Why are the parks so busy now?

[Captain Neo]

No, this isn't just an October thing. The same thing goes for September and quite honestly I would lay the "blame" on more people taking advantage of Free Dining and word getting out about F&W.

How does one get free dining?

 

[s&k'smom]

We were there last October third week and it was more crowded than usual. Some of the wait times we had never seen, but we were still able to do what my husband calls let's go back later and almost always found the line down. MK was the busiest park I had never seen it so busy but we would be there early hit the rides we wanted than back to the GF for a swim. I'm thinking economy is better people are traveling, I work in a hotel and boy do I see it happening.

We've been to Disney on not so great economy times and there is a huge difference.

 

[RSoxNo1]

It's 10:45 and the wait for pirates is 45 minutes.

Pirates of the Caribbean has 15-20% less capacity and now has Fastpass+. Until they fix the boat issue it's going to be towards the top of the wait times for the park.

 

[FrostyNaples]

Ive been coming to florida and the disney parks since i was 9 years old (32 now) and we have always come in october to avoid the crowds but this doesnt seem to work anymore.

This past week especially all the parks including universal have been unbearbable. whats going on? what changed? ive noticed this getting peogressivly worse year on year.

rides breaking down (pirates). 45mins - 90mins on literrally every attraction except living with the land in epcot and omg the brazilians, so many brazilians. i never knew how loud they were until they started filling the parks

at universal this past thursday, 80mins minion mayhem, 60 mins transformers,60 rip ride and rocket etc.. etc..

shoulder to shoulder in epcot, face to face in MK, urgh.. is there any month better now? november perhaps?

I like to look at the big picture so many seem to not realize with regards to year over year increase in Disney attendance.

In 1991, roughly when you were 9yrs old, just in the United States alone, there were 65 Million less people then there are today.

Lets not forget its a Global Attraction.

In 2013, Disney World saw approx 50 million guests in attendance. Break that down, about 4.1 million per month! Or 962,000 PER WEEK! Those are some serious digits.

Increase in attendance year over year is expected, as the Global Population is not deflating any time soon.

Pretty much the only thing that would keep people out of the parks, is economical hardship.

 

[TheRabbit]

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

Visit in mid-January

 

[jakeman]

Visit in mid-January

But not MLK weekend or Marathon weekend.

 

[draybook]

How does one get free dining?

During certain times of the year Disney will have the Free Dining promotion. Also, when you look in the welcome brochure in the rooms they have it in the packet, again for certain times of the year.

And if you're lucky, sometimes they send out pin codes for it via snail mail and/or email.

 

[gmajew]

Most southern schools now have a fall break and that is also these couple of weeks. So it is like another Spring Break for the kids that have all year school.

 

[AgeEight-E]

I went last year from Oct 30 - Nov 6 (Wednesday to Wednesday). This was my first visit in almost exactly ten years; the last was from Oct 22 - 29 2003. (I sadly can't afford to go nearly as often as I'd like.)

When I went in 2003, I remembered there being practically no waits for anything. Many rides were walk-ons, and the longest wait the entire week was 15 min. for ToT (which was down to only one operational elevator at the time).

Last year on our first night in the park after arrival, we went to Epcot and the park was absolutely mobbed. I was shocked. I expected it to be a little busier since so much time had gone by, but it was shoulder-to-shoulder practically everywhere. The crowds thinned out a little on subsequent days, but it was still routine to wait 30-45 minutes for rides, and there were no walk-ons at all.

I think the days of going to WDW and having an experience like mine in 2003 are sadly coming to an end, regardless of the time of year.

 

[George]

Most schools are on fall break, and many have gone to a balanced schedule, which gives them a 2 week fall break.

All the schools around here are on a 2 week break right now.

I wish we were on a balanced schedule, just for Disney vacations.

 

[TheRabbit]

But not MLK weekend or Marathon weekend.

Yes! Good point! Every month has some holiday or event that draws some crowd, but overall, January is your best month for least crowds.

 

[xdan0920]

I wish we were on a balanced schedule, just for Disney vacations.

You could always home school. You have time for that, right?

 

[GhostHost1000]

let's also not forget the exchange rates are very low for many non-US guests now

 

[PrincessNelly_NJ]

We leave Saturday and I'm expecting crowds.
I knew it the minute Free Dining was released. Oct 4th through 26th were excluded, which told me that they were confident crowds would pour in. Columbus Day, Fall breaks, F&W, MNSSHP, various Conventions in town, and Canadian Thanksgiving... make for crowds.

We will be putting morning/night emh to use for sure!

 

[Lance]

omg the brazilians, so many brazilians. i never knew how loud they were until they started filling the parks

I'm glad you brought it up, we were down there Oct. 2nd-8th... and wow, there was an overwhelming presence of Brasilians. But I didn't start noticing them until the weekend of the 4th.

We went to all the area "premium" outlets our last day this past wednesday... and wow, it just solidified my observations.... quite easily five Brasilians to every one American... no joke.

But they weren't the annoying 100 deep yellow shirt tour groups, just families, but they brought like every family member, lol.


We always go down the last week in October, but my loving wife HAD to run the ToT 10 miler, so we changed our plans...lol. Crowds were insane, not even close to when we usual go down in late October.

 

[ChrisM]

Just returned from a 10/4 to 10/10 trip and I'll echo the sentiments here - it was pretty damn crowded. Not insanely crowded but way more crowded than I expected.

The MK was pretty consistently slammed and Hollywood Studios could have 5 people in it and it would still be difficult to move around, but I thought it was bizarre at how crowded World Showcase was on Monday at 11:30am. Lines at every food stand and tons of people in the walkways.

And yes, every single conversation I overheard was in a foreign language although I never once saw a tour group.

 

[mp2bill]

I've never heard of that...interesting. Do you have an example district that does that?

In North Carolina (not sure if this is true for the whole state or just some districts) they go 8 weeks on, 2 weeks off for the whole year.

 

[BigThunderMatt]

During certain times of the year Disney will have the Free Dining promotion. Also, when you look in the welcome brochure in the rooms they have it in the packet, again for certain times of the year.

And if you're lucky, sometimes they send out pin codes for it via snail mail and/or email.

It's really just an illusion though. When you get "free" dining, you're paying rack rate for the room, which most guests NEVER pay. So what you save from not paying for the dining plan you make up for in the cost of the room. On the same token, when you actually pay for the dining plan you're usually getting a cheaper nightly rate on the room but the total cost adds up to roughly the rack rate for the room anyway in most cases. So there's no real savings either way.

 

[SugarMagnolia75]

In North Carolina (not sure if this is true for the whole state or just some districts) they go 8 weeks on, 2 weeks off for the whole year.

Must just be some schools or districts. I live in Raleigh and my kids go to a year round school. Most year round schools have multiple tracks, so someone is always off. About half the elementary schools are year round, the othe half have a traditional schedule and don't have a fall break. For the most part, we didn't have any issued with crowds when we were there 9/26- 10/4. PotC did have some technical issues though and was not always the walk on it used to be. I find these reports concerning because right now we are booked for 10/2-10/11 next year.

 

[horizons82]

I think it's nearly impossible to just point to one thing causing crowds during traditionally slower time periods. Just some likely reasons include:

1. Larger population...resulting in just more people in general going to parks at all times, both domestic and from abroad.
2. "Smarter" guests...more and more people finding out about websites that help them to know the 'best' or 'better' times to go to the parks, bringing them here during "off" times, hoping to avoid crowds and lines.
3. Non-traditional schedules...between the Internet being used for work and classes, changing school calendars and a more service-focused economy and jobs, not everything revolves around the same schedule cycles as they used to.
4. Disney events...WDW seems to be doing a good job of promotions, discounts and events to give guests different reasons to come during what used to be slower times.
5. WDW fans/the obsessed...those who love to get to WDW as soon as possible whenever something new or big opens up, as well as fans who make it a tradition to come to things like F & W, MNSSH, etc.

I'm sure there are a litany of other reasons too that I'm not thinking of right now.


I also think there is something people have to keep in mind when looking at websites that offer crowd level predictions...

I don't think that you can really compare crowd predictions year over year. In other words, a crowd level of a '1' or '2' for a particular day this year isn't necessarily going to be the same as a level '1' or '2' from years ago (or even the year before). A crowd level of '3' today might have been a '5' or '6' several years ago, but because the parks are more crowded overall, the crowd levels seem like they are only to compare days against the same year rather than being a number that represents a specific crowd level year over year. (Hope this makes sense)