Ride Lines Completely Take Over Tomorrowland as Crowd Levels Skyrocket - Inside the Magic

Comments for Ride Lines Completely Take Over Tomorrowland as Crowd Levels Skyrocket

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41 Comments

  1. Walt

    The crowds this week have been insane. I would love to know what capacity is now days. The reservation system is a joke when they are allowing this many people in the parks…

    1. Rroe

      Disney is a totall money hungry joke. I cancelled our Annual Pass and wouldn’t go there if it was free. Bob Paycheck has completely ruined the entire park system and is only concerned about Greed.

      1. Bobbi

        👍

      2. Jordan

        It’s like this because they had the marathon and have cheerleading things going on during the 50th and still dealing with covid. Blaming him isn’t accurate.

    2. Bob

      Walt,
      There is no park capacity limit. A guest can purchase a WDW ticket and not have access to a park. It’s all about the money and that is why ticket purchase comes first.

    3. FL-Dad

      It’s not so much about limiting capacity, it is so Disney can figure out how many CMs they need on shift on any given day. They only keep a minimum number of CMs on shift, so as to minimize salary expenses. If they want to, or have to limit CM hours, then they reduce park reservations. See how that works?

      Disney being greedy A-Holes is the “new normal.” (geez I hate that term)

      1. Mipooh

        It is complete greed by Chapek & the board. Even reducing the amount of people coming into the park by 20% it would make the lines lighter, it would lower the issues of people fighting with each other, etc. This is pure greed on the part of Chapek & it is going to continue till people say enough is enough. I am going to be going to Universal instead. At least there you are treated like a human being instead of profits.

  2. Mike

    The “Park Reservation Ststem”, is a joke. What is it actually doing for maintenance of crowds?

    1. Jordan

      It prevents people from all going to the same park on the same day at opening.

  3. Becky

    Literally loved Disney, been 3 times in the last 4 years with our daughter…after this last trip in February it will be our last. Totally disappointed with the wait times and new “lightening” lanes. Magic was lost!

  4. Minnie

    We are going this next week and I’m hoping that we are able to see and do things on our list. Will this trip be a waste of money because of the crowds?

    1. Lawrence Lewis

      It’s up to you. There has been no slow season this year. We went right after Thanksgiving usually a slow period before the Christmas rush. It was bad but not as bad as people are talking now. Most ride ride lines were about an hour long back then, I hear fast pass doesn’t even help now.

      1. AH

        Was there then also. Most of time lines were bad. You are correct.

      2. Dave

        Travelled from the UK. Had ticketz with the so called fast pass unknown to us Disney changed to lightming lanes and geneplus .Disney would not honour our tickets and wanted us to pay the extra
        Shall not be returning total rip off trying to make up for what they have lost due to covid.
        Waiting times for rides totally ridiculous

    2. Justin

      Went around Christmas, ride and done most everything we wanted to do. That’s saying allot considering my kids all wanted to do different things ,3yo , 7yo and 11yo. Do your research and watch state from YouTubers such as all ears and dfb . We did not do route drops and only bought lightning lane at Hollywood studios and had it at universal. It was crowded but we still had alot of fun.

      1. Justin

        Lol spell correct , rope drop. With genie plus , if you buy it get up early and get your main ride locked in , remember the 120 minute rule , you can pick your main ride say at 8am and get a 4 pm res, at 10 am you can pick another ride also giving you 2 reservations . We worked it in hws so that the longest we ended up waiting was about an hour on any ride

        1. AH

          Auto correct changes good words to different ones a lot. Happened to me dozens of times.

    3. Katie

      Keep an open mind and expect 2 hour waits for all the popular rides. The lightening line for the big rides and the additional single pay rides book up often by 7:03 am ( opened at 7:00). We just did 7 days there and never rode more than 4 rides in each park each day. Never even made it on rides like Tower of Terror, Mickey and Minnie Runaway Train, avatar rides or Peter Pan ride as my family refused to wait 2 hours in 87 degree heat. Overall, the trip was ok, but we have had better trips in the past. Never (even preCovid) have we ever seen lines this long and crowds this big. Not even on holidays!! You will still enjoy your trip if you give your self grace and patience. If a big ride has a less then hour wait……get in line as you may not get the chance again.

    4. franklin

      The start of March always brings on the start of spring break as well. That was true even prior to covid. But combine that with the fact loads of people haven’t traveled for a couple years and toss the 50th on top = crowds for the ages. Personally I’m waiting until next year before we make a return trip. These lines and wait times are just insane for the amount of money you pay to even get in the gate.

  5. Phillip

    We are here today. Lines extended long ways but wait times were still reasonable. We waited less than posted time for every ride. I think since people aren’t using the new genie plus, we are all in stand by line so it is longer but wait times are less since there arent as many ‘fastpass’ lane people to push in front. I don’t know, but it looks worse than it is. Genie plus is terrible though. Tried it two days – worthless.

    1. Uba

      What made the genie pass worthless?

      1. Jill

        You are allowed to pick one ride at a time. Too many Genie + are sold. Availability for the second ride could be four or five hours later. No rides are guaranteed. Most passes for the better rides are sold out early. Leaving you the ability to only ride a few rides that you’re interested in. Although you purchased the Genie + you may be surprised how long those lines are also.

      2. Rroe

        Don’t you already pay more than enough to enter the parks??? Why would you ever want to pay more for Genie + which is just another money hungry scheme by Disney to fill their coffers?

      3. franklin

        For us it was the taking away the ability to schedule fast passes at least 30 days out. That made it a little easier to plan our trip since on some days we would base what park we would go to on the FPs. All that has gone out the window since you need to plan each day out starting at 7am eastern.

  6. David Loyd-Hearn

    Fastpass ruined the park experience, even the old paper ones. When implemented at DLP, you could see the crowd impact instantly. Get people back in lines, keep the attractions moving and entertain people as they wait.

  7. Mel

    I don’t know, things are just so different with crowds, no slow times to enjoy, people have just gotten rude … I’ve been going since I was a kid in the 70’s. I’m DVC, but I let my AP go during the pandemic. I haven’t had any desire to get in this mess.

  8. CJ

    Maximum Capacity Magic Kingdom = 90,000

    That’s just one Walt Disney theme park for Walt Disney World (you factor roughly the same amount for every Theme Park there, so 4 Theme Parks x 90,000 to 100,000 each = too many in my opinion!)

    Genie+ is a fail

    Fast Lane paid for every single Queue as a separate up charge is ridiculous (pure greed trying to herd too many within a Theme Park!)

    That Maximum Capacity needs to go down to say 60,000 per Theme Park (allowing each Theme Park to be over that capacity is causing a condition that is too crowded to handle rider capacity per hour).

    Factor how many Passholders are allowed in daily (a different percentage are going to be local, compared to those who don’t visit as often because their vacationing from out of town).

    Unless there is a 5th Walt Disney Theme Park in Florida to help meet the demand, these ridiculous queue lines will continue.

    1. franklin

      WDW absolutely needs a 5 park. But, and it will never happen, they also need to stop building new resorts and hotels at WDW as well. It’s clear that the parks can’t handle the existing crowds let alone any new ones coming from hotels now under construction or expansion.

  9. Marianne

    We have been going to Disney for over 25 years . We were there March 2. The Genie Plus is a waste of money . It is advertised as a better version of fast pass but is so hard to reserve rides , it actually perpetuates longer standby lines .
    We got on 4 rides the entire day

    They should have left it as it was . There is no magic anymore

  10. Confused or miss leading? All the people complaining about the crowds, but the wait times for the last several days on My Disney app don’t reflect the parks being crowded unless nobody is waiting for rides. The article shows Tomorrow Land but wait times don’t show large crowds. Only long wait times shown on the app is Hollywood Studios Galaxy’s Edge and that’s been over a two hour wait!. No other park has shown long wait times!

  11. Julian H

    Absolute RIP OFF, Disney with Bob PAYCHECK and his BOARD have completely ruined the Parks. Looking at the high crowds levels, wait times etc, they have forgone capacity for sure, its got to be verging on a health and safety issue.

    Genie Plus is also a joke, over selling, save your money people, its not worth it, have you seen the lightning lane queues they are as long as the normal lines these days. So fed up with GREED if this Company. Shameful.

  12. Bill

    With the current system in place I have no desire to return to WDW

  13. Mike

    I don’t understand why people are even going right now. Of course it is insanely crowded. There’s the pent up demand due to COVID-19 and DW 50th Anniversary. Even without the COVID factor it still would have been crazy crowded. As for Genie+ of course it sucks too. It’s new. Anytime there is a new crowd management tool it takes a couple of years for it to work out the kinks. Just wait another 2 years and crowds will return to normal and Genie+ will be better

  14. Randy W

    We had rescheduled our summer 2021 trip to this summer, last week of August, when no one wants to be there because it’s #burninghot and the colleges and southern states are back in school. Traditionally been a good time to goif you can brave the heat, but hearing about crazy crowds in the slow season isn’t instilling confidence that it’ll be quieter then. Either way, it’s going to be the last hurrah at WDW for a while at least. The old FP system was great, was able to get a few “must do rides” in via FP, and navigated the standby for everything else. Zero interest in Genie+ or LL so we’re hoping the hot weather gamble pays off.

  15. HockeyGrl

    Last time we went with fast pass plus we reserved late and got 1 fast pass per day. We also rode 4 rides per day then. I am looking forward to the new system, at least I have a chance at buying 7DMT this time, haven’t got to ride it yet.

    Rides are great and we will make a list of our priorities. But I also like to enjoy the entertainment and pool time. I wanted the beach and my family wanted Disney so as long as we get a few rides, food and take in the parks, then it’s a success. If you are there to do every ride in each park in one day, that sounds exhausting.

  16. Maryann

    Bring back FAST PASSES! Fire Bob Chapek while you’re at it! Disney is ruined!

    1. Deco

      To the poster saying it was because of certain circumstances, maybe it’s even worse this week, but the parks are way too choked with people at all times recently. I’m no disney expert, but I visited all four parks in mid February (supposed to be quiet season) and was completely blown away by crowd levels, especially in Magic Kingdom. I know people will say, “it’s disney, what do you expect?”, but I visited in July 2014 too, and the difference was stark. Trying to get a place where you could see the evening fireworks/light show at MK was like a warzone this past February, whereas July 2014 it was easy to get a place right in front of the Palace. Queues for everything constantly choked. I feel like they’re allowing crowds to inflate massively in order to sell Genie+ to people desperate to just try things and not spend the day looking at the back of someone’s head. It worked on me this time, but won’t work ever again. Felt like I was conned.

  17. Kevin Robinson

    If all this is about money,please bring back Fast Passes and just charge me more!!! Genie ➕ is total crap!! Way too much time spent on your phone, Disney is forcing us all to be worried about what rides we can all get on next. I know people hated the fast pass because they didn’t like to have to plan their day. Well guess what,now you have to reserve a park to go to,which is b.s.,so why not let us plan out 60 days out what rides we can reserve while at that park???!!! Then you know what times those rides are,and the rides you don’t have passes for you go wait in the stand by lanes. This is not really hard to figure out. My wife and I just tried the genie plus Sunday feb.28th and it was a joke,this system is useless. I will pay more money if thats what disney wants,just make ut so I can get 3 fast passes like we used to be able to do!!!! And no one seems to be complaining about not being able to park hop before 2pm!!???? Another b.s.experience. we need to get back to times before COVID-19, and disney can totally do this…..tell me everyone out there wouldn’t pay for an option to get 3 major rides in a park,wait for a couple other rides,then be able to go park hop,get there and be able to grab another fast pass or 2,then go to another park and get another fast pass,ya know,like we used to!!!!!!!! We are annual pass holders and dvc members,which disney should be taking care of us dvc members better or will face us selling back to them. We have talked about just coming down and enjoying the resorts we stay at,not visiting any parks,or maybe going to Universal one day. Sure hope disney can bring the magic back soon.

  18. Christian

    Was there for 9 days and was the worst trip. Yacht club was great. But the parks were so overcrowded and overwhelming that was not fun. Basically spend the first 2 hours in the park and leave. All of the food except the Irish pub in Disney Springs or California grill was mediocre at best. Will never go back. Best thing is make sandwiches before you go in. But in Magic Kingdom it looked like not one person was having a magical time. Terrible.

  19. UCSBGRAD

    I think it is time to consider opening a another Disneyland somewhere in the country. A park in New York state would be well attended by people in people in New England, New Jersey, New York City and the Washington Metro Area. Maybe it’s because I am in Socal, but I am perfectly happy with just having Disneyland and California Adventure, and honestly would still be fine with just Disneyland like it was when I was a kid. I would much rather go to one park with less people than the Magic Kingdom with 4 crowded parks.

  20. R

    Question: How many people would go to any Disney park IF there were NO rides? How many would go to just a look at theaming, costumed characters, souvenirs BUT ABSOLUTELY NO RIDES of any kind? Just curious.

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