lentesta
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Aug 30, 2002
- Messages
- 2,076
Wow! My usual search on DIS doesn't include my own name, so I missed this thread. 
I'm wrapping up the "Best Days" recommendations now, with a goal to get the website updated by this coming Friday. There will be changes to both the crowd levels and the daily recommendations. We're also going to try to answer the following questions:
1) How and from where do you get data to make these recommendations?
2) What holidays/special events do you take into consideration?
3) How important is choosing the "right" day? What other factors influence wait times?
4) How accurate are these predictions, anyway? (Alternate title, suggested by a reader email: "What the h*** were you thinking on March 30?" I may actually use this title in the '06 edition.)
and
5) Your new advice seems to conflict with the 2005 Unofficial Guide. Why?
For #5, it appears that we may recommend Disney-MGM Studios on Sunday, even though that's usually the Studios' EMH evening. We'll also occasionally recommend Epcot on Thursdays, even though it's Epcot's EMH evening too. Hopefully we'll do a good job explaining why this isn't a bad idea in #1, #2, #3.
We quantify #3 in terms of extra minutes spent waiting in line. We'll also tell you what things are more important than day of week when trying to minimize wait times.
For #4, we went back and looked at our predicted crowd levels versus the actual wait times in the Magic Kingdom for January 1 - April 4, 2005. The preliminary result is we'd give ourselves a B using the old method, hopefully an A using the new.
If the mods don't object, I'll be happy to post drafts of the text here nightly as I work on them, to obtain comments and suggestions. That would start this evening. If not, I'll post a draft to the website under the (mis-spelled - ha!) "Sneak Peeks" section.
Thanks!
Len
I'm wrapping up the "Best Days" recommendations now, with a goal to get the website updated by this coming Friday. There will be changes to both the crowd levels and the daily recommendations. We're also going to try to answer the following questions:
1) How and from where do you get data to make these recommendations?
2) What holidays/special events do you take into consideration?
3) How important is choosing the "right" day? What other factors influence wait times?
4) How accurate are these predictions, anyway? (Alternate title, suggested by a reader email: "What the h*** were you thinking on March 30?" I may actually use this title in the '06 edition.)
and
5) Your new advice seems to conflict with the 2005 Unofficial Guide. Why?
For #5, it appears that we may recommend Disney-MGM Studios on Sunday, even though that's usually the Studios' EMH evening. We'll also occasionally recommend Epcot on Thursdays, even though it's Epcot's EMH evening too. Hopefully we'll do a good job explaining why this isn't a bad idea in #1, #2, #3.
We quantify #3 in terms of extra minutes spent waiting in line. We'll also tell you what things are more important than day of week when trying to minimize wait times.
For #4, we went back and looked at our predicted crowd levels versus the actual wait times in the Magic Kingdom for January 1 - April 4, 2005. The preliminary result is we'd give ourselves a B using the old method, hopefully an A using the new.
If the mods don't object, I'll be happy to post drafts of the text here nightly as I work on them, to obtain comments and suggestions. That would start this evening. If not, I'll post a draft to the website under the (mis-spelled - ha!) "Sneak Peeks" section.
Thanks!
Len
)
