September Crowds (in general) and Toy Story Mania

[DisneyJunkie]

I just returned home yesterday from our 9/20/08 - 9/27/08 trip to WDW. Now my wife and I tend to take our trips around this same time (give or take a week or so earlier or later) in September in part because of the offer for Free Dining and in part because it's typically a good time to go with reasonable crowds. After this current trip we're noticing a trend of WDW being busier and busier during this once relatively quiet time to go. Way more often than not, we had to use Fastpasses......for things like Space Mountain, Expedition Everest, Soarin', and Toy Story Mania. It's not to say we didn't get to ride all of our favorite rides (multiple times), but we've never had to use Fastpasses so often as we did on this latest trip.

About TSM, let me tell you......and it was like this every single morning of our trip....we would get into the Hollywood Studios and hustle over to Toy Story Mania and get our Fastpasses (sometimes also just getting right on line if it was a 20 minute wait or so). EVERY DAY....the Toy Story Mania Fastpasses were completely distributed out by noon. It was ridiculous.

 

[Monty]

TSMM is new, eventually the FP situation will settle down. [I hope]

It is a pretty fun ride though, so maybe not! :shrug:

 

[Computer Magic]

I totally agree with you assessment. The wife and I just returned from out trip 9/16 - 9/23. The crowds are much heavier then prior Sept's and yes it's because of the free dinning plan. We used FP much more then normal especially once mid day arrived. Toy Story Mania was never under 60 minutes. It less crowed then May and my god the HEAT...

 

[SchultzFamily]

I don't like hearing this. We always go first September 1 - 9. Last year we averaged a ten minute wait for attractions and this year five minutes for the attractions (Soarin' was 20 minutes and once Big Thunder was 25 because it had been down for a little while). Unfortunately, nex tyear we have to go September 20-29 due to my husband's work as he has a trade show on September 13-16 and can't be gone the week before.

 

[Tinkerbella16]

I agree with you about TSM. We go the same week in November when the parks are not crowded at all. This year I had it planned out beforehand for TSM. We got to DHS an hour before opening on Nov. 10th. When the rope drops, the CM's from the actual ride escort the whole crowd with their arms out to keep everyone behind them and at a steadily walking pace (which was smart, bc some folks are just crazy). As soon as we got to TSM, we grabbed fastpasses and jumped right in the stand-by line and basically walked right on. We got to ride it twice that day. My mom was so happy that we did it the way I planned because we would have never gotten on if we arrived in the afternoon. We went back to DHS 2 more times during the week and the FP's were gone by 11am and the wait time was up to 100 minutes!!!

It really was rediculous how fast the fastpasses go. TSM is an awesome ride, probably the most fun in all of WDW...but I cannot see myself wasting 100mins waiting in line, when I can be doing something else.