Why are the parks so busy now?

[Myamos]

Odd that I live here, and never noticed, and I graduated from GA primary schools (though, I went to far more over the years).

Looking over the schedule, this must be a rather recent thing (as in the past decade)...

Yes, maybe the last couple of years. We live in the NW suburbs and only have a couple of days, but Paulding and Cobb had a full week. I think gearing towards more year round school. Also full thanksgiving week and a week in feb for winter break. We pull our son (kindergardner) out for a couple of days In early Dec to try to miss the crowds but it's almost impossible. That being said, yes I realize we aren't the only people out there who love Disney!

 

[englanddg]

Yes, maybe the last couple of years. We live in the NW suburbs and only have a couple of days, but Paulding and Cobb had a full week. I think gearing towards more year round school. Also full thanksgiving week and a week in feb for winter break. We pull our son (kindergardner) out for a couple of days In early Dec to try to miss the crowds but it's almost impossible. That being said, yes I realize we aren't the only people out there who love Disney!

I was looking at Cobb's schedule, and was shocked they are out the whole week of Thanksgiving.

I really wish the Govt would get their rear in line with businesses, as having a kiddo out a whole week of school can be a major drain on the budget if your work doesn't agree with the schedule.

Even when I worked for the Govt ( as a contractor) the GS folks didn't get the whole week of Thanksgiving off.

That's just insane.

 

[Myamos]

I was looking at Cobb's schedule, and was shocked they are out the whole week of Thanksgiving.

I really wish the Govt would get their rear in line with businesses, as having a kiddo out a whole week of school can be a major drain on the budget if your work doesn't agree with the schedule.

Even when I worked for the Govt ( as a contractor) the GS folks didn't get

 

[rct247]

The problem is that attendance is steady or rising but new rides and hotel occupancy are stagnet or dropping.

 

[Clamman73]

I wonder if the crowds are just more spread out. We went in mid Aug. (as we have been doing for the last 6-7 years). We found this year the crowds were lighter than ever. At MK, we ended up riding everything at least twice (Buzz about 6 times - my son's favourite), left the parks for lunch (Downtown Disney) and dinner (Chef Mickey) and were still in the resort pool by 9:00 (We had arrived at MK just before 10am). We didn't stay for Wishes because we were done so early. In the afternoon, we got about 10 back to back fastpasses from the kiosk for any ride we wanted (except 7DMT) after we had used our 1st three. We usually need 2 days to get to every ride. Did we just get lucky?

You might have caught it just when a lot of Southern schools go back, and the fact people are deciding to just go sometime later in the fall.

 

[Dad 2 M & M]

The economy is playin a big part in the crowd increase.....while things are certainly not great, or maybe even not sustainable, we are out of the deep darkest part of the recession. Peeps are finally beginning to spend again, rather than save.

There are legit fears of a global double-dip recession coming, and if those fears are realized, the crowds will die down again. Incidentally, those tour groups from the south were mentioned in this thread again; their economy is really in trouble, and the World Cup was not the financial windfall many were hoping.

 

[Macca250]

The parks never have quiet periods like the old days. Meanwhile on Main Street...

 

[MuteSuperstar]

MDE shows a 40 minute wait for Spaceship Earth at the moment. Shudder.
Yep, I think this upcoming trip is going to be my last for a long, long time. Just not the place it used to be in far too many ways.

And POTC showing as closed now for the 2nd day in a row.

 

[GhostHost1000]

Word is out that there's a new lumberjack show at the Canada Pavilion in the World Showcase and that's been drawing the big crowds.

Oh I thought it was the magical parking extravaganza at DTD

 

[GhostHost1000]

The problem is that attendance is steady or rising but new rides and hotel occupancy are stagnet or dropping.

That's true...somewhat. Disney needs to expand as well (as rehashing all the parks in a big way) but things like a new track for TSMM and Soarin along with a new hub isn't going to be all they need

As for the resorts they are pretty busy right now but looking at how much some of the off property resorts are so much nicer larger and cheaper maybe Disney should eventually consider something like they did for family suites for all standard or DVC deluxe studio and make 2 into 1.

And/Or maybe some different transportation modes from the resorts like TTA and airport type trams

 

[skyphotographer]

I'll be arriving Tuesday for a 4 day stay. I hope everyone has gone home by then.

 

[GhostHost1000]

I'll be arriving Tuesday for a 4 day stay. I hope everyone has gone home by then.

Good luck

Go to parks early and have those FP+'s booked ahead of time

 

[Seabasealpha1]

Um...I'd guess that will the maze of construction walls all over the property, that there's hidden somewhere a two-ton block of mickey mouse shaped cheese...all the rats want to find it!

Happy Leif Erickson day to all you Frozen fans! Enjoy your new digs! Not.

And a very big Hanga Danga Dargin from the Spirit of Norway!

 

[Prince-1]

I was looking at Cobb's schedule, and was shocked they are out the whole week of Thanksgiving.

I really wish the Govt would get their rear in line with businesses, as having a kiddo out a whole week of school can be a major drain on the budget if your work doesn't agree with the schedule.

Even when I worked for the Govt ( as a contractor) the GS folks didn't get the whole week of Thanksgiving off.

That's just insane.

I live in Cobb County and have no issues with the week off for thanksgiving since most areas give off from Wednesday through Friday anyways and the two days in school are more goof days to pass the time.

What is mind blowing to me is the week they give off in September for no reason. Kids have only been in school a few weeks and hey let's give them off a week for their hard work!! That is truly dumb!!

 

[ᗩLᘿᑕ ✨ ᗩζᗩᗰ]

Just got back from a 5 day trip. Horrible! Parks were EXTREMELY crowded. MK was nuts (thanks in part to Not so scary Halloween and closure of the people-eating Railroad) AK was OK, Epcot was good although lacking thanks to Norway's disapearance. Hollywood Studios was packed full of "angries" due to Midway Mania "reaching capacity" and closure of Backlot Tour. Had quite a few "in-testing" Paper Fastpasses come into play here. This is without a doubt the WORST park on Disney Property.

MK had many MANY issues with dim attraction lighting. Haunted Mansion was near pitch-black as was Pirates (which also had a few MIA show scene effects) Peter Pan's Flight was in dire need of new blacklight paint. Just awful quality. Ridiculous line for Memento Mori gift shop. Almost needed a fastpass+ reservation just to enter. Splash Moutain was packed. 75+ wait. Fastpass+ line was at least a 15 min wait.

Most of the queues needed a fastpass+ for the fastpass+ line.
Worst Disney experience ever. Crazy-packed parks.

 

[MuteSuperstar]

A line to get into a store now. In October. Sad, sad, sad.

And on the MDE app I'm seeing an 80 minute wait for Haunted Mansion and 100 for POTC right now. What the heck is going on????? I know it's a "holiday" weekend, but these numbers are just off the rails crazy. Starting to wish I hadn't booked in 3 weeks. This is absurd.

Edited to add:
105 mins for Dumbo at the moment, 40 for It's A Small World. This is beyond the peaks of summer. I don't get it. At all. FP+ must be ruining everything. You never saw these kinds of waits for HM, POTC or IASW ANYtime before this nonsense. Hoping I can at least sneak into Hall of Presidents or CoP when I'm there.

 

[Megbutnotmegan]

I was down there last week 10/3-10/8, and the crowds were out of control. Last Friday, 10/3, Studio's was pretty empty. Basically walked on ToT and RnRC, and I thought wow, this is going to be a good trip. But we went to MK on Monday and it was out of control, worse than the summer time. Both Pirates and HM had lines of about 60 minutes. It was so bad we left, and we go down pretty much every summer and never really remember it being that bad

We must've been at different parks on these days because I was there the same weekend (ran the ToT 10 miler on Saturday) and I didn't think waits were bad at all. Friday we went to MK and walked onto pirates, Dumbo, and Aladdin. Went to HS on Saturday and longest wait was 45 for RnRC. My brother and his girlfriend went to AK that morning and rode Everest twice so wait couldn't have been too bad Went back to MK on Sunday and waited for only 40 minutes with my 4 year old to meet Anna and Elsa! Finished the weekend, Monday in Epcot. Cried over the lack of Malestrom but otherwise had a lovely day. It does look crowded this weekend but I would expect that on a long weekend.

 

[hth1917]

Early-mid September crowds were fairly light this year, at least on the days I visited. But this month seems to have been extra busy. I was at the MK on Friday and it was miserable, with summer-level crowds. Pirates hit 50 minutes at 11:30 in the morning, and HM was close to an hour by lunchtime. Part of this is surely the holiday weekend, but it almost seems as if something else is at work this month. MM+ is certainly a factor.

 

[BrerJon]

Edited to add:
105 mins for Dumbo at the moment, 40 for It's A Small World. This is beyond the peaks of summer. I don't get it. At all. FP+ must be ruining everything. You never saw these kinds of waits for HM, POTC or IASW ANYtime before this nonsense. Hoping I can at least sneak into Hall of Presidents or CoP when I'm there.

Yup, it's all down to Fastpass+. Almost overnight standby line lengths increased, and because people have to wait around for return times instead of being in a line it makes the streets feel more crowded too. People don't realise that the system may make their wait for Space Mountain 20 minutes instead of 60, but they're spending way more than 40 minutes longer in other attraction lines. It was designed to spread crowds around, and that's just what it's done.

 

[GiveMeTheMusic]

October has been a heavy month for awhile now. The conventional slow season doesn't work anymore - this year most of the summer had huge dead spots.