Mardi Gras 2016

[Mad Dog]

Yeah park at capacity all in a 10th of the full park area... I believe it was record breaking and incredibly stressing. This was nowhere near diagon or hogsmede where the crowds could be dispersed. They were all just there.

Universal Woodstock 2016.

 

[Nick]

Yeah park at capacity all in a 10th of the full park area... I believe it was record breaking and incredibly stressing. This was nowhere near diagon or hogsmede where the crowds could be dispersed. They were all just there.

That's the biggest issue is that the park closed to capacity.... But most of the park was empty.

Everyone was piled into one area, causing chaos.

 

[Fatality]

That's the biggest issue is that the park closed to capacity.... But most of the park was empty.

Everyone was piled into one area, causing chaos.

I would've gotten hammered and gone to laugh at people at Guest Relations / Cry for the poor Employees doing their absolute best.

 

[s8film40]

It was obviously extremely busy but I found it to be very manageable. I left work (downtown Orlando) at 5:30 so decided to stop by for the concert. I got there at 6:00, security and the park entrance had small waits and the signs were up saying the concert was full. I made it over to the concert area and found a decent spot right outside the barricades near the HRRR entrance. With one of the walkways in the concert area that they keep clear in front of me I had a very clear view. I left just before the last song and traffic wasn't too bad, still made it home before 11pm.

 

[Nick]

Record Breaking.....

It was a post on the UOAP facebook page right now so i'm taking this with a grain of salt, but the guy said there was 60,000 people in the park on the night???? That seems almost impossible to me based on current park capacity, but what do I know.

 

[epcyclopedia]

I don't know anything of the park capacity, but 60k total for the day sounds entirely reasonable. They're not all there at exactly the same time.

 

[Nick]

I don't know anything of the park capacity, but 60k total for the day sounds entirely reasonable. They're not all there at exactly the same time.

That's more what I was thinking... for the day.

I'd be intrigued to know how many were in the concert yard/area during that time. Just eyeballing, i'd guess somewhere between 6K-7,500 but that's a complete guess. I'm not familiar with capacity of the concert yard and the surrounding areas for viewing.

 

[IzzyB]

So Studios is more crowded on Mardi Gras days, right? My friend is coming in on the last weekend and doesn't really care about Mardi Gras, so I was thinking IOA for Saturday and Studios for Sunday. But when I looked at a touring calendar is states that IOA would be busier on Saturday and less busy on Sunday. And then studios is less busy on Saturday, but more on Sunday. Makes no sense to me.

 

[Mad Dog]

So Studios is more crowded on Mardi Gras days, right? My friend is coming in on the last weekend and doesn't really care about Mardi Gras, so I was thinking IOA for Saturday and Studios for Sunday. But when I looked at a touring calendar is states that IOA would be busier on Saturday and less busy on Sunday. And then studios is less busy on Saturday, but more on Sunday. Makes no sense to me.

Touring Plans has been really inaccurate on both Disney & Universal for the past year. They really need to redo their stuff. On Mardi Gras Saturdays, often the ride times don't reflect how crowded the park actually is. Just like on the Jan. Harry Potter celebration, the ride times(which TP bases their crowd calendar on) don't accurately portray how crowded the park is. Lots of people are watching parades & music instead of standing in ride lines. Generally, the Studios is way more crowded than the crowd calendar (ride times) is indicating.

 

[IzzyB]

Touring Plans has been really inaccurate on both Disney & Universal for the past year. They really need to redo their stuff. On Mardi Gras Saturdays, often the ride times don't reflect how crowded the park actually is. Just like on the Jan. Harry Potter celebration, the ride times(which TP bases their crowd calendar on) don't accurately portray how crowded the park is. Lots of people are watching parades & music instead of standing in ride lines. Generally, the Studios is way more crowded than the crowd calendar (ride times) is indicating.

This was undercover tourist because touring plans requires me to pay to see the dates. So if you were advising people, which day would you say? I still say IOA Saturday and Studios Sunday, but I could be way off as I know Disney crowd patterns way better than Universal.

 

[Mad Dog]

This was undercover tourist because touring plans requires me to pay to see the dates. So if you were advising people, which day would you say? I still say IOA Saturday and Studios Sunday, but I could be way off as I know Disney crowd patterns way better than Universal.

Yes, that sounds like the right call.

 

[Frank Drackman]

So Studios is more crowded on Mardi Gras days, right? My friend is coming in on the last weekend and doesn't really care about Mardi Gras, so I was thinking IOA for Saturday and Studios for Sunday. But when I looked at a touring calendar is states that IOA would be busier on Saturday and less busy on Sunday. And then studios is less busy on Saturday, but more on Sunday. Makes no sense to me.

Some of the times we've gone to Mardi Gras, the Studios have felt slow for most of the day. I assume a lot of folks may spend the day at IOA and them come over to the studios in the late afternoon/early evening, plus I assume some locals might come just for the evening.

We went to Mardi Gras this year when there was a concert/parade on SAT and SUN so we knew the parks would be crowded and they were more crowded than most of the visits we make to UOR, so I do not think I can offer any advice based on our experience this year (other than SUN was slower than SAT).

 

[epcyclopedia]

Sunday is the first day of official peak, so take that for what it's worth.

Also Touringplans used to adapt calendars beyond their calculations based on the opinions/input of a small circle of people around Len Testa. Now it seems to stick more closely to the calculations and ignore the random factors that knowledgeable humans were able to predict.

Maybe the human input doesn't mean much in the big scheme especially when the emphasis now is on the wait time of a particular attraction instead of how hard it is to push through a park - but being a former advisor for such changes I like to think tge worst case scenario was overstating wait times while matching park crowding itself.

 

[Mad Dog]

My reading of Izzy's post was that her friend was coming in on the last weekend of Mardi Gras, which wouldn't be peak season. At least that's what I thought. Maybe I'm wrong.

 

[IzzyB]

My reading of Izzy's post was that her friend was coming in on the last weekend of Mardi Gras, which wouldn't be peak season. At least that's what I thought. Maybe I'm wrong.

You are correct Mad Dog. Her children's spring break is late. Which is why she decided to do this last minute trip because they have not been here, but want to come here. So they figured this was the one year that they could have slightly less crowds than normal.

 

[Mad Dog]

You are correct Mad Dog. Her children's spring break is late. Which is why she decided to do this last minute trip because they have not been here, but want to come here. So they figured this was the one year that they could have slightly less crowds than normal.

Good. The crowds shouldn't be too bad then.

 

[IzzyB]

Good. The crowds shouldn't be too bad then.

Agreed. She is from California and was going Universal on the weekend because she thought Disney would be more crowded than Universal. I told her the crowds should be OK and honestly Disney and Universal can be just as crowded these days. But MK is lighter on the weekdays and Epcot will have the flower festival so weekends are more packed so I told her to keep those plans. But I am thinking moderate crowds. Heavier than May, but way lighter than the next 3 weeks will be.

 

[Mad Dog]

Agreed. She is from California and was going Universal on the weekend because she thought Disney would be more crowded than Universal. I told her the crowds should be OK and honestly Disney and Universal can be just as crowded these days. But MK is lighter on the weekdays and Epcot will have the flower festival so weekends are more packed so I told her to keep those plans. But I am thinking moderate crowds. Heavier than May, but way lighter than the next 3 weeks will be.

Sounds right. And Disney's a zoo on weekends anymore.

 

[IzzyB]

Sounds right. And Disney's a zoo on weekends anymore.

Depends on the park it seems for us. Like Epcot with Flower going on was a zoo, but 2 weeks before was dead.

I actually managed to get Mine Train fast passes for the MK day she is going. So I think it will work out well. There was no FPs yesterday, but today when she was looking she found them. We are going in the evening and meeting up with her, so I said I would get them and we can do child swap and therefore all of us will be able to get on. I did that with Thunder, Splash, and Mine Train. Then they are going to get their passes early in the morning and maybe be able to get a 4th and 5th. They also plan on going back to the hotel for lunch and naps. Which since she is staying at Poly will be really easy for her.

They are staying at Cabana two nights, but couldn't get Friday there, so they are doing one of the other 3. So the other 3 have Express, would she be able to get Express for Friday and Saturday? Only Saturday? She checks in Friday, out on Saturday and into Cabana on Saturday. Also, how does express work? Anyone on her room reservation gets express? Is it passes or room key? She wasn't sure how all that worked. If she has express on Saturday I will probably meet up with her on Sunday since we won't have express. But she has a suite so she wasn't sure if she could add us somehow to express. But I doubt it.

 

[Mad Dog]

Depends on the park it seems for us. Like Epcot with Flower going on was a zoo, but 2 weeks before was dead.

I actually managed to get Mine Train fast passes for the MK day she is going. So I think it will work out well. There was no FPs yesterday, but today when she was looking she found them. We are going in the evening and meeting up with her, so I said I would get them and we can do child swap and therefore all of us will be able to get on. I did that with Thunder, Splash, and Mine Train. Then they are going to get their passes early in the morning and maybe be able to get a 4th and 5th. They also plan on going back to the hotel for lunch and naps. Which since she is staying at Poly will be really easy for her.

They are staying at Cabana two nights, but couldn't get Friday there, so they are doing one of the other 3. So the other 3 have Express, would she be able to get Express for Friday and Saturday? Only Saturday? She checks in Friday, out on Saturday and into Cabana on Saturday. Also, how does express work? Anyone on her room reservation gets express? Is it passes or room key? She wasn't sure how all that worked. If she has express on Saturday I will probably meet up with her on Sunday since we won't have express. But she has a suite so she wasn't sure if she could add us somehow to express. But I doubt it.

If you have an Express hotel, you get to use express on both the day you check in and the day you check out. Example. You check in to Royal Pacific early on Friday (even if your room isn't ready yet) and checkout on Saturday. You will be able to use Express on both Friday and Saturday. You get Express passes for those registered in the room with you. I don't know what the occupancy limits are on the suites, thus how many Expresses you can get. I'd think she would have to register you as a guest for that room to get express for you. They do a photo card for the expresses now. I think there was some fraud a couple of years ago with the non photo system.