HydroGuy
A Pirate's Life For Me
- Joined
- Jun 5, 2005
- Messages
- 18,415
I posted some thoughts on crowds a few days ago here and the same held true all week:
Late July Crowd Update - This Week
One thing I noticed was that DCA crowds are really different right now. With World of Color, the late 11PM closing, the closure of ToT FPs (now re-opened), the GRR FP machines being used for WOC, and the Toy Story 3 movie, everything is shifting.
Toy Story Midway Mania seems more crowded. Pretty much 45 minute lines all day. We went to check it out at 10PM one night hoping for short lines during WOC and the line was 35 minutes long. So we passed. I only got to ride TSMM once on Saturday morning before we checked out. I did the early DCA arrival thing and got to the rope by ITTBAB at 9:45 and was one person back from the rope. I was going to power walk and get there first but they allowed the GRR side open first and by the time we got there the TSMM the line was 15 minutes long. I thought about trying to go to the GRR side beforehand but was concerned about the WOC FP thing causing the backup there being too big. In hindsight that would have been better as they let that line go to TSMM before our line.
It is hard to say what the best thing to do is. I showed up at the rope at 9:45AM and did not get on TSMM until 10:20. So 35 minutes. It would have been better I think just to do the 45 minute wait one day mid-day.
They said the TSMM Single Rider line was discontinued because more often than not the wait in the SR line was longer than the standby line. We did TSMM SR in May 2009 and it took 20 minutes - the standby was posted as 40 that day. FWIW.
On the oher hand, GRR was a walk-on at 9:30 - partly because of cool temperatures and partly because they broke down several times during the afternoon. ToT was 45 minutes standby at 9PM just before GRR was walk-on. Kind of crazy.
Never saw Screamin over 30 minutes. We rode it with a 15 minute wait Friday afternoon at 5PM. TSMM was posted as 45 when I checked at 5PM so we skipped.
Glow Fest is also keeping people busy and around the HBP area. So people are staying at DCA in droves. But people are staying at DL in droves too because of fireworks and Fantasmic. It was pretty heavy at night.
Maybe that is what is happening now. In the past more people tended to leave the parks earlier at night and come first thing the next morning. But the Magic Mornings and all early mornings were light on crowds every day. So I think maybe folks are staying up late and sleeping in making the early mornings and most of the daytime hours at DL and DCA even better than normal.
On our first MM we showed up at security at 6:30AM and were second there and first at our gate.
On our second MM we showed up at about 6:45AM and were fifth in line at our gate.
Yesterday on Saturday morning I went in to DL for my third MM at 7:50AM (missed the MM to sleep some more) and went staight to FL (I was not trying to do a lot of rides yesterday - it was day 5 and I was repeating a few favorites kind of on a whim before we checked out at lunch). PP looked pretty short and so I hopped in line - it was 10 minutes long at 7:55AM. Did Mr Toad at 8AM and it was a walk-on. Remember this is all after a Magic Morning on a Saturday in mid-summer. On previous MMs I never saw Fantasyland this light.
After MM I went to peek at Nemo Subs and there was almost no line. It was 8:10AM and I almost walked right on. Just missed getting on the next cycle and had to wait for about 5 minutes to get on the next sub. Remember Nemo was open for MM but there was no line 70 minutes later! After I got off Nemo at maybe 8:40AM there was more of a line but it was 10 minutes max. Maybe only a one cycle wait so could have been 5 minutes actually.
Not sure if it was an abberation on crowds but it was like that all week. Mornings seemed very light. Evenings were more crowded - not terribly crowded compared to my previous summer evenings - but more crowded than mornings and even day hours.
On Friday DS18 and his GF went on JC at 2PM with a 5 minute wait.
Late July Crowd Update - This Week
One thing I noticed was that DCA crowds are really different right now. With World of Color, the late 11PM closing, the closure of ToT FPs (now re-opened), the GRR FP machines being used for WOC, and the Toy Story 3 movie, everything is shifting.
Toy Story Midway Mania seems more crowded. Pretty much 45 minute lines all day. We went to check it out at 10PM one night hoping for short lines during WOC and the line was 35 minutes long. So we passed. I only got to ride TSMM once on Saturday morning before we checked out. I did the early DCA arrival thing and got to the rope by ITTBAB at 9:45 and was one person back from the rope. I was going to power walk and get there first but they allowed the GRR side open first and by the time we got there the TSMM the line was 15 minutes long. I thought about trying to go to the GRR side beforehand but was concerned about the WOC FP thing causing the backup there being too big. In hindsight that would have been better as they let that line go to TSMM before our line.
It is hard to say what the best thing to do is. I showed up at the rope at 9:45AM and did not get on TSMM until 10:20. So 35 minutes. It would have been better I think just to do the 45 minute wait one day mid-day.
They said the TSMM Single Rider line was discontinued because more often than not the wait in the SR line was longer than the standby line. We did TSMM SR in May 2009 and it took 20 minutes - the standby was posted as 40 that day. FWIW.
On the oher hand, GRR was a walk-on at 9:30 - partly because of cool temperatures and partly because they broke down several times during the afternoon. ToT was 45 minutes standby at 9PM just before GRR was walk-on. Kind of crazy.
Never saw Screamin over 30 minutes. We rode it with a 15 minute wait Friday afternoon at 5PM. TSMM was posted as 45 when I checked at 5PM so we skipped.
Glow Fest is also keeping people busy and around the HBP area. So people are staying at DCA in droves. But people are staying at DL in droves too because of fireworks and Fantasmic. It was pretty heavy at night.
Maybe that is what is happening now. In the past more people tended to leave the parks earlier at night and come first thing the next morning. But the Magic Mornings and all early mornings were light on crowds every day. So I think maybe folks are staying up late and sleeping in making the early mornings and most of the daytime hours at DL and DCA even better than normal.
On our first MM we showed up at security at 6:30AM and were second there and first at our gate.
On our second MM we showed up at about 6:45AM and were fifth in line at our gate.
Yesterday on Saturday morning I went in to DL for my third MM at 7:50AM (missed the MM to sleep some more) and went staight to FL (I was not trying to do a lot of rides yesterday - it was day 5 and I was repeating a few favorites kind of on a whim before we checked out at lunch). PP looked pretty short and so I hopped in line - it was 10 minutes long at 7:55AM. Did Mr Toad at 8AM and it was a walk-on. Remember this is all after a Magic Morning on a Saturday in mid-summer. On previous MMs I never saw Fantasyland this light.
After MM I went to peek at Nemo Subs and there was almost no line. It was 8:10AM and I almost walked right on. Just missed getting on the next cycle and had to wait for about 5 minutes to get on the next sub. Remember Nemo was open for MM but there was no line 70 minutes later! After I got off Nemo at maybe 8:40AM there was more of a line but it was 10 minutes max. Maybe only a one cycle wait so could have been 5 minutes actually.
Not sure if it was an abberation on crowds but it was like that all week. Mornings seemed very light. Evenings were more crowded - not terribly crowded compared to my previous summer evenings - but more crowded than mornings and even day hours.
On Friday DS18 and his GF went on JC at 2PM with a 5 minute wait.
So I went to the rope by A Bug's land but it turns out that the GRR rope gets there before...
