What a trip!

[IfWeCanDreamIt]

Just came back from a stay at the contemporary resort, which lasted from August 23rd to The 31st. One thing that really made an impression on me was the crazy crowd level. I know the free dining attracted the majority of the crowd(which is to be expected), but this seemed like utter chaos. We were at studios on the 25th, and we could not get over the amount o people there. It was the first ever that we had had to go through the extra extended queue. It was almost unbelievable! Did anyone else experience the craziness?

 

[Pooh Lover]

We went mid-September last year during free dining and the only place that was crazy busy each time we went was the Studios. Great Movie Ride line was out the door and the return time after picking up a fast pass around 10:00 a.m. for Toy Story was after 7:00 p.m.

How were the other parks while you were there?

 

[foreverbelle]

We were there back in the beginning of August and there were a few days when we found it to be quite packed despite nothing special really going on.

 

[DABIGCHEEZ]

Yes ..we were there the weeks of 8/16 and 8/23. We have been going these same weeks for quite a few years now. The first words out of my wife's mouth were " it is really crowded". I had to agree... each of the last few years had slight increase in crowds over the previous year. However this year seemed to be even more so. Ususally the second week brings lighter crowds and that did seem true this year. But the crowds were still higher then past years.
We did notice that probably(guessing here) 40% of the guests were foreigners. Nothing wrong with that.. just an observation.

 

[Princess8813]

We were there 8/6-8/16 crowds very manageable and very short wait times if any. Most of the time, the wait times posted were not believable at all! walked right through ques, no more than 5 minute waits (unless of course TSMM)

 

[RiversideBunny]

"Nobody goes there anymore. It's too crowded."

 

[IfWeCanDreamIt]

The studios was by far the most crowded of them all(likely because of it's size) , but the other three parks were still fairly crowded. I was down last August around the same time frame and there were virtually no crowds(mind you, tropical storm Faye did help). Nevertheless , my family and I were still surprised. There were a ton of first timers, and a lot of annoying foreigners. The one night we were on the monorail, three groups of people thought it made sense to cram three strollers into one cab. It was ridiculous! Not to mention, one of the strollers was one from the parks that should have been returned, and not carted around the resort. I'm just kind of rattled still from our trip. It's unfortunate that Disney has to make steep discounts, because it brings the worst idiots out to the resort. Let's just say that with some of the people staying at our resort(the contemporary) we didn't feel like we should have been paying what we were.

 

[rsoxguy]

"Nobody goes there anymore. It's too crowded."

Kudos on the Yogi Berra quote!

 

[IfWeCanDreamIt]

It was also the first time that I've ever watched the fastpass return time get later and later in real time for toy story. By the time we got our fastpass at around 10:00am, the return time managed to go to as late as 2:00pm. Unbelievable! (although I guess some rides do distribute their fastpasses more rapidly than others)