So are these wait times the new norm for a 5?

[Minniesgal]

Why on earth would Disney want to come up with a solution for success??? The entire goal of any business is to have more demand than supply.

Because too much demand is as bad for a business as too little. Failure to meet customers expectations due to excessive demand leads to a downturn in demand. Basic economics is you don't keep your customers happy your business even if booming is heading for a downturn

 

[epcotty]

It's all definitely higher than I would expect. I still say if they didn't put so much priority to FP then the regular line wait would go down significantly. FP+ is still not being implemented well at all, I don't think

 

[CleKait]

Were those actual wait times or posted wait times? It's a fact that the posted wait times can often be off, by a lot. For that time of day it's not surprising to me. I've never looked at a crowd calendar so I can't answer about what they recommend.

Agreed, posted times and wait times seem to vary a lot these days. So the wait times on the app are not always correct. I've seen HM posted at 40 minutes and I was in and out of the ride in 20 minutes. Dinosaur had a 20 minute posted wait and I walked right on the ride. Mine Train had a 40 minute wait but was only 20 minutes. I could go on but you get the idea. I can tell you the crowds are definitely way lighter than they were a month ago.

 

[Neesy228]

It's all definitely higher than I would expect. I still say if they didn't put so much priority to FP then the regular line wait would go down significantly. FP+ is still not being implemented well at all, I don't think

I agree 100%. I believe the increased wait times aren't necessarily due to increased crowds, but to everyone being strongly encouraged/forced to use FP+. Throw in a tiering system, a limited number of choices per day and it makes it worse. It's all silliness.

 

[MrInfinity]

Those waits are longer then we saw last month in early December. That's just crazy to me!

We were also there over Thanksgiving weekend / early December, and lines were similarly short. OP: Were those the posted wait times or what you actually waited in those lines? We rode the HM many times, never waiting more than 20 at various times of the morning / afternoon.

 

[2Pirates2Princesses]

Some of the standby times are totally off base. Twice last week (Mon and Tues), I got in an "80 min" standby line for RnR and was off the ride in 30 minutes....and none of the touring plans crowd levels were accurate. Mon was supposed to be a 10, I doubt it was a 5. We went to all 4 parks on Tuesday and the only lines of significance we were in were the 30 mins for RnR and 30 mins for 7DMT at 935pm (posted wait was 60 min). Of course, it was pretty chilly Mon-Wed.

I discovered this to be the case on both of our prior Disney trips. I'm not relying on crowd calendars or posted wait times anymore. We are choosing our trip dates based on what works for all our schedules, to avoid major holidays/peak seasons, and for the dates that had the better airline ticket prices. We will choose our park days based on EMH hours and special events.

 

[MermaidMommy]

It's all definitely higher than I would expect. I still say if they didn't put so much priority to FP then the regular line wait would go down significantly. FP+ is still not being implemented well at all, I don't think

Yep. Josh had a recent post where he used Figment to illustrate the effects of FP+ on wait times:

"Do you know how many days Journey into Imagination with Figment saw a 30-or-more minute wait in 2012? 17. Do you know how many days Journey into Imagination with Figment saw a 30-or-more minute wait in 2015? 187. That’s a 1000% increase. Do you know how much attendance is up in those four years? Less than 4%. But keep telling yourself FastPass+ doesn’t affect wait times."

http://www.easywdw.com/easy/blog/disney-world-new-years-eve-2015-wait-times/

 

[Mommy2Corinne]

We were also there over Thanksgiving weekend / early December, and lines were similarly short. OP: Were those the posted wait times or what you actually waited in those lines? We rode the HM many times, never waiting more than 20 at various times of the morning / afternoon.

Those were the posted wait times. The stand-by lines sure looked like they were jam packed, and we heard many people grumbling about how long they were waiting. But no way in heck were we going to get in a line that said 85-100 minutes with a 4 and 6 year old. Nope. Not gonna happen, even if by the off chance it would have gone faster, we would not take that risk. When we saw wait times that were crazy like that, we just skipped them altogether. Luckily, we stayed CL and were given several extra FP+ from an awesome CM, but if we hadn't had them our trip would have been much less enjoyable for us.

I will tell you that we waited for 30+ minutes to take the train in Fantasyland to the front of the park (we finally got on the 4th train that came into the station)...the line was stretched out past the splash pad area. That was around 5:00 pm. We also had a wait to get on People Mover (only about 10 mins, but still!!). So I'm not sure what was going on.

 

[HopperFan]

Here now and the crowds are much bigger than we've experienced this same time frame the last few years. I would not consider it a 5. Disney goal is no slow season and seems they are getting there.

 

[Mommy2Corinne]

Here now and the crowds are much bigger than we've experienced this same time frame the last few years. I would not consider it a 5. Disney goal is no slow season and seems they are getting there.

Ok, glad I'm not the only one who was actually here who was surprised by the crowds. Lots of people (not here) on the thread are trying to convince me that it's not crowded and that the wait times aren't as bad as they seem/are posted. I was beginning to think that maybe I was crazy.

 

[monkyby87]

Here now and the crowds are much bigger than we've experienced this same time frame the last few years. I would not consider it a 5. Disney goal is no slow season and seems they are getting there.

I don't know if it's too really not have a slow season, but it's to encourage people to not go during the busy seasons, which therefore makes for no slow seasons.

 

[HopperFan]

I don't know if it's too really not have a slow season, but it's to encourage people to not go during the busy seasons, which therefore makes for no slow seasons.

Disney doesn't care if people come during busy seasons, that is just more money for them. Hotels full, restaurants full, etc. They charge more for hotels because then they can make more not to discourage, if they begin to charge more for tickets it is because they can make more.

They will never be able to encourage folks to not go during busy season because those folks can usually only travel then (school schedules) so that is not going to change. Their goal is to get more people to come during slow season that may be newbies, or repeats or those with flexible schedules.

 

[monkyby87]

They're both kind of the same thing, just different ways of looking at them. Either way though, Disney is busier then ever, at all times of the year. The "slow" season is still the time to go, it's just not as slow as it used to be.

 

[buccikulju]

For Sunday January 24, Touring Plans predicted a 6 and the actual crowd level was a 9. The wait times you experienced reflect this.

(Epcot: predicted was 6, was a 4, HS predicted 7 was 8, and Animal Kingdom predicted 6, was 10).

However, on Friday January 22, TP predicted MK to be a 5 and it was a 4, Epcot was a 2, HS was a 5 and AK was a 1. Some sample wait times from that day show that, except for the busiest part of the day (say between 11 and 3), you could see standby lines under 20 minutes on many rides at MK. With AK at a 1, everything was practically a walk on.

So, yes, there are days and parks where you can find reasonable wait times.

 

[BigFatPickle]

We recently got back and the wait times sure did seem much higher than our previous visits. I don't know if it's because there are that many more people in the park or if it's because (I've heard) more people are using multiple sets of bands to get additional FP's. If more people are getting 6 or 9 or more FP's each by using multiple sets of bands that could certainly push the standby times up yet provide reports from people saying they hardly ever waited in line.

 

[BuckeyeBama]

Ok, glad I'm not the only one who was actually here who was surprised by the crowds. Lots of people (not here) on the thread are trying to convince me that it's not crowded and that the wait times aren't as bad as they seem/are posted. I was beginning to think that maybe I was crazy.

We were there for the first two weeks of January. Once we got past the NYE crowds, we only saw high crowds at MK. Are you seeing big crowds at AK or Epcot?

 

[BuckeyeBama]

For Sunday January 24, Touring Plans predicted a 6 and the actual crowd level was a 9. The wait times you experienced reflect this.

(Epcot: predicted was 6, was a 4, HS predicted 7 was 8, and Animal Kingdom predicted 6, was 10).

HS was the park to avoid, and MK is the park to avoid every day with the rides closed in Epcot. AK being so crowded is a surprise. Were you in AK yesterday?

 

[TravelingTotMom]

We were in the MK yesterday too, and the afternoon did seem much busier than expected (or than it has been on previous recent trips).

I do think, however, that many people waited a little later in the day to arrive b/c it was so cold that morning. I dragged my poor family to rope drop and had walk-ons the first hour, short waits the second, and fast passes from 11-2.

Around 2 we got into a 45 min. line for Dumbo, which seemed like it was actually going to be 45 min., if not longer. Luckily, after not moving for 20 min., we were able to bribe our toddler to pass on Dumbo for a Mickey ice cream bar.

But yes, yesterday afternoon was surprisingly congested at the MK.

 

[Mac30188]

We were there second week of Jan, and experienced similar wait times. I think there is no longer a slow period.
With multiple rides in HS and Epcot closed, MK has taken the brunt of crowds and it shows in the wait times.
We had FP for the rides we really wanted, so impact was not too bad. I think Disney needs to come up with a solution for this. We were shocked at the wait times even during the extended hour.

The solution is you expand to increase capacity. It is an activity that WDW has committed significant resources to solve. Toy Story capcity expansion, Refurb Soarin, Star Wars Land, Toy Story Land, Avatar, Night time AK, Frozen all will provide top tier attractions to absorb crowds. Unfortunately, this will not happen overnight. I am guessing the absolute worst will be in April after they shut down DHS attractions/BTMRR but before anything new has opened. Once May comes you will see AK eat some evening/afternoon crowds (Rivers of Light and Night time AK will be a novelty) plus Epcot will suffer the Frozen rush. By the end of the year BTMRR will be refurbed along with Soarin (two more top tier attractions that will draw crowds.) With any luck, while the new shiny toys will suffer large crowds, the tier B attractions may see a reduction in wait times. Just a guess.

 

[tlmadden73]

MK will not have another slow day until the rides begin opening back up in other parks.

THIS ..
When you simply do the math .. MK has about as many "attractions" (and I am just counting things you can Fast Pass) as the other 3 parks combined (At least two of them combined). You can spend 2 days here and not cover it all.
People come to WDW for the Magic Kingdom .. the rest are just there for something else to do. And some people may be choosing LegoLand, Universal and Sea World as their "something else" until those other parks get other attractions (which will be soon for Epcot and AK). But that is why we are seeing that major refurbishment to DHS.

Plus . it doesn't seem suprising that this time is busy. This is the time of the year (this and late August and early Sept) that resort prices are at their lowest. (probably off-site hotels as well)
Since park tickets prices are static, going during the Value season is one way to save a lot of money on your vacation.

Unfortunately, it seems after years and years of people discovering that this is the "slow" time has made it not so slow.

I would be quite frustrated if I booked a vacation in the end of January to find wait times like that .. considering I remember how it was when I went this time 5 years ago, but if this is the new reality, so be it.