Are these normal wait times for summer..?

[IdahoMike]

We were there 6/26-7/2, and never waited more than 30 minutes for anything, with the exception of Peter Pan when it reopened. Even then, it was posted at 60 mins from when we entered and I timed it at 45. As others have said, if you get there early, as in rope drop, the first four hours are key to getting a lot done. Utilize fastpass as much as possible, and also, if you are not a parade/fireworks person, lines are short on a lot of rides during that time. We rode Nemo after the fireworks, and literally walked right on. The rest of the day it was a huge line. Timing is everything. If you are a sleep in/go out to breakfast/stroll into the park around noon person, you are going to deal with lines at almost any time of the year.
Everyone's definition of crowded is going to be different though, so that will make a difference as well.

 

[Lord Fantasius]

Do everything you can in the morning! We were there last week: Mon (7/20), Wed (7/22), & Thur (7/23), and lines were insane...particularly on Monday! Lines fluctuate constantly, but unless you hit it right (such as right after a ride reopens after being down), you are going to wait in the afternoon/evening. Most of the FP's for ride times later in the evening on the more popular rides were already handed out by mid-afternoon. With two Fantasmic performances, two "electrical" parades (not really worth it, IMHO), light show, etc. crowds really don't disburse until later.

But it is really hit-or-miss aytime after 11:00am. Except for Peter Pan, we were able to do all the other Fantasyland rides in about 2-3 hours Wednesday morning after arriving around 8:30. We were also able to walk right on Nemo during the first evening parade performance on Monday night while the wait was almost an hour the same time on Wednesday. However, it is difficult not being near some sort of performance as Fantasmic is going on virtually at the same time as the fireworks so movement anywhere in the park is kind of difficult anytime between 9:00pm-11:00pm.

Admittedly, even some of the regular locals and cast members were commenting how frenetic everything was more-so this year. Probably didn't help much having 2 kids who were tired...and crabby...by that time, and it might be just the 60th anniversary celebration drawing everyone, but guess I'll stick to Fall or Spring next time.

 

[telecomguy]

We checked into our hotel today, and are going to be hitting DL tomorrow. I have been checking wait times via the apps, and even called Otto, lots of high wait times. I called around 2:30pm or so, so I'm hoping maybe it was just the usual mid-day high waits. Don't think I'm going to be crossing my fingers though.

 

[LisaT91403]

We went yesterday (Monday). Let me give you some background -- we have been AP holders for about 5 years, but this is our first year with Deluxe passes. So normally, we don't visit in the summer. But aside from the summer, we visit often, and usually on Sundays.

Normally, we go early-ish in the day. Not rope drop, but maybe within an hour or so of it. We had some big problems yesterday, and I'll spare you the details...but we didn't get into the parks until 12:30. DS wanted an Indy FP. Return time? 4:50 - 5:50. It's brutal to have your FP return be about 4 1/2 hours later. We grabbed a Buzz FP since we knew it was disconnected, and grabbed one for HM at 2:30 when our window opened again. That was it for FP's, as everything else was gone by the time we were done with HM. We didn't ride much because the lines were simply brutal. 75 minutes for Star Tours. 60 for Small World. 90 for Space. 50 for Jungle Cruise. 50 for Astro Orbiters. 40 for Pirates. I could go on, but you get the idea. We just couldn't bring ourselves to wait. We did Pinocchio (14 minutes) and Casey Jr. (really short...no idea why...only about 5 minutes), and the Tiki Room because DS had never done it. Then we bailed, even before the Indy FP, as we just couldn't take the crowds. We hopped over to DCA, and had a much better time there.

I figured "Summer. It can't be much worse than a typical Sunday during the rest of the year, right? Or when we went to the Tuesday of Thanksgiving week?" Boy, was I wrong. Brutal.

 

[telecomguy]

We went yesterday (Monday). Let me give you some background -- we have been AP holders for about 5 years, but this is our first year with Deluxe passes. So normally, we don't visit in the summer. But aside from the summer, we visit often, and usually on Sundays.

Normally, we go early-ish in the day. Not rope drop, but maybe within an hour or so of it. We had some big problems yesterday, and I'll spare you the details...but we didn't get into the parks until 12:30. DS wanted an Indy FP. Return time? 4:50 - 5:50. It's brutal to have your FP return be about 4 1/2 hours later. We grabbed a Buzz FP since we knew it was disconnected, and grabbed one for HM at 2:30 when our window opened again. That was it for FP's, as everything else was gone by the time we were done with HM. We didn't ride much because the lines were simply brutal. 75 minutes for Star Tours. 60 for Small World. 90 for Space. 50 for Jungle Cruise. 50 for Astro Orbiters. 40 for Pirates. I could go on, but you get the idea. We just couldn't bring ourselves to wait. We did Pinocchio (14 minutes) and Casey Jr. (really short...no idea why...only about 5 minutes), and the Tiki Room because DS had never done it. Then we bailed, even before the Indy FP, as we just couldn't take the crowds. We hopped over to DCA, and had a much better time there.

I figured "Summer. It can't be much worse than a typical Sunday during the rest of the year, right? Or when we went to the Tuesday of Thanksgiving week?" Boy, was I wrong. Brutal.

So I just checked the wait times in Mousewait and DL Waits, and they didn't seem too brutal for either DL or DCA. So, hoping that the week gets a little better as it goes along.

 

[LisaT91403]

So I just checked the wait times in Mousewait and DL Waits, and they didn't seem too brutal for either DL or DCA. So, hoping that the week gets a little better as it goes along.

I think mid-day is typically worse than 7:30pm.

 

[AddictedtoDoleWhip]

These are pretty normal as of lately... I would say the 60th Anniversary is partly to blame for the crowd increase, but I also think its just starting to become the norm for summer.

 

[720L]

Any word in the parks why wait times were so high today? Was it hard to enjoy the parks?

I didn't hear anything. We were at DCA today & it wasn't nearly as busy as DL was. Going back to DL tomorrow & Thursday hoping it's better than it was.

 

[auteur55]

So I just checked the wait times in Mousewait and DL Waits, and they didn't seem too brutal for either DL or DCA. So, hoping that the week gets a little better as it goes along.

It didn't look quite as bad today as it did Monday. At least the lines fluctuated a bit. That Monday was the worst i've seen wait times in ages. Why would a random Monday be so bad? Today did look really busy but never as punishing as yesterday.

 

[dtnrhi]

We went at the beginning of June and July. Both trips actually had crowds of less than what I was expecting. Extremely manageable.

We were trying to go back once more before school starts, but rooms are booked SOLID for the next two weeks. Lots of tourists making their way to Anaheim.

 

[Pyrotechnictigger]

Get in when the park opens, no lines then! Leave at 11 ish and laze by the pool. Go back in the evening for the fireworks, Fantasmic and WOC.

 

[mt mommy]

I have 1 explanation that MIGHT be some of the crowds. Here in Utah we have a VERY big State holiday on July 24. Many, many people get the day off. So, people here in Utah LOVE DLR. They might have added to the crowds opting to head there for an extended weekend. Thus adding to the crowd level. We have many friends that are Annual Pass holders here in Utah. Just a thought.

Hoping the crowds die down, we are headed there in 3 weeks.

 

[elaine amj]

Get in when the park opens, no lines then! Leave at 11 ish and laze by the pool. Go back in the evening for the fireworks, Fantasmic and WOC.

We did 7am Magic Morning last Tuesday. There was a long line to get INTO DL and we got in just a few minutes after 7am. Another family told me they got in line to enter the park just about then and it took almost 30 MINUTES to enter the park! We went straight to Fantasyland deciding to do all the dark rides, figuring they would be walk-ons. (since we were not attempting Peter Pan or Matterhorn). Everything was a 10+ minute wait. Totally wasn't expecting that so early in the morning. Lines just got battier from there.

On the good side, we did Roger Rabbit at 9am in the morning (when Toontown opened) and it was an awesome walk-on! We did it 3 times in a row before deciding to move on to DCA

 

[auteur55]

Tower of terror was at 70 minutes by 9:00 today. Holy Hannah!

 

[telecomguy]

So, we're back in our room now, taking our midday break. We got to DL this morning around 7:30am. We were probably about 20-25 people deep in line for turnstyle. We got through fairly quick, we were to the right of the ECV entrance and they kept pulling people from our line over to there. I must say, the process of scanning the card and taking a picture is a huge difference than how easy it has been over the years to enter a WDW park. At any rate,I got us almost to the front for rope drop, although being the less experienced DL visitor,we went around the castle on the Matterhorn side and looped around to PPF, but the line was way too long for me to even consider it. So we rode:

• Snow White's Scary Adventures
• Pinocchio's Daring Journey
• Mr. Toad's Wild Ride (was going to ride it first, but they said it was closed)
• Alice in Wonderland
• Mad Tea Party
• Storybook Land Canal Boats (20 minute wait, we detoured to the F! fastpass area to see what color they were on (it was yellow, I wanted blue))
• it's a small world
• Dumbo (back to F! fastpass, finally got a blue one)
• Roger Rabbit's Car Toon Spin
• The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (walked by PotC but it was closed)
• Pirates of the Caribbean (came back, it reopened and the line was short)

So, 11 rides in the morning. The FP return times didn't seem so bad when we walked by and looked at a couple of them. So, hopefully it stays this way.

 

[auteur55]

Cool! Please let me know how the afternoon goes. I noticed the waits look much better today so that Monday must have been an anomaly. What time did you head back to rest?

 

[telecomguy]

Cool! Please let me know how the afternoon goes. I noticed the waits look much better today so that Monday must have been an anomaly. What time did you head back to rest?

The shuttle for our hotel picks up every 30 minutes at the top and half past the hour. We were actually going to watch Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln, we were in the pre-show room, and I looked at the time and it was 12:34pm. We went and got our Photopass+ just before that, and I figured we would catch Great Moments on the way. We hadn't eaten since breakfast, and I figured if we watched the show, it would put us at 1:30pm to catch a shuttle. So we left the park then and got to the spot for our shuttle at 12:45pm, and to the hotel at about 1:05pm or so.

 

[beachdreamr1229]

I'm a semi-local AP holder and we go plenty of times in the year, but I'm going next week and it will be my first-ever August trip and we'll be there for 3 days. I know June and early July aren't usually bad, so I'm kind of surprised at these line times being mentioned this week (though at the same time not surprised since it's an anniversary year). Any hopes of them dying down a little bit for next week? We plan on going in the AM, going back to the hotel mid-day when it's most miserable, and coming back around dinner time with hopes of watching the night-time stuff, but no expectations. It's not like we're going to die if we miss something since we will go again in October, but I'm trying to prepare for entertaining my toddlers based on what it might be like. We're used to a maximum 30 minute wait for the kiddie rides (the others are no big deal since my 5 year old can wait forever and we can get FPs).

 

[720L]

Today DL was less busy than Monday (I would say a 8 out of 10 and Monday was a 10) so that was great. We got there at opening & left around 8pm. We really like having the "old" fastpass system it works so much better for us!