Über Crowded

[NHKristy76]

Hmm. I haven't noticed ANY closed rides...

 

[sukhakuli]

We were at Epcot yesterday, and the crowds weren't too bad. We had some issues getting seated for our San Angel ADR, we stood in the line to check in for the reservation for 20 minutes, and weren't seated until an hour past our ADR time. They were telling walk ups it was a 20 min wait. I don't get it. But it was made up for by the great meal and service. By far the best since we got here, and that includes the Brown Derby (not doing that again).

We got a spot on the railing for Illuminations less than 30 mins before show time in a great location, and no one stood behind us for the entire show.

We spent the morning mini-golfing, and at the resort pool. We LOVE Stormalong Bay!! Thank goodness the weather has been warm. The minigolf place had a 30 min wait when we left, but we arrived when it opened and were the second people there. It pays to get places early!

Overall, though, I really don't think the crowds have been anything to worry about. It is certainly nothing like Disneyland on a relatively busy day, and doesn't even come close to Disneyland at capacity. It's been very pleasant, and we have ridden everything we have wanted to ride with minimal wait.

Oh, and I never saw anyone drunk at Epcot the last few days...

 

[nooneshome]

This is our second Thanksgiving in a row to miss. We used to enjoy it until Wednesday rolled around. Friday was always a beast but we knew that going in. We would head to EPCOT and ride a couple quick rides at RD then head off to WS and browse. The kids are almost out of school so we can start planning trips during what is left of the off-season.

 

[JimS4210]

Note to self: Keep going to Disney when you go! Avoid the Holidays! Don't get suckered into going to see the Christmas decorations... Must resist!

 

[clerkshipwanted]

we arrived the friday before thanksgiving and left on wednesday (had tgiving at home with the family). i think this is key if you are traveling during this time period. We were at MK on Saturday and Tuesday - there were crowds by the afternoon but it was manageable. We got there on Tuesday at RD and were able to ride thunder mountain 3 times without any wait. Then went to splash mountain and rode that without any wait. Then did everything at Tomorrowland without any wait except for Space Mountain which we FP (the FP time was about an hour later). In the afternoon we did the riverboat, tom's sawyer island, parade, train, etc. I hate crowds and didn't feel overwhelmed at all. We had the same experience at EPCOT, DHS, and AK. If you arrive early each day its not a big deal. I am sure the crowds are a lot worse on Wed/Thurs/Fri of tgiving week - but over the weekend before and early that week they really aren't that bad.

 

[Kat&Dom]

We just got back from Disney yesterday and while it was crowded - I think that Wednesday was my best fastpass day ever at Magic Kingdom. It was incredible how many rides we were able to do. We did Peter Pan, Winnie the Pooh, Big Thunder (6x), It's a Small World, Carousel (2x), Space Mountain (2x), Buzz Lightyear (3x), Monsters Inc, Speedway, Haunted House and we even took a 4 hour break to relax at the condo. We arrived at 9:30am - stayed until 3pm then returned at 7pm and stayed until midnight. We used the Fastpass so much that my friend's husband said at 3pm that he was Fastpassed out. I don't know if people were just not using the Fastpasses or if they added more into the system but it was incredible how smooth our day went.

On Thanksgiving day, we did Epcot, we didn't arrive until about noon so Soarin was out of Fastpasses but we had done it earlier in the week. We did get Fastpasses for Test Track for 6:30pm so we toured the World Showcase, the kids had Passports and loved doing them. All of the shows were fairly empty although the walkways seemed full of people. We had a 4pm reservation at Garden Grill and the characters came by at least 4 times so we definitely felt we got our character value out of the meal. I had grabbed Fastpasses for Maelstrom before our meal so after we ate, we did the rest of the World Showcase, rode Maelstrom and Test Track then the park closed. It was a great day.

On Friday, we went to Magic Kingdom at about 2pm just to do Space Mountain again - it showed 55 minute wait but we got into line anyway, it was maybe 40 minute wait but when we got off the ride, it showed the wait time to be 95 minutes so we didn't go on it again. I was quite happy that the wait time was so much less then expected.

I would certainly do a Thanksgiving trip again as it was not nearly as bad as what I expected. I thought there would be wall to wall people but it was actually manageable and lots of fun. It seemed like there were characters everywhere with manageable lines, the weather was awesome and we were able to do lots of rides by utilizing our Fastpasses.

Here is our breakdown of our park days:
Nov 17 - Animal Kingdom
Nov 18 - Magic Kingdom
Nov 19 - Epcot for morning then Hockey Game in Tampa at 7pm
Nov 20 - SeaWorld
Nov 21 - Hollywood Studios
Nov 22 - SeaWorld
Nov 23 - Magic Kingdom
Nov 24 - Epcot
Nov 25 - Magic Kingdom

We found shopping at Downtown Disney to be easy - we never had any trouble getting a parking spot. We had an awesome trip. We met lots of people from New Jersey and found them to be super nice and friendly - one night at our condo, there was a huge group (probably 40-50 people) that were having a BBQ - I was watching the kids swim and they gave me one of the best tasting/cooked steaks of my life - they saw me sitting them (probably drooling from how good their BBQ smelled) and brought me over a steak - they even feed the kids hot dogs - they were extremely gracious, kind and friendly.

At Hollywood Studios, there was a group of teenagers who were part of a Marching Band, they were trying to use up their Disney Gift Cards at one of the Food Booths - I happened to be behind them (probably 15 kids) and was enjoying their enthusiam when one of them gave me their gift card that had $9 left on it - they were leaving that night and did not want to buy anything else so they gave it to me to treat my son to a special treat - it was such an unexpected and kind gesture - I was amazed.

During our trip, we gave out Fastpasses to help add magic to others too. At Hollywood Studios, we had 2 Fastpasses for Rockin Rollercoaster that we gave at 8pm to a young couple arriving - they were beyond thrilled to get the Fastpasses. We also gave Fastpasses to Big Thunder and Buzz Lightyear as we were leaving Magic Kingdom.

 

[dan-tot]

November was when I used to go, but over the years I hear it's just gotten insane. Now, having done it once, early October is the time for me. Though we're doing late Jan and the crowd forcasts are so low it's scary... Maybe that's when we will go from now on.

Dec 10th or the second week in December. This is a great time I love the cool weather at night and the warm sun during the day. Don't come during the first week not unless you like kids football and chear leader squads all of the place.

Dan-tot

 

[softballmom3]

We just got back from Disney yesterday and while it was crowded - I think that Wednesday was my best fastpass day ever at Magic Kingdom. It was incredible how many rides we were able to do. We did Peter Pan, Winnie the Pooh, Big Thunder (6x), It's a Small World, Carousel (2x), Space Mountain (2x), Buzz Lightyear (3x), Monsters Inc, Speedway, Haunted House and we even took a 4 hour break to relax at the condo. We arrived at 9:30am - stayed until 3pm then returned at 7pm and stayed until midnight. We used the Fastpass so much that my friend's husband said at 3pm that he was Fastpassed out. I don't know if people were just not using the Fastpasses or if they added more into the system but it was incredible how smooth our day went.

On Thanksgiving day, we did Epcot, we didn't arrive until about noon so Soarin was out of Fastpasses but we had done it earlier in the week. We did get Fastpasses for Test Track for 6:30pm so we toured the World Showcase, the kids had Passports and loved doing them. All of the shows were fairly empty although the walkways seemed full of people. We had a 4pm reservation at Garden Grill and the characters came by at least 4 times so we definitely felt we got our character value out of the meal. I had grabbed Fastpasses for Maelstrom before our meal so after we ate, we did the rest of the World Showcase, rode Maelstrom and Test Track then the park closed. It was a great day.

On Friday, we went to Magic Kingdom at about 2pm just to do Space Mountain again - it showed 55 minute wait but we got into line anyway, it was maybe 40 minute wait but when we got off the ride, it showed the wait time to be 95 minutes so we didn't go on it again. I was quite happy that the wait time was so much less then expected.

I would certainly do a Thanksgiving trip again as it was not nearly as bad as what I expected. I thought there would be wall to wall people but it was actually manageable and lots of fun. It seemed like there were characters everywhere with manageable lines, the weather was awesome and we were able to do lots of rides by utilizing our Fastpasses.

Here is our breakdown of our park days:
Nov 17 - Animal Kingdom
Nov 18 - Magic Kingdom
Nov 19 - Epcot for morning then Hockey Game in Tampa at 7pm
Nov 20 - SeaWorld
Nov 21 - Hollywood Studios
Nov 22 - SeaWorld
Nov 23 - Magic Kingdom
Nov 24 - Epcot
Nov 25 - Magic Kingdom

We found shopping at Downtown Disney to be easy - we never had any trouble getting a parking spot. We had an awesome trip. We met lots of people from New Jersey and found them to be super nice and friendly - one night at our condo, there was a huge group (probably 40-50 people) that were having a BBQ - I was watching the kids swim and they gave me one of the best tasting/cooked steaks of my life - they saw me sitting them (probably drooling from how good their BBQ smelled) and brought me over a steak - they even feed the kids hot dogs - they were extremely gracious, kind and friendly.

At Hollywood Studios, there was a group of teenagers who were part of a Marching Band, they were trying to use up their Disney Gift Cards at one of the Food Booths - I happened to be behind them (probably 15 kids) and was enjoying their enthusiam when one of them gave me their gift card that had $9 left on it - they were leaving that night and did not want to buy anything else so they gave it to me to treat my son to a special treat - it was such an unexpected and kind gesture - I was amazed.

During our trip, we gave out Fastpasses to help add magic to others too. At Hollywood Studios, we had 2 Fastpasses for Rockin Rollercoaster that we gave at 8pm to a young couple arriving - they were beyond thrilled to get the Fastpasses. We also gave Fastpasses to Big Thunder and Buzz Lightyear as we were leaving Magic Kingdom.

on the gift card treat. There are a lot of good kids out there still .

We were here during this time also and while I too found it busys it was not unmanageable. We went to Epcot Sat the 19 and Sunday the 20th. Waits were minimal if you timed it all right.

We did experience our absolute worst crowds at Hollywood Studios on the 22nd. Yes...we did everything we wanted but man was it busy. Wall to wall people.

Thanksgiving at AK and the longest wait for us was 15 minutes.

Friday at MK and it was great. Plenty of people but we walked on quite a few rides and I didn't even use a touring plan that day!!

One thing I will say is that there are distinct differences in the apps used for wait times. I had Undercover Tourist (from a previous trip) and the tourinplans.com one also. I don't have verizon so the disney ap was not user friendly.

touring plans.com wait times were almost ALWAYS incorrect. It would show a wait time that was way shorter than the waits actually were most of the time.

Undercover Tourist ap was usually more close to actual wait.

 

[NHKristy76]

Thankfully the crowds have majorly dissipated and we are back to the low crowds I've become accustomed to at this time of year!

Once we are done with tonight's rain, it looks like smooth sailing for the rest of our trip!

Yay!

 

[redshoepaul]

Thanksgiving weekend? I don't want to be the one to say "I told you so," but...

For Holidays like this, it's sad people aren't home with families enjoying dinner. Different ways of being raised I suppose.

 

[Scrappy_Tink]

For Holidays like this, it's sad people aren't home with families enjoying dinner. Different ways of being raised I suppose.

Sad? I bet a million rug rats would beg to differ!! . Although I'd rather have a quiet family get together (though my family is anything but quiet!!), some families that want to go to The World only go when then their kids are out of school, and if you want to see the wonderful decorations, Thanksgiving and Christmas is the time to go!!

 

[Jestocost]

I have family there now and they've been only during this time of year, more than 10 times collectively, all agree that they've never, ever, ever seen the parks this packed. I guess it's hellish at some points.

Then you don't want to go at Christmas. We've never found it that bad to get around and do what we want, but it's definitely different.

I heard TSM was hitting well over a 140 minute standby wait.

To my point, we've seen TSM at 210 minutes on more than on occasion at Christmas. And there were people getting into the line.

 

[Love Tink]

For Holidays like this, it's sad people aren't home with families enjoying dinner. Different ways of being raised I suppose.

Yes, actually I've heard that some people are raised to be obnoxious, small-minded, petty jerks who like to put others down just to make their own thoughtless, provincial choices seem somehow "better." Usually, nobody (not even their own families) can stand to be around people like this.

Not that I've ever met anyone like that myself! I've just heard of them...can't remember where. Maybe the Dis??

I guess their parents just failed. Sad.

 

[chip 'n dale rule]

Yes, actually I've heard that some people are raised to be obnoxious, small-minded, petty jerks who like to put others down just to make their own thoughtless, provincial choices seem somehow "better." Usually, nobody (not even their own families) can stand to be around people like this.

Not that I've ever met anyone like that myself! I've just heard of them...can't remember where. Maybe the Dis??

I guess their parents just failed. Sad.

harsh..................

 

[Scrappy_Tink]

Yes, actually I've heard that some people are raised to be obnoxious, small-minded, petty jerks who like to put others down just to make their own thoughtless, provincial choices seem somehow "better." Usually, nobody (not even their own families) can stand to be around people like this.

Not that I've ever met anyone like that myself! I've just heard of them...can't remember where. Maybe the Dis??

I guess their parents just failed. Sad.

if only we had a DIS-dislike button.

 

[tzolkin]

harsh..................

Yes, LoveTink's response was harsh, but I took it as a sarcastic way of pointing out how rude redshoepaul's post was. Isn't that basically what redshoepaul said?... that anyone who would take their family to Disney over Thanksgiving is "sad" and wasn't raised properly.

IMO, I found the first post harsh and completely uncalled for. Why would you bother to post on a thread about Disney at Thanksgiving if the only point of your post was to insult everyone else?

 

[wisblue]

Even when the parks are super-busy it is possible to get a lot done with a plan and some Disney street smarts. If you go in unprepared and with unrealistic expectations, the day will be very disappointing.

Here's what I did two days ago on Thanksgiving Day at MK. We entered the park at 9a on an AM EMH day as offsiters, so resort guests had an hour head start on us. We left the park at 11p.

Get FP Mickey/Minnie
Get FP but Splash closed so no FP
Get FP BTMRR
HM
IaSW
PhilharMagic
Get FP Space
Lunch at Cosmic Rays @ ~11a
Rabbit/Alice M&G
TTA
BTMRR (with FP)
Get FP Splash
Space (with FP)
Get FP Space
Teacups
Splash (with FP) but closed again while in queue
Mickey/Minnie M&G (with FP)
Ride resort and Epcot Monorail loops for downtime
Castle lighting @ 6:15p
Dinner at PVH @ 6:30p
IaSW
Splash (with FP)
Re-ride Splash using standby closed again while on ride
Watch MSEP from Splash during offload
Wishes
Space (with FP)

Quick question. How were you able to get FP's for two different things immediately upon entering the park? Was the return time for the Mickey/Minnie M&G that early that your FP window opened up that quickly?

 

[okeydokey]

For Holidays like this, it's sad people aren't home with families enjoying dinner. Different ways of being raised I suppose.

Hilarious response, really. Too bad we all weren't raised right, like you.

 

[redshoepaul]

Hilarious response, really. Too bad we all weren't raised right, like you.

Seriously!
"YEAH I'M THANKFUL FOR BEING FIRST IN LINE FOR IT'S A SMALL WORLD."

No, but seriously I didn't mean any harm in that post.

 

[mesaboy2]

Quick question. How were you able to get FP's for two different things immediately upon entering the park? Was the return time for the Mickey/Minnie M&G that early that your FP window opened up that quickly?

Insider info.

The Mickey/Minnie FP is either not tied to the rest of the FP system or has a FP delay time so short (~5 mins) so as not to matter. To my knowledge, it is the only FP in all of WDW like this. Even the princess FP right next to it doesn't follow this model.

Since I knew this from studying here, I used it to my advantage. I hope I didn't abuse the system or gain unfair advantage over the uneducated by doing so.