so crowded today!

[jbearsmom]

Yikes, I knew it would be busy on a Saturday, but wall to wall people in the parks today! Tail end of mid winter break? Hoping to gwve at least one day of low crowds before the leap day craziness.Possible?

 

[Disney Dreams]

Yikes, I knew it would be busy on a Saturday, but wall to wall people in the parks today! Tail end of mid winter break? Hoping to gwve at least one day of low crowds before the leap day craziness.Possible?

Hmmm.... interesting. May I ask what time you were there today? I just got off the phone with a friend who was at DL tonight. When I asked him if it was crowded, he said, "No moreso than you would expect on a Saturday night in February." To us that means, busy (because it's a weekend night), but not crazy (because it's February). I am interested to find out if you were in DL at the same time as he was to find out if the crowds were different or just different perception of the same time of day.

- Dreams

 

[Disneyland 1951]

Both Friday and Saturday M&F Parking Structure was full by mid-day.
I was in the Park on Friday, and though busy it was not packed. Wait time on Star Tours was 45 minutes. I would rate it a 6-7 of 10.

With crowds this big in the off season, Spring Break will have several day close or at "Sell Out" where they will stop ticket sales, then admissions.

Prediction: When Cars Land opens and this summer there will be more "Sell Out" days then ever.
The result is that attendence will be higher than ever in 2012 by a wide margin.

The days of slow days are gone.... this year there has not been a day when it was nearly empty like the past.

 

[DizNee Luver]

I've been here since Thursday morning.......wait times for HM & POTC were 30 mins. On Friday, crowds increased & wait times were getting longer.....yesterday afternoon walking from Critter Country to Frontierland was packed sidewalks.....could hardly see space between people. Headed out to Main Street & left until after 9pm. Parks were still jumping, with FP wait time on Space Mtn being close to 25 mins. (Stand-by was 85). I don't think when we were there end of July in 2010, we ever saw crowds this big. Was not something I was expecting for February.....but then again.....I've never gone in February!! (hoping today will be much better!!)

 

[starshine514]

The days of slow days are gone.... this year there has not been a day when it was nearly empty like the past.

Tuesday, January 17th was nearly empty - 15 minute wait at TSMM, ToT and Soarin' were walk-on in the middle of the afternoon. We only used one FP that day (Star Tours, which still had FPs available at 3:30). Walked on to Buzz and BTMRR after 7 PM. It was a really awesome day (and made me wish were staying for the weekdays following it, rather than the 2.5 days of holiday weekend preceding it).

 

[starshine514]

I've been here since Thursday morning.......wait times for HM & POTC were 30 mins. On Friday, crowds increased & wait times were getting longer.....yesterday afternoon walking from Critter Country to Frontierland was packed sidewalks.....could hardly see space between people. Headed out to Main Street & left until after 9pm. Parks were still jumping, with FP wait time on Space Mtn being close to 25 mins. (Stand-by was 85). I don't think when we were there end of July in 2010, we ever saw crowds this big. Was not something I was expecting for February.....but then again.....I've never gone in February!! (hoping today will be much better!!)

I think I may be able to give you a reason for a great deal of the problem: Rodeo. This has been Rodeo weekend in Arizona (at least in Tucson) and all our schools were out Thursday and Friday. It's the perfect amount of time to head to Disneyland during the 'slow' season. One of my FB friends (an ex-coworker) is there now! I don't think you're seeing typical February crowds; I think you're seeing neighboring-state-weird-holiday-weekend crowds. My guess is that crowds would begin to decrease some today and be much more manageable by tomorrow.

 

[DryCreek]

I've been here since Thursday morning.......wait times for HM & POTC were 30 mins. On Friday, crowds increased & wait times were getting longer.....yesterday afternoon walking from Critter Country to Frontierland was packed sidewalks.....could hardly see space between people. Headed out to Main Street & left until after 9pm. Parks were still jumping, with FP wait time on Space Mtn being close to 25 mins. (Stand-by was 85). I don't think when we were there end of July in 2010, we ever saw crowds this big. Was not something I was expecting for February.....but then again.....I've never gone in February!! (hoping today will be much better!!)

Thursday was crowded, and then it got worse from there. At least Monday was pretty clear, the rain, wind and generally nasty weather scared quite a few off.
I have never been at a Disney theme park that was as crowded as those two were last week. The reason I was given is that it was "Ski Week". So, schools in CA get a whole week off to ski? It was shoulder to shoulder everywhere we went.
My wife (who tolerates WDW for me) has stated that she would like to never return to DL again due to the crowds and the poorly managed queues at some attractions. She says that at least at "The World" when one park is crowded, you can always find at least one of the others that isn't.
She DID like that it was only a five minute walk from our hotel room (wayyyyy at the back of the BWPPI) to either gate.

 

[Malcon10t]

We were there Thurs-Sun, and I would have rated Friday a 6, and Sat a 7.

Friday, a friend joined us for dinner at Club 33, and she arrived at 3pm, and parked on the second level of M&Fs. We didn't feel the lines were long, at 4, POTC line was completely confined under the bridge probably under 5 mins, HM line went directly to the steps, no line for the train, Jungle Cruise was walk on.

We did run into a LOT of Dis Divas!!!

 

[nashpreds99]

We were there 2 weeks ago on days that were "supposed" to be pretty light. It ended up being really busy by our standards. All of the big rides has 60min waits unless you fastpassed it all. Its hard for me to take TouringPlans type forecasts accurately.

 

[Minuet888]

yup I posted about my trip there on Saturday about how crowded it was ans the staff wasn't expecting it

 

[bakerudall]

I know several people who planned a one-week trip to end with the leap-day party. There may be a lot more who did that.

 

[Malcon10t]

We were there 2 weeks ago on days that were "supposed" to be pretty light. It ended up being really busy by our standards. All of the big rides has 60min waits unless you fastpassed it all. Its hard for me to take TouringPlans type forecasts accurately.

I think part of the problem is everyone has a different view of what is busy. I consider NYE and Christmas week 10s, and usually summer weekends are about a 9. I considered last Friday and Sat a 6/7. But I know a couple others who said they were 9s. I think because he ratings are so subjective, it is hard to get a true feel for it.

 

[ValenciaJoe]

I have never been at a Disney theme park that was as crowded as those two were last week. The reason I was given is that it was "Ski Week". So, schools in CA get a whole week off to ski?

Ski week? I have lived in Los Angeles for my entire life and never got ski week, or even heard of it. The only thing unique that I had growing up was that we were dismissed at 12 noon if the temperature was supposed to be 90 degrees or higher... and that was because classrooms were not air conditioned "back in my days".

 

[closetmickey]

Yep- lots of kids were out- mine included- for ski week.

 

[jbearsmom]

just got home last night, awesome trip overall! The parks did get less crowded by Sunday afternoon and Monday was a dream, with the rain and wind, as far as getting on rides and not bumping into people constantly. Tuesday the crowds started to build again, but we had done every ride 3-4 times by that evening, so not a big deal.
We didn't go to the park on leap day until about 9 and you could see waves of people coming in, but the CMs didn't seem concerned for the most part. One CM at Big Thunder told us they expected the park to be at 40,000 (he said capacity is 80,000?) that day. We were surprised, had assumed it would max out. Everyone entering the park got a button that said One More Disney Day on it, which was pretty cool. They had t-shirts and a sweatshirt for sale with the leap day stuff, but that was about it, mickey ears hat that had slogan on it, but no biggie. We were surprised by the lack of merchandise available and so bummed about no pins, but we knew that in advance, thanks to these boards