Anyone know why it's so busy right now?

I agree with this. I'm not sure why so many people dog the crowd calendars these days. I think I'm just really impressed with the amount of data analytics that go into the Touring Plans site. Will it be wrong sometimes? Of course. But to act like they're just looking at the crowds a year ago and putting the same number down is ridiculous. If anyone is going to predict a crowd, it's these guys.

And no I don't work for TP. :) I just am really impressed with their advanced algorithms.
My guess is that people don't understand statistical analysis. The model is pretty darn impressive, what I know of it.
 
This is very often overlooked. Disney shrinks the work staff when crowds are

As smaller, resulting in an experience by that smaller crowd that is only slightly different from that of a larger crowd. As reports are showing, wait times are not even close to a really crowded time. One might have dreamed of a trip where the parks are so sparsely crowded that almost every ride is a "walk on". But that will simply never happen and Disney doesn't want it to happen. There is a certain "pacing" if you will, that Disney finds to be optimal for the overall enjoyment of the guest. Believe it or not, psychologically, people have more fun when the have 15-20 minute waits between rides than if they literally run from ride to ride with no wait. The latter is fun for a couple of hours, like with the old E Ticket nights and the recent After Hours event. But if you had that type of experience for 14 straight hours, you would get bored, leave, spend fewer days at the parks, shrink your overall vacation time, and spend less money. Disney wants all guest to have a vacation that paces out in a way that requires at least 4 or 5 days, (6 or 7 would be even better) for full enjoyment. They don't want you knocking off AK and DHS in a single day. That's fewer meals bought. More mousekeepers to turn over rooms. Less ticket revenue. So the bottom line is that Disney intentionally slows things down for you, making even the off season seem like the high season. But in reality, it isn't, as shown by the posted wait times.

As someone who had a day like that at the Six Flags park in San Antonio years ago...yeah, you're actually entirely right about waiting in a short line for each ride leading to more enjoyment than having no lines. My brother and I went on a weekday in November, when it was a bit chilly by Texas standards, and literally every single ride was a walk-on. We had our pick of seats on every roller coaster with no wait whatsoever. And at first? At first it was great. At first we loved it because we were able to blast through the park, riding everything, getting repeat rides, all of that. Then it stopped being fun three or four hours in because a.) we'd already done everything by that point and b.) we'd had no down time between rides and were both feeling nauseous because our bodies had no time to recover from one coaster to the next. We ended up riding the train around the park two or three times to calm our stomachs down, poked around for half an hour or an hour more, and ultimately left the park much earlier than planned.

As for predicting crowd levels...eh. Anymore I don't, beyond common sense things like avoiding holiday weekends and any special events I'm not planning to attend. Last October in Disneyland we saw huge variation in crowd levels throughout the week; at one point midweek we did have a day where nearly everything was a ten minute wait or less and we took full advantage, but most of the days on that trip we were making the most of fastpasses because the crowds were fairly substantial. We had a good time every day, regardless of crowd levels; while I certainly liked the low-wait day, if every day had been like that I think it all would've gotten old faster.
 
This is very often overlooked. Disney shrinks the work staff when crowds are smaller, resulting in an experience by that smaller crowd that is only slightly different from that of a larger crowd. As reports are showing, wait times are not even close to a really crowded time. One might have dreamed of a trip where the parks are so sparsely crowded that almost every ride is a "walk on". But that will simply never happen and Disney doesn't want it to happen. There is a certain "pacing" if you will, that Disney finds to be optimal for the overall enjoyment of the guest. Believe it or not, psychologically, people have more fun when the have 15-20 minute waits between rides than if they literally run from ride to ride with no wait. The latter is fun for a couple of hours, like with the old E Ticket nights and the recent After Hours event. But if you had that type of experience for 14 straight hours, you would get bored, leave, spend fewer days at the parks, shrink your overall vacation time, and spend less money. Disney wants all guest to have a vacation that paces out in a way that requires at least 4 or 5 days, (6 or 7 would be even better) for full enjoyment. They don't want you knocking off AK and DHS in a single day. That's fewer meals bought. More mousekeepers to turn over rooms. Less ticket revenue. So the bottom line is that Disney intentionally slows things down for you, making even the off season seem like the high season. But in reality, it isn't, as shown by the posted wait times.
Yeah, I've been able to shrink my vacations to 3 nights or so thanks to smart use of FP+ at WDW/MaxPass at DLR and basically not having to wait in any lines except FP lines or lines for rides that don't have FP at DLR. We did 4 days at DLR (first trip ever) in September and we were basically done and ready to go home after 3 days. We only went into the park on day 4 because we had Halloween Party tickets, and that was something different to do. My upcoming trip to WDW is going to be 3 nights/3 days (2 full days and 2 half days due to travel). Since I'm only doing MK and AK (not enough at HS and EP to hold my interest right now), I'm thinking it might be too much as it is. But 2 nights just seemed like too little time for a 3 hour plane ride one-way.
 


We went this weekend in 2015 for my daughters to dance at what was Downtown Disney and we thought it was crowded then. The hours at Magic Kingdom were actually extended by 2 hours day of by making an announcement thru out the park. There were also a lot of tour groups.

We’ve also been at Christmas and those were in no way the size of Christmas crowds.
 


I was at AK yesterday and it did not seemed crowded to us. I did notice, though, that the waittimes posted were WAY over-exaggerated. When we used our FP for Dinosaur, the family entering standby at the same time ended up in the same pre-show room as us. The posted wait was 40 minutes and there was no line. There was a line for Safari when we FP'd it but I have no idea how accurate the posted sign was.

Walkways were easy to navigate and there were no lines to order food and drinks at restaurants or carts. We ate at Satu'li at 6:30pm and there was no one in the queue - we walked right to a register. Pandora was busy, esp at night, but I easily navigated the store and had no line to check out. Parking lot was not near full, either.

I'm sure it's all perspective but as fairly frequent visitors, we were pleasantly surprised at the crowd level. TP says it was actually an 8 but in my experience, 8 crowds come with difficult touring, lines at restrooms, stores, and carts, long lines for dining, etc. None of that was happening at AK yesterday. *shrug*
 
World Showcase feels crowded right now. We still pulled a 5th FP for FEA. It’s definitely busier than I thought it would be, though.
 
I was at AK yesterday and it did not seemed crowded to us. I did notice, though, that the waittimes posted were WAY over-exaggerated. When we used our FP for Dinosaur, the family entering standby at the same time ended up in the same pre-show room as us. The posted wait was 40 minutes and there was no line. There was a line for Safari when we FP'd it but I have no idea how accurate the posted sign was.

Walkways were easy to navigate and there were no lines to order food and drinks at restaurants or carts. We ate at Satu'li at 6:30pm and there was no one in the queue - we walked right to a register. Pandora was busy, esp at night, but I easily navigated the store and had no line to check out. Parking lot was not near full, either.

I'm sure it's all perspective but as fairly frequent visitors, we were pleasantly surprised at the crowd level. TP says it was actually an 8 but in my experience, 8 crowds come with difficult touring, lines at restrooms, stores, and carts, long lines for dining, etc. None of that was happening at AK yesterday. *shrug*
That is really interesting. A big part of TP's crowd levels are based on wait times. I assume they use their own, rather than Disney's reported, and they do generally have people in the parks. But, maybe they didn't have any at AK yesterday and relied more heavily on Disney's wait times. If those were exaggerated, then maybe. It still seems really odd.
 
Wouldn't that shift the attendance at all parks? What was observed yesterday was low crowds (relatively) everywhere except AK which had an almost peak crowd.

There are posts that report large wait times at all of the parks not just AK. Talking to the folks that were there in December for Hurricane reschedules they said they were offered days in January or February.
 
Marathon last weekend, holiday this weekend. Record cold in the US too, everybody would like some Florida.

And ridiculous airfare sales. I just got back from FL (not WDW) because I got $55pp r/t from Detroit to Orlando and couldn't resist getting out of the cold for a while. If my dates had been more flexible, I could have gotten as low as $40 r/t. I doubt I'm the only one that saw those fares and booked a last-minute getaway.
 
I'd imagine that AK is sort of hard to predict for the rest of the time up to Pandora's one year anniversary because that was a game changer - so yeah, maybe last year it was a 2 or a 3 but this year everything changed. Yes, it seems like they should have maybe bumped the numbers up a bit, but until they have a full year of historical data on AK with Pandora, it's going to be more of a guess than is always is.
 
As stated by pp, the first two weeks of January are generally still busy due to back-to-back event and holiday weekends (Marathon and MLK weekends).. Crowd levels should start to somewhat decrease after MLK weekend.
 
Crowds have grown considerably in last twenty years especially December. When planning for our trips I expect crowds and just go with it. A crowded day at Disney is still a great day!!!
 
That is really interesting. A big part of TP's crowd levels are based on wait times. I assume they use their own, rather than Disney's reported, and they do generally have people in the parks. But, maybe they didn't have any at AK yesterday and relied more heavily on Disney's wait times. If those were exaggerated, then maybe. It still seems really odd.
I just looked this morning and yesterday AK was supposed to be a 3, was actually a 7. I wonder if the high wait times for the Pandora rides have something to do with the overall number? It's been crazy over there this week but the predictions for the other parks has been much closer.
 
here now. no morning FPs as of 9 am. we just got evacuated off of astro blaster.

space mountain has been down for an hour.

update: thunder mountain is now down.
 
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here now. no morning FPs as of 9 am. we just got evacuated off of astro blaster.

space mountain has been down for an hour.

update: thunder mountain is now down.
One day at Epcot this last week, Test Track, Frozen, Living with the Land and one other ride (I forget which one)were down all at the same time.
 

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