Just back...Sept 8 -12

[Puffy2]

Well, it didn't rain! Four days of sunshine which was great, but it was also HOT. In the low 90's . and the crowds were higher than expected. (It was supposed to be 1 - 2 crowd level days, but the MK was more like a 6 pushing 7, Epcot was maybe a 3-4, Hollywood Studios a 4-5, and Animal Kingdom a 2-3. We only visited parks that were NON early entry or late stays.

I tried the Everest ride...NEVER AGAIN. I've never been so glad to get off a ride. I was sick for the rest of the afternoon and had to leave the park and return to the hotel.

One thought, we did a a few reservations for restaurants, but a couple of nights we just winged it...unfortunately, all the restaurants we were interested in were BOOKED SOLID (Captains Grill, even over priced Cape May) No worries though, there are plenty of counter service options to choose from and we managed to get a meal ...for a significantly lower price. But just fyi, it a restaurant is important to you, make a reservation. You might can even wait until the day before or day of, but make the reservation early in the day.

Learn from Sunshine Seasons cashier that they will STOP serving breakfast as of Jan. 1st! Too bad, it is good and a good deal.

 

[Melindarella]

Us too! We were at POP the 5th-12th! Had a great time despite the heat! Was very happy that we only had one day of rain and it wasn't bad - just drizzly and gray and that didn't last all day!

Agreed - much busier than I expected! Guess we all read the same crowd calendar - lol!! Wednesday was our planned MK day (crowd calendar showed "1") and it took 4 buses to get all of the people from POP to the MK and we were at the bus stop by 8:30 (we made it onto the 3rd bus and there was one waiting behind it!!) The park was crowded - but the ride lines actually weren't that long, with the exception of rides like, BTMR, Space Mountain, Splash and of course 7DMT. Same at the other parks we visited - lots and lots of people, but we were able to ride many rides using stand-by with very low waits and adjust our Fast passes as needed!

 

[wendow]

We were there 9/7-9/11. Very, very busy at the MK in particular!! So much busier than we were thinking based on previous September trips, and of course, the popular crowd calendars. We still did *almost* everything we wanted but we waited in longer lines than we've had to before.

And I agree, good weather in terms of very little rain but oh, so hot and humid. That is the norm for Sept though.

 

[Murron]

We're still here and agree MK was crazy crowded on September 10. Admittedly my Fp+ plan for that day wasn't the best and the 90+ temperatures didn't help. We're actually hung around for and hour and left. Which is ok...we've been any times and resort pool was calling to us. Also agree that dining reservations are now always required. There was a time when you could wing it in September. It appears those days are gone.

 

[lisaross]

Just curious which crowd calendars did you use? Anyone use unofficial guide to disney touring plans or crowd calendar?

 

[anniemae]

We were there at end of Aug/beg of Sept and also thought it was more crowded than we expected. I think it's just the way it is now.

 

[mousefan73]

good to see I am not the only one who thought things were busier than "normal" for this time period. I had a thread last week addressing this.. I fear that September is no longer a best kept secret.. will be interesting to see if they keep FD if they are filling things up.

 

[lisaross]

Schools in nyc just started on the 9th and we have off this mon and tues and again next wed and thur

 

[mousefan73]

Ironically most families I noticed had southern accents. I know alot of southern schools started beg of Aug.. so I think parents let their kids get into school mode and then bam... take them out for a week.
I did hear some NY accents but this year I noticed the southern accents.

 

[NYCANC]

Ironically most families I noticed had southern accents. I know alot of southern schools started beg of Aug.. so I think parents let their kids get into school mode and then bam... take them out for a week.
I did hear some NY accents but this year I noticed the southern accents.

We have year round school in NC (not all of NC though) so some with southern accents might be year round. Our new school year starts in July.

 

[Melindarella]

Just curious which crowd calendars did you use? Anyone use unofficial guide to disney touring plans or crowd calendar?

I use easyWDW crowd calendars

 

[SleepingUgly]

We also just got back; were there from Sept. 7-12. Had never traveled to WDW this time of the year so was looking forward to the lower crowds but didn't really see that. True, we weren't all packed in like sardines but the parks definitely weren't 1-2 crowd levels, like Touring Plans was predicting. Nonetheless, with right planning, you can get a lot done. On the Tuesday after Labor Day, we were at AK and we did KRR three times in under one hour after 3 pm, and my daughters did EE twice in under 30 minutes after 4 pm (and had ridden it twice already that morning before 10 am). It was indeed busy at MK on Wednesday but we had an early morning breakfast at CP so was in line for our first ride (Haunted Mansion) by 9.30 am and there was no wait; it continued like that for most rides pretty much until lunchtime. It was considerably much busier and crowded in the afternoon and early evening. Epcot on Thursday was also doable; Soarin' was walk-on after 8 pm and we did that twice before closing .... AND had dinner at Sunshine Seasons in between! In other words, get to the parks early and, if you can, return (or stick around) for the last 1-2 hours, and you should be able to enjoy rides multiple times with very little wait and no need for FP+.

 

[Takket]

interesting thread... we're going in November this year, but like all of you we have "cashed in" on the week after labor day many times for the joy of the almost empty parks. I wonder if this year was a fluke because of how late labor day was??? I hope this isn't the "new normal!"

 

[Anonomom]

Ironically most families I noticed had southern accents. I know alot of southern schools started beg of Aug.. so I think parents let their kids get into school mode and then bam... take them out for a week.
I did hear some NY accents but this year I noticed the southern accents.

We're southern (though lacking accents) and did take our kids out of school this past week (third week of school). We were at WDW on the 10th and 11th and thought the crowds felt big but wait times were manageable. We walked onto rides like IASW, Dumbo and Buzz; something we weren't able to do on our May, August and November trips in the past.

 

[kitkat4622]

I tried the Everest ride...NEVER AGAIN. I've never been so glad to get off a ride. I was sick for the rest of the afternoon and had to leave the park and return to the hotel.

what about this ride did you not like that made you sick? going in April and talking myself into getting on this ride

 

[dkrauss]

Very interesting TouringPlans historical crowd calendar for the days mentioned by the OP show all those days as 1 and 2 for all days for all parks........only exception is a 3 for Epcot on 1 day during that period. Not questioning OP's point of view.................but why would TouringPlans show something so off?

Doug

 

[dkrauss]

Not questioning OP's point of view.................but why would TouringPlans show something so off?

Doug

OK! I was sooooooooo wrong..........I didn't look at the details for the days............Touringplans did see some 4's in the MK during that period.........and actually a 7 @ HS yesterday!

My bad

Doug

 

[Karin1984]

Touringplans.com was off, it was no 1. But to me it wasnt very crowded. Especially Epcot and Animal Kingdom. After 2pm both the Safari and EE were walk on.

MK was the most crowded but with RD we got a lot done. Have to check my pics but one morning (around 10 I guess) A&E had a queue of 25 minutes.

 

[Disneylover99]

We were there at end of Aug/beg of Sept and also thought it was more crowded than we expected. I think it's just the way it is now.

We were there this year the same time as you and we've gone for the past six years. I found most everything to be a complete walk on, even mid-day from Aug. 30- Sept. 3rd. I've never experienced such low crowds.

 

[anniemae]

We were there this year the same time as you and we've gone for the past six years. I found most everything to be a complete walk on, even mid-day from Aug. 30- Sept. 3rd. I've never experienced such low crowds.

some stuff was walk on, like stitch, people mover, small world etc. the bigger rides were over an hour. other parks were very crowded. I had read a report that it seemed some parks were very crowded while others were not.