starting to freak out over our Jan trip

[Madteaparty001]

Can't blame them for that. No business wants slow times.

I don't blame them for it at all, but now that families plan a year out it does come as a bit of a shock when they go at times that have historically been slow only to find it just as crowded as any other time of the year.

 

[jesse8931]

I guess I'm old school I go where I want when I want and don't worry about crowds or wait times.

 

[MainMom]

I was just there is July with crowds of 8-9 and 100 degree temps. 2-3's & 5-6's for our February trip are NOTHING! lol

 

[bpadair32]

I guess I'm old school I go where I want when I want and don't worry about crowds or wait times.

Agreed

 

[GreatLakes]

Disney is doing everything they can to even out the crowds and eliminate any slow season. They are adding events, moving up party dates, and releasing bounce back offers and specials to get people into the parks. With that normalization of crowds people are going to have to rethink crowd calendar numbers. There will be very little difference between a 3 and 6 when it comes to actual people in the parks because the deviation between the busiest and slowest times of the year is getting smaller and smaller.

Unless an economic downturn slows the attendance I see a time when you won't see any real difference between a 2 and 9 on the calendars.

 

[skuttle]

I guess I'm old school I go where I want when I want and don't worry about crowds or wait times.

I was just about to say that I think I'm the only person on the DIS that doesn't even look at crowd calendars or suggested days!

 

[tarak]

easywdw.com is the most reliable crowd calendar.

It's my favorite crowd calendar, hands down. More important for me are the park recommendations he provides. The overall crowd level might be a five, but it's going to more busy at some parks than others and I think Josh does a great job of explaining why you should avoid a particular park on a given day.

 

[JennyDrake]

Expect it to be crowded and plan accordingly. You will be prepared, and if crowds happen to end up low, it will be a pleasant surprise.

There are no LOW times as we used to know (and LOVE!) them. Rope drop is your best friend no matter when you go.

 

[Jadyreen1282]

I was just about to say that I think I'm the only person on the DIS that doesn't even look at crowd calendars or suggested days!

It's a waste of stress I could be having over egg prices worrying about crowd level. If it's really a point of stress then go in September. It's always a slow day. And warmer than January.

 

[boufa]

Crowds is a really relative term, and based on many of the comments from other posts, I would say that many of the people here think that anything longer than a 10 minute wait for everything is a crowded day. There is still a difference between 2s and 9s. The problem is that if you won't wait in a line for 40 minutes on a 2, then you won't wait in line 120 min for the same ride at a 9. So from one perspective, since you didn't ride the ride, then both times were crowded.

A n additional detail that often gets missed in these conversations about horrific crowds, is that we tend to focus on MK. Part of the problem is... think of AK, walls and construction, think of DHS, yep closed rides and soon to be walls and construction. You can only spend so much time at Epcot and MK. So its concentrating the attendance to the 2 main parks, especially MK. Now, I don't necessarily feel that either view of DHS and AK is accurate. There really isn't much closed at DHS, compared to 1.5 years ago (backlot tour and animation academy, one mans dream, and pirate adventure... are you really missing much with them closed?!?!) and AK is fully open, just with walls around discovery island. Maybe not looking its absolute best, but certainly not missing anything.