A fair bit of advice has been written about the best days of the week to visit the various Orlando area theme parks and Ive written my share of it. In the fullness of time, however, I have come to believe that such guidance is of limited use, for a number of reasons. First, as Ive already mentioned, if youre anywhere near normal, theme park crowds are going to seem overwhelming most of the time anyway. Second, theres a problem with averages. You could well arrive on the slowest day of the week only to find that theres been an atypical blip in attendance.
One reason for attendance being unpredictable is the frequent special events and corporate promotions that can flood the parks with an extra several thousand people or even close them altogether. To cite just one example, I was visiting Islands of Adventure on a day when a major car manufacturer was hosting thousands of its customers as part of a special promotion. Not only did these lucky folks get early admission to the park, so that when the rest of us mere mortals were allowed in the place was packed, but the park closed early so that the favored few could have the place to themselves until late into the night.
That being said, one popular view has it that Saturday and Sunday are good days to visit Universal Orlando on the theory that most folks start their vacations on the weekend and that most of those who come to Orlando go to Disney first. Following this theory, Monday through Wednesday become the busy days. However, my recent experience suggests just the opposite. I found fewer people in the parks on weekdays and bigger crowds on the weekends. Go figure.
