News Holiday crowds at Walt Disney World theme parks 2022

[GhostHost1000]

I actually had a coworker who took his family this week. I kept telling them to expect big crowds and he was like nah it won’t be bad.

 

[KTK]

I actually had a coworker who took his family this week. I kept telling them to expect big crowds and he was like nah it won’t be bad.

We have been at WDW this past week and not until today did wait times jump dramatically. Gene+ jumped to $25 today (mostly $15 a day the past week). Today even with the higher crowds was able to secure 4 rides with it at HS.

 

[James Alucobond]

I was at Hollywood Studios today. I used mobile order twice, worked well, minimal wait. I am amazed so many people don't use it or ever heard of it. I heard a cast member telling people Pizzarizzo had a 25 min wait for walk up orders around noon today.

I mean, it's precisely because you and others like you are using it that the walk-up time is terrible. Not that I blame you; I use it too. It's just that the experience is comparable to basically any fast-casual place these days where you stand in line waiting for someone to acknowledge you while they try desperately to prepare an ever-growing list of online orders for people who haven't arrived yet.

 

[KTK]

I mean, it's precisely because you and others like you are using it that the walk-up time is terrible. Not that I blame you; I use it too. It's just that the experience is comparable to basically any fast-casual place these days where you stand in line waiting for someone to acknowledge you while they try desperately to prepare an ever-growing list of online orders for people who haven't arrived yet.

Every guest has this option yet so many ignore ir. Those who use it shouldn't bear the blame.

 

[Baloo62]

What a complete living hell. I hope your stock drops another 20 cents a share you bunch of money-grubbing blood-suckers.

 

[MrPromey]

Magical.

I came here to post the exact same thought.

 

[James Alucobond]

Every guest has this option yet so many ignore ir. Those who use it shouldn't bear the blame.

Just saying, it’s another system like Genie where speed for some results in the baseline experience slowing down considerably. At least mobile ordering doesn’t cost anything (yet), but as with Genie, I’d gladly give it up to at least normalize things.

 

[MrPromey]

My biggest irritation with Genie+, the fact that it actively slows down standby, strikes once again.

It's a paid option so if they were really interested in making it an actual paid benefit, they'd cap sales during times like this to make usage more worth the higher price which would also help to not totally shut out the standby people paying the highest prices of the year to get in.

Apparently, they really are cool with basically scr-wing everyone over, though.

 

[networkpro]

We have been at WDW this past week and not until today did wait times jump dramatically. Gene+ jumped to $25 today (mostly $15 a day the past week). Today even with the higher crowds was able to secure 4 rides with it at HS.

We left yesterday morning after a 10 day trip. Crowds were fine and Magic Kingdom on Thursday and Friday... in fact were very empty where we rope dropped early entry, did ridges, table service lunch, a few more rides and were back at the Poly before the storm on Thursday and by 5 on Friday. We rode everything!

My heart goes out to those visiting this week as it'll be both crowded and miserably cold.

 

[MrPromey]

we always associate the peoplemover as a walk on, but on our recent trip at the start of november, it constantly had an average 10-20 minute wait. we still waited & went on it, but seeing that kind of wait time threw me for a loop

Last time I was at MK, we waiting nearly 45 minutes for it.

The line started down by the Tomorrow Land Stage.

... and that was just a random date two or three weeks after New Year.

 

[MrPromey]

We have been at WDW this past week and not until today did wait times jump dramatically. Gene+ jumped to $25 today (mostly $15 a day the past week). Today even with the higher crowds was able to secure 4 rides with it at HS.

This is the week about 65% of families across the country start having kids out of school. Those that started this week will keep it busy through New Years.

Those that start next week (due to the way it falls on the calendar this year) will keep it pretty busy through the first week of 2023 when attendance would historically plummet after the holiday rush.

 

[hsisthebest]

Meanwhile at Universal only one ride (with an excellent queue to pass the time) has a 90 minute wait. (5:00 p.m est) (from laughingplace)

Curious George Goes to Town℠	Open
Despicable Me Minion Mayhem™	60 minutes
E.T. Adventure™	25 minutes
Fast & Furious – Supercharged™	20 minutes
Fievel’s Playland™	Open
Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts™	90 minutes
Hogwarts™ Express – King’s Cross Station	85 minutes
Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit™	70 minutes
Kang & Kodos’ Twirl ‘n’ Hurl	40 minutes
MEN IN BLACK™ Alien Attack!™	45 minutes
Race Through New York Starring Jimmy Fallon™	45 minutes
Revenge of the Mummy™	60 minutes
The Simpsons Ride™	35 minutes
TRANSFORMERS™: The Ride-3D	35 minutes
Woody Woodpecker’s Nuthouse Coaster™	30 minutes

 

[MrPromey]

Meanwhile at Universal only one ride (with an excellent queue to pass the time) has a 90 minute wait. (5:00 p.m est) (from laughingplace)

Curious George Goes to Town℠	Open
Despicable Me Minion Mayhem™	60 minutes
E.T. Adventure™	25 minutes
Fast & Furious – Supercharged™	20 minutes
Fievel’s Playland™	Open
Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts™	90 minutes
Hogwarts™ Express – King’s Cross Station	85 minutes
Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit™	70 minutes
Kang & Kodos’ Twirl ‘n’ Hurl	40 minutes
MEN IN BLACK™ Alien Attack!™	45 minutes
Race Through New York Starring Jimmy Fallon™	45 minutes
Revenge of the Mummy™	60 minutes
The Simpsons Ride™	35 minutes
TRANSFORMERS™: The Ride-3D	35 minutes
Woody Woodpecker’s Nuthouse Coaster™	30 minutes

To be fair, I'm guessing things look a little different at the other park.

 

[networkpro]

Meanwhile at Universal only one ride (with an excellent queue to pass the time) has a 90 minute wait. (5:00 p.m est) (from laughingplace)

Fast & Furious – Supercharged™

20 minutes

That is amazing, Anyone who would wait 20 minutes in a mostly empty warehouse to ride the party bus must be severely inebriated already.

 

[HauntedPirate]

The problem isn't attendance. It's Disney's decision not to increase staffing or ride capacity, in order to generate higher profits. Disney has the power to make it easier for guests who visit during holidays. It chooses not to.

(I've never visited during Christmas break, but I've seen this in action during, say, President's Day week. Crowd levels of 8-10, yet attractions running with insufficient staff, only one side of Big Thunder Mountain, Pirates of the Caribbean, or Toy Story Midway Mania being used, loading only every third car on the Peoplemover, etc., and no added park hours of operation).

But all we heard from $lappie was how they were limiting attendance via the Park Reservations system to "improve guest experience". I guess that was an bald-faced (ba-dum dum) lie from Bob 2.0? I am shocked... SHOCKED!!! I tell you.

 

[Chi84]

I mean, it's precisely because you and others like you are using it that the walk-up time is terrible. Not that I blame you; I use it too. It's just that the experience is comparable to basically any fast-casual place these days where you stand in line waiting for someone to acknowledge you while they try desperately to prepare an ever-growing list of online orders for people who haven't arrived yet.

We used mobile order as soon as it was available and I think it's a great improvement to quick service dining. Not too many people used it until they were forced to do so during the height of the pandemic. On our recent trips it seems many more are using it. There was hardly anyone in line at ABC Commissary and Flame Tree.

What we noticed was that there were very few people sitting at tables holding them while others were in line waiting for food. This made it much easier for people to find tables, even at Pecos Bill's which is usually a madhouse. I used to hate quick serve because we would always end up circling around looking for a place to eat while the tables were taken up by people with no food.

 

[Chi84]

Yikes.

If we ever do a holiday trip near or over Christmas, we will definitely plan it to be a relax at resort, soak up atmosphere in parks and see decorations, go to dinner kind of trip.

Rides we will definitely just pick and choose which ones we want and which we can skip! Would probably be a shorter than normal trip for us also.

We'll probably never visit Disney over the holidays.

My brother-in-law and his family will be there December 23-25. They aren’t really Disney fanatics (he said one kid wanted to go on “the tower of the terrors”) so this should be interesting.

 

[arich35]

Glad we were there the past 2 weeks and not now. With the time we were there and utilizing Genie+ on some days, we didn't have many waits and got to do pretty much everything we wanted to do with the kids. Longest wait might have been to meet Sully, dude must have been taking breaks every 5 min

 

[Trauma]

I’m about to head down for my New Years trip.

We have done the rides so many times we don’t really care what we get to do.

I’ll just buy the genie get some LL and if we get
4-5 rides in a day that’s fine with me.

I’m just happy it’s usually about 50 degrees warmer then back home.

 

[Tiggerish]

My brother-in-law and his family will be there December 23-25. They aren’t really Disney fanatics (he said one kid wanted to go on “the tower of the terrors”) so this should be interesting.

I'm going to be there Dec 28-Jan 4, with my in-laws who havent got a clue. I'm dreading the trip.