Visit the parks this past August?

[darthmacho]

We've decided to go to WDW in August next year since the late summer is usually a value season. Since no one can predict the future, I thought I'd inquire about what to expect from those that visited WDW in late August this year...

Therefore,

1.) How were the crowds in the theme parks? (Be specific about which parks and rides had what crowds if you can, please.)

2.) How was the weather? Was it unbearably hot? Or was it manageable?

3.) How did you go about your day to cope with the heat and the crowds? (i.e. Did you arrive early? Did you take mid-day breaks, etc.?)

Thanks ahead, you guys are always so helpful. :mickey:

[Itchy]

We've decided to go to WDW in August next year since the late summer is usually a value season. Since no one can predict the future, I thought I'd inquire about what to expect from those that visited WDW in late August this year...

Therefore,

1.) How were the crowds in the theme parks? (Be specific about which parks and rides had what crowds if you can, please.)

2.) How was the weather? Was it unbearably hot? Or was it manageable?

3.) How did you go about your day to cope with the heat and the crowds? (i.e. Did you arrive early? Did you take mid-day breaks, etc.?)

Thanks ahead, you guys are always so helpful. :mickey:

Well, let me start this way.This year I went mid August because of my grand daughter starting school. I do not like early or mid August because of the crowds.

I have gone a lot in late August or early September.
Now for the Questions.

1. I think the Magic Kingdom had the worst crowds later in the mornings with all of the most popular rides very busy.

Epcot crowds never seemed to bad until mid day, other that Sorin most rides were little to no wait.

DHS always seemed busy but if you followed the crowds to rides they would be found to be busier, I guess follow your own guide.

Animal Kingdom always seemed busy but I just think that is the way the park was designed. Getting there early always made most of the rides easy to get onto with little wait.

For all cases go and get fast passes for the most popular rides that you really want to ride on.

2. Weather can be a factor with 80's to 90's, rain and tropical storms or hurricanes being possible.

3. Arrive early, Leave mid day, come back later, maybe park hop to take advantage of xmagic hours.

Hope this helps:mickey:

[faline]

We arrived on the 18th and left on the 29th. Usually, we go later in August and into early September but we were somewhat limited but the expiration date on our annual passes.

It was hot and it was humid. However, it has felt more hot and more humid on other trips. Perhaps it's because it got pretty hot and humid at home shortly before we started our trip so we had already acclimated?

Crowds were pretty heavy for the first part of our trip. It felt like we were dodging folks everywhere. Despite that, there were a number of rides which had short, or no, lines. Because we know the parks pretty well, we also knew which rides we could skip and come back to later in the day when they had lower lines. For most of our days, we spent morning until early or mid afternoon in the parks and then returned to our resort for some pool/rest time. Some days, we never returned to a park; others we went back to a park later in the day. We pretty much did everything we wanted to do without waiting in extraordinarily long rides. This was the result of a combination of judiciously using fast pass and knowing when to hit rides with lower lines. One thing we never did do this trip was Toy Story Mania. We never managed to get to that park at opening which would have been our best opportunity. On a couple of occasions, we could have gotten fast passes but return times were for later in the day when we knew we would not still be in the park and/or did not plan to return to that park. Wait times for this ride were routinely at 80 minutes and we passed it by.

Overall, it was manageable. I certainly would have preferred lower crowd levels but, like any trip, it all has to do with a positive avenue and your trip will be what you make of it!

[kathiep]

We were there from the 22nd to the 31st. We have been yearly September visitors but due to DS starting school, had to change things up. We were apprehensive about going in August.

I agree with the previous poster. Yes it was hot and humid. But it was not unbearable. I remember being hotter in September at times. I think it should be noted thought that we routinely take midafternoon breaks to cool off in the pool.

We were pleasantly surprised with the crowds. The only fastpass we used the entire time at MK was for Peter Pan. Everything else had 20 minute waits at the most.

At Epcot, we used FP for Soarin' and Test track. One thing that was new for us was the FP's all having been distributed on the day we arrived at Epcot around 2pm. That hadn't happened to us in September but we arrived this late only to do World Showcase so it wasn't a terrible disappointment.

We arrived at DHS for park opening. This was probably a good thing as we got our Toy Story Mania FP's right away. These were all given out by about 12:30 which wasn't new to us. But we didn't find anything else at this park with more than a 20 minute wait.

Overall, we were pleasantly pleased with the late August crowds and already have our bounceback booked for next year.

[Live4WDW]

:mickey: It's always good to be in WDW, however I must say, It was very hot and humid. I am a goodsized fella, 280 and as soon as I stepped out of our resort hotel the sweat machine turned on, and just would not stop. It was like small rivers running from the top of my head:blush: on down. 2nd day I took a wash cloth just so I could wipe my face off. We were there from the 20th of Aug till the 25th. I was miserable, that does not mean that you will be affected like me. I still enjoyed the trip, (:thedolls: Boy was it hot) coming in to a very cold resort room made it bearable. Had park hopper so we just sort've hopped around. MK seemed to be busiest out of all, we are going back nov 30th-thru dec 3 for a few days just so I can enjoy it with out burning up. (Hopefully) I did'nt cope real well with the heat, but once again that was me. If I had a chance to do it over, I would go when it is much cooler:mickey::

[Imagineer1981]

Late Aug is always better. I was just there the 26th - Sept 4th and the parks were DEAD!!! Most schools are back in and the parks are empty. Plus Disney usually offers free dining so that makes the trip worth while as well

[Soccermom12]

We were there August 17th-25th. The crowds weren't too bad. We went to MK on the 18th, 20th and 24th. MK was the most crowded on the 18th (Splash and BTMR waits were 60 minutes). POC and HM were 10 to 15 minutes the whole time we were there. Peter Pan and Winnie the Pooh were 15-20 minutes before 11am and then jumped to 60 minutes in the afternoon. Buzz was about a 20 minute wait.

DHS (August 19 and 23) - it was a madhouse trying to get Toy Story Mania - we went straight there and had about a 20 minute wait at park opening. Star Tours was a 10 minute wait the whole time. We used fastpasses with RNR or TOT.

At Epcot (August 22)- Soarin' was crowded at opening (40 minute wait at around 20 minutes after opening)....we went back at lunch and the wait said 30 minutes, but we were able to walk right on. Test Track had a 45 minute wait by 11am.

AK (August 21) - The crowds were not too bad. My DH and DSs rode EE (three times) and Primeval Whirl (once) in an hour and a half at park opening (My DD and I rode Triceratop Spin over 10 times in that hour...lucky me).

It was very HOT and HUMID - we were all drenched in sweat by 10 am...and our pictures from lunch at the castle were not very flattering. Every afternoon there were brief rain showers (between 5 - 20 minutes each - not long enough to bother taking out our ponchos). The evenings were much cooler.

We got to the parks at opening and were back at our room by 7pm most nights. I would have liked to have taken midday breaks at the pool, but it was free dining and hard to get reservations for the times we wanted. We were usually eating lunch after two or dinner before 5. It wasn't worth it to go back to the room for an hour or two. Next time (if our ressies work out), we will definitely leave the parks by 1 and go back after 5. The evenings were so much nicer!

[wire0monkey]

I just posted on this yesterday for someone else. We just came back on Monday from 10 days at WDW.


The weather was not great, but not unmanageable. It rained most days, but not for long and not until late afternoon or at night. It was very humid and in the low 90's. We had one morning where it rained in buckets, but that was the only wash-out.


It was very uncrowded up until the Labor Day weekend, and then the crowds were moderate. We walked on most e-ticket rides in most places.

The Studios: Toy Story Mania was swamped all of the time -- there was a 10 minute line to get FPs for it. Jedi Training Academy was always crowded. Nothing else at the Studios was too crowded, except for the nights that Fantasmic was showing and then it was a mess.

Magic Kingdom: During the mid-week, we walked on to Splash Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain, Buzz, Pirates, and Haunted Mansion, and rode them as many times as we liked with no waiting.

Epcot: Soarin' had a 20 minute stand-by wait during the week and a 45 stand-by minute wait during the weekend. FP returns were about an hour away. Test Track had a 20 minute wait during the evenings, and FP returns were about an hour away. Mission Space had a 5 minute wait most of the time. We had about a 20 minute return window for Kim Possible. Journey into Imagination, Spaceship Earth, and the Seas were walk-ons.

Animal Kingdom: We walked on to Dinosaur, Primeval Whirl, and Triceratops Spin. The CMs weren't even unloading Triceratops Spin for most rides. They just let the kids ride again and again. The wait for Everest was around 15 minutes in the morning, and FP returns were about an hour away. We waited 10 minutes for the stand-by line on Kali River Rapids. We easily got seating for the Nemo show about 10 minutes before it started.

Lines at the water parks were a little longer, but still very short and manageable.

Downtown Disney was very crowded on Friday and Saturday night, and it was still crowded during the day on Labor Day.

Disney Quest wasn't that crowded, even on Saturday night. We waited less than 5 minutes for our favorite games.

[brownie]

Thanks for starting this thread! It looks like we're probably headed to Disney World next August, too, so this is great feedback on going then.

[EmmMOM2]

We were there August 21-31st of this year.
It was in the 90's every day and felt pretty humid to me. Whether it's unbearable or not would depend on the individual and how they cope with warm temps. I was very hot, my whole body would be covered in sweat when outside, but going on and off rides that had AC did cool me down enough. Though i must say we only did parks from 9-11:20am and then not again until about 3pm or so, so we avoided the heat of the day.
We only got caught outside in rain once, but it felt good and cooled it down some so we didn't mind...

The parks weren't horrible at all. My family doesn't do any of the coaster type rides but going early in the AM we were able to get on fantasyland rides with no waits until about 1015am or so and then Peterpan was the longest wait there with 30 minutes or so.
We NEVER waited for haunted mansion, pirates or the Kilimanjaro safari in AK. They were always walk on which was good. We dont go on Soarin but i noticed that the waits were 90 minutes when we arrived at Epcot one morning around 10am.

The buses however WERE PACKED...much more so then when we stayed in late aug early sept the previous year. Though i think it's because we stayed at a moderate and there buses tend to be more so crowded then the deluxe resorts.

HTH

[hokies4life]

We were there Aug 16-22. We thought the crowds weren't that bad most of the time, except for the things already stated. For us though the weather was hard to deal with. We would try to find places inside to have lunch and have some cooling off time, and usually took breaks back at the hotel for a while. The temps were in the 90s but the real feels were in the 100s. We definitely will try to go later in August or September if we go at that time of year again. Once I'm done with school we'll have alot more options of when to go and we're going to try Jan 2010 and see how that works out.

[Pally]

Late Aug is always better. I was just there the 26th - Sept 4th and the parks were DEAD!!! Most schools are back in and the parks are empty. Plus Disney usually offers free dining so that makes the trip worth while as well

We were there the same time and had planned well or we were lucky. We went early and planned our fast passes and never had to wait very long, 5-10 minutes at most and sometimes we even just walked on. The Dino ride in AK was the first time I saw they only had one side running. Safari was walk on. Lion King was only quarter full first show in morning. Many rides were not filling cars and sending some empty. I had never seen this before. Mk later in the evening Snow White was walk on. Peter Pan was 5 minutes. IASW was walk on. Unbelieveable. Earlier in the day they did have lines that were quite long. But Ihad remembered hearing about going a little bit later this time of year. It was a dream. We did five rides in less than 30 minutes in this area.

This was our first time to go in August. Did not mind the heat at all. We have gone in April and May and have found it worse. We were also pleasantly surprised with the crowds and maybe even ruined to go other times of the year because of the low crowds. We are still giggly about the free dining promotion we took advantage of. :mickey:

[Imagineer1981]

We were there the same time and had planned well or we were lucky. We went early and planned our fast passes and never had to wait very long, 5-10 minutes at most and sometimes we even just walked on. The Dino ride in AK was the first time I saw they only had one side running. Safari was walk on. Lion King was only quarter full first show in morning. Many rides were not filling cars and sending some empty. I had never seen this before. Mk later in the evening Snow White was walk on. Peter Pan was 5 minutes. IASW was walk on. Unbelieveable. Earlier in the day they did have lines that were quite long. But Ihad remembered hearing about going a little bit later this time of year. It was a dream. We did five rides in less than 30 minutes in this area.

This was our first time to go in August. Did not mind the heat at all. We have gone in April and May and have found it worse. We were also pleasantly surprised with the crowds and maybe even ruined to go other times of the year because of the low crowds. We are still giggly about the free dining promotion we took advantage of. :mickey:


Exactly, its the best time. You never want to go to the parks during peak season ever again!

[gaffz70]

We were there 8/17 - 8/24. We have gone this week in the past and found that it had worked well for us...less crowded. Not as good this year. I think the late Labor day through everything off. The southern state schools didn't go back until 8/24.
The first half of our week, the parks were very busy...we would go for 6 hours starting at the am EMH and sometimes only get on 3 or 4 attractions. We went to an am EMH to DHS and had to wait 20-30 min for a fastpass for 1240 for Toy Story. Also went on an EMH am day for Epcot and waited 45 min for Soarin at the rope drop. I was worried about being there over a weekend, but that was the least crowded days

Weather was hot, but we expected it...gave us a great reason to be enjoy the Poly pool. We generally would be at the parks as soon as they opened, after lunch we would be back at the hotel for swim & naps and then back out at night.

I think the later you go in August, the better!!

[Ian]

1.) How were the crowds in the theme parks? (Be specific about which parks and rides had what crowds if you can, please.)Well you have to understand that there is a distinct difference between early-to-mid August and mid-to-late August. I've gone a few times during the last week of August and the parks are dead. Early August, though, is still peak summer time and crowds will be major.

Weekends the crowds still get a little crowded, but very manageable still. Magic Kingdom will still typically be the most crowded, but now with TSM the Studios draws a mob, as well.

To give a recent example, we were there for part of the last week of August this year and we walked on almost every ride until Labor Day weekend started. No lines at all except for the biggies like TSM. Even Soarin' only had a five minute wait,


2.) How was the weather? Was it unbearably hot? Or was it manageable?Oh it's hot. VERY hot! We had average temps in the mid-90's with very high humidity. Also expect quite a bit of rain, as August and September in Florida is quite tropical. It rains nearly every day, even if only for a couple hours. And this year we had more than usual ... a few days our entire evenings were heavy rain all night long.


3.) How did you go about your day to cope with the heat and the crowds? (i.e. Did you arrive early? Did you take mid-day breaks, etc.?)Yeah, you kind of have to take a mid-day break. Our routine was typically to do one park in the morning, then head back to the resort for a few hours. If it wasn't raining, we swam to cool off, then showered, changed, and headed back out for dinner and fireworks.

[MNNHFLTX]

My son and I were there August 18-25th and I just had a couple of thoughts to share. First of all, we were very pleasantly surprised by how manageable the crowds were at the Magic Kingdom the Saturday we were there. The queues are all the attractions were not long at all--most were 20 minutes or less, Splash and Big Thunder were 30 minutes. CM's we spoke with said this tends to be the trend since Saturday is one day that the Magic Kingdom has no EMH hours, either in the morning or at night. So apparently people do tend to congregate around the parks that do.

The other observation is that the optimal way to get to ride on Toy Story Mania is to get there at opening and go directly on the ride, then get your fastpasses--the line will be much shorter for both. Same for Expedition Everest. Those were the only two rides that we targeted specifically at opening on the days we went on them.

We are not big on going back to the room mid-day and then returning to the parks in the evenings. This trip we tended to ignore the morning EMH at any of the parks and just went to the (non-EMH) parks at the regular opening times. Then we would go full-tilt until around supper time or shortly after. We found that we got to do a lot without having the extra transportation time to account for and there were enough air-conditioned attractions to cool off at during the heat of the day.

[motherof4]

we were there aug 18 until sept 1, the crowds weren't too bad we didn't really wait to get on rides we even got to fast pass toy story and rode on it twice I loved it. it was so much fun. last year we were there the same dates and didn't get to ride it once. It was hot but I think I am used to it by now because we go every yr about the same time. because this is when they usually offer the free ddp.

[IamBelle]

We go to WDW every Aug. This year, we went from Aug 18-Sept 1...

1. The crowds were moderate, the average wait for Toy Story was 110 mins, RnRC-35-40 same w/ TOT
Splash Mountain and Big Thunder about 35 min

Test Track-mid day, 60 mins or so
Soarin' about 35 mins

Everest about 30 min, but one day, we went in the morning and it was a 5 min wait!!

All of these rides we FP, we just don't like to wait that long. The FP for Toy Story were gone at about 10-11 am. RnRC was out around the end of the day. Those were the only ones that I remember seeing runout when we went to get them.

2. The weather this year averaged 85-95 and very humid. It rained a little every day for about 5 mins or so, but it depends if there is a tropical system in the Atlantic. Our longest time waiting out a rainstorm was 2 hrs last year, stuck under the Lunching Pad in Tomorrowland. But usually they are not that long. To keep cool, we cut through stores and get one of those sprayer fans, which work well. We also grab ice from the stands because when your hands are cold, your whole body is cold. Also, we take the opportunity to see almost every show in the AC.

3. To cope with the heat, we took midday breaks and went in the pool and did some of the midday activites (we stayed in ASMu).

Have fun, stay cool, and have a good vacation next summer, I hope to be there too!

[twinboyz]

1.) How were the crowds in the theme parks? (Be specific about which parks and rides had what crowds if you can, please.)
MK was really busy..we went to each park with Early MH..so it's to be expected. 50min wait for BTMR and SM. Walked right onto Stitch, POC, Treehouse, Tiki Room, HM. Overall not bad.
EPCOT..went on Norway 3 times..one of them had a twenty min wait..others just 5 min. test track did FP. Soarin..NEED FP. SE walked right on. Crowds bearable.
DHS--Need to manuever thru this park. We skipped TGMR early because the line was long. went back later in the afternoon and walked right on. TSM--You have to get there early. Park opened at 8..we got there at 7:15. They walked us right to the ride at 8. When we got off..there was a 90 min wait. Backlot Studios--avoid first thing when it opens. It's a covered queue so at least you are out of the sun. Very crowded.
AK.. Went early did KRR twice. Dinosaur about 20 min wait. If you don't hit KS or Everest early for FP get ready for a long wait. Very crowded..seems like the paths aren't very big for the crowds.
2.) How was the weather? Was it unbearably hot? Or was it manageable?

Manageable..DRINK LOTS OF WATER. I think Disney does a good job of cooling you off with the rides to get you refreshed for the weather when you go back out. Wasn't as bad as I thought it would be..but you definitely sweat..wear breathable clothing if possible.

3.) How did you go about your day to cope with the heat and the crowds? (i.e. Did you arrive early? Did you take mid-day breaks, etc.?)

Arrived early every day..the crowds we bad in the evenings when we were there. After wishes we didn't ge back to the hotel until 12:45. No mid-day breaks..we were able to get everything done in the mornings and head back to the room to relax. We usually stayed at the resort and relaxed the rest of the day. A couple of days we relaxed in the morning and went later.

Good luck and have a great time..we did. What's better then being in WDW:yay: