Saturday Feb 8th Magic Kingdom was shoulder to shoulder

[Hisgirl]

Never ever have I seen a Feb week be like this, wow. Thursday at Epcot was nice, yesterday at Hollywood studios was more crowded but very doable, but today at MK, holy moly. Every single on site room was booked for this weekend. I should have figured.

I'll be interested to see how TP says today was compared to what they predicted.

 

[MDIME]

It’s not too surprising though considering the economy is booming. TP should be interesting with their take on the situation. Sorry it was crowded for you, that’s a bummer

 

[Matt961]

Never ever have I seen a Feb week be like this, wow. Thursday at Epcot was nice, yesterday at Hollywood studios was more crowded but very doable, but today at MK, holy moly. Every single on site room was booked for this weekend. I should have figured.

I'll be interested to see how TP says today was compared to what they predicted.

We were there the Jan 31st-Feb 6th and wow it was crazier than I expected. Let up a little Wed but not much. The crazy thing is TP said the worst day was an 8 on Super Bowl Monday. I’ve never been during Christmas, but knowing it’s worse than Monday was, no thanks to going Christmas week. Thankful for our FP strategy and going to DAH at MK the Friday before.

 

[only hope]

Saturdays are always nuts at MK. We avoid if at all possible, but that’s the only consistent day both my mom and I have off so we do it sometimes. Lots of locals go on Saturdays.

 

[hereforthechurros]

It’s not too surprising though considering the economy is booming. TP should be interesting with their take on the situation. Sorry it was crowded for you, that’s a bummer ☹

Booming is a stretch. Husband is a senior economist so I get more info than most I guess. But I digress. Domestic attendance is barely up. WDW is just doing a good job at spreading it throughout the year.

Also I believe I’ve seen that 1/4 of crowds are international so American economy is not the only driver of crowds.

 

[confetti]

We just returned, we were there from 2/1-2/7. Crowds were much higher than I expected for February, but I kept hearing that it's always busy now. So I went with a good plan and worked our FP and we were able to do everything we wanted with minimal waits. What's hard for me though is just navigating around the park with so many people. You're just constantly dodging people, bumping into people, etc. We were at MK on 2/1 and it was pretty busy. Thankfully we planned a short day and had FP, so we managed. But it was pretty packed, especially in fantasyland.

 

[BadgerGirl84]

Same. We just got back today after arriving 2/1 and the crowds were much higher than expected. We’d been the same week about 3 and 4 years ago back to back and it was very low crowds those years. I agree with those who said the good economy is driving crowds.

 

[scooterD]

We just got home about an hour ago from our seven day trip and yes, it was crowded! But we had an amazing trip! I am a huge refresher on FP and snagged Seven Dwarves two different times, Slinky Dog last night right before I went to sleep and FOP while waiting for a bus to Animal Kingdom Friday night! That one made me squeal a bit as my son had never experienced it and it was nice to bypass the two hour standby line. Work those FP y’all! I have always had really good luck with refreshing even if it takes a few minutes. We also managed to get BG 14 for ROTR on Thursday and wow what a ride! Everyone should experience that at least once!

 

[figmentfinesse]

here’s a photo I saw today on FB of the crowds at 6pm. Could hardly believe it!

 

[Hisgirl]

Yep, we work the fast passes like crazy but couldn’t get anything we wanted despite two hours of refreshing. Just some of the kiddie rides in fantasy land. First time that has happened in MK.

 

[MDIME]

Booming is a stretch. Husband is a senior economist so I get more info than most I guess. But I digress. Domestic attendance is barely up. WDW is just doing a good job at spreading it throughout the year.

Also I believe I’ve seen that 1/4 of crowds are international so American economy is not the only driver of crowds.

Regardless of “credentials”, most folks believe their own bank accounts. Travel is up nationwide bc many have more disposable income.

 

[kylenne]

View attachment 472262
here’s a photo I saw today on FB of the crowds at 6pm. Could hardly believe it!

Holy moly...the only time I’ve seen the hub look like that was a non-party night in October waiting for HEA. This doesn’t bode well for Presidents Day.

(Totally OT but your avatar is killing me, I love that jerk goose game lol)

 

[Rwsm0319]

Oh dear. That picture is scaring me. I said I'd never go during Spring Break but our friends talked us into going on a trip with them. We have great fast passes but still.

 

[osufeth24]

Was at MK as well yesterday. Definitely was slightly more crowded than I anticipated. I knew it'd be bad. But I couldn't find any fps after 3 which I never struggled with.

The fp line for 7DMT wrapped around the corner. Think we still waited 30 minutes. But it beats the 150 minutes it was at

 

[MickeyWaffles]

How bizarre! I wonder what happened. We were just there 1/31-2/6 and found the crowds to be pretty comfortable. By rope dropping, using our 3 FP by lunch time and then booking more, we barely waited in line for anything. Lines in the evening were also pretty short. We ate a lot of QS and didn’t have much trouble finding tables for our large group. We were a party of 9 and were able to book a good number of additional fastpasses by refreshing.

I have seen other reports about yesterday’s heavy crowds elsewhere. I wonder why this weekend is so much busier than last weekend.

 

[CastAStone]

Touring plans said the actual crowds yesterday were at 10 at MK, Epcot, and AK, and a 9 at DHS. MK was a 6 the same Saturday last year.

 

[CastAStone]

Also I believe I’ve seen that 1/4 of crowds are international so American economy is not the only driver of crowds.

On the earnings call this week they stated that it averages 20%, with an 18-22% range.

 

[GADisneyDad14]

This is one of the times of year where I think the tightening up of park hours has gone too far relative to the crowds that still come. Take the number of open park hours at MK for that same Saturday going back a few years....

2016 - 17 hours
2017 - 14 hours
2018 - 16 hours
2019 - 14 hours
2020 - 13 hours

And there's no real relief valve anywhere - yesterday MK closed at 10pm, Epcot at 9pm, DHS at 8pm (even with their billion(s) dollar new land) and DAK at 8pm. To me that is eaaarrrlllly across the board.

One of the reasons I actually like the major holidays and other times of year is longer park hours and the variability it provides for crafting a day. The same numbers of people jammed in to shorter park days never seems to work well.

 

[hertamaniac]

This is one of the times of year where I think the tightening up of park hours has gone too far relative to the crowds that still come. Take the number of open park hours at MK for that same Saturday going back a few years....

2016 - 17 hours
2017 - 14 hours
2018 - 16 hours
2019 - 14 hours
2020 - 13 hours

And there's no real relief valve anywhere - yesterday MK closed at 10pm, Epcot at 9pm, DHS at 8pm (even with their billion(s) dollar new land) and DAK at 8pm. To me that is eaaarrrlllly across the board.

One of the reasons I actually like the major holidays and other times of year is longer park hours and the variability it provides for crafting a day. The same numbers of people jammed in to shorter park days never seems to work well.

Great observation/post. Tightening the operating hours appears to have a profound effect on crowd levels.

 

[Brett Wyman]

It’s not too surprising though considering the economy is booming. TP should be interesting with their take on the situation. Sorry it was crowded for you, that’s a bummer ☹

TPs already bumped up mot February dates once.