The first hour is no longer golden

[g-dad66]

Remember when there used to be really slow low-crowd times to visit WDW? September, mid-November, early December all come to mind. But with carefully targeted Free Dining specials, WDW has successfully "evened out" the crowds more.

Remember when the first hour a park was open how really slow low-crowd it was? The biggest change we found in our recent mid-November no-more-legacy-Fast-Pass trip was that this is also becoming a thing of the past. Crowds are still at their lowest during the first hour, BUT it's no longer golden as it once was.

I have never seen the crowd levels waiting for the buses at 8:15 am at Pop century to be of the size they were during the week of November 10-14. On Thursday, November 13, we got to the bus stop at 8:15, and there were so many in line that we had to wait for the third bus in order to get on.

This put us through bag check right at 9:00 and by the time we got to Test Track, it was 9:15. The posted wait time was 30 minutes, which turned out to be entirely accurate. We had a 9:05-10:05 Soarin FP+, and we had to hustle, hustle to get there in time to enter the FP+ line at 10:07 (fortunately, the late grace period is apparently still in effect).

So FP+ is doing its job not only of "leveling out" lanes at the attractions, but also "leveling out" lines during the day.

We will be seriously considering taking advantage of early morning EHM on our next trip (though with teenagers, this is always tough!).

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

We always strive to get to the gate at least 30 minutes prior to open mostly due to security lines slowing everything down.

We will see now our trip is different this time. But we always felt showing up on time was late in terms of being early for several years now.

 

[kelpricer]

We were at POP from Nov. 8-16 and I have NEVER seen the lines for busses that we did that week. We tried to alter the time we got there to make rope drop and every time the people in the lines were crazy!!!!!

 

[RedSox68]

We were at POP from Nov. 8-16 and I have NEVER seen the lines for busses that we did that week. We tried to alter the time we got there to make rope drop and every time the people in the lines were crazy!!!!!

I think a lot of this has to do with the teacher conferences in New Jersey and the schools closing. It has become a well known "tradition" that families take those days and a couple in to the next week because their kids miss less school. This year it was November 6th and 7th. So I could see people staying through the 10th -- making lines nuts! We stopped going those days because it is so crowded now.

 

[disney world dreamer]

i do agree that rope drop has become more crowded in recent trips.

this is why we always try to hit the morning EMH at each park if it works out that way cuz its much much much less crowded and we can get a number of attractions done in that hour.

 

[ktlm]

Some of it may be Jersey week, although I do believe that some of it is FP+. We were those people that pre-FP+ usually arrived at the park some time between 9:15 and 9:30. We wanted to be there close to rope drop, and 15 minutes later gave us no trouble for getting FP for TSM or Soarin, and kept us out of the morning dash and FP machine lines. Now, because we are limited to 3 FP+ with no repeats, and pretty much no chance of getting any FP for the headliners once we get to try for a 4th at a kiosk, we find it important to get there before rope drop to try to get to the rides we did not FP+ before the lines get long. Plus, we have also found that even rides that we used to walk on, or wait 5 minutes for like SW, POTC and Figment- now have 20 to 30 minute lines a goo part of the day, so the earlier we get there, the best chance we have to get more done as it just is not like it used to be. As such, we are now out at the bus stop early enough to get there before rope drop. I have to believe we aren't the only ones.

 

[kerplop]

Part of the problem might have been you getting there right when the park opened, since I know they start to let people in a tad bit earlier than stated opening and you were at the back of the pack. I think last time we went, I got into AK at 8:45 for a 9am opening and DHS I was AT TSMM by 9, when it opened since they'd let us trickle in earlier.

 

[fbb]

It's at least gilded. Still the best option.

 

[nkereina]

100% agree. We were at CBR 11/14-11/19 and experienced very crowded bus depots. Buses also seemed less frequent.

Due to FP+, we saw wait times relatively high for rides that used to be walk-on this time of year. I'm talking a consisent 25 minute wait for Spaceship Earth, 20 minutes for Figment, 35+ minutes for Pooh, 25+ minutes for Small World, 30+ minutes for Great Movie Ride. The list goes on.

 

[magicbob]

We've been speculating for quite some time whether human nature and the desire to sleep late on vacation would over-ride the "urgency" of arriving early to use those early (likely quick-picked) FP+ reservations. It might be attributable to other factors, but this could be an indication that having early FP+ reservations has motivated more people to arrive early.

I've admittedly been a vocal critic of FP+ so don't take this as "slamming" FP+, but I do think that from WDW's perspective, it's a success if it gets people more people to show up and start filling those queues earlier (even though WE perceive that as a negative impact on our experience). The goal has always been #1: make more money and #2: re-distribute crowds away from the most popular attractions to "even out" the lines. That desired re-distribution is almost certainly not just from ride to ride, but also ensuring there are not "dead" times during the day or throughout the year.

Disney's ultimate success with shaping guest's behavior will further limit our ability to zig when they zag, because apparently the system will create a steady stream of people both zigging and zagging!

 

[stinkpickle]

100% agree. We were at CBR 11/14-11/19 and experienced very crowded bus depots. Buses also seemed less frequent.

Due to FP+, we saw wait times relatively high for rides that used to be walk-on this time of year. I'm talking a consisent 25 minute wait for Spaceship Earth, 20 minutes for Figment, 35+ minutes for Pooh, 25+ minutes for Small World, 30+ minutes for Great Movie Ride. The list goes on.

Agreed. The first hour is still good for the headliners (compared to the rest of the day), but the attractions new to FP fill up faster, especially Spaceship Earth.

 

[JaimeK]

There's still a huge difference between 9am and 2pm at the parks. Our last day was a VERY busy saturday at MK. We arrived at 9:10 or so and did POTC, Jingle cruise, BTMRR and Splash with little or no waits and had some FP for the afternoon. Later that same day it was difficult to even walk around and waits for everything were crazy (80 min for Jingle cruise!)

 

[magicbob]

Agreed. The first hour is still good for the headliners (compared to the rest of the day), but the attractions new to FP fill up faster, especially Spaceship Earth.

Spaceship Earth has always been a bit of an anamoly. Because of it's location and being the "icon" of EPCOT, many people have always seemed to head there first, creating a long wait early in the day. But then it would subside later.

It seems to have a more consistently longer wait throughout the day now (which is, again, the goal I believe). It's better from the management's perspective to have people in a 20-minute or so line for this throughout the day because that means a) the ride is running at capacity at all times and b) those people are not in a 60-minute or longer line for Soarin' or Test Track. So even though they are in line for SE longer than in the past, there's still an extra 40 minutes available to them to shop.

 

[jtowntoflorida]

I'm not sure I agree with the OP. We were at Disney the last week of August (left the Sunday of Labor Day weekend) and the parks seemed dead to me. We did TSM standby with 20 minute waits two days in a row at 5 in the afternoon. We also found RD to be extremely beneficial at the MK.

I think the problem is that in "low crowd" times people expect to see empty areas of the park, which generally doesn't happen. If you focus on actual wait times (and not the inflated wait times that Disney posts) you definitely see times when it's less busy, and when waits are generally tolerable. For me, if a wait is under 15 minutes, that's practically a walk-on and totally tolerable in my mind. I agree that the days of walking on to everything any time of year are gone, but I think the traditional non-busy times are still not busy.

 

[robinb]

I think rope drop isn't as good as it once was is because of FP+. Legacy FPs wouldn't start until 40 minutes into the regular day so that meant that the stand-by line was the only line. Now FP+ starts when the park opens which means that the stand-by line gets throttled down right away.

 

[DisneyKidds]

Using Epcot, or DHS for that matter, as a means of judging the effectiveness of rope drop can be a bit misleading. Frankly, rope drop in these two parks was never all that useful for getting a lot done. You could really only count on doing one of the headliners with a low wait, and only of you were pretty much at the rope for opening. Sounds like your transportation issues set you back some. Even under legacy FP I think Soarin' and Test Track had a 20+ minute wait by 9:15, no? Agreed, with FP+ guests filtering in first thing in the morning rides like TSMM/Soarin'/Test Track only work for rope drop if you are at the front of the controlled stampede, and it didn't used to be that way. With legacy FP you didn't have FP returns until close to 10:00, which kept standby lines moving quicker during the first hour.

AK and MK, where rope drop has always been most effective, are still very good parks first thing in the am.

 

[Hopefully]

I'm not sure I agree with the OP. We were at Disney the last week of August (left the Sunday of Labor Day weekend) and the parks seemed dead to me. We did TSM standby with 20 minute waits two days in a row at 5 in the afternoon. We also found RD to be extremely beneficial at the MK.

I think the problem is that in "low crowd" times people expect to see empty areas of the park, which generally doesn't happen. If you focus on actual wait times (and not the inflated wait times that Disney posts) you definitely see times when it's less busy, and when waits are generally tolerable. For me, if a wait is under 15 minutes, that's practically a walk-on and totally tolerable in my mind. I agree that the days of walking on to everything any time of year are gone, but I think the traditional non-busy times are still not busy.

I agree with this. We were there the last week of October. While it was not "slow", early morning lines were very manageable. At MK we were able to do Space Mountain and Buzz twice each before 10. I had my first FP+ for 11 - 12 and that was for Splash. We got lots done before the 11 AM FP+
It was great

 

[nkereina]

We actually found it better to use our FP+ on the non-headliner attractions that were getting longer than usual waits. We ended up switching our third FP at Epcot to Figment. Hard for us to justify waiting 25 minues for Figment, but we were ok with waiting 25+ minutes for a ride like Test Track. Same went for MK - we didn't mind waiting 30 minutes for Big Thunder, but no way I was doing that for Pooh, so we used FP+ on Pooh. Might seem like a wasted FP to some, but this strategy ended up working well for us, and these less popular rides also had same day availability.

 

[butterfly71076]

i do agree that rope drop has become more crowded in recent trips.

this is why we always try to hit the morning EMH at each park if it works out that way cuz its much much much less crowded and we can get a number of attractions done in that hour.

I agree, we utilize morning EMH and by the time the ride lines are picking up, we are ready for a little break. Last trip, we rode EE 5 times in a row without a line during morning EMH, it was awesome!

 

[dkrauss]

I agree with this. We were there the last week of October. While it was not "slow", early morning lines were very manageable. At MK we were able to do Space Mountain and Buzz twice each before 10. I had my first FP+ for 11 - 12 and that was for Splash. We got lots done before the 11 AM FP+
It was great

Good points here........we visited in mid-September and found the lines at Rope Drop at the MK to be quite reasonable. In fact lines on most rides (with the exception of 7DMT) were pretty good until around 11am......and then the lines we found to be rough were Peter Pan's Flight and Winnie the Pooh..........

Because of our location at WL and several very early ADR's buses were not our primary method of morning transport........luckily. We used the boat and cabs......but that isn't always an option for bigger families.

From a business perspective Disney wants bigger crowds at slower times......because that means money to them. That's why FREE Dining works because it entices folks to WDW..........and FP+ has enticed folks to get to the parks earlier so they can get on 7DMT before the crowds. Its business..........and until there's an adverse impact to the company's bottom line its going to stay that way.

Doug