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Magic Kingdom too busy to enjoy :(

J

johnatdisney

New Member
Original Poster
New poster here!

Anyway this is my fourth visit to Disney, twice with my aunt and uncle as a young nipper (sadly my uncle recently passed away so this trip is sort of extra special to me thinking of him stood in the parks with me!) and twice with friends a bit more grown up!

I love my visits to Disney (and the other parks too!) but we went today (Wednesday 27 April) and it was just too damn busy to enjoy! We had 3 fast passes for Space Mountain, Toy Story (I didn't rate this much, much preferred MIB at Universal) and Thunder Mountain but literally every other single ride in the park other than Carousel Of Progress had at minimum an hours wait! Which isn't nice especially in the heat!

All the other parks on the holiday have been manageable enough but MK just seems too packed to enjoy, especially walking around finding things to do in the heat!

Then half our party stayed for the fireworks but the other half including me made a dash for the monorail and tram straight after the electrical parade to try and beat the stampede! That's another random question I've always had, why was the actual Magic Kingdom built so far away from the parking lots?

Are there any times of the week / year when it is a little quieter? It was weird as last Wednesday we went to Universal and it was DEAD, to put into context how dead it was Harry Potter had a <5 minute queue time!

Thanks :)
 
StarWarsGirl

StarWarsGirl

Well-Known Member
In the Parks
No
Welcome to the forums!

I'm sorry MK was crowded for you. Unfortunately, it's getting to the point where there are no real "slow" days at MK.

January and February at non-holiday times tend to be better for MK. I would recommend doing what you did and going middle of the week for MK. Also, either arrive early or plan on staying late. The park tends to be the least crowded the first two and last two hours

As far as why the parking is so far away, I actually wondered about this myself when you asked, so I did some research. It's actually because the area in front of MK is swamp area and is not suitable for a parking lot, which is why the lagoon is around MK.
 
BigRedDad

BigRedDad

Well-Known Member
This is why our park plans are to always go at opening, hit the big rides early and fast, then hit the smaller rides and shows later. We have gone enough to not need to stay open to close. We go back to the resort around 1 or 2, play in the pool and relax. Then, back to the parks around 6PM.

The trick is to avoid getting tied up in the chaos at opening. Everyone is running to 7DMT. We had FP for it. We hit PP first, then Pooh, Goofy's Barnsotrmer, Teacups, Buzz Lightyear. As we were getting off Buzz the rest of our party that went in the hour line for 7DMT met up with us. We hit the racecars after and then of to BTMRR, SplM, Pirates and the rest on that side of the park. Done properly, you can hit almost every ride before noon and some multiple times. Following the herd will only make waits longer.
 
J

johnatdisney

New Member
Original Poster
Thanks for the replies!

Today at Epcot and Hollywood Studios was much more bearable, straight on pretty much everything at Epcot then Hollywood Studios had fast passes for Toy Story and Tower Of Terror, everything else was pretty much straight on anyway. The only annoyance was finding a 40 minute queue for Rock And Roller Coaster at 8:30pm, the single rider queue had a totally blank display where a wait time should have been displayed does this mean single rider wasn't an option? (Presumably trying to clear the main queue?). Didn't end up riding it as I was too tired to queue 40 minutes for such a short (albeit fast!) ride.

Is Spring Break the US equivalent of Easter in the UK? This trip we've been in a villa about 30 minutes from the parks and not actually having the energy to hit them until midday generally, next trip I might look into staying at Disney! :)
 
J

johnatdisney

New Member
Original Poster
imperius said:
Ummmm I was at Epcot and MK yesterday and neither was busy. HM was 20-25, POTC 20, SM was like 40 tops, and so on. The only thing over an hot was seven dwarves and Peter Pan which is the same as every day.
Click to expand...

We must have caught it at a really bad time then, as we walked past POTC for a 55 minute wait and SM at one point was showing 85 minutes! (Although we managed to fast pass this earlier in the day, we were hoping to ride it again though glad I didn't in hindsight as my left shoulder felt like it had whiplash for the next 24 hours, not the smoothest of rides!)
 
bferrara16

bferrara16

Active Member
Maybe bad luck or timing?
I was there too and didn't think it was too bad. I didn't focus on major rides, but walked on to carousel twice and dumbo once at 830. I glanced at wait times as I walked though and it seemed ok. Was also able to get an awesome straight on view of wishes too without camping out (parade was a little tough though, but we tried to catch it as it passed instead of planning for it).
We left immediately after Wishes and juuuuuust missed getting our bus when we walked to the stop (only because there wasn't room for our stroller). I recall (and feared) waiting for an hour at the bus stop before, so this was a win. (By the way, if they ever added post-wishes bus stop to FP+ it'd be the first to run out, guaranteed).
I think it was EMH that night too, so that doesn't help.
Sorry you had a tough run.
 
I

imperius

Well-Known Member
johnatdisney said:
We must have caught it at a really bad time then, as we walked past POTC for a 55 minute wait and SM at one point was showing 85 minutes! (Although we managed to fast pass this earlier in the day, we were hoping to ride it again though glad I didn't in hindsight as my left shoulder felt like it had whiplash for the next 24 hours, not the smoothest of rides!)
Click to expand...
I have no clue then. While at Epcot in the morning o was checking MK wait times on the app and I noticed slow waits which is why we went there at 4. While there we never waited over 25 minutes.
 
M

Mickey5150

Well-Known Member
The reason the parking lot is so far away from the Magic Kingdom is because of Walt's desire to separate the parks from the outside world. As far as issues with waits, well unfortunately the Magic Kingdom is the most visited theme park in the world so there will always be waits, however, there are several attractions that can make your day better. Country Bear Jamboree, Hall of Presidents, Mickeys Philharmagic, Carousel of Progress, and the People Movers are all crowd absorbing attractions that will get you off your feet for quite some time. Also, rather then running around looking for low wait times, just wait in line. WDW has most of it's lines indoors so you can stand around in the air conditioning rather then running around in the Florida heat looking for a short line. Honestly I don't understand why waiting in line is such a bad thing.
 
KikoKea

KikoKea

Well-Known Member
We only go in the Fall (Sept- first week of Dec) or Jan- first half of March when the park is relatively uncrowded. And, we always arrive early to get ahead of the midday crowds. We go left at rope drop towards Adventureland and Frontierland and don't have to fight crowds. We like Tomorrowland at night, so are happy to spend most of our day in the other lands.

Yep, SM is hard on the joints, for sure!
 
ScarletBegonias

ScarletBegonias

Well-Known Member
We went to MK on April 14th and had an amazing day. My husband and I got there at rope drop and did every single headliner ride + a lot more of them (and our FP) by 7pm. I was surprised at the crowd levels. I just don't know that you ever know exactly what you are going to get. We just accept the lines and try not to worry about it.

If you go to any other amusement park (Hershey, Kings Dominion) you can stand for MUCH longer for every single ride than at Disney, so it doesn't bother me too much.
 
Jon81uk

Jon81uk

Well-Known Member
I would never exit before fireworks, if you want to avoid the stampede, then slow down, take a look round the shops and people watch, let everyone stampede out and then exit.
Also if all the waits are at least an hour, just pick something and wait. Better to be in a line than outside complaining about the long lines. The way I see it, get in line and wait an hour and you have an attraction at the end of the wait. If you think all the lines are too long then you will just complain when you get home that you only got on three attractions, at least if you join a line you should get on at least another three attractions!
 
Incomudro

Incomudro

Well-Known Member
johnatdisney said:
New poster here!

Anyway this is my fourth visit to Disney, twice with my aunt and uncle as a young nipper (sadly my uncle recently passed away so this trip is sort of extra special to me thinking of him stood in the parks with me!) and twice with friends a bit more grown up!

I love my visits to Disney (and the other parks too!) but we went today (Wednesday 27 April) and it was just too damn busy to enjoy! We had 3 fast passes for Space Mountain, Toy Story (I didn't rate this much, much preferred MIB at Universal) and Thunder Mountain but literally every other single ride in the park other than Carousel Of Progress had at minimum an hours wait! Which isn't nice especially in the heat!

All the other parks on the holiday have been manageable enough but MK just seems too packed to enjoy, especially walking around finding things to do in the heat!

Then half our party stayed for the fireworks but the other half including me made a dash for the monorail and tram straight after the electrical parade to try and beat the stampede! That's another random question I've always had, why was the actual Magic Kingdom built so far away from the parking lots?

Are there any times of the week / year when it is a little quieter? It was weird as last Wednesday we went to Universal and it was DEAD, to put into context how dead it was Harry Potter had a <5 minute queue time!

Thanks :)
Click to expand...
I feel your pain.
The second week of May, a week I've gone several times - and will be going back this year - is a very good time to go.
Hit the parks early in the morning, and even big rides are often nearly walk ons.
 
HauntedMansionFLA

HauntedMansionFLA

Well-Known Member
KikoKea said:
We only go in the Fall (Sept- first week of Dec) or Jan- first half of March when the park is relatively uncrowded. And, we always arrive early to get ahead of the midday crowds. We go left at rope drop towards Adventureland and Frontierland and don't have to fight crowds. We like Tomorrowland at night, so are happy to spend most of our day in the other lands.

Yep, SM is hard on the joints, for sure!
Click to expand...
Do you hit Jungle Cruise first and work your way back or hit Thunder Mountain and Splash Mountain? Just curious.
 
righttrack

righttrack

Well-Known Member
In a long trip, day after day, MK is just the best for instant gratification. You can still go into MK and get on something. There's more attractions packed per square foot, vs other parks. It's also getting the lion's share of the nighttime business because it's the park with the longest hours, EMH or not.
 

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