[Park Hopper]

If you were at WDW during the Christmas holidays and thought it was crowded, you were right.

The Orlando Sentinel is reporting in Wednesday morning's editions that Disney World set attendance records during the holiday season. WDW set several records over the weeklong holiday, including its highest-ever daily and weekday attendance, according to remarks made by Michael Eisner at a media and telecommunications conference in Phoenix.

In addition, the newspaper article says Epcot set an all-time daily attendance record on New Year's Eve. As is Disney's policy, no attendance figures were revealed.

Orlando's two other major theme parks, Universal and Sea World, also reported a record holiday.

[dznygrl]

All I can say is...blecchh! :( Glad I wasn't there during the holidays!

[Dana]

Park Hopper -

I have missed your reports and am happy to see you back amoung us. Hope your holidays were nice and that you continue to to report the WDW news and info to us. I, for one, look forward to it as I'm sure other do. I am glad to hear WDW had a great holidaly week. It's nice to hear people are still doing the magic in mass forms. They have been having a tough two years and it's about time that people remembered that there is magic in Orlando. All that traveling is assuring our magic stays where it is. Not that I would like to be thrusted amoung the millions of that crowd, but I am glad they had a good week.

[LRTJS]

It is always good news to hear that the Mouse's Houses are healthy and attracting thousands (except for when I am going to be there) But seriously I think it would be weird for me to be there and the place half empty. We went to Epcot the first week of Aug. 2002 and it rained and afterwards it was like a ghost town-it really wasn't crowded even before the rain. This may sound stupid but I like some crowds when I go, not masses though.

[mickaholic4077]

As part of that crowd on New Year's Eve,I cancertainly believe that it was the record for the highest one day of attendance. I had to hold on to my mother when we were trying to get out of the park after the midnight fireworks!!!

[catfish1999]

I was one of the seemingly zillions of people in the Epcot New Years Eve crowd. We got to the park by 8:30 and there was already a 2 hour wait to GET A FASTPASS for M:S. The standby line never got below that 2 hour wait time. I had been in Sept. so it was no biggie for me to skip it. My in-laws visiting from Michigan were a bit taken aback by the crowds. I tried to warn them, but!....
By 10:00 p.m. we realized that
a. We were TOO OLD FOR THIS!:dazed
b. If we waited for the last Illuminations show it would be 3 am at least before we got back to the car, then who knows how long before we got back to the condo they rented
c. NEVER AGAIN! :nooo:

The next day on one of the buses, the driver was saying that she had to work until 4 am shuttling people back from Epcot.

The only way I would do Epcot on New Years again is to stay at one of the resorts that has boat access, take the boat over at about 8 pm for dinner and stay for the hoopla.

On New Years Day we went over to Wilderness Lodge to show my step daughter and do a little more shopping. There was a little commotion in the store and when I turned around Michael Eisner was there with his entourage. Guess he figured it was a good photo op for the upcoming annual report. It was funny because the day before, at Epcot, we noticed a helicoptor hovering over the lake for a while, My hubby and I joked that the only one with pull enough to be doing that would be Eisner, probably counting the crowd to dispell all the negatives surrounding him lately. Guess we were right!

[mickaholic4077]

My mother and I were saying that that helicopter was a security chopper,but you're right,it could have been Eisner,couldn't it!!!