Wow - looks packed at MK today! (ride wait times) - April 2nd

[UpStNYmouse]

Here now since last Wednesday. Very very very crowded. Almost unbearable....almost. However, Fast passes have been excellent with picking up a couple more as the day goes on. Just need to be constantly refreshing and it has paid off. Over Easter weekend MK had 14 attractions at 60 min and higher most all day. Got lucky with 2 70 min waits that my DD really wanted to do but only took 35 mins. Our 2 FP for FoP was worth the trip. HS is tough. With 4 rides can only do FP and a show. Having a great time but probably won’t be back on a holiday week.

 

[Hannahinwonderland]

Wow! I’m here now with my husband, staying at SSR for the first time (loving it!) and we went to MK today. It’s his second time in WDW and I’ve been here too many times to count. But I’ve never seen it this crowded before. Monsters Inc. and Philharmagic both had over an hour wait! I’m used to those being walk ons. I’ve never been at this time of year, and I was expecting the crowds so I’m not complaining because we are having an awesome time but wow - I’ve never seen it like this.

We got up early to hit MK at rope drop but the bus took over an hour to arrive. The bus attendant (not sure of her official job title) was wonderful. Her name was Angela and we struck up conversation and she gave us an anytime fastpass for Haunted Mansion, which is my husband’s favorite ride! It was some nice pixie dust for our morning. We made it to MK about 45 minutes after RD (8:45am) but we didn’t let that ruin our plans. We were able to do Buzz, the people mover, Space Mountain, Jungle Cruise, lunch at CHH, Pirates, Hall of Presidents, Haunted Mansion, Little Mermaid, Peter Pan, and of course, Carousel of Progress. By 4:30, my husband and I were tired and a little bit cranky so we decided to head back to SSR. And now here we are, relaxing until dinner at the Turf Club at 7:20!

My husband said that if this was his first time, he doesn’t know if he’d want to come back again. I can understand that for a first timer, this can be totally overwhelming especially with the crowds today. But, we are sill having an awesome time and won’t let the small things ruin our time! Off to Epcot tomorrow

Also, something I’ve been wondering all day is how many DISers have I seen around without even knowing it? Do any of you ever wonder that too?

Sorry to hear about wild crowds, but glad you are still having an awesome time

When I was at WDW last week, I saw a woman browsing the DIS on her phone in line for Laugh Floor. I thought about saying hi and introducing myself, but I felt way too shy!

There's gotta be a bunch of us in the parks at any given time.

 

[eeyoresmom]

Sorry to hear about wild crowds, but glad you are still having an awesome time

When I was at WDW last week, I saw a woman browsing the DIS on her phone in line for Laugh Floor. I thought about saying hi and introducing myself, but I felt way too shy!

There's gotta be a bunch of us in the parks at any given time.

Dissers used to display the neon green Mickey head to identify themselves. Is that still a thing?

 

[GrandMum]

I remember several years ago many of us had the "lime green mickey heads" from Lowe's paint department. I had mine on my purse and had a couple of people come up and cautiously
asked if I was on the DIS. Too bad we can't get them any more.

 

[oceanmarina]

A friend at work told me her sister is there this week, she was texting how awful the lines were at the parks...yikes!

 

[HopperFan]

Just to clarify: last week is your usual Spring Break? (It’s ours too). We are planning a trip next year for that week (Easter is much later) and I’m trying to figure out just how skewed this year’s crowds really were compared to previous years.

This week is the ATL area most common spring break. We came last year and quite doable. This year is not even close to the same ... and CMs have said it’s the combination with Easter.

 

[klacey1]

Oooof. We'll be there starting next Thursday. Hoping a week makes a world of difference!

 

[SaintsManiac]

Aside from RnR at 200 and Splash at 160 (I'd say both are about 60 min too high), doesn't look out of the ordinary to me. This is Disney, especially during busy times.

The times of going to Disney and seeing Pirates as a 10 min wait instead of a 60 min wait seem to be about over. We use to go on its a small world just because it was a walk on and it's in the A/C, now the queue regularly extends past the entrance. We use to hop on Spaceship Earth as we were leaving Epcot for a midday break because it would be a 5 min or less wait..now we pass by it because the line is full of people baking in the sun for a 50 min wait.

I'm not saying lines are never short..but long lines are now the norm. To me long lines have been the norm for well over a year now.

I didn't see it that bad over Thanksgiving week.

 

[CAS239]

I didn't see it that bad over Thanksgiving week.

Most of those numbers are a little higher than norm. But I go all times of the year and to me the norm is now something like:

Pirates: 60 min
ToT: 75 min
TT: 120 min
Soarin: 90 min
FoP: 220 min
Haunted Mansion: 45 min
Safari: 80 min
Dinosaur: 60 min
Space: 110 min

 

[AngiTN]

Living with the Land FP+ line is in the belly of the building.

Poor CMs are overwhelmed ... everywhere.

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That's how the line was during our trip in early March too. It was quite shocking to see but moved really fast. Good for us with a FP, bad for those trying to ride stand by

 

[AngiTN]

I'm here now and it's on par for prior spring breaks - I expect it to be busy. I was here 3 weeks ago for my daughters spring break and the wait times were pretty much the same, it's just hotter this week.

It you have patience you can get fastpasses and still have a great time.

That's when we were there too and yeah, it seems about the same from the photos I've seen.

Dissers used to display the neon green Mickey head to identify themselves. Is that still a thing?

Not any more. Home Depot used to have Disney paint (I have it and used it in my 2nd Master bedroom, Tink Green on the main walls) and the samples were in Mickey head shapes. When they stopped selling the paint they got rid of the Mickey head samples, so no more green Mickey's to use for Dis'ers.

I do get many who recognize me by my hair. There's not a trip anymore where at least one comes up and introduces themselves. I'm ashamed to say that I can't remember them all now but I always love to meet everyone.

 

[22Tink]

Also, something I’ve been wondering all day is how many DISers have I seen around without even knowing it? Do any of you ever wonder that too?

I’ve been wondering the same thing!

We’ve been here braving the crowds since last Sunday, going home tomorrow night. It’s been incredibly busy but we did alright using the FP refresh trick. I’ve managed to score some decent same day FP, thanks to the advice I got here on the DIS!

 

[AngiTN]

I have good friends there right now, it's their first trip. They are there with their kids, and both sets of grandparents. Their oldest is in Kindy and school break is the only time they can go (schools are uber strict on absences here, even in Kindy) so they are there for Spring Break. I talked to her about lunchtime today and they were at AK, their first park day. She said they had a good day this morning. Thing is, like most first timers, they don't know any better. They don't know that they aren't getting as much done. They don't know that it's not always this crowded or that lines aren't always this long. They think this is the norm. So to them, they are having a grand ole time and getting done exactly what they planned.

 

[DanaCeppy]

Do you guys think next week is going to be as busy or are all spring breaks over by then?

 

[AngiTN]

Do you guys think next week is going to be as busy or are all spring breaks over by then?

I think this week wraps up most, if not all, Spring Breaks. I can't imagine many have one next week. Heck, our schools have only about 6 weeks of school left as it is. Seniors have only a month left. There aren't any more breaks left.

 

[disneybirds]

We have APs so we were here Dec 30th-Jan 5th, President's Day Weekend, and April 1st - 7th. Christmas was the most crowded that I have ever seen. I think this week is on par with President's Day Weekend. We are in Atlanta, but I think the whole state of GA has Spring Break the first week of April every year. Some years it doesn't coincide with Easter, but it did this year. We made all of our FPs at night so we haven't entered the parks until 5ish each day. It would be tough if this was a "once in a lifetime" trip.

 

[brockash]

I think this week wraps up most, if not all, Spring Breaks. I can't imagine many have one next week. Heck, our schools have only about 6 weeks of school left as it is. Seniors have only a month left. There aren't any more breaks left.

Oh, there's plenty of Spring breaks left in parts of the country. In the NE, many schools go through mid-late June and have spring break during the next 2 weeks. We're in upstate NY and go through the end of June, 2 years ago our Spring break was the very last week of April, leading into May. Haven't had our spring break this year yet either. Having said that, I'd expect next week to be much better (crowd wise) than this week. This week is probably the worst for Spring break, with a close 2nd of last week. After those 2 weeks, the rest (early March - the very end of April) are still Spring break crowds, but nothing like the 2 weeks around Easter (especially when Easters on the earlier side.)

 

[AtlantaDisneyDreamer]

So we are back at the resort after a full day at MK. Crowds were insane. People everywhere.

And I don’t know that we’ve ever had a more fun day.

I was skeptical at first when we had to wait forty minutes for a bus from the Dolphin- and then we arrived and just about every square foot of ground in front of MK was covered in people. I thought it would take an hour to go through bag check and the ticket gate. But man were those CMs working hard and moving fast. It wasn’t more than six or seven minutes and we were through the gates and off to our first fastpass.

And including our first three fastpasses, we had a total of fifteen fastpasses for the day. Fifteen. That’s a record for us. We did Splash twice, BTMRR twice, SDMT, ETWB, WTP, Talking Mickey, Tomorrowland Speedway, Dumbo, Monsters, Inc., IASW, and met all four princesses. We also did Country Bears, PCR Carousel (twice), and CoP without a wait and watched the Royal Friendship Faire. The longest line we waited in all day was 25 minutes and it was for the People Mover. The People Mover!

We tried and failed to eat our money’s worth in desserts at the HEA dessert party, but I think we made up for it with our lovely Plaza Garden view of the fireworks. I so love HEA.

And I nearly danced myself into a heatstroke at the Tomorrowland dance party. That was unexpected fun.

And the icing on the cake: With our first WTP fastpass, the ride broke down right before we got on, so they gave us a fastpass for just about any attraction at any park for tomorrow. We will be at Epcot, so now we can do both Test Track and Soarin’, and we have Frozen dessert party reservations for that ride.

It was a truly wonderful day with my little girl. Massive crowds can still be massive fun with good planning, good info, and a little good luck.

Hats off to the Disboards for providing me with that info!

 

[KristinU]

Oh, there's plenty of Spring breaks left in parts of the country. In the NE, many schools go through mid-late June and have spring break during the next 2 weeks. We're in upstate NY and go through the end of June, 2 years ago our Spring break was the very last week of April, leading into May. Haven't had our spring break this year yet either. Having said that, I'd expect next week to be much better (crowd wise) than this week. This week is probably the worst for Spring break, with a close 2nd of last week. After those 2 weeks, the rest (early March - the very end of April) are still Spring break crowds, but nothing like the 2 weeks around Easter (especially when Easters on the earlier side.)

Yep, we're in central CT and our spring break is next week. My colleague's kids have the week after.

I'm sure hoping that next week's crowds are much lower than these reports...fingers crossed!

 

[SaintsManiac]

So we are back at the resort after a full day at MK. Crowds were insane. People everywhere.

And I don’t know that we’ve ever had a more fun day.

I was skeptical at first when we had to wait forty minutes for a bus from the Dolphin- and then we arrived and just about every square foot of ground in front of MK was covered in people. I thought it would take an hour to go through bag check and the ticket gate. But man were those CMs working hard and moving fast. It wasn’t more than six or seven minutes and we were through the gates and off to our first fastpass.

And including our first three fastpasses, we had a total of fifteen fastpasses for the day. Fifteen. That’s a record for us. We did Splash twice, BTMRR twice, SDMT, ETWB, WTP, Talking Mickey, Tomorrowland Speedway, Dumbo, Monsters, Inc., IASW, and met all four princesses. We also did Country Bears, PCR Carousel (twice), and CoP without a wait and watched the Royal Friendship Faire. The longest line we waited in all day was 25 minutes and it was for the People Mover. The People Mover!

We tried and failed to eat our money’s worth in desserts at the HEA dessert party, but I think we made up for it with our lovely Plaza Garden view of the fireworks. I so love HEA.

And I nearly danced myself into a heatstroke at the Tomorrowland dance party. That was unexpected fun.

And the icing on the cake: With our first WTP fastpass, the ride broke down right before we got on, so they gave us a fastpass for just about any attraction at any park for tomorrow. We will be at Epcot, so now we can do both Test Track and Soarin’, and we have Frozen dessert party reservations for that ride.

It was a truly wonderful day with my little girl. Massive crowds can still be massive fun with good planning, good info, and a little good luck.

Hats off to the Disboards for providing me with that info!

love this! Glad you're having a great time!