend for us at Disney (oh and my birthday ). My nephews in UK just got an 'October Break' which has been on the go since I was a wee lassie - a whole week.
Either way folks, the OP found her park days to be busier and was expecting less crowds and children. That wasn't her personal experience. That's all!
She still have an awesome trip to DISNEY!

 

[gris gris]

I think I will follow you around next year! We were there for the exact same time (well, 9/26 - 10/3) and felt the crowds were so high!! We did go to the Halloween Party on Thursday which for our choice (low crowds) was worth the money! But Saturday at MK..where we spent most of the day, was CRAZY. We assumed Epcot would be busy for F&W so we stayed at MK...ugh. But still, we followed a similar plan the last 2 years without the crowds..but it was the busiest we have ever seen it. So, we'll have to do much better planning next year.

We were there the same time as you, and thought the crowd level in the park was crazy, i.e. we got separated a few times, having to hold hands to make sure we were together, buses were busy at times, had to wait for another one.....but the ride lines were great. I think the longest we waited was 30 minutes, and I am not into waiting in line. We went the first week of December a few years ago and felt like we had the place to ourselves. Spoiled I guess! Now we are going to try first week of November and wonder what it will be like.

 

[padawans]

I think all the halloween stuff along with fall breaks is making disney more crowded in October. We were at Dl last October for 3 days one day it was so packed you couldin't even walk and this was on Friday. I cant imagine what the weekend was like. The cms told me they had about 10,000 more people than a normal friday when schools out.l.Southern california schools don't have fall break.

 

[Mommy2Jameson]

No actually my children are in year round school and are on their 3 week break. School is a priority in our family. Disney is great but we plan our trips around their school schedule not the other way around.

We are also in year round school, and our fall break is Sept 30 - Oct 25th.

But I should add, we're taking our vacation Oct 26-Nov 3rd. It's when I could get vacation from my job at the hospital. I figure it's not gonna hurt him to miss a week of pre-K for a family vacation! Plus I hear that week is slower!