We went that morning as well. So many people had said that the crowds on taping day wouldn't be bad as long as you didn't try and hang out on Mainstreet. What a load of bull! Traffic all over the park was ridiculous. We had fast passes for Space Mountain (because it was broken down early in the morning when we first got there) that we couldn't use because we couldn't get back across the park in time due to floats coming in and out all day long with massive portions of the streets roped off, and the incredibly large number of guests packed into the remaining space like sardines. By 12:30 we decided to give up, buy some fudge, and head back to the hotel. After getting fudge in the Confectionary, it took us 20 minutes to wade through the crowds between the store and the main gates to get out.
When we got back to AKL, called some friends that were still in the park, and they skipped Space Mountain completely, reporting 80 minute wait times. 80 minutes. Look, I love Space Mountain, but the day where I'm willing to wait 80 minutes for it is long past.
Thankfully, we pretty much got everything we wanted to do done on our
MVMCP night, though it did start off with a rained out parade.
We had dinner at 'Ohana that night, and stopped back in later to see how things were going. It was a lot better, but crowds were still a lot worse than we are used to for the time of year. We were going to get som more fudge (didn't expect the eggnog fudge to be that good!) but by now the fudge line was 20 people deep, so we skipped it.
Then yesterday we stopped in to Epcot, which was also bizarre, see another thread for that.
This was a different trip for us. We usually arrive the sunday after thanksgiving, and leave on friday. While crowds were higher than we were used to even earlier in the week, friday at AK, and saturday at MK were unbearable. They reminded me of the summer trips of my youth. If we go back for this week in the future, we will likely stick strictly to the normal schedule of ariving on Sunday, and leaving on Friday.
