July 6 to 13 crowds and July crowds?

[RALPH]

I am trying to determine if WDW is seeing a major slowdown in attendance. My boss who lives in Celebration told me MK was dead on Sun the 13th. In fact he said, had it not been for the South American tourists, it would have been empty! We always stay away from MK on the weekends when visiting the world especially Sunday! This was shocking news to me.

I tried to get wait times for specific rides from my boss, but he did not pay attention to that. That is my barometer of how crowded the world may be..

My DW's co-worker(a WDW nut) has a daughter who was there last week and she said it was not crowded. This is quite opposite of what I am used to hearing.

My boss has many friends who work in WDW management. They tell him bookings are strong through August, but soft after that. Strong bookings and light crowds seems illogical except for day travelers staying away.

Is the economy and fuel prices having a much bigger effect than I thought? Reports I have been getting indicated crowds were normal through the current summer season.

I am trying to gauge what the crowds might be like for our August trip. Can anyone comment who has just returned or who will be attending in July?

[WishingStar2006]

I have a trip planned for 8/8 through 8/14 and thought last week that I had to reschedule to this week because of a family thing. There were no rooms available at any of the deluxes and only Coronado Springs and Carribean Beach were available as well as OKW. So I would think that crowds are like usual in July and August (tapering down in August) unless they are making less rooms available as a way to cut costs (which they do from time to time). I remember reading a post not too many days ago where someone said that they were in the only occupied room in their hall (can't remember the resort) so it could be that they are limiting the # of rooms available to cut mouskeeping, etc. expenses.

[Blfarm]

Can't speak to July 6 - 13th, but we were at the parks July 3-6.

At Magic Kingdom (on the evening of the 3rd), the waits for most rides were 40 minutes or under - Splash Mountain was at 70 minutes though. At 9pm, there were still Fast Passes available at all rides we saw. The posted wait time for BTMRR was 40 minutes, but took us less than 20 minutes to get through the line.

At Holllywood Studios on the 3rd (during the day) and 5th (in the evening), the standby lines for RNR was 40 minutes and TOT was 20-30 minutes. The stand by line for Toy Story Mania was 60 minutes, and fast passes were usually gone by mid to late afternoon.

At Animal Kingdom, during the day on the 5th, the wait times for the Expedition Everest were 30-50 minutes. The Safari was a wait of 20-30 minutes, although the wait did back up for a short time - I guess there was an Ostrich that wouldn't get off the road and was holding up the safaris. Otherwise most of the other rides were 30 minutes or under, and for the shows Nemo and Lion King most were in line 30 minutes before the shows.

We were at Epcot on the 4th, and during the day it wasn't too bad - wait times for Soarin were 70 minutes with the Fast Passes all distributed by mid afternoon. Wait times for Test Track were around 40-50 minutes in standyby, 20 minutes for single riders. Mission Space had wait times of 30-40 mintues. Most other rides were 30 minutes or under. By evening, the crowds were huge for the fireworks.

We've never been in July before, but I thought the crowds were pretty manageable and we were able to more done than anticipated. I was expecting much longer waits for most of the rides, and was surprised to see that Fast Passes were usually still available so late in the days for most rides.

[CardCollector]

My boss who lives in Celebration told me MK was dead on Sun the 13th. In fact he said, had it not been for the South American tourists, it would have been empty!

There were so many groups from Brazil there that week. Seemed to be a bunch of High School age kids.


I was at MK on the 13th. The crowds were very small, but it may of had something to do with the massive rain shower that occured around 2 p.m. It lasted a good hour and it had to have been at least 1 to 2 inches of rain. Also heavy lightning. We were lucky and were eating at the time, so we got to just sit back and watch everyone run for cover.

As for the wait times, once the rain quit every line seemed to be at least 30 minutes b/c most people could stand in line and be out of the rain. Even Its a Small World had a 40 min wait time.

Once the rain had moved on here is what we noticed.

BTMRR - Didn't re-open for few hours, so we didn't bother to go back to that part of the park. Same for Splash Mountain.

POTC - was less than 5 min

Peter Pan - less than 15 min

Mickey's phillharmagic - no wait at all

Space Mountain - 45 min

HM - 10 min

Buzz Lightyear - said 40 min wait, but we got on in 10 min. Ended up getting right back on and doing it again.

Went to Epcot that night and Soarin was 70 min. Ended up taking us over 90 min to get on.

Test Track said 50 min, but it took us less than 20. Jumped back in line and got on again in less than 15.

Mission Space - was less than a 10 min wait.



We were there from the 6th through the 14th. It rained all but 1 day during the afternoon, but most nights were very nice. Temps at night were in the low 60's most nights. Kind of cool at times.

[Young@Heart]

Wow! Those wait times all sound very managable! I hope this holds for the next few weeks. :mickey: