Wow, it's busy!

[nbodyhome]

I've been on Disney property since last Thursday, and it's been packed! I thought it would go down after the weekend, but it hasn't. It is amazing how every year it gets busier and busier.

Denise

 

[bcsmom]

That is to bad, I always wanted to try this time of year. I wonder if the week after Thanksgiving would be any better?

 

[never_enough_pooh]

Hi!

I'm down here right now as well..... the longest I had to wait for a ride was for Soarin...

We always go in October (this is our first time in Dec), and the crowds are lighter than they are for both the 1st and 2nd week of October. I don't know if this is normal crowds or not..... but for us, the crowds haven't seemed too bad!

 

[KeepSwimming]

the Pop Warner kids are there this week...that could effect park crowd levels.

 

[eeyoreiscool]

During the past few years, it seems that the crowds are increasing between Thanksgiving and Christmas. The week before and after Christmas is usually the busiest though. I would figure with schools that it wouldn't be so busy but as my wife can attest to, I have been wrong many times before.

 

[Lucky4me]

I just got back last night and I am quite happy to say we beat the crowds.
My plan worked like a charm. Staying away from MK on Saturday, going at opening to each park and using fastpass as much as possible. We never waited more than 5 minutes for anything and the crowds were very manageable. We even walked into a few sit down restaurants with no reservations.

 

[blessedby3]

We had no crowd problems the week after Thanksgiving except for Friday the 2nd in EPCOT. Our week was great!

 

[TeresaMc]

We just got back last night from a 7 day trip and we waited in very few lines. Crowds were quite manageable.

 

[TAKitty]

Thanks for the uplifting post. I am leaving today and am glad that it doesn't seem that bad to you. It seems everyone has a different idea on what packed means.

 

[puffkin]

When the OP says it is crowded what do they mean?

Are the resorts full and lots of people in the park = crowded?

Are the waits for rides long?

The reason I say this is when we were down in December 2003 I was surprised at how full the resorts were (Pop Warner week) and how many people were in the parks (still wasn't even close to summer levels) but the waits for rides and attractions was usually 5 minutes or less.

 

[dalstitch45]

We just got back last night, and the crowds were moderate. It was packed during the Dec. 4 MVMCP, but still manageable. My sister commented that the people were particularly rude and pushy this year, but I did not think it was anything out of the ordinary. The one thing that did annoy me was the amount of people with small children who were trying to cut the lines. While we were at MK waiting for the resort bus to come there were at least three men with small children pushing. One night a crowd of us had been waiting longer than normal, and when the bus came a man ran up and jumped on the bus ahead of everyone. His kept shouting, "I have a child." This man was not in line, and had just come from the park. There were other families with small children in line who got really annoyed. I don't have small children now, but when my son was little and went to WDW we never acted like this. When the parades and fireworks are going on, I always let the little ones scoot in so they can see. It's just the decent thing to do. Where is courtesy for your fellow man? Maybe it's the time of year. Disney rules.

 

[skent10]

One night a crowd of us had been waiting longer than normal, and when the bus came a man ran up and jumped on the bus ahead of everyone. His kept shouting, "I have a child."

What, is having a child at WDW such a rare thing that he deserves special treatment?! The nerve of some people. You just gotta laugh because they're so outrageous!

 

[lucincia]

We were there the week after Thanksgiving. Crowds were light in the beginning of the week. Most big rides had wait time of 10 minutes or so. As the week progressed along, it got busier and busier. Last day we were there (last Saturday), the longest wait we encountered at MK was Space Mountain and it was 40 minutes. Then again, that weekend was when they filmed the "live" ABC Christmas parade.

We must have gotten lucky. The whole week there we only saw one obvious instance of deliberate line cutting (during the rope drop going into Tomorrowland). Not sure why they want to cut and run to Space Mountain. We casually walked to Space Mountain and we got right on. Everyone was friendly and polite. Waiting for buses at resorts and parks were all good - no one cutting in. People were actually letting other people on ahead of them, like elderly people.

Where do they stash these rude people you guys keep talking about?

 

[beebles]

quite the opposite for us! We just got back tuesday and we DID Not wait hardly at all! My plan worked great! We left midweek and did the parks first thing in the morning. We literally walked right on space mountain, test track, rocking roller coaster, tower of terror, dinosaur, rapids, safari, etc. The longest we waited was for the nemo show at epcot-about 40 minutes, and soarin around 15 minutes. We were pleased!!!!

 

[dreamalittledream]

Thnaks for all the info, we are going this time next year and I hope we will have the same crowd conditions.

 

[nbodyhome]

Compared with other years, it is really pretty crowded, IMHO. At least every time I've gone into a park, elbow to elbow and such. It used to be like January, now it is definitely like October - which is pretty busy. The property was considered sold out this past weekend, and it doesn't seem to have let up much since then. I haven't been able to choose my own schedule, we've been with the CDK program the last 4 days (as opposed to being on my own during the weekend), and we've been able to ride a few rides early (before too many others) - but otherwise, in the parks we've toured, they've been crowded and the popular lines long (like Test Track and Soarin yesterday).

There really seem to be lots of extended families here - lots of grandparents, lots of kids, etc. The parks are beautiful, though - just like always!

Denise

 

[gilesdad]

We went to Magic Kingdom on Wednesday the week after Thanksgiving. Crowds were no problem at all. We were there for the rope drop and I almost walked in on the Haunted Mansion. Haven't been to Disney World since early '70s. My son and I walked up to Haunted Mansion and there was nobody in line. So I figured we'd just walk in. Then as I grabbed the Mansion's doorhandles I could hear the recording inside the doors and realized that a group was already inside. So we just stood around and waited for the Ghost Host to open the door and let us in with the next group. Pretty strange being the only ones in line but by the time we went in there were about 10 of us.
Also walked on the Splash Mountain 2 trips in a row, then Thunder Mountain Railroad. Threw away the fastpass I had grabbed for Splash mountain. Didn't need it. The longest wait of the entire day (it did get a little busier as the day went on) was about 15 minutes for Astro Orbitor. All others were 5 or less and fast pass made the busier rides a walk-on for us.
Great trip, Great day at Magic Kingdom. My only real surprise that I hadn't been warned of was that for the Extra Magic Hours the Fast Pass was turned off. They were not available for any of the attractions. So we actually had to wait longer during the special Magic hours than we had to all day.
Next trip I think I would take advantage of the morning hour instead of the evening 3 hours. We were pretty tired by day's end anyway. But the first hour or two at the park was a breeze through all the lines.
As far as the line cutting...I did see that while waiting in line for the Extra Magic Hours wristbands. (also didn't know ahead that ALL of my party had to be present to get their armbands so I got to wait in the line twice)
When I got up to about 30 people in front of me I saw a young teen (12-14) walk right up past the line and try to get a bracelet. The CM pointed toward the end of the line which was about 50 people behind me. The boy walked around the outside of the line then stepped up beside me and stared straight ahead. I shook my head and figured "whatever". But then, the amazing thing was that his father then glided up to his son in line and just stared straight ahead. They muttered a couple words to each other but never looked around. Just stared straight ahead. All the thoughts were going through my head about saying something to this guy but I'd had such a great day with my family that I ended up just ignoring the guy.
Hope the crowds aren't too bad for you. Have fun!!!

 

[bcsmom]

for us.
I saw a young teen (12-14) walk right up past the line and try to get a bracelet. The CM pointed toward the end of the line which was about 50 people behind me. The boy walked around the outside of the line then stepped up beside me and stared straight ahead. I shook my head and figured "whatever". But then, the amazing thing was that his father then glided up to his son in line and just stared straight ahead. They muttered a couple words to each other but never looked around. Just stared straight ahead. All the thoughts were going through my head about saying something to this guy but I'd had such a great day with my family that I ended up just ignoring the guy.

I know it is terrible when people are so rude, but great job in keeping your cool. It is hard for me at times.

 

[goofie4goofy]

We are going this monday thur friday..hoping there would be less crowds than over the weekends. Keeping my fingers crossed. The good thing is, is that we just returned from WDW 2 months ago and we are really just going for the holiday stuff...and to ride a few of our favorite attractions.