So it appears the crowds are very high right now even though some sites predicted low crowds. Is there a reason why the uptick?

[musicguy856]

It might be just the wrong combination of party season and down time.

People with one park per day tickets won't go to MK on a party day, so they go elsewhere and if anything is down at DHS, the wait times explode.

RotR downtime on TD for today. Jesus Christ.

 

[john7994]

this might be true. we just ended a 2 week non-Disney vacation right before the kids are planned to go to school.

I had a few friends (with and without out kids) on last minute and return trips this year + promotions visiting WDW in the past few weeks. I am headed there tomorrow (no kids on this trip).

 

[bwang123]

I had a few friends (with and without out kids) on last minute and bounce back promotions visiting WDW in the past few weeks. I am headed there tomorrow (no kids on this trip).

Disney knows how to fill it up.

 

[john7994]

Disney knows how to fill it up.

Get it while you can right? I don't think I have ever done longer than a week - so I am jealous of your stay. One day maybe!

 

[Mle8308]

I had a few friends (with and without out kids) on last minute and bounce back promotions visiting WDW in the past few weeks. I am headed there tomorrow (no kids on this trip).

Bounce backs don’t start until 2024.

 

[john7994]

Bounce backs don’t start until 2024.

I'll edit - to bounce back (generically) from an earlier visit this year and promotions - thanks!

 

[kwdw]

I also really think your perception depends on your park of the day, rides going down, the weather, and what you want to do. I was there August 15-19th and barely waited in line at all. Now - I did early entry 3 days, Genie+ one day (HS and EP) and had a ILL for ROTR. I did end up "out of luck" with Remy because it was down all day (had booked through Genie+) and I skipped Space Mountain and GOTG (which I noticed I easily could have joined the virtual queue at 1pm both times I was in EP). I had a TON of luck at MK on a party day - I arrived around noon my first day - and hit 10 attractions, shopped, sat down for a snack at Big Top Souvenirs, watched the noon parade at arrival and the last thing I did was getting in the Jungle Cruise stand by line at 4 pm (where I did wait 20 minutes). Why was the JC standby so short that day at 4? No clue. The entering party crowd could not have made it that far into the park when I got in line and I guess regular day guests had left by then?

 

[Tonberry]

I wonder if what's happening in late August is the "December effect".
Remember 10 years ago when early December crowds were low? That is until everyone started saying that early December was the best time to go because of low crowds. Now early December is even busier than summer crowds.

I've noticed throughout the year on this board that a lot of people were saying late August/early September has the lowest crowds. Something I agree with because this is usually when we go. But I never promote it because we don't want the secret out.
My co-worker, who is there now and comes back tomorrow, said that her travel agent told her that this was the best week to go all summer. Her FB posts say it's hot and crowded, and although they're having a good time, they were caught off-guard by the heat, the storms, the crowds, and the ride down times.

 

[katyjeka]

I wonder if what's happening in late August is the "December effect".
Remember 10 years ago when early December crowds were low? That is until everyone started saying that early December was the best time to go because of low crowds. Now early December is even busier than summer crowds.

I've noticed throughout the year on this board that a lot of people were saying late August/early September has the lowest crowds. Something I agree with because this is usually when we go. But I never promote it because we don't want the secret out.
My co-worker, who is there now and comes back tomorrow, said that her travel agent told her that this was the best week to go all summer. Her FB posts say it's hot and crowded, and although they're having a good time, they were caught off-guard by the heat, the storms, the crowds, and the ride down times.

I agree with your December theory. We've spent several Decembers the week after Pop Warner and never saw a crowd or had a use for fast pass. However December 2021was a total nightmare. We never experienced such crowds. I contributed it to the anniversay celebration but a few cast members said it was stimulus money. I think the secret is out!!!

 

[Renarr]

Did you book the Dining card package? Was wondering how it was working out and if you found any place that would not accept the dining card that you thought would. Curious if it can be used at Gideon's. Hope you are having a great trip!

I know not the person you were talking to, but the only places we couldn't use it were Paddlefish (they said the computer systems were down) and any prepaid dining (like Cinderella's Royal Table). Didn't check Gideon's specifically nor any of the snack carts.

 

[Ashley Marie]

We were there last week and found the crowds to be low - especially as compared to our trip in March during spring break. Unfortunately, my husband caught COVID despite the manageable crowds!

We were there Aug. 12-19 and I tested positive for covid too, a couple days after the trip.

We didn't have much of a problem with the crowds but I paid for Genie+ and a few ILL, so we didn't deal with standby lines, and we had a DVC villa, so we didn't do a ton of dining in the parks. We also had park hoppers but I think only hopped out of MK on the party days - probably overdid it with the paying for extras.

One long wait we had was Tower of Terror (even with Genie+) because one side was down most of the day, and then the working side also went down right for a bit before we boarded. Another long wait was our VQ return for Tron. Just bad timing I guess.

The heat was awful, but everyone knows that

 

[scrappinginontario]

Did you book the Dining card package? Was wondering how it was working out and if you found any place that would not accept the dining card that you thought would. Curious if it can be used at Gideon's. Hope you are having a great trip!

I wasn’t sure how restrictive it might be. The only place so far that I could not use it was the Main St Bakery.

 

[mickeyluv'r]

Your definition of quiet must be different than mine because I was there during July/August and it was as crowded as I have seen it in years past.

Just back, IMO it was pretty slow.
Mind, wait times were highly variable.

Intentional actions on the part of WDW = inflated standby times.

We saw multiple instances of this. Like at MMRR, the CM's just were not letting people from standby queue on the ride.

At GoG, the ride was down, but it was not announced (until about 30min later), and there is no cell reception in the queue. There were no CM's nearby to ask, and no easy way to exit the queue. Even when it was announced, it was not clear how long the ride was expected to be down.

Curiously, over at Universal, Velocicoaster went down while we were in the queue due to storms in the area. Univerlsa did an excellent job of announcing the impending storm before the ride stopped, telling us as soon as it stopped, and then gave us updates about every 10 minutes. That approach was MUCH better.

(Which is not to say Universal was perfect. They weren't, but whoever was in charge of Velocicoaster got it right.)

 

[mickeyluv'r]

Here now.

Wed we did not follow the strategy I recommended and went to MK on a non-party day. It was very crowded so we mainly did lower popular stuff Carousel if Progress, People Mover, etc. TP predicted a 2 and reality was a 7 which it definitely felt like.

Yesterday we were at Epcot and it was much more manageable! We were a group of 8 yesterday and did all rides between 9 and 4 except Frizen which was down. We did not have G+ so waited standby for all. A big time saver was single rider for TT. I was posted at 75 but a walk-on for single riders.

Today back to MK on a party day so hoping it’s better.

We park hopped, and definitely saw some swings in the crowd. The parties in MK definitely have an impact.
Over the last few years, we have come to feel hopping makes a lot of sense. If our AM park is relatively busy, we hop earlier. If the park is empty, we hop a little later. One plus of Genie is that we can use it to get a sense of which park(s) have lower crowds.

In addition to the parks, we felt the hotels and restaurants were also less crowded. There were many empty tables in the restaurants, even though the App showed minimal openings.

Maybe LOTS of CM's have quit since April?

On the plus, our hotel rooms were cleaned every day.

 

[gottalovepluto]

Maybe LOTS of CM's have quit since April?

Nah. Disney updated their staffing system to staff the minimum necessary personnel after Covid. With park reservations they have a pretty good idea how busy it will be. Heck even after park reservations die next year they’ll have a decent idea because everyone who doesn’t need a reservation buys date based tickets anyway.

 

[DisneyFan32WI]

This was the insane line to get into Friday’s Halloween party. For reference, this was 5:15 pm.

 

[DisneyFan32WI]

Got Covid while I was at Disney… At home sick right now. I am an annual passholder, and I thought that the crowds were much higher last week into this week than I normally experience at other times throughout the year. Lots and lots of non-Americans.

 

[Murron]

It's also the last vacation week before Northern children go back to school. Southern schools are already in session. When our children were young, they'd finish up summer day camp and this was the time between that and school to go to Disney.

 

[radishtoaster]

We were there last week and I think the crowds were intense at some points. I was in the park before the Halloween party with my AP and when the party started the crowd definitely got larger and the park was more busy than it had been all day. The Epcot food and wine crowds weren’t the worst I’ve seen but people were being very very rude and on top of that we saw lots of bad cast member attitudes. I try to give them the benefit of the doubt because I understand they deal with so, so much, but it really left a sour taste in our mouths.

 

[mickeyluv'r]

Nah. Disney updated their staffing system to staff the minimum necessary personnel after Covid. With park reservations they have a pretty good idea how busy it will be. Heck even after park reservations die next year they’ll have a decent idea because everyone who doesn’t need a reservation buys date based tickets anyway.

That's my take as well. I was joking/preempting. WDW was definitely more crowded in April than this month, but as others have said, Disney has managed to keep standby waits up, so in some ways the parks seem busier than they are.

I didn't see enough of the hotels to say anything definitive, but the little we did see looked fairly empty compared to prior years at this time.