Here now 9/9 - 9/14 Crowds are a little bizarre

[funkyspunky871]

Hey guys. Just wanted to comment on our experiences so far with crowd levels. I've been to Disney many times and have never seen crowds so... bizarre! The walkways are very crowded imo. We went to Epcot yesterday and I expected some of it due to the food and wine festival but did not expect it at AK. At Epcot, we waited for both Figment and Living with the Land. We were starting to get very worried that maybe we picked the wrong time to go.

That is, until we checked the MDE app and were able to snag a second Soarin FP+ around 5:00pm. The standby line was set at 15 minutes! I've never seen wait times so low for Soarin. Had it not hurt our knees so much, we would have gotten a second FP+ for Test Track too. (I don't recall what the standby line was set at but judging by the myriad of FP+ still available, it must have been low too.)

At AK, again the walkways and stores were crowded -- like better move with the crowd or get run over. But the wait times (with the exception of FOP) were low. There were plenty of same-day FP+ for EE and the safari.

I don't get it. It's as if everyone is walking around and shopping rather than riding rides! Haha. On that note, our all-star resort is also pretty crowded and the buses are full (especially to Disney Springs). We have MNSSHP tonight, so I hope that goes well. I'm expecting the crowds now!

Oh and tip: the ground at Pandora is extra slippery for some reason so bring good shoes. We saw people slipping and sliding and it hadn't rained for several hours!

 

[hertamaniac]

Thanks for the update. We were there last week and the crowd levels were manageable except for EPCOT after 5:00 PM (I suspect for F&W Festival).

 

[Meghan4]

Thanks for the update. We will be there in less than 2 weeks and I am so curious as to how the crowds will be.

 

[Anthony1971]

No one can predict when it will be crowded anymore being Disney keeps changing the start times of events like the F&W festival and having parties earlier. EPCOT during FW is always crowded but people do not go to go on the rides. As far as Soarin the wait times are always lower now due to the addition of a theater last year... I think for most of the year this is no longer a fast pass required attraction. Test track if it rains and closes the lines will be looooong if not some times of the day they are not bad... AK... well Pandora while FOP is an amazing ride... the land around it is also amazing to walk around and look at.. AK itself is an attraction not just the traditional rides. In cooler weather when it is not crowded it is easy to spend an entire day just walking around and looking as there are many things people fly by that if they stopped an looked they would realize it is actually an attraction. On the other hand FOP is worth flying by everything...

 

[LSUmiss]

Hey guys. Just wanted to comment on our experiences so far with crowd levels. I've been to Disney many times and have never seen crowds so... bizarre! The walkways are very crowded imo. We went to Epcot yesterday and I expected some of it due to the food and wine festival but did not expect it at AK. At Epcot, we waited for both Figment and Living with the Land. We were starting to get very worried that maybe we picked the wrong time to go.

That is, until we checked the MDE app and were able to snag a second Soarin FP+ around 5:00pm. The standby line was set at 15 minutes! I've never seen wait times so low for Soarin. Had it not hurt our knees so much, we would have gotten a second FP+ for Test Track too. (I don't recall what the standby line was set at but judging by the myriad of FP+ still available, it must have been low too.)

At AK, again the walkways and stores were crowded -- like better move with the crowd or get run over. But the wait times (with the exception of FOP) were low. There were plenty of same-day FP+ for EE and the safari.

I don't get it. It's as if everyone is walking around and shopping rather than riding rides! Haha. On that note, our all-star resort is also pretty crowded and the buses are full (especially to Disney Springs). We have MNSSHP tonight, so I hope that goes well. I'm expecting the crowds now!

Oh and tip: the ground at Pandora is extra slippery for some reason so bring good shoes. We saw people slipping and sliding and it hadn't rained for several hours!

I’ve had an experience like this before. I don’t remember what month it was...maybe early December a couple years ago. But it was the same thing. Tons of ppl but low ride wait times. My guess was maybe it’s was inexperienced guests who were all waiting around for their scheduled fast passes.

 

[fla4fun]

I have found this to be the case a lot during free dining in September. I've been visiting in September for decades, and when free dining started, it's like everyone is so consumed with their dining, and making sure they get all their meals in, that the rides are almost an afterthought. As someone who does not use the dining plan, I don't have a problem with this . . .

 

[dotdot35]

DH and I were commenting on how much busier it seems for this time of year walking around but have only waited a maximum of 30 minutes for any ride (although have been lucky enough to have FPs for all the biggies). We were at Epcot for the evening both Sunday and Monday, and Sunday seemed v crowded, Monday not so bad, but talking to a drinks vendor she said the Monday night seemed busier than usual.

 

[alliecat523]

Same experience during Labor Day weekend. Soarin’ was 15 minutes for us then too.

 

[smallworldnh]

DS was there for the last 5 days and said almost everything was pretty much walk on, 15 min. waits, except for the headliners, and even those didn't have serious waits!!

 

[Jadyreen1282]

We experienced this from August 24th to Sept 1st.

 

[WildernessMickey]

We just returned from a Sept 2 - 9 stay, and it was pretty crowded at times, especially at food and wine, but the ride wait times weren't too bad most days. There were still days that the rides got busy at certain times. At one point Test Track shut down, Spaceship Earth shut down, and Soarin had one theatre that wasn't working. That made other wait times swell, but later in the day it got better. FOP was always long wait times, and the Navi River ride even had 30 - 45 minute wait times the days we were there. Other days we could almost walk on some of these rides, like Soarin in the afternoon.
I must say FOP was a fantastic ride! We had fast passes twice, and did the rope drop one morning, so we got to experience three times. There were hoards of people, but now I see why! The Navi River ride was pretty, but it didn't have a purpose or story line so I wasn't interested in riding it again unless it was a walk on. Which it wasn't while we were there.
We stayed at Pop Century and the buses were very crowded. We still had a very positive experience with bus wait times. Maybe we were lucky but we didn't have to wait long for a bus and sometimes another was in line behind the first one, so they handled the crowds very well. The bus walk into Hollywood Studios is loooong now! You will definitely get your steps in.

 

[kimmyg26]

It's so strange how it can change by the day. I'm hoping for low crowds for us next week. But no matter what the crowd level, we will have a great time.

 

[scrapquitler]

Hey guys. Just wanted to comment on our experiences so far with crowd levels. I've been to Disney many times and have never seen crowds so... bizarre! The walkways are very crowded imo. We went to Epcot yesterday and I expected some of it due to the food and wine festival but did not expect it at AK. At Epcot, we waited for both Figment and Living with the Land. We were starting to get very worried that maybe we picked the wrong time to go.

That is, until we checked the MDE app and were able to snag a second Soarin FP+ around 5:00pm. The standby line was set at 15 minutes! I've never seen wait times so low for Soarin. Had it not hurt our knees so much, we would have gotten a second FP+ for Test Track too. (I don't recall what the standby line was set at but judging by the myriad of FP+ still available, it must have been low too.)

At AK, again the walkways and stores were crowded -- like better move with the crowd or get run over. But the wait times (with the exception of FOP) were low. There were plenty of same-day FP+ for EE and the safari.

I don't get it. It's as if everyone is walking around and shopping rather than riding rides! Haha. On that note, our all-star resort is also pretty crowded and the buses are full (especially to Disney Springs). We have MNSSHP tonight, so I hope that goes well. I'm expecting the crowds now!

Oh and tip: the ground at Pandora is extra slippery for some reason so bring good shoes. We saw people slipping and sliding and it hadn't rained for several hours!

I have to wonder if people are evacuating NC, SC, and VA and heading to Disney and how this will be affecting the crowds this week. Totally possible that people are headed to Orlando. I know that if I lived that distance from Disney and was under mandatory evacuations, that would be my plan.

 

[tex1989]

We are there 9/22 through 9/29 and am hoping the waits are at the lower levels. Who knows about WDW anymore? Crowds are very unpredictable. My mind wonders about why all the time, since school is in session maybe most of the folks don't have kids with them so rides are not a priority. Then we go and dispite school being in session there are a ton of kids. Maybe the focus is F&W and Epcot is packed with people wanting to eat and drink, but the MK is packed with long waits. Our other theroy is interesting but never verified, that theroy being that Saturday is "moving day". What I mean is a lot of people start their vacation on a Saturday morning flight so they don't go to a park on Saturday and a lot of folks end their vacation on a Saturday (flying out) and don't go to the parks. Some of our least crowded days at MK seemed to have been Saturdays during even the busy seasons. Not the same park but we did a vacation to Disneyland one year got in on a Saturday went that afternoon and evening, all day Sunday and all day Monday before leaving Tuesday morning to drive to Monterrey. Would have thought the weekend would have been the most crowded but we rode a ton of rides and had a great time. On Monday we could hardly turn around the place was so crowded. I would have never guessed that!

So crossing our fingers our week will be full of short wait times and decent weatther.

 

[Lori77]

Before I get flamed, let me just say we usually go in September and remember when wait times used to be 5- 15 minutes for everything...(prior to SDMT, SDD and FOP, of course)

We were there 9/1-9/8, and I agree crowds were bizarre. The beginning of our time was busy just due to the holiday weekend. I expected things to ease up a bit mid-week, but the parks still were considerably crowded with wait times ranging from 20-45 minutes for most things, some were walk-on like ISMW, HM, ST, and Dinosaur. Headliners were at least 45-65 minutes, with some days 60-95 for SDMT, SM, FOP, and SDD. F&W did bring out the crowds on the holiday weekend, but the afternoons at EP most other days was alright. Again, I know 20-40 minutes is not bad, but for me, not ideal.

The bus experience was not too great at POP as that is where most people who had free dining were staying. I noticed that most mod and deluxe resorts had minimal crowds at their stops at all of the parks, maybe one busload. Typically, at end of night, there were at least 3 to 4 bus loads waiting to return to POP. We often took the AoA bus, and walked over the bridge.

Overall for us, now that attendance has shifted for MNSSHP and F&W plus with FP being a necessity and more expensive "Free Dining", September has become not worth it for us. Really, as many posts mention, there will no longer be a "slow" time to visit anymore. My plan is to shorten my trip, stay mod or deluxe, and take more advantage of resort and pool time, rather than the rides.

 

[Adreana]

I’m here now and rode every single ride in magic kingdom most twice and all walk on. I got an extra FP for RNRC walked on TOT and just got another FP for Slinky Dog

 

[ArmyVet80]

We are there 9/22 through 9/29 and am hoping the waits are at the lower levels. Who knows about WDW anymore? Crowds are very unpredictable. My mind wonders about why all the time, since school is in session maybe most of the folks don't have kids with them so rides are not a priority. Then we go and dispite school being in session there are a ton of kids. Maybe the focus is F&W and Epcot is packed with people wanting to eat and drink, but the MK is packed with long waits. Our other theroy is interesting but never verified, that theroy being that Saturday is "moving day". What I mean is a lot of people start their vacation on a Saturday morning flight so they don't go to a park on Saturday and a lot of folks end their vacation on a Saturday (flying out) and don't go to the parks. Some of our least crowded days at MK seemed to have been Saturdays during even the busy seasons. Not the same park but we did a vacation to Disneyland one year got in on a Saturday went that afternoon and evening, all day Sunday and all day Monday before leaving Tuesday morning to drive to Monterrey. Would have thought the weekend would have been the most crowded but we rode a ton of rides and had a great time. On Monday we could hardly turn around the place was so crowded. I would have never guessed that!

So crossing our fingers our week will be full of short wait times and decent weatther.

We are going to be there the same time 9/22/18 thru 9/29/18. We always find that the waits aren't too to bad on Saturdays (arrival) and F&W festival days are the best on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Everything else is easily doable with or without FP+

 

[friedela]

Looks like September is a good month to go although isn't it also hurricane season?

 

[ArmyVet80]

Looks like September is a good month to do although isn't it also hurricane season?

Yes it is. We always get trip insurance. Not necessarily through Disney but we have been refunded a full trip due to a "surprise" work engagement I had come up 3 years ago. Refunded 100% of what we paid including part of the cost of our Annual Pass. We tend to use Travel Guard Insurance.

 

[friedela]

Yes it is. We always get trip insurance. Not necessarily through Disney but we have been refunded a full trip due to a "surprise" work engagement I had come up 3 years ago. Refunded 100% of what we paid including part of the cost of our Annual Pass. We tend to use Travel Guard Insurance.

How much do you usually pay for trip insurance? I'm curious.