Anyone know why it's so busy right now?

I don't mean to laugh at your post, but this cracks me up. The hurricaine effected one week at a slower time of year. And people have been using that theory for every busy week since. I personally don't think that is a factor anymore. More like Disney is heavily marketing the park, improved economy has people spending money & Disney has introduced new events to get people there at different times of the year (Festival of the Arts, sports & cheer competitions in the winter, spring & fall, expanded Food & Wine festival, holiday parties & how many runDisney events are there now??). Plus using data like fastpass & ADRs they can staff up or down more predictably & keep wait times pretty consistent year round.

Unfortunately for us we had a Girls trip scheduled during the hurricane. My friend lived north of Houston & her house, her business and her daughters house hadn’t some damage. So no way for the trip during the hurricane.
Due to each of our schedules, we rescheduled our trip for 2/5-10. we had planned for F&W we decided to do Festival of the Arts. I did Festival of Arts last year with my 5 year old niece & enjoyed it.
 
This year we have been to WDW for a week the end of June, the middle of July, the end of October, and January 7-14. Last week was by far the busiest we have seen it. What we noticed was that it wasn't necessarily the wait time for rides that were drastically increased but just the sheer volume of people walking around. We know the marathon affected things the beginning of our trip and then the UCF parade made things at MK so unbearable we left, walked to the Contemporary and hung out at the The Wave bar (that wasn't necessarily a bad thing - LOL!!). On the 7th and 8th Main Street seemed just as crowded as the week leading up to Christmas. We seriously stopped moving several times because of how crowded it was. It did get better later in the week but still much more crowded than any other trip we have had in the past year. The good news, at least for us, was that it didn't do anything to ruin our trip. We just accepted it was busy and went about our vacation. We did find that it was a bit more tiring to maneuver through the heavy crowds. We were all definitely ready to head back to the resort by about 6:00 every night. There were several days when I actually went to bed at around 7:00 - which was actually HEAVEN!!! I think it may have been the first WDW vacation where I felt like I actually slept more than when I am at home.
Well this has me feeling not too great about leaving on 2/3. I have a good plan set up but I hope terribly crowded parks don’t ruin our time.
 
Well this has me feeling not too great about leaving on 2/3. I have a good plan set up but I hope terribly crowded parks don’t ruin our time.
I'm with you. We arrive on 1/28.

I'm really hoping for moderate crowds. I'm OK with waiting for headliners for a while, even up to an hour, and I think parks are going to feel crowded no matter what, there will be a lot of people to dodge! But as it draws closer I'm starting to become paranoid that it's going to be like wall-to-wall Christmas crowd levels and I'll be miserable.
 
Len stated that their models for AK were assuming that the crowds would do a typical fade from "new" to "average" but that doesn't appear to be what's happening. They are adjusting that assumption in their models. I'd expect to see crowd level updates pretty soon.
 


Len stated that their models for AK were assuming that the crowds would do a typical fade from "new" to "average" but that doesn't appear to be what's happening. They are adjusting that assumption in their models. I'd expect to see crowd level updates pretty soon.
Great, thanks for the update.

I'm looking on the line app today and ASK seems pretty on par with what they predicted. So far, anyway. Looks like a great day to be there!
 
I do think the shorter days make it seem more crowded though. You don't have the later hours where the park empties out. No one is waiting until later to do any of the rides and it seems more people stick it out from rope drop to close.
I think this has a lot to do with why it can feel more crowded...
 
We use to travel to Disney around early / mid May and crowds were perfect. That was the sweet spot. Recently it's become harder to fine the month were the crowds are low and manageable.
 


Like for real, is this normal? Its like Disneyland times 2, I was expecting much lower crowds from all the research I did. The schedules I made on touring plans have barely been accurate. I'm discouraged, but still having fun.
Not sure where the research is coming from these days. We are AP holders and live nearby and never experience "slow" times at all anymore whenever we do a day trip or overnight trip. "Slow" days are pretty much a thing of that past anymore. (sometimes there may be a "slower" time during that day (or a "lull") but there's no consistency from year to year-it's always busy).
 
Crowds were so low Thursday, but all the mountains were down, space all day!! We ere frozen to the point that half my family couldn't hang. It was our last day so me and my 6 year old rode everything together that we could. Hat lunch at the starlight, which was packed! And might I add that mobile order pickup is the best thing ever! 30 min wait for food, got mine in 2.

Had dinner at BOG, amazing, good steak! My seafood pasta was just okay. Fireworks were empty that night too and we jumped in last min for an amazing spot. Glad I didn't do dessert party! Then went in Friday morning before we left and it was back to insane crowds. I love it there, but I can't do that amount of people all the time, it's exhausting. Magic hour from 10 to midnight is the way to go! Hoping to come back in summer if it's like that at night!
 
I’ve been downplaying the crowds all week but MK is crazy right now. Lines for restrooms. Hard to walk around. Speedway line out to the tea cups. Tea cups at 30 mins?!

Saturday nights at MK are always busy, I suppose. But this seems nearly as crowded as Xmas/NYE week. Thank god for fastpass. :-)
 
I’ve been downplaying the crowds all week but MK is crazy right now. Lines for restrooms. Hard to walk around. Speedway line out to the tea cups. Tea cups at 30 mins?!

Saturday nights at MK are always busy, I suppose. But this seems nearly as crowded as Xmas/NYE week. Thank god for fastpass. :-)

See, I wasn't wrong! All those crowd calendars were off. I guess the weather probably had a lot to do with it, being that the few warmer days were busier than the few colder days, but sheesh! I was hoping for a lot less people. Going to try summer next and hope for the best, then perhaps September or October.
 
See, I wasn't wrong! All those crowd calendars were off. I guess the weather probably had a lot to do with it, being that the few warmer days were busier than the few colder days, but sheesh! I was hoping for a lot less people. Going to try summer next and hope for the best, then perhaps September or October.
It’s definitely way off predictions right now. They normally do pretty well with the predictions, even this past fall was pretty good. It’s not looking promising for our trip in a week.
 
It’s definitely way off predictions right now. They normally do pretty well with the predictions, even this past fall was pretty good. It’s not looking promising for our trip in a week.
I'll be there too. Just how bad do you think we need to prepare for it to be?
 
I'll be there too. Just how bad do you think we need to prepare for it to be?
I don’t think it’ll be that bad. But instead of 2 to 5 crowd levels, maybe 4 to 7. I’ve never been there when it was crowded so it’ll be an experience for sure.
 
I don’t think it’ll be that bad. But instead of 2 to 5 crowd levels, maybe 4 to 7. I’ve never been there when it was crowded so it’ll be an experience for sure.
I went in October 2016 and it was pretty crowded, much more so than predicted. I think if it turns out to be like that (4-8) then it won't be too bad - nothing off the charts. I always get nervous right before a trip about crowds and hoping I have realistic expectations.
 
I went in October 2016 and it was pretty crowded, much more so than predicted. I think if it turns out to be like that (4-8) then it won't be too bad - nothing off the charts. I always get nervous right before a trip about crowds and hoping I have realistic expectations.
Our previous trips were in the 1-4 range so this will definitely be different.
 
We just got back after being there all week. Other than feeling a bit more crowded on Sunday and Monday (due to the MLK holiday, I'm sure), I didn't think the parks were all that bad. Had a good plan going in, some free time built in for any unanticipated setbacks, and we still rode and saw everything we wanted, even rode high profile rides multiple times by refreshing the app. A bit cold, but totally manageable.
 

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