Saturday Feb 8th Magic Kingdom was shoulder to shoulder

[GovieMom]

Honestly I don't even care if I can still get the same number of rides done. The magic just disappears when walkways are shoulder to shoulder.

I totally agree. It used to be so much fun planning and looking forward to our Disney trips. Now with one coming up at the first of March, all I can think is "ugh." Because I know how much the crowds will detract from the atmosphere.

 

[SaintsManiac]

Disney knows what kind of crowds are coming. There's no excuse for cutting back so much on the hours.

Honestly I don't even care if I can still get the same number of rides done. The magic just disappears when walkways are shoulder to shoulder.

For me it’s bathroom lines. It’s not as bad at the MK, but the lines were awful at AK and HS during Thanksgiving. That situation really makes me crazy. Build more bathrooms!!!

 

[PrincessWithABlaster]

For my upcoming trip in May, we planned one day at MK for a Saturday. I don't want to redo my whole trip plan (rest days and such). We'll try to get our FPs and we have lunch at BOG. So I guess I'll have to keep my expectations low.

i wouldn’t write off your May MK Sat just yet. We’ve gone to MK on Sat in May 4 times in the last 4 years. Only one of those days felt really crowded (and it was an 8 so not even as bad as what people experienced over the weekend). Sat is busier than other days but since the crowds are more moderate then, if you’ve got a reasonable plan you’ll be ok even if it is busier than you might expect.

 

[LSUmiss]

I totally agree. It used to be so much fun planning and looking forward to our Disney trips. Now with one coming up at the first of March, all I can think is "ugh." Because I know how much the crowds will detract from the atmosphere.

That’s my biggest issue. It’s not how many rides I can do that I care about. It’s the atmosphere b/c ppl are just everywhere. But, I also think that has to do with FP+ b/c more ppl are just standing around waiting for their next appt.

 

[yulilin3]

Magic Kingdom, DHS, and AK look bananas based on wait times today. Epcot looks manageable (65 minutes for FEA and 50 for Soarin with TT still closed for refurb).

At 7:30am they had the express monorail running, usually in the morning it's ferry or resort monorail. That's nuts

 

[havoc315]

They have added about 40,000 rides/day vs 2014 (roughly a 33% increase; based on a 12 hour day). They closed 2 rides to open 5; MMRR will have about 15% lower capacity than TGMR, MF:SR has roughly the same capacity as Backlot tour did in the last 5 years of it's operation, and ROTR, SDD, and AS2 are all incremental capacity, as is the 3rd track they added to TSM.

As far as shows, that capacity is expandable at most shows based on number of performances a day, but I will point out that they also added Lightning McQueen's Racing Academy, which runs continuously.

I think Disney knows they have a capacity problem and is tackling it one park at a time.

That does sound likely right. Of course, they are generally operating fewer hours than in 2014, taking away some of that increase.

Yes -- they are doing it 1 park at a time. Epcot is in the process of a significant increase.
But Magic Kingdom hasn't increased since the fantasy land expansion.... And the attendance increases appear to mostly be outpacing the capacity increases. Especially if/when combined with reduced hours.

 

[CastAStone]

That does sound likely right. Of course, they are generally operating fewer hours than in 2014, taking away some of that increase.

Yes -- they are doing it 1 park at a time. Epcot is in the process of a significant increase.
But Magic Kingdom hasn't increased since the fantasy land expansion.... And the attendance increases appear to mostly be outpacing the capacity increases. Especially if/when combined with reduced hours.

Yeah, it seems like they went MK (New Fantasyland) -> AK (Pandora) -> DHS (TSL/SWGE) -> Epcot (Guardians, Ratatouille, Play!, Mary Poppins?), with the occasional outlier like Tron or the Soarin capacity expansion. I assume they'll then cycle back to MK. I guess the point I was trying to make was that the investment in hourly capacity isn't the problem to me (especially as compared to the 15 years prior to New FL, when they reduced hourly capacity on net), but like you said hours/day outside of the most expensive seasons (summer, spring break, late December).

 

[TiggerBouncy]

Disney's budget cutting -- operating with fewer hours, including fewer extra magic hours, is certainly making things more crowded. Spreading people out over 10 hours instead of 13 hours, etc.

And even if attendance is only rising slightly, we start to see more issues of "critical mass."
Look at it this way --- If a given ride can handle 200 people per 10 minutes.. and 180 people get in line, every 10 minutes, then the line should keep moving with minimal wait. If 195 people get on line every 10 minutes, the line should continue to be minimal.
But if 210 people get in line every 10 minutes, although it's only slightly more, it can cause an ever expanding wait time.

I will admit that I was thinking about this earlier today. I am not an expert (by any stretch) is crowd dynamics and capacity planning. I do know that Disney manages and reduces staff and that affects ride capacity.

However, if there are 20,000 people in a park (for example) and lets say a ride has the capacity to handle 2,000 ppl / hr. if the queue is an hour wait, that means there are 18,000 people still wandering around (and 2000 in line). So if they slow the ride down, the line is longer (now 90 minutes say). However, depending on how much they slow it down - say it now handled 1,800 ppl / hr, the general population of people wandering around the park would still be reduced to 17,300, this less elbow-to-elbow in main street.

So if the rides are running at reduced capacity, doesn't that actually HELP the park seem less crowded in the public walkways (although the rides will admittedly have longer waits)?

OR is all this completely misguided and if they slow the ride down, the capacity is still outpaced by the people in line? I.E. if it's not running at 2,000, they have to cut it to 1,000 and that 90 minute wait is still only 1,500 (lower than the 2K with an hour wait) removed from the general populace?

Does anyone here know the mathmatics of it for sure (i.e. not just guessing, but from experience in the industry or a similar field)?

I would guess that Disney have very complex formulas to determine the exact sweet spot of capacity to rider count in any case.

 

[osufeth24]

I think as long as you do some planning, and a little luck, you can still get a lot done on a busy day.

As I mentioned, I was there on the 8th, we got inside the park around 930, and left about 330.

We had a FP to Haunted Mansion from 9-10, Big Thunder 130-230 and 7DMT 2-3.

Haunted Mansion was down so we got a anywhere FP. We went standby to Buzz first as that was a 15 minute wait. After that we slowly walked over toward Haunted Mansion, and saw it back operating, we wen standby on that and walked right on since it hadn't been open for long (when we got off it was already a 75 minute wait). We used our anywhere FP on Pirates which had a 70 minute wait when we got there. Ate lunch around 1130 at Casey's Corner. After that, went on Carousel of Progress and the Peoplemover. Then did Thunder Mountain, walked around Tom Sawyer Island, then hit our 7DMT at 315. Had to skip Space Mountain because my lower back just won't be able to handle the ride anymore.

So I know without that anytime FP, we wouldn't have been able to do pirates without a long wait, but even outside of that, we got a lot done in those 6 hours we were there.

 

[havoc315]

I will admit that I was thinking about this earlier today. I am not an expert (by any stretch) is crowd dynamics and capacity planning. I do know that Disney manages and reduces staff and that affects ride capacity.

However, if there are 20,000 people in a park (for example) and lets say a ride has the capacity to handle 2,000 ppl / hr. if the queue is an hour wait, that means there are 18,000 people still wandering around (and 2000 in line). So if they slow the ride down, the line is longer (now 90 minutes say). However, depending on how much they slow it down - say it now handled 1,800 ppl / hr, the general population of people wandering around the park would still be reduced to 17,300, this less elbow-to-elbow in main street.

So if the rides are running at reduced capacity, doesn't that actually HELP the park seem less crowded in the public walkways (although the rides will admittedly have longer waits)?

OR is all this completely misguided and if they slow the ride down, the capacity is still outpaced by the people in line? I.E. if it's not running at 2,000, they have to cut it to 1,000 and that 90 minute wait is still only 1,500 (lower than the 2K with an hour wait) removed from the general populace?

Does anyone here know the mathmatics of it for sure (i.e. not just guessing, but from experience in the industry or a similar field)?

I would guess that Disney have very complex formulas to determine the exact sweet spot of capacity to rider count in any case.

Total speculation -- BOTH. Keeping people on lines can make the walkways "feel less crowded." But longer posted wait times make the park "feel more crowded" even if there are fewer people on the walkways.

And while generally having standby lines is important for crowd control (which is why you can't have a virtual queue for every ride)... I honestly don't know that Disney would intentionally slow down a ride capacity just to take people off the walkways. You'd be trading 1 type of guest dissatisfaction for another. They absolutely do reduce capacity at times -- but that's money savings, typically when attendance is predicted to be low. Never heard of capacity being intentionally reduced BECAUSE crowds at high.

 

[DGsAtBLT]

I agree with others, I’m less bothered by long waits and more bothered by general crowded feel in the parks taking away from the ability to just walk around and enjoy the atmosphere.

I also think people drive themselves crazy with crowd calendars with little payoff at this point. Plan your trip when you want to go, considering price, weather, special events, your own obligations, etc. It’s going to be busy. If it isn’t, you got lucky. But I imagine it would be very frustrating to go at a less than ideal time for your family because of “low crowds” only to walk into crowds like this.

 

[nmcclellan]

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.

I believe there was a big national cheerleading competition there this past weekend so maybe that contributed to the crowds?

 

[DisAg]

We were at MK the past 2 Saturdays. Our last trip to WDW was late January 2017. Crowds were much heavier across all parks throughout the week compared to our last trip. Last trip we saw more of the South American groups (this year there were more of the cheerleading groups). You can still get a lot of attractions done if you work the fastpass system. Saturday feb 8 we rope dropped space. FP+ 7dmt, peter pan, btmr. 4th+ fp small world, buzz, and something else I cant remember. Ended night with peoplemover and mansion with short waits standby. Longest we waited in line was maybe 20 minutes so I think we did a good job managing the heavy crowd when it came to attractions. In afternoon we knocked stuff off the list we hadn't done this trip like hall of presidents, carousel of progress and walked tom sawyers island. We had a really great time that day with the heavy crowds. Worst part was just trying to maneuver around everybody walking from place to place. I would like our next trip to have only one weekend instead of two. Maybe arrive on a tuesday/wednesday and depart wednesday/thursday.

 

[Remy is Up]

From a locals passholder perspective, we generally go on weekends either saturday or Sunday 2 or 3 times a month. When you live here I guess it isnt as much of a shock that WDW is busy all the time, especially weekends. When we notice a difference, there is a definite difference. And for us crowds this past month and a half have ranged from Moderate to heavy due to run weekend, cheerleading weekend (2 of those), international tours, Arts festival, Presidents Day weekend.
Sometimes if we go during the week late in an afternoon, we find the crowds are not quite as packed in, but, still pretty busy.
Id say for those not living here, plan accordingly.

 

[VFL]

We are heading to WDW this Saturday for a week. The hours are not great. We have gone the last 2 years during President's Week and I know it is slammed but feel like the hours have usually been longer than they are as posted now. Perhaps I am wrong on this but I recall the Wed. of the week usually having EMH at MK until at least midnight whereas this week is only until 11. I keep watching and hoping for an extension of hours but so far they have only moved HS from 9 a.m. to 8 a.m. For the first time ever I am, sadly, dreading our trip because of the crowd levels I have seen.

 

[DGsAtBLT]

I feel like I’ve said this so much but EEMH made the parks an absolute pleasure in October, both during the actual extra hours and throughout the day. It’s a shame Disney seems to be operating with the idea that extended park hours are not worth it unless they’re anywhere from busy to packed.

It would be cool if there were numbers released publicly showing how long people actually stay in the parks and at what hours of the day, compared to years past. I wonder if we had access to those kind of things it would show what people are speculating here, less breaks, and more people there during peak hours since there’s so much less time at the end of the day than there used to be.

 

[Disneyhanna]

I think it will be interesting to see what the parks will be like for my trip in two weeks. I went recently after Thanksgiving (arriving Friday night) and the weekend was quite busy, but the weekdays were pretty slow, even though everyone was saying the first week of December would be busier than usual since resorts sold out super early and RotR, etc. We experienced HS wall to wall on Sunday and MK wall to wall on the one night it was open late, but otherwise some days the parks felt empty. FoP was 65 min almost all day on our AK day (even with sun and blue skies).

One thing I thought was interesting was how drastically different the crowds were in different parks. On the Saturday after Thanksgiving we did Epcot, which felt extremely moderate in terms of crowds. Lots of open walkways, good FP availability, pleasant in general. Maybe a 4/10 to me. We went to HS briefly and it was wall to wall, honestly unbearable. We lasted maybe an hour before going back to Epcot for the rest of the evening. I would have put HS a 9/10 (avoid at all costs).

Same thing happened on our AK day, like I said it was empty and we literally walked down pathways and there would be no one in sight ahead of us. I saw three different FoP fast passes while refreshing in the afternoon. Safari FPs were immediately available even after lunch. We went to MK in the evening and again it was wall to wall (more due to HEA having a rare showing plus evening EMH, a rarity during MVMCP season). It was such a drastic difference. So even if one park might be terribly busy it doesn't mean WDW as a whole is, that's why I will never go without park hoppers. Get your 3 FPs in and switch parks if need be. We would have been miserable if we were stuck in a busy park all day, especially if we looked at wait times and saw other parks that were empty.

 

[LSUmiss]

I think it will be interesting to see what the parks will be like for my trip in two weeks. I went recently after Thanksgiving (arriving Friday night) and the weekend was quite busy, but the weekdays were pretty slow, even though everyone was saying the first week of December would be busier than usual since resorts sold out super early and RotR, etc. We experienced HS wall to wall on Sunday and MK wall to wall on the one night it was open late, but otherwise some days the parks felt empty. FoP was 65 min almost all day on our AK day (even with sun and blue skies).

One thing I thought was interesting was how drastically different the crowds were in different parks. On the Saturday after Thanksgiving we did Epcot, which felt extremely moderate in terms of crowds. Lots of open walkways, good FP availability, pleasant in general. Maybe a 4/10 to me. We went to HS briefly and it was wall to wall, honestly unbearable. We lasted maybe an hour before going back to Epcot for the rest of the evening. I would have put HS a 9/10 (avoid at all costs).

Same thing happened on our AK day, like I said it was empty and we literally walked down pathways and there would be no one in sight ahead of us. I saw three different FoP fast passes while refreshing in the afternoon. Safari FPs were immediately available even after lunch. We went to MK in the evening and again it was wall to wall (more due to HEA having a rare showing plus evening EMH, a rarity during MVMCP season). It was such a drastic difference. So even if one park might be terribly busy it doesn't mean WDW as a whole is, that's why I will never go without park hoppers. Get your 3 FPs in and switch parks if need be. We would have been miserable if we were stuck in a busy park all day, especially if we looked at wait times and saw other parks that were empty.

If you mean literally 2 weeks, I can tell you it will be packed. That’s Mardi Gras week.

 

[Disneyhanna]

If you mean literally 2 weeks, I can tell you it will be packed. That’s Mardi Gras week.

I won't be going into the parks until after Mardis Gras, so hopefully avoiding the worst day? Princess is the weekend before, there won't be any festivals at Epcot, Runaway Railway won't be open, it's too early for Spring Break...fingers crossed those small things will keep things from being 10/10. Being solo will hopefully make it more bearable, I got every FP and ADR I wanted even though I didn't get up early for them, so hopefully that's a good sign! I seem to always get cold spells during all of my trips so I'm hoping for some 70s/80s so I can actually get some pool time in for once! That would be a nice break from the crowds for sure.

 

[Isabelle12345]

I won't be going into the parks until after Mardis Gras, so hopefully avoiding the worst day? Princess is the weekend before, there won't be any festivals at Epcot, Runaway Railway won't be open, it's too early for Spring Break...fingers crossed those small things will keep things from being 10/10. Being solo will hopefully make it more bearable, I got every FP and ADR I wanted even though I didn't get up early for them, so hopefully that's a good sign! I seem to always get cold spells during all of my trips so I'm hoping for some 70s/80s so I can actually get some pool time in for once! That would be a nice break from the crowds for sure.

also going the week after Princess Half
Those recent increased crowds have me worried... not so much for wait times but for fireworks / parade watching as I tend to get uncomfortable in large crowds... fingers crossed for a less busy week! (7 and 8 crowd levels would be good for me, ideally less than that!!)