Thanksgiving Crowd Levels

[Laketravis]

Here is a picture taken at 2pm Thanksgiving day. Does that look like a crowd to you? Certainly not what I expected to see when wait times correlated to very high crowd levels. (I'm trying to embed the link to a picture I uploaded to photobucket but I don't think it's working)

Here's the URL if somebody can make it work:

http://s1375.photobucket.com/user/LakeTravis99/media/imagejpg1_zpsd3be4b06.jpg.html

 

[larryz]

Just click on the box showing the code and paste that into your post.

[URL=http://s1375.photobucket.com/user/LakeTravis99/media/imagejpg1_zpsd3be4b06.jpg.html][IMG]http://i1375.photobucket.com/albums/ag470/LakeTravis99/imagejpg1_zpsd3be4b06.jpg[/URL]

 

[SeilerBird]

I was at the Magic Kingdom yesterday and it was insanity. It took me an hour to get from the 7DMT to my car. The most crowded I have ever seen the park.

 

[wisblue]

I was at the Magic Kingdom yesterday and it was insanity. It took me an hour to get from the 7DMT to my car. The most crowded I have ever seen the park.

Touring Plans said today that the crowd at MK yesterday was a level 10, in other words one of the biggest crowds of the year.

Apparently most people arrived before 2 PM.

 

[Dan Murphy]

Place looks empty. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Laketravis]

Place looks empty. Thanks for sharing. http://s1375.photobucket.com/user/LakeTravis99/media/imagejpg1_zpsd3be4b06.jpg.html

Thanks for fixing my link.

We were at MK yesterday morning until 2pm and it did not seem crowded at all to us and this is the 5th Thanksgiving in a row for us. That's why I took the picture from the monorail as we were leaving. I could not believe how long the wait times were when it didn't seem like the crowds were as big as years past. And that is pretty much how it looked when we entered MK at 10:30am, so no - it's not like everyone stopped going in the early afternoon.

We went to DD after that (not crowded), then Epcot until close (did not seem as crowded either. Walkways at WS had plenty of room and we walked right up to the rail at a good viewing spot in Mexico just 15 minutes before Illuminations.

I know 'crowded' can be completely subjective so I'll let the picture speak for itself.

 

[OnSpaceshipEarth]

Thanks for fixing my link.

We were at MK yesterday morning until 2pm and it did not seem crowded at all to us and this is the 5th Thanksgiving in a row for us. That's why I took the picture from the monorail as we were leaving. I could not believe how long the wait times were when it didn't seem like the crowds were as big as years past. And that is pretty much how it looked when we entered MK at 10:30am, so no - it's not like everyone stopped going in the early afternoon.

We went to DD after that (not crowded), then Epcot until close (did not seem as crowded either. Walkways at WS had plenty of room and we walked right up to the rail at a good viewing spot in Mexico just 15 minutes before Illuminations.

I know 'crowded' can be completely subjective so I'll let the picture speak for itself.

Thanks for telling us about Epcot. That was my first thought when reading your OP and viewing the MK entrance picture..."Geez...the other three parks must have been ghost towns!".

 

[OnSpaceshipEarth]

I was at the Magic Kingdom yesterday and it was insanity. It took me an hour to get from the 7DMT to my car. The most crowded I have ever seen the park.

SeilerBird...what time of day was it?

 

[disney world dreamer]

i've gone to the parks nearly every thanksgiving of my life and its never been very crowded at all.
yet when i tell people that they think i'm crazy and just want to listen to their beloved crowd calendars that tell them its going to be an 8-9 instead of someone that has experienced the parks on thanksgiving personally.

 

[OnSpaceshipEarth]

i've gone to the parks nearly every thanksgiving of my life and its never been very crowded at all.
yet when i tell people that they think i'm crazy and just want to listen to their beloved crowd calendars that tell them its going to be an 8-9 instead of someone that has experienced the parks on thanksgiving personally.

disney world dreamer...are the non-MK parks practically empty every Thanksgiving?

 

[FlipHipster]

Been waiting for you to post, thanks for the update. I certainly wasn't expecting to see that when I clicked the link. < 30 hrs

 

[SeilerBird]

SeilerBird...what time of day was it?

I got to the park around 3pm and left at 11pm.

 

[LBIJim]

The outside of MK doesn't necessarily correlate to the conditions inside the park.

You apparently were in the right places at the right times, while others weren't as fortunate.

 

[OnSpaceshipEarth]

I got to the park around 3pm and left at 11pm.

It looks like the OP caught the light crowds early in the day and all the locals came later in the day perhaps after their Thanksgiving meal. Allreports make it sound like the non-MK parks were empty no matter what time of day it was.

 

[Aurora0427]

The outside of MK doesn't necessarily correlate to the conditions inside the park.

You apparently were in the right places at the right times, while others weren't as fortunate.

That's what I was thinking. Maybe the outside is empty because everyone is inside.

 

[wisblue]

i've gone to the parks nearly every thanksgiving of my life and its never been very crowded at all.
yet when i tell people that they think i'm crazy and just want to listen to their beloved crowd calendars that tell them its going to be an 8-9 instead of someone that has experienced the parks on thanksgiving personally.

I'd be curious to know what you consider "not crowded at all". Are you just referring to crowds in the walkways (the "feels crowded" observation) or are you referring to wait times at attractions?

And what are you comparing too? Are you saying that Thanksgiving Day is not crowded compared to the busiest holidays, like Christmas week? Or compared to other days immediately around the Thanksgiving holiday? Or other times of the year?

On any given day, this board will have posts from guests saying the parks are insanely crowded and others saying that the crowds are very manageable. It's all a matter of perspective.

 

[wisblue]

It looks like the OP caught the light crowds early in the day and all the locals came later in the day perhaps after their Thanksgiving meal. Allreports make it sound like the non-MK parks were empty no matter what time of day it was.

Not this report, unless you are only concerned about crowds in the common areas and not wait times for attractions:

http://blogmickey.com/2014/11/disney-thanksgiving-crowds/

The OP said he arrived at MK at 10:30 AM and left at 2 PM. He clearly missed the low wait times for attractions that occurred in the first few hours after park opening (as reflected in the report in the link.)

 

[OnSpaceshipEarth]

Not this report, unless you are only concerned about crowds in the common areas and not wait times for attractions:

http://blogmickey.com/2014/11/disney-thanksgiving-crowds/

The OP said he arrived at MK at 10:30 AM and left at 2 PM. He clearly missed the low wait times for attractions that occurred in the first few hours after park opening (as reflected in the report in the link.)

wisblue...yeah I was referring to crowds in the common areas and walkways. With the small attendance at the three non-MK parks they tend to run and staff them at half-levels creating longer waits.

People will look at the wait times at Epcot/DHS/Animal Kingdom and think they were almost as crowded as the Magic Kingdom when in all actuality they were pretty empty.

 

[wisblue]

wisblue...yeah I was referring to crowds in the common areas and walkways. With the small attendance at the three non-MK parks they tend to run and staff them at half-levels creating longer waits.

People will look at the wait times at Epcot/DHS/Animal Kingdom and think they were almost as crowded as the Magic Kingdom when in all actuality they were pretty empty.

Thanks. I think it's important to make that distinction. Some people hear that a park was empty and they think that means that all of the rides are going to be walk-ons.

 

[disney world dreamer]

I'd be curious to know what you consider "not crowded at all". Are you just referring to crowds in the walkways (the "feels crowded" observation) or are you referring to wait times at attractions?

And what are you comparing too? Are you saying that Thanksgiving Day is not crowded compared to the busiest holidays, like Christmas week? Or compared to other days immediately around the Thanksgiving holiday? Or other times of the year?

On any given day, this board will have posts from guests saying the parks are insanely crowded and others saying that the crowds are very manageable. It's all a matter of perspective.

i'm referring to both the amount of people walking around the parks and the wait times.
the wait times on thanksgiving in 2012 at MK were 30-45 minutes for the mountains.
i don't consider that to be very long.

i've been to disney world in early june, mid july, late august, mid september, mid/late november, first half of december, and the week from xmas to new years.

i'd compare thanksgiving day at MK to somewhere in the middle of late august and mid september.