Just an offhand observation - during my last trip (the first week of October 2014) I recall hearing what seemed like a predominance of foreign languages being spoken. I’ve chalked it up mostly to confirmation bias, but who knows?
With the relatively strong dollar over the past year I’m surprised there would be more international visitors than usual.
We were in the parks from 9/13 thru 9/19. As many have stated the crowds were higher but manageable. Magic Kingdom was busier while Epcot seemed the seasonal norm. Like others have mentioned, I did notice a large number of folks from South America in the parks. Thinking back though I did not observe many foreign visitors in the table service restaurants. We had free dining so we were typically in one sit down per day. I wonder if there was a promoted discount to South America during this time. We were last at WDW in Sept 2013 and were there in Sept 2012 as well and I did not notice the number of Spanish speaking visitors as I noticed this time.
A few years ago I was in Boneyard at AK with my youngest daughter. I was speaking with a gentleman from South America and he commented on the number of people from SA that he’d seen on the trip. He said it was likely because their version of Spring Break was at that time.
This was the ~3rd week of September; I wonder if their Spring Break was a bit earlier? I know our own Spring Break has a big impact…could the southern hemisphere’s Spring Break be causing some of it?
I meant, perhaps their Spring Break was a bit earlier this year…causing the early September spike.
We were there from 9/9/15 until 9/17/15. I knew immediately on day 1 at Epcot that this was not 1-3 crowds. There were several Colombians and other Spanish speaking countries represented as mentioned they were out of school and at the parks! Night of Joy on Friday and Saturday nights were packed but absolutely excellent! We got through everything we wanted for the most part towing 13, 11 and 2 kiddos around! the 2 year old was a troopah! We did kid swap at many rides which is a serious dent to any touring plan because you are at a ride for a long time even with fast pass. But mom and dad had to hit Soarin’ test track, space mtn, 7 dwarfs, etc and we did! we actually never made it to fantasyland for the little one since the big kids were riding everything including the parents! But it was waaaaay busier then expected which was a bummer but we loved it all! Blessings JJ
I’m wondering now that you guys have had a few months to analyze some of the data, if you have been able to come up with any answers about what may have happened this past September? I am booked for an 8 day trip between the 10-18 next September and I like many others booked this time period party due to the idea of smaller crowds. The CL indicators right now don’t indicate any park being above a 5. Just wondering if you could give me any early insight about what the data might indicate September 16 will look like.
Just bumping this thread up to see if anyone came up with anything about last September
Thanks for the bump. I had actually forgotten about this thread. I still haven’t gotten any concrete answer beyond that the parks are just busier. However, I think part of what may bump at least some crowds up is F&W starting earlier than ever.
Unfortunately, I’m not sure we’ll know a concrete answer for a couple years. If crowds are high again this September, it may be a strong sign of a “new normal” that the parks are always relatively busy. Although there may be lots of economic factors at play as well (gas prices, unemployment, etc.) which when they change could lower attendance in some future year.
We made our first trip in a few years in early December - parks were noticeably more crowded than when we’d been there last at that time of year, but we still had a great time and got to do everything we really wanted to. Even if crowded is the new norm, it’s still a great vacation IMO…