Crowd Calendar Realty vs Existing ADR

[frachellea]

Hello everyone. Thank you all for the wealth of information on these boards.

I will be heading to WDW with my family (parents, husband and DD-5) Oct 15-22. I was terribly pleased with myself for getting ADRs that I thought suited us perfectly - until I started reviewing the crowd calendars in greater detail.

My question - are the mid-October (non-MNSSHP) Monday crowds at MK and Tuesday crowds at EP (basically the parks NOT recommended by EasyWDW's crowd calendars) really so bad that I should try to change my park days? The sticking point - our ADRs.

Currently, we are planning on going to MK on Monday and Epcot on Tuesday.

For Monday, we have Chef Mickey's for 8:10 breakfast, Crystal Palace for 2:35 lunch and Liberty Tree Tavern for 7:15 dinner. For Tuesday, we have Akershus for 8:25 breakfast, will do the F&W kiosks for lunch, and Monsieur Paul at 5:45 for dinner.

I've been able to make backup ADRs to swap the LTT and MP dinners and I think I'd be ok with keeping Chef Mickey's on Monday and go to Epcot and keep Akershus on Tuesday and then go to MK - just to try to avoid the bad crowds. My only concern with that plan is changing Crystal Palace (DD loves Pooh) - but hoping that a combo of stalking and checking at 60/30/7 days out I could find a Crystal Palace ADR for Tuesday (or alternately, Friday). Or should I be more aggressive with attempting to change my Chef Mickey's and Akershus reservations as well?

Trying to figure out if I'm over thinking this, if it's more trouble than its worth and that the crowds won't be so bad, or if we'd really be happier being at the crowd calendar suggested parks.

Our FP date is coming up next week, so I need to figure this out before that.

Any suggestions would be appreciated!

 

[ELSA711]

All I know is after 2 trips in October and the experience we had I will never do MK on a Monday ever again, unless its after Epcot just night time parade, wishes, etc

Can u hop to Epcot after the Pooh lunch, split the days a bit

 

[dansdad]

Our last 7 trips have been during October and Free Dining. I have never used crowd calendars to do our planning. In fact after looking at the crowd calendars out of curiosity before we left, we actually picked the exact wrong parks per the calendars. Once there, not once did we wish we would have switched according to the calendars.

And yes, we usually end up at MK on a Monday. Never been an issue.

 

[_auroraborealis_]

The issue with MK on Monday is that Monday is not a party night. MK will be busier on non-party nights all month.

The reason Josh doesn't recommend Epcot on Tuesday is the EMH during the same time period as MNSSHP. People will go there when MK closes on hoppers, and some may be there all day with single-day because it's the park with the longest hours. That said, I don't think Epcot will be that awful that day. Josh never recommends the EMH park.

I believe that with appropriate ADRs (you have them), and good FP+ planning (you do those next week if your stay is on-property), those parks will be fine.

 

[frachellea]

Thank you all for your help. Elsa711 - I think we decided that trying to change aroun the ADRs was going to be too much of an issue. I'll let you know if we wind up sharing your opininon. dansdad/auroraborealis - Fingers crossed that our experience meets your predictions. But the two of you did set our mind at ease.