WOW! were the parks crowded last week!

[kseely]

just returned from a 9 day trip to the world! left 20 minutes before they closed the airport! anyway i was surprised just how crowded all 4 parks were last week! this has been my 3rd consecutive September trip in a row, and this time the crowds were very large, lots more people than the previous years by far!
we seem to think it had to do with all of the discounted rooms, and all of the marketing going on. just now, as i am typing this, a commercial for the value resorts came on for the $55 a night on the weather channel.... when walking around, we DID notice a lot of people with pop and all stars mugs in the parks....our longest wait time was for space mountain, i waited 30 minutes on an EE day when it was NOT even normal opening time yet! i think it had to do with the fast pass machines open at some locations & not others. Splash mountain had an hr. wait at 11am on an EE day, abd the FP machines were covered.....when we went back late afternoon that day, they were still covered, and the wait time was over 1 hour. some FP machines were open, others were not. I guess it is just the luck of the draw........it seemed as crowded as my April trip! our resort (the beach club) was pretty full all week as well. oh well, guess the September secret is out of the bag!

 

[Kimberle]

Really? We just got back too.

The only day I thought was really busy was Fri at the MK. No matter where we went, it was packed.

The rest of the week was fine. We rode Dumbo w/ less than a 10 minute wait, the Safari had abt a 20 minute wait.

You might have been in the wrong place at the wrong time. The prior year, it was really crowded where ever we went. I kept asking people at the pool and the areas were they went were not crowded.

 

[missyc]

Wow. Guess everybody decided to avoid either coast and head for Orlando! My DSis and I took our kids to Busch Gardens on the 19th and were so surprised at how light the crowds were. It was great! Almost no wait for most rides. I think the longest was that river rapid thing and it was less than 30 minutes.
Might go to MK for DD9's B-Day this weekend. I was wondering about crowds. We were going to go on Oct 8th since they didn't have school, but just found out they DO have school to make up one of the missed days due to the hurricanes. They also lost the day before Thanksgiving and 1 day at the end of Christmas break.

 

[ncgolfer]

You must have been at the wrong rides at the wrong time, we went last week 18-24th and our longest wait was 15 minutes on TOT. I never saw a posted wait time longer than 30 minutes. The 30 minute waits always turned out to be less than 15. We walked onto Test Track and Mission space as well as Space Mountain. I thought the crowds were great.

Charlie

 

[DeDixie]

It's funny how things are different from park to park. We were down for only a few days and we thought it was so empty we wondered how Disney could stay open! We went to Test Track in the middle of they day and the standby line was 15 min, single line no wait and they were giving fast passes out for less than an hour later.

Most FP machines we saw were covered as none were needed.

I'm jealous of you being there for 9 days, our 5 day trip was cut to 3 because of Jeanne.

 

[Sammy]

We were at MK this past Friday (24th) and thought it was pretty crowded compared to past Septembers. DH and I left by noon and headed over to Epcot which was DEAD!! There was almost no one there. Even for Illuminations that night, we had our pick of prime places to watch.

 

[kilee]

Wow this is the first report I've heard of it being crowded. I was thinking that w/ Jeanne it would of been more quiet.

 

[chesirekate]

We were at MK last Thursday and MGM on Friday. Had to cut the trip short due to Jeanne so missed Epcot and AK. The longest we waited was 20 minutes to get on the Jungle Cruise and about the same time to get into the Playhouse Disney show. Every other ride was 10 mins or less, with only Pooh, and maybe The Backstage Tour coming close to the 10 min mark. We practically walked on TOT, Space Mountain, Aerosmith coaster, Buzz, etc. And as stated above most of the FP kiosks were closed because there was no reason to use them. Weird!

 

[roserae]

Originally posted by Sammy
We were at MK this past Friday (24th) and thought it was pretty crowded compared to past Septembers. DH and I left by noon and headed over to Epcot which was DEAD!! There was almost no one there. Even for Illuminations that night, we had our pick of prime places to watch.

We were at MK last Friday too. The morning was more crowded, I think, but I didn't notice so much because we had just switched our flight from Sunday afternoon to Saturday morning, and I was still sick from having to cut our vacation short and not knowing if I made the right decision! ha!

Went back to room for a nap and by Friday afternoon back at MK the crowds were considerably less and we had a great time. Did PoC, HM, and most of Fantasyland, plus counterservice dinner, watched Wishes all in about 2.5 hours. We also were way more relaxed by then knowing we made the right decision to switch our flights...if we'd waited probably another 10 minutes to make that decision we wouldn't have been able to and may still be there today....hmmmm, that doesn't sound so bad! Of course, I'm a SAHM, my friend and my dh might have felt differently!

 

[knationk]

We were there Sept. 18-25th. I couldn't believe how small the crowds were. Most things were literally a walk on. We did stand in line for less than 10 minutes for BTMRR, HM, and one time for TOT. It was wonderful!!! We skipped the EE parks for that day and I think that did help too.


Kayla

 

[missyc]

So does this happen every year by this time? Or are the light crowds due to the weather?

 

[Jen D]

I just got back and also found the crowds to be very light. Most fast loaders were always walk-ons, and even slow-loaders were rarely more than 10 minutes. We quit bothering with fast pass and kid swap because there were no lines anyway.

That said, we always avoided parks on their EE day.

 

[TiggerStac]

We were there as well last week and thought the crowds were extremely low. We were at Magic Kingdom for opening. Ran and got hubby and son haircuts, than off to buzz...no wait. Space M, I waited about 5 minutes and did a baby swap. Off to Goofy's Barnstormer to test our son out, no wait. Pooh Bear was about 20 minute wait, so we fast passed it. Went onto Mickey's Philharmonic (no wait). Haunted Mansion (about 5 minutes) back to pooh bear for our fast pass. Headed to Splash Mountain and this was our longest wait of the weekedn 15 minutes!! Hit POC, no wait then headed to EPCOT. No wait for anything. NOrmal wait for SPACE was 10 minutes, hubby did single rider and got right on. Went right on test track, the ball. We hit MGM on Saturday (before heading to Tampa to escape the hurricane back to Boston) and we didn't wait for anything, maybe about 5 minutes for RNR.
We have been down all different times of years...and other than having to leave 1 day early due to the hurricane, the lines were great!!!! Maybe it was just everyones timing on the rides for the particular ride.
PS....when hubby had his haircut, they put blue gel with "pixie dust" in it and big Mickey ears in blue gel on the back...so if you saw a guy with this in his head..it was us :0) I only saw 1 other person with their hair done that day and it was a kid about 8-10 and he had green in his hair. Hubby was the newest Disney attraction!!

 

[dawgsgirl]

Hi--

I was at WDW from Sept 18-25. It was more crowded than last year at this same time. I talked with a number of people who had rescheduled their trips due to the numerous hurricanes. BUT, it was not crowded if you compare to other times of the year and I never really had to wait for a ride or show. I was disappointed with the overall numbers of people, but it was nothing compared to the trip I took the last week of May.

 

[KatieKate16]

There seemed to be pretty many people, but nothing seemed too crowded. Most rides were practically walk-ons...waited 15-20 mins for Dumbo, 20-25 mins for Peter Pan, 20-25 to see Ariel & Cinderella together. On Friday, walked right up to a curb side seat for the MK parade. Enjoyed the slower pace...until we got to the airport on Sat. of course!

 

[summersfam4]

We were there! We loved every minute of our trip because we felt there were NO lines, except on Tuesday the 21st, we had small lines, but the longest we had to wait was 30 minutes for Dumbo and we all know how long that line can be, and I know it was because it was the only night during that week that Spectromagic was shown. Our girls had their hair done too, (Thanks to all the people here at Dis who let us in on that little barbershop secret). On Friday the 17th my oldest DD (5) had on a pink dress with newly cut hair and a pink mickey mouse complete with pixie dust (her hair that was cut is being donated to locks of love), and on the 21st my oldest DD was painted again blue & yellow with a yellow sundress on, and my little one had her first haircut at 17months complete with a blue mickey head and pixie dust and a jean spagetti strap dress! I love the Mainstreet Barbershop, I think I'll have something done next year as a style and color/pixie dust, no cut is only $5.00!

Kelly (planning next years trip already, same time same place but with AP's this time, or maybe even PAP's)

 

[gctong]

We were just there from Sept 17 - 25 as well! And although i'd have to say it was busier than I expected, it wasn't like sardine-crowded. Magic Kingdom was the busiest (and we went last Wed). Longest wait was I thnk 30 mins for Peter Pan. (thank goodness for FP!) Although I noticed a lot of people speaking with British, French and German accents (if not the actual language). I think it's the European vacation period. Maybe that's why it's busier?

 

[missyc]

summersfam4, do you have pictures of the hairdo's? I'm taking my DD9 & nephew 10 this weekend for their birthdays and want to have this done. I would love to see some good pics!

 

[TINKER04]

We were there this past week also (19-25) and I thought it wasn't crowded at all. We were at the MK for a afternoon parade and there was no one at all sitting on the circle by the train station. I mean NO ONE! I couldn't believe it. I have never seen it like that before.

 

[megrod74]

We were there 9/20-24. We went to MK Tues 9/21 and thought it was very crowded compared to last year at the same time and early Dec when we usually go. It was also the only weekday that they were showing Spectro, so that could have contributed. Peter Pan had a 50 minute wait, but we only waited about 5 min for Splash Mtn. go figure. They had both coasters open at Space Mtn, which I haven't seen in any of my recent visits. That helped shorten the wait time there ( I think it was 10 min).

Wed 9/22 we went to MGM and Epcot and found them to be much less busy.