Crowd level calendar increase

[december14disney]

that picture made me cry! lol Our first day is a 9! What does that mean like 30 less people??!??!

 

[fla4fun]

Don't panic, everyone! Just follow the cardinal rules for a busy park: arrive before opening, hit the big attractions first, use Fastpass, and have your ADR's all set. You'll be fine!

That being said, it is disappointing to have them up the crowd projections so much for the second week after Easter. I'll be there then too, but staying at FW and had already planned to take advantage of more of the resort stuff and less of the park stuff. It'll definitely be more fun than going to work!

 

[M2DD's]

I'm a substitute teacher who works about 80% of the school yr(DD home today sick) so My family only get to travel to disney during spring break,summer and christmas break all peak travel times and we still get a lot done. My advise is to make a list of your top "to do" rides and do them first thing in the AM and then save shows and parades for the afternoon when its gets really crowded since those shows sometime hold up to 500+ pp at a time
I'm ready for spring break even with the high crowd levels predicted.

 

[Irish9697]

I, too, like everyone else plan my trip around the crowd level predictors. I was unaware they changed them this close to dates.

I went March 7-14th and my week was a range of 4-6 with 4-5 being the most common. And, I have to admit, I think it was probably right on. Our wait times were minimal for almost everything. Of course, we also followed the other advice of going to a park the day after evening EMH, etc.

But, I'm curious...if there are crowd level predictors BEFORE you go, is it possible to get ACTUAL crowd level after the date?

TSM was the only one that we ever saw crazy waits for. I saw 125 one time, 85 another, but it was mostly 45-55 when we were there. We waited only 20 at 10pm during EMH, go figure, but the 2nd Fantasmic had just started.

We saw wait times in mid-afternoon by the end of the week when lots of sports, cheerleading and choir groups moved in ranging from about 70-90 minutes for things like Soarin' and Space Mountain. The beginning of the week was much, much tamer--I don't think we waited longer than 30 minutes with 15-20 being the norm for anything EXCEPT Soarin' one day when we made the mistake of going stand-by as the wait time was increasing. So, definitely seems like it was 4-6's...4's progressing to 5's to 6 during the week.

 

[genetic jackhammer]

That picture of the crowds in the Land pavillion (Soaring) looks like the lines for the restrooms at Fenway Park!!

 

[dizplanner]

We were there March 14-20. The crowds were the worst we've seen and we have been there for our spring break in 2004 and 2006. We saw waits of 90 or more (we saw 110 and 120 sometimes) most of the time on Space/Splash/BTMRR/RnR/TSM etc. We ended up waiting an hour for the safari (it said 40 when we entered) and almost an hour in the single riders line on RnR. Almost all of our fast passes were for more than 2 hours out when we pulled them and so we had to wait two hours to get the next which usually meant we could only get two fast passes before they ran out. Now since we had been a number of times before, we only worried about getting there at opening at Hollywood Studios so that we could get to Toy Story Mania. We ended up seeing what we wanted, but could only ride some rides once or twice instead of the multiple times we can in the off season.

The crowd predictions before we left were 6's - reality was more like 9's or 10's. This is probably why they are changing your predictions - they were proved wrong already.

We moved over to Universal after Disney - crowds were much lower over there. Although it didn't really matter as we were staying on site and had express pass on all rides with the room key.

 

[*disgal*]

That's Spring Break in our area. I know of at least 5 families without even really thinking about it heading to WDW that week. One I just helped plan her trip today!

no kidding. We're in the Corning area and I thought we had one of the latest spring breaks in existence in the US. Ours is April 12-19 (and we get Good Friday). So west of here is the NEXT week? Is that Jamestown or something?

 

[*disgal*]

no, it can't be Jamestown. I just checked their calendar and it ends the 17th.

Buffalo?

 

[M2DD's]

That picture of the crowds in the Land pavillion (Soaring) looks like the lines for the restrooms at Fenway Park!!

I won't even mention how long the lines to go to the bathroom were

no kidding. We're in the Corning area and I thought we had one of the latest spring breaks in existence in the US. Ours is April 12-19 (and we get Good Friday). So west of here is the NEXT week? Is that Jamestown or something?

Most of Illinois school have that same spring break Good friday till th 19th

 

[Glencora]

Not only has my perfect day at MK just gone from a 4 to an 8, but the only day that DHS was recommended is now an AK day! Guess I'll be up at 4:00am to get to rope drop by 5:30! Now I have to see if the park hours have changed too...AARRRGGHH!

 

[MnMomW3Boys]

Let's hope that TP is just covering theselves from the wrong predictions the last couple of weeks. If everyday is listed as an 8 or 9 then you plan for the worse and hope for the best, and TP's won't get anymore complaints or requests for rerunds since they were so off the last couple weeks. Mabe??

Our May days just went from 4's and 5's to 8 's and 9's. Just doens't seem that possible, I am doubting all the info I have received from them now.

 

[Sunny37]

Don't panic, everyone! Just follow the cardinal rules for a busy park: arrive before opening, hit the big attractions first, use Fastpass, and have your ADR's all set. You'll be fine!

We always do this, but found it to be CRAZY from March 14-20. For example, on the 18th, we went to DHS--got there 45 mins before the park opened. DH went straight to TSM and got fast passes (he was front of the line), I waited for him at RnRC. By the time he returned to me at 9:10 or so, the wait time for RnRC was 2 hours and 10 minutes and the line was backed up to TOT. We have been to WDW during Christmas week for the past 12 years and I don't think I have ever seen it this busy! It was absolutely wild!

 

[rjthkids]

no kidding. We're in the Corning area and I thought we had one of the latest spring breaks in existence in the US. Ours is April 12-19 (and we get Good Friday). So west of here is the NEXT week? Is that Jamestown or something?

My mother and sisters are coming out to visit me from Massachusetts for the girls' april vacation. They're on vacation from the 19-26th for their school district.

 

[mmmears]

We're there from the 9th -19th and they have raised the crowd levels up to 10 during that time! I was so hoping that it wouldn't be crazy there...

 

[NU2WDW]

We are going from April 26-May 2nd. Our highest day is an 8, but the rest are 7's and 5's. (up from 4's and 5's) I was bummed when I saw the numbers go up, but at least I know it could be worse!

We'll be there Apr 24 - May 2 ourselves. I looked at UG's crowd levels just a few hours ago and EVERY day was 5 or 6. Hmmm... will have to remember to keep checking it. I'm really not too worried. Our last trip was June 2007 when every day was 8 or 9. We used the touring plans and never, not once, dealt with horrendous waits in line. I would advise anyone to check out those plans, they really did work for us. I plan to follow them again next month when we go, but still can't believe it will be nearly as crowded as it was our June trip.

 

[Puccaw]

I am majorly dissapointed. We had 4,5,6's most of our days and only one 8...now they are all bumped up. I can't imagine how it could take such a big leap. Fingers crossed that it will be better than I hope. At least we have 2 weeks to try and figure things out! We are there from 4/22-5/06.

 

[g-dad66]

We always do this, but found it to be CRAZY from March 14-20. For example, on the 18th, we went to DHS--got there 45 mins before the park opened. DH went straight to TSM and got fast passes (he was front of the line), I waited for him at RnRC. By the time he returned to me at 9:10 or so, the wait time for RnRC was 2 hours and 10 minutes and the line was backed up to TOT. We have been to WDW during Christmas week for the past 12 years and I don't think I have ever seen it this busy! It was absolutely wild!

Hey, we were there at the same day/time with basically the same strategy, so probably we saw each other. (I was the tall guy wearing the sunglasses.)

Please forgive wackiness, but thinking back about that ocean of people just makes me sort of laugh and shake my head.

On a more serious note, Touring Plans now says that backcasting their model for the past two weeks gives ratings of 9s and 10s (6s had been forecast) because the crowds turned out to be far larger than what even Disney was anticipating. And yet, we managed to survive that day (and all the others from March 17 through March 23, which weren't nearly so crazy) and did most everything we wanted to do. So for even for days rated as 9's and 10's, there is HOPE!

 

[NeverBeen2DW]

Oh this stinks! I made my plan on tourguide mike a few weeks ago before my membership expired. I hate to spend the money agian since we are not going back until Dec. Does anyone know if TGM changed his best parks for 4/1 to 4/8. I made all my ADR's based upon his plan. If you do not want to post here PM me. I would be happy to share my parks as they are right now.

Thanks!

 

[doconeill]

We always do this, but found it to be CRAZY from March 14-20. For example, on the 18th, we went to DHS--got there 45 mins before the park opened. DH went straight to TSM and got fast passes (he was front of the line), I waited for him at RnRC. By the time he returned to me at 9:10 or so, the wait time for RnRC was 2 hours and 10 minutes and the line was backed up to TOT. We have been to WDW during Christmas week for the past 12 years and I don't think I have ever seen it this busy! It was absolutely wild!

Was that 10 minutes after rope drop?!? It wouldn't be possible for them to measure a wait time that long considering that much time hadn't even elapsed yet (someone has to make it end to end with the timing card), so I wonder if they overrode the wait time indicators based on the length of the line.

 

[nessz79]

I was prepared for 7's and a 9....now it's all 9's. Scary! I guess I'm just going to have the attitude of going with the flow and lots of Fastpasses!