Anyone there now?

[lawgirl]

What's the report on crowds, etc...?

[mom2mickeyfan]

Just got home about 2 hours ago. We were only there for 2 days. Went to MVMCP on Sunday night and then to HS and Epcot on Monday. The crowds at HS on Monday were very big! This was our first trip at Christmas time. We always travel down the first Sunday of June and stay for a week. The crowds were no better than when we go in the summer.

We are usually at the park at rope drop but because it was SO cold on Monday, we didn't make it until 9:30. By the time we got in and over to TSM, the standby line was 90 minutes and the fastpass return time was after 3:00. We got fastpasses for TSM, got in line for Buzz and Woody which didn't open until 10, went to see Mickey and Lotso and then did Playhouse Disney then hopped to Epcot. Wait times for Test Track was 45 minutes and Soarin' was 70 minutes when we got to Epcot.

I hope that helps.

[stephntampa]

[QUOTE=mom2mickeyfan;2124495]Just got home about 2 hours ago. We were only there for 2 days. Went to MVMCP on Sunday night and then to HS and Epcot on Monday. The crowds at HS on Monday were very big! This was our first trip at Christmas time. We always travel down the first Sunday of June and stay for a week. The crowds were no better than when we go in the summer.

Interesting that HS was so crowded, since extra magic hours were the night before. I am disappointed to hear that, since we will be at HS on Monday the 13th, I was hoping for (relatively) low crowds... Oh, well, you can't beat being in Disney at Christmas!!

[BTM]

Just got back and the crowds were larger than we expected but manageable. Sunday Epcot in the morning and MK in the evening for the party. Soarin 60 min, Test Track 30-40 min. Used Fast passes. Every thing else was not too bad. Monday Epcot. Again the crowds were not too bad, just plan on FP for the big rides. All others were 10-15 min. Tuesday Studios, it was cold so we arrived at 10:30. Very crowded and FP for TS were sold out. Mermaid and Playhouse very crowded. We started to get discouraged and walked over to The other side of the park to let our little one play at Honey I Shrunk. Ate lunch and made our way back to Playhouse. Not sure what happened but the crowd thinned and everything else opened right up with small lines. Still did not get to ride TS but oh well. Wed MK. The lines were low till around 1 and then started to really pick up. The longest line we found till then was about 15 min. After that Big Thunder and Space picked up to over 40 min. As usual Peter Pan and Dumbo were packed all day.

[tcswife]

Here now............NEVER seen crowds like this in the middle week of December!!! CRAZINESS!!!!

[tcswife]

AND............all Christmas Party's are sold out for the rest of the season!!!!! Went last night to a sold out party and it was CRAZY CROWDED!!!

[disneymom2000]

Maybe it is because of the POP Warner crowd. Hopefully next week will settle down to normal crowds for this time of year, however I am surprised at how cold it seems to be this year.

[Buttercup]

Pop Warner is there right now? I thought they go in February/March?

[Melanie]

We were there yesterday at both Epcot and Magic Kingdom, and it was crazy crowded. We didn't ride any rides, just ate and looked at Christmas decorations. I was actually very surprised to see the heavy crowds. Actually, one of our moderators here, JPL, was denied entry to Magic Kingdom last night because it was at capacity!

We were there over Thanksgiving, and crowds weren't nearly this bad.

[xrayqueen]

Crowds on Monday were insane! But Friday morning they were very light, afternoon got really crazy again. Supposed to be getting cold again on Monday I heard from the ME bus driver.

[Gregandmel]

Wow....that's so surprising to hear! I always thought one of the best times to visit was the 1st 2 weeks of December. Wonder if this is somewhat unusual, or an indication of future crowds during this time?!?!

[TheRustyScupper]

What's the report on crowds, etc...?

1) Busy.
2) VERY busy.
3) Seems like an unusually crowded holiday season.

[MaxPower]

I have been at all four parks all this past week- and all were VERY crowded.

Magic Kingdom was CRAZY busy on Saturday. Original hours for MK on Saturday were supposed to be 9am-10pm--and when we arrived Saturday morning, we found that they had been changed to 8am-1am.

Management is obviously trying to adjust for the crowds.

Extra showings of Fantasmic were added last week.

Personally, I noticed MANY, MANY more foreign tour groups than are usually present this time of year. Sometimes, you rarely heard any English being spoken amongst the crowds.

[Melanie]

Personally, I noticed MANY, MANY more foreign tour groups than are usually present this time of year. Sometimes, you rarely heard any English being spoken amongst the crowds.

Yes, we noticed that yesterday. Looks like student groups.

[tinksmom02]

We were there from the 1st through the 8th and it was so much more crowded than we expected. I knew about Pop Warner and the parade, but the crowds just didn't seem to thin at all. We did do EMH at MK one night and that was not crowded, but it was also only about 30 degrees. We did MVMCP on the 7th and it didn't seem that bad...but we'd been at epcot earlier in the day and had to wait in line for 10 minutes just to get FP for Test Track.

Lot of people grumbling about not being able to do sit-down dinners, too. They were turning walkups away at Via Napoli, Chefs de France, 50's Prime TIme...probably more but those were the ones I specifically heard.

[MickyLuver]

We went to Epcot yesterday and saw the Candlelight Processional with Whoopi Goldberg and it was 'bananas'. The 5:00PM group was lined up all the way back to France and the crowd that was not with a package was almost five rows deep. I was surprised that Epcot was so crowded and after 4PM, even. Usually the lines for rides are somewhat less busy, but it was packed.

I think this is unusual also, for this time of year. The forecast for this week will also be cold, in the fifties to low sixties this week.

[CardsFan81]

Here right now. Crowds are heavy, but everyone is in good spirits.

More important than the crowds is the weather. It's down right cold right now.

We're staying at Bay Lake and sitting on the balcony requires a blanket because of the wind chill.

[minnie04]

We are going to be there Friday. I will plan ahead on what we should do with the crowds..We are doing the Xmas party. I just noticed its sold out. Lets see what happens..

[Mousemates]

Wow...sounds like the crowds are super heavy, which I hate for the folks who usually schedule their trips for this time of year to avoid the madness. However, extra large crowds for a holiday season visit really wouldn't impact us since most of those trips tend to be for New Years Day...when its pretty much maxed out attendance-wise anyway.

[apequet]

We were there Dec 3-10th and I also was shocked how crowded and how cold it was! We went the same time in 2007 and it was awesome! Didn't realize how much it had changed. Even tho it was busy, we didn't have too much of a problem getting on rides, but we used our FP's wisely. I think we waited the most 25 minutes for the rides w/o FP's.

One ride that we had to do was TSM, so we got to HS 1/2 hour before opening Sunday Dec 5 and there was probably 500 people doing the exact same thing! When they dropped the ropes, everyone charged towards TSM. I thought I would be savy and go the other way (to the left) which is longer, but thought if I ran, I could get in line for the FP's ahead of the crowd...well that was a HUGE mistake! By the time I ran there, I was out of breathe, the stand by line was already 45 min and the FP line was so long...it was all the way to Little Mermaid(which was opposite direction I came from...grr!) It was crazy! Our FP time was 11:30, so atleast we got to ride it once. One thing that helpped while waiting for our FP was they had the green army men out doing "drills" with the kids, so it made the lines go by faster.