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

[eric8]

I know there are no more 'down times' at Disney but I was curious if there was something going on perhaps that brought in the extra people.

 

[scrappinginontario]

Disney is popular which means there aren’t (m)any slower times any longer. We’re here now. It’s busier than we’ve seen it similar times in the past but manageable.attractions go down crowds ebb and flow. A couple down rides in a park can make a big difference.

Also, crowds do not feel ‘very high’ to us. We’ve been here in much worse.

 

[john7994]

I would presume as some school districts are already in school whereas as others are returning shortly - an uptick may be that last vacation before the summer ends, fueled by promotions, discounts, and reports that attendance was down for those that may have seen an opportunity. Just a guess …

 

[sponica]

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.

 

[Smugpugmug]

There are reports with rides going down at a higher rate than usual, specifically at HS which contributes to higher wait times at other rides. Also many Northeast states haven't gone back to school yet so families living there may want to squeeze in one more vacation. Not to mention the various discounts may be bringing people in that normally wouldn't have otherwise.

 

[Minniesgal]

It’s been quiet all summer maybe people
Delayed their trips thinking summer would be busy

 

[kanerf]

Also, Epcot Food & Wine started earlier then ever this year I think.

 

[Mrs.AMC]

I would presume as some school districts are already in school whereas as others are returning shortly - an uptick may be that last vacation before the summer ends, fueled by promotions, discounts, and reports that attendance was down for those that may have seen an opportunity. Just a guess …

That however, is the norm. Some schools are always back now and some are always heading back in a couple of weeks. That shouldn't signify a change in attendance vs other years.

My guess is crowd calendar folks just guessed wrong. Why they didn't just use all other years as a guide I don't know. It's my birthday weekend and we have gone for the past 6, 7 years this weekend. It's never low crowds. Always a push of the half of the country that's ready to go back to school and getting one last trip in.

 

[wilkeliza]

I think a lot of people were told "Don't go in the summer do late August or early September. School is back in session so less people and the weather is starting to turn nicer."

A lot of crowd calendars also are incredibly off because this is the first summer etc where pretty much everything is 100% back to normal so the trends are different.

 

[thanxfornoticin]

Probably because the annual "Halloween in August" is so popular!

 

[han22735]

We've been here since the 19th. The walkways are not full of crowds but ride wait times have been insane. As I mentioned in the here and now thread I think ride breakdowns are the biggest issue. It was so busy at opening of HS yesterday they shut off finger prints when entering.

 

[gottalovepluto]

I though it didn’t quiet down until early Sept and then only briefly?

Also how do you gauge crowds? The ride breakdowns really screw with crowd “feeling” and the wait times of whatever isn’t broken.

 

[gottalovepluto]

We've been here since the 19th. The walkways are not full of crowds but ride wait times have been insane. As I mentioned in the here and now thread I think ride breakdowns are the biggest issue. It was so busy at opening of HS yesterday they shut off finger prints when entering.

Sounds more like an IT issue.

 

[leiaorgana]

British school summer holidays last until the first week of September so that’s probably a large chunk of it. Some Scottish schools go back in August though because they break up for the year earlier.

 

[CarolynFH]

In addition to all the other factors cited above, Disney can estimate attendance based on ticket sales and can adjust staffing, number of ride vehicles, etc., which keeps ride lines longer.

 

[john7994]

That however, is the norm. Some schools are always back now and some are always heading back in a couple of weeks. That shouldn't signify a change in attendance vs other years.

My guess is crowd calendar folks just guessed wrong. Why they didn't just use all other years as a guide I don't know. It's my birthday weekend and we have gone for the past 6, 7 years this weekend. It's never low crowds. Always a push of the half of the country that's ready to go back to school and getting one last trip in.

I suppose it could also be true that incremental pre back to school were lured by deeper promotions, discounts and bounce backs that were not the norm last year?

 

[reddog21]

It’s been quiet all summer maybe people
Delayed their trips thinking summer would be busy

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.

 

[SaraSpringsIsHome]

We encountered strange crowds the first week of August. It felt crowded in gift shops and walkways, but randomly at the 10:30 a.m. one day Peter Pan’s flight was a walk-on for like an hour.

We didn’t encounter long lines at food places or any wait for mobile orders and always found a place to sit (even Cosmic Rays at noon), but then Monsters, Inc Laugh floor had a wait.

It was bizarre.

 

[WAstateDVCDaddy]

I find it odd that some of the sites are forecasting low crowds. Anything before Labor Day week has a large percentage of schools still on break, and people love to take end of vacation trips. So I would think crowds are always fairly high around this time. But I’m definitely not an expert on that.

Add to that the extremely high temps earlier in the summer, which I’m sure made some people shift their visits to later in the summer. (Not that it’s much better, but if you didn’t go in July, you might end up going in August)

 

[TheSouthernBelle]

We encountered strange crowds the first week of August. It felt crowded in gift shops and walkways, but randomly at the 10:30 a.m. one day Peter Pan’s flight was a walk-on for like an hour.

We didn’t encounter long lines at food places or any wait for mobile orders and always found a place to sit (even Cosmic Rays at noon), but then Monsters, Inc Laugh floor had a wait.

It was bizarre.

We had the same experience, we were there the 2-6 and noticed that too. Definitely very cyclical but most important, it still never was over the top crowds like at Spring Break/Christmas so I was fine with it.

To the OP, definitely no more downtimes but crowd calendars and actual crowds are not the same. Crowd calendars are algorithms that pretty much got shot out the window post covid. And what crowds "feel like" and what they really are, are two very distinct things. A longer wait for rides being down or maybe a surge of anytime LL guests creeping into a line are very different than every ride hitting a min180 min waits during the holidays. Crowded is a very subjective term.