Star Wars impact on park levels.

[Andrea1]

We were there from 28th September till the 11th October, and we found that the Magic Kingdom was packed every day we went. Also we went twice to Universal and both days very very busy.

Now maybe we were just unlucky and picked the wrong days, but we had paid about £1100 for tickets for both of us, and certainly did not get much benefit from them.

We went in 2016 at the same time and the crowds were fine then. So it certainly is getting much busier year by year. We followed the crowd Calendar last year and thought it would be a bit quieter, but I don't think crowds can really be anticipated.

Sassoon all that, my DW and I will still keep going to Disney as long as we can.

[Nimbus]

Originally Posted by Andrea1

We were there from 28th September till the 11th October, and we found that the Magic Kingdom was packed every day we went. Also we went twice to Universal and both days very very busy.

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That's interesting because the available data seems to indicate that MK's wait times in September/October last year (2018) were shorter by around 8% to 14% than they were in 2017:



The average wait times in the months of September and October last year were some of the shortest of the whole of last year:



Admittedly, posted wait times are not the same as crowd levels. It's possible there were more people in the park but the queues were shorter because of increased capacity (more staff running the rides or less downtime due to refurbs or maintenance, for example).

Looks like the crowds waited until Andybear had left.

[Gezzs]

Originally Posted by Andrea1

We were there from 28th September till the 11th October, and we found that the Magic Kingdom was packed every day we went. Also we went twice to Universal and both days very very busy.

Now maybe we were just unlucky and picked the wrong days, but we had paid about £1100 for tickets for both of us, and certainly did not get much benefit from them.

We went in 2016 at the same time and the crowds were fine then. So it certainly is getting much busier year by year. We followed the crowd Calendar last year and thought it would be a bit quieter, but I don't think crowds can really be anticipated.

Sassoon all that, my DW and I will still keep going to Disney as long as we can.

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We were there from 7th-28th Sept last year and agree, the parks were busier than we expected. Much busier than the same period in 2014 when we last went. There seemed to be lots of children, which was a surprise as we thought they'd be back in school.

[Nimbus]

Originally Posted by Andybear

When I was there September 13th to 27th last year I couldn't find all the crowds I keep reading about on here! I cancelled most of my fast passes as I didn't need them. This was my first trip since 1997 and I was worried about the crowds so it was a lovely surprise to find so many rides with standby waits of 10 to 15 minutes, some even less. Being able to get a decent spot for the parade 10 minutes before it started was good too

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Originally Posted by Gezzs

We were there from 7th-28th Sept last year and agree, the parks were busier than we expected. Much busier than the same period in 2014 when we last went. There seemed to be lots of children, which was a surprise as we thought they'd be back in school.

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I'm always surprised by how different people can have completely different experiences of how busy it is, even though they are in Orlando at the same time. One person can think it was quiet with no crowds, whilst another thinks it was busy. This is by no means the first time I've seen this here on the DIBB and probably won't be the last.

It just goes to show how subjective these things are.

[dreamisawish]

Originally Posted by Nimbus

I'm always surprised by how different people can have completely different experiences of how busy it is, even though they are in Orlando at the same time. One person can think it was quiet with no crowds, whilst another thinks it was busy. This is by no means the first time I've seen this here on the DIBB and probably won't be the last.

It just goes to show how subjective these things are.

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We all experience things differently, and I think it only takes a few bad experiences with lines to colour your holiday as a 'busy' one, or a few good experiences to believe its a 'quiet' one. Not putting down anyone's experience, but just shows how two people can be there at the same time and find things different.

For example I found Epcot busy in Feb, probably because we ended up in a 90 minute queue for frozen and test track was an 85 min queue. Though someone we better foresight, or who liked milder rides better, would have done figment and living with the land and the three caballeros- all 5-10 minute waits.

[Andybear]

[QUOTE=Nimbus;13743113]That's interesting because the available data seems to indicate that MK's wait times in September/October last year (2018) were shorter by around 8% to 14% than they were in 2017:



The average wait times in the months of September and October last year were some of the shortest of the whole of last year:



Admittedly, posted wait times are not the same as crowd levels. It's possible there were more people in the park but the queues were shorter because of increased capacity (more staff running the rides or less downtime due to refurbs or maintenance, for example).

Looks like the crowds waited until Andybear had left. [/QUOTE]

[WhereIBelong]

Originally Posted by Nimbus

That's interesting because the available data seems to indicate that MK's wait times in September/October last year (2018) were shorter by around 8% to 14% than they were in 2017:

<...>

The average wait times in the months of September and October last year were some of the shortest of the whole of last year:

[

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2017 was hurricane Irma - put lots of people off going in hurricane season 2018.

[Nimbus]

Originally Posted by WhereIBelong

2017 was hurricane Irma - put lots of people off going in hurricane season 2018.

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Most probably.

Although Andrea1 said when they went in Sep/Oct 2018: "we found that the Magic Kingdom was packed every day we went. Also we went twice to Universal and both days very very busy... We went in 2016 at the same time and the crowds were fine then.". So, based on their experience, Irma didn't put anyone off at all and crowds were actually worse.

Again, it's just another example of someone's experience being different from the data. And shows that people's individual experiences are pretty meaningless to anyone else.

[moosha]

Originally Posted by Gezzs

We were there from 7th-28th Sept last year and agree, the parks were busier than we expected. Much busier than the same period in 2014 when we last went. There seemed to be lots of children, which was a surprise as we thought they'd be back in school.

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We have noticed lots of American school-age children on our last three trips all at completely different times (February 2019, late August 2018 and late April / early May 2017). Each time we were under the impression that US schools would not be off at the time. But I think US school holidays do vary around the country, and I wonder if a lot of these children are homeschooled and their families were avoiding usual school holiday times.

[Nimbus]

Originally Posted by moosha

We have noticed lots of American school-age children on our last three trips all at completely different times (February 2019, late August 2018 and late April / early May 2017). Each time we were under the impression that US schools would not be off at the time. But I think US school holidays do vary around the country, and I wonder if a lot of these children are homeschooled and their families were avoiding usual school holiday times.

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Yeah, US school holidays vary by county and state. And some Americans do home-school their kids. And, of course, some will take their kids out of school to avoid the usual school holiday times, same as some parents here in the UK do. And some live close enough that they can take their kids after school or at weekends.

I suspect every single day of the year there's some US kids in the Disney parks. Of course, there will be more during the school holidays though.