Well That Didn't take Long!

[Tarheel girl 1975]

Looks like last year, they didn't close MK to day guests until 10am. In 2013, it was 11am.

 

[larryz]

Looks like last year, they didn't close MK to day guests until 10am. In 2013, it was 11am.

Thank the DIS and other boards like it for educating the masses about high crowd times (and how to cope with them).

 

[gdrj]

That's a horrible deal. People with single day Mk tickets don't want to go to the other parks that's why the bought the MK tickets. Ta the very least they should be given 3 fastpasses for the other parks since they can't even use their MK fastpasses I would be beyond mad if this happened to me.

fast passes probably not a bad idea. While anyone wanting to go to MK would be disappointed, the only only person to be "beyond mad" at would be yourself. I say that not to be rude but just that it is one of the busiest days of the year and to expect entry as an absolute would be foolish. Definitely would be disappointed if I had no idea what to expect.

 

[CarrieR]

Yes, the park empties out after midnight both days. We were in the parks on 12/30 from around 6p-3a, and then 12/31 from 6:45a to 9:30a and went back around 7p until a bit after 2a. (We napped in between and slept all day the 31st, basically.)

Morning of the 31st, we hit 7DMT at RD, went to Pan, then hit BTMRR when Frontierland opened before an 8:30 BoG breakfast. We had some hiccups in our touring plan so it wasn't spectacular, but still, three headliners done.

Night of the 31st, we arrived around 7:30? 7:45? and rode BTMRR with a FP. We got stuck via the MSEP and then my friend had a small medical issue so it was 8:55 before we queued for Pirates. It went down just before we got to load and down again just before we got to unload (including an announcement that they were going to "power down and immediately power back up") and it was maybe 9:45 before we abandoned ship. We went to 7DMT to use our FPs then were seated at our dessert party table by about 10:20 or so - early, which surprised us.

We hung out until I'd guess 12:20 or so, used the restroom and then walked onto TTA, Buzz, Small World, Little Mermaid, teacups, met Anna & Elsa (5 minute wait - had been the prior night too) and got into line for 7D at 1:55. We walked through the castle at 2:22 as kiss goodnight was finishing. So seven attractions in under two hours.

Now... when we left after breakfast? The crowd was so thick that we glanced left towards the walkway to the CR and decided it was more feasible to make it to the resort monorail than across the throngs of bus/ferry people awaiting bag check. (And I really hate taking the monorail.)

I have photos, if anyone is interested and I can figure out how to post them.

 

[larryz]

I have photos, if anyone is interested and I can figure out how to post them.

You can upload them to a photo sharing site, like photobucket, and post links to those, or you can display them in a browser and copy/paste, or you can upload them directly from your computer to the DIS site. Look at the "upload a file" button in the reply box.

 

[CarrieR]

Thanks. I'd prefer not to link to my PB (though I guess I could create a new one) but I'll see if I can get a few uploaded to DIS.

 

[CarrieR]

6:45AM crowds

Line for Starbucks by about 9:30AM. It went to the alley by uptown jewelers and hung the corner into the alley. (I opted for Contemporary Grounds.)

Line from busses & ferry, headed to bag check.

Line from monorail, headed toward bag check, backed all the way onto the platform.

Bag check, from the monorail. That first one's the money shot...

Another post to follow with evening photos. (Might be a while as I'm working on this on busses etc so it's sporadic.)

 

[J and R's mom]

Thank for posting those pictures, though!

 

[CarrieR]

It's dark, so it's hard to see - but all of the black bits are peoples' heads.

A couple of gratuitous fireworks castle photos -

Tomorrowland after the fireworks. Photo's timestamp says 12:18am.

And Anna & Elsa. This was taken after the meet but it was like this after 1:30 or so. Can't get a FP? Keep your kids up half the night!

 

[book_junkie]

We just moved to FL, and we got Platinum Passes (I think that's what they are- the ones with no black out dates but no water parks). Reason why is we're having family coming to visit during the blackout dates.

There is no way I'd brave those crowds, and the times on the wait boards were not inflated, according to friends who did brave it. There were times they said where they couldn't move in Fantasyland, right near Peter Pan and Small World.

Disney knows how many tix it sells, how many FP and ADRs it has, and there's no way MK wasn't over capacity last night. They need to start thinking about ways to chill things out, as their sad attempt at phase closures didn't work, it just clogged the roads.

 

[CarrieR]

We've done Christmas Week/NYE four times now and last night was the easiest crowd flow I've ever seen. No concerns about crowds in the 6p-2a time period. Earlier, though, I haven't a clue.

 

[Angel Ariel]

Line from busses & ferry, headed to bag check.

Bag check, from the monorail. That first one's the money shot...

These illustrate why many felt like adding 4 metal detectors outside MK was more theatre than security. Wow. I know it is a choke point, but I don't know that I could deal with that at all.