Planning an August trip....

[theBIGyowski]

DW and I honeymooned at WDW at the end of August last year. The crowds weren't bad at all and the heat wasn't unbearable except for one day. As long as you hydrate properly it really isn't all that bad...and it's easy to stay hydrated at WDW.

You were there last August? When?! We were there, too - August 22 - 28.

Hehe...we just missed you. We were there August 29 - September 3rd. Perfect time of the year to go...crowds were down and we got the Dining Plan for free.

[Brian845]

So, the family and I are planning a trip to WDW in August. We are Disney vets (We go practically every year), but now im in college and its hard to plan time. We decided that an early to mid August trip should be ok. We have never been to Disney during this time (we tend to go either November or February). Now i understand its very very humid and hot which is fine, but I would like to know what are the usually fluctuation in crowdedness -- here i mean, what time of day is good to visit the parks and when is it good to go to the pools and what not to escape the crowds?

If you can go later in the month of August the crowds will be lighter--schools in the south go back then so you'll find shorter line waits that at the beginning of August.

In mid-August there is a rate change - definitely for the DVC resorts and I suspect the rack rates too. Right at that point WDW is swarming with NY/NJ/tri-state area families taking advantage of the price drop.

We'll fit right in then, during our trip this year. Hooray for the tri-state area! (I've never been to Danville tho, nor have I seen many platypuses around upstate NY).

[momeja]

DW and I honeymooned at WDW at the end of August last year. The crowds weren't bad at all and the heat wasn't unbearable except for one day. As long as you hydrate properly it really isn't all that bad...and it's easy to stay hydrated at WDW.

You were there last August? When?! We were there, too - August 22 - 28.

Hehe...we just missed you. We were there August 29 - September 3rd. Perfect time of the year to go...crowds were down and we got the Dining Plan for free.

ITA. As the week went on for our trip, you could watch the crowd level drop, too. By your week, it must have been perfect.

[theBIGyowski]

ITA. As the week went on for our trip, you could watch the crowd level drop, too. By your week, it must have been perfect.

yet oddly enough it was next to impossible to ride TSMM in DHS

We got our FastPasses sometime around 9:30 and they weren't good for 6 or so more hours...and by the time we went back to get in line only the FP line was open and we still waited nearly an hour. Thankfully we had a CM come through looking for a party of 2...so we got to skip ahead of about 50-60 more folks in line. I cannot imagine if we had to wait another 30-45 minutes. It really was the only ride like that in any park. We rode EE 5 times in a row right at the beginning of EMH-Evening...with absolutely no wait at all.

[Amy]

ITA. As the week went on for our trip, you could watch the crowd level drop, too. By your week, it must have been perfect.

yet oddly enough it was next to impossible to ride TSMM in DHS

We got our FastPasses sometime around 9:30 and they weren't good for 6 or so more hours...and by the time we went back to get in line only the FP line was open and we still waited nearly an hour. Thankfully we had a CM come through looking for a party of 2...so we got to skip ahead of about 50-60 more folks in line. I cannot imagine if we had to wait another 30-45 minutes. It really was the only ride like that in any park. We rode EE 5 times in a row right at the beginning of EMH-Evening...with absolutely no wait at all.

I wonder why they had closed down the regular line? It doesn't sound like it was close to park closing where they would have to fit in all the FP people. I like that attraction, but the wait times are ridiculous!

[mindflipper]

I think those wait times at TSMM show to me that they need more rides at DHS.

[theBIGyowski]

I wonder why they had closed down the regular line? It doesn't sound like it was close to park closing where they would have to fit in all the FP people. I like that attraction, but the wait times are ridiculous!

They closed the standby line because there were hundreds of people with FP showing up. I want to say the standby wait time listed was around 3 hours...but of course there was no one in it. It was just a prime example of how the FP system does not work for every attraction. Hundreds, if not thousands, of guests got FPs between rope drop and 10 AM, which led to everyone showing up around 6 PM to use those FPs. I do remember there was a Korean woman getting FPs for her ENTIRE group which had to be around 100 people because she had so many park tickets she could hardly hold them. That kind of thing really makes me irate and I think Disney should do something about it. At least give these large groups some FPs separate from the rest of the guests because you end up waiting 20 minutes before realizing what's going on in front of you. But I digress.

[Polynesian Princess]

They closed the standby line because there were hundreds of people with FP showing up. I want to say the standby wait time listed was around 3 hours...but of course there was no one in it. It was just a prime example of how the FP system does not work for every attraction. Hundreds, if not thousands, of guests got FPs between rope drop and 10 AM, which led to everyone showing up around 6 PM to use those FPs.

If they consistently enforced using the fast passes during the specified time frame, they wouldn't have that problem.

[Amy]

They closed the standby line because there were hundreds of people with FP showing up. I want to say the standby wait time listed was around 3 hours...but of course there was no one in it. It was just a prime example of how the FP system does not work for every attraction. Hundreds, if not thousands, of guests got FPs between rope drop and 10 AM, which led to everyone showing up around 6 PM to use those FPs.

If they consistently enforced using the fast passes during the specified time frame, they wouldn't have that problem.

That is true. I didn't know about the FP time frame not expiring until just a year or so ago. I wonder how so many people found out and started deciding to use them whenever they wanted instead of coming at the specified time?!

[Brian845]

That is true. I didn't know about the FP time frame not expiring until just a year or so ago. I wonder how so many people found out and started deciding to use them whenever they wanted instead of coming at the specified time?!

I think a castmember at restaurant told us, when we were worried about not being done with lunch in time before the end time listed on the FastPass, so I'm not sure it's meant to be a secret.

[Polynesian Princess]

They closed the standby line because there were hundreds of people with FP showing up. I want to say the standby wait time listed was around 3 hours...but of course there was no one in it. It was just a prime example of how the FP system does not work for every attraction. Hundreds, if not thousands, of guests got FPs between rope drop and 10 AM, which led to everyone showing up around 6 PM to use those FPs.

If they consistently enforced using the fast passes during the specified time frame, they wouldn't have that problem.

That is true. I didn't know about the FP time frame not expiring until just a year or so ago. I wonder how so many people found out and started deciding to use them whenever they wanted instead of coming at the specified time?!

I think more and more people are doing this because I see it all over pretty much every Disney site. The fast pass clearly states that it's to be used BETWEEN those times. Using it between those times controls the number of people entering the attraction throughout the day - which is why fast pass works.

I think a castmember at restaurant told us, when we were worried about not being done with lunch in time before the end time listed on the FastPass, so I'm not sure it's meant to be a secret.

In my opinion, that's a bit different than completely disregarding the time and going whenever you feel like it. Actually I think it's probably the original cause for the problem. Obviously people are going to get held up at reservations, waiting in line for another attraction, takes longer to walk across the park than they anticipate, etc and will miss that window by a short amount of time. Because Disney has been understanding in those circumstances where someone is 5-15 minutes late (which I totally think they should be understanding then), people started arriving later and later and when they are accepted, they continue to do so and share it as a tip on all the Disney sites. Then you get where we are now where most people do not follow the time guidelines, which can lead to problems like theBIGyowski mentioned.

[Amy]

I think a castmember at restaurant told us, when we were worried about not being done with lunch in time before the end time listed on the FastPass, so I'm not sure it's meant to be a secret.

In my opinion, that's a bit different than completely disregarding the time and going whenever you feel like it. Actually I think it's probably the original cause for the problem. Obviously people are going to get held up at reservations, waiting in line for another attraction, takes longer to walk across the park than they anticipate, etc and will miss that window by a short amount of time. Because Disney has been understanding in those circumstances where someone is 5-15 minutes late (which I totally think they should be understanding then), people started arriving later and later and when they are accepted, they continue to do so and share it as a tip on all the Disney sites. Then you get where we are now where most people do not follow the time guidelines, which can lead to problems like theBIGyowski mentioned.

I think so too Poly ~ I think Disney should go back to enforcing the time frame a little better, with allowances for 10 or 15 minutes over the times...otherwise the FP system gets to be like it was at Toy Story Mania and they have to close down the stand-by line in order to accommodate all the late FP returnees