When Did May Get So Crowded?

[Micca]

I wonder when the tipping point will occcur when folks will begin to say that WDW is too crowded and stop going?

In the immortal words of Yogi Berra: "Nobody goes there anymore, it's too crowded." Seriously, people won't stop going. Just like they won't stop going to Times Square on New Years Eve, New Orleans at Mardi Gras, any NFL game, any huge stadium concert. Look how kooky busy WDW is between Christmas & New Year's and that doesn't show any signs of slowing down. Some predicted that crowds might be impacted by ticket price hikes but even that hasn't happened (though there was a weird lower-than-predicted period in 2016.)

 

[BalooFan]

I was there from 4/29 to 5/6 and didn't think the crowds were bad. I have gone at this time of the year many times and didn't find it to be any more crowded than usual. I saw a lot of cheer groups, but not enough to make an impact on crowd levels.

 

[VAtink]

We were there May 10-14, and we were shocked at the crowds. We had heard May was one of the less crowded times to visit, but we found our September/October trip to have much lighter crowds. Back in the fall all but the headliner rides were walk on, and even at AK EE was walk on then, we didn't even use FP for that trip at AK and never waited more than 15ish minutes for a ride. This trip the wait times for even the non-headliners were crazy long, and EE was 70+ minutes. We had FP+ so got to do what we wanted, but between our FP times instead of hopping on the less popular rides like we have in the past, we found ourselves wandering around looking for things to do or taking pictures to pass the time.

 

[TexasPete]

40-80 minutes probably is considered low crowds. Not to me, but I'm sure you'll get plenty of responses saying 40-80 wait times are awesome. So glad you had a good trip despite the unexpected crowds!

 

[anniemae]

I think the final Wishes drew in big crowds too. Lots of locals and lots of people planned extra trips.

 

[North of Mouse]

I was there from 4/29 to 5/6 and didn't think the crowds were bad. I have gone at this time of the year many times and didn't find it to be any more crowded than usual. I saw a lot of cheer groups, but not enough to make an impact on crowd levels.

I agree!!! 4/25 - 5/6 for us. Was very pleased with the crowds. Actually, we noticed just a few small groups, and that was it. It really matters when Easter is, and if most all Spring breaks are over.

 

[KrazeeK120]

I think the final Wishes drew in big crowds too. Lots of locals and lots of people planned extra trips.

I was at MK for the last Wishes. It was a madhouse and no one will ever convince me otherwise. I questioned my sanity many times that evening.

 

[anniemae]

I was at MK for the last Wishes. It was a madhouse and no one will ever convince me otherwise. I questioned my sanity many times that evening.

Yes, it was well documented in photos how crowded it was. I think many people made special trips to see it one last time.

 

[SomDayMyPrnceWillCom]

Yeah, we go next weekend arriving on the 27th and I'm expecting high crowds with MD weekend and the opening of Pandora/Avatar. We are staying 9 nights/10 days however, and have all of our must do FP+ and dining scheduled so hopefully the crowds won't affect our trip too bad.

 

[bnhonest]

We were there May 6-13. I didnt park hop, but I found HS, AK and Epcot to all be very manageable. That said, we rope dropped every day and had everything done that we needed done by lunch, after which we left the park. By the time we came back in the afternoon, we weren't in a hurry and typically didn't ride anything unless we had gotten a SDFP for it. But heck, I landed a FP for TSMM at 6:50 for a 7:10 return window.

MK wasn't bad in the mornings. But it was nuts in the evenings due to the last wishes and first happily. I could have done without those crowds.

 

[tlmadden73]

The economy has picked up in the last 10 years. There were just less people going to WDW 10 or even 4 years ago compared to today.

Add in all the discounts and events that Disney pushes, there is no "down" time. Add in the fact that everyone has gotten used to what the "slow" time is and keep wanting to come back (and they tell their friends that "May is a slow time") .. more people are trying to go during the traditional "slow" time.

Basically if you want low crowds? Go to Sea World or LEGOLAND. Heh. We went to LEGOLAND at the end of March this year and were shocked at how FEW people were there (I would guess maybe 1000 people TOTAL in the park all day).

I've gone 3 times since 2014 ... they parks have been busy, but didn't ruin our plans. We just worked around the crowds (Fast Passes, Rope Drop).

The other problem is that there still is mainly ONE park that can handle the crowds - Magic Kingdom. The other ones simply don't have enough attractions to disperse the crowds. Every one of the other parks are "skipped" in favor of a 2nd day at MK .. so MK just has way more people than the others and thus IS more crowded.

With Pandor and eventually DHS lands opening up .. that will draw even MORE crowds over the next 3-4 years, but hopefully disperse them better today and make those parks "full day" parks again.

 

[katriscari]

We thought it was busier than a normal beginning of May too. LOTS of cheerleaders for Summit. I saw them for our entire trip too....not sure if there was more than one competition or not. Rider switch (pretty much double fast passes for our older son) and a long trip (10 nights) helped us enjoy everything/not have the crowds bother us too much. We only spent an average of 4-5 hours a day in the parks...the rest was downtime, swimming, etc. Overall, we enjoyed our time and will be back next end of April/early May too

 

[tlmadden73]

I wonder when the tipping point will occcur when folks will begin to say that WDW is too crowded and stop going? My brother-in-law and his family go to WDW between Christmas and New Years and he says there are days when you only get to ride 2 or 3 rides each day because of the crowds. At what point do you start to say that the money i'm spending isn't worth it anymore? For example, in August 1994, my family and I drove over to Six Flags Atlanta for the day. It was packed. After four hours, we had ridden two rides. At that point we said we have had enough and left. We haven't been back since.

I wonder when that tipping point will come to. But I wonder what percentage of Disney guests are "repeat" guests and what ones are coming for the "first" time and thus have nothing to compare how crowded it is to.

I went on a group trip in March and while I personally had fun at DHS, MK and Epcot .. we didn't do many attractions. All the kids (ages 3-11) had way more fun at LEGOLAND. Why? Because it was dead (maybe 1000 people total there). . They could go on rides over and over and over again with zero line. Coasters, kiddie ride, didn't matter. Next time we go, I know my son (and the other boys) would pick Legoland if we could only go to ONE park. And frankly, it is hard to argue their point.
While they enjoyed Soaring and Test Track, they'll remember the long, boring line they had to wait for one of them compared to a fun-filled day at LEGOLAND where they could ride whatever they wanted. They could ride 3-4 times in the time you'd ride one Disney ride WITH a Fastpass.

So, as much as I don't mind the crowds and can plan around them (since I've done a lot of it) .. the kids would prefer a non-Disney park (even Sea World or Universal) because the lines are simply shorter.

 

[katriscari]

Just back from a 9 day trip ( May 1st to 9th) and I couldn't believe how crowded the parks where the first week in May. Now it's been 4 years since our last trip in May. We always go the first week in may for our anniversary but I don't remember it being this crowded. I know there was a cheer competition going on and boy were they everywhere. The crowd level seemed to be a level 9 and it was at every park.
Most of the rides wait times where pushed into the unmanagable times for us 40-80 minutes for the mosy popular ones. And yes I used fastpass +, booked rides before we left. First time using fastpass + and the jury is still out on it. We had a Fastpass for MT Everest but the line was so long for fastpass return we didn't use them. It was out on to the main path. The line for the Safari ride was almost to the Tusker House.
Now for a few observations. A lot of rides broke down. We where stuck on Splash Mountain, Haunted Mansion and Living off the Land. Priates was down the whole day we where in Magic kingdom. Dinosaur was down in Animal Kingdom. We had fast passes for both and used them on other rides.
My biggest observation is I'm not as young as I use to be I and paid for it. All the walking almost did me in and I always train for Disney by walking a lot.
Don't get me wrong we still had a great time!! After all it is still WDW. A bad a there beats any good day home. We are all ready planning our trip for next year in may. I look at this trip as lessons learned.
I expect to be slammed and attacked for not knowing what I was doing. Before this trip we have logged 10 trips WDW so I'm not a novice.[/QUOTES

Some of the fast pass lines seemed a lot longer than they actually were I think. I saw a lot of clueless people causing the lines to back up when once you got through the first scan there was a less than 10 minute wait......examples---not using both scanners for bands, not even booking fast passes when trying to scan your card, not having fast passes for your entire party, not meeting a height requirement. This issue happened to us multiple times over the course of our trip where we would stand around before trying to enter and then once we got past the first scan the inside wait was nearly empty. /

 

[KT0191]

We were there May 5-13 and yeah, pretty crowded. I didn't think it was too bad but not really what I was expecting.

 

[KT0191]

I was at MK for the last Wishes. It was a madhouse and no one will ever convince me otherwise. I questioned my sanity many times that evening.

We were there too and OMG! I knew it was going to be bad but you can't really prepare for it being that bad haha. We starting camping out for a spot at 6p and I'm glad we did. It was so insane.

 

[daannzzz]

We were there April 29 - May 13th. I have been 6 times previously in the first of May and it varies from trip to trip but it has never been horrible. This felt slightly more busy than previous May trips but nothing major. This was our first trip with My Magic and Magic Bands and Fastpass Plus. That did cause some of the attractions that previously had low waits to be somewhat more crowded but like others, we do rope drop until the afternoon and we got loads of stuff done, particularly on Magic Morning days. It was hot though and It was harder to go back to the parks in the late afternoon than before so we ended up staying in and relaxing some. I didn't see one cheerleader.

 

[KrazeeK120]

We were there too and OMG! I knew it was going to be bad but you can't really prepare for it being that bad haha. We starting camping out for a spot at 6p and I'm glad we did. It was so insane.

That's what time I got there as well! I was on top of the train station. It was a great spot!

 

[Kodachrome_Dreams]

We were there May 10-13 and it was MUCH more crowded than I had anticipated based on the crowd level predictions by Touring Plans. We ended up watching the last Wishes from the balcony outside Narcoossees, which ended up being a great experience. And from what we heard the park was *insane* that night. We skipped the first night of Happily Ever After in favour of Epcot, thinking it would be less crowded...but it wasn't!

 

[Krisshay13]

We were there May 10-13 and it was MUCH more crowded than I had anticipated based on the crowd level predictions by Touring Plans. We ended up watching the last Wishes from the balcony outside Narcoossees, which ended up being a great experience. And from what we heard the park was *insane* that night. We skipped the first night of Happily Ever After in favour of Epcot, thinking it would be less crowded...but it wasn't!

We were right there with you...LOL May 10-14...We were on the dock next to Narcoossees for the final Wishes.... It was really nice. We skipped the 1st night of HEA & went to Animal Kingdom and it was so crowded & HOT.