We went to all 4 parks at Disney world last week. It was insanely crowded. We joked with other guests that the entire state of Florida must have been there. But, we traveled 16 hours to get there so we made the best of it.
We were at Disneyland 2 weeks ago and I was blown away by how crowded it was. We were passholders to Disney World prior to Covid. It seemed crazily crowded for the time of year. Without the fast passes anymore, we hardly rode anything. It was disappointing.
Our whole family was passholders for almost 15 years till Covid. Seeing all the money grabs, crowd capacity, lower quality food, not being able to go when you want, the magic just isn’t there anymore. We will not be back for a long time. It’s very possible we will be headed over to Universal till Disney gets it’s act together and brings back to magic for EVERYONE. Not just the rich and people who live on credit card debt. We are not poor by any means but I’m also not just gonna throw money away on a so so experience. I want my girls to have the magic and Disney family friendships I grew up on.
Sorry, we have been visiting from Michigan for 40 years, AP holders for 10. Current wait times are at least double anything we ever encountered before the pandemic. When Smugglers Run opened the stand-by wait was posted at only 90 minutes, that passed in less than 60. Now, Lightening Lane wait rivals that. The elimination of FastPasses, institution of mobile ordering, virtual queues, closures, missing or abbreviated live shows, parades and character meets, as well as park hopping curtailment have put people in walkways or stand-by lines instead of in restaurants, on transport vehicles or gathered in anticipation of an “experience”. The place used to run like clockwork, but the reduced cast and ignorance of crowd dynamics, as well as poor upkeep leading to excess breakdowns, have made for unmanaged crowds, begging for distraction.
I agree with you. I am a Disney Passholder and have been since 2001. During Covid I paid for my pass which I pay for monthly. I did not drop my pass when they shut down I elected to extend and have continued to pay for the pass renewing now in April because of the extension it was previously renew in Dec. Yet I have not visited the parks since Dec 2019. I think I may finally drop it this year. I have been watching the Crowds. I subscribe to a couple of accounts that videotape while they walk around the parks and to me WDW isn’t even practicing any safety measures at all. No distancing etc. I wear a mask. I just watched a video last night of Hollywood Studios that was taped 2 weeks ago. It looked like a breeding grounds for Covid19. Remember Covid is still alive & infecting & killing people. Now there are a couple of new variants making their way around besides Omicron, Delta, and the combined Fluroma now there is BA2 as well. If someone were to get all of these combined it would be a nightmare. Safety measures should be mandated. People cannot expect Anti Vaxxers/Anti Masks individuals to abide by honor rules of those not fully vaccinated/Boostered wear a mask indoors because they don’t /won’t wear one outside what makes people think they will indoors? They won’t and anyone with a brain who actually uses it productively knows they won’t. I have severe Asthma, Allergies & AFIB among other health issues so I have to think if it is worth it. Another thing is that I have always had park hopper on my Pass & paid extra for it. Now WDW says it is included sure included and they have kept increasing the price & now are making meals much smaller for much higher prices. I currently pay 27.78 a year. For What? No more park hopping because you can’t park hop if all parks are at their full reduced Capacity. Those with Annual Passes are only allowed to make 3 park reservations at a time. Yet anyone staying at the hotels get to make one for each day they will be at the hotel/resort. Disney is now just another greedy company interested in doubling or even tripling their profits/bottom line. I have a SeaWorld/Busch Gardens Sr Platinum Annual Pass that I first took out in 2008. I pay monthly for that also. The difference is I do not have to renew each year . They just keep taking out the payment each month and so it is still for the same $16.88 a month as it was in 2008. The only time it would go up to current price is if I canceled & then later decided to renew. My pass is good for 11 SeaWorld/Busch Gardens and their Water Parks across the Nation. I also get Free Preferred Parking along with 20% Discount on anything I buy in the parks it includes Food also and not just Kiosks/Fast Food. I will keep that pass but seriously think I will Drop Disney and I have been visiting WDW since 1978. I have stayed in all WDW AllStar Resorts, Ft Wilderness, Port Orleans Riverside & Coronado Springs Resort. Now I use timeshare Resorts since they don’t charge overnight parking since I only live 150 Miles from Orlando & the Theme Parks. I visited SeaWorld & Aquatica last year and crowds were manageable. I also visited Universal & Universal Islands of Adventure and they were manageable as well. I will think about visiting Universal Again. I am on a fixed income & so with that & my health I need to do what is best for me. I have been a Disney Fan since the early 50’s That’s 66 years it’s time for me to really think about if it is still worth it which at the present moment I don’t think it is. I am a senior citizen now and don’t know how many more years I have and on that note do not want to hasten the end of the journey with WDW’s apparent disregard for the safety of all & for a happy experience. It appears that the upper echelon just doesn’t care about why Walt Disney Created these parks in the first place.
I care about what people’s choices are, as it affects my decisions. Anyway, your comment was unnecessarily mean-hearted. Please be kind. “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”
We’re going to try to go back this year 2022. We tried to get in last year 2021, but it was booked up. I wanted to go to Magic Kingdom and all they had available was Epcot. Didn’t want to go there. Chef Mickey’s was a joke last year for dinner
Wasn’t as good as in years past. Like breakfast better. Portion size smaller. They brought food to table. Characters couldn’t get real close to us because of Covid. We wore masks
Didn’t like that.
The crowds and the new Genie pass is really disturbing. Disney is now placing their guests in categories with guest with the genie pass as category 1 (ahead top priority). Never thought we would see Disney place greed over the guests. We fully agree Disney needs to get their crowds under control and stop placing their guests in categories.
It’s is overwhelming! We went about 2 weeks ago and the crowds were insane – we hardly rode any rides it was sad after spending all that money! We won’t be going back any time soon until things calm down. It’s too crazy. The children don’t even enjoy themselves!! It’s sad… The magic is disappearing 😭
How is people crowded shoulder to shoulder safer than max capacity?!
Are they limiting capacity because of Covid transmission, or because of staffing, or so they don’t have to offer as many discounts, or what? What could be worse than the sardined crowds in the pictures?
We are driving home today from Disney World and it was crowded this past week but manageable. Mask were just about non existent. You only had to wear them on transportation to and from the parks.
We were at Disneyland at the beginning of March. The lines were at a minimum of 45 minute wait, with the wait extending to over two hours while we were in line. This was horrible. I will not take my family there again until they get the crowd under control.
We went about 2 weeks ago. All 4 parks. I actually felt that there were less of a crowd BUT lines were insanely LONG. The new “fast past” (what ever they are calling it) is a joke. The problem is that while they are letting a few less in they are not running all their rides. They know exactly what they are doing. Your waiting in line longer now that preCovid in order for you to purchase the faster pass. We already pay a small fortune to go. Now it’s nearly impossible to ride/see more than 3 or 4 things in a day. I’m done with Disney
We’re done as well. Was not able to ride anything except Carosel of Progress. Paid for Genie and was useless. No horse drawn trolley on Main Street which was iconic, loved the horse clomping sound, gone and won’t return, no piano player at Casey’s corner, food and dirty trays on the ground and tables in the eating area. No one cleaning, no hand sanitizer, was told to use the bathroom instead. My guess is Disney benefits financially from Covid changes. The magic has left and so did we.
We visited 3/2-3/9 and it was crazy. At Hollywood we bought the pass to bypass the stand by lane and only was able to use it 1 time. (4 of us btw) waste of $. People were rude too. If you need to sneeze or cough cover your mouth!!
We were there last week. It was awful! Magic Kingdom was so crowded, the standby lines were way too long, food options were terrible. We had a better time at our resort.
We were at Disney for our LAST TIME. Crowds were just awful. Lines awful and some of the workers were very rude. The new Geni Pass is totally a waste of money. The system locks up on your account and you are screwed for the day. The stand by lines are way to long a wait. You pay a small fortune to get into a park and if you are really lucky you may get to do 3 or 4 things. Very unpleasant experience and will NEVER go back. It is priced out of the average income family range.
how true is that statement? People will continue to go and continue to complain yet nothing will ever be done UNLESS PEOPLE STOP GOING ! That’s the only way to get all these greedy mongrels to take notice !
Couldn’t agree more… we have talked about this for quite some time now. But, Money talks. As long as people choose to go and pay the prices, they can complain all they want but nothing will change. And the crowd control? 🤷♀️ What crowd control?? I guess compared to Christmas and New Years Eve crowd control it’s better… but on those days it’s just a sea of people anyway.
What happened? Why? Will it ever revert back to what was once enjoyable? It’s doubtful at this time. And, until there is an improvement, we will more than likely spend our vacation time in more relaxing settings…. And there are plenty of those all over the United States.
Don’t get me wrong. We love Disney. As DVC Members we are heavily invested in WDW and all it had to offer at one time…. But, the magic is disappearing. And now, we are looking to other vacation spots to spend our money. We are only 1 family. That won’t hurt Disney or speak to their management or change Anything, but it makes us feel better. And that’s all we are responsible for.
We also just got back 2 weeks ago.
No plans to return in the future due to awful management, high prices, overcrowding, long lines, TERRIBLE food quality and an overall lack of care/’magic”.
All the above comments are spot on. We thought we were visiting in the off season at the end of January, but it was crowded everywhere. Do not plan on returning.
How dare Disney be so crowded, choose profits over the happiness of this guest, don’t they know who this guest is? This guest will be back at Disney, complaining with impunity
@Chris Wood,unless you’re a “loyal shareholder” with Disney, there’s no point in pointing out the obvious , & that’s that Disney & the suits in charge of it are obviously too clueless or too greedy or both to understand that 1 day ticket prices & etc are going to get to a point where most people aren’t going to afford to go there I really hope 1 of these years, that WDW will be the subject of an episode of Undercover Boss, just to see if Chapek & his fellow suits even know how guests & maybe even employees feel about the way the company’s going & etc.
My family & I went to Animal Kingdom & Magic Kingdom. You could hardly get around. The wait lines were 2 hours on rides. You stand in line more than you can enjoy anything. It was not fun. During the fireworks people were laying down on the ground. God fidbid if they got trampled on. It was not a fun experience. Something needs to be done about overcrowding
That’s all you can do is make the best of it. I was there a week before you and the parks were sold out every day. I actually did six days with spending two days at EPCOT and Magic Kingdom since they seem to take more time. I think it only ended up being like $50 more and I could take my time and enjoy it. Didn’t even have to get the Lightning Lane and still rode most of the rides I wanted too while hitting all the new ones. The crowds were a little annoying at times, but I felt that I’ve dealt with these sizes of crowds in the past too so nothing new. Overall I had a great time, but definitely am taking a break from the parks as I’m not entirely impressed with Disney’s business decisions as of lately (more room for the rest of you I guess). I’ll definitely be back, but the crowd issue will never change so I just learn to deal with it and find better ways to work around it. I actually like the challenge sometimes as this time I totally won Disney.
We started going
to Disney World in 1989. We went on our Honeymoon. We have been going back every 3 years since. December 2021 was the worst trip we have ever had and we have gone in July and August over the years…the Heat!! But the first week of December 2021 was the worst week we have ever experienced. The magic is gone, lines were long, people were rude, staff was angry, and had the I hate my job attitude. The crowds were terrible. I hated making a reservation for a park. Vacation is not to be planned every moment it left all the flexibility out of our vacation. It made me so sad my happy place is no longer my happy place😒
Have been going since 1974. Anyone who didn’t go those first 25 years don’t really understand what the magic really was. To me a vacation shouldn’t have to be micromanaged spoils all the fun. We will be going in April but that will be the last for quite awhile. We are DVC owners but giving serious thought about selling it. Just hoping these crowds are pent up demand because of Covid.
We started going in 1972 and were really looking forward to the 50th anniversary. We live in Florida so go often throughout the year. You are right! It was magical and fun. Was glad when they got rid of the A,B,C,D tickets. Even the Fastpasses weren’t that bad. It started really going downhill when they made you pay for parking when you stayed at the resorts. I may be missing the 50th year party. 😪
I’ve been going since 1972. I was 5 years old. We went to Disney every year. It was special and so magical. Especially watching through the years as new parks were built and more things to enjoy. We went in January and it was the worst trip ever. Saying it’s not at capacity is a lie because it is at capacity! Genie+ and Lightening Lane are a rip off. The food is overpriced and not good anymore. I go to Disney to disconnect not be on my phone from 7am to closing each day because that’s the only way to manage things. Chapek and his money grubbers need to go. Im DVC and wanted to add on, that won’t be happening now.
Ha ha. Reporting one guest. I know for sure that it is way more than one. I have 16 family and friends that are saying the same. Disney has broken the method that has worked with the single focus of getting more money. Screw the customer experience to make more money is their mantra because we know that there is a lot of demand!!
Went first week of February 2022. I too was disappointed about the crowds. I had heard the parks were not at capacity but I could not believe it. My son’s family planned for 3 years to go and the crowds made it difficult to enjoy. Went to four parks and ponied up for fast past, which now is a joke. I don’t know how they can manage the crowds.
If Disney wants to control the crowd numbers, they need to overhaul the entire park. Close for several years, refurbish and/or replace everything. Make a visit to Disney World the hottest ticket in the universe, also the most expensive. Exclusive, crazy expensive, and worth every penny. Only the very well off will be able to afford a Disney World vacation. Totally renovate the resort hotels to the highest standards, only top flight food and beverage available.
That will weed out a lot of people. The tickets will be sold by lottery only.
My husband and I are/were WDW people… We’ve vacationed there ever since we were children annually with our parents. We were married there at Boardwalk resort 20+ years ago and we both worked for WDW when we lived in Kissimmee, Florida. My husband and I are both disturbed by the way the parks are now. We’ve gone every year, even during covid but this past November was absolutely ridiculous. The crowds coupled with the lack of staffin were insane. Disney’s attitude was that the parks didn’t have enough guests to warrant staffing up to a 100%… I’m telling you that is a lie…. As someone who worked there once. The variable pricing which was to contain attendance did nothing more than earn them additional money…. It changed nothing. Every day felt like a visit during Christmas week, Which is normally chaos. The genie+ system along with rides breaking down constantly Was the final straw for my husband. He loves everything Disney more than ANYONE so when he’s annoyed to the point where he’s considering us skipping this year, you know that something is wrong at Walt Disney World.
We are never going again, not that Disney or any of the other parks care. Its too expensive, to crowded, and not nearly as fun as it used to be. Very sad.
Went to Disney World early February. Was crowded, lines are long. Need to buy lightning lanes so price gets worse. Also noticed a big problem we hadn’t encountered previously- ride breakdowns were occuring frequently. That doesn’t help.
They need to moderate how many people are in the parks and fix the lightening lane b.s. The fast pass was great and helped to moderate wait times. With the new system I have to pay extra to continue in line, since the lightening lane has priority and that is garbage.
Also the app went from a functional map with wait times to an everything in one mess that has no back button, is frustraingly hard to use, and crashes frequently. However it is essential to use this app for almost everything in the park and required to order food in a timely manner. Good luck standing in the single line for ‘will call’ food orders.
What you don’t hear about the capacity issue is the staffing of the park. Since there is reduced capacity are they reducing staffing and are they staffing less in order to save costs and because of this idea of reduced capacity.
There are two kinds of leaders in the world. There’s the “build a great product and they will come” crowd who are relentlessly focused on the customer and realize that the long term profits will come. This is how the best companies in the world are born. Then there are the empty suits that care only about maximizing profits for next quarter, ruthlessly slashing costs and jacking prices with scientific precision to maximize return and ring in their bonuses for as long as possible until the music stops. This is how great companies die.
Disney is rapidly becoming a dumpster fire of empty suits. Every day a capacity park’s worth of guests swears off the Disney brand, while millions read and watch how far Disney has fallen. Disney is killing its golden goose, its brand, in favor of a sugar high of short term profits. Disney’s board had better act soon, before the damage becomes too baked into their brand image.
It’s such a decidedly un-Disneylike experience inside the parks. Crowded, rides down, frustrated and on-edge guests – it feels like a cash grab, not a vacation. Didn’t renew my Annual Pass. I made 5-6 trips (WA to CA) every year and stayed on site. It was a splurge that I loved! (I was engaged and married there, too!)
The magic and escape just isn’t there now. It just feels bad. Disneyland broke my heart and lost it’s way. I can’t even imagine Walt walking the parks in their current state. 💔🏰💔
Everyone needs to stop going to Disney parks until things improve. It drives me crazy reading all these articles about the deterioration of the Park experience, then in the comments, people are still planning to go back. Why would Disney change now? They are making money like crazy while charging a premium to treat guests poorly. Prices, lines, Genie app, understaffed, $700+ hotel rooms with no maid service. I am a huge fan and wanted to take my middle school aged kids to WDW for the 1st time, but we will not unless things vastly improve. We can have a much more enjoyable time elsewhere for a lot less money.
Family just came back from WDW. TERRIBLE EXPERIENCE even though we stayed at WDW Resort. Even riding NYC subway during prepandemic rush hour one had more room and a more pleasant experience. WDW “We pack you in and pick your pocket” Enjoy the Go!!!
I agree with everything you’ve said! I unfortunately did renew my annual pass. I will never do it again. The last time I went, it was miserable. If that is reduced capacity, then I’ll never come back. Hate working on my “reservations” for park entry, restaurants, etc. By the time I get there, I’m so stressed, I can’t enjoy myself. I refuse to spend anymore on Genie +, refuse to spend anymore money in the over priced souvenirs, refuse to spend over $100 for a meal for 2. I’m over it! I’m staying home!
We went in February and the wait times were ridiculous. In all my trips, they’ve never ever been that bad, even before Covid. A large part of it was the new Genie Plus system. Wait times were often longer than posted because of the people paying for Genie Plus. I miss the old Fast Pass system. It was fair for everyone, included with your ticket price, and managed the crowds much more efficiently.
After weeks of reading the same comments about insane crowd sizes, broken rides, lines out the wazoo, apps which freeze, crash and which you must use to make the most of your visit, my family has decided we will pass on Disney vacations from here on out and bask in the memories of our trips over the last 30 years instead.
We just got back. I cannot say we had a terrible time. Was able to get on just about every ride but of course it takes coordinating and some rushing around which can be annoying. Piano player was out at Casey’s corner and we were even able to eat at a table for lunch and Tony’s for dinner. The street entertainment is lacking at MK and Epcot there was none..
Waited 1 1/2 hrs at bus depot just to get to MK. But I was kind of expecting all of this.
Everywhere is understaffed all over the country. Why would Disney be any different. I wish we waited to go back because now we will not be back for a very long time. To expensive. Room not cleaned in 5 days. I should have requested I guess.. but should I really even have to?!
Family vacations will be spend elsewhere.
Sad because we really had 3 wonderful Disney vacations years ago. If you are considering going I say wait! At least a year. They need to get there shit together
I went to Disney in February and I was very disappointed, the lines for attractions were extremely long, and to be stuck together in large groups who were not following any Covid measures was not what I expected after all the Covid comments when you open up the Disney app. I can’t believe I’m writing this because my family has been to Disney many times and we have always had a wonderful time but I actually left the parks early because I was sad
I hope they take care of this problem before I visit Animal Kingdom in April. I hope all the tourists are gone by then, from other states .this is getting ridiculous! the prices are really outrageous ,and the lines are crazy. they need to do something about this .we’ll see what the day experience at Animal Kingdom brings us. that will determine if I’ll ever return to Disney again, and I live in Florida!
It’s scary to me that the parks are operating at “reduced capacity” after having been in February. I’m concerned to discover what full capacity would be these days. I hope guests remember that cast members are just people trying to do their best despite the hands dealt by upper management. I remember it being busy with plenty of waiting before the pandemic, but it’s definitely extra on that front now.
My wife and I just returned from a 4 day trip (after a 10 and 15 year hiatus) While we found way- as two mid 30 adults travel without children -to navigate the complexity of the new logistics (Disney app and reservation system) we still found it all to be a bit overwhelming during certain period in the parks. If I had to point to one of the most obviously culprits of this it would the JAZZY!!! (aka ecv – electric scooter)
To be completely honest it felt a bit dystopian, like we were seeing real life wall-e unfold in front of our eyes!
After experience several circumstances where the individual operating the “vehicle” showed blatant disregard for other around them we did some research and found out that Disney had NO rules or guidelines to offer to those who choose that as their method for experiencing the park.
What they really need to do is limit the amount of jazzy whipping around. The parks were never designed to handle that type of traffic. And the part that gets me the most fired up is that lazy people are creating a bad experience for those whole actually need an alternative means of movement!!! #reallifewalle #Buy-n-Large
I used to feel that way too…and then I became disabled and now I have to use one of those scooters and it is terribly difficult. People act like you’re invisible, jump in front of you when you try to maintain a safe distance, and cast members tend to treat you like garbage. I never wanted to be that person in the scooter and never imagined I would be, but seeing it from the scooter perspective really changed things for me. Your comment is alarming and seems like your desire is either a) scooter users -aka the disabled- should be allowed in the parks only on a limited basis and/or b) they should be subject to scrutiny by cast members on whether or not they really need a scooter
You dont need a scooter, a wheelchair will suffice. You should be pushed at walking speed not be able to zoom around running over kids and the backs of peoples legs. Its your problem no one elses
That is a really hurtful and hateful comment. Perhaps the person in the scooter doesn’t have someone capable of pushing a wheelchair. Maybe their own mobility issues prevent them from wheeling themselves. I have moved scooters in the theme park where I work, and it is absolutely correct that people don’t pay attention. Some scooter users don’t either. Everyone needs to be aware of, and courteous to, those around.
I agree with everything that has been previously stated. Been going to DW for over 45 yrs. Did not enjoy this trip but my grandchildren did. Of course they didn’t know when spent an additional $1000 to make it magical 🤯
Do not judge others you do not know what they are going through. Our last Disney trip which we spent a year planning. My 22 year old daughter fell down a flight of stairs the day before we left. She fortunately did not break any bones but sustained a severe sprain of her ankle. She ways well over 200 lbs. I am nearly 60 and not strong enough to push her around 4 Disney parks. We rented a scooter. People were very rude to her because they thought she was being lazy. She ended up in tears several times. You do not know what someone else is dealing with. Most of the time people are doing the best
They can!!
I got hit twice by someone in a scooter and the one had the nerve to say I was trying to pass her, which wasn’t true, I was just walking then bamm hit from behind, I don’t have a problem with scooters unless the individual riding one feels entitled because of it.
Completely agree with you for those who need them because they’re actually disabled, but unfortunately there are lots who use scooters because they’re too lazy to walk the parks. I last went in February and saw someone park their scooter and run over get in a rapidly growing line for some soft serve ice cream. She was clearly capable without a wheelchair or scooter.
Do people bring their own scooters to Disney World, or does Disney provide them? If Disney provides them, maybe the scooters could be modified to limit their speed to a leisurely walking speed.
If people bring their own scooters, they could be required to leave them at the entrance and switch over to a slower safer Disney scooter.
I don’t know how practical this is, just trying to think of a possible solution. A few years ago I saw a toddler almost get hit by a fast-moving scooter at EPCOT, and I’ve been concerned about scooter safety ever since.
Yes, you can bring your own. Last year I came with a Vespa that had a souped up 308 4 barrel in it. I was able to get from one side of the park to the other in 3 minutes. It was very liberating.
Mallory, I agree! Those scooters are terrible! Also when did they start making Tank Strollers. I got sick of trying to get around all of that. One thing for sure is banning Stiller’s and scooters from stores
The magic is gone and probably for good.
Pack ’em in and Keep ’em spending seems to be the only real concern now. Sorry about indefensible lines, but, hey come back in 2025 when Tron opens.
My husband and I had planned to go next December, but we’ve decided to postpone. We’d gone before in February and loved that the parks were almost empty. Now it seems peak time year round and I said I’d never go through summer type crowds again. Plus I’ve read articles about the parks being dirty with reduced cast members and visitors being out of control. This was going to be the honeymoon trip we didn’t have 26 years ago. It’s so sad, but I don’t want to have a bad experience that colors our past memories.
Was there in 2014. The “magic” was still there. Crowds were managed differently so you didn’t notice. Just went this past November.. Absolutely different experience. Shoulder to shoulder..there is no way the crowds are at 35%. They aren’t being truthful. Every single ride was over an hour long by 10am. Crowds for miles. They can do better. They have before. I suspect making up for profit lost.
It was a return to Disneyworld after
10 years with our kids and first timer – grandkids. If those parks were reduced capacity as their Disney Management claims, full capacity will be a nightmare.
You won’t get to ride some of the rides you want without buying the Genie+ pass and buying the fancy ride as a separate purchase. Those who didn’t spent 80 to 140mins in line per ride.
At the end of the day we felt like we had been in a battle against technology and packed crowds. Once was enough – don’t plan to be back until Disney fixes it – if they even try.
Disney will continue to put prices up, if people still continue to pay
I wouldn’t go back to Disney, with cost they way they are, long queues, as people won’t pay for rides when you already paid to get into the parks, this wasn’t walt disney vision to be greedy, he wanted all families to enjoy disney, it’s now become a park for the rich, should of left it how it was before corvid started, if it’s not broken don’t fix it & it worked fine, before this new CEO got Greedy to ruin the magic, walt disney created
Used to go every year before COVID but no more from UK so would get charged more if using card to pay fast lane charge. Pay £30 a day for genie+ not guanteed to work have to get up 7am to book no bus from airport no dining plan. It was so much easier to plan stuff but now it’s harder for those outside the USA time for vegas
Tourists from other countries help keep tourism going here. Would you like it if the people from the UK said that about Americans visiting? I’m happy our international visitors have returned.
Sounds like people will still gladly fork over thousands of dollars to rub elbow to elbow with complete strangers and wait 2+ hours in line for a 5 minute ride. Bob chapek must be a genius because no matter what he does to lessen the experience, people still show up. Last time I was at Disney was in 2014 and no desire to go back after hearing all the new changes.
I think after people book a trip or 2 and deal with thus, they will feel the same way and think twice about booking another. Disney parks are slowly killing themselves.
Went back in 2017 and the crowds, lines, wait times were ridiculous! All the fairy tale rides (Pinocchio, Peter Pan, Mr. Toads Wild Ride, Roger Rabbit were all sped up to get crowds thru faster. The “magic’ I remember as a younger adult is not so magic anymore. Now its “hurry hurry hurry! Wait n sweat. Your turn hurry up!”. I think their idea of “at capacity” is way different than what I think.
We went the first week of last December and had a great time, parks didn’t seem that full, longest wait was an hour for Slinky Dog. Besides that, maybe 20-40 minutes on other rides. I guess it just depends on when you go and how your luck holds out. And no, we didn’t pay to skip any lines.
I think you are correct. Hotel rooms available vs. full-day parks are now out of balance. Disney really out to have, at minimum, 2 more full-day parks. Then the crowds would be reduced. Of course, they have no financial incentive to do that, so they won’t.
We were at Walt Disney world on New Years 2022 and stayed 4 days and nights . We visited the magic kingdom two days and animal kingdom one day. We didn’t find it as crowded in past years with the exception of the popular rides and they had very long waiting times. Overall it was still an enjoyable visit.
We just canceled our trip to Disney World that was scheduled for July 2022. It is obvious that Disney is creating these insane lines and crowds. How is it that three years ago you could have a 30 minute wait for rides at ( full capacity) and now with ( limited capacity) the lines are 3 hours long. We were scheduled to stay at the Polynesian, come to find out they don’t even clean your room anymore. Really $700 a night and they can’t make your bed. Everyone should be canceling their trips until Disney gets the message that people are not going to pay double and get half. Disney should be ashamed of itself and really look at replacing a lit of their upper management.
I agree. I paid $ 1300 for 7 days/6 nights, which included round trip airfare, for an all inclusive, 5 star resort in Cancun. People need to redefine how they do their vacations. I live in Orlando, so eventually I will do Disney again… but for now, Universal and SeaWorld are getting my money. The max wait time I have seen at rides were 90 minutes and the wait times go down from there. How can Universal and SeaWorld figure this stuff out, but Disney can’t? I know this was a purely a rhetorical question. Disney has figured it out, they wanted the money more.
Part of it is that the internet has made people more savvy. They used to be fully staffed on off season but now everyone shows up in so called off season.
We went in the beginning of February and it was packed. We are going to take a few years off hoping the crowds calm down a bit. It just wasn’t fun it was more like work.
I can tell you from pre/post Covid experience there is NO WAY they are still at 35% capacity when reservations at maxed out. The reservation is what make this so frustrating. It gives the illusion that the park won’t be packed and then you are waiting in line to even enter the park, waiting in line for popcorn and paying money now to not wait in as long of a line for some rides. Does feel like the magic is being traded for dollars in my opinion. I miss the other bob ☹️
The most “Magical Place on Earth” became the most “Frustrating place on Earth”. With all the restrictions, new rules, ridiculous scheduling, our visit in January 2022 was horrific. I use to say that I need a little Disney in my life when I felt the world was out of control. In the past, a visit to Disney World would make me feel like all was right and life was good. Our last visit just added to my stress level and for the first time in my life I was glad when our two day visit was over. I don’t think I’ll ever look at Disney World the same again!
if that’s the case then why would you go their .I will be their in august 2022 so stop moaning you all no one is making you go and if room service is no longer available it will save you as no gratuity need paid
And this is why there’s no magic in Disney . because of people like you ! you have a rotten disposition, maybe you should just stay home and let others decide if they want to keep going.
We have gone to Disney World several times throughout the years. Our last trip this past summer was literally our last. I’m not sure what I’m missing, but I can’t quite figure out how “reduced capacity” leads to larger crowds, longer lines, and an overall much more miserable experience then we’ve ever had at Disney. We had never experienced shoulder to shoulder crowds and 2.5-3 hour stand-by lines until we went under “reduced capacity”
Our last trip was also the most we’ve EVER paid to take our family of 4. The whole Disney experience is different. Even some of the cast members seem miserable, which you would NEVER see before. The Disney magic has disappeared for our family.
Roberta you’ve got that right ! things have changed at Disney .I haven’t been there for years, it was fun years ago. I’ll be going in April. that visit will depend whether I will ever return or not, because it cost a lot of money just for me and my husband. I better have a great day .
I cancelled my February vacation due to reports of how crowded it is. Disney seems more focused on squeezing every last penny of profit from each visitor and throw in the crowds, it was an easy decision.
Our February vacation at the Port Orleans riverside was shaping up to cost us 12,000 dollars. The last time we stayed at that resort, the vacation ran us around 1/2 that (closer to 4k). I can take my family of 4 to Hawaii for that price (which is what we’re doing).
We were DVC members for 18 years. Had enough of the crowded parks, couldn’t even get out it was so packed. Sold the vacation club and don’t miss it one bit.
Don’t understand how they will never be at capacity, again…yet are completely jam packed every day. Exactly how does that work? If you’re under full capacity but every park is completely full? They sound like politicians right now…
The crowds look insane, and it doesn’t look like a nice experience, plus the holiday from the UK would be about $10,000 for 2 weeks in a budget hotel, but can someone explain why if park capacity is down it’s so rammed with all wait times being so long.
Surely less capacity, less people to fill the lines and social areas?
We went 2017 and it was becoming a chore, now, seems like work.
Have been going to Disney world every year for the last 25 years. Often times we go the week of Presidents day in February. While it’s been busy during this week in past visits, this past visit 2 weeks ago was ridiculously busy. Every park was extremely crowded with very long wait lines . My family left early the day we reserved Hollywood studios because it was unbearable. We literally went on 2 rides in 3 hours and 1 of those rides was lightning lane through genie+. I certainly expect change over 25 years and accept the fact that I won’t always like it, but this is getting out of control. This is prob the first trip that I haven’t felt or experienced anything “magical” and that’s disappointing. This is also the first time we’ve strayed away from Disney and spent a day at Universal, because of the above mentioned issues. Disney desperatly needs to control their crowd levels and lower their costs a bit or they will lose me as a customer as well as my kids someday when they get a little bit older. We come from Michigan every year and try to escape the cold but their are many other options in the state of Florida that we can consider.
We are DVC members and we have gone twice since 2020 and have been extremely disappointed both times. We weren’t able to find our 50th anniversary or 2021 merchandise because they were sold out. The lines for the rides are extremely long. Not being able to have the fast pass system we felt like we were behind the mark the entire time. I know it will be some time before we return we will maybe try to do some of the other parks in Orlando on our next visit.
Was just there last week, and it was so overcrowded, the food options were very limited, the merchandise was way overpriced, and if you wanted any of the 50th merchandise good luck. The Genie+ is a joke, we could only get 2 maybe 3. Memory maker, I got some other family’s pictures. For a family of 6 it cost a lot of money, I have emailed Disney Guest Services, but of course they have not responded. We normally o 2-3 times a year, but are now looking at other options.
I was at the parks on super bowl Sunday. We were told then that they were at 75% at that time. Im sorry but even at 75% that’s way to many people. Also a huge safety issue in my opinion.
Prez day weekend we were at Hollywood Sudios Friday and Epcot Sunday. I waited 4.5 hrs starting at 9:30am then 2 hrs for ToT. In addition, my wife was inappropriately “terrorized” for at least 20 minutes in the hotel lobby, for which she was in no mood! Epcot on Sunday was no better .. we waited 2 hrs for food on the Disney app, for which there was hardly any bandwidth to even place the order.
😂 I thought the same thing. So Bob lowers prices and limits crowds so then everyone wants to come back again and you are back to the same initial problem of huge crowds 🤔. But then you have all these people at hotels and no one can book a park reservation because they limited park capacity. Does anyone realize Walt was around with his dreams when the population was nothing like it is today and people weren’t traveling all over the world constantly like they are today and people weren’t making a living from spending everyday at the parks vlogging etc?? Everyone on here says they go used to go to the parks all the time and just Florida’s population increase to be near the parks and have annual passes is skyrocketing daily..so is Bob supposed to pull magic out of arse?!?
I want to hear this magical solution someone has to all of this complaining. If you were in charge, how would you fix it all so perfectly?! And you can’t say how it used to be, nothing is the same as it used to be so you can’t use that argument anymore.
Bob chapek did something in one year thru personal greed that the other competing parks couldn’t do, destroy Disney’s parks and mostly their reputation that took over 50 years to build. The damage he has done is so bad that it makes Eisner’s term as CEO look like he was Walt incarnate. 50+ years of building a reputation as a family friendly place to take your family has now turned into a place to avoid. When the revenge travel crowds subside and the crowds disappear and Chapek’s multi million dollar bonuses go away only then might it be worth a trip back. I have not heard one good thing about the parks since he took over from any blog, all negative. Unfortunately it will take years to earn their reputation back after only one to two years of abusing their customers and fans.
It’s crazy crowded!!! The LL only makes wait time for the rides longer!! What were they thinking when they changed from the fast pass???? They say 35% capacity! I say 75%
Way too crowded. And the magic is gone. I refuse to spend two months hard earned wages to only ride 3-4 rides, and stand shoulder to shoulder with obnoxious entitled brats. My children have only experienced it on old family videos when it was not overpriced and under fulfilling.
Canceled one trip we had booked for this April. Will probably cancel our summer trip we had planned as well. If its mostly going to be frustration it’s not worth going.
The bright side is that Disney has now trained our family that’s it’s okay to spend $10k+ on a vacation. We can now take that money and spend it elsewhere for an awesome time instead of being hearded around Disney property.
The only way to lower the number of guests is to raise the price… everyone complains when they raise the price then complains when there are huge crowds. Disney is NOT a non profit, I don’t know why everyone wants to think they are.
I’m confused! How does this comment by Dierson CFO make sense?
“ Disney CFO Christine McCarthy stated that Park’s capacity would never return to normal as they are “managing things differently now”. She went on to explain that they do “not want to have the Parks bursting at the seams”, and by keeping a reduced capacity in place, Guests can have a more enjoyable time.”
I honestly think she’s a little naïve with the comment that guests can have a more enjoyable time with reduced capacity in the parks. Well, it doesn’t seem to be working
We started visiting Disney parks (Orlando) in 1976 and were annual pass holders for many, many years. No more.
I will cede my place in line to those who are willing to pay big money to be tortured. Disney won’t miss me, I’m sure, because there are hundreds of thousands who don’t mind.
It’s a business and businesses will do what is profitable. If it ever stops being profitable, then things will change…..but not before then.
We went in February when the reservation calendar showed green. Not sure where that data came from because it was absolutely packed! No short waits for any ride. Absolutely ridiculous. Sadly, don’t plan on going back any time soon.
We just came back. Spent 4 days in Disney and 2 in universal. What a difference! It’ll be a while before I go back to Disney. That’s assuming they fix the crowd issue. Even the kids rides were an hour wait. It was a total wait of money.
If you’re staying at the Contemporary or Polynesian you’re still not guaranteed to get in which is BS. I’m paying about $1000/night and still couldn’t get into the MK on some days. Park Hopper tickets and could only get into EPCOT and wait until 2pm to Hop to a different park.
Genie+ is a failure because Disney does not limit the number that they sell. I wasn’t a fan of the previous “free” FP either. I much prefer Universal’s unlimited Express Passes although I like the attractions at DW better. Universal has too many herky-jerky rides which hurt my neck. DW just needs to open more attractions and build many more new ones to disperse the crowds. 10,000 people attempting to board 5 good attractions=outrageous lines!
1. Pent up demand from being stuck inside and delayed trips. This is what has caused inflation all over. Pent up demand and 2 years of disrupted supply chains means less stuff with same or more demand. Also, less labor due to people doing something else and years of restrictions on immigration and also Covid. Disney did lose money from the pandemic, but I am guessing they are on track to make that back and maybe more.
2. Excess income from limited spending during the Covid shut downs and also government support in the Covid relief bills (which I support because it prevented an economic catastrophe).
3. Disney parks are a finite commodity. They cannot do anything more to increase capacity. Even if they did not change things we liked in the past, the capacity issue would be worse. One of the best ways in this Country to deal with huge demand of a finite research, is to increase prices and reduce services to increase profits.
Disney needs to cover its expenses and make profit at the same time otherwise no reason to run a business. The best way for them to achieve this is to continuously increase prices until they make money with less guests. I think at some point the pent up demand and delayed trips will level out. I went to Disney world in April 2021 because we had gotten vaccinated early. The park crowds were higher than I expected because of Covid, but it wasn’t terrible. The worst thing was having to wear a mask all day outside in the hot and steamy weather.
We love Disney world and because of all this excess demand, they should charge even more to reduce overall capacity. I am curious what is the actual breaking point for people?
Don’t expect to be in the parks anytime soon at all! It’s way to stupid with the crowd levels, having to make a reservation for a park months in advance as plans may have to be change etc. We need a scoter in our family and with those crowds it is impossible! Been a DVC member for years and always enjoyed spending a few days a year in the parks but no anymore. Probably will sell those too since Disney can’t get their act together!
Disney World sits on roughly 25 THOUSAND acres — about 39 square miles! That’s pretty massive! But that doesn’t mean we can have close to 40 square miles of theme parks and fun and a LOT goes into why not. Suitable areas are generally “forested uplands, pasture lands, or other undeveloped sites outside the Conservation areas.” They make up 19.9% of the undeveloped land in Disney World
I’ve said this before I’ll say it again what’s shooting Disney in the foot right now is they have not added a theme park in 23 years.
The business has grown exponentially.
From opening dates..
Magic Kingdom 1971
Epcot 11 years later 1982
Studios 7 years later 1989
Animal 9 years later 1998
At that growth rate they should have two more theme parks based upon the growth they had originally. Crowds would be disbursed in their capacity would be greatly enhanced.
Regarding the crowds at the park the one thing that seems to be overlooked is how many attractions that were running or either being refurbished or still closed. I can’t honestly comment on restaurants that are still closed. I know for the longest time the amount of restaurants available had been reduced to just a handful from having more than you could count in each park. For instance, even though it was a ride nobody liked when stitch was open that would take about a 20% wait time off of the surrounding attractions such as Space Mountain, Buzz light year, Laugh Floor.
When you look around each park and four to six attractions or more are still closed it affects every land in the park.
I came here 20yrs ago and carried the magic with me from that day to this.
However the magic isn’t quite the same this time around. Fighting your way through crowds around the park, queuing for hours to get on to rides, similar queues for dining (unless you are mobile savvy, which not everyone is) and Disney now seeming to put an emphasis on money instead of family fun by charging for a genie plus pass that allows people to enter rides in lightening lanes….All in all, unless they can find a better crowd control the magic will continue to fade….and the most magical place in the world that Walt Disney created will become just another over priced theme park
The park reservation system, from a business stance, is brilliant. But from a user experience, I think it will always mean crowds. It creates a scarcity mentality which then forces passholders who would normally treat attendance more as a “when it sounds fun” to a necessity. By penalizing passholders for not showing up on days they have a reservation and giving the impression park reservations will run out, you get local passholders who would otherwise not be there forced to try and get their money worth. We’ve been going to both US parks for 10 years annually and then some, and I’ve never seen crowds like we’ve experienced in Disneyland like these in the last 6 months. We’re not local to either park abd every time if year we’ve tried still has been nuts.
“Capacity” numbers have surely increased over the years. I have been going to Disney every 2-3 years since opening , worked in MK for a time, and have 2 kids who completed the CP. we have never seen such wall-to-crowds including 4th of July week. It’s clear that those “Capacity” numbers have increased. Why is it IMPOSSIBLE for anyone to confirm what those numbers are????
That’s crap about 35% we went to Hollywood studios and it was jam packed shortest wait time were around 55minutes for the kiddie rides Star Wars rides were over 2 hours I am personally done doing Disney it’s just a money Pitt and the staff is not helpful
Something doesn’t had up, if parks are still not at 100% capacity, how come e everyone is complaining that parks are bursting at the seams? In the past I have been to a closed Magic Kingdom close to capacity and everything was still quite manageable.
We visited animal kingdom on March 7th and Magic Kingdom on March 9th. We brought our family of 13, our four daughters, spouses and grandkids. We had an awesome time, planned accordingly and went on rides that had lower wait times. We ordered our food through the app and it was ready within 5 to 10 minutes for pickup. We enjoyed the Magic Kingdom parade and fireworks in the evening. All staff members that we spoke to were kind and courteous and gave very good information. Guests were courteous and if someone bumped into you they were quick too say sorry. We were there at the parks both days until closing. We had a fantastic time well worth the money. I planned it very well 6 months in advance and researched numerous ways to make the trip easy and fun. The Disney experience is there for you to enjoy. It’s what you make of it and how you interact with other people that makes it wonderful. Crowds and long lines will be at any large attraction. My suggestion is plan ahead and be prepared as best you can and enjoy life at Disney!
We were at the parks Feb 15-19 (every other day) and it was one of the worst crowds we have ever seen! We have been there marathon weekend, summer and at the holidays and this was the same level as those. Wait times were ridiculous. Although many were inflated (probably to sell Genie/lightning lane), many were much less than posted some even half. But even so they were very long, even ones that typically have little waits. Getting food took almost 45+ minutes even ordering ahead with mobile. It was the worst experience we have ever had. For the first time in our lives we said we don’t want to come back. The new wait system is terrible. Pre-pandemic we went once a year, sometimes twice for over 10 years! We will never go annually again and honestly in no rush to go back anytime in next couple years.
We went the week of Valentine’s Day. We went for our daughter 10th birthday. On Valentine’s Day we went to Animal Kingdom and it was packed. We didn’t really get to enough everything like we wanted. On Wednesday we went to Hollywood Studio again packed. The wait for rides was ridiculous. Again couldn’t enjoy the park like we hoped. On Thursday we went to Magic Kingdom for my daughter birthday. That morning I went online and got the Lightening Lane Pass which is a joke. We had to give our kids the options on choosing certain rides because of how the Lightening Lane Pass was set up. This was our first time at Disney. We didn’t even hit the whole park that day. Several people told use February is a good time to go because you can enjoy each park without waiting in lines for long. My kids enjoyed themselves but I was very disappointed overall. What is the point of park reservations? When Disney allowed such huge crowds. Several rides was more than 2 hour wait.
I feel that , with Disney constantly adding more hotel rooms and giving perks to good neighbor hotels, the crowds in the parks will continue to get bigger and bigger. They need to be thinking of adding more parks to spread out the people.
It’s disgusting. I go regularly and this last trip one week ago was unbearable. The main rides were shut down EVERY DAY. The capacity was past full. Reduced? No. Genie+ is a joke and the customer service is non existent. I will gladly go spend my $10,000 somewhere else. The magic is completely gone and Walt Disney is turning in his grave. I can go to Six Flags and have the same experience I just had. Universal actually did a better job than Disney. That’s saying a lot. I’m actually asking them for a refund. They did not give anything promised when purchasing a ticket. They shut down rides because of “staffing” and when they opened them the staff members told us they had to let all the LL members go.
How come when I look at all these pictures of people in these parks. Why isn’t anyone smiling? This overcrowding of the parks started before the pandemic. We were regulars at Disney, we had the annual pass which was a good rate, stayed on the grounds, The rooms were priced just right so you could spend more money in the park. You could actually walk around and not stumble into people. Well, then it happened, room rates went up, annual pass went up, parking in the resort cost 20 a day. Greed was beginning to show its ugly face. Our last trip before the pandemic was hell. Just to tell you how bad it was, the worst rides had a 90 minute wait time. We have not been back since. Just to let you know, I was there when they opened up in 1971. Two things that I miss is the gondola that took you from one side of the park to the other and the 20,000 league under the sea. I don’t think we will see managed crowd control. Probably with all the people saying they won’t return it may be a good bet to make reservations two years in advance.
I took 2 of our teens 15 & 18 for their birthdays. What a waste of money. This is the 1st time I’ve left feeling worse then I came. It’s no longer the happiest place on earth. For what you pay for the tickets, the time you plan & reserve it was a horrible experience. They dropped the mask mandate.,.. ok I can handle that since we are vaccinated, however we couldn’t ride the moneral 1st time I’ve come here & didn’t, lines are so long in all the parks that they didn’t get to ride much, can’t ride once let alone if you enjoyed it to get on again. Unless you spend extra money on the genie pass…. If you’re expecting the same quality of service don’t come to Disney parks. I have a walker for health reasons & my foot still got stepped on because it’s like salmon trying to swim up stream , that was a week ago & it’s still has a huge bruise. In case you’re wondering not from an electric vehicle but from a person just walking!! If you go be prepared for your young ones to be disappointed. Especially if this isn’t their 1st trip. We won’t be back for a long time if ever. Sad to say. It was my happy place, now I can just kick myself for wasting the money.
It is so sad to me. I grew up playing at Disneyland. I took my teenage grandsons there from Arkansas. It was miserable. So crowded, disabled could not get thru. In an entire day we got on 3 rides. Fast passes are very inefficient. Went to Universal Studios,bought a front of the line pass & saw everything. Very dissatisfied with Disneyland. Money is more important than a quality experience.
Not been since 2019 due to pandemic but looking at the crowds it seems the magic has gone. If that is still 35% capacity Id be scared stiff to go when capacity gets back up to 100%. Seems like a place to avoid at the moment. Also not sure I can justify the cost!
We went to Disneyworld in September of 2020, and it was dead. But half the attractions were closed but I’d prefer it that way. We we to Disneyland last October and it was crazy. We had been pass holders for almost twenty five years. I’ve been going to Disneyland since I was in a baby buggy, you know those old old pram things.
I won’t return for quite a while.
I hope people get wise, read the articles about what it’s like right now, and go somewhere else. That’s the only way Disney will get the message. That’s what we are doing.
Disney is scamming the public, as usual.
I have been at 100% capacity and less than 50% before and that is not 35% capacity. If you dont think Disney is making up for the pandemic just look around you. There is profit to be made and fans need to wake up and go elsewhere. When the magic is only there for the CEO then the fans need to disappear.
I agree with what everyone is saying as I too just got back a few weeks ago and experienced all the same frustrations but I also concluded that sone of the factors were 1) 50th Anniversary and 2) people getting back k out after covid. I’m hoping that once both of those are over that the off months go back to just that, the off months and less crowds. I have grandkids so Disney will never be off limits to me, I just hope they have a better experience than they did this last trip.
My husband and I went to the Disney parks for what seems to be our last visit. 3 of the 4 rides I wanted to experience were either a 3 to 4 hour wait or out of order for the day. And, as I am seeing from other comments, it was very crowded. I appreciate the way they have tried to maintain crowding indoors such as having to make a reservation at the restaurants and such, but it is not the experience we remember from visits in the past. we went home with heavy hearts, not the uplifting vacation we hoped for.
The (mis)management of the parks under the Chapek “regime” has been nothing short of catastrophic. Chapek has got to go, and here’s hoping the last PR disaster (Chapek’s lame and bumbling statements regarding Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” legislation) will be the final straw that will have stockholders forcing the board to boot him (or at least move him to where he can do little damage).
Just was at WDW last week and will never go again. They used to be known for customer service!!
I don’t believe the reduced capacity because it was wall to wall people and horrendous lines. Given most of the rides haven’t changed in decades, Disney is just raking in the dough.
It is way too crowded. The genie plus system is horrible. Makes the standby lines awful. They are handling this the same way they did with Fastpass plus. It’s like they want to make standby so bad people pay for the extra service on top of the high pass or ticket cost. I’ve been maybe 10 times since pandemic reopening and latest trip last month, was definitely not at 35%. It’s worse than before the park closure. At least the ride lines are.
Should know that after 2 years of no theme parks, or very limited with covid protocols, it would be crowded once people can go. So many put off their vacations. I have for that reason, it’s extremely expensive & then not have a good experience isn’t worth the Hassel. There’s so many other places to go.
Hershey Park, beaches, tubing adventures, national parks…much more relaxing. I’ll wait until next year to try DW & Universal.
We went mid February, but we did not stay on site. Our kids are in their 20s so we rented a house in the area (which was cheaper) and just paid park hopper admission and ate dinner in the Orlando area, did not eat at the park, did eat at Boma flavors of Africa breakfast buffet which is I think is the best buffet. Paid for genie plus which sucked because you have to get on that first thing in the morning and then you have to wait 2 hours after scheduling first ride and by then rides you want are “sold out” for the day, plus other issues to long to mention. My hubby said you really didn’t feel like you were in Disney, it was rare to see characters walking through the park, and cast members were not as friendly as they used to be and some were just plain rude (probably have to hire who they can get and hope for the best or not enough training p). Not the same Disney that we’ve seen before, that’s for sure.
Our family of 10 spent 4 days at Disneyland/CA in November. I have never seen crowds like that before and we visit every other year. No restaurant reservations available anywhere, including Downtown Disney. Painful to shop in stores as no where to move around. No Fast Passes (where’s the logic in that)! And cast members that were cranky & rude (but honestly, can you blame them? Dealing with a demanding, rude public?). I can wait another decade, if at all, before returning. Even sold my Disney stock after our visit.
This will die down after everyone has been a couple of times. I’m sure in a couple of years you’ll see people get tired of the whole Disney experience and how much it’ll cost. My girlfriend and I went in November and that was our third time in four years. We love Disney but with the packed crowds, we too decided we’re going to take a little hiatus from Disney World. Now I’m already starting to miss it but I think it will be good, to take a couple years away and hopefully by then the crowds will die down. My real problem is with Bob Chapek. Ever since he took over his only solution to anything is raising the prices on everything from ticket prices, experiences in the parks, fast pass+ to Genie+ and now even doing an ad supported Disney+ tier so people will pay for no commercials. What’s next? I get inflation but it’s getting a little ridiculous. I hope Disney finds another CEO soon.
My family is going to Disney World for the first time since the pandemic. All of the recent changes to us have not been family. As long as they keep crowd capacity arrficially low you are going to have these problems. The new CEO and others simply don’t understand who and what they are dealing with. My family is excited to go and we will enjoy ourselves no matter what, but Disney is making it harder for people to enjoy the experience.
Recently Disney finished the complete takeover of your vacation with Genie+ . The park completely controls line size through the ap by artificially increasing wait times for those not using the app, also using those times to force people into the food (paying more for less now) and merchandise shopping. There is a reason that with less people in the park Disney showed record profits in the last quarter
Disney World is always crowded brim to brim during tourist season. Nothing new there which is why we steered clear of there during those times of the year, but we don’t go there anymore.
Disney along with blue states are the only ones carrying on with the so-called pandemic despite how we now know it was never anywhere near as bad as they wanted us to believe it was with all of their false information and numbers.
We were at WDW last week, had never experienced such big crowds. To the point that you could barely walk through fantasyland. Also very hard to be told to “get close to your neighbor” after 2 years of Covid precautions.
My God, all you people complaining and crying, how dare other people go to the park when I went. People have been locked in their houses for 2 years and now they want to get out just like you. It’s the most visited destination on the planet that people haven’t been able to get to for a long time. It’s gonna be crowded. Stop your crying, plan your day out and go about your lives. “Oh boo hoo,, I’m never going back” Yes you are, where else are you going to go? Or don’t go, I won’t have to hear your complaining.
I will complain. My kids had the genie plus but still had to wait almost 5 hours for the star war ride. 5 hours. No food, water, or ability to use the bathroom. Was it their choice? Yes. But once you wait one hour, then two, then three, then four..you do not want to get out of line. It just seems that they could do better with the amount of money they make in the park!!!
Been to Disney World almost every year for over 40 years except the pandemic. Went Feb 3rd for 3 days. We had to leave because of the crowds. No more joy or whimsical feelings just too many people. We won’t be returning
We were annual pass holders for year. We won’t return until crowd capacity and time in line reduced along with constantly increasing prices. I hate that they are nickle and dimeing guest, catering to foreign guest with expendable dollars. The average family can’t afford to go to the parks. The magic is gone, so sad!
We have no desire to ever return to Disney parks after our last experience! All parks were way too crowded and it was all way to expensive! The prices have gotten totally out of control! I understand that things normally cost more at vacation destinations but Disney has gotten super greedy! I can buy an entire seasons pass to a whole chain of cedar fair parks for what it costs to get into one Disney park for one day so that is what I am doing now! Their parks are much nicer anyway!
I watched a mother yell at a young boy that he WILL have a good time because she spent too much money to come.
We didn’t enjoy our time.
There are so many other vacation places to explore and we are off to find them.
Went Mardi Gras week. There is no way that was reduced capacity. Magic Kingdom had to open secret passage from Tomorrow Land to Tony’s Town Square for people to exit. Crazy…and don’t get me started on the Genie + Lightning Lane system…it’s a hot mess.
Was There in Feb the the crowds where terrible and made worse as bith my husband and myself used disability scooters, we where to busy watching incase we ran into people we never say what was going on around us, Complete waste of money. disney had to put their boat on to get people out to car park. 😠😡
Was There in Feb and did 3 parks the the crowds where terrible and made worse as bith my husband and myself used disability scooters, we where to busy watching incase we ran into people we never say what was going on around us, Complete waste of money. disney had to put their boat on to get people out to car park. 😠😡
Just got back after 10 days. It was the most crowded and the longest lines I’ve seen in all the years I’ve been going. Genie plus and Lightening Lane were super frustrating and we will NOT be back until the whole ride pass system is redone. At 7am you spend 15.00 per person for a CHANCE to get a Lightening Lane and if the time it gives you is late in the day, you can’t get any others until you use that one. So 15.00 for one ride. THEN there are two rides per park that you can’t use Genie + and those were gone at 7:00am and seconds. We were unable to ride half the rides we normally rode.
What I don’t understand is WHY the parks are more crowded than ever. I’ve lived nearby for 40+ years. I have been to WDW countless times. Why are they so much more crowded than they used to be? They cost more. They require a lot more up-front planning than they used to. There are more parks than there used to be. Is it just good marketing? Is it that there are more people on earth? Seriously, what is up? My family used to get annual passes every year but we don’t plan to renew them. Not that it will make any difference to Disney, but for us, the cost/benefit ratio is not where it needs to be.
I’ve don’t believe they’re at 35% capacity. I’ve been 20 times and never had it as crowded as it was 2 weeks ago. No fun when you wait so long and still only ride 4 things a day…. WITH genie + which has you zigzagging and walking all over instead of going from place to place as you progress thru the parks
It’s hard to believe the parks are operating at reduced capacity. In the last 5 months every Disney World park has been packed no matter what day of the week it is. I’ve been going to the parks for over 10 years and this year is the busiest I’ve seen. Definitely frustrating and much harder to enjoy.
We also went a couple of weeks ago, we bought the Genie pass and got to use it maybe twice! We’ve been going to Disney every year for 32 years but right now it’s insane so we will be holding off going also.
Disney will continue to pack as many as they can into their parks. Last time there waited an hour for each ride. There for 6 hours and only saw 5 attractions and an overpriced lunch. I will never go back. Used to be fun. Now too many people ruin it.
I wrote a blog post about this a few weeks back after our last visit. Uncomfortably heavy crowds are one thing, but navigating the parks with a service dog right now is IMPOSSIBLE. We are passholders and I’d rather pay this monthly payment and not go to Disney than deal with the hell we went through 3 weeks ago. We just can’t do it. After 15 years as passholders, we will not be renewing this year.
Wow, 190+ comments!
My 2 cents, the capacity problems now are more related to reduced / “managed” staffing levels with their Park Passes system. They are cutting the back staffing too much for the guest levels they are matching them to. They outright need to spend more money by having more cast members to deal with the crowds better and get the attraction guest turnaround times better. May need to do more maintenance activities to keep some attractions running better, like Rise of the Resistance. In the before times they had to plan for guests based off historical data and then staff from that info with some growth flex built in. Now, they are still trying to hire people and trying to get attractions/shows restarted, and having a hard time finding people and generally not doing a good job of getting the experience back to what it used to be. Of course they don’t focus on getting the guest experience back to what it used to be so there’s that.
We finished 3 days (one day each in Magic Kingdom, Hollywood Studios, and Epcot) and after our experience, we will not return for a few years. I do not believe that Disney is limiting their capacity whatsoever. Restaurants are nearly impossible to book once you arrive. Even the “fast food” needs to be ordered hours in advance. Their relatively new “lightening pass” (which replaced the “fast pass” is a “must have” (we didn’t have them) since the ride lines are insanely long without them. AND you can only book it the day of your visit at 7:00 am and only a finite number of passes are available and they go fast. All in all, this was a horrible experience and it will be a long time until we return!
Disney is no longer a good value for the family way too expensive for what you get to do it to do to pay those kind of prices just to standard line’s unbelievable will not be returning
I was planning on taking daughter in 23/24year. but highly doubt it,ll get any better an cheaper. At least i got to enjoy it when i went to the CA one, back in the mid 90’s along legoland. i can recall plentyyy of space an breathing room back in the day verse now days.
No thanks. I’ve heard enough the last 6 months to put a foul taste in my mouth about Disney. They are just pricing themselves out of the middle class. Too many people. Too long of waits. Ya I’ll do something else too until they get things under control with people and pricing.
The magic is gone as far as I’m concerned and as a pass holder I will not be returning as it’s not fun at all. We are now paying more and getting much less.
we went last year when the parks were at 35% capacity. Lines were fairy quick, and people were not ‘wall to wall.’ All of the recent pictures online show how crowded the parks are. We are going in April, hopefully the crowds willl be less than what the pics show.
But where? Southern California and Central Florida are the perfect locations…. I have a few ideas on this. It has to be a place that can accommodate 365 day a year theme parks. They have to have international airports that accommodate all the traffic that will come due to Disney. They have to have the proper infrastructure to handle Disney. These are big endeavors.
1. Las Vegas – This could be a good place, as there is plenty of hotel space and it would give Disney the time to build their own resorts and branch out. Downside, Disney would need to compete with various activities already occurring in Vegas.
2. San Antonio – SeaWorld is there. SeaWorld seems to be doing well. I think Disney would find success there as well. The airport and local area may have challenges though.
3. New Orleans – Disney has several shows, movies, etc., that are housed straight out of New Orleans. Not to mention, there are several themed hotels in Florida, from Disney, that is centered around New Orleans. The downside to New Orleans is that it may be hard to build a Disney theme park there, as open land may not be as widely available. I saw tons of open land between New Orleans to Kenner, but you may feel like you are on a landing strip as the airport is near there.
4. South Florida – This may appear like a good idea. Miami/Fort Lauderdale may be able to accommodate this, but being only 2.5 to 4 hours away (determining where the park is housed) from Orlando may be too close.
5. Savannah – Savannah is a beautiful place and I think Disney would be a fit. There is a lot of open land in the Savannah area that can accommodate a park. The airport would need some work and hotel infrastructure is there in Downtown, but Savannah would need to do more.
6. Phoenix area – There are positives and negatives to this area. The weather would be there, but it is a desert. The population, infrastructure, and airport could handle this…… but the heat of Phoenix can be draining. Yes, SoCal and Central Florida get hot, but the dry heat of Phoenix may be a little unexpected for some. Plus Phoenix has incredible traffic…… and adding Disney would make Phoenix more closely resemble Los Angeles in terms of traffic woes.
San Antonio or Savannah area would be good options. New Orleans, I would say no, bc of flooding and Las Vegas to close to LA, like Miami. What about maybe Arkansas? Close to middle of the Country and in between the 2.
We went to all 4 parks 2 weeks ago. The crowds were overwhelming. Standby lines were typically 100+ mins. Lightning Lanes were “unavailable” for the entire day by 11a for most rides. It was difficult to imagine fitting more people into these spaces. Numerous rides were breaking down. We had to be evacuated from the Haunted Mansion. And after 45 mins in the standby line for Splash Mountain, they shut it down for the next 4 hours. I am highly skeptical that they are limiting capacity. It was nice to be in the warm weather, but so disappointed with Disney.
The parks aren’t really enjoyable being this crowded. The last time Disney released a capacity number was in 2021 at 35%. They DEFINITELY are running at near capacity it seems like. Before COVID, the standby lines were hardly ever as long as they are now. Yes some lines were 2 hours but that was only like 1 ride at each park. Now its multiple rides at each park. The Genie+ is definitely screwing up the stand-by lines. When fastpasses were still a thing, the standby lines were never this long.
How can it at only 35% capacity, but yet many times be at capacity and have crowds there looking like they are at 100% capacity? That does not make sense.
Disney says they are running at 35% capacity but not that each park is running at 35% so since they have this stupid pass system they can make each park however crowded they want.
Universal is surpassing Disney in all areas. Disney is the same old, same old except now there are sooooo many people, you are shoulder to shoulder in every park, even Epcot. I yearn for the days we took our kids out of school and visited on Dec 10th. Low volume, no lines and all Christmas decorations. Now there are no down times. Plus the cost of tickets have sky rocketed. Bummer. Not going back. We also found that the restaurants at Disney Springs are interesting but the food is mediocre at best. They are overly crowded and overly priced.
Visiting Disney 3 years ago was one of the worst experiences of my life!
Overcrowded, overpriced and huge lineups despite having the fast pass.
I will never return and don’t recommend it to anyone.
We had to postpone our Oct 2020 trip because, well we all know why. We have are having Disney Withdrawals and keep up with park news and quiz anyone we know who has been since the parks reopened. The recurring theme ? Oversold . Parks are miserable to navigate especially with little ones. Lines for everything are long , guests are frustrated and Cast Members are struggling to keep up. This seems to be contributing to issues with park maintenance. Some family members were there earlier this month and reported the same issues. They did have a nice time but felt they should gave waited
because they spent a lot of money and spent half the day navigating the parks and waiting in lines. They also said they hated the Genie Plus . We are still monitoring the news out of DW and hope to book a trip late this year, that is if park crowds are better managed. We have been looking forward to The Magic but will stay put for now.
We went mid January and it was definitely crowded more thins year then in the past. However, with navigating genie plus and adding some lightning lane for cost, rode every single ride we wanted at Magic Kingdom. We rode Haunted Mansion and Peter Pan twice. I am also a huge fan of mobile ordering at quick service options. We always have a great time and know it will be crowded.
First time at disney I’m assuming🤣 that’s literally Disney world norm 90% of time. People want to go have fun but expect to be the only families having fun
Dear Walt Disney World, it’s not me it’s you. I am heartbroken to say this, but I am done!
I will say that it was GREAT to see my friends and I had lots of decent food and fun drinks. But I could do that for a lot less money than what I paid to be in the parks in WDW and experience very few attractions.
I have survived no Fast Pass, the hard ticket Fast Pass system, and Fast Pass Plus. I figured out how to make all of them work for a family of five during some of the busiest times of the year and with two (now adult) children with special needs.
However, this Genie Plus system is ridiculous! They are charging $15 a day per person to get access to the lightning lanes. Even if you wake up at 7:00 am, you are not guaranteed to get the attraction that you want most at a reasonable time. It’s not like they tell you all of the available times and let you try to fit that into your schedule, you have to take whatever time they give you and make it work. Also, this does not include the two “best” attractions in each park, which you have the “privilege” of paying extra money for, if you want to skip the standby line. To get those attractions, you have to be up at 7:00 am to start trying to get that, and then keep trying back until you get to a time that fits in your schedule.
I have loved Disney World for so many years and have had so many amazing experiences there that it really hurts my heart to say this, but I have no intention of going back anytime soon. At this point, I am waiting for grandchildren and that will be a long, long time! Or, if they fix this Genie Plus system, I would consider it at some point.
We will see what the future holds, and I will continue to love Disney movies and consider other parks, but, Walt Disney World, I am done with you for now!
We went the first week of February. Yes, it was crowded and the standby waits were long, but with Genie+ and ILLS we did almost everything we wanted in each park and never waited more than 15 minutes for anything. Was very happy with our dining reservations/options as well.
It takes planning. I studied Genie/ILLS extensively before I went, and as a result we had a very pleasant and smooth trip. I’m ready to go again (not during spring break, of course).
How is this level of crowds “at capacity”?? I’m currently in Orlando, packing bags after an extenuating 6 day 4 park tour. MK and HS lines where ridiculous. Actually paid for genie+ at MK hoping it would help me. It was useless. Only managed to book two attractions. By the time I was able to book the third one they were uninteresting attractions at nonsensical hours. Definitely felt overcrowded. Not Looking forward to my next visit.
We have been going through the parks this week. We hit the 4th one today, that being the magic Kingdom. It was anything but magic. The place was absolutely packed. I’ve never seen crowds like this, and I’ve traveled a lot. Once the fireworks came that was it. I was being pushed, run into and nearly trampled. Disney staff was screaming at guests. I pretty much hated most the day, and will never come back this this park unless more is done to cater to guests and less to CEOs pockets!
Only time is before, after, during the fireworks it gets congested at Magic kingdom.I think they should make a grassy area with benches in the back of the park for castle viewing only. That way you dont have the bottle neck of people leaving.Learn from Busch Gardens.
You haven’t seen crowded until you go to New Years Epcot and your shoulder to shoulder to the person next to you trying to get to the next DJ. All night long! Magic kingdom was definitely not crowded. Over exaggerated people leaving early! Like leaving anything there’s a bottle neck!Concert /Disney / whatever!
Wait time were less than 3 to 4 hrs tonight.They were 1 hour or less means not crowded. Try again Magic Kingdom …if Your there as often as me you would know this!If you walk into a park and walk right out , its crowded!No one did that!
I have annual passes to Universal Studios and SeaWorld. I won’t purchase any tickets to Walt Disney World, be it annual passes or any specially priced packages or tickets. Compare and contrast, there is no reservation system at Disney Springs, Universal, and SeaWorld and it seems that the crowds are more under control and we are hearing less of these stories. The reservation system is doing nothing to help Disney or people going to the parks.
Horrible, was in Magic Kingdom the first week of March and animal kingdom also. Lines were out of control, restroom not cleaned, no paper towels and no workers all day in Magic. The next day in amimal kingdom I saw 2 and the restrooms were better. On my phone the whole day and the genie pass is ridiculous. I spent $582.00 plus genie for A two day pass and no hopper and got on 7 rides in two days. It used to be my favorite place in the world, not any more. Walt is rolling in his grave, this needs fixed.
Disney parks have always been crowded, especially certain times of year, but we’re reasonable. Obviously, their park passes aren’t working and making things worse, same with the genie+. It doesn’t take a genius to see that and they have said they’re not even at full capacity. Never had these long of waits for rides or the overcrowding in a certain park until these were implemented.
My husband and I spent 4 nights at the Swan Hotel in February for a 40th Anniversary celebration, and reserved Epcot and Animal Kingdom as our parks we wanted to visit, since last visit was 2006, 16 yrs ago. Epcot was hosting the Art festival celebration of 50 yrs. 2 days we spent there. It was amazing, loved it and all the special food and drink creations. Not very crowded. Then our 3rd day reservation at Animal Kingdom was a nightmare. Shoulder to shoulder crowds. Only could go on a few rides as lines were over 2 hour waits, standing. Rediculous. So Many poor parents with children waiting and waiting. 7 hours of waiting to go on 3 rides that lasted 1 to 3 minutes. If that was crowd control by reservation I’d hate to see what full capacity is. It was not a happy experience there.
Our room at the Swan was amazing tho and great staff. Our view from our room was just beautiful, especially at night. The Boardwalk right next door and an uncrowded boat or bus right at hotel to transport us.
We went in January and if they consider the crowd level not at capacity I hate to see what “capacity “ is. We postponed for two years because of the pandemic and finally things were at a safe enough level to go. We found it difficult to walk around,grab a bite to eat, shop and go on rides because of the crowds. Don’t know why it’s so bad now but we will wait until the crowds are much less than the they are now to return.
We were there in November the week before Thanksgiving and it was unbelievably crowded. Plus 3 of the.attractions were closed. You absolutely could not move. This is after saving all year to be able to afford to go. I have been there before and had an amazing time. Have decided that we will not be going back until things change.
Over charing for tickets. Overcrowding of people.Well wait tell have a tragedy there people trying to run out there I can’t move that’s when they’ll fix the problem. Right now they’re making so much money and with more people there the more money they make and they said they’re not at full capacity yet yeah right I believe that the fire marshal be in there should be in checking head count that’s an accident waiting to happen.
We were at Magic Kingdom Saturday March 5th and park was not that crowded. We rode 15 rides in 9 hours to include all the mountains but we also purchases genie plus. This includes having 1.5 hour downtime eating at Beatty and beast table service restaurant.
We were at all 4 parks first week of Dec 2021 and they were insanely busy.
We were at Disney last week. Half of the people are looking at their phone to get In a lightning lane and the other half are looking at their phone to place a mobile order of mediocre food. We love Disney but it just wasn’t as much fun with the crowds, lines and new rules.
Over charing for tickets. Overcrowding of people.Well wait tell have a tragedy there people trying to run out there I can’t move that’s when they’ll fix the problem. Right now they’re making so much money and with more people there the more money they make and they said they’re not at full capacity yet yeah right I believe that the fire marshal be in there should be in checking head count that’s an accident waiting to happen.
I have been to Disney World three times the most recent was in February 2022 it was horrible I witnessed no magic in the Magic Kingdom it was so crowded when you couldn’t get food which was hard to come by you had nowhere to sit and eat it people were eating on garbage cans you couldn’t stop to catch your breath and people were running you over was a horrible horrible vacation there was absolutely no magic in the Magic Kingdom my grandkids got to see the princesses in a flash as the float flew by The character dinner which cost a fortune you got to look at the characters and they stood 6 feet behind The kids so you could maybe get a photograph if they gave you time
The extra money for the lightning line was a total waste of money as space Mountain was chronically closed on the days that we had our so-called reservations at each park which was another waste of time why do reservations if you’re going to allow the park to be so overcrowded that people can’t move or breathe I recently went to great America also I would go backThere any time rather than go to Disney World
We were at WDW Feb 12-20. I have never been so disappointed in the parks as I was this time. Way overcrowded. Plus the Genie + System is a total money grabbing DISASTER! It was supposed to be a relaxing vacation, instead my daughters spent hours as well as extra money to get reservations on rides and we could not get anything but money was not refunded. I will give a praise to The Crystal Palace as the menu was very good. I haven’t eaten there since 1976 (honeymoon) as all I heard were bad reviews. Since menu was revamped it is very good. We, as well as everybody else that were at the parks, had rescheduled our trip from last September due to COVID so I can understand some of the crowd sizes, but will never again come in February.
We went in February and won’t go back until they reduce capacity. They packed the parks so full and now charge for everything. We did 8-10 rides and attractions per day from open to close. This is not Walt’s vision. It was a horrible and very expensive experience. Who wants to wait over an hour for everything? They need to add 2 new parks for the current capacity to be pleasant. The new CEO is the poster boy for GREED.
For once I actually don’t blame Disney In a way we’re in a pandemic everybody couldn’t go on vacation for a couple years where is the first place many families or just single people want to go Disney it’s not Disney‘s fault people can’t be patient and wait to go at a later time I get you wanna have a fun spring break go to the beach wait a couple years then go to Disney I like Disney too but I’m deathly gonna wait till this is over before I even attempt Disney
Sorry, we have been visiting from Michigan for 40 years, AP holders for 10. Current wait times are at least double anything we ever encountered before the pandemic. When Smugglers Run opened the stand-by wait was posted at only 90 minutes, that passed in less than 60. Now, Lightening Lane wait rivals that. The elimination of FastPasses, institution of mobile ordering, virtual queues, closures, missing or abbreviated live shows, parades and character meets, as well as park hopping curtailment have put people in walkways or stand-by lines instead of in restaurants, on transport vehicles or gathered in anticipation of an “experience”. The place used to run like clockwork, but the reduced cast and ignorance of crowd dynamics, as well as poor upkeep leading to excess breakdowns, have made for unmanaged crowds, begging for distraction.
Nearly 30,000 fewer cast members than pre-pandemic tells the story, but has somehow, been swept under a handy rug. It explained closures, break downs and poor service… but not astronomical price increases.
Hola soy de Argentina fui en enero, estuve en un hotel de disney y compré el genie+ por 10 dias de parque. Y la verdad la cantidad de gente fue un infierno. No sirve pagar el genie+ se han amparado en la pandemia para brindar menos y peor servicio mientras en los parque cada vez ingresa mas y mas gente.
If all the rides worked, all the shows were back to the pre covid shows, all the restaurants were open maybe the crowds wouldn’t seem as bad. But when you only have half of the parks to do because that’s all there is to do it will continue to be stupidly busy.
All the decreased capacity means is that they are limiting the ride cars creating long lines. We went there last May and the crowds were crazy. It wasn’t fun and we certainly didn’t get our moneys worth. Skipping Disney on future trips to Florida. Sad!
Don’t know about the crowds but been checking for last two months and according to Disney’s wait times on the My Disney App There has not been any crowds on wait times! The only things that has been over 120 minutes has been in Hollywood for Rise Of Resistance and Ratatouille and Frozen in Epcot! Everything else has been under an hour. But would like to be there to see for myself.
We went as first timers presidents day onwards with a 2 week ticket. Never ever again. Genie + was so overused that it made it worthless, ride wait times were an hour minimum which with a 4yr old is setting us up for failure. There is no magic. This was pure greed and profit by the park, cannot believe this is nowhere near the full capacity limits. To have to continually return in order to try and get on 3 rides and then give up by lunch is one thing, but add on a $25 a day parking charge and the threat of covid still being around and its insane by the management as they know the wait times are up to 3 hours. Rides breaking down (star wars rise and slinky down at the same time at studios!) Putting even more pressure on a rammed park.
I feel sorry for anyone going over spring break and would advise them to get a refund. Not magical at those crowd levels.
My guess is that all the complaining is from people who frequent the parks often…meanwhile people like myself who want to plan a once in a lifetime visit with my two kids have to contend and fight over people who have literally in some cases been there with their kids hundreds of times!!! It’s absolutely sickening to me that people who have been there so often can’t just stop or significantly reduce their visits so that those who are there and intend to be there only once can actually enjoy the experience…oh and btw the excessive visits only contribute to escalating costs and make it that much more difficult for those who can barely afford the trip to beable to finally make the trip. Disney doesn’t need to do anything to get this under control…greedy mfs need to look in the mirror!
Comments for Guest Says They Will Not Return Until Disney Gets Crowds “Under Control”
Rebecca
We went to all 4 parks at Disney world last week. It was insanely crowded. We joked with other guests that the entire state of Florida must have been there. But, we traveled 16 hours to get there so we made the best of it.
Dree
We were at Disneyland 2 weeks ago and I was blown away by how crowded it was. We were passholders to Disney World prior to Covid. It seemed crazily crowded for the time of year. Without the fast passes anymore, we hardly rode anything. It was disappointing.
Jean
No one cares if you don’t go. There are plenty who will.
John DeJones
Jean….you’re correct….there’s a sucker borne every minute!
Brian Siewert
Our whole family was passholders for almost 15 years till Covid. Seeing all the money grabs, crowd capacity, lower quality food, not being able to go when you want, the magic just isn’t there anymore. We will not be back for a long time. It’s very possible we will be headed over to Universal till Disney gets it’s act together and brings back to magic for EVERYONE. Not just the rich and people who live on credit card debt. We are not poor by any means but I’m also not just gonna throw money away on a so so experience. I want my girls to have the magic and Disney family friendships I grew up on.
Rodney Simonson
Sorry, we have been visiting from Michigan for 40 years, AP holders for 10. Current wait times are at least double anything we ever encountered before the pandemic. When Smugglers Run opened the stand-by wait was posted at only 90 minutes, that passed in less than 60. Now, Lightening Lane wait rivals that. The elimination of FastPasses, institution of mobile ordering, virtual queues, closures, missing or abbreviated live shows, parades and character meets, as well as park hopping curtailment have put people in walkways or stand-by lines instead of in restaurants, on transport vehicles or gathered in anticipation of an “experience”. The place used to run like clockwork, but the reduced cast and ignorance of crowd dynamics, as well as poor upkeep leading to excess breakdowns, have made for unmanaged crowds, begging for distraction.
Joanie
I agree with you. I am a Disney Passholder and have been since 2001. During Covid I paid for my pass which I pay for monthly. I did not drop my pass when they shut down I elected to extend and have continued to pay for the pass renewing now in April because of the extension it was previously renew in Dec. Yet I have not visited the parks since Dec 2019. I think I may finally drop it this year. I have been watching the Crowds. I subscribe to a couple of accounts that videotape while they walk around the parks and to me WDW isn’t even practicing any safety measures at all. No distancing etc. I wear a mask. I just watched a video last night of Hollywood Studios that was taped 2 weeks ago. It looked like a breeding grounds for Covid19. Remember Covid is still alive & infecting & killing people. Now there are a couple of new variants making their way around besides Omicron, Delta, and the combined Fluroma now there is BA2 as well. If someone were to get all of these combined it would be a nightmare. Safety measures should be mandated. People cannot expect Anti Vaxxers/Anti Masks individuals to abide by honor rules of those not fully vaccinated/Boostered wear a mask indoors because they don’t /won’t wear one outside what makes people think they will indoors? They won’t and anyone with a brain who actually uses it productively knows they won’t. I have severe Asthma, Allergies & AFIB among other health issues so I have to think if it is worth it. Another thing is that I have always had park hopper on my Pass & paid extra for it. Now WDW says it is included sure included and they have kept increasing the price & now are making meals much smaller for much higher prices. I currently pay 27.78 a year. For What? No more park hopping because you can’t park hop if all parks are at their full reduced Capacity. Those with Annual Passes are only allowed to make 3 park reservations at a time. Yet anyone staying at the hotels get to make one for each day they will be at the hotel/resort. Disney is now just another greedy company interested in doubling or even tripling their profits/bottom line. I have a SeaWorld/Busch Gardens Sr Platinum Annual Pass that I first took out in 2008. I pay monthly for that also. The difference is I do not have to renew each year . They just keep taking out the payment each month and so it is still for the same $16.88 a month as it was in 2008. The only time it would go up to current price is if I canceled & then later decided to renew. My pass is good for 11 SeaWorld/Busch Gardens and their Water Parks across the Nation. I also get Free Preferred Parking along with 20% Discount on anything I buy in the parks it includes Food also and not just Kiosks/Fast Food. I will keep that pass but seriously think I will Drop Disney and I have been visiting WDW since 1978. I have stayed in all WDW AllStar Resorts, Ft Wilderness, Port Orleans Riverside & Coronado Springs Resort. Now I use timeshare Resorts since they don’t charge overnight parking since I only live 150 Miles from Orlando & the Theme Parks. I visited SeaWorld & Aquatica last year and crowds were manageable. I also visited Universal & Universal Islands of Adventure and they were manageable as well. I will think about visiting Universal Again. I am on a fixed income & so with that & my health I need to do what is best for me. I have been a Disney Fan since the early 50’s That’s 66 years it’s time for me to really think about if it is still worth it which at the present moment I don’t think it is. I am a senior citizen now and don’t know how many more years I have and on that note do not want to hasten the end of the journey with WDW’s apparent disregard for the safety of all & for a happy experience. It appears that the upper echelon just doesn’t care about why Walt Disney Created these parks in the first place.
Ross
I care about what people’s choices are, as it affects my decisions. Anyway, your comment was unnecessarily mean-hearted. Please be kind. “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”
Jean's Stepdad
Jean’s mom wanted to go but I told he it was too crowded and she should ride the D instead. She complied.
Brad
Exactly!
Barb
We’re going to try to go back this year 2022. We tried to get in last year 2021, but it was booked up. I wanted to go to Magic Kingdom and all they had available was Epcot. Didn’t want to go there. Chef Mickey’s was a joke last year for dinner
Wasn’t as good as in years past. Like breakfast better. Portion size smaller. They brought food to table. Characters couldn’t get real close to us because of Covid. We wore masks
Didn’t like that.
Jimmy Edmonds
The crowds and the new Genie pass is really disturbing. Disney is now placing their guests in categories with guest with the genie pass as category 1 (ahead top priority). Never thought we would see Disney place greed over the guests. We fully agree Disney needs to get their crowds under control and stop placing their guests in categories.
Yamy G.
It’s is overwhelming! We went about 2 weeks ago and the crowds were insane – we hardly rode any rides it was sad after spending all that money! We won’t be going back any time soon until things calm down. It’s too crazy. The children don’t even enjoy themselves!! It’s sad… The magic is disappearing 😭
Jan Williams
How is people crowded shoulder to shoulder safer than max capacity?!
Are they limiting capacity because of Covid transmission, or because of staffing, or so they don’t have to offer as many discounts, or what? What could be worse than the sardined crowds in the pictures?
Beth
We are driving home today from Disney World and it was crowded this past week but manageable. Mask were just about non existent. You only had to wear them on transportation to and from the parks.
Tiffanny
We were at Disneyland at the beginning of March. The lines were at a minimum of 45 minute wait, with the wait extending to over two hours while we were in line. This was horrible. I will not take my family there again until they get the crowd under control.
Lisa Patterson
We went about 2 weeks ago. All 4 parks. I actually felt that there were less of a crowd BUT lines were insanely LONG. The new “fast past” (what ever they are calling it) is a joke. The problem is that while they are letting a few less in they are not running all their rides. They know exactly what they are doing. Your waiting in line longer now that preCovid in order for you to purchase the faster pass. We already pay a small fortune to go. Now it’s nearly impossible to ride/see more than 3 or 4 things in a day. I’m done with Disney
Lynn
We’re done as well. Was not able to ride anything except Carosel of Progress. Paid for Genie and was useless. No horse drawn trolley on Main Street which was iconic, loved the horse clomping sound, gone and won’t return, no piano player at Casey’s corner, food and dirty trays on the ground and tables in the eating area. No one cleaning, no hand sanitizer, was told to use the bathroom instead. My guess is Disney benefits financially from Covid changes. The magic has left and so did we.
Samantha Medders
We visited 3/2-3/9 and it was crazy. At Hollywood we bought the pass to bypass the stand by lane and only was able to use it 1 time. (4 of us btw) waste of $. People were rude too. If you need to sneeze or cough cover your mouth!!
Carol
We were there last week. It was awful! Magic Kingdom was so crowded, the standby lines were way too long, food options were terrible. We had a better time at our resort.
Karen Eickholt
We were at Disney for our LAST TIME. Crowds were just awful. Lines awful and some of the workers were very rude. The new Geni Pass is totally a waste of money. The system locks up on your account and you are screwed for the day. The stand by lines are way to long a wait. You pay a small fortune to get into a park and if you are really lucky you may get to do 3 or 4 things. Very unpleasant experience and will NEVER go back. It is priced out of the average income family range.
arnie gonzalez
As long as people continue to pay the crazy prices, stand in line and “give away” their hard earned money, this garbage will continue.
Vanessa L Johnson
Arnie Gonzalez, you are correct. Disney see’s the crowds and the amount of money being sent. They are now going to doing anything different.
Fede lee
how true is that statement? People will continue to go and continue to complain yet nothing will ever be done UNLESS PEOPLE STOP GOING ! That’s the only way to get all these greedy mongrels to take notice !
Yamy G.
Couldn’t agree more..we went to SeaWorld and were able to actually enjoy our day there.
John KauffmanJohnJohn Kauffman
We went in Feb and it was crowded but manageable. The lightnin lanes helped us get through butit was not as much fun as I expected. Will not go back
Barbara
Couldn’t agree more… we have talked about this for quite some time now. But, Money talks. As long as people choose to go and pay the prices, they can complain all they want but nothing will change. And the crowd control? 🤷♀️ What crowd control?? I guess compared to Christmas and New Years Eve crowd control it’s better… but on those days it’s just a sea of people anyway.
What happened? Why? Will it ever revert back to what was once enjoyable? It’s doubtful at this time. And, until there is an improvement, we will more than likely spend our vacation time in more relaxing settings…. And there are plenty of those all over the United States.
Don’t get me wrong. We love Disney. As DVC Members we are heavily invested in WDW and all it had to offer at one time…. But, the magic is disappearing. And now, we are looking to other vacation spots to spend our money. We are only 1 family. That won’t hurt Disney or speak to their management or change Anything, but it makes us feel better. And that’s all we are responsible for.
Bob
Well, with crowds that big I doubt Disney well care much that this one guest decides not to go…
Mike E.
Mr. Bob Chapek, it sounds to me as if it’s a lot more than simply the one family mentioned in the article.
Maureen
From all these many negative remarks, it sure is more than one.
Meow
We also just got back 2 weeks ago.
No plans to return in the future due to awful management, high prices, overcrowding, long lines, TERRIBLE food quality and an overall lack of care/’magic”.
And we have been longtime fans of the parks!
Mike
All the above comments are spot on. We thought we were visiting in the off season at the end of January, but it was crowded everywhere. Do not plan on returning.
Chris Wood
How dare Disney be so crowded, choose profits over the happiness of this guest, don’t they know who this guest is? This guest will be back at Disney, complaining with impunity
Travis Weberling
@Chris Wood,unless you’re a “loyal shareholder” with Disney, there’s no point in pointing out the obvious , & that’s that Disney & the suits in charge of it are obviously too clueless or too greedy or both to understand that 1 day ticket prices & etc are going to get to a point where most people aren’t going to afford to go there I really hope 1 of these years, that WDW will be the subject of an episode of Undercover Boss, just to see if Chapek & his fellow suits even know how guests & maybe even employees feel about the way the company’s going & etc.
Judy
My family & I went to Animal Kingdom & Magic Kingdom. You could hardly get around. The wait lines were 2 hours on rides. You stand in line more than you can enjoy anything. It was not fun. During the fireworks people were laying down on the ground. God fidbid if they got trampled on. It was not a fun experience. Something needs to be done about overcrowding
JS
That’s all you can do is make the best of it. I was there a week before you and the parks were sold out every day. I actually did six days with spending two days at EPCOT and Magic Kingdom since they seem to take more time. I think it only ended up being like $50 more and I could take my time and enjoy it. Didn’t even have to get the Lightning Lane and still rode most of the rides I wanted too while hitting all the new ones. The crowds were a little annoying at times, but I felt that I’ve dealt with these sizes of crowds in the past too so nothing new. Overall I had a great time, but definitely am taking a break from the parks as I’m not entirely impressed with Disney’s business decisions as of lately (more room for the rest of you I guess). I’ll definitely be back, but the crowd issue will never change so I just learn to deal with it and find better ways to work around it. I actually like the challenge sometimes as this time I totally won Disney.
Rae
We started going
to Disney World in 1989. We went on our Honeymoon. We have been going back every 3 years since. December 2021 was the worst trip we have ever had and we have gone in July and August over the years…the Heat!! But the first week of December 2021 was the worst week we have ever experienced. The magic is gone, lines were long, people were rude, staff was angry, and had the I hate my job attitude. The crowds were terrible. I hated making a reservation for a park. Vacation is not to be planned every moment it left all the flexibility out of our vacation. It made me so sad my happy place is no longer my happy place😒
SC
Have been going since 1974. Anyone who didn’t go those first 25 years don’t really understand what the magic really was. To me a vacation shouldn’t have to be micromanaged spoils all the fun. We will be going in April but that will be the last for quite awhile. We are DVC owners but giving serious thought about selling it. Just hoping these crowds are pent up demand because of Covid.
Linda
We started going in 1972 and were really looking forward to the 50th anniversary. We live in Florida so go often throughout the year. You are right! It was magical and fun. Was glad when they got rid of the A,B,C,D tickets. Even the Fastpasses weren’t that bad. It started really going downhill when they made you pay for parking when you stayed at the resorts. I may be missing the 50th year party. 😪
Sue
I’ve been going since 1972. I was 5 years old. We went to Disney every year. It was special and so magical. Especially watching through the years as new parks were built and more things to enjoy. We went in January and it was the worst trip ever. Saying it’s not at capacity is a lie because it is at capacity! Genie+ and Lightening Lane are a rip off. The food is overpriced and not good anymore. I go to Disney to disconnect not be on my phone from 7am to closing each day because that’s the only way to manage things. Chapek and his money grubbers need to go. Im DVC and wanted to add on, that won’t be happening now.
Chief10
Ha ha. Reporting one guest. I know for sure that it is way more than one. I have 16 family and friends that are saying the same. Disney has broken the method that has worked with the single focus of getting more money. Screw the customer experience to make more money is their mantra because we know that there is a lot of demand!!
Gerri
Went first week of February 2022. I too was disappointed about the crowds. I had heard the parks were not at capacity but I could not believe it. My son’s family planned for 3 years to go and the crowds made it difficult to enjoy. Went to four parks and ponied up for fast past, which now is a joke. I don’t know how they can manage the crowds.
Donald Wright
Annual placeholder for 19 years but we can’t even stand and rest with all the crowding….we just went home…no dinner or rides…no extra $ for my stock….
Suanne
If Disney wants to control the crowd numbers, they need to overhaul the entire park. Close for several years, refurbish and/or replace everything. Make a visit to Disney World the hottest ticket in the universe, also the most expensive. Exclusive, crazy expensive, and worth every penny. Only the very well off will be able to afford a Disney World vacation. Totally renovate the resort hotels to the highest standards, only top flight food and beverage available.
That will weed out a lot of people. The tickets will be sold by lottery only.
Rose K
My husband and I are/were WDW people… We’ve vacationed there ever since we were children annually with our parents. We were married there at Boardwalk resort 20+ years ago and we both worked for WDW when we lived in Kissimmee, Florida. My husband and I are both disturbed by the way the parks are now. We’ve gone every year, even during covid but this past November was absolutely ridiculous. The crowds coupled with the lack of staffin were insane. Disney’s attitude was that the parks didn’t have enough guests to warrant staffing up to a 100%… I’m telling you that is a lie…. As someone who worked there once. The variable pricing which was to contain attendance did nothing more than earn them additional money…. It changed nothing. Every day felt like a visit during Christmas week, Which is normally chaos. The genie+ system along with rides breaking down constantly Was the final straw for my husband. He loves everything Disney more than ANYONE so when he’s annoyed to the point where he’s considering us skipping this year, you know that something is wrong at Walt Disney World.
Sparky
We are never going again, not that Disney or any of the other parks care. Its too expensive, to crowded, and not nearly as fun as it used to be. Very sad.
Deb
Went to Disney World early February. Was crowded, lines are long. Need to buy lightning lanes so price gets worse. Also noticed a big problem we hadn’t encountered previously- ride breakdowns were occuring frequently. That doesn’t help.
Nope!
They need to moderate how many people are in the parks and fix the lightening lane b.s. The fast pass was great and helped to moderate wait times. With the new system I have to pay extra to continue in line, since the lightening lane has priority and that is garbage.
Nope!
Also the app went from a functional map with wait times to an everything in one mess that has no back button, is frustraingly hard to use, and crashes frequently. However it is essential to use this app for almost everything in the park and required to order food in a timely manner. Good luck standing in the single line for ‘will call’ food orders.
Kevin
What you don’t hear about the capacity issue is the staffing of the park. Since there is reduced capacity are they reducing staffing and are they staffing less in order to save costs and because of this idea of reduced capacity.
JS
There are two kinds of leaders in the world. There’s the “build a great product and they will come” crowd who are relentlessly focused on the customer and realize that the long term profits will come. This is how the best companies in the world are born. Then there are the empty suits that care only about maximizing profits for next quarter, ruthlessly slashing costs and jacking prices with scientific precision to maximize return and ring in their bonuses for as long as possible until the music stops. This is how great companies die.
Disney is rapidly becoming a dumpster fire of empty suits. Every day a capacity park’s worth of guests swears off the Disney brand, while millions read and watch how far Disney has fallen. Disney is killing its golden goose, its brand, in favor of a sugar high of short term profits. Disney’s board had better act soon, before the damage becomes too baked into their brand image.
Walt FanGirl
It’s such a decidedly un-Disneylike experience inside the parks. Crowded, rides down, frustrated and on-edge guests – it feels like a cash grab, not a vacation. Didn’t renew my Annual Pass. I made 5-6 trips (WA to CA) every year and stayed on site. It was a splurge that I loved! (I was engaged and married there, too!)
The magic and escape just isn’t there now. It just feels bad. Disneyland broke my heart and lost it’s way. I can’t even imagine Walt walking the parks in their current state. 💔🏰💔
Walt FanGirl
*aren’t there *its way (Doh)
Jen C
Everyone needs to stop going to Disney parks until things improve. It drives me crazy reading all these articles about the deterioration of the Park experience, then in the comments, people are still planning to go back. Why would Disney change now? They are making money like crazy while charging a premium to treat guests poorly. Prices, lines, Genie app, understaffed, $700+ hotel rooms with no maid service. I am a huge fan and wanted to take my middle school aged kids to WDW for the 1st time, but we will not unless things vastly improve. We can have a much more enjoyable time elsewhere for a lot less money.
Christian
The no housekeeping for $700 is mindboggling! The whole point of hotels is goodhousekeeping.
Lost Boy
Family just came back from WDW. TERRIBLE EXPERIENCE even though we stayed at WDW Resort. Even riding NYC subway during prepandemic rush hour one had more room and a more pleasant experience. WDW “We pack you in and pick your pocket” Enjoy the Go!!!
Joy
I agree with everything you’ve said! I unfortunately did renew my annual pass. I will never do it again. The last time I went, it was miserable. If that is reduced capacity, then I’ll never come back. Hate working on my “reservations” for park entry, restaurants, etc. By the time I get there, I’m so stressed, I can’t enjoy myself. I refuse to spend anymore on Genie +, refuse to spend anymore money in the over priced souvenirs, refuse to spend over $100 for a meal for 2. I’m over it! I’m staying home!
Byebye
The best time to visit is when you are on magic mushrooms!
Laura
We went in February and the wait times were ridiculous. In all my trips, they’ve never ever been that bad, even before Covid. A large part of it was the new Genie Plus system. Wait times were often longer than posted because of the people paying for Genie Plus. I miss the old Fast Pass system. It was fair for everyone, included with your ticket price, and managed the crowds much more efficiently.
Jep
After weeks of reading the same comments about insane crowd sizes, broken rides, lines out the wazoo, apps which freeze, crash and which you must use to make the most of your visit, my family has decided we will pass on Disney vacations from here on out and bask in the memories of our trips over the last 30 years instead.
Pam
We just got back. I cannot say we had a terrible time. Was able to get on just about every ride but of course it takes coordinating and some rushing around which can be annoying. Piano player was out at Casey’s corner and we were even able to eat at a table for lunch and Tony’s for dinner. The street entertainment is lacking at MK and Epcot there was none..
Waited 1 1/2 hrs at bus depot just to get to MK. But I was kind of expecting all of this.
Everywhere is understaffed all over the country. Why would Disney be any different. I wish we waited to go back because now we will not be back for a very long time. To expensive. Room not cleaned in 5 days. I should have requested I guess.. but should I really even have to?!
Family vacations will be spend elsewhere.
Sad because we really had 3 wonderful Disney vacations years ago. If you are considering going I say wait! At least a year. They need to get there shit together
Patricia Moffitt
I went to Disney in February and I was very disappointed, the lines for attractions were extremely long, and to be stuck together in large groups who were not following any Covid measures was not what I expected after all the Covid comments when you open up the Disney app. I can’t believe I’m writing this because my family has been to Disney many times and we have always had a wonderful time but I actually left the parks early because I was sad
Donna Rose
I hope they take care of this problem before I visit Animal Kingdom in April. I hope all the tourists are gone by then, from other states .this is getting ridiculous! the prices are really outrageous ,and the lines are crazy. they need to do something about this .we’ll see what the day experience at Animal Kingdom brings us. that will determine if I’ll ever return to Disney again, and I live in Florida!
Marie
Sorry, Donna Rose. April is spring break season. The parks are going to be crazy crowded.
Doug
It’s scary to me that the parks are operating at “reduced capacity” after having been in February. I’m concerned to discover what full capacity would be these days. I hope guests remember that cast members are just people trying to do their best despite the hands dealt by upper management. I remember it being busy with plenty of waiting before the pandemic, but it’s definitely extra on that front now.
Kim
I think Disney is only saying they are at reduced capacity in order to cheep out on labor.
Mallory
My wife and I just returned from a 4 day trip (after a 10 and 15 year hiatus) While we found way- as two mid 30 adults travel without children -to navigate the complexity of the new logistics (Disney app and reservation system) we still found it all to be a bit overwhelming during certain period in the parks. If I had to point to one of the most obviously culprits of this it would the JAZZY!!! (aka ecv – electric scooter)
To be completely honest it felt a bit dystopian, like we were seeing real life wall-e unfold in front of our eyes!
After experience several circumstances where the individual operating the “vehicle” showed blatant disregard for other around them we did some research and found out that Disney had NO rules or guidelines to offer to those who choose that as their method for experiencing the park.
What they really need to do is limit the amount of jazzy whipping around. The parks were never designed to handle that type of traffic. And the part that gets me the most fired up is that lazy people are creating a bad experience for those whole actually need an alternative means of movement!!! #reallifewalle #Buy-n-Large
D Gardner
I used to feel that way too…and then I became disabled and now I have to use one of those scooters and it is terribly difficult. People act like you’re invisible, jump in front of you when you try to maintain a safe distance, and cast members tend to treat you like garbage. I never wanted to be that person in the scooter and never imagined I would be, but seeing it from the scooter perspective really changed things for me. Your comment is alarming and seems like your desire is either a) scooter users -aka the disabled- should be allowed in the parks only on a limited basis and/or b) they should be subject to scrutiny by cast members on whether or not they really need a scooter
YourDisapointedFather
You dont need a scooter, a wheelchair will suffice. You should be pushed at walking speed not be able to zoom around running over kids and the backs of peoples legs. Its your problem no one elses
Kim
That is a really hurtful and hateful comment. Perhaps the person in the scooter doesn’t have someone capable of pushing a wheelchair. Maybe their own mobility issues prevent them from wheeling themselves. I have moved scooters in the theme park where I work, and it is absolutely correct that people don’t pay attention. Some scooter users don’t either. Everyone needs to be aware of, and courteous to, those around.
Mar
I agree with everything that has been previously stated. Been going to DW for over 45 yrs. Did not enjoy this trip but my grandchildren did. Of course they didn’t know when spent an additional $1000 to make it magical 🤯
Lucille
Do not judge others you do not know what they are going through. Our last Disney trip which we spent a year planning. My 22 year old daughter fell down a flight of stairs the day before we left. She fortunately did not break any bones but sustained a severe sprain of her ankle. She ways well over 200 lbs. I am nearly 60 and not strong enough to push her around 4 Disney parks. We rented a scooter. People were very rude to her because they thought she was being lazy. She ended up in tears several times. You do not know what someone else is dealing with. Most of the time people are doing the best
They can!!
Engine Joe
Maybe she shouldn’t have been “TikToking” at the top of the stairs!
Nannette
I got hit twice by someone in a scooter and the one had the nerve to say I was trying to pass her, which wasn’t true, I was just walking then bamm hit from behind, I don’t have a problem with scooters unless the individual riding one feels entitled because of it.
JustSaying
Completely agree with you for those who need them because they’re actually disabled, but unfortunately there are lots who use scooters because they’re too lazy to walk the parks. I last went in February and saw someone park their scooter and run over get in a rapidly growing line for some soft serve ice cream. She was clearly capable without a wheelchair or scooter.
DonnaGator
Do people bring their own scooters to Disney World, or does Disney provide them? If Disney provides them, maybe the scooters could be modified to limit their speed to a leisurely walking speed.
If people bring their own scooters, they could be required to leave them at the entrance and switch over to a slower safer Disney scooter.
I don’t know how practical this is, just trying to think of a possible solution. A few years ago I saw a toddler almost get hit by a fast-moving scooter at EPCOT, and I’ve been concerned about scooter safety ever since.
Tim Taylor
Yes, you can bring your own. Last year I came with a Vespa that had a souped up 308 4 barrel in it. I was able to get from one side of the park to the other in 3 minutes. It was very liberating.
Deb
Mallory, I agree! Those scooters are terrible! Also when did they start making Tank Strollers. I got sick of trying to get around all of that. One thing for sure is banning Stiller’s and scooters from stores
Thethrillisgone
The magic is gone and probably for good.
Pack ’em in and Keep ’em spending seems to be the only real concern now. Sorry about indefensible lines, but, hey come back in 2025 when Tron opens.
Micky M.
We, as guests should collectively post a sign on the front gate that reads “Back when you get your s@#$ together.”
Kat A.
My husband and I had planned to go next December, but we’ve decided to postpone. We’d gone before in February and loved that the parks were almost empty. Now it seems peak time year round and I said I’d never go through summer type crowds again. Plus I’ve read articles about the parks being dirty with reduced cast members and visitors being out of control. This was going to be the honeymoon trip we didn’t have 26 years ago. It’s so sad, but I don’t want to have a bad experience that colors our past memories.
Art
Obviously no one remembers peak crowd times before 2020. Reduced capacity means less people now than pre covid.
Anastasia
Was there in 2014. The “magic” was still there. Crowds were managed differently so you didn’t notice. Just went this past November.. Absolutely different experience. Shoulder to shoulder..there is no way the crowds are at 35%. They aren’t being truthful. Every single ride was over an hour long by 10am. Crowds for miles. They can do better. They have before. I suspect making up for profit lost.
Gene
It was a return to Disneyworld after
10 years with our kids and first timer – grandkids. If those parks were reduced capacity as their Disney Management claims, full capacity will be a nightmare.
You won’t get to ride some of the rides you want without buying the Genie+ pass and buying the fancy ride as a separate purchase. Those who didn’t spent 80 to 140mins in line per ride.
At the end of the day we felt like we had been in a battle against technology and packed crowds. Once was enough – don’t plan to be back until Disney fixes it – if they even try.
KTS
Disney will continue to put prices up, if people still continue to pay
I wouldn’t go back to Disney, with cost they way they are, long queues, as people won’t pay for rides when you already paid to get into the parks, this wasn’t walt disney vision to be greedy, he wanted all families to enjoy disney, it’s now become a park for the rich, should of left it how it was before corvid started, if it’s not broken don’t fix it & it worked fine, before this new CEO got Greedy to ruin the magic, walt disney created
John
Used to go every year before COVID but no more from UK so would get charged more if using card to pay fast lane charge. Pay £30 a day for genie+ not guanteed to work have to get up 7am to book no bus from airport no dining plan. It was so much easier to plan stuff but now it’s harder for those outside the USA time for vegas
Donna Rose
Please go somewhere else.tourist from other countries are crowding our space!
Kim
Tourists from other countries help keep tourism going here. Would you like it if the people from the UK said that about Americans visiting? I’m happy our international visitors have returned.
Byebye
Donna, you are a real POS!
Bill
Sounds like people will still gladly fork over thousands of dollars to rub elbow to elbow with complete strangers and wait 2+ hours in line for a 5 minute ride. Bob chapek must be a genius because no matter what he does to lessen the experience, people still show up. Last time I was at Disney was in 2014 and no desire to go back after hearing all the new changes.
Christian
Much of it is nostalgia based on how wonderful Walt Disney originally ran it.
Nate
I think after people book a trip or 2 and deal with thus, they will feel the same way and think twice about booking another. Disney parks are slowly killing themselves.
Tina
Not the happiest place on earth anymore… To many people, wait times are ridiculous and so are the lines to get food waste of money 💸💸💸
Steve
Went back in 2017 and the crowds, lines, wait times were ridiculous! All the fairy tale rides (Pinocchio, Peter Pan, Mr. Toads Wild Ride, Roger Rabbit were all sped up to get crowds thru faster. The “magic’ I remember as a younger adult is not so magic anymore. Now its “hurry hurry hurry! Wait n sweat. Your turn hurry up!”. I think their idea of “at capacity” is way different than what I think.
Chris Kinney
We went the first week of last December and had a great time, parks didn’t seem that full, longest wait was an hour for Slinky Dog. Besides that, maybe 20-40 minutes on other rides. I guess it just depends on when you go and how your luck holds out. And no, we didn’t pay to skip any lines.
Christian
Lines should be 15 tops in my opinion
Christian
Disney World has enough acreage to expand. More rides, ect. They need to keep the leisure relaxation the parks used to offer.
Steve S.
I think you are correct. Hotel rooms available vs. full-day parks are now out of balance. Disney really out to have, at minimum, 2 more full-day parks. Then the crowds would be reduced. Of course, they have no financial incentive to do that, so they won’t.
Phil
We were at Walt Disney world on New Years 2022 and stayed 4 days and nights . We visited the magic kingdom two days and animal kingdom one day. We didn’t find it as crowded in past years with the exception of the popular rides and they had very long waiting times. Overall it was still an enjoyable visit.
J guertin
We just canceled our trip to Disney World that was scheduled for July 2022. It is obvious that Disney is creating these insane lines and crowds. How is it that three years ago you could have a 30 minute wait for rides at ( full capacity) and now with ( limited capacity) the lines are 3 hours long. We were scheduled to stay at the Polynesian, come to find out they don’t even clean your room anymore. Really $700 a night and they can’t make your bed. Everyone should be canceling their trips until Disney gets the message that people are not going to pay double and get half. Disney should be ashamed of itself and really look at replacing a lit of their upper management.
Puckles
YOU ought to be ashamed of YOURSELF for paying 700$ a night for a hotel room. Chump.
Steven
I agree. I paid $ 1300 for 7 days/6 nights, which included round trip airfare, for an all inclusive, 5 star resort in Cancun. People need to redefine how they do their vacations. I live in Orlando, so eventually I will do Disney again… but for now, Universal and SeaWorld are getting my money. The max wait time I have seen at rides were 90 minutes and the wait times go down from there. How can Universal and SeaWorld figure this stuff out, but Disney can’t? I know this was a purely a rhetorical question. Disney has figured it out, they wanted the money more.
Christian
Part of it is that the internet has made people more savvy. They used to be fully staffed on off season but now everyone shows up in so called off season.
Christopher Thornton
We went in the beginning of February and it was packed. We are going to take a few years off hoping the crowds calm down a bit. It just wasn’t fun it was more like work.
Missy
I can tell you from pre/post Covid experience there is NO WAY they are still at 35% capacity when reservations at maxed out. The reservation is what make this so frustrating. It gives the illusion that the park won’t be packed and then you are waiting in line to even enter the park, waiting in line for popcorn and paying money now to not wait in as long of a line for some rides. Does feel like the magic is being traded for dollars in my opinion. I miss the other bob ☹️
Lita H
The most “Magical Place on Earth” became the most “Frustrating place on Earth”. With all the restrictions, new rules, ridiculous scheduling, our visit in January 2022 was horrific. I use to say that I need a little Disney in my life when I felt the world was out of control. In the past, a visit to Disney World would make me feel like all was right and life was good. Our last visit just added to my stress level and for the first time in my life I was glad when our two day visit was over. I don’t think I’ll ever look at Disney World the same again!
Byebye
My thoughts exactly.
ann
if that’s the case then why would you go their .I will be their in august 2022 so stop moaning you all no one is making you go and if room service is no longer available it will save you as no gratuity need paid
Veronica
You’re an idiot. The word is “there”.
ann
your so cheeky hope you don’t go there idiot
Veronica
Again, the word is “you’re”. Time for a class, Ann….but happy to see you use “there” correctly.
Donna Rose
And this is why there’s no magic in Disney . because of people like you ! you have a rotten disposition, maybe you should just stay home and let others decide if they want to keep going.
Byebye
I think that you need to go back to school.
Roberta
We have gone to Disney World several times throughout the years. Our last trip this past summer was literally our last. I’m not sure what I’m missing, but I can’t quite figure out how “reduced capacity” leads to larger crowds, longer lines, and an overall much more miserable experience then we’ve ever had at Disney. We had never experienced shoulder to shoulder crowds and 2.5-3 hour stand-by lines until we went under “reduced capacity”
Our last trip was also the most we’ve EVER paid to take our family of 4. The whole Disney experience is different. Even some of the cast members seem miserable, which you would NEVER see before. The Disney magic has disappeared for our family.
Donna Rose
Roberta you’ve got that right ! things have changed at Disney .I haven’t been there for years, it was fun years ago. I’ll be going in April. that visit will depend whether I will ever return or not, because it cost a lot of money just for me and my husband. I better have a great day .
Mike
I cancelled my February vacation due to reports of how crowded it is. Disney seems more focused on squeezing every last penny of profit from each visitor and throw in the crowds, it was an easy decision.
Our February vacation at the Port Orleans riverside was shaping up to cost us 12,000 dollars. The last time we stayed at that resort, the vacation ran us around 1/2 that (closer to 4k). I can take my family of 4 to Hawaii for that price (which is what we’re doing).
Rroe
We’ve CANCELLED our Annual Pass and as far as I’m concerned, Disney can stick it where the sun don’t shine!!!
John
We were DVC members for 18 years. Had enough of the crowded parks, couldn’t even get out it was so packed. Sold the vacation club and don’t miss it one bit.
Kim Brander
Don’t understand how they will never be at capacity, again…yet are completely jam packed every day. Exactly how does that work? If you’re under full capacity but every park is completely full? They sound like politicians right now…
Kim
Oh, yet they keep building more resorts.. How about expand the parks. Not like they don’t have the property to do that…
Kev
Hi,
The crowds look insane, and it doesn’t look like a nice experience, plus the holiday from the UK would be about $10,000 for 2 weeks in a budget hotel, but can someone explain why if park capacity is down it’s so rammed with all wait times being so long.
Surely less capacity, less people to fill the lines and social areas?
We went 2017 and it was becoming a chore, now, seems like work.
Nate Mctighe
Have been going to Disney world every year for the last 25 years. Often times we go the week of Presidents day in February. While it’s been busy during this week in past visits, this past visit 2 weeks ago was ridiculously busy. Every park was extremely crowded with very long wait lines . My family left early the day we reserved Hollywood studios because it was unbearable. We literally went on 2 rides in 3 hours and 1 of those rides was lightning lane through genie+. I certainly expect change over 25 years and accept the fact that I won’t always like it, but this is getting out of control. This is prob the first trip that I haven’t felt or experienced anything “magical” and that’s disappointing. This is also the first time we’ve strayed away from Disney and spent a day at Universal, because of the above mentioned issues. Disney desperatly needs to control their crowd levels and lower their costs a bit or they will lose me as a customer as well as my kids someday when they get a little bit older. We come from Michigan every year and try to escape the cold but their are many other options in the state of Florida that we can consider.
Natalie Griffin
We are DVC members and we have gone twice since 2020 and have been extremely disappointed both times. We weren’t able to find our 50th anniversary or 2021 merchandise because they were sold out. The lines for the rides are extremely long. Not being able to have the fast pass system we felt like we were behind the mark the entire time. I know it will be some time before we return we will maybe try to do some of the other parks in Orlando on our next visit.
usetolove disney
Was just there last week, and it was so overcrowded, the food options were very limited, the merchandise was way overpriced, and if you wanted any of the 50th merchandise good luck. The Genie+ is a joke, we could only get 2 maybe 3. Memory maker, I got some other family’s pictures. For a family of 6 it cost a lot of money, I have emailed Disney Guest Services, but of course they have not responded. We normally o 2-3 times a year, but are now looking at other options.
Erin
I was at the parks on super bowl Sunday. We were told then that they were at 75% at that time. Im sorry but even at 75% that’s way to many people. Also a huge safety issue in my opinion.
Puckles
It’s a huge safety issue. No other place would get away with this.
Troy
Prez day weekend we were at Hollywood Sudios Friday and Epcot Sunday. I waited 4.5 hrs starting at 9:30am then 2 hrs for ToT. In addition, my wife was inappropriately “terrorized” for at least 20 minutes in the hotel lobby, for which she was in no mood! Epcot on Sunday was no better .. we waited 2 hrs for food on the Disney app, for which there was hardly any bandwidth to even place the order.
Troy
4.5 for RotR
Anon
People are threatening to not attended until attendance goes down… 😂. Doesn’t anyone see the stupidity of this articles premise?
Natasha
I do.
Anon2
😂 I thought the same thing. So Bob lowers prices and limits crowds so then everyone wants to come back again and you are back to the same initial problem of huge crowds 🤔. But then you have all these people at hotels and no one can book a park reservation because they limited park capacity. Does anyone realize Walt was around with his dreams when the population was nothing like it is today and people weren’t traveling all over the world constantly like they are today and people weren’t making a living from spending everyday at the parks vlogging etc?? Everyone on here says they go used to go to the parks all the time and just Florida’s population increase to be near the parks and have annual passes is skyrocketing daily..so is Bob supposed to pull magic out of arse?!?
Anon2
*pull magic out of his arse? 😁 Where is this fantasy world people are wanting to create with billions of people constantly coming to Disney World??
DisneyFan
I want to hear this magical solution someone has to all of this complaining. If you were in charge, how would you fix it all so perfectly?! And you can’t say how it used to be, nothing is the same as it used to be so you can’t use that argument anymore.
Pat Connor
Bob chapek did something in one year thru personal greed that the other competing parks couldn’t do, destroy Disney’s parks and mostly their reputation that took over 50 years to build. The damage he has done is so bad that it makes Eisner’s term as CEO look like he was Walt incarnate. 50+ years of building a reputation as a family friendly place to take your family has now turned into a place to avoid. When the revenge travel crowds subside and the crowds disappear and Chapek’s multi million dollar bonuses go away only then might it be worth a trip back. I have not heard one good thing about the parks since he took over from any blog, all negative. Unfortunately it will take years to earn their reputation back after only one to two years of abusing their customers and fans.
D
It’s crazy crowded!!! The LL only makes wait time for the rides longer!! What were they thinking when they changed from the fast pass???? They say 35% capacity! I say 75%
Kathy Brutsche
Way too crowded. And the magic is gone. I refuse to spend two months hard earned wages to only ride 3-4 rides, and stand shoulder to shoulder with obnoxious entitled brats. My children have only experienced it on old family videos when it was not overpriced and under fulfilling.
Tarsey
Canceled one trip we had booked for this April. Will probably cancel our summer trip we had planned as well. If its mostly going to be frustration it’s not worth going.
The bright side is that Disney has now trained our family that’s it’s okay to spend $10k+ on a vacation. We can now take that money and spend it elsewhere for an awesome time instead of being hearded around Disney property.
Natasha
The only way to lower the number of guests is to raise the price… everyone complains when they raise the price then complains when there are huge crowds. Disney is NOT a non profit, I don’t know why everyone wants to think they are.
Finch
It’s to capacity and,that’s what it’s all about to our CEO! $$$$$$$$$$$%
John H
I’m confused! How does this comment by Dierson CFO make sense?
“ Disney CFO Christine McCarthy stated that Park’s capacity would never return to normal as they are “managing things differently now”. She went on to explain that they do “not want to have the Parks bursting at the seams”, and by keeping a reduced capacity in place, Guests can have a more enjoyable time.”
I honestly think she’s a little naïve with the comment that guests can have a more enjoyable time with reduced capacity in the parks. Well, it doesn’t seem to be working
John H
*Disney CFO
Jayne
We started visiting Disney parks (Orlando) in 1976 and were annual pass holders for many, many years. No more.
I will cede my place in line to those who are willing to pay big money to be tortured. Disney won’t miss me, I’m sure, because there are hundreds of thousands who don’t mind.
It’s a business and businesses will do what is profitable. If it ever stops being profitable, then things will change…..but not before then.
Wendy
We went in February when the reservation calendar showed green. Not sure where that data came from because it was absolutely packed! No short waits for any ride. Absolutely ridiculous. Sadly, don’t plan on going back any time soon.
Mary
We just came back. Spent 4 days in Disney and 2 in universal. What a difference! It’ll be a while before I go back to Disney. That’s assuming they fix the crowd issue. Even the kids rides were an hour wait. It was a total wait of money.
Mark
If you’re staying at the Contemporary or Polynesian you’re still not guaranteed to get in which is BS. I’m paying about $1000/night and still couldn’t get into the MK on some days. Park Hopper tickets and could only get into EPCOT and wait until 2pm to Hop to a different park.
Melissa Broward
Genie+ is a failure because Disney does not limit the number that they sell. I wasn’t a fan of the previous “free” FP either. I much prefer Universal’s unlimited Express Passes although I like the attractions at DW better. Universal has too many herky-jerky rides which hurt my neck. DW just needs to open more attractions and build many more new ones to disperse the crowds. 10,000 people attempting to board 5 good attractions=outrageous lines!
Disney Fan
I think a few things are at play.
1. Pent up demand from being stuck inside and delayed trips. This is what has caused inflation all over. Pent up demand and 2 years of disrupted supply chains means less stuff with same or more demand. Also, less labor due to people doing something else and years of restrictions on immigration and also Covid. Disney did lose money from the pandemic, but I am guessing they are on track to make that back and maybe more.
2. Excess income from limited spending during the Covid shut downs and also government support in the Covid relief bills (which I support because it prevented an economic catastrophe).
3. Disney parks are a finite commodity. They cannot do anything more to increase capacity. Even if they did not change things we liked in the past, the capacity issue would be worse. One of the best ways in this Country to deal with huge demand of a finite research, is to increase prices and reduce services to increase profits.
Disney needs to cover its expenses and make profit at the same time otherwise no reason to run a business. The best way for them to achieve this is to continuously increase prices until they make money with less guests. I think at some point the pent up demand and delayed trips will level out. I went to Disney world in April 2021 because we had gotten vaccinated early. The park crowds were higher than I expected because of Covid, but it wasn’t terrible. The worst thing was having to wear a mask all day outside in the hot and steamy weather.
We love Disney world and because of all this excess demand, they should charge even more to reduce overall capacity. I am curious what is the actual breaking point for people?
If people can wait to go, might make some sense.
Donna P
Don’t expect to be in the parks anytime soon at all! It’s way to stupid with the crowd levels, having to make a reservation for a park months in advance as plans may have to be change etc. We need a scoter in our family and with those crowds it is impossible! Been a DVC member for years and always enjoyed spending a few days a year in the parks but no anymore. Probably will sell those too since Disney can’t get their act together!
Scott
Crowds are ridiculous and they need to teach their employees some manners
Kevin
Disney World sits on roughly 25 THOUSAND acres — about 39 square miles! That’s pretty massive! But that doesn’t mean we can have close to 40 square miles of theme parks and fun and a LOT goes into why not. Suitable areas are generally “forested uplands, pasture lands, or other undeveloped sites outside the Conservation areas.” They make up 19.9% of the undeveloped land in Disney World
I’ve said this before I’ll say it again what’s shooting Disney in the foot right now is they have not added a theme park in 23 years.
The business has grown exponentially.
From opening dates..
Magic Kingdom 1971
Epcot 11 years later 1982
Studios 7 years later 1989
Animal 9 years later 1998
At that growth rate they should have two more theme parks based upon the growth they had originally. Crowds would be disbursed in their capacity would be greatly enhanced.
Regarding the crowds at the park the one thing that seems to be overlooked is how many attractions that were running or either being refurbished or still closed. I can’t honestly comment on restaurants that are still closed. I know for the longest time the amount of restaurants available had been reduced to just a handful from having more than you could count in each park. For instance, even though it was a ride nobody liked when stitch was open that would take about a 20% wait time off of the surrounding attractions such as Space Mountain, Buzz light year, Laugh Floor.
When you look around each park and four to six attractions or more are still closed it affects every land in the park.
Nicky Palmer
I came here 20yrs ago and carried the magic with me from that day to this.
However the magic isn’t quite the same this time around. Fighting your way through crowds around the park, queuing for hours to get on to rides, similar queues for dining (unless you are mobile savvy, which not everyone is) and Disney now seeming to put an emphasis on money instead of family fun by charging for a genie plus pass that allows people to enter rides in lightening lanes….All in all, unless they can find a better crowd control the magic will continue to fade….and the most magical place in the world that Walt Disney created will become just another over priced theme park
Jake N.
The park reservation system, from a business stance, is brilliant. But from a user experience, I think it will always mean crowds. It creates a scarcity mentality which then forces passholders who would normally treat attendance more as a “when it sounds fun” to a necessity. By penalizing passholders for not showing up on days they have a reservation and giving the impression park reservations will run out, you get local passholders who would otherwise not be there forced to try and get their money worth. We’ve been going to both US parks for 10 years annually and then some, and I’ve never seen crowds like we’ve experienced in Disneyland like these in the last 6 months. We’re not local to either park abd every time if year we’ve tried still has been nuts.
Adam M.
Universal. SeaWorld, Busch Gardens… All a wonderful experience. Ditch Disney like I did.
Rjp
“Capacity” numbers have surely increased over the years. I have been going to Disney every 2-3 years since opening , worked in MK for a time, and have 2 kids who completed the CP. we have never seen such wall-to-crowds including 4th of July week. It’s clear that those “Capacity” numbers have increased. Why is it IMPOSSIBLE for anyone to confirm what those numbers are????
I'm the boss
You’re all a bunch of fools paying that much money to a morally corrupt company.
They’re nothing but cash cows.
Puckles
Yes!
Alex
That’s crap about 35% we went to Hollywood studios and it was jam packed shortest wait time were around 55minutes for the kiddie rides Star Wars rides were over 2 hours I am personally done doing Disney it’s just a money Pitt and the staff is not helpful
Carlos
Something doesn’t had up, if parks are still not at 100% capacity, how come e everyone is complaining that parks are bursting at the seams? In the past I have been to a closed Magic Kingdom close to capacity and everything was still quite manageable.
Virginia
We visited animal kingdom on March 7th and Magic Kingdom on March 9th. We brought our family of 13, our four daughters, spouses and grandkids. We had an awesome time, planned accordingly and went on rides that had lower wait times. We ordered our food through the app and it was ready within 5 to 10 minutes for pickup. We enjoyed the Magic Kingdom parade and fireworks in the evening. All staff members that we spoke to were kind and courteous and gave very good information. Guests were courteous and if someone bumped into you they were quick too say sorry. We were there at the parks both days until closing. We had a fantastic time well worth the money. I planned it very well 6 months in advance and researched numerous ways to make the trip easy and fun. The Disney experience is there for you to enjoy. It’s what you make of it and how you interact with other people that makes it wonderful. Crowds and long lines will be at any large attraction. My suggestion is plan ahead and be prepared as best you can and enjoy life at Disney!
Tina
We were at the parks Feb 15-19 (every other day) and it was one of the worst crowds we have ever seen! We have been there marathon weekend, summer and at the holidays and this was the same level as those. Wait times were ridiculous. Although many were inflated (probably to sell Genie/lightning lane), many were much less than posted some even half. But even so they were very long, even ones that typically have little waits. Getting food took almost 45+ minutes even ordering ahead with mobile. It was the worst experience we have ever had. For the first time in our lives we said we don’t want to come back. The new wait system is terrible. Pre-pandemic we went once a year, sometimes twice for over 10 years! We will never go annually again and honestly in no rush to go back anytime in next couple years.
Sandy Taylor
We cancelled 8 days for Fall. Until enough people stop going, it won’t matter.
Doug
There’s no way there at 35% capacity. 🤣
Kasondra Williams
We went the week of Valentine’s Day. We went for our daughter 10th birthday. On Valentine’s Day we went to Animal Kingdom and it was packed. We didn’t really get to enough everything like we wanted. On Wednesday we went to Hollywood Studio again packed. The wait for rides was ridiculous. Again couldn’t enjoy the park like we hoped. On Thursday we went to Magic Kingdom for my daughter birthday. That morning I went online and got the Lightening Lane Pass which is a joke. We had to give our kids the options on choosing certain rides because of how the Lightening Lane Pass was set up. This was our first time at Disney. We didn’t even hit the whole park that day. Several people told use February is a good time to go because you can enjoy each park without waiting in lines for long. My kids enjoyed themselves but I was very disappointed overall. What is the point of park reservations? When Disney allowed such huge crowds. Several rides was more than 2 hour wait.
Eileen
I feel that , with Disney constantly adding more hotel rooms and giving perks to good neighbor hotels, the crowds in the parks will continue to get bigger and bigger. They need to be thinking of adding more parks to spread out the people.
Shelly
It’s disgusting. I go regularly and this last trip one week ago was unbearable. The main rides were shut down EVERY DAY. The capacity was past full. Reduced? No. Genie+ is a joke and the customer service is non existent. I will gladly go spend my $10,000 somewhere else. The magic is completely gone and Walt Disney is turning in his grave. I can go to Six Flags and have the same experience I just had. Universal actually did a better job than Disney. That’s saying a lot. I’m actually asking them for a refund. They did not give anything promised when purchasing a ticket. They shut down rides because of “staffing” and when they opened them the staff members told us they had to let all the LL members go.
Michael Stevens
How come when I look at all these pictures of people in these parks. Why isn’t anyone smiling? This overcrowding of the parks started before the pandemic. We were regulars at Disney, we had the annual pass which was a good rate, stayed on the grounds, The rooms were priced just right so you could spend more money in the park. You could actually walk around and not stumble into people. Well, then it happened, room rates went up, annual pass went up, parking in the resort cost 20 a day. Greed was beginning to show its ugly face. Our last trip before the pandemic was hell. Just to tell you how bad it was, the worst rides had a 90 minute wait time. We have not been back since. Just to let you know, I was there when they opened up in 1971. Two things that I miss is the gondola that took you from one side of the park to the other and the 20,000 league under the sea. I don’t think we will see managed crowd control. Probably with all the people saying they won’t return it may be a good bet to make reservations two years in advance.
Tina
Not the happiest place on earth anymore… To many people, wait times are ridiculous and so are the lineso get food waste of money 💸💸💸
DEBORAH LITTLE
I took 2 of our teens 15 & 18 for their birthdays. What a waste of money. This is the 1st time I’ve left feeling worse then I came. It’s no longer the happiest place on earth. For what you pay for the tickets, the time you plan & reserve it was a horrible experience. They dropped the mask mandate.,.. ok I can handle that since we are vaccinated, however we couldn’t ride the moneral 1st time I’ve come here & didn’t, lines are so long in all the parks that they didn’t get to ride much, can’t ride once let alone if you enjoyed it to get on again. Unless you spend extra money on the genie pass…. If you’re expecting the same quality of service don’t come to Disney parks. I have a walker for health reasons & my foot still got stepped on because it’s like salmon trying to swim up stream , that was a week ago & it’s still has a huge bruise. In case you’re wondering not from an electric vehicle but from a person just walking!! If you go be prepared for your young ones to be disappointed. Especially if this isn’t their 1st trip. We won’t be back for a long time if ever. Sad to say. It was my happy place, now I can just kick myself for wasting the money.
Susan F
It is so sad to me. I grew up playing at Disneyland. I took my teenage grandsons there from Arkansas. It was miserable. So crowded, disabled could not get thru. In an entire day we got on 3 rides. Fast passes are very inefficient. Went to Universal Studios,bought a front of the line pass & saw everything. Very dissatisfied with Disneyland. Money is more important than a quality experience.
SEVANS
Not been since 2019 due to pandemic but looking at the crowds it seems the magic has gone. If that is still 35% capacity Id be scared stiff to go when capacity gets back up to 100%. Seems like a place to avoid at the moment. Also not sure I can justify the cost!
Kathy
We went to Disneyworld in September of 2020, and it was dead. But half the attractions were closed but I’d prefer it that way. We we to Disneyland last October and it was crazy. We had been pass holders for almost twenty five years. I’ve been going to Disneyland since I was in a baby buggy, you know those old old pram things.
I won’t return for quite a while.
I hope people get wise, read the articles about what it’s like right now, and go somewhere else. That’s the only way Disney will get the message. That’s what we are doing.
Carla C
Disney is scamming the public, as usual.
I have been at 100% capacity and less than 50% before and that is not 35% capacity. If you dont think Disney is making up for the pandemic just look around you. There is profit to be made and fans need to wake up and go elsewhere. When the magic is only there for the CEO then the fans need to disappear.
Melissa D
I agree with what everyone is saying as I too just got back a few weeks ago and experienced all the same frustrations but I also concluded that sone of the factors were 1) 50th Anniversary and 2) people getting back k out after covid. I’m hoping that once both of those are over that the off months go back to just that, the off months and less crowds. I have grandkids so Disney will never be off limits to me, I just hope they have a better experience than they did this last trip.
Jaye
My husband and I went to the Disney parks for what seems to be our last visit. 3 of the 4 rides I wanted to experience were either a 3 to 4 hour wait or out of order for the day. And, as I am seeing from other comments, it was very crowded. I appreciate the way they have tried to maintain crowding indoors such as having to make a reservation at the restaurants and such, but it is not the experience we remember from visits in the past. we went home with heavy hearts, not the uplifting vacation we hoped for.
Peter S,
The (mis)management of the parks under the Chapek “regime” has been nothing short of catastrophic. Chapek has got to go, and here’s hoping the last PR disaster (Chapek’s lame and bumbling statements regarding Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” legislation) will be the final straw that will have stockholders forcing the board to boot him (or at least move him to where he can do little damage).
Steve
Just was at WDW last week and will never go again. They used to be known for customer service!!
I don’t believe the reduced capacity because it was wall to wall people and horrendous lines. Given most of the rides haven’t changed in decades, Disney is just raking in the dough.
Miranda
It is way too crowded. The genie plus system is horrible. Makes the standby lines awful. They are handling this the same way they did with Fastpass plus. It’s like they want to make standby so bad people pay for the extra service on top of the high pass or ticket cost. I’ve been maybe 10 times since pandemic reopening and latest trip last month, was definitely not at 35%. It’s worse than before the park closure. At least the ride lines are.
Tina
Should know that after 2 years of no theme parks, or very limited with covid protocols, it would be crowded once people can go. So many put off their vacations. I have for that reason, it’s extremely expensive & then not have a good experience isn’t worth the Hassel. There’s so many other places to go.
Hershey Park, beaches, tubing adventures, national parks…much more relaxing. I’ll wait until next year to try DW & Universal.
Nannette
We went mid February, but we did not stay on site. Our kids are in their 20s so we rented a house in the area (which was cheaper) and just paid park hopper admission and ate dinner in the Orlando area, did not eat at the park, did eat at Boma flavors of Africa breakfast buffet which is I think is the best buffet. Paid for genie plus which sucked because you have to get on that first thing in the morning and then you have to wait 2 hours after scheduling first ride and by then rides you want are “sold out” for the day, plus other issues to long to mention. My hubby said you really didn’t feel like you were in Disney, it was rare to see characters walking through the park, and cast members were not as friendly as they used to be and some were just plain rude (probably have to hire who they can get and hope for the best or not enough training p). Not the same Disney that we’ve seen before, that’s for sure.
Jackie
Our family of 10 spent 4 days at Disneyland/CA in November. I have never seen crowds like that before and we visit every other year. No restaurant reservations available anywhere, including Downtown Disney. Painful to shop in stores as no where to move around. No Fast Passes (where’s the logic in that)! And cast members that were cranky & rude (but honestly, can you blame them? Dealing with a demanding, rude public?). I can wait another decade, if at all, before returning. Even sold my Disney stock after our visit.
Nick
This will die down after everyone has been a couple of times. I’m sure in a couple of years you’ll see people get tired of the whole Disney experience and how much it’ll cost. My girlfriend and I went in November and that was our third time in four years. We love Disney but with the packed crowds, we too decided we’re going to take a little hiatus from Disney World. Now I’m already starting to miss it but I think it will be good, to take a couple years away and hopefully by then the crowds will die down. My real problem is with Bob Chapek. Ever since he took over his only solution to anything is raising the prices on everything from ticket prices, experiences in the parks, fast pass+ to Genie+ and now even doing an ad supported Disney+ tier so people will pay for no commercials. What’s next? I get inflation but it’s getting a little ridiculous. I hope Disney finds another CEO soon.
Crystal Haddan
My family is going to Disney World for the first time since the pandemic. All of the recent changes to us have not been family. As long as they keep crowd capacity arrficially low you are going to have these problems. The new CEO and others simply don’t understand who and what they are dealing with. My family is excited to go and we will enjoy ourselves no matter what, but Disney is making it harder for people to enjoy the experience.
Rick
Recently Disney finished the complete takeover of your vacation with Genie+ . The park completely controls line size through the ap by artificially increasing wait times for those not using the app, also using those times to force people into the food (paying more for less now) and merchandise shopping. There is a reason that with less people in the park Disney showed record profits in the last quarter
Denise
Disney World is always crowded brim to brim during tourist season. Nothing new there which is why we steered clear of there during those times of the year, but we don’t go there anymore.
Disney along with blue states are the only ones carrying on with the so-called pandemic despite how we now know it was never anywhere near as bad as they wanted us to believe it was with all of their false information and numbers.
Allison
We were at WDW last week, had never experienced such big crowds. To the point that you could barely walk through fantasyland. Also very hard to be told to “get close to your neighbor” after 2 years of Covid precautions.
Brad
My God, all you people complaining and crying, how dare other people go to the park when I went. People have been locked in their houses for 2 years and now they want to get out just like you. It’s the most visited destination on the planet that people haven’t been able to get to for a long time. It’s gonna be crowded. Stop your crying, plan your day out and go about your lives. “Oh boo hoo,, I’m never going back” Yes you are, where else are you going to go? Or don’t go, I won’t have to hear your complaining.
Terry
I will complain. My kids had the genie plus but still had to wait almost 5 hours for the star war ride. 5 hours. No food, water, or ability to use the bathroom. Was it their choice? Yes. But once you wait one hour, then two, then three, then four..you do not want to get out of line. It just seems that they could do better with the amount of money they make in the park!!!
Puckles
Lmao
Theresa
How can it be both ways??? — Huge crowds, shoulder to shoulder, crazy long wait times.
OR 35% of capacity?? I do not understand
Martha
Yes, I’m confused by that also
Mario
The people complain about the price of admission.
Terry
My kids waited 4 and a half hours to get into a Star Wars ride. They had no drinks or ability to use the bathrooms.
Steph
Been to Disney World almost every year for over 40 years except the pandemic. Went Feb 3rd for 3 days. We had to leave because of the crowds. No more joy or whimsical feelings just too many people. We won’t be returning
Diana
We were annual pass holders for year. We won’t return until crowd capacity and time in line reduced along with constantly increasing prices. I hate that they are nickle and dimeing guest, catering to foreign guest with expendable dollars. The average family can’t afford to go to the parks. The magic is gone, so sad!
Byebye
I think that Disney now takes food stamps for entry into the parks. I have NEVER seen so many jungle rats except when I have been in the inner city.
Michelle
We have no desire to ever return to Disney parks after our last experience! All parks were way too crowded and it was all way to expensive! The prices have gotten totally out of control! I understand that things normally cost more at vacation destinations but Disney has gotten super greedy! I can buy an entire seasons pass to a whole chain of cedar fair parks for what it costs to get into one Disney park for one day so that is what I am doing now! Their parks are much nicer anyway!
Puckles
This place is SCREWING the pathetic SHEEP who are choosing to give them their hard earned money. You deserve what you get.
Marie
I watched a mother yell at a young boy that he WILL have a good time because she spent too much money to come.
We didn’t enjoy our time.
There are so many other vacation places to explore and we are off to find them.
SaintsGirl
Went Mardi Gras week. There is no way that was reduced capacity. Magic Kingdom had to open secret passage from Tomorrow Land to Tony’s Town Square for people to exit. Crazy…and don’t get me started on the Genie + Lightning Lane system…it’s a hot mess.
Pamela
Was There in Feb the the crowds where terrible and made worse as bith my husband and myself used disability scooters, we where to busy watching incase we ran into people we never say what was going on around us, Complete waste of money. disney had to put their boat on to get people out to car park. 😠😡
Pamela
Was There in Feb and did 3 parks the the crowds where terrible and made worse as bith my husband and myself used disability scooters, we where to busy watching incase we ran into people we never say what was going on around us, Complete waste of money. disney had to put their boat on to get people out to car park. 😠😡
Tammy
Just got back after 10 days. It was the most crowded and the longest lines I’ve seen in all the years I’ve been going. Genie plus and Lightening Lane were super frustrating and we will NOT be back until the whole ride pass system is redone. At 7am you spend 15.00 per person for a CHANCE to get a Lightening Lane and if the time it gives you is late in the day, you can’t get any others until you use that one. So 15.00 for one ride. THEN there are two rides per park that you can’t use Genie + and those were gone at 7:00am and seconds. We were unable to ride half the rides we normally rode.
Martha
What I don’t understand is WHY the parks are more crowded than ever. I’ve lived nearby for 40+ years. I have been to WDW countless times. Why are they so much more crowded than they used to be? They cost more. They require a lot more up-front planning than they used to. There are more parks than there used to be. Is it just good marketing? Is it that there are more people on earth? Seriously, what is up? My family used to get annual passes every year but we don’t plan to renew them. Not that it will make any difference to Disney, but for us, the cost/benefit ratio is not where it needs to be.
Beth
I’ve don’t believe they’re at 35% capacity. I’ve been 20 times and never had it as crowded as it was 2 weeks ago. No fun when you wait so long and still only ride 4 things a day…. WITH genie + which has you zigzagging and walking all over instead of going from place to place as you progress thru the parks
Mike
March 9, 2022, I was hit in the face with a stroller. I don’t think it’s so much the crowd control, but the rude, entitled people in the crowd.
Cheyenne
It’s hard to believe the parks are operating at reduced capacity. In the last 5 months every Disney World park has been packed no matter what day of the week it is. I’ve been going to the parks for over 10 years and this year is the busiest I’ve seen. Definitely frustrating and much harder to enjoy.
Karen
We also went a couple of weeks ago, we bought the Genie pass and got to use it maybe twice! We’ve been going to Disney every year for 32 years but right now it’s insane so we will be holding off going also.
Kevin
Disney will continue to pack as many as they can into their parks. Last time there waited an hour for each ride. There for 6 hours and only saw 5 attractions and an overpriced lunch. I will never go back. Used to be fun. Now too many people ruin it.
Tini
I wrote a blog post about this a few weeks back after our last visit. Uncomfortably heavy crowds are one thing, but navigating the parks with a service dog right now is IMPOSSIBLE. We are passholders and I’d rather pay this monthly payment and not go to Disney than deal with the hell we went through 3 weeks ago. We just can’t do it. After 15 years as passholders, we will not be renewing this year.
Pete
Wow, 190+ comments!
My 2 cents, the capacity problems now are more related to reduced / “managed” staffing levels with their Park Passes system. They are cutting the back staffing too much for the guest levels they are matching them to. They outright need to spend more money by having more cast members to deal with the crowds better and get the attraction guest turnaround times better. May need to do more maintenance activities to keep some attractions running better, like Rise of the Resistance. In the before times they had to plan for guests based off historical data and then staff from that info with some growth flex built in. Now, they are still trying to hire people and trying to get attractions/shows restarted, and having a hard time finding people and generally not doing a good job of getting the experience back to what it used to be. Of course they don’t focus on getting the guest experience back to what it used to be so there’s that.
Capt Kirk
We finished 3 days (one day each in Magic Kingdom, Hollywood Studios, and Epcot) and after our experience, we will not return for a few years. I do not believe that Disney is limiting their capacity whatsoever. Restaurants are nearly impossible to book once you arrive. Even the “fast food” needs to be ordered hours in advance. Their relatively new “lightening pass” (which replaced the “fast pass” is a “must have” (we didn’t have them) since the ride lines are insanely long without them. AND you can only book it the day of your visit at 7:00 am and only a finite number of passes are available and they go fast. All in all, this was a horrible experience and it will be a long time until we return!
Pete
Disney is no longer a good value for the family way too expensive for what you get to do it to do to pay those kind of prices just to standard line’s unbelievable will not be returning
Justin
I was planning on taking daughter in 23/24year. but highly doubt it,ll get any better an cheaper. At least i got to enjoy it when i went to the CA one, back in the mid 90’s along legoland. i can recall plentyyy of space an breathing room back in the day verse now days.
Steve
No thanks. I’ve heard enough the last 6 months to put a foul taste in my mouth about Disney. They are just pricing themselves out of the middle class. Too many people. Too long of waits. Ya I’ll do something else too until they get things under control with people and pricing.
George
The magic is gone as far as I’m concerned and as a pass holder I will not be returning as it’s not fun at all. We are now paying more and getting much less.
DK
Parks under full capacity? Hahahaha.
anne
we went last year when the parks were at 35% capacity. Lines were fairy quick, and people were not ‘wall to wall.’ All of the recent pictures online show how crowded the parks are. We are going in April, hopefully the crowds willl be less than what the pics show.
David
Been saying they need to open a third park in the U.S. for some time now.
Steven
But where? Southern California and Central Florida are the perfect locations…. I have a few ideas on this. It has to be a place that can accommodate 365 day a year theme parks. They have to have international airports that accommodate all the traffic that will come due to Disney. They have to have the proper infrastructure to handle Disney. These are big endeavors.
1. Las Vegas – This could be a good place, as there is plenty of hotel space and it would give Disney the time to build their own resorts and branch out. Downside, Disney would need to compete with various activities already occurring in Vegas.
2. San Antonio – SeaWorld is there. SeaWorld seems to be doing well. I think Disney would find success there as well. The airport and local area may have challenges though.
3. New Orleans – Disney has several shows, movies, etc., that are housed straight out of New Orleans. Not to mention, there are several themed hotels in Florida, from Disney, that is centered around New Orleans. The downside to New Orleans is that it may be hard to build a Disney theme park there, as open land may not be as widely available. I saw tons of open land between New Orleans to Kenner, but you may feel like you are on a landing strip as the airport is near there.
4. South Florida – This may appear like a good idea. Miami/Fort Lauderdale may be able to accommodate this, but being only 2.5 to 4 hours away (determining where the park is housed) from Orlando may be too close.
5. Savannah – Savannah is a beautiful place and I think Disney would be a fit. There is a lot of open land in the Savannah area that can accommodate a park. The airport would need some work and hotel infrastructure is there in Downtown, but Savannah would need to do more.
6. Phoenix area – There are positives and negatives to this area. The weather would be there, but it is a desert. The population, infrastructure, and airport could handle this…… but the heat of Phoenix can be draining. Yes, SoCal and Central Florida get hot, but the dry heat of Phoenix may be a little unexpected for some. Plus Phoenix has incredible traffic…… and adding Disney would make Phoenix more closely resemble Los Angeles in terms of traffic woes.
Tanya
San Antonio or Savannah area would be good options. New Orleans, I would say no, bc of flooding and Las Vegas to close to LA, like Miami. What about maybe Arkansas? Close to middle of the Country and in between the 2.
Jeff Waitkus
We went to all 4 parks 2 weeks ago. The crowds were overwhelming. Standby lines were typically 100+ mins. Lightning Lanes were “unavailable” for the entire day by 11a for most rides. It was difficult to imagine fitting more people into these spaces. Numerous rides were breaking down. We had to be evacuated from the Haunted Mansion. And after 45 mins in the standby line for Splash Mountain, they shut it down for the next 4 hours. I am highly skeptical that they are limiting capacity. It was nice to be in the warm weather, but so disappointed with Disney.
Holly
The parks aren’t really enjoyable being this crowded. The last time Disney released a capacity number was in 2021 at 35%. They DEFINITELY are running at near capacity it seems like. Before COVID, the standby lines were hardly ever as long as they are now. Yes some lines were 2 hours but that was only like 1 ride at each park. Now its multiple rides at each park. The Genie+ is definitely screwing up the stand-by lines. When fastpasses were still a thing, the standby lines were never this long.
Andrea Gennis
How can it at only 35% capacity, but yet many times be at capacity and have crowds there looking like they are at 100% capacity? That does not make sense.
Tanya
Disney says they are running at 35% capacity but not that each park is running at 35% so since they have this stupid pass system they can make each park however crowded they want.
Barbara
Universal is surpassing Disney in all areas. Disney is the same old, same old except now there are sooooo many people, you are shoulder to shoulder in every park, even Epcot. I yearn for the days we took our kids out of school and visited on Dec 10th. Low volume, no lines and all Christmas decorations. Now there are no down times. Plus the cost of tickets have sky rocketed. Bummer. Not going back. We also found that the restaurants at Disney Springs are interesting but the food is mediocre at best. They are overly crowded and overly priced.
Liz Fowlis
Visiting Disney 3 years ago was one of the worst experiences of my life!
Overcrowded, overpriced and huge lineups despite having the fast pass.
I will never return and don’t recommend it to anyone.
M. Licausi
We had to postpone our Oct 2020 trip because, well we all know why. We have are having Disney Withdrawals and keep up with park news and quiz anyone we know who has been since the parks reopened. The recurring theme ? Oversold . Parks are miserable to navigate especially with little ones. Lines for everything are long , guests are frustrated and Cast Members are struggling to keep up. This seems to be contributing to issues with park maintenance. Some family members were there earlier this month and reported the same issues. They did have a nice time but felt they should gave waited
because they spent a lot of money and spent half the day navigating the parks and waiting in lines. They also said they hated the Genie Plus . We are still monitoring the news out of DW and hope to book a trip late this year, that is if park crowds are better managed. We have been looking forward to The Magic but will stay put for now.
Amy
We went mid January and it was definitely crowded more thins year then in the past. However, with navigating genie plus and adding some lightning lane for cost, rode every single ride we wanted at Magic Kingdom. We rode Haunted Mansion and Peter Pan twice. I am also a huge fan of mobile ordering at quick service options. We always have a great time and know it will be crowded.
Kj
First time at disney I’m assuming🤣 that’s literally Disney world norm 90% of time. People want to go have fun but expect to be the only families having fun
Julie Budd
Dear Walt Disney World, it’s not me it’s you. I am heartbroken to say this, but I am done!
I will say that it was GREAT to see my friends and I had lots of decent food and fun drinks. But I could do that for a lot less money than what I paid to be in the parks in WDW and experience very few attractions.
I have survived no Fast Pass, the hard ticket Fast Pass system, and Fast Pass Plus. I figured out how to make all of them work for a family of five during some of the busiest times of the year and with two (now adult) children with special needs.
However, this Genie Plus system is ridiculous! They are charging $15 a day per person to get access to the lightning lanes. Even if you wake up at 7:00 am, you are not guaranteed to get the attraction that you want most at a reasonable time. It’s not like they tell you all of the available times and let you try to fit that into your schedule, you have to take whatever time they give you and make it work. Also, this does not include the two “best” attractions in each park, which you have the “privilege” of paying extra money for, if you want to skip the standby line. To get those attractions, you have to be up at 7:00 am to start trying to get that, and then keep trying back until you get to a time that fits in your schedule.
I have loved Disney World for so many years and have had so many amazing experiences there that it really hurts my heart to say this, but I have no intention of going back anytime soon. At this point, I am waiting for grandchildren and that will be a long, long time! Or, if they fix this Genie Plus system, I would consider it at some point.
We will see what the future holds, and I will continue to love Disney movies and consider other parks, but, Walt Disney World, I am done with you for now!
HSJ
We went the first week of February. Yes, it was crowded and the standby waits were long, but with Genie+ and ILLS we did almost everything we wanted in each park and never waited more than 15 minutes for anything. Was very happy with our dining reservations/options as well.
It takes planning. I studied Genie/ILLS extensively before I went, and as a result we had a very pleasant and smooth trip. I’m ready to go again (not during spring break, of course).
Nicolás
How is this level of crowds “at capacity”?? I’m currently in Orlando, packing bags after an extenuating 6 day 4 park tour. MK and HS lines where ridiculous. Actually paid for genie+ at MK hoping it would help me. It was useless. Only managed to book two attractions. By the time I was able to book the third one they were uninteresting attractions at nonsensical hours. Definitely felt overcrowded. Not Looking forward to my next visit.
Lynn
We have been going through the parks this week. We hit the 4th one today, that being the magic Kingdom. It was anything but magic. The place was absolutely packed. I’ve never seen crowds like this, and I’ve traveled a lot. Once the fireworks came that was it. I was being pushed, run into and nearly trampled. Disney staff was screaming at guests. I pretty much hated most the day, and will never come back this this park unless more is done to cater to guests and less to CEOs pockets!
Erwim
Only time is before, after, during the fireworks it gets congested at Magic kingdom.I think they should make a grassy area with benches in the back of the park for castle viewing only. That way you dont have the bottle neck of people leaving.Learn from Busch Gardens.
Lady
You haven’t seen crowded until you go to New Years Epcot and your shoulder to shoulder to the person next to you trying to get to the next DJ. All night long! Magic kingdom was definitely not crowded. Over exaggerated people leaving early! Like leaving anything there’s a bottle neck!Concert /Disney / whatever!
Erwim
Wait time were less than 3 to 4 hrs tonight.They were 1 hour or less means not crowded. Try again Magic Kingdom …if Your there as often as me you would know this!If you walk into a park and walk right out , its crowded!No one did that!
Steven
I have annual passes to Universal Studios and SeaWorld. I won’t purchase any tickets to Walt Disney World, be it annual passes or any specially priced packages or tickets. Compare and contrast, there is no reservation system at Disney Springs, Universal, and SeaWorld and it seems that the crowds are more under control and we are hearing less of these stories. The reservation system is doing nothing to help Disney or people going to the parks.
Renee
Horrible, was in Magic Kingdom the first week of March and animal kingdom also. Lines were out of control, restroom not cleaned, no paper towels and no workers all day in Magic. The next day in amimal kingdom I saw 2 and the restrooms were better. On my phone the whole day and the genie pass is ridiculous. I spent $582.00 plus genie for A two day pass and no hopper and got on 7 rides in two days. It used to be my favorite place in the world, not any more. Walt is rolling in his grave, this needs fixed.
Geo
Ever see how sardines are packed in a can? Disney parks are the cans and people are the sardines.
Tanya
Disney parks have always been crowded, especially certain times of year, but we’re reasonable. Obviously, their park passes aren’t working and making things worse, same with the genie+. It doesn’t take a genius to see that and they have said they’re not even at full capacity. Never had these long of waits for rides or the overcrowding in a certain park until these were implemented.
AD
We went to Disney Hollywood this week and found the lines and the crowds to be horrible. We will stay away for a very long time.
Brio Semino
Disney is a rip-off. Stay away.
Cynthia Sitko
My husband and I spent 4 nights at the Swan Hotel in February for a 40th Anniversary celebration, and reserved Epcot and Animal Kingdom as our parks we wanted to visit, since last visit was 2006, 16 yrs ago. Epcot was hosting the Art festival celebration of 50 yrs. 2 days we spent there. It was amazing, loved it and all the special food and drink creations. Not very crowded. Then our 3rd day reservation at Animal Kingdom was a nightmare. Shoulder to shoulder crowds. Only could go on a few rides as lines were over 2 hour waits, standing. Rediculous. So Many poor parents with children waiting and waiting. 7 hours of waiting to go on 3 rides that lasted 1 to 3 minutes. If that was crowd control by reservation I’d hate to see what full capacity is. It was not a happy experience there.
Our room at the Swan was amazing tho and great staff. Our view from our room was just beautiful, especially at night. The Boardwalk right next door and an uncrowded boat or bus right at hotel to transport us.
Heidi
We went in January and if they consider the crowd level not at capacity I hate to see what “capacity “ is. We postponed for two years because of the pandemic and finally things were at a safe enough level to go. We found it difficult to walk around,grab a bite to eat, shop and go on rides because of the crowds. Don’t know why it’s so bad now but we will wait until the crowds are much less than the they are now to return.
Nancy
We were there in November the week before Thanksgiving and it was unbelievably crowded. Plus 3 of the.attractions were closed. You absolutely could not move. This is after saving all year to be able to afford to go. I have been there before and had an amazing time. Have decided that we will not be going back until things change.
Ace Martin
Over charing for tickets. Overcrowding of people.Well wait tell have a tragedy there people trying to run out there I can’t move that’s when they’ll fix the problem. Right now they’re making so much money and with more people there the more money they make and they said they’re not at full capacity yet yeah right I believe that the fire marshal be in there should be in checking head count that’s an accident waiting to happen.
Jk
We were at Magic Kingdom Saturday March 5th and park was not that crowded. We rode 15 rides in 9 hours to include all the mountains but we also purchases genie plus. This includes having 1.5 hour downtime eating at Beatty and beast table service restaurant.
We were at all 4 parks first week of Dec 2021 and they were insanely busy.
Mark
Just finished a week at Disney. Too crowded and Animal Kingdom shut down all of its attractions and restaurants early. That was a wasted day.
Julie
We were at Disney last week. Half of the people are looking at their phone to get In a lightning lane and the other half are looking at their phone to place a mobile order of mediocre food. We love Disney but it just wasn’t as much fun with the crowds, lines and new rules.
Ace Martin
Over charing for tickets. Overcrowding of people.Well wait tell have a tragedy there people trying to run out there I can’t move that’s when they’ll fix the problem. Right now they’re making so much money and with more people there the more money they make and they said they’re not at full capacity yet yeah right I believe that the fire marshal be in there should be in checking head count that’s an accident waiting to happen.
Debra Pierquet
I have been to Disney World three times the most recent was in February 2022 it was horrible I witnessed no magic in the Magic Kingdom it was so crowded when you couldn’t get food which was hard to come by you had nowhere to sit and eat it people were eating on garbage cans you couldn’t stop to catch your breath and people were running you over was a horrible horrible vacation there was absolutely no magic in the Magic Kingdom my grandkids got to see the princesses in a flash as the float flew by The character dinner which cost a fortune you got to look at the characters and they stood 6 feet behind The kids so you could maybe get a photograph if they gave you time
The extra money for the lightning line was a total waste of money as space Mountain was chronically closed on the days that we had our so-called reservations at each park which was another waste of time why do reservations if you’re going to allow the park to be so overcrowded that people can’t move or breathe I recently went to great America also I would go backThere any time rather than go to Disney World
Melinda
We were at WDW Feb 12-20. I have never been so disappointed in the parks as I was this time. Way overcrowded. Plus the Genie + System is a total money grabbing DISASTER! It was supposed to be a relaxing vacation, instead my daughters spent hours as well as extra money to get reservations on rides and we could not get anything but money was not refunded. I will give a praise to The Crystal Palace as the menu was very good. I haven’t eaten there since 1976 (honeymoon) as all I heard were bad reviews. Since menu was revamped it is very good. We, as well as everybody else that were at the parks, had rescheduled our trip from last September due to COVID so I can understand some of the crowd sizes, but will never again come in February.
Angela
We went in February and won’t go back until they reduce capacity. They packed the parks so full and now charge for everything. We did 8-10 rides and attractions per day from open to close. This is not Walt’s vision. It was a horrible and very expensive experience. Who wants to wait over an hour for everything? They need to add 2 new parks for the current capacity to be pleasant. The new CEO is the poster boy for GREED.
Sarah
For once I actually don’t blame Disney In a way we’re in a pandemic everybody couldn’t go on vacation for a couple years where is the first place many families or just single people want to go Disney it’s not Disney‘s fault people can’t be patient and wait to go at a later time I get you wanna have a fun spring break go to the beach wait a couple years then go to Disney I like Disney too but I’m deathly gonna wait till this is over before I even attempt Disney
Rodney Simonson
Sorry, we have been visiting from Michigan for 40 years, AP holders for 10. Current wait times are at least double anything we ever encountered before the pandemic. When Smugglers Run opened the stand-by wait was posted at only 90 minutes, that passed in less than 60. Now, Lightening Lane wait rivals that. The elimination of FastPasses, institution of mobile ordering, virtual queues, closures, missing or abbreviated live shows, parades and character meets, as well as park hopping curtailment have put people in walkways or stand-by lines instead of in restaurants, on transport vehicles or gathered in anticipation of an “experience”. The place used to run like clockwork, but the reduced cast and ignorance of crowd dynamics, as well as poor upkeep leading to excess breakdowns, have made for unmanaged crowds, begging for distraction.
Rodney Simonson
Nearly 30,000 fewer cast members than pre-pandemic tells the story, but has somehow, been swept under a handy rug. It explained closures, break downs and poor service… but not astronomical price increases.
Maria
Hola soy de Argentina fui en enero, estuve en un hotel de disney y compré el genie+ por 10 dias de parque. Y la verdad la cantidad de gente fue un infierno. No sirve pagar el genie+ se han amparado en la pandemia para brindar menos y peor servicio mientras en los parque cada vez ingresa mas y mas gente.
Liza
If all the rides worked, all the shows were back to the pre covid shows, all the restaurants were open maybe the crowds wouldn’t seem as bad. But when you only have half of the parks to do because that’s all there is to do it will continue to be stupidly busy.
Marcia M
All the decreased capacity means is that they are limiting the ride cars creating long lines. We went there last May and the crowds were crazy. It wasn’t fun and we certainly didn’t get our moneys worth. Skipping Disney on future trips to Florida. Sad!
JD
Don’t know about the crowds but been checking for last two months and according to Disney’s wait times on the My Disney App There has not been any crowds on wait times! The only things that has been over 120 minutes has been in Hollywood for Rise Of Resistance and Ratatouille and Frozen in Epcot! Everything else has been under an hour. But would like to be there to see for myself.
Emma
We went as first timers presidents day onwards with a 2 week ticket. Never ever again. Genie + was so overused that it made it worthless, ride wait times were an hour minimum which with a 4yr old is setting us up for failure. There is no magic. This was pure greed and profit by the park, cannot believe this is nowhere near the full capacity limits. To have to continually return in order to try and get on 3 rides and then give up by lunch is one thing, but add on a $25 a day parking charge and the threat of covid still being around and its insane by the management as they know the wait times are up to 3 hours. Rides breaking down (star wars rise and slinky down at the same time at studios!) Putting even more pressure on a rammed park.
I feel sorry for anyone going over spring break and would advise them to get a refund. Not magical at those crowd levels.
Josh
My guess is that all the complaining is from people who frequent the parks often…meanwhile people like myself who want to plan a once in a lifetime visit with my two kids have to contend and fight over people who have literally in some cases been there with their kids hundreds of times!!! It’s absolutely sickening to me that people who have been there so often can’t just stop or significantly reduce their visits so that those who are there and intend to be there only once can actually enjoy the experience…oh and btw the excessive visits only contribute to escalating costs and make it that much more difficult for those who can barely afford the trip to beable to finally make the trip. Disney doesn’t need to do anything to get this under control…greedy mfs need to look in the mirror!
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