I panicked about Feb. 5-12 crowds UPDATE Post 50 - we switched!

[sharadoc]

I appreciate all the tips. My bottom line problem is that we go every year in January. Our first January trip was 1993. We have no issues with the rides - we could miss every major one and be fine.

My concern is the crowds in general. I don't want to be shoulder to shoulder with people, or 6 deep for parades, or crowded at every restaurant. This isn't a once in a lifetime trip, it's just a regular trip to Disney World, so we want to relax and have fun.

I don't know - maybe I'll call tomorrow and see if I can move it a week ahead. so we're leaving on Feb. 5th instead of arriving on that date. My daughter is "ahead" on her project, so I might be able to make it work. I could get her to finish early if I spoil the surprise, but I don't want to give that up - the surprise will be awesome.

I know we'll have a nice time with bigger crowds, since we're staying at such a great resort, but I want to have an uncrowded time.

[Micca]

I have been a great follower of crowd predictors for many years. However, with the saturation of the internet I can tell you that many people do not have similar experiences even when they are on property at the same time.
The traditional heavy traffic times around the holidays and summer vacations
are one thing, but other times are less so. How does one know if there are 25,000 or 45,000 people in a park on a certain day? Answer: You don't know, you only know about your experience and how you subjectively saw it.
When you drive to work in the morning not everyone has the same experience, so it is at WDW.

I truly do appreciate the science and statistics applied to WDW crowd predictions, but changing a pre-booked trip with all the arrangements made based on those predictions is questionable.

[luvmytwins02]

I am from Wisconsin and going from Feb 6-11. It looks like the middle of the week (Tuesday & Wednesday) are still predicted to have lower crowds, level 4
Should we plan MK on Tuesday then??

[Micheal Scarn]

We've been in May, June, August, November (Thanksgiving week), December (day after Christmas for 11 days) and January. May, June and August just too HOT to notice the crowds! We found Thanksgiving to be more crowded than day after Christmas trip; but both STILL crazy. January - PERFECT.

We'll be there Feb. 11 - 21, we'll see. I'm sure it's no where near Thanksgiving and Christmas.

GEAUX SAINTS! And let's NOT forget, GEAUX TIGERS!!

[sharadoc]

Okay, I surrendered.

I officially changed my dates to the week before, when it's 4s and 6s. I just didn't want to take a chance of having a crowded trip. We are flexible enough, and Disney was accommodating enough to allow us to change and keep the 4/3 deal. It cost us an extra $15 since we are staying another weekend day, so no change fee.

Thanks for all your info and encouragement. I hope you all have a wonderful time, no matter WHEN you go!

[avic77]

Originally Posted by Gothemi

I posted this elsewhere, but I still believe we will not have that large of crowds for that week or weekend unless the Saints make it to the Superbowl. I can see folks from LA heading down to the game and stopping by WDW on the way.

But hopefully The Vikings will help us with that next weekend.

The Superbowl is a sort of get together holiday. Family and friends crowd around the TV and watch the game together. Some people head to the game even w/o tickets just to partake in the activities and tailgate. I think if anything Superbowl Sunday will be a good day for crowds. Having worked in retail previsouly I always remember the store being busy up until kickoff then it was empty. Everybody went home to watch the game!

Most likely LA saints fans would come down for the superbowl and spend the following week since they will have it off for Mardi Gras.

[avic77]

Originally Posted by sharadoc

Okay, I surrendered.

I officially changed my dates to the week before, when it's 4s and 6s. I just didn't want to take a chance of having a crowded trip. We are flexible enough, and Disney was accommodating enough to allow us to change and keep the 4/3 deal. It cost us an extra $15 since we are staying another weekend day, so no change fee.

Thanks for all your info and encouragement. I hope you all have a wonderful time, no matter WHEN you go!

I did the same right before Christmas.... lets hope we both made the right choice

[njsmama]

I am there 2/6-2/12. Hoping that touringplans is WRONG! I can't imagine those crowd levels in early Feb. I guess we will take it day by day and see what happens. Elliott will not want to ride those bigger rides. I suspect we will have the longest waits for TSMM, Soarin' and ToT (she doesn't want to ride ToT, but mommy does!!...bad mommy!).

[sharadoc]

Originally Posted by avic77

I did the same right before Christmas.... lets hope we both made the right choice

The way it looks now, it seems like the right choice. Now I just have to work on ADRs!

FYI - we stayed at FW in August. It's a really fun place.

[Gr8t Fan]

Originally Posted by sharadoc

Okay, I surrendered.

I officially changed my dates to the week before, when it's 4s and 6s. I just didn't want to take a chance of having a crowded trip. We are flexible enough, and Disney was accommodating enough to allow us to change and keep the 4/3 deal. It cost us an extra $15 since we are staying another weekend day, so no change fee.

Thanks for all your info and encouragement. I hope you all have a wonderful time, no matter WHEN you go!

I'm glad you were able to change your dates. I saw your post yesterday and almost responded but didn't want to be too negative so I resisted.

We went to WDW for President's Week in 2000, way before I knew about crowd calendars and the DIS. I had no idea it is one of the busiest times of the year to go. Our first clue to how busy it would be was that we waited 1.5 hours at Alamo for our car rental . The parks were MOBBED! We still managed to have a good time, but we've avoided President's Week ever since.

[welovespacemoutain]

Originally Posted by sharadoc

Okay, I surrendered.

I officially changed my dates to the week before, when it's 4s and 6s. I just didn't want to take a chance of having a crowded trip. We are flexible enough, and Disney was accommodating enough to allow us to change and keep the 4/3 deal. It cost us an extra $15 since we are staying another weekend day, so no change fee.

Thanks for all your info and encouragement. I hope you all have a wonderful time, no matter WHEN you go!

Hey! You just made my week more crowded ; )

Have a great trip!

[eeyoreland]

Wow, so much to comment on. Let me warn you, I'm using this post as a way to make myself feel better. Let me start by saying hello to my fellow Wisconsinites who will be there around the same time as my family, which includes myself, DH and DD15. We'll be there February 8-14. So...we have Daytona 500, Superbowl, Presidents' Day/Week, Valentine's Day, Mardi Gras. I too am hoping if crowds pick up, they do so towards the end of our trip. We plan on spending Saturday away from Disney, the Gulf of Mexico to be exact. We've been to Disney before. Sometimes two years in a row, sometimes two or three years in between. I still want to have fun. Still want to ride the "biggies" (more than once), but willing to skip a lot, i.e. POTC, parades, and of course DD is "too old" to pay attention to most of the characters. In my family, I'm the only one panicking about it. DD and DH say they're happy to be someplace warm (hopefully) where there is green grass and palm trees. If we have to spend time doing other stuff, so be it. (Their words, not mine.) But, it's still Disney and I'm not paying for Disney just so I can miniature golf, or find something to do away from Disney.We've never been during a busy time. We've avoided the busy times like the plague. I knew when we booked this, it would be a little busier than usual, but it was the only week that worked for us during a time that I thought wouldn't be too bad and then these touring numbers start coming out. UGH.

I truly feel for the people that have never been to Disney and I completely understand how you want to be able to do everything. But as another poster commented, all the worrying in the world won't change it.

On a somewhat positive note, I purchased the Ridemax program and for us and what we want to do, it doesn't look all that bad. That was when I ran the days of our trip last week. Maybe as it gets closer it will change. We should be able to do what we want with minimal waits up until about Friday. I can live with that. The trick will be getting my family to the parks at rope drop and moving quickly to where we need to be. We don't sleep in by any means, but they just don't think there's a need to be there 30-45 minutes before park opening. Again, we've never been there during a busy time.

I will mention, since we planned the trip somewhat last minute, getting the ADRs we wanted has been difficult, even impossible. No Chef Mickey for breakfast.

I'll also say that even though the resorts seem to be filling up, I agree with the poster that said it could just be that more people are staying onsite because of the great deals. People that would have been IN the parks anyway, but just deciding to stay at Disney.

Okay, I sincerely apologize for making this so long. My real family doesn't understand all the anxiety, but I know my DISNEY family does!

Let me finish by saying: We will be at Disney, it will be warmer than Wisconsin, I will see green grass, I will get to shop at DTD...we will be at Disney, it will be warmer than Wiscon...okay, you get the drill.

[dmank]

We were there last year for that week and it was totally fine - easy to get on and off most rides. For the really popular ones we used FP and the FP didn't run out until late afternoon.

We left on the Sat of Pres Day Weekend - I did notice that Sat morning the resort went a bit nuts/the counter service was packed. But up until that Saturday, everything was fine.

[Nicoal13]

Am I wrong but isn't Mardi Gras week the 15-19th? So the crowds will pick up the weekend before (the 13th) and be worse the 15-19th?

I'm also going to be there from the 6-13th, coming from Wisconsin. So no matter what it will be better than being at home! Also, we've been multiple times so we don't feel the need to rush around and do everything.

I've been the same week of Feb, 2 years ago and it was not crowded. It did get busier as the weekend approached before Pres. Day.

[mshoo1]

My wife is a teacher, so we always have to go on vacation during holiday periods or during the summer. We have visited Disney World during President's Day weekend, Easter, Christmas, and the middle of August. I can attest that President's Day weekend is busy, but it didn't feel nearly as busy as Easter and Christmas. If you get to the parks early and have a good touring plan, you'll be fine.