Utterly terrified of SW:GE crowds during opening months

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Me too. We have a week booked in mid November. I haven’t told the kids because I am going to cancel if it’s open.

Same for us, week of 18th. Sitting on the fence waiting for an official announcement as we usually rent DVC points.
 
Look, you already have an idea of how crowded it will be. It's important to keep that realistic expectation so you don't get too upset when you get to the parks and they are packed. Use Pandora for example. It opened May 27th 2017 and today January 18th 2019, FoP has a 150 min wait as of now and Navi has a 70 minute wait. It's just unavoidable for the newer rides not to have long wait times. Have a strong plan and be prepared to change your plans. Don't stress about it so much, or you won't be able to enjoy your trip at all. Keep your hopes up and make sure your BF knows that it's not always like this. If possible by any means to change what time of year you go, even if it means moving your trip to 2020, I would do it. It's worth it to wait those extra months to get a stress free experience.
 




We planned on going the 18-24 with probably 5 park days. According to almost every crowd calendar it was one of the best weeks to go in 2019 since Thanksgiving was later this year. Disney Dad has it ranked as his #1 week to go. Touring Plans has it as a low crowd just recently and now it shows it being very crowded that week. It has to be because of Star Wars opening either then or just before right?
 
I'm REALLY scared of the SWGE crowds! I've been planning a trip in Dec 2019 (probably very early in the month) with my boyfriend. This will be his first time at Disney and he's not exactly a Disney person - it's taken some time to convince him and I'm so scared he'll be traumatized and never want to go back! I'm afraid it'll be wall to wall bodies all over WDW for the first few months :( What do you guys think?

Even if we skip DHS (honestly, I'd like to avoid having to do that because I'm a Star Wars fan too!) I'm scared the other parks, buses and the resorts will be just so completely full of people.

It'll be my BFs and his sons 1st trip this year too. He is also not a fan of Disney. I booked our stay in September to be sure we beat SWGE opening for the same reasons you mentioned. Packed, wall to wall people would turn him off of Disney forever. Can you reschedule your dates either much earlier or may be hold off until next year?
 
Can you move it earlier in the year? You can always hedge your bets and wait to see when they announce an opening date and try to move your reservation to before then.

I'm actually thinking this might be what we end up doing. Fall is hard for me to take off from work, but maybe I'll try to move up my trip by a few months to before SW:GE opens. I think that'll make a huge difference in the crowds.
 
I'm actually thinking this might be what we end up doing. Fall is hard for me to take off from work, but maybe I'll try to move up my trip by a few months to before SW:GE opens. I think that'll make a huge difference in the crowds.

Disney obviously thinks so with all the discounts they are doing for the summer and early fall.
 
Long time reader, first time poster here . We have been to Disney several times and we were booked to go again in late November . But the more I read , the less comfortable I was with that time frame . We like Star Wars but we’ve firmly decided to go back a year or two after it opens so we can enjoy ourselves and not fight opening crowds. I rebooked our trip and moved it to the last week of October this morning.
I hope that’s will be early enough to go for our trip and be gone before it opens.
 
We planned on going the 18-24 with probably 5 park days. According to almost every crowd calendar it was one of the best weeks to go in 2019 since Thanksgiving was later this year. Disney Dad has it ranked as his #1 week to go. Touring Plans has it as a low crowd just recently and now it shows it being very crowded that week. It has to be because of Star Wars opening either then or just before right?

I noticed that week all of a sudden being more crowded as well on TP. With that said, the week after Thanksgiving is still slated as low. I would imagine if it was because of the opening the rest of the dates would also be adjusted.
 
To those whose only helpful advice is "if you're really terrified it may not be for you", come on...it's a mix of hyperbole and a genuine concern that her BF, who is not a Disney person to begin with, will be put off and not want to return again.

To the OP, I can't really offer much in the way of advice myself, but my family is in the same boat. We have a trip planned for Dec. 20th-Dec. 29th and DW and I will be traveling with, at that time, a 7 month old, which is our first. We are both strongly considering cancelling because of the anticipated crowds. We've actually been the week before Christmas and the week between Christmas and New Year before, so we know the holiday crowds. But we are worrying about trying to navigate with an infant through all of that plus the GE crowds. Our thought is that as new parents we will be tired enough as it is and while lots of people take children that age to Disney, that may not be the time of year to do it for us.

Good luck, I hope you're able to move the trip and have a great time.
 
We’ve been every year the past few years - actually just got back yesterday. When we went to Pandora last year (Feb 2018) it was def crowded and standby for FOP was several hours but I don’t remember them roping off the intersections in front of the ride like they were doing this trip. At first when I saw the ropes up I thought a private group was walking through but I asked the girl and she said it’s just a normal thing they do now to control the crowds through the intersections. I thought that was pretty crazy especially during an off peak time and it made me wonder what will happen at the end of this year with GE opening. I would have liked to go again at the beginning of 2020 but I have two young kids and don’t know if would be a good idea if it turns out to be crazy. I’m hoping to gauge what’s going on with people’s reports on here and decide what would be best.
 
To those whose only helpful advice is "if you're really terrified it may not be for you", come on...it's a mix of hyperbole and a genuine concern that her BF, who is not a Disney person to begin with, will be put off and not want to return again.

Yes, this is exactly what I meant! Thank you for understanding :)
 
This is part of why we were motivated to pull the trigger on a 2019 August trip instead of 2020. Between SW:GE, 90th anniversary celebrations, and other new rides opening I expect higher than normal crowds for a couple of years. We will probably avoid WDW for long trips until 2021 and just hop in for festival weekends here and there

I just realized it’s also DHS 30th Anniversary in 2019.

Not to scare anyone or stir the pot, but SW:GE is just the beginning of a lot of big things that are going to make WDW busy for the next few years. After SW:GE, Magic Kingdom's 50th is 2021 and EPCOT will be 40 in 2022.
 
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