Confused on Crowd Levels

[MSRSDS3]

Hi,
I've been to DW many times, but trying to plan our first trip to DL. I'm looking at crowd levels for late July and early August ,and the calendar lists 9's!
But when I look at the predicted wait times of rides, alot of them are only 20 -30 minutes? Does that sound right?

I know a 9 in DW means you can barely walk through it and the wait times on rides are usually a lot longer than 20-30 minutes.

For those who are famliar with both parks, is a 9 in DW comparable to a 9 in DL, or am I missing something?


Thank you!

 

[Elk Grove Chris]

This summer looks to be more crowded than usual with the opening of Carsland. Probably should schedule a minimum of 3-4 days to get to everything you want to see.

We usually go every August and love it. Extra people, but extra hours and everything (usually) is open. Get there early, use FP's, take an afternoon break, go back in the evening (or earlier to catch a parade) and you will be fine. Make sure your trip is over before the lower tier of the annual passes are unblocked.

 

[mrswh]

What rides are you seeing with a 20-30 minute wait? It can be extremely busy and there are some rides that just never get lines longer than 30 minutes- Small World and Little Mermaid (at DCA) pop into mind. If it's a 9, though, you're going to be looking at much longer than 20-30 minute waits for most rides.

I will say that while DL (not so much DCA - it has wider walkways like WDW) *feels* much more crowded than MK (or any of the other WDW parks) on a very crowded day, the wait times will still likely be shorter than they are at WDW. (For example, on a crowded day, TSMM at DHS might have a 120 minute wait while at DCA it might be 60.)

I am guessing that some of the days coming up in the next few weeks would be a 9 crowd level for DL - on one of those days, check out one of the DL wait times apps and you'll get a feel for how long the lines are for different rides on a crowded day.

 

[MSRSDS3]

Thank you for the insight! Yes, one of the rides was Little Mermaid.
For example July 27. DL is predicted to be a 9.6.
At DL, Indiana Jones at 45 minutes and Star Tours at almost an hour. That makes more sense to me. Most others are 20 minutes and under. Its probably the nature of the rides as you said and we aren't familiar yet with them.
I do see they predict large crowds this week. good idea, I"ll see how the ride times go this week, so I can get an idea!

Thanks again!

 

[HydroGuy]

Hi,
I've been to DW many times, but trying to plan our first trip to DL. I'm looking at crowd levels for late July and early August ,and the calendar lists 9's!
But when I look at the predicted wait times of rides, alot of them are only 20 -30 minutes? Does that sound right?

I know a 9 in DW means you can barely walk through it and the wait times on rides are usually a lot longer than 20-30 minutes.

For those who are famliar with both parks, is a 9 in DW comparable to a 9 in DL, or am I missing something?


Thank you!

You must be getting this data from touringplans.com and I do not like to knock them. Their wait time and Lines app for the iPhone are really good.

So I would put it this way. I have been at DLR the past couple years on summer days which TP calls 9's or 10's, and I thought the days were some of the lighter crowds I have ever seen in the summer. So I do not know what they mean by 9 or 10. I have been in DLR when it was really, really busy (in 2005 summer and TG in 2005) and those days were way, way more crowded than the 9's or 10's of the last couple summers.

The bottom line for me is I look at their projections for interest but I do not use them for decision making and I recommend you do the same.