How heavy are the crowds in the WDW Parks?

[lorinmike2728]

I am travelling to WDW this weekend and have been informed by DVC that the parks have beem very crowded since the beginning of the year. This seems contradictory to the feedback that I have received on this site and from friends? Has anyone been in the parks so far this January to give me a real gauge on how crowded they actually have been?

I understand weekends are going to be more crowded than weekdays because of local traffic, but the person I spoke to says that the weekdays have had long waits as well.

 

[biggiedisney123]

The four day offer probably changed the game for low crowd levels at this time of the year. I'm interested as well though.

 

[kstella]

This should be a slower time right now until President's weekend.

 

[Dayma]

How are they going to look at the end of April Just kidding.

 

[fosse76]

I went Jan.12-16 and the crowds were moderate. The waits weren't too bad, if you work FP the right way. Otherwise they were around 35 minutes to an hour. What I found interesting though, was the day I chose to spend the whole day at DHS...which had an EMH that evening. It was pretty crowded...lots of people walking around. But what made it interesting is that although it was very crowded (hard to maneuver the walkways), none of them seemed to be going on any rides. I walked right onto Star Tours, Muppetvision 3D, Tower of Terror (though that rides wait times fluctuate every 30 minutes), Great Movie Ride (ten minute wait), and Rock ' n' Rollercoaster. I saw Lights, Motor Action the day before, so I don't know how packed it was, but even Indiana Jones was packed for its last showing, but the rides were still walk-ons. So I have no idea what those people were doing in the park. I rode Toy Story Mania the day before, and that was the only attraction with a wait...but even it was less than an hour until later in the day when more resort guests started to arrive.

 

[Susan Savia]

We were there 8 days recently and the longest wait time was 20 minutes that we saw. Even with the Marathon going on, it didn't seem too bad at all. We did fast pass TT, Buzz and Toy Story just so the second time around we could walk right on. Saturday (17th) we were in Epcot and it seemed a little more crowded then any of the other days. Have fun!

 

[MR. CRAFTSMAN]

My parents are down there right now andthey called and talked to the wife and I tonight and said MK was not buisy at all. They have almost walked on most of the rides and shows.

 

[Monkeymama]

We were there 8 days recently and the longest wait time was 20 minutes that we saw. Even with the Marathon going on, it didn't seem too bad at all. We did fast pass TT, Buzz and Toy Story just so the second time around we could walk right on. Saturday (17th) we were in Epcot and it seemed a little more crowded then any of the other days. Have fun!

I like this answer more than the previous one! The whole reason we chose to go in early Feb. was to beat the heavy crownds (and with a 4 yr old in tow, I consider an hour to be toooo long a wait). Then they announced the Buy 4/Get 3 and I knew we'd be in trouble!!! Here's hoping!

 

[DisneyPrincess5]

We visited from 1/6-1/14 and it was pretty crowded, but only due to the marathon. After the marathon ended, the crowing became pretty moderate. We found the parks more crowded than usual for this time of year, but it did not seem to affect the lines, wait times, and transportation very much.

 

[KingStefan]

How heavy are the crowds in the WDW Parks? Well, many are over 300 lbs. and ... Oh, wait - I see what you mean now; never mind!

 

[twilight mitsuk]

next week is superbowl, will that be a factor?

 

[KingStefan]

next week is superbowl, will that be a factor?

touringplans.com says "yes". They indicate a moderate increase in crowds around superbowl.

 

[Captain Hank]

Crowds seem to be very sporadic. Recently, some days have been very crowded and others have been nearly dead with no particular pattern involved.

 

[DznyGrlSD]

"How heavy are the crowds in the WDW Parks?"

Well...I'm about 5'8" and 240 pounds...dunno about the rest of the crowd out there... :shrug:




:lookaroun







:lol:

 

[dixiefriend]

My wife and I just got back from a 4-day trip on Jan 21. I really don't see the economy hurting Disney. I think the parks were pretty well packed. Not like the middle of summer, but pretty close . Rides had long wait times. RRC wait was up to 100 minutes at one point. But thats just my thoughts, Some people may have thought was not to bad. Alot of tour groups too.

 

[elpirataman]

Ahhhhh, my friends and I are going next weekend during superbowl, i hope it doesnt turn out to be that busy!! :-(

 

[Disney_Belle]

We were there from the 16th - 24th and they were busier than my previous January visit. Most waits for the more popular rides (RnRC, ToT, Soarin', EE, etc) were generally 50 - 60 minutes. TSMM fastpasses were generally gone 0by 11:00 am. It seemed to have moderate crowds, definitely not the normal January crowds. I figured after MLK Day they would decrease, but they didn't. However Stitch's Great Escape was 5 minutes the whole time lol.

I have two words to add also "tour groups". There were so many of them. There were also a lot of dance teams there (they were performing at DTD on the 18th).

Oh and Monster's Inc. at one point had a wait time of "999 minutes" lol. I know it was just a fluke but I tried my best to take a good picture of it...

 

[fosse76]

My wife and I just got back from a 4-day trip on Jan 21. I really don't see the economy hurting Disney. I think the parks were pretty well packed. Not like the middle of summer, but pretty close . Rides had long wait times. RRC wait was up to 100 minutes at one point. But thats just my thoughts, Some people may have thought was not to bad. Alot of tour groups too.

I'm sorry, but that's a bit ignorant. Just because YOU don't think the economy is hurting Disney doesn't mean it isn't. I can go to a Broadway show and see it's filled to capacity, later to find out that half the audience had comp tickets. Disney has heavily discounted its hotels anmd admission packages that people who were maybe on the fence about going or weren't planning to go were able to afford it. If the economy weren't hurting the economy, they wouldn't be scaling back on anything...nor would they be attempting to buyout contracts. These deals have done exactly what they were supposed to do. Even the Great Depression didn't affect everyone. And I'm sure there were people back then who wondered what all the hubub was about. There were many people who looked down on those who were affected by the economy...it doesn't seem like much has changed. I haven't been affected by the downturn, fortunately, but I'm certainly not blind.

And also, you were there on a holiday weekend, so the crowds were expected to be heavy. If the economy was good, I'm pretty sure there wouldn't be any large promotions like they have now.