Crowd levels right now?

[MiMiDebbie]

We were there from July 19-25. It was crazy busy at MK and HS. We did MK on Saturday and did everything we planned, along with BOG lunch and CRT dinner. BTM was down at our FP time so we got an anytime FP and used it in the evening. We weren't going to watch HEA since we had reservations for the dessert party on the 23rd. Sunday was HS with EMH. We didn't have a FP for SDD so we had to RD it (45 minute wait in line). The crowds built quickly and we were glad for the FP+ for RnR and TOT, but the line for FP was still about 20 minutes. AK on Monday was fairly quiet and we RD the safari. After breakfast at Tusker house we rode EE and KRR with a FP, saw FOTLK and rode FOP with A FP. Tuesday we did EMM and got in quite a lot of rides before the masses showed up. We headed to SM at RD and were on and off in 20 minutes. It was downhill from there. SM went down just before our FP time for BTM which backed up the FP line to 40 minutes. Since were rode BTM on Saturday we skipped it, then time for our Splash FP and it was backed up 40 minutes !?! Oh my! Multi experience FPs backed everything up!!!! Left for some pool time after only using one FP. After dinner at Storybook Dining with Snow White we headed back to MK and the crowds were even worse. Thought we could get 4th and 5th FP, no luck. We headed to HEA dessert party which was absolutely worth the $$. Wednesday at Epcot was our best day crowdwise. We had a PPO at Garden Grill the RD Soaring, walked on FEA twice, FP for TT, FP for Character Spot and SE. Got a 4th FP for Soaring. All in all we had a great time, but I found it way busier than any other time we have gone, which has included Spring Break, Easter week and Presidents Day week. FWIW, I think too many FP are given out and then when a ride goes down it creates a huge backup on the other FP lines.

 

[joviroxx]

February 2012 was the perfect visit. No magic band, no 60 day fast pass. Just get in the park and grab your daily fast passes. They weren't even stoping you coming back 3 hours past your fast pass window. I remember leaving a park and giving a random guest extra fast passes that we didn't use because we did rider swap so many times.

Back then , it was a little known (well, maybe not so little) that you could use your fast pass after it expired, you just couldn;t use it early.

 

[one_cat]

Remember years ago they would turn off the fastpass machines on quiet days and everyone would go through standby?

 

[Mousefan mom]

Here now... we come every two years at nearly the same time, and the crowds themselves seem similar to what we've seen in the past.

However, we are having a heck of a time getting decent 4th FPs, which is very unusual for us. I'm so curious if others are experiencing the same thing or if I just have really bad luck this time.

We experienced this issue too--we were only able to use our 3 FP, and then sometimes a Soarin would be open (but the wait times for Soarin were only about 20 minutes anyway). However, we found for anything else you could actually benefit from a FP usage, there wasn't anything by 1-2 pm. Others were commenting on this too. Remember, some are now getting 6 fast passes a day (that they got to book in advance) due to a new upcharge offering. Not sure if that is what is hurting or not. We also found the FP lines were long--often taking 15 minutes in line.

 

[Toolulu22]

So, we will be at MK this Sunday and have a PPO BOG breakfast at 8am. Hoping that's the edge we need to bypass some crowds. I looked at waits last sunday AM around 9amand they were very low around Frontierland and Adventure Land (we have a FP+ for 7DMT) so we will not be with the pack at RD. Part of me hopes there's a drop off in crowds on Aug 1 as kids go back to school and the other part of me is like, BRACE YOURSELF!

We are conditioned to always expect crowds but I feel like when we go to WDW in the summer, we should at least get lower crowd levels to compensate with the heat and rain

We were in MK this past Sunday and the pack came in to do SDMT at RP and we headed over to BTMR. We had a FP for Big Thunder, but rode it standby once first- and it took about half and hour to go through (which was the time posted by Disney BTW- TP had 15 minutes posted on their website). By the time we got off and walked around to do our FP, the line had grown already. We walked over to Splash next and it also had a decent line growing.

What we noticed at MK more than huge crowds, because I didn’t think it was CRAZY busy as others commented, but rides kept going down. Peter Pan’s flight went down. Philharmagic closed for a while (around the same time as Peter Pan), and something else went down around the same time.

We were at Epcot on Monday late afternoon/evening- the day of the torrential storms. It was super quiet.
Typhoon Lagoon was busy today, Disney Springs was bustling but you could get a table anywhere. Our server said it is the slow season (we were confused by that).
Tomorrow is DHS- interested to see what its like - the calm before the storm- troopers.
Overall, its hot and we had a really bad storm one night (Monday) that closed things down early. A little lightning last night, but the storm missed Disney. Knock wood, we only used our rain ponchos that Monday (in the afternoon and in the evening).

So, for your MK day be prepared to be flexible with your plans. We had to switch things up a bit during this trip for different reasons.

 

[TheSouthernBelle]

We were in MK this past Sunday and the pack came in to do SDMT at RP and we headed over to BTMR. We had a FP for Big Thunder, but rode it standby once first- and it took about half and hour to go through (which was the time posted by Disney BTW- TP had 15 minutes posted on their website). By the time we got off and walked around to do our FP, the line had grown already. We walked over to Splash next and it also had a decent line growing.

What we noticed at MK more than huge crowds, because I didn’t think it was CRAZY busy as others commented, but rides kept going down. Peter Pan’s flight went down. Philharmagic closed for a while (around the same time as Peter Pan), and something else went down around the same time.

We were at Epcot on Monday late afternoon/evening- the day of the torrential storms. It was super quiet.
Typhoon Lagoon was busy today, Disney Springs was bustling but you could get a table anywhere. Our server said it is the slow season (we were confused by that).
Tomorrow is DHS- interested to see what its like - the calm before the storm- troopers.
Overall, its hot and we had a really bad storm one night (Monday) that closed things down early. A little lightning last night, but the storm missed Disney. Knock wood, we only used our rain ponchos that Monday (in the afternoon and in the evening).

So, for your MK day be prepared to be flexible with your plans. We had to switch things up a bit during this trip for different reasons.

Thank you for sharing your recent experience. We have FP+ for 7DMT, PP and Haunted Mansion but our goal after breakfast was to sneak a quick standby ride on 7DMT to get in a second ride that day, then head to Frontierland. Did you end up riding Splash after BTMR? If so, how long was your wait? TY!!

 

[Mango7100]

So right now even refreshing hasn’t been yielding good results for FPs?

 

[Park Pirate]

I will 2nd what many are saying here. We go every year and have gone over the summer the last 3-4 years. We were there last week from 7/20-7/28. with the exception of Epcot, it was the most crowded we have ever seen it. Wait times of 2.5-3+ hours for some of the rides (FOP, splash and space mountains, TOT, Slinky Dog, etc..), and most of the others were at least 50 min. or so. AK and HS were somewhat manageable with FP+, but we found MK difficult. We ended up going on TTA and COP several more times than normal, as that was the only thing we could fit in to our windows. Fortunately, we like those rides a lot. Other than the weather causing the typical summer closings (which is expected), there seemed to be an unusually high number of rides going down. The first day we got there both Splash and Big Thunder were down (not weather related) for much of the morning. Space mountain was having issues all week.

We still had a good time, but do not think we will go in late July again, if we can find a better time. I was surprised to see the large South American tour groups. We would always see them when we would go in January, but had not seen them much the last few summers.

So, don't be discouraged - you can still have a great time. Epcot was great. We even walked on to Soaring, which I never thought would happen. AK and HS were manageable with FP+. AK was much better late at night for crowds. MK was difficult, but again manageable if you plan your FP+ for the big rides and then expect to wait longer than normal for the others. At least that is what we did because we refuse to wait in 2+ hour long lines.

Disney cannot control the weather, but it seems that at this time of year you are either blazing hot or wet from rain. Just plan accordingly and you will still have a great time.

 

[Park Pirate]

So right now even refreshing hasn’t been yielding good results for FPs?

We were able to get 4th and beyond FP+ for some of the rides (not FOP). We broke it down into groups of 2 and were able to score some. It was not as easy as it has been in the past though.

 

[Mango7100]

We were able to get 4th and beyond FP+ for some of the rides (not FOP). We broke it down into groups of 2 and were able to score some. It was not as easy as it has been in the past though.

Ok—we are just going to Epcot and MK this next trip 8/29-9/2. Our 6 year old is happy with any ride at MK so even picking up FP for smaller rides still keeps our wait times lower

 

[TheSouthernBelle]

We were able to get 4th and beyond FP+ for some of the rides (not FOP). We broke it down into groups of 2 and were able to score some. It was not as easy as it has been in the past though.

I think that helps a lot. When we're a FP+ party of 4 subsequent FP are hard to come by as the day gets later but if we split up it definitely opens up more options.

 

[Aurora2017]

I've noticed that Touring plans keeps predicting MK as a 5 or less crowd level but for the past two weeks the actual level seems to be an 8 or more! This worries me about the predictions for us starting this Sunday. I hope the crowds will lessen by the time we get there!

 

[nerdyone]

I've noticed that Touring plans keeps predicting MK as a 5 or less crowd level but for the past two weeks the actual level seems to be an 8 or more! This worries me about the predictions for us starting this Sunday. I hope the crowds will lessen by the time we get there!

My understanding is that they examine how ma y fast passes are available and how quickly they go. So if they see that all the passes are gone on day 60, that's a 10. But if there still some free a week out (and there are a ton) then it's a lower number

 

[mbtohill]

I've noticed that Touring plans keeps predicting MK as a 5 or less crowd level but for the past two weeks the actual level seems to be an 8 or more! This worries me about the predictions for us starting this Sunday. I hope the crowds will lessen by the time we get there!

I've been checking Touring Plans too, they have MK as a 5 and all the rest of the parks at a 3 for this Sunday!!! We arrive on Monday 8/5 and I'm hoping TP is close to accurate! I've seen lots of anecdotal evidence that crowds have been "relatively" light this summer, but I guess that's not really the case....oh well....we're Disney pro's...go with the flow and have a good time!!

 

[GDC]

We were at MK yesterday and it was packed. We planned to rope drop 3 of our party at Big Thunder and 2 at Splash. We arrived in plenty of time at park opening only to find BOTH rides were down immediately at opening. This messed up our entire touring strategy for the day and created huge lines at the surrounding attractions. The waits were horribly long the rest of the day, everywhere (45 minute waits at small world and 80+ minutes for Jungle cruise at times), and we never got to ride Splash at all as the lowest wait we saw was around 60 minutes and we just weren't willing to wait that long. We also found as others mentioned it was very difficult to get 4th fastpasses for anything. In past years, we have always been able to get fastpasses for Big Thunder, Space, etc. even if for later in the day but this time those attractions never came up at all. Seemed to be always the same handful of items that were available (Dumbo, Barnstormer, Small World, Magic Carpets...). Even tried splitting our party as I figured 5 might be difficult to snag but that didn't help. We still had a lot of fun but certainly the kids were disappointed about the long wait times to ride their favorites.

 

[Toolulu22]

Thank you for sharing your recent experience. We have FP+ for 7DMT, PP and Haunted Mansion but our goal after breakfast was to sneak a quick standby ride on 7DMT to get in a second ride that day, then head to Frontierland. Did you end up riding Splash after BTMR? If so, how long was your wait? TY!!

You’re welcome! We had a FP for Splash, and with the wait for BTMR and then riding it again with a FP- we got to Splash so that we could use our second FP. The standby line was snaking into the tunnels by the time we rode it after 10 am. My husband estimates over an hour wait.

I've been checking Touring Plans too, they have MK as a 5 and all the rest of the parks at a 3 for this Sunday!!! We arrive on Monday 8/5 and I'm hoping TP is close to accurate! I've seen lots of anecdotal evidence that crowds have been "relatively" light this summer, but I guess that's not really the case....oh well....we're Disney pro's...go with the flow and have a good time!!

I kept checking TP Lines estimates while at the park and found that it was off. This was my first time paying for and using it, and feel as though the best usage is the Reservation Finder. Unfortunately, with rides going down in the parks throughout the day, or weather forcing at least temporary closing, the trip planning feature is out the window. The crowd predictions are estimates and often adjusted after the fact, and the lines app has been inaccurate enough that I will not depend on it. Sorry, this was my experience using TP on this trip.

Crowds do seem to be lower, but not really “light” like ghost town light- but compared to busy like our last trip during President’s Week- yes, much lighter. MK felt busier that the other three parks, and Typhoon Lagoon was very busy.

Resorts don’t seem too bad, and the pools are manageable. Reservations are easy to make last minute. We’ve changed many of ours on the day of. We’re staying at Wilderness Lodge and I saw available reservations at Storybook @ Artist Point.

 

[JeninTexas]

We leave in the morning and I've been checking FP availability on TP and they are reporting all the FPs for headliners gone pretty early in the morning. There just doesn't seem to be much availability for 4th (and beyond) FPs. I'm hoping we will get lucky, but I'm not holding out a lot of hope for being able to use refresh and get more FPs.

 

[nerdyone]

We leave in the morning and I've been checking FP availability on TP and they are reporting all the FPs for headliners gone pretty early in the morning. There just doesn't seem to be much availability for 4th (and beyond) FPs. I'm hoping we will get lucky, but I'm not holding out a lot of hope for being able to use refresh and get more FPs.

There hasn't been any early morning FP for months for any day. If you check tonight's EMH for MK it's pretty low crowds

 

[Figment Mom]

Overheard while on the raft to Tom Sawyer's Island:

Child (looking at Liberty Belle): "Oh, what's that?"

Dad of child: "It's a boat ride that has a 120 minute wait like everything else here."

I chuckled.

 

[JeninTexas]

There hasn't been any early morning FP for months for any day. If you check tonight's EMH for MK it's pretty low crowds

I'm not talking about getting early morning FPs. I'm talking about checking on the availability for further FPs. I will look around 11 am, (about when we would have used our first 3) to see what we can get for later in the day and there is not much available. All the headliners are gone for the entire day. There are some second tier rides that come up for late afternoon/evening, but nothing at all for higher demand rides.