Opinions on crowds....

[Sunshine1010]

What times (weeks, etc.) of the year is the least crowded now? I know things have changed...and was wondering what everyone's opinions were.

[Strmchsr]

Over the last couple of years I've been during every season. Least crowded would probably be January, but most other times are moderate crowds. 2nd week of December now seems better than earlier in the month. Late August is pretty good.

[kbean]

The best is Jan. Only thing is that some of the best rides are closed for regular maintenance....like Splash Mtn was this year....so I had to skip MK until it re-opened. Other times are Sept/Octish....after thanksgiving thru early dec....

[BiloxiMom]

I'm not so sure about Jan. being uncrowded. We went this past Jan. and it was crazy crowded. 40 minute waits for Peter Pan... yikes! It's never been like that, but having always gone in Jan. I've seen a steady increase in crowds over the past few yrs. I've heard this past Jan. was crowded due to the 4-3 deal. It was busy enough that we're going in early Oct. this yr. We'll see...

[Strmchsr]

I'm not so sure about Jan. being uncrowded. We went this past Jan. and it was crazy crowded. 40 minute waits for Peter Pan... yikes! It's never been like that, but having always gone in Jan. I've seen a steady increase in crowds over the past few yrs. I've heard this past Jan. was crowded due to the 4-3 deal. It was busy enough that we're going in early Oct. this yr. We'll see...

That's the problem. There's not an "uncrowded" time any more. Just times that are a little less so than others. Times like Sept/Oct or after Thanksgiving that used to be empty, thanks to Disney marketing, are now quite crowded. They've definitely done a good job of filling up the slower times of the year.

[PopeCharming]

My opinion of crowds is that I do not like them. They are awfully stinky and noisy.

No, seriously, you may want to consider the very first week of February- since President's Day weekend will be coming up, you will probably have fewer rides closed for rehab then. And its marginally warmer than January too.

[Meteora]

We were in the parks the second week of January this year, and I would say the crowds were moderate, not low-moderate as we expected. Because of the new Fantasmic schedule, DHS was absolutely jammed (I'd say as bad as Christmas week, our usual vacation time) on the days Fantasmic was showing. FPs for all rides--yes, ALL rides--were gone when we arrived around 1:30 and standby lines were in excess of 50 minutes for almost everything. The other parks were less crowded until about 11 am, at which point wait times started climbing. The days we were there, by mid-afternoon lines for attractions like Test Track and Space Mountain were 50 minutes to an hour. Probably the most frustrating part was that the parks were absolutely filled with foreign tour groups--while we obviously respect their right to a magical vacation, saying they were noisy, boisterous, and not entirely respectful of others would be an understatement. Finally, there was the sort of lingering feeling that the staff was surprised by the crowd levels and not dreadfully efficient at coping with them. One memorable moment was when a CM at COP told us one morning in the MK that all rides would be walk-ons all day; ten minutes later we arrived at Frontierland to find a half hour wait for BTMRR at 10:45 am. Not huge, and we were willing to wait, but definitely not a walk on, and the line just grew from there. I think one of the issues is that the parks were set up as though expecting low crowds--earlier closing times, Fantasmic twice a week, one show per night, one Wishes show per night, etc.--but those conditions led to quite a bit of overcrowding.

So...I guess my answer would be not the second week of January. ;) First week of February sounds like a decent suggestion.

[dancin Disney style]

We've been there several different times of the year and I would say the quietest is the last 2 weeks of January into the first few days of February.

The last time we were there in January we walked straight onto almost every ride and show. The few times that we had to wait it was at most 5-6 minutes. We found the temperature to be really nice but we are from the north and it's below freezing at that time for us. We were able to wear shorts a couple of the days and only required a light sweater the rest of the time.

January would be my top pick of times to visit the world because we have been enough times that we prefer to take a very leisurely pace. The low crowd levels allow you to relax without even trying because you never feel the need to race over to a ride or race to make rope drop.

[phlo8810]

I was there for a long weekend in the middle of April and the crowds were average. Last year the first 2 weeks of dec. they didn't seem bad at all. Does anyone how they are in the middle of november? we're going nov.9 to the 17th

[CaptSmee]

[QUOTE=BiloxiMom;1893676] We went this past Jan. and it was crazy crowded. 40 minute waits for Peter Pan... yikes! QUOTE]

40+ min wait for Peter Pan is normal anytime of the year...it's one of the slowest loading rides there is