Hi Folks..Just been looking at photos of Easter at MK from rope drop to lunch time..Jezuz...I've never seen it that busy in all my life..We have been 5 times, all in the month of July ( Twice during 4th ) But that looks crazy....I always thought Xmas would be the parks most crowded time, but I'am curious now..Has anyone been at Easter and Xmas, and if so, what was the busiest.?
Christmas without a doubt! Easter was doable, but I chose not to spend much time in MK. 
Well here's a picture taken this Easter at rope drop..MK... 
and here's me and my DS at the rope drop day in July.2012.
The busiest I have been was Easter
I would think that Christmas is worse because the parks get too full that they actually refuse admission and that pretty much applies to all four parks. On Easter, the only park I heard getting the most attention in terms of crowds was the MK. Add on the designated Easter events, Anna and Elsa moving to the MK and all that, made the MK really crowded. As for the other parks, I didn't hear anything about crowds or turning away admission like Christmas. Were they crowded? They had to be but not as extreme as Christmas.
"All my life I wonder how it feels to pass a day, not above them but part of them.
And out there living in the sun, give me one day out there, all I ask is one to hold forever. Out there where they all live unaware, what I'd give, what I'd dare, just to live one day out there."
Still think IOA has had the craziest queue i have ever seen
Howdy Y'all
https://www.facebook.com/matthew.tucker1
Caution Content May be inappropriate
May/June 2016 Magic cruise to Norway
2017 Prtugal wedding adventures
2018 Alskan disney cruise ??
2019 Florida
Judging by the wait times I saw ON Easter, it actually wasn't that bad. But this Easter week has been pretty bad for the MK, though a lot of those crowds are going straight to Princess Fairytale Hall to wait in a 5 hour standby line for Anna and Elsa. 
New Years Eve. 2003. MK. Park at capacity 10:00am. Noise makers given to children 4:00pm. Never again.
That's the worst I've experienced personally, but I imagine that it's far from the worst there has ever been.
Be good at something. It makes you valuable. Have something to bring to the table because that will make you more welcome. --Randy Pausch
Trip Reports:
December 2013: 10th Anniversary, 1st DVC Stay | April 2014: Birthday on the Boardwalk | May 2014: Star Wars Weekend, Navigating WDW with a wheelchair | August 2014: Villains Unleashed | September/October 2014: MNSSHP, F&W, Tower of Terror 10-miler | March/April 2015: Disneyland and California Coastal Cruise | November 2015: Wine & Dine Half, Food & Wine, 1st Disney Cruise | February 2016: Presidential Classic Gymnastics Meet | March 2016: "Work" Trip, Tours, F&G Festival | April 2016: Conference at Disneyland | Fall 2016: Festive Fall Fun | January 2017: Festival of the Arts | May 2017: AbD Backstage Magic | July 2017: AbD San Francisco | Sorry I had to give up doing trip reports. Too many time commitments right now.
Judging by the wait times I saw ON Easter, it actually wasn't that bad. But this Easter week has been pretty bad for the MK, though a lot of those crowds are going straight to Princess Fairytale Hall to wait in a 5 hour standby line for Anna and Elsa.
I also was tracking wait times on my Disney App and it actually did not seem bad at all. The usual rides were 50+ minutes, Peter Pan, Space, Test Track, Soarin', but everything else did not seem too terrible. I've never been at WDW during Easter so I cannot really speak about the "in park" experience.
I've been on July 4th and it was the most insane I've ever seen it. Imagine standing in line for almost 2 hours for Splash Mountain. This was pre fast pass era. It. was. terrible.
I really think the fast pass system has fixed a lot of those insane wait times during the busiest times. There is a reason Disney has blackout dates for military tickets and possibly CM tickets. (Mandy would have to speak for that) Blackout dates are week of Christmas, a few days at Easter, and July 4th. Busiest times. We've been the last two years the first/second week of May and it was lovely! No more than 15 min waits and not too hot!
Christmas by far. Over the entire 10 days we were there several years ago, it was insane everywhere. We made sure the on a Christmas Day we got to MK early and the stayed. So many people, lines out to crazy at all the feature rides - heck at everything and so many families who didn't know about getting ADRs standing around waiting for seating, with crashing kids.
Spring break/Easter had some busy and crowded moments, but nothing like Christmas.
If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.
J. R. R. Tolkien
If you have a season pass compared to the annual pass, you're also subjected to blackout dates but those dates are the busiest by the looks of it. If I was living in FL, I'd take the season pass over the annual one. Not worth all the trouble dealing with the crowds and it costs less, too.
https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/passes/seasonal-annual-pass/purchase/
"All my life I wonder how it feels to pass a day, not above them but part of them.
And out there living in the sun, give me one day out there, all I ask is one to hold forever. Out there where they all live unaware, what I'd give, what I'd dare, just to live one day out there."
If you have a season pass compared to the annual pass, you're also subjected to blackout dates but those dates are the busiest by the looks of it. If I was living in FL, I'd take the season pass over the annual one. Not worth all the trouble dealing with the crowds and it costs less, too.
https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/passes/seasonal-annual-pass/purchase/
DH and I live in Florida and we both had Seasonal AP for several years. But, they raised the price of parking to $17/per day in February. Currently to renew a FL. Res. AP it costs $435.59 and a Seasonal AP is $286.49. That is a difference of $149.10. That pays for 8 days of parking/per year. We go to WDW an average of 30 days a year, and we always drive our own car. It would cost us $510 for 30 days, just to park if we still had only the S.AP. If you're a local, you drive, and you go to WDW more than 8 days a year, get a regular AP. Just one member of a family needs a regular AP to get free parking.
jw24 wrote:If you have a season pass compared to the annual pass, you're also subjected to blackout dates but those dates are the busiest by the looks of it. If I was living in FL, I'd take the season pass over the annual one. Not worth all the trouble dealing with the crowds and it costs less, too.
https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/passes/seasonal-annual-pass/purchase/
DH and I live in Florida and we both had Seasonal AP for several years. But, they raised the price of parking to $17/per day in February. Currently to renew a FL. Res. AP it costs $435.59 and a Seasonal AP is $286.49. That is a difference of $149.10. That pays for 8 days of parking/per year. We go to WDW an average of 30 days a year, and we always drive our own car. It would cost us $510 for 30 days, just to park if we still had only the S.AP. If you're a local, you drive, and you go to WDW more than 8 days a year, get a regular AP. Just one member of a family needs a regular AP to get free parking.
It's a 90-minute drive for us, so we go for the day. The free parking was worth the extra $ for us too. PLUS - we almost always end up with company over the summer that want to visit WDW. Summer blackouts would have messed that up for us. Of course, since we purchased the AP, no one has said they are coming this summer - THAT is worth double the cost 
July 4th was no picnic, sorry about the pun, but it was PACKED. It was VERY hot, kids were cranky and wait times for rides like Pooh were 2+ hours. 
We went and enjoyed our alone time (just two of us) BUT we could stop and smell the roses, get some fp and walk at our leisure.
"At some point in life you have to decide if you're the Tigger or the Eeyore."...Randy Pausch
"George Banks and all he stands for will be saved. Maybe not in life, but in imagination. Because that's what we storytellers do. We restore order with imagination. We instill hope again and again and again." Walt Disney
The worst time for us was when we mistakenly went to MK during the Atlanta Olympics in '96. Never thought about international tourists tacking on some Disney time.
We were there from 9am to midnight. In those pre-fastpass days, I think we rode 6 rides in that amount of time. If my recollection holds, the shortest wait we had was over 60 minutes.
Since then, we've stayed away from major holiday crowds at the parks. It's an experience I only need to have once.
We try to avoid it during the holidays.
I avoid the busy season like the plague - that includes July.
Last year I was there in early June and that was about as crowded as I could handle.
I thought it was amazing in June, Kristen especially after all that rain.
jw24 wrote:If you have a season pass compared to the annual pass, you're also subjected to blackout dates but those dates are the busiest by the looks of it. If I was living in FL, I'd take the season pass over the annual one. Not worth all the trouble dealing with the crowds and it costs less, too.
https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/passes/seasonal-annual-pass/purchase/
DH and I live in Florida and we both had Seasonal AP for several years. But, they raised the price of parking to $17/per day in February. Currently to renew a FL. Res. AP it costs $435.59 and a Seasonal AP is $286.49. That is a difference of $149.10. That pays for 8 days of parking/per year. We go to WDW an average of 30 days a year, and we always drive our own car. It would cost us $510 for 30 days, just to park if we still had only the S.AP. If you're a local, you drive, and you go to WDW more than 8 days a year, get a regular AP. Just one member of a family needs a regular AP to get free parking.
This is probably not allowed or frowned upon, but couldn't you park at DTD, take a bus/boat to a resort, then head to a park? Maybe that's more trouble or maybe they check hours of parking at DTD....
We saw people doing this at the All Star Resorts once. While waiting for buses, we saw two cars come in and park in the "check in" parking lot. They grabbed their personal items and came on over with us and waited for a bus. I just wonder if Disney checks this?
AnnielovesDisney wrote:jw24 wrote:If you have a season pass compared to the annual pass, you're also subjected to blackout dates but those dates are the busiest by the looks of it. If I was living in FL, I'd take the season pass over the annual one. Not worth all the trouble dealing with the crowds and it costs less, too.
https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/passes/seasonal-annual-pass/purchase/
DH and I live in Florida and we both had Seasonal AP for several years. But, they raised the price of parking to $17/per day in February. Currently to renew a FL. Res. AP it costs $435.59 and a Seasonal AP is $286.49. That is a difference of $149.10. That pays for 8 days of parking/per year. We go to WDW an average of 30 days a year, and we always drive our own car. It would cost us $510 for 30 days, just to park if we still had only the S.AP. If you're a local, you drive, and you go to WDW more than 8 days a year, get a regular AP. Just one member of a family needs a regular AP to get free parking.
This is probably not allowed or frowned upon, but couldn't you park at DTD, take a bus/boat to a resort, then head to a park? Maybe that's more trouble or maybe they check hours of parking at DTD....
We saw people doing this at the All Star Resorts once. While waiting for buses, we saw two cars come in and park in the "check in" parking lot. They grabbed their personal items and came on over with us and waited for a bus. I just wonder if Disney checks this?
I've never looked into whether or not this is allowed because we would never take this option regardless. If it's allowed, it may work for some people, but for us it would be a huge waste of precious park time. We usually only get two days in the park. A full Saturday and we have to leave between 5-6pm on Sunday. If we took this route, we would lose about two hours/per day in the parks. It was definitely worth the extra $149 for our situation!
Last year I was there in early June and that was about as crowded as I could handle.
My bad! It was the best we could do within the DFTW rescheduling rules, school schedules and other fun stuff.
Based on the feeding frenzy going on with Disney right now it would seem the "busiest times might be shifting? LOL 
"At some point in life you have to decide if you're the Tigger or the Eeyore."...Randy Pausch
"George Banks and all he stands for will be saved. Maybe not in life, but in imagination. Because that's what we storytellers do. We restore order with imagination. We instill hope again and again and again." Walt Disney
I really think the fast pass system has fixed a lot of those insane wait times during the busiest times. There is a reason Disney has blackout dates for military tickets and possibly CM tickets. (Mandy would have to speak for that) Blackout dates are week of Christmas, a few days at Easter, and July 4th. Busiest times. We've been the last two years the first/second week of May and it was lovely! No more than 15 min waits and not too hot!
Cast members hardly ever get blocked out but we get our guest passes blocked out during the peak season like Christmas, New Years and most of the summer. It's mostly MK that gets blocked out the most. Cast members get blocked out during the 24 hour events at MK. If we aren't working and want to attend we either use our complimentary tickets or buy a ticket. If we try and sneak backstage, we could get terminated on the spot. I was DAK this past Christmas and New Years, it really wasn't that bad. Everything had semi-normal wait times and wasn't really that crowded compared to Magic Kingdom.