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

[lizandjason]

We have never seen crowds like this the last week of Jan. Besides the Brazilians which are expected we see many more kids than normal for this time of year. We are used to walkon rides and now there are 30-50 min. wait times for the headliners...what gives?

 

[auprincess]

Is there a cheerleading competition? haven't looked up there dates, but in the past they have been late jan/beginning week of feb.

 

[Goofy4]

Same last week, but I figured it was the long MLK weekend.

 

[kristilew]

We just got home from a trip tonight...unusual for us to go this time of year. With the extra school days NC mandated this year, we ended up with a semester break that didn't line up with MLK day. So we had MLK day off, then a couple days of school, then a half day Thurs, and Fri and Mon off. If one was going to take their kids out of school,, this was the time to do it and miss the least number of days/least productive days.

Not sure if this dynamic is playing out in any other districts, but we were there with a large group because of it. Of course, never having been in January before, we thought it was wonderfully empty. I've never been able to walk up to table service restaurants before and get in right away...especially with a large group!

The tour groups were pretty darn annoying, though. Haven't run into them before either. I guess it's all about trade offs.

 

[Art 1]

We have never seen crowds like this the last week of Jan. Besides the Brazilians which are expected we see many more kids than normal for this time of year. We are used to walkon rides and now there are 30-50 min. wait times for the headliners...what gives?

I agree. It is more busy now than in past years at this time. I can recall walking on many rides in the past this time of year. This past Sat both MK and Ep were quite busy. Same with the weekend before.

 

[OchreHand]

I was there second week (after the Marathon) and was surprised how populated it was, but it doesn't sound as bad as yours. Regular rides were walk ons, but headliners like Soarin, TSM and sometimes TestTrack were posting waits up to 50min.

I did notice an abundance of kids, but I noticed they were mostly South American or European. And tour groups--Lots of them.

 

[lizandjason]

Is there a cheerleading competition? haven't looked up there dates, but in the past they have been late jan/beginning week of feb.

Cheerleaders were here last week from what I've read.

 

[notfrostyjosh]

It's not busy at all.

Come back in July.

 

[disprincessatheart]

It's not busy at all.

Come back in July.

Yesterday we were at dhs just after 9 and the lines for bag check were at least 30 ppl deep and all but about 2 lines were open! I would have changed parks but dh is not very "go with the flow". Lol. I counted 7 tour group flags in that crowd and the fast pass lines at tsm were dominated by the group leaders! Stand by was 40 min at 9:45, 50 at 10:15 and 70 min at 2:45. That was when we tried to use our fp (9:40 pick up with 2:00 return) but the fp line was all the way out the door and back to the fp machines! I guess a couple groups came back at the same time. Glad we waited and rode standby earlier! We left after the parade.

Today at epcot was the opposite though. Did ig rope drop and got in about 8:50. Slowly walked to soarin and did that with a 5 min posted time. Picked up a fp when I got off at 9:22 for 10:40. Did seas, turtle talk, figment and eo by 10:30, then character conn, the land and lunch by noon. Showcase was empty - we were the only people in the weathers shop at 7! For illuminations we got a spot on the rail by aa 10 min prior with no trouble and no one ever came to stand behind us even!

 

[disprincessatheart]

Oh and I heard the reason for the weekend crowds is a lot of fla schools had off today. Hope it's quiet the rest of the week!

 

[NLD]

FWIW my kid has off today and tomorrow, for teacher in-service days.

Not sure if that's common in other districts up here or if it's just ours.

 

[notfrostyjosh]

StudiosCentral was there tweeting from the Studios yesterday, as they do most Sundays - https://twitter.com/#!/studioscentral

Specifically, https://twitter.com/#!/studioscentral/status/161127109597732864

50 minutes for Toy Story at 10:15am isn't bad at all.

 

[jujube]

The first time I ever experienced the MK close due to crowds was in late January. There was a car race. It was insane.

 

[jerlove]

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.

We were at MK last night from about 7PM until park close and walked on everything. Longest line I saw was for peter pan at 30 mins we choose not to go on this time. Everything else was a walk on to a 5 min wait,

 

[GraceMonica]

Yesterday we were at dhs just after 9 and the lines for bag check were at least 30 ppl deep and all but about 2 lines were open! I would have changed parks but dh is not very "go with the flow". Lol. I counted 7 tour group flags in that crowd and the fast pass lines at tsm were dominated by the group leaders! Stand by was 40 min at 9:45, 50 at 10:15 and 70 min at 2:45. That was when we tried to use our fp (9:40 pick up with 2:00 return) but the fp line was all the way out the door and back to the fp machines! I guess a couple groups came back at the same time. Glad we waited and rode standby earlier! We left after the parade.

We were also there yesterday and I wanted to punch the tour group leaders in the face. Past years they let the groups break up and do things on their own. Not this year. The lady using the FP machine next to me had 95 tickets to do. 95. Past years they let their group split up which did not make the FP line congested, but this year those leaders have been causing headaches for me. AS for the bag checks, we got there in between the massive groups. (theres 11 of us so we take two vehicles) i was in the first vehicle and we pretty much walked right in, but my mom and brother's girlfriend waited a good 15 minutes before even making it to the gate because EVERY single tour group brazilian had a bag with them.


Thankfully the lines at MK weren't as bad as I anticipated today. I hope where ever I go tomorrow wont be such a pain.

 

[jrtoastyman]

Just got back today from 8 days at the parks, and I didn't find it bad at all. It was nothing compared to when we were there in June. Between efficient use of touring plans, FPs and perhaps a little bit of of luck, I literally don't believe I waited more than 20 minutes for anything all trip.

 

[Colleen27]

FWIW my kid has off today and tomorrow, for teacher in-service days.

Not sure if that's common in other districts up here or if it's just ours.

I think it is pretty common in later-starting districts. Around here most schools have a short week either last week or this one for midterms and end-of-semester teacher in-service days. My kids have half days tomorrow and Wed and Thurs & Fri off, and since this is the only break we get that doesn't coincide with a major-traffic holiday we often use it to travel.

 

[Yoshi]

Free dining starting up again on Saturday also probably caused more crowds. We got there over Marathon Weekend (we checked in on Sunday for the start of free dining) and a lot of people were saying by Monday the parks would be empty and although I wouldn't call it crowded, it was still more crowded than I expected.

 

[ruthies12]

I just got back and have to say I was extremely disappointed with the crowds. I purposely went during january thinking it would be a lot less crowded. The weather was beautiful these past few days and I have a feeling that screwed my plans up and caused more people to come out. I can honestly say I would have rather had rain.

 

[GSUJillybean]

I'm freaking out now.

We moved our trip from March to Jan. because the crowds were supposed to be lower.