hopemax
Well-Known Member
Alright, I have two park days in now. Sunday we were at Magic Kingdom and today we were at Epcot. Because of the return of Soarin over California, and that Test Track is on limited time, and I haven't ridden either Frozen or Remy in a couple trips I bought the evil upcharge so now I can complain about it even more since now I've used it. But we're talking about attendance.
On Sunday, I wasn't planning on riding Jungle Cruise because we had done it the last several trips. It was a priority and so we would walk directly to the Adventureland rope, and the crowd would already be backed up past the point where the path from Crystal Palace intersects. On Sunday, we were able to very easily, walk around people to position ourselves in the 3rd row of people waiting, walk fast enough to keep up with the CM and get on the very first boat of the day. The rest of the day, except our annoying wait at Tron, felt pretty unremarkable. It felt like a Fall mid-week day, only this was a Sunday, so it should have felt busier. It was a party night, which I know depresses attendance, but I figured Sunday would still be fairly busy.
Today, we were in France at lunchtime, as our LL for Remy was for 11:20-12:20. When we walked into the shop at the end of the theater show after our ride closer to that 12:20 time, we took a peak into Les Halles. There was *no one* in the queue. Only 2 families finishing up at the cashier. I can't ever remember seeing that at lunch time.
There are crowds at times. The shops in Mexico and Japan were PACKED, while the ones in Germany, UK & France, Port of Entry were pretty empty. We ate at a couple food booths and had no problems finding seating. France had a line, like usual. But the 2 things I got elsewhere I only had to wait for 1 or 2 parties. The line for the India booth was really long for some reason.
As far as LL went. Obviously, Frozen, Test Track and Remy did their disappearing act, and standby queues were 50-80 minutes for these, but everything else was immediate pulls or at most 5 minutes out. Including Soarin, while the standby wait was 50 minutes. Late morning, noonish I was looking at the wait times and M:S was 100 minutes, and 45 minutes I think for Spaceship Earth, so it seemed like people slept in. The afternoon, until we left around 6, everything went back to 5-10 minutes.
I could see how if people arrive at a certain time, and follow the crowd, it would feel like it was crowded. Lots and lots of strollers, wheelchairs and scooters. There was a feeling like people were always getting in our way, but at the same time it looked less busy. More of that annoying thing where people have a choice of a lot of empty space, and end up in your space instead.
I would say it was busier than the post-Labor day week of our yesteryear trips of 20 years ago, but less busy than the trips post-FP+, pre-Covid. However, people are a lot less likely to be paying attention to where they are walking and which doors they are blocking.
On Sunday, I wasn't planning on riding Jungle Cruise because we had done it the last several trips. It was a priority and so we would walk directly to the Adventureland rope, and the crowd would already be backed up past the point where the path from Crystal Palace intersects. On Sunday, we were able to very easily, walk around people to position ourselves in the 3rd row of people waiting, walk fast enough to keep up with the CM and get on the very first boat of the day. The rest of the day, except our annoying wait at Tron, felt pretty unremarkable. It felt like a Fall mid-week day, only this was a Sunday, so it should have felt busier. It was a party night, which I know depresses attendance, but I figured Sunday would still be fairly busy.
Today, we were in France at lunchtime, as our LL for Remy was for 11:20-12:20. When we walked into the shop at the end of the theater show after our ride closer to that 12:20 time, we took a peak into Les Halles. There was *no one* in the queue. Only 2 families finishing up at the cashier. I can't ever remember seeing that at lunch time.
There are crowds at times. The shops in Mexico and Japan were PACKED, while the ones in Germany, UK & France, Port of Entry were pretty empty. We ate at a couple food booths and had no problems finding seating. France had a line, like usual. But the 2 things I got elsewhere I only had to wait for 1 or 2 parties. The line for the India booth was really long for some reason.
As far as LL went. Obviously, Frozen, Test Track and Remy did their disappearing act, and standby queues were 50-80 minutes for these, but everything else was immediate pulls or at most 5 minutes out. Including Soarin, while the standby wait was 50 minutes. Late morning, noonish I was looking at the wait times and M:S was 100 minutes, and 45 minutes I think for Spaceship Earth, so it seemed like people slept in. The afternoon, until we left around 6, everything went back to 5-10 minutes.
I could see how if people arrive at a certain time, and follow the crowd, it would feel like it was crowded. Lots and lots of strollers, wheelchairs and scooters. There was a feeling like people were always getting in our way, but at the same time it looked less busy. More of that annoying thing where people have a choice of a lot of empty space, and end up in your space instead.
I would say it was busier than the post-Labor day week of our yesteryear trips of 20 years ago, but less busy than the trips post-FP+, pre-Covid. However, people are a lot less likely to be paying attention to where they are walking and which doors they are blocking.
