Star Wars impact on park levels.

[MuttonJeff]

I've read a few things predicting that the upcoming Galaxy's Edge may impact on crowd levels for the first half of the year, with people waiting to visit later in the year. Has anything been published, or does anyone have any knowledge if this has been the case for the start of the year?

[Gav]

I think there will be different ways of thinking. There will be people like myself who want to do Star Wars, but don’t want the queues you will experience at first. These people, where possible, will try and go before the madness begins.
Others will want to wait for it and be the first to experience it like any new addition to the park.

[2point]

Interestingly I just picked a random date - 3rd September and checked DVC availability.

Every property has all the categories available. Even Boardwalk has boardwalk view studios available.

[Andybear]

I've read that a lot of people are waiting until both rides are open - this will save them money as they'll go once instead of twice.

[MuttonJeff]

Does anyone know if this has been the case so far? Whenever I look on the Disney app, it looks like long queues at magic kingdom, so I assume it is as busy as ever, but I'd be interested if anyone has some direct experience or figures to confirm/deny.

[Shooby doo]

Will be very hard to prove/disprove something when it isn't open for another 5 months, I've read that they were in for another "bad" summer & that the reason they brought the opening forward was to boost sales. We've been going for over 25 years & can honestly say that every year the parks are getting busier- 2 years ago it was near enough do your 3 FP then leave !
SD

[mickey house]

Originally Posted by Shooby doo

Will be very hard to prove/disprove something when it isn't open for another 5 months, I've read that they were in for another "bad" summer & that the reason they brought the opening forward was to boost sales. We've been going for over 25 years & can honestly say that every year the parks are getting busier- 2 years ago it was near enough do your 3 FP then leave !
SD

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We have been going for a similar time (around 30 years), and agree that it's getting so busy we don't stay long in the parks. The problem with fast passes is that we only get the scraps of what's left after those staying on disney property get the good ones.

We last went in early December and followed all the busy day guides, and 14 minutes after AK opened it was a 3 and a half hour wait for FOP.

We went to HS (on another apparent quiet day) and the park was busy and the queues were so long for the ladies toilets that we gave up and left.

We bought annual disney tickets, but we so regret it because it's not fun anymore, and I doubt we will even go back to disney again (apart from using the one day disney life long day ticket).

I'm gutted that star wars is opening in HS the day we fly out this year, so we probably won't even bother going there (I believe it will be manic).

I guess at least we have the distant memories of going to Disney when it wasn't rammed.

[gismo1554]

Originally Posted by MuttonJeff

Does anyone know if this has been the case so far? Whenever I look on the Disney app, it looks like long queues at magic kingdom, so I assume it is as busy as ever, but I'd be interested if anyone has some direct experience or figures to confirm/deny.

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To be fair, GE was only announced two weeks back so I doubt it would have impacted on crowds yet anyway as this will be people already booked and paid for. The test may be Easter time as this is probably enough in advance for people to have changed their plans

[Nimbus]

Originally Posted by MuttonJeff

I've read a few things predicting that the upcoming Galaxy's Edge may impact on crowd levels for the first half of the year, with people waiting to visit later in the year. Has anything been published, or does anyone have any knowledge if this has been the case for the start of the year?

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I think the only real analysis I've seen is by Josh at EasyWDW. See a recent post on wait times:

easywdw/easy/blog/wa...t-time-trends/

Note that the only data people other than Disney can use are the published attraction wait times, not attendance figures. The only attendance figures we ever see are yearly ones - there's no monthly break down. So we're talking wait times and not crowd levels - although the two are expected to be related.

Josh's post above is somewhat long-winded so here's a summary:

• Wait times in the hotter months (Aug/Sept) seem to be reducing whilst wait times in the colder months (Jan/Feb/Mar) are increasing - at least compared to 2017. There seems to be a shift away from the historically peak summer season.
  
• March has the highest wait times (MK av = 49.5mins) whilst September has the lowest waits (MK av = 24mins).
  
• Wait times at MK during the first 3 months of 2019 were slightly lower than they were in the first 3 months of 2018. However, they are higher in 2019 than they were in 2017.
  
• Wait times at AK during the first 3 months of 2019 were slightly higher than they were in the first 3 months of 2018. Wait times at AK increase year-on-year.

So, in general, I don't think there's been much change in wait times in the early part of this year compared to last year. MK waits are slightly down but AK's waits are slightly up.

[Andybear]

Originally Posted by mickey house

We have been going for a similar time (around 30 years), and agree that it's getting so busy we don't stay long in the parks. The problem with fast passes is that we only get the scraps of what's left after those staying on disney property get the good ones.

We last went in early December and followed all the busy day guides, and 14 minutes after AK opened it was a 3 and a half hour wait for FOP.

We went to HS (on another apparent quiet day) and the park was busy and the queues were so long for the ladies toilets that we gave up and left.

We bought annual disney tickets, but we so regret it because it's not fun anymore, and I doubt we will even go back to disney again (apart from using the one day disney life long day ticket).

I'm gutted that star wars is opening in HS the day we fly out this year, so we probably won't even bother going there (I believe it will be manic).

I guess at least we have the distant memories of going to Disney when it wasn't rammed.

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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