Best experience with wait/crowd times

[Gorjus]

I'm curious to hear people's stories of their best low crowd experiences at WDW.

Hearing people talk about crowds and line waiting times got me thinking how relative it is to your usual experience. People who go in the summer would rejoice to find a 30 - 40 minute wait at one of the mountains or Fantasyland experiences. While people who go in November or January would walk away from wait that long.

I usually go off season and a few times, I have been on rides such as Splash or Big Thunder in the MK where, at the end of the ride, the ride operator asks me if I would just like to stay on the ride for another turn since there is no one waiting to get on.

I have pictures of a completely empty Tomorrowland, Frontierland, Castle forecourt area and UK in World Showcase. I'm not a cast member (for a few more months), so no, they weren't taken after hours although one was taken during the Marathon.

I've found that being at the parks in January or when it is an all day rain get you the lowest crowds.

Anyway, looking forward to hearing others examples of having the parks almost all to themselves.

 

[Lucky]

Our best experience of that sort was in early Sept. 04, when we arrived on a Monday right after Hurricane Frances blew through on Sunday. Many people cancelled or delayed their trips, and we were getting worried because Frances stalled for a couple of days after originally being forecast to go through central Florida by the previous Friday. Anyway, we never saw a single FastPass machine in use the full week we were there, even at rides like Splash and Space. You could practically walk right onto anything at any time.

 

[sbkline]

We go in April, so it's a busier time of year. But my best experiences have probably been right after open, before the bulk of the crowd arrives. When we went to the Magic Kingdom at open and headed straight to Space Mountain, we were able to get right on. Although I would be curious to know what percentage of people start at Adventureland and work their way clockwise around the park as opposed to me, who starts at TommorrowLand and goes counterclockwise around the park. Perhaps that has something to do with it.

 

[Jorden]

I went two days ago on Wednesday and while it was a little wet (nothing compared to most rain storms down here, just constant wetness) it was a walk on wait for pretty much everything. Rare occourance for sure but my best crowds hands down.

 

[jim1051]

we were at wdw 9/14 to 9/20/01. No one else was there, well almost. Of course the circumstance were not too good but it was still the world, and you could sometimes forget what else was going on.

 

[Aurora_25]

Second week of November in 2002 was really nice- not many lines and no crowd at all
December last year was nice and cool, crowds were there and the waits were semi-long 25-30 minutes but nothing horrible.
First week in June of this year- HOT (which living in Texas shouldn't be a big deal, but it was for me) and the crowds weren't horrible, but it was more than what I am used to and so we tried to avoid the crowded areas as much as possible....Waits would be about 45 minutes or so (for the kid rides- we didn't go on soaring or anything like that so I don't know about the waits there)- I love fast pass

This year we are going January 7th so I am hoping there won't be issues with Crowds...I don't do good with lots of people around....I start having trouble breathing and everything- not pretty....

 

[Mr Bill]

Late September through the end of 2001 had the lightest crowds I've ever dealt with.

 

[Kaertos]

My family and I were there in November / December of 2001 and there was nobody there. The longest wait we had for any ride was Kilamanjaro Safaris and it was maybe 15 minutes.

And as slow as it was in Disney, the Universal parks were so deserted they were eerie. We have a few pictures where there is not one person in entire sections of the park.

 

[PineapplePrincess]

We usually go at Easter or in the summer, but my DH & I went for a long weekend in February (can't remember what year). Anyways, the crowds were really light, and we didn't wait long for anything. We thought it was kind of strange. Most people might disagree with me, but I think the crowds are part of the experience. By the way, it happened to be Valentine weekend, and MGM had a lot of Disney couples(can't remember them all, but Mary Poppins & Bert were there) posing for pictures which was pretty cool. Unfortunately we couldn't take any pictures because we told our daughter we were going to Vegas!:lol:

 

[mouselvrmom]

Second week of November in 2002 was really nice- not many lines and no crowd at all
December last year was nice and cool, crowds were there and the waits were semi-long 25-30 minutes but nothing horrible.
First week in June of this year- HOT (which living in Texas shouldn't be a big deal, but it was for me) and the crowds weren't horrible, but it was more than what I am used to and so we tried to avoid the crowded areas as much as possible....Waits would be about 45 minutes or so (for the kid rides- we didn't go on soaring or anything like that so I don't know about the waits there)- I love fast pass

This year we are going January 7th so I am hoping there won't be issues with Crowds...I don't do good with lots of people around....I start having trouble breathing and everything- not pretty....

We are going January 8th & we hope that crowds are light too!
Usually we go in February & the crowds aren't too bad.

 

[sandman50]

We were there the 3rd week of Jan.'85ish once when it was about 20 degrees outside.
Perfectly clear sunny day with MK almost to ourselves.
BTMRR in the 20's,now that's a rush.
We're from here so it was a little strange spending most of our trip trying to get inside to WARM up.

rich

 

[1DisneyDad]

In Jan 04 we sat on Splash Mnt 3 times and never had to get out. No one was waiting.

 

[ears2you]

i went december 5th through the 9th in 2001 and the park wasa EMPTY! there wernt enough people to fill the train on ANYTHING. it was beautiful!

 

[typhoonguy]

Anytime a hurricane comes even remotely close to Central Florida, the parks tend to be absolutely dead. In '04 the final day of Francis the marathon hurricane I was able to walk on space mountain without ever seeing a single person in line, on the ride or at the exit. AT 5PM.

 

[SammuelGuthrie]

I went on the day before Hurricane Ernesto was supposed to hit and most everything was a 10 minute wait. Walked right on space mountain twice in a row. Haunted Mansion also, and no wait for Thunder or Splash Mountain!
The day of "Hurricane" Ernesto there was less than a 5 minute wait for the Rockin Roller Coaster and about 5 for Tower of Terror.

I'm curious to hear people's stories of their best low crowd experiences at WDW.

Hearing people talk about crowds and line waiting times got me thinking how relative it is to your usual experience. People who go in the summer would rejoice to find a 30 - 40 minute wait at one of the mountains or Fantasyland experiences. While people who go in November or January would walk away from wait that long.

I usually go off season and a few times, I have been on rides such as Splash or Big Thunder in the MK where, at the end of the ride, the ride operator asks me if I would just like to stay on the ride for another turn since there is no one waiting to get on.

I have pictures of a completely empty Tomorrowland, Frontierland, Castle forecourt area and UK in World Showcase. I'm not a cast member (for a few more months), so no, they weren't taken after hours although one was taken during the Marathon.

I've found that being at the parks in January or when it is an all day rain get you the lowest crowds.

Anyway, looking forward to hearing others examples of having the parks almost all to themselves.

 

[Scooter]

We went the week after 9/11/01.
I will never forget that trip.
Hardly anyone in the parks and the ones that were there all had God Bless the USA T Shirts on.

My wife and I went to ride Pirates of The Carribean, and from the entrance to the actual boat loading area, we never saw a single person. There was no one on the boat in front of us, we were the only ones on our boat, and there was no one on the boat behind us.

It was creepy but awesome at the same time.
I was a flash photography taking fool that day.

 

[lcsrig]

We have been there for Mardi Gras the past 4 years. The worst wait time was like an hour for Winnie the Pooh. Hubby says we waited almost an hour for Test Track. Must not have used to the fastpasses that time. We usually don't have a bad time. In '07, we are going for Prez Week. I've read its crowded, we'll see.

 

[disneytopdog]

We go in April, so it's a busier time of year. But my best experiences have probably been right after open, before the bulk of the crowd arrives. When we went to the Magic Kingdom at open and headed straight to Space Mountain, we were able to get right on. Although I would be curious to know what percentage of people start at Adventureland and work their way clockwise around the park as opposed to me, who starts at TommorrowLand and goes counterclockwise around the park. Perhaps that has something to do with it.

Always go Adventureland and work clockwise. It does seems everyone heads to tomorrowland and Space Mountain. It has happen twice that when we got to the loading area of POC the CM were sitting on the rails talking. They would jump to attention when they would see us. By the time you make it to Tomorrowland the lines are kinda thin cause its usually lunch time

 

[LizziePooh]

I went to WDW with my family from 09/17/04-09/23/04....September is pretty empty as it is, and since our trip was barely in between two hurricanes, I'm thinking a lot of people cancelled their trips, because there was NO ONE there. We did still have a few lines though, but I think that's because the rides weren't running at full capacity. For example, for Mission:Space, we had about a 10 minute wait, but it was because they were only running 2 out of the 4 centrifuges. If it was running all four, we definitely would have walked right on. :wave:

 

[miles1]

we were at wdw 9/14 to 9/20/01. No one else was there, well almost. Of course the circumstance were not too good but it was still the world, and you could sometimes forget what else was going on.

We were there about the same time. Although the mood was tense both traveling and at WDW, EVERYTHING was a walk-on. We did manage to forget what was happening in the world, at least briefly.