Very Crowded

[n2mm]

Yep, here too. It’s like spring break. We were at HS last night for dinner and walked around afterwards. Most wait times were triple digits. We didn’t ride anything and left. At Epcot on Tuesday and it was also packed. It was after 7pm and never rode anything there either. An hour for Nemo, living with the land and SSR at night was crazy. Triple digits for the big rides. Dinner tonight at via Napoli, so will see how it goes. Lots of pool days for us.

 

[AGP]

Ok- so an update- using genie + at MK today turned out to be better than HS day. (Which was terrible). The times for MK it shows as available keep changing which makes it very hard to plan. You never know if you should grab a later time then 5 min later an earlier one shows up and you have to risk losing your original time to try to get the sooner one and then when it confirms, it can be a totally different time. I liked how FP+ you could see all the times and choose. Originally around 7:30am they showed all late and then later there were earlier times. Was able to get 3 so far today (splash, pirates, and thunder by 2pm). I then will try for haunted mansion after we go to our 2pm. It’s definitely a lot of work to keep refreshing and hoping you get better times popping up. At HS they just got later and later and the were gone so quickly, most by 11am.

 

[Brian Noble]

They are going to have to make some changes to lightning lanes soon right? Getting two rides per day does not seem right at all.

Yes. The most likely change is to increase the price, or at least switch to variable pricing. The latter is what Universal does with their Express add on.

 

[DebbieB]

They are going to have to make some changes to lightning lanes soon right? Getting two rides per day does not seem right at all.

There was a change announced today. Space Mountain, Frozen and Runaway Railroad are “temporarily” no longer Individual LL, they are Genie+. Until 8/7.

 

[DisBuckMan]

We were there 3 weeks ago, and the parks were as crowded as I've ever seen them.

We did Genie+ for our HS days, and it's a complete disaster. I should have just dug a hole and thrown that money in it.

If they're actually using the park reservations system to control crowds (which I'm not sure they are), I can't imagine what crowds would be like if they weren't.

 

[TinkB278]

There was a change announced today. Space Mountain, Frozen and Runaway Railroad are “temporarily” no longer Individual LL, they are Genie+. Until 8/7.

This is amazing news!

 

[MakiraMarlena]

with new attractions coming at MK and Epcot it is not surprising. Crowds are high so it will help to move them now.

 

[corpcomp]

This is amazing news!

Not surprising. Runaway Railroad was frankly lame and the word is getting around. Several people I rode with said bring back the old ride. And Space Mountain was put in ILL? They should only use ILL for new rides that are thrilling IMHO. I can understand Mine Train being ILL.

 

[Brian Noble]

I guess we're outliers, but my daughter and I rode MMRR on opening day, and enjoyed it enough to make a point of coming back the next (last) day of our trip. The world turned upside down about ten days later.

 

[TinkB278]

I also love MMRR. I preferred the movie ride but enjoy MMRR every time I ride it.

 

[Brett Wyman]

Ok- so an update- using genie + at MK today turned out to be better than HS day. (Which was terrible). The times for MK it shows as available keep changing which makes it very hard to plan. You never know if you should grab a later time then 5 min later an earlier one shows up and you have to risk losing your original time to try to get the sooner one and then when it confirms, it can be a totally different time. I liked how FP+ you could see all the times and choose. Originally around 7:30am they showed all late and then later there were earlier times. Was able to get 3 so far today (splash, pirates, and thunder by 2pm). I then will try for haunted mansion after we go to our 2pm. It’s definitely a lot of work to keep refreshing and hoping you get better times popping up. At HS they just got later and later and the were gone so quickly, most by 11am.

Its just the sheer amount of rides at MK makes G+ much more doable there.

 

[MonaMN]

Its just the sheer amount of rides at MK makes G+ much more doable there.

We will be there for spring break - currently not planning to try G+ anywhere besides MK. So many people seem to be stacking at HS for later in the day, but I am thinking we will just want to keep it flexible instead of getting locked into times late in the day.

Hoping it is not a total mess…

 

[New Mouse]

By having ILL they hurt capacity for genie. Other than MK there isn't a single park with enough rides period.

 

[joyjoy]

We were there Feb 7 -16 and it was mostly nuts. Surprisingly Epcot on Sunday evening 2/13 it was so quiet. All the festival food kiosks had no wait, shops were very light crowds. It was really cold so that's all I can attribute that to. Harmonious was awesome. I asked a CM and she agreed it was strangely slow. Other than that, yeah, it was crowded. I attribute it mostly to the lack of staff. Skyliners, buses, boats, etc were not particularly crowded and the parking lots were far from full. Many attractions kept going down due to lack of maintenance people to get things running, I presume. I needed to speak to someone at the Guest Services blue umbrellas a few times and there was ALWAYS a line there.

 

[DVCSunDevil]

We just got back yesterday from a week long stay. The parks and DS were definitely packed, but it was also February break for schools in the Northeast (which is why we were there). Several other families we know went to WDW last week who are not DVC owners, and the general reason they chose WDW was pent up demand and the 50th anniversary. I think the combination of pent up demand, unspent vacation dollars, the 50th anniversary, reduced covid restrictions, and staffing issues has made the parks feel much busier. The biggest of those factors, IMO, is the staffing issues. If staffing gets back to normal levels then I think the parks will be able to efficiently handle the larger number of crowds. Until then, I think the parks will have a much more crowded feel.