It's late Jan...why so crowded?

[mpres2]

This worries me too. We are leaving on Sunday and specifically picked this time of year because I expected crowds to be low. All touring plan sites are still showing crowd levels of 3 or lower for the days we will be there but they are showing the same sorts of levels for this week too. How often to easywdw and touringplans update their estimates?

 

[Colleen27]

I wonder, how much of it is actual crowds and how much is perception because of all the construction going on? With sections of walkways closed on Main Street, Frontierland, and Fantasyland, Big Thunder closed and Splash having problems on a near daily basis, no Dumbo, etc. the park is bound to feel more crowded and the lines at open attractions longer even if there are the exact same number of people in attendance as there was this time last year. Plus without F! and MESP crowd patterns aren't going to be as predictable, so there's probably not as much advantage to best/worst parks planning.

 

[vallamen]

We were here this same weekish in 2008, 2009, and 2010. It is much busier this year the. The previous trips. Resort actually feels empty though. No cheerleaders just tour groups. They are everywhere! Not summer crowds, but not 1 or 2 either. Weather is amazing though! FP and early arrival are key.

 

[momma2gap]

We just got back last night from a short stay. We thought it was awesomely quiet! (I'm a former CM, so I've seen & lived peak crowds.)

We pretty much walked onto everything. We were at RD every morning, got FPs for what we wanted and hit just about everything with the longest wait being 15 minutes for the Tomorrowland Speedway at 7 pm on Friday night. (I have a 3 y/o DS, we couldn't skip it) We were able to ride TMS 4x on Sunday: 2x between 8:30-9am & 2x with FP later in the day, we walked onto to RNR & TOT.

For those of you going, don't be scared. Go with an open mind, a little plan and try to get to the parks early. It's so worth waking up to get so much done, besides sleep can happen when you go home!! It's not that bad and a little crowd now is so much better than a bigger crowd in the summer heat.t

About the tour groups:
Other than the groups who felt the need to walk with their arms hooked taking up the entire path (we had a double stroller and didn't budge, that was kinda fun) I found that they gather and take up space more than splitting into groups, but I also noticed that many of these groups were families rather than teens. Don't get me wrong, there were definitely teens, but they were definitely more low key than in years past. Only chanting I heard was at MK on Sunday during the last Dream show right before fireworks in the HUB (sooo rude, glad I wasn't there to watch the show and just passing through b/c I would've been not-so-happy)

 

[mom2rtk]

I think that with the economy still struggling, more people are taking kids outof school to take advantage of discounts in the off-season.

 

[MichelleVW]

I have a friend down there right now and he posted a picture of Main Street Sunday Afternoon and it looked empty. I think it's all about perception and knowing which park to go to on which day.

 

[DisneyCowgirl]

Florida schools (many of them anyway) were out on Monday (the 23rd), and somehow all the guides seem to miss this. We went this week last year, with Monday being our first day, and were totally freaked out when we got to MK. But by Tuesday, things were looking pretty good.

This year we pushed our trip a week and are going next week--hoping for the best!

 

[momto4princesses]

We just got back on Sunday. We were there 8 days. For the most part it was busy but very manageable until last Saturday. Saturday was insane in MK. At one point there was a 150 minute wait for Space Mountain. It was so hard to maneuver through tomorrow land. People were everywhere! I was very glad that it was our last day if that is what the crowds were going to look like for free dining.

 

[Goofy4]

This worries me too. We are leaving on Sunday and specifically picked this time of year because I expected crowds to be low. All touring plan sites are still showing crowd levels of 3 or lower for the days we will be there but they are showing the same sorts of levels for this week too. How often to easywdw and touringplans update their estimates?

If the TPs still say that, you're ok. From what I can tell, it's only the weekends you need to be concerned about. They could double those 3's and you would still be pretty well off.

 

[hollyrose]

Oh no! I would be so mad if I planned during a time that was supposed to be very light crowds then it was crazy busy. I will be there in 10 days....hope I won't run into tour groups! Yikes!

 

[bedogged]

I have been in April, May, June and August. Last year we went at this time and we thought it was busy, much busier than we expected. One day we went to MK it was rated a 1. I thought oh boy, now I get to see what a one looks like! 50-60 minutes wait on POTC and HH! A CM told me that the local schools were out that day. Looking back, the weather may have been a cause as well. It was a beautiful, warm day and it had been really cold for most days we were there. I will say that the crowds did not seem to be staying on property because EMH was not crowded at all and the TS restaurants were not busy. We did see loads of tour groups.

One thing I have noticed on Touring plans is that it seems like the WHOLE year is going to be busier than last year. If you check the history of what was predicted for last year and compare it to what is predicted for this year, it seems like the number is always higher for this year. We are going May 16-25 this year and I am shocked at the numbers.

 

[Good Morning Dewdrop]

crowds or no crowds we'll b down there first thing tomorrow morning.

I think if you're worried about it remember the basics

- go to RD (if Epcot and DHS are still opening before RD be sure to be there for that)

- MKs best days are Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays. I will avoid MK like the plague on Saturday.

- if a tour group is heading in the same direction as you are - you may want to go the other way

- have a good basic plan but be flexible. Know what's important to do for you and your party and the things that are most likely to end up with lines later on (do those things early!)

Enjoy!! you're in Disney - no matter how crowded it is - it's still better than being at home (well at least during the value season I've never been there when it's "really" busy)

-

 

[Art 1]

I wonder, how much of it is actual crowds and how much is perception because of all the construction going on? With sections of walkways closed on Main Street, Frontierland, and Fantasyland, Big Thunder closed and Splash having problems on a near daily basis, no Dumbo, etc. the park is bound to feel more crowded and the lines at open attractions longer even if there are the exact same number of people in attendance as there was this time last year. Plus without F! and MESP crowd patterns aren't going to be as predictable, so there's probably not as much advantage to best/worst parks planning.

MK has a smaller feel to it, no doubt. Lots of strollers near POC and Peter Pan, lots. Sat the Splash M broke down and that made it worse.

 

[GraceMonica]

I've been here a week and the only day it hasn't been crowded was last Wednesday, at DHS. Friday at AK wasn't bad compared to Epcot, DHS, and MK over the weekend and Monday. I was very surprised at how busy DHS was today...but that's because we managed to follow a bunch of those darn tour groups in.

Past years the tours broke up into smaller groups. This year they're ALL staying together and making lines so much longer than they need to be. Not to mention all the chanting and clapping. Usually, my group is good at avoiding them, but on Monday at the MK we seemed to hit them wherever we went.

Tomorrow is (hopefully) a relaxing day at Downtown Disney to do some shopping!

I'm definitely not looking forward to the rest of the week.

 

[LindaBabe]

Crowded at AK yesterday, EMH at EPCOT was good, but crowded by noon. Not a photopass photographer to be found, but plenty of Brazilian tour groups. MK tonight was pretty crowded. Yeah it's relative, but with all the closures (mk is construction EVERY where) it's FEELing very crowded, even if the actual numbers aren't what they were Thanksgiving week.

 

[princessmorgan]

We just got home today and I found last Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday to be awesome! We barely waited 5 minutes for everything. Though we don't do the major thrill rides and instead do character autographs because of the ages of my children. We did notice increased crowds on the weekend and Monday, but we still didn't make it by rope drop and did not have major waits for anything by using fastpass. I don't think it's ever dead at Disney anymore. We went last January, too, and I thought it was just as crowded if not more. There's nothing to worry about though. It's not busy compared to the summer or anything. The weather was amazing this trip! So much warmer than last year!

 

[GraceMonica]

The weather was amazing this trip! So much warmer than last year!

I was listening in on a CM talking to a couple about the weather. It's unseasonably hot this year.

Today was probably the worse. I just felt so sticky from the humidity. Other days we had a little breeze, but today was just gross!

 

[ppony]

I was at DHS today and did not find the crowds too bad considering it was an EMH night.

We walked on every attraction with the exception of Rockin Roller which had a 40 min wait for nearly the entire day and TSM did get up to 100 mins at around the 4pm mark. I assumed that a couple of tour groups all went in at the same time just before us. Thank god for our fast pass which I might add we picked up around 9:30 with a return time of 4:10. Jedi training was all full by 9:15 this morning.

You were either lucky or I was terribly UNlucky. Our supposed 40 minute wait for RnR was actually 75. I timed it. We didn't even bother w/ TSM. We could have run over to it when it's wait was under an hour but my feet and legs were killing me by that point after other days in the parks. I've never have it take us so long to do what we did there. We didn't do a LOT actually. I have pix of the crowds taken from THTT. As soon as I can upload from my phone I will post.
We were there Friday to today and with the exception of Saturday which was EPCOT day MGM (I'll always call it that) and our 2 MK days were BUSY. More so than we've ever seen them / the exception of one sold out night of MVMCP. We're usual Dec. goers.

 

[ppony]

We just got back last night from a short stay. We thought it was awesomely quiet! (I'm a former CM, so I've seen & lived peak crowds.)

I'm afraid I'm going to go ahead and disagree w/ you here for OUR experience. I think I'm quite capable of perceiving reality and understanding how construction and narrower walkways can play into perception and how it "feels". I've also been coming over an almost 20 year span of time (around the same time of year) so I've seen the crowds grow. And while it may not have been summer type crowds, there was no mistaking what I saw and experienced. It could be that the masses just went where we went when we went there. That could be it, easily, but that's doesn't mean then that it wasn't crowded, where I was at any point in time. And that's all that matters in our experience. It suds like some people were able to miss the masses and others of us, didn't. I can respect other's experiences, I ask people to please respect mine.

 

[momma2gap]

I'm afraid I'm going to go ahead and disagree w/ you here for OUR experience. I think I'm quite capable of perceiving reality and understanding how construction and narrower walkways can play into perception and how it "feels". I've also been coming over an almost 20 year span of time (around the same time of year) so I've seen the crowds grow. And while it may not have been summer type crowds, there was no mistaking what I saw and experienced. It could be that the masses just went where we went when we went there. That could be it, easily, but that's doesn't mean then that it wasn't crowded, where I was at any point in time. And that's all that matters in our experience. It suds like some people were able to miss the masses and others of us, didn't. I can respect other's experiences, I ask people to please respect mine.

I'm not quite sure where or how I was disrespecting your opinion by sharing our experience. I just stated mine, which happened to be different from yours. We thought it was quiet, never experienced the "masses" that you speak of. I'm sorry your trip was that of ridiculous crowds and longs waits.

It's interesting how people can be at the same place, at the same time and have 2 totally different experiences. I was under the impression that this forum is to share those experiences for people to use in their planning, I didn't think they all had to be the same...I'll go back to lurking.