Will someone please confirm this??? Crowd levels this week...

[WDSearcher]

Carol Ann ... it'll be crowded, but you should be fine getting in during the evening. If the park closes at capacity, it will be in the AM, and it will open up again after the afternoon parade.

 

[C.Ann]

Carol Ann ... it'll be crowded, but you should be fine getting in during the evening. If the park closes at capacity, it will be in the AM, and it will open up again after the afternoon parade.

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Thanks! I'm feeling a little guilty anyhow (going to Disney without my DD and granddaughter) so if I miss some stuff it's not that big of a deal.. I'll hop from park to park and spend some quality time going around to look at the other Disney resorts.. This is my first stay on Disney property (POP) and I think I'm more excited over checking out the resorts than anything else..

However, my sister is going to come down Monday afternoon/evening and stay till Tuesday so I would like for her to see at least a little of the parks.. She hasn't been there since it was only the Magic Kingdom!!!

 

[DisneyMim]

We were in MK last Monday, March 14 and it was crowded. Epcot wasn't bad on Sunday March 13 and MGM wasn't bad on Tuesday March 14. MK seems to always crowded now. AND YES it will be crowded around Easter, both weeks, before and after. Been there done that and as another poster said, there's no way around it!!! I would avoid MK on Easter Sunday.

 

[C.Ann]

Friends of mine there last week also said it was wall to wall people...and I reported almost 3 weeks ago that every single hotel before Easter and after Easter was booked...that would also be an indication of how packed it is..

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If anyone is crazy enough to want to go down the first week in April (after reading this thread - LOL) I called Saturday night and was able to get a room at Pop Century with no problem at all.. Even got to use the general code that came out way back when...

 

[All Aboard]

We are at wdw right now. We arrived in Cent FL on thur the 17th and spent three nites at portofino. With express, you really don't notice the crowd levels.

We checked into the beach club on sunday and spent the rest of the day in world showcase. In that part of the park crowds were quite light. We walked onto figment at abou 6pm (but then again, when is that ever NOT possible).

The, yesterday we slept in and went to the studios and ran into a bee's nest. At 10:30 I went to get RNR fastpasses and the stanby line was 100 minutes, ToT was 80. We were able to see the motor stunt show with no wait and walked onto the backlot tour at the tailend of a group. I've never seen so many trams running at one time on that attraction. We wlked past star tours and it had a posted 60 min wait.

Today, we slept in again and are spending most of the day at stormnalong bay. We'll take advantage of the EMH nites if the bad weather stays away.

I'm guessing MK must be an absolute madhouse. We knew it would be crowded, so we are taking it leisurely and smelling the roses. We've been to WDW roughly 100 times, so riding a lot of attractions wasn't a "must" for this trip.

 

[Aidensmom]

A large amount of Florida schools are on spring break this week, so there are a lot of locals adding to the crowds. We were there on Friday the 18th and MK was packed. It was hard to walk through the crowds in some areas. Lines were very long. We waited till 2:00 to have lunch hoping the counter service lines would die down, and they never did. Once we got our food, we had to hover around people who looked like they were close to finishing their lunch so we could grab a table to have somewhere to sit down!

 

[kirkharrod]

We went on Good Friday and Easter last year. It was as crowded as I have ever seen it. However, when it is that crowded, everything is open, characters will often be signing autographs in out of the way places (such as behind the Christmas Shop in Frontierland) and the MK stays open late.

 

[missypie]

I think this year the weeks before and after Easter will be more crowded than usual, due to how early Easter falls. Our school district "always" has spring break roughly from the 14-18th of March. But this year, they moved it a week later (to this week) to coincide with Easter. Lots of the local school districts did this.

 

[monorailsilver]

I can tell you I went the week before Easter in 1999 & Sat-Wed the crowds weren't that horrid & then came Thurs & Fri & it got worse & Saturday (the day before Easter), we actually left the park at around 10 (I normally stay til close which was midnight) because I couldn't stand the crowds.

After that I said I will never go that time of year ever again & I will stay with the summer.

The only good thing about that trip is we got engaged.

I hope you are all able to enjoy yourselves.

Kerri

 

[Blueberry]

Just got home from WDW this morning...

Crowds are increasing each day of course as the week progresses....Yesterday March 21 was just packed at MK, we left for Epcot at 10am (they opened at 8am last two days). Epcot had lines almost 30 minutes long to get in the front gate, with the bag searching and all.

Fast Passes for the whole day for Test Track were gone by 10:30am and people stood in the stand bye line they said for over 2 hours.

If you get there early and use Fast Pass you will be fine. Some of the less popular attractions are still pretty easy to get into we noticed. They had Wonders of Life open yesterday and we only waited for about 5 minutes for Body Wars (a lot of people do not even know that exists it has been closed so long now) and Cranium Command was a walk on.

PS are the only way to go, as lines for counter service restaurants are very long, even for the carts outside the lines are pretty long.

Good news is the parks are all open late (except for Epcot), you can break up the day when it gets too crowded, go rest and come back later for several more less crowded hours..

Go and enjoy yourself and do not worry over it, you will have a wonderful time anyway..

 

[Samirella]

I am so puzzled. I was just talking to a woman who just got back from a 10 day trip and she said it wasn't that bad. Said the bus wait was only 10 minutes tops. The weather was wonderful, and that the crowd was managable. So hard to figure out when you get so many different stories. Guess we will have to go see for ourselves, and just take it as it comes. Either way who cares we are going to Disney World!! Leaving this Friday and I can't wait!!!

Orange county schools were out on Friday, so since then it's been jam packed.

 

[TiggerXx]

Oh Gosh! Now Im scared! Im leaving tomorrow, and Ive always gone during the summer when the lines have been long, but not horribly long. And I have no patience! Geez... Well, Im sure Ill still have fun!

 

[LoveToDisney]

We were there last week through this Monday and did very well with fastpasses and going at odd times even though the parks were crowded. With the new tickets, the heavy crowds are worse because it is taking SOOOOOOOO LONG to get through the entrances. Nearly everyone has to put their fingers in and they don't get it right the first attempt and then about a minute to 1-1/2 minutes minimum later they finally get it right and can go through. Multiply that by thousands of people and that's where the nightmare is. Animal Kingdom is the worst because they don't have many entrance stiles. We went on a day when AK had EMH evening hours and it was terrible at the entrance. Although the park had opened at 9am, the gates were back up to the top of the hill at 10am because of the slowness of biometrics and the new MYW tickets. Once we got into the parks, it was easy using fast passes. We quit going early and decided going later was better than standing in long lines to get in. Disney has got to rethink their biometrics if they are going to improve the speed of entry, especially in the morning hours.

 

[LoveToDisney]

Oh yes...this is Spring break week for the schools around Orlando. We were caught in a huge wait for security at the airport when leaving on Monday...many Orlando families at the airport leaving for another location added to the guests going home. Please allow plenty of time at the airport if you are flying. It took 45-1 hour JUST to get through security, not adding the checkin or shuttle or anything else.

 

[C.Ann]

Hmmmm..trying to get through the turnstiles doesn't sound like it will be much fun.. Maybe I'll do something else early in the morning and show up at the parks later..

 

[rockin_rep]

Nearly everyone has to put their fingers in and they don't get it right the first attempt and then about a minute to 1-1/2 minutes minimum later they finally get it right and can go through. QUOTE]

Oh boy, what does that mean exactly.....putting their fingers in....? Somehow i haven't heard about that!!???

 

[eeyore45]

Its the new tickets MYW, very similiar to how the Annual Pass tickets work, they are not scanning your fingerprints, they are scanning the length and bredth of your fingers (if I'm understanding correctly!) it is confusing, and it does take practice, its everything must be aligned correctly for the scanner to recognize you as you on your ticket (thus elimanting the reselling of tickets I'd imagine)

 

[rockin_rep]

Thanks eeyore45. So if we have the basic park hopper, we won't have to do that, right?

 

[zurgswife]

Thanks eeyore45. So if we have the basic park hopper, we won't have to do that, right?

If you have the old ticket you won't, any of the new types of tickets now require a bio metric scan...no way around it...for the able bodied...

 

[C.Ann]

If you have the old ticket you won't, any of the new types of tickets now require a bio metric scan...no way around it...for the able bodied...

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Wow! I can really see that causing a major back-up..

So what is it that they're doing when you initially purchase the ticket that enables them to have a matching biometric scan?