Just like the moon influences the tides… the ebb and flow of water, so does certain events at Disney influence the flow of the crowds. We went to Magic Kingdom on Sunday morning so Shelly could see Tinkerbell and Friends without having a huge wait in line. There was a good sized crowd at the main gate when they opened the gates. Whoosh… yes, you could actually hear the surge of the crowd as they entered Main Street. Surprisingly there wasn’t any running… just a lot of fast walking. Now our plans were to get to the beginning of Adventureland as quickly as possible, to be some of the fist to see Tinkerbell… we have had these kind of plans before. They usually helped, but usually there was still a line, maybe 15-20 minutes… others would start behind us but walk faster and beat us to the location, where ever it might be. Today would be a real surprise.
Okay… first off (and please don’t tell anyone)… Disney has extra magic hours for quests that stay on property at Disney Resorts. They get to go into the parks, on selected days, an hour earlier, or stay 3 hours later at night, beyond what the off the street guests can enjoy. Disney has upwards of 25,000 rooms on property. Average 3 people per room, that about 75,000 people. if only ¼ of those people take advantage of “Extra Magic Hours” that’s more then 15,000 people. Now, here’s the secret… do the math… would I want to go into a park, as an off the street guest, get in at the regular time, and already have 10,000 people ahead of me at opening time? Of course not! … and the same applies to evening extra magic hours. So, if you want to avoid overly large crowds… you got it… stay away from the parks on the days that they have extra magic hours. If it’s in the morning, go in late or to another park in the morning. If extra magic hours are in the evening, go to a different park that night. Of course, if you like extra large crowds, go to the parks early or late went they have extra magic hours. Myself, I try to take advantage of whatever would give me smaller crowds.
Now, here’s another factor… which came at no surprise… with the popularity of the New Fantasyland at Magic Kingdom… everyone is head there first.
Sunday was extra magic hours in the evening, so Disney Resort guests, if they came to Magic Kingdom on Sunday, were most likely to come late, to enjoy the extra hours in the evening. So the plan was to go to Magic Kingdom Sunday morning, as per my usual aversion to avoid big crowds would dictate.
Double Plus… advantage … us! Now, with the combination of these two factors… The New Fantasyland that everyone wanted to see first, and extra magic hours in the evening… well it left the rest of the park nearly empty for almost the first 90 minutes. Wow… what a huge difference. As you can see from the photos… the rest of the park was empty. Walked right onto everything. Even from the 90 minute mark, and for another 90 minutes, the rest of the park had very light in crowds… 10-15 minutes wait lines. Can you say a little bit of heaven. And they say the “magic” is in the evening (Sunday at MK). Getting the most out of a Disney vacation… well… it’s not complicated… but a little bit of thinking sure can make a huge difference. Adventureland, Frontierland, and Liberty Square were deserted… and no doubt so was Tomorrowland and Main Street.
It’s like Magic… a little forethought… and it was almost like a private party for a couple of hours!
Wow… where is everyone?
Yep… the park was open for 60 minutes now!
Amazing! … Simply Amazing!
They’re all in Fantasyland.
or coming to extra magic hours in the evening.
Kinda takes all the fun away…
NOT!!!
Oh, by the way…
we were FIRST in line to see
Tinkerbell and Friends!
and then walk right in to any ride were wanted in Adventureland, Frontierland, or Liberty Square.
