Thats it...Im throwing in the towel when it comes to crowd predictions...

[jlima]

Saturday: We WALKED through from Harbor to DTD to Lego Store and were horrified by the crowds attempting to buy daily tickets to go in! You have GOT to be joking! Glad we left while my husband praised me for reading the boards and learning how to work the system!!

home from a wonderful trip.

We just got back today too! And we saw the lines for tickets yesterday and I was stunned; EVERY ticket booth had its entire queue/stanchions filled with people in line to buy tickets. WOW! What recession?!?

 

[Leofoenget]

You would think the locals would know to either a) buy their tickets at the GROCERY STORE before they left home or b) walk across the street to one of the hotels and buy the tickets from them instead of standing in those hiddious lines!

 

[jlima]

Occupancy at the DLR Hotels (as well as the neighbouring hotels) is down dramtically. It's become so bad, that we now have CM discounts (which are only usually offered after they've gone through AP rates and every other marketing/special rate available) are currently available during Christmas week and right through the New Year.

We stayed at the Hilton Garden Inn on Harbor this trip. $115 rate that included breakfast, free Internet access and no charge for parking. My kids LOVE GCH and PP but adding on parking/Internet/resort fees on top of even a discounted rate just adds up. Maybe next time . . .

 

[LavenderPeach]

You would think the locals would know to either a) buy their tickets at the GROCERY STORE before they left home or b) walk across the street to one of the hotels and buy the tickets from them instead of standing in those hiddious lines!

Yeah, or know to buy it online and print the ticket before they go. Hmm... or maybe they all got APs at costco. You have to go to the ticket booth with the costco ticket in order to get your gift card. And actually, when we were there in November standing in line to get our GCs, there was a man behind us who was asking me what the difference was between the different prices (park hopper vs. single park ticket). Here he was at DLR and had no idea that there were 2 parks or what was in the parks or what kind of tickets to buy. It just surprised me that with the internet so readily available that there are still people who don't research at least a little before venturing out somewhere like DLR. Lucky for that guy he asked someone who could actually answer his questions and give him some good info.

 

[Sherry E]

We stayed at the Hilton Garden Inn on Harbor this trip. $115 rate that included breakfast, free Internet access and no charge for parking. My kids LOVE GCH and PP but adding on parking/Internet/resort fees on top of even a discounted rate just adds up. Maybe next time . . .

Resort fees (which include Internet and parking, newspaper, gym access, etc.) are $13.80 per night of your stay, to be exact! That includes the 15% tax applied to the Resort Fee. It is not too expensive if you just stay one night, but to be slapped with the $13.80 per night if you stay for a few nights or more is ridiculous. Then it really does add up! A lot of guests don't use parking or any of the other services included in the Resort Fee, and yet we are all stuck paying it!

 

[disneegrl4eva]

Resort fees (which include Internet and parking, newspaper, gym access, etc.) are $13.80 per night of your stay, to be exact! That includes the 15% tax applied to the Resort Fee. It is not too expensive if you just stay one night, but to be slapped with the $13.80 per night if you stay for a few nights or more is ridiculous. Then it really does add up! A lot of guests don't use parking or any of the other services included in the Resort Fee, and yet we are all stuck paying it!

tell me about it...I stayed 4 nights at DLH in Oct. and got hit with $55.20 in resort fees...thats alot of money to park my car I didnt use any other features offered from the resort fee

 

[Sherry E]

tell me about it...I stayed 4 nights at DLH in Oct. and got hit with $55.20 in resort fees...thats alot of money to park my car I didnt use any other features offered from the resort fee

That IS a lot of money to park your car. And lots of folks don't even do that. They get dropped off by some other means of transportation, and still have to pay that. I wish DLR would revert to its old method of asking if the guest needs parking, and if so, how many passes, and then charging accordingly. They also used to take a phone deposit which we would get back if we made no toll calls. Anything else like room service would be charged to the room if it was used, of course. But we weren't forced to pay for things that we didn't need/want/use! That does seem unfair!

 

[BurnsideMommy]

We just got back from 5 days in the parks. I was not happy about how crazy busy it was! We usually got mid-late September to avoid the crowds, and love that time. The lines for rides went from awful to ok, but hardly like what we've come to expect in Sept.

CA was dead on Saturday, but the Toy Story was still 30-40 minute wait which stunk cause my kiddos loved that ride. Instead we ended up doing Mullholland Dr about 4 times with a 10 minute or less wait.

The evening parade/snow/fireworks/fantasmic crowds were insane. And the CM's doing crowd control and making everyone walk in a certain way was awful. I was about 10 feet from my family by the Coke place (after peeing by Carnation), they had our spot to watch the fireworks. Due to crowd route - they turned me back and made me go back and ALL the way around past the castle to get to them which took 20 minutes! Then the girl didn't want to let me in the area and said go back through Frontierland?!? I said they are *right* behind that plant about 5 feet behind you I can see my stroller even, so she let me sneak through. Frustrating. Some guy even complained about how 'this is how that guy in Wal Mart died' referencing the herding of the people around the castle.

We ate at Blue Bayou - which was packed as always, and ate several character meals, all of which were completely packed (storytellers at 11am!, ariels, goofys breakfast, goofys dinner). I was shocked considering how CM's said how 'open' the meals are. I didn't see any open tables and there were line ups and people turned away at all places. The GCH seemed super busy each night - but I couldn't tell randoms from hotel guests.

DH was super annoyed at the Whitewater snacks being closed at 7pm when we went to get 'snacks'.

I don't think we'll be doing holiday DL anytime soon again. Oh and the kids (and DH) hated the Tim Burton haunted house. I miss the old Mickey ghosts from there!

Oh - and people seem to be oblivious to the recession in/around the parks. I was seriously shocked and the 'souvenir's flying off the shelves. Every store was packed, lineups at registers. Saturday at 12:30AM (yea AM) there were huge lineups at all the registers in the Emporium. I could not believe how much people were buying.

Not the trip I expected, but we still had fun for the most part, and bought AP's so we can hopefully go again in a more 'dead' time. LOL.

 

[godalejunior]

Just got back today (Sat) and I agree. We arrived on Wed evening, and hit the park about 5ish and went directly to Nemo. I planned on waiting in line for this ride but figured it was easier to "get it out of the way early" instead of doing the stupid "mad dash" in the morning. (nobody in this family dashes anywhere early morning) Wait was about 30 mins, not too bad. Hit the parade and Small World. DS10 had a BAD cough so we left early but thats ok. I was very VERY surprised by the crowds for a Wednesday.

Thursday we went EE and the crowds all day were pretty good. Half what they were the day before.

DCA Friday Crowds?? What Crowds?? Typical DCA (poor DCA)

DL Friday evening pretty heavy crowds but we took the train to NOS about 9pm. Camped out in Critter Country while half the planet was on Main Street and Rivers for Fireworks and Fantasmic. Splash and Pooh were walk ons and "hey ya want to go around again??" Once Fantasmic let out and the planet wondered off to HMH we grabbed our perfect spot up front for Fantasmic #2 and closed down the park with ease.

Saturday: We WALKED through from Harbor to DTD to Lego Store and were horrified by the crowds attempting to buy daily tickets to go in! You have GOT to be joking! Glad we left while my husband praised me for reading the boards and learning how to work the system!!

home from a wonderful trip.

We got there Wed. evening and waited, rode and got off Nemo in 22 minutes. Wed. evening was great, Thursday was great, Fri. morning great and then the masses set in. Sat. morning was good for about two and a half hours, EE included and than got busy. I anticipated this is how it would be but I have never been to the park when it was that crowded. It did not bother DH and I and I am glad DS was not there.

 

[jlima]

Resort fees (which include Internet and parking, newspaper, gym access, etc.) are $13.80 per night of your stay, to be exact! That includes the 15% tax applied to the Resort Fee. It is not too expensive if you just stay one night, but to be slapped with the $13.80 per night if you stay for a few nights or more is ridiculous. Then it really does add up! A lot of guests don't use parking or any of the other services included in the Resort Fee, and yet we are all stuck paying it!

We always valet park when we stay at a Disney hotel . . . I am spoiled now that we live in Vegas . . . but you STILL have to pay the resort fee on top of Valet Parking. And when we stay on weekends, there's no newspaper because they always give you USA Today. @$)@(#$#$!!! It's just a easy way for Disney to make an extra buck or two . . . or three, or four . . . At the HGI our car was literally steps from the front door of the property.

 

[Sherry E]

We always valet park when we stay at a Disney hotel . . . I am spoiled now that we live in Vegas . . . but you STILL have to pay the resort fee on top of Valet Parking. And when we stay on weekends, there's no newspaper because they always give you USA Today. @$)@(#$#$!!! It's just a easy way for Disney to make an extra buck or two . . . or three, or four . . . At the HGI our car was literally steps from the front door of the property.

Yep, we usually don't get the newspaper either because we are there on weekends, and my friend wanted to valet park once last year, so that meant we essentially paid for parking twice because of the Resort Fee. We don't use the Internet access while there or any of the other services. The Resort Fee really should be an optional or as-needed fee, at least at the PPH and DLH. Maybe the GCH - because it supposed to be the upscale, high-end hotel of the three DLR hotels - could get away with charging that fee automatically, but not all three of them!

 

[Disney Dreams]

...but the Toy Story was still 30-40 minute wait which stunk cause my kiddos loved that ride....

That's actually a pretty short wait! I'd take a 30 minute wait at TSM just about any day.

The evening parade/snow/fireworks/fantasmic crowds were insane. ...

I don't think we'll be doing holiday DL anytime soon again. ...

And that's not even close to what NYE is like, for those of you who ask about 12/31 at DL.

Not the trip I expected, but we still had fun for the most part, and bought AP's so we can hopefully go again in a more 'dead' time. LOL.

Glad you had a good time... and LOL, they got you! You left with an AP! Wait until you find yourself dreaming up all kinds of new reasons to take a DLR trip now! There is just something magical about it, huh?

- Dreams

 

[jlima]

And that's not even close to what NYE is like, for those of you who ask about 12/31 at DL.

Yep! Never again! We went on NYE maybe in 1993? We had no plans and about 7 that night we decided to go . . . never again. You could barely walk, it was so crowded; and it seemed like all the restaurants closed at their normal times, even tho there were thousands of extra people in the park.