Checked out early - Parks too crowded.

[DVCcurious]

I am selling my DVC because I can't handle the crowds anymore.

In the FP- days most guests didn't understand it so they didn't use it. You could spend all day getting fastpasses and rarely wait more than 20 minutes, even on peak days.

FP+ was introduced and now everyone uses it. We literally went from 20% of guests with fastpasses to 90%.

Our last trip (Spring Break '16) we only went to the parks at 7pm and used FP+ for 7-8,8-9,9-10 and then the lines weren't too bad after 10.

But is that what I'm paying for? 5 hours of park time? Instead of waiting in lines during the day we did pool time and checked out resorts, etc. But do I want to pay $7,000 for my family to have pool time?

We all have our opinion. I love WdW but we decided the crowds are too heavy. We'll try after HS is expanded to see if that helped.

 

[ALDSMD]

Plan, plan, and plan some more. We found Christmas week manageable with lots of planning (we even went slow and did a lot of "smell the roses" type stuff. Having reasonable expectations is another good thing. We had to skip stuff like Spaceship Earth because standby lines there was nuts less than an hour after rope drop. Also had a 20 min line at Journey of The Little Mermaid late in the evening. If you are willing to go about 45 mins before rope drop to be ahead of the crowds and plan your ride order strategically, your morning will go a lot smoother.

We went super early one morning and knocked off 7DMT and Space with no wait. But then my father wanted to play in the arcade with my son followed by a snack for breakfast. That ended up causing us to wait 20 mins for BTMR (it would have been a walkon if we had headed there without stopping). It wasn't a big deal since the moments were more important to us (but it did get my planner self a little edgy - kept my mouth shut though lol!)



Yes, I was irritated when I was there in September. I was checking for FPs, and checking MDE constantly - my phone would last about 1/2 to 3/4 of the day. It is an iPhone 5 so not as good a battery life as the iPhone 6. One time, I had to drop my phone off at Guest Services to charge it there (and argue with them to print me a list of my FP+s - dude at first said he couldn't do it until I showed him the list another CM had printed for me the day before!). Part of it is me though - I tend to like looking at my FP+ list very frequently so that sucks up juice. Add photos and videos to the mix and its easy to run out.

Thank you for your suggestions. Do you think it would be better to make FP+ for the morning, early afternoon, or evening?

 

[mickeyluv'r]

Plan, plan, and plan some more.

Alas, in my experience, that doesn't really help. Almost the opposite.

One trip, the mob scene at the main bus stop of POR was just horrible all week. There was no queue, and buses didn't show. FOR OVER AN HOUR.We missed an hour of EMH and our ADR, because the MK bus just never arrived. we would have been better with out a plan or expectation. when the bus finally arrived, people behaved like animals, pushing and shoving and cutting ahead. It was scary.

A great number of times, my family has been seated 45+ minutes past our ADR, even though we arrived ahead of our ADR. Truly, that pretty much ruins our afternoon/evening plans. It makes for a miserable meal. Young kids fall asleep, blood sugar drops, FP get missed, you lose park hours, everyone starts to fight, and someone says something bad to a CM. Again, planning is part of the problem. You make a plan, you expect WDW to honor an ADR time, ESPECIALLY now that they have added the no-show fee.

Among the places this has happened to us: 1900PF (multiple times), Mama Melrose, Le Cellier, GF Café, Boma (multiple times), Crystal Palace, Kona Café, 'Ohana (multiple times), LTT, and BOG.

30min at Tony's TS, Tusker House, and more.

We've also had problems on the other end- where it took 45+ minutes to get our bill settled from the time we requested it. (really just waiting for our server to come back) Let see: Mama Melrose, Via Napoli, La Hacienda de SA. I'm recalling the Epcot dinners especially because they meant we missed Illuminations.

In none of those cases was it our fault, nor was there any way we could have planned around those.

Back when we used WDW buses, I lost track of how many times we waited over half an hour for WDW transportation (that never arrived): buses, monorails, and boats. The boats shut down if there's a storm- fine enough- but where I get annoyed is when WDW doesn't tell the dock CM's, and the sun is shining, and the boat just doesn't come. Again = missed ADR's, FP, and loads of fun on departure day!


One trip, we stayed at GF. We were not told in advance that the monorail would be down most of the week. It was pretty bad to pay GF prices, and NOT get monorail service, especially as a member of our family had to use a scooter!

Other times, we've had problems with our tickets. If it happens at a bad time, it can easily cost 45minteus or more from your day. For us, ticket problems usually = missing the whole rope drop hour. Which can put quite a damper on your day.


Planning isn't always enough.

 

[ALDSMD]

We have spent two Thanksgivings there now. Definitely make your ADRs and and FP+ as early as you can. Have a plan but don't try to cram too much into each day as it will be crowded. Also be willing to be flexible. We did a few things on Thanksgiving Day and then left and spent the rest of the day at the resort. I would personally avoid MK on Thanksgiving day and the weekend of Thanksgiving if possible. I didn't take my own advice on that our last trip. Try to manage everyone's expectations if you can and find out what things are priorities for everyone and try to incorporate those things into your plan. My best advice is if it gets too crowded, just leave and go back to the resort. If you aren't having fun, it isn't worth it. Go back, rest, and regroup.

The first year we did MK on Thanksgiving about five years ago. It was crazy crowded. We used our FPs, but after those we weren't have too much fun. Lines were just too long. We wondered around MK and soaked in the atmosphere but we didn't do many attractions. We only stuck around because we had a dinner reservation at Kona. We were staying at POFQ that year. We didn't want to leave and come back for dinner. Last year we stayed at Poly. We went to MK at rope drop ( I told you I didn't take my own advice- we only went there because we were staying so close and I knew we wouldn't want to be at a park all day). We used our FPs+ and did two the Pirate Adventures in Adventureland MK, which my kids loved. It was really crowded though. We watched the Move It, Shake it Parade on our way out and we went back to the Poly a little after noon and spent the rest of the day there. We had lunch at the pool, the kids swam and participated in the kids actives at the pool. We had dinner at 'Ohana that night. It really was a nice day much better than the Thanksgiving we had many years before wondering around the MK trying to figure out what to do.

I'm not sure what your dates are, but we were there for two weeks last November. The week before Thanksgiving and the week of Thanksgiving. It was really nice the week before Thanksgiving. Crowds were manageable. On Wednesday the week of Thanksgiving, it started to get really crowded.

Thank you for the suggestions! We are going Saturday to Saturday the week of Thanksgiving. I'm assuming we should make our Magic Kingdom days before Wednesday. Do you have any suggestions on which restaurant to try and get reservations for dinner on Thanksgiving? Also what time of day do you suggest getting fastpasses?

 

[Klayfish]

We are going to Disney for Thanksgiving for the first time with extended family. Seeing you were there last year I would love any advice that you could give us. One of the families is going for the first time and want to make it as stress-free and enjoyable as possible. Would love any suggestions. Thank you in advance.

I would disagree with what the others have said in that a ton of planning is a must, but that's just our experience and our own touring style. We did Thanksgiving and Xmas in 2015 (plus 4th of July 2015 and 2016) and will do them again in 2017. The only "plans" we made were our FP+, because I agree that those are very important. They get you on crowded rides quickly. Beyond that, we did no planning at all. We got on a lot of rides in MK on Thanksgiving Day before noon. Frankly, it wasn't horribly crowded. It was getting crowded after lunch, but we left. Pretty much the same deal for Xmas Day, except I will say that was much busier. We showed up right at park open and it was busy. We still managed to get in 6 or 7 rides before lunch, without running around like crazy. We ate lunch (we bring our own food in) and then left. When we left (around 1pm), it was the busiest I have ever seen the park, even crazier than 4th of July, so yeah, that day is nuts in MK. But we went to another park, I think it was AK, and while it was crowded, it wasn't insane. So in how we view/judge how "crowded" it is, MK on a major holiday is definitely wildly busy, especially after lunch. Outside of that, there are ebbs and flows in crowds, and it's always some level of "busy", but it's very manageable for us. No plans needed. Doesn't mean our way is right, but I also don't think a high level of planning is a "must".

 

[mickeyluv'r]

Thank you for your suggestions. Do you think it would be better to make FP+ for the morning, early afternoon, or evening?

Depends a lot on you, but we have found that starting about 10am is good. That way, you are done early and get access to a 4th fp. you also get a little allowance for rope drop, and some allowance in case you don't arrive for 9am. (see my previous post about unreliable transporation.)


But the above is assuming you did not plan something like a breakfast ADR. When it comes to ADR's and FP- make very generous allowances.

along the same lines, I've also learned to make generous allowances for travel delays- like delayed flights, ME delays, rental car check-in problems, traffic, park tickets not scanning properly, slow hotel check-in.

You no longer have to check into your WDW hotel with Magic bands, but you still might wan to drop off your bags, eat, or freshen up at the hotel.

 

[ALDSMD]

I would disagree with what the others have said in that a ton of planning is a must, but that's just our experience and our own touring style. We did Thanksgiving and Xmas in 2015 (plus 4th of July 2015 and 2016) and will do them again in 2017. The only "plans" we made were our FP+, because I agree that those are very important. They get you on crowded rides quickly. Beyond that, we did no planning at all. We got on a lot of rides in MK on Thanksgiving Day before noon. Frankly, it wasn't horribly crowded. It was getting crowded after lunch, but we left. Pretty much the same deal for Xmas Day, except I will say that was much busier. We showed up right at park open and it was busy. We still managed to get in 6 or 7 rides before lunch, without running around like crazy. We ate lunch (we bring our own food in) and then left. When we left (around 1pm), it was the busiest I have ever seen the park, even crazier than 4th of July, so yeah, that day is nuts in MK. But we went to another park, I think it was AK, and while it was crowded, it wasn't insane. So in how we view/judge how "crowded" it is, MK on a major holiday is definitely wildly busy, especially after lunch. Outside of that, there are ebbs and flows in crowds, and it's always some level of "busy", but it's very manageable for us. No plans needed. Doesn't mean our way is right, but I also don't think a high level of planning is a "must".

Thank you. Do you have any suggestions on what time to make fastpasses for?

 

[elaine amj]

Thank you for your suggestions. Do you think it would be better to make FP+ for the morning, early afternoon, or evening?

It depends. I've done all kinds. I highly recommend using one of those websites with touring plans and following it - they're usually set up to be pretty optimal. You won't need FP+ for the first 1-2 hours - just be aware of the super popular rides (7DMT & Peter Pan in MK, Soarin/Test Track/Frozen in EP, Pandora? in AK, and Jedi, TSMM, RnRC in DHS) and make sure you hit those first at rope drop.

As for plan/don't plan - I think that all depends on you and your family - what you like, what are your must-dos, and your hopes for the trip. I'm an optimizer, and a plan helps me achieve that. My family just likes the security of knowing what happens next and that I've already thought of a lot of potential issues and figured out solutions.

 

[ALDSMD]

It depends. I've done all kinds. I highly recommend using one of those websites with touring plans and following it - they're usually set up to be pretty optimal. You won't need FP+ for the first 1-2 hours - just be aware of the super popular rides (7DMT & Peter Pan in MK, Soarin/Test Track/Frozen in EP, Pandora? in AK, and Jedi, TSMM, RnRC in DHS) and make sure you hit those first at rope drop.

As for plan/don't plan - I think that all depends on you and your family - what you like, what are your must-dos, and your hopes for the trip. I'm an optimizer, and a plan helps me achieve that. My family just likes the security of knowing what happens next and that I've already thought of a lot of potential issues and figured out solutions.

Thank you for the suggestions and would appreciate all that you can offer. I am also a planner so that part doesn't bother me. Do you have a suggestion on which website to use for a touring plan? What "solutions" are you keeping handy? Thank you.

 

[ArwenMarie]

For me, WDW's policies have also crossed into no-way would I ever return with extended family territory. The flexibility at WDW used to offer was my trip insurance. I knew that IF we had to leave early, at least my park tickets could be used on a return trip - mostly even after they added the fees. (though they eventually got too high to be worthwhile.)

This is a really good point. Once you use one day of the tickets (let's say a week-long) you're sunk. You have to just keep using them. No more non-expiring. Even if you want to bail on the parks and just chill for the rest of the time, you can't use your tickets at another time

To make it even worse, you have to buy your tickets 30-60 days ahead of time if you want to book FPs ahead of time

 

[mickeyluv'r]

Klayfish, how do you get around the absurd hotel up-charges?

If it helps, if we go during an holiday week at all, spend most our time at Universal and some place like Tampa or St. Augustine. The beaches, food, and sites are all great. They also cost much less.

 

[BigredNole]

One trip, the mob scene at the main bus stop of POR was just horrible all week. There was no queue, and buses didn't show. FOR OVER AN HOUR.We missed an hour of EMH and our ADR, because the MK bus just never arrived.

Please don't say this. I have said it many times too and people say I was lying. POR ruined my onsite stays. We lost an entire day of vacation because of the POR buses. We stopped using them and walked to/from POFQ.

 

[ALDSMD]

Please don't say this. I have said it many times too and people say I was lying. POR ruined my onsite stays. We lost an entire day of vacation because of the POR buses. We stopped using them and walked to/from POFQ.

Oh dear!! Of course we are staying at POR.

 

[thornton0511]

Oh dear!! Of course we are staying at POR.

We stayed at AKL this time and the bus service took forever as well so it might be safe to just say the the bus service as a whole is not extremely reliable and to take the possible extra time into account when planning.

 

[thornton0511]

I am selling my DVC because I can't handle the crowds anymore.

In the FP- days most guests didn't understand it so they didn't use it. You could spend all day getting fastpasses and rarely wait more than 20 minutes, even on peak days.

FP+ was introduced and now everyone uses it. We literally went from 20% of guests with fastpasses to 90%.

Our last trip (Spring Break '16) we only went to the parks at 7pm and used FP+ for 7-8,8-9,9-10 and then the lines weren't too bad after 10.

But is that what I'm paying for? 5 hours of park time? Instead of waiting in lines during the day we did pool time and checked out resorts, etc. But do I want to pay $7,000 for my family to have pool time?

We all have our opinion. I love WdW but we decided the crowds are too heavy. We'll try after HS is expanded to see if that helped.

While I agree with you that part of the issue is that now more people are using the new system than used the old system, I think the other half of that is that people are also now using fastpass for rides that normally did not have fastpass (or no one used fastpass for). For us this is the biggest blow because we always used a fastpass for a big hitter and then rode the smaller rides while we waited for our fastpass return time. Now people are using fastpass for these rides as well and so rides that used to be a walk on or have min stand by waits now have long lines as well because there are so many in the fastpass line.

 

[elaine amj]

Thank you for the suggestions and would appreciate all that you can offer. I am also a planner so that part doesn't bother me. Do you have a suggestion on which website to use for a touring plan? What "solutions" are you keeping handy? Thank you.

I like easywdw.com and I use his "cheat sheets". There's quite a lot of good websites out there these days - touringplans, wdwprepschool, **************, kenny the pirate, etc.

Looking for threads about tips and lessons learned is handy. For me, I learned that I have to allow a bit more time between rides than my "optimal touring plan". That works when we "walk with a purpose" and everything goes smoothly. But after my first trip, I learned to allow a fair bit of extra time to smell the roses and in case of problems (which are inevitable). I have also been working on myself that it is OK to "waste" FP+ (the horror!!) - sometimes if we want to shop/sleep in/watch a show, it doesn't matter that I spent months refreshing my screen to score a precious FP+. What matters is that we are having fun. And if we are exhausted and absolutely dreading the walk aaaaallll the way across Epcot to use that oh-so-rare Frozen FP+, it's actually OK to hop on the phone, reschedule it (or just cancel it completely) and head back to the resort for a snooze.

I also do things like consider that my kids will want something to play with while waiting for night shows. So I pack some glow and light up stuff. If it's a winter trip, I know rides like Kali can be cold. So I pack ponchos. On our Christmas Trip, I knew we wanted to watch the Candlelight Processional. I found out that they were handing out return tickets and I planned to make sure we were there at the right time to get our tickets.

While I agree with you that part of the issue is that now more people are using the new system than used the old system, I think the other half of that is that people are also now using fastpass for rides that normally did not have fastpass (or no one used fastpass for). For us this is the biggest blow because we always used a fastpass for a big hitter and then rode the smaller rides while we waited for our fastpass return time. Now people are using fastpass for these rides as well and so rides that used to be a walk on or have min stand by waits now have long lines as well because there are so many in the fastpass line.

Very true. I did expect this though as from the very beginning, one of the stated goals of FP+ was to increase use of underutilized rides. Back then, those of us in the know had a huge advantage over regular park visitors. This gap has definitely narrowed. And of course, FP+ is much more heavily used than FP- ever was.

Still, there are many advantages to FP+ and overall, I have to say, I like it even though I was a super user of FP-.

 

[Klayfish]

Thank you. Do you have any suggestions on what time to make fastpasses for?

On those nutty days, we like to get into MK early (presuming you plan to go to MK) and get out before the major crowd hits. So we try to get our FP+ early...say 9am, 10am, 11am. Then we'll try to grab a 4th FP+ somewhere. Only exception for us was when we planned to be in MK for fireworks on 4th of July...which is insanely busy. We don't even show up until 4pm and will set our FP+ for whatever we can get that evening.

Klayfish, how do you get around the absurd hotel up-charges?

We never stay on property. We always rent a condo or townhouse right outside WDW. There is such an endless supply of them that even over a holiday prices hardly fluctuate...too much competition for them to be able to jack prices up. We try to rent from private owners (snow birds), who tend to be less into price gouging anyway. We're going down for this 4th of July for a really long trip, and paying something like $70/night for a 3bdrm/2.5 bath place.

 

[thornton0511]

Very true. I did expect this though as from the very beginning, one of the stated goals of FP+ was to increase use of underutilized rides. Back then, those of us in the know had a huge advantage over regular park visitors. This gap has definitely narrowed. And of course, FP+ is much more heavily used than FP- ever was.

Still, there are many advantages to FP+ and overall, I have to say, I like it even though I was a super user of FP-.

Totally agree. And FP+ does has it's advantages. I think, if anything, they should just offer more than 3 choices in advance, especially during busy seasons and/or allow you to use your 3 in more than one park. This would really help out with parks with tiering because let's face it people are only using a fastpass for Nemo and SE because they really don't have anything else to schedule. If they did this not only would it increase revenue for people upgrading to PH that would not normally, it would also shorten those standby lines since people would no longer be "wasting" 2 of their 3 choices. And I get why you have to tier for these parks because there just aren't enough big rides to go around, but if you could elect to choose RnRc, Soarin, and EE all in one day I don't see how that would hurt nearly as bad as letting people choose Frozen, TT, and Soarin.

 

[WhispyPixie]

Oh dear!! Of course we are staying at POR.

We got home yesterday after having stayed at POR for a week! It was a fantastic trip and even with all the challenges would do it all again in a heartbeat. I will tell you to plan accordingly around the busses and it is manageable. The organization at the stops are not great but once you figure it out the first day, it is pretty simple. People do like to push and shove, but from what we could tell the CM's did a pretty good job of keeping it under control. We were concerned about making it to the Hoop Dee Do in plenty of time with having to take several buses to get there, so we just called Uber, it was great.

On a completely different subject. We HAVE been during Thanksgiving & Christmas and have planned accordingly and have known what type of crowds we were going into. As with this trip we planned for the crowds of what we thought a "normal" Spring Break was going to be. The crowds we encountered were much higher. From what I can gather, there really is no "normal" anymore. I think it is all the waiting that is added up for the entire package of frustration for some. Wait extra time for lines, for buses, for shopping, for food, for bills to come...etc and it all adds up to ALOT of waiting. Even waiting, knowing and enduring the crowds from last week, I would DO IT ALL AGAIN in a heartbeat! Time is Disney is always memorable!

 

[elaine amj]

Totally agree. And FP+ does has it's advantages. I think, if anything, they should just offer more than 3 choices in advance, especially during busy seasons and/or allow you to use your 3 in more than one park. This would really help out with parks with tiering because let's face it people are only using a fastpass for Nemo and SE because they really don't have anything else to schedule. If they did this not only would it increase revenue for people upgrading to PH that would not normally, it would also shorten those standby lines since people would no longer be "wasting" 2 of their 3 choices. And I get why you have to tier for these parks because there just aren't enough big rides to go around, but if you could elect to choose RnRc, Soarin, and EE all in one day I don't see how that would hurt nearly as bad as letting people choose Frozen, TT, and Soarin.

Would love if they started letting us make our 3 FPs in more than one park. That would also heavily promote adding the (very expensive) hopper option.