Crowds - Is this normal!?

Lilofan

Well-Known Member
I wish my wife felt the same way. I seem to do ok weather a big chilly(though once in November I found myself buying one of those burlap like ponchos in Mexico as the only warm thing under $50 for sale in Epcot) not does heat bother me, but been in late August and mid June and my other family members do not love the humidity and heat. My Father in law almost passed out just walking into Epcot(he was pushing his wife in a wheel chair and refused to drink more water and let us help).
I went to DHS First Aid to get aspirin , they gave us some and I could see the several portable beds staged with guests lying down in the AC dealing with heat exhaustion. The heat and humidity during the summer at WDW is nothing to joke about.
 

MickeyLuv'r

Well-Known Member
I went to DHS First Aid to get aspirin , they gave us some and I could see the several portable beds staged with guests lying down in the AC dealing with heat exhaustion. The heat and humidity during the summer at WDW is nothing to joke about.

As I pointed out above, I once went to WDW with 2 extended family members that insisted vacation! = drinking only coffee and alcohol. They just wouldn't listen when everyone else suggested they drink water (or similar).

Or that maybe mixing alcohol and spinning rides wasn't the best combo?

Adults do dumb stuff. I was only going to police them a little. The kicker was one of them actually emptied a water bottle in order to sneak vodka into MK. Ugh!

Sure enough, on day three: Classic dehydration.

And that wasn't a summer trip, it was spring.
 
For comparison, last week (1/26) at Universal Hollywood was the least crowded I've ever seen a park. Walked to the front of the line every ride all day with no special pass. It was my 1st time there so don't know what it normally is like but it has me kind of dreading my return to Disneyworld at the end of this year. Experiencing a park with no lines kind of spoiled me to having to wait in lines. Don't know if LA restrictions had anything to do with attendance.
 

Club Cooloholic

Well-Known Member
One thing we noticed is that it pays to take daily outdoor walks before a WDW trip, no matter the season. At least 3 weeks before a trip is helpful.

I used to coordinate extended family trips and once saw similar. Two family members thought, "WDW=vacation!" where "vacation" = drinking nothing but coffee in the AM and alcoholic beverages the rest of the day. They only made it to day 3 and spent the rest of the week in bed recovering from dehydration.
To be fair my father in law walks every day. But he's in jersey and just wasn't ready for the humidity
 

JoeCamel

Well-Known Member
Another thing no one considers, both for crowds and costs:
- an increase in population while the number of parks and number of attractions remains (relatively) constant.
Anyone that has been paying attention thinks that. Stagnant capacity for 10 years with an increasing customer base is a recipe for crowding and imparting a foul taste in the mouth of generations. They will play catch up for years, Bob don't care, he got his and is out
 

rct247

Well-Known Member
There is no slow period anymore. People have searched the hell out of it online and Disney has found ways to make it shrink.

Believe it or not, Summer has become sometimes less crowded than periods in the Fall and early months of the year. All the blogs talk of daily thunderstorms, terrible heat, tour groups, and everyone being on vacation so we see a growing trend starting to shift.
 

MickeyLuv'r

Well-Known Member
There is no slow period anymore. People have searched the hell out of it online and Disney has found ways to make it shrink.

Believe it or not, Summer has become sometimes less crowded than periods in the Fall and early months of the year. All the blogs talk of daily thunderstorms, terrible heat, tour groups, and everyone being on vacation so we see a growing trend starting to shift.
I am also curious to see how much price manipulations come into play this year. I'm not quite sure how to say in this space, but a few months back, it did not LOOK like WDW was going to offer any discounts. but peak spring season bookings must have been down quite a bit, so they lured people in with spring discounts. Sumer might = discounts, or it might not.

Another factor is how many WDW hotel rooms are really open right now? It might appear a hotel is 'open' but if WDW doesn't have enough demand or staff to service the rooms, the full capacity of rooms might not actually be available for booking. Disney might want to create the illusion that the hotels are fully booked, or much closer to full than they are.

Take Starcruiser. If it looks like it is fully booked, that makes it look successful. If, on the other hand, it is NOT fully booked, then it quickly loses appeal in the eyes of many.
 

MattFrees71

Well-Known Member
I remember going on family trips as a kid in the 2000-2006 period in February and it was great in terms of crowds...

I also remember going in the period right after Christmas and before New Years in 2010, and it was wonderful.
 

CntrlFlPete

Well-Known Member
we (wife and I) had gone to the MK on 1/24 and we were really surprised at how crowded it was. We then learned that the park was to close at 4:30 the next day. I figured that played into the crowds that Monday -- seeing that the MK was set to close at 4:30 on 2/8, we decided to stop by on a short hour day.

Now I know it was cold and rainy and that kept folks away, -- we had not but we had a good time, the crowds were real light. We could have easily done everything if we were there from 9 AM to 4:30 PM -- we only went from like 1 to 3 but we got in more rides than our last 3 MK visits combined.
 

witandwander

Active Member
Original Poster
From Disney Food Blog today… 🙀
 

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witandwander

Active Member
Original Poster
A bit more data for anyone going right now. This account is saying wait times are higher than Thanksgiving and Christmas.

This has got to be unprecedented, right? Surely it goes beyond the “the is no more slow season” mantra.
 

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