Why Are Parks So Crowed Today? (May 1st)

[whatfun]

Why are the parks so crowed today?
I thought early May was supposed to be lower crowd levels?

Is there something going on the first week of May?

 

[Pyxie]

There are really no low crowd times anymore.

 

[Smugpugmug]

Everyone online (forums, FB, vlogs, etc.) kept recommending early May to go for lower crowds so now all of those people are coming all at once? Just speculating.

There are also cheer competitions happening right now.

 

[Her Dotness]

And, the first two weeks of May are now among the cheapest pointswise for DVC owners.

That may be having an impact to some extent. It's why we switched our usual going home time from mid-November to May this year.

 

[nw6675]

Not sure how much May the 4th be with you affects that week's travel. Maybe only Hollywood Studios, but not sure.

 

[whatfun]

I was expecting Hollywood Studios to be crowded on May 4th due to Star Wars day.
However all the parks are crowded.
Wait times are really up from what I expected for early May.

I guess all the Vlogs telling people early May was least crowded, packed the parks?

How much do the cheer groups really affect the parks?

Thanks for your replies!

 

[supersnoop]

Define "crowded: " lots of people shoulder to shoulder, or long wait times? Disney is smart enough to adjust staffing and ride capacity to match the crowd size, so you can expect consistent wait times whether the park is full or empty.

 

[juxtapose]

I've been watching crowd levels for several weeks as we want to go next year sometime around now, and Monday's have been the busiest day of the week so the rest of the week might be better. We went beginning of May a few years ago and it was busier than predicted then too.

 

[Jarmo]

I've been watching crowd levels for several weeks as we want to go next year sometime around now, and Monday's have been the busiest day of the week so the rest of the week might be better. We went beginning of May a few years ago and it was busier than predicted then too.

I was there Tuesday-Friday last week and crowd levels felt pretty low to me!

 

[Flamingeaux]

Define "crowded: " lots of people shoulder to shoulder, or long wait times? Disney is smart enough to adjust staffing and ride capacity to match the crowd size, so you can expect consistent wait times whether the park is full or empty.

Sad to say but this is spot on.

 

[Betsyp]

Hmm, I haven’t noticed EPCOT being especially crowded, but then Frozen, Rat and TT stopped offering LL hours ago, so maybe it is?

 

[HokieRaven5]

Average waits across WDW today are the highest they’ve been the last 2 weeks, but still lower than where they were over Spring Break weeks:

 

[cxr]

Why are the parks so crowed today?
I thought early May was supposed to be lower crowd levels?

Is there something going on the first week of May?

because nobody really chimed in yet. this may be a busy week due to the Cheerleading Summit.
thousand of cheerleaders descend on disney for this and in between and after competitions head to the parks

 

[AdamsMum]

Average waits across WDW today are the highest they’ve been the last 2 weeks, but still lower than where they were over Spring Break weeks:

View attachment 757657

Where does this chart come from? I'm curious if they have this data for other times of year, or if it was just created for recent dates.

 

[HokieRaven5]

Where does this chart come from? I'm curious if they have this data for other times of year, or if it was just created for recent dates.

https://www.thrill-data.com/waits/chain/wdw/

 

[maltdizzy]

However all the parks are crowded.
Wait times are really up from what I expected for early May.

I guess all the Vlogs telling people early May was least crowded, packed the parks?

I hate to say, they may be more crowded than you expected, but parks are not "packed". What you'll see this week is what a "low crowd" is anymore and lighter than much of the year. The data backs that up, though it did show larger-than-typical crowds at Epcot and AK for yesterday, and lower at HS and MK.

 

[rmclain73]

Looking at how long ILL's and LL's lasted, I would say its a slow day .

 

[Betsyp]

I’m at MK today - I’ve waited an hour for Jungle Cruise -never again without an LL. The waits other popular rides like Pirates and HM seem also about an hour, though the Genie+ LL by now are around 1 pm

PPF LL is 6:15, Small World is 12:05 - 35 min standby …

Mixed bag, IMO

 

[musicguy856]

Are you seeing an increased number of birds in the parks?

 

[Narcoossee11]

There really is no slow time anymore
With the AP now, it will be busy from now on.

If you think if is bad this week, wait till June. The rest of the year will be horrible.
Summer, fall, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas. Just no calm time.