Crowd level calendar increase

[NeverBeen2DW]

I noticed last night that Disney had extended tehir hours. One day open til 3 am. Im nervous......

Seriously? The parks are open to 3am? That is good though because the college kids will sleep in and stay out late.

 

[rjthkids]

Really. I didn't know that. I must have missed that on the board. Was there a thread on it or something?



OOOOoooooh. I was wondering. That's something because I really thought we were the last since our schools go until almost the end of June. Fortunately my kids go to private school so they get out June 10.

They are scheduled to get out of school June 22nd or 23rd I believe (depends on snow days, I can't remember)

I grew up in MA and we always got out somewhere in the last two weeks of June. Though I can't remember if April break was always that late or not, but summer vacation didn't usually start until the week before July.

 

[rjthkids]

I noticed last night that Disney had extended tehir hours. One day open til 3 am. Im nervous......

Can you give us a link please?

I've looked all over, including Disney's Official website and there is no such thing posted. At least when we're going, there is one day that EMH hours means they are open to midnight. All the rest of the time they're closed at 9 or 10 pm, mostly 9.

As far as I can tell from Disney's website there are no park closings at 3 am.

 

[monkeybug]

I went to the Disney website and I don't see the extended hours am I doing something wrong?

 

[doconeill]

I listened to today's WDW Today again, and there were two factors which resulted in them increasing the crowd prediction:

- The increase in park hours

- The addition of Spectromagic parades during the week

 

[An_Island_Girl]

Many of the High Schools around here have the senior celebration in Disney for all students that pulled good enough grades. They go for a week (usually the 1st or 2nd week in May). This may account for some of the increased crowds, as the permission forms all had to be turned in this month, so the bookings could be confirmed.

They always stay in the values... just a heads up.

 

[anlashokna]

Is it because of these special offers? I ask because we did this coming week a couple years ago and just walked onto rides. I'm just surprised by this.

 

[WaltD4Me]

Just looked at the WDW park hours and am amazed by the 1am closing PLUS EMH on Sunday May 3rd. It just defies all logic.

I don't get it? What on earth is going on that week that I didn't know about?

I just checked Disney's site and that 1am IS the EMH closing time. it isn't 3hours after 1am. The park is open til 10pm, then til 1am for the PM EMH. The new way the Disney site is listing park hours is confusing, but that has been the hours for awhile now, at least since Feburary. As far as I can tell the hours have NOT changed at all for the week of May 3rd yet.

 

[callahanjulie10]

It is also Grad Nite both weekends AND there is a huge international cheerleading convention or competition at WDW during this time.

 

[anlashokna]

Poly might still be available but the POFQ is booked I was looking to change our view and dagnabit...can't!

Hmm...wonder if any nice upgrades will be offered.

We're planning mornings at parks and out by lunch. Just don't have it in any of us to deal with a christmas situation again!

 

[dbriggsq]

Thanks all for your theories - and sorry to be the bearer of the original bad news.

After years of school holidays we were hoping for a relaxing, quiet break for just the 2 of us and originally thought we had hit lucky, so were very disappointed when the numbers went up.

Still we'll just have to enjoy more of our 'resort time' and less 'park time'.

 

[*NikkiBell*]

Hi

I've been watching the crowd level predictor for our trip 19-26th April and it has just gone up from a rather pleasant 5-6 to an alarming 7-9!

Does anyone know why this might be

Thanks

I really wouldn't worry about it to tell you the truth. They just extended the park hours again and MK is open that week until 1 a.m. nearly every night. We love these late hours because we always going during the peak seasons being that I am a teacher and don't get vacation time. Plan on being in the parks and doing that majority at night and you'll have a great time.

 

[*NikkiBell*]

Can anyone tell me how accurate Touring Plans REALLY is? When it says to avoid a certain park and go to another, does this really help with the crowds?

 

[WaltD4Me]

It is also Grad Nite both weekends AND there is a huge international cheerleading convention or competition at WDW during this time.

Do you know the dates of the International cheerleading convention???
Please tell me BEFORE May 3rd!!!

 

[MnMomW3Boys]

Can anyone tell me how accurate Touring Plans REALLY is? When it says to avoid a certain park and go to another, does this really help with the crowds?

I don't have any personal experiance with the crowd calendars but from what I have read on the Dis they are usually pretty accurate. The park to visit is pretty much common sense in a way. The theory is to avoid parks that have EMH and a good rule of thumb is to visit the park tha had evening EMH the day before. TP uses several indicators when putting the calendars together from what I hear. Lasy years attendence, resort occpancy, and the day of the week. Historically there are days of the week that are busier for MK then others.

Epcot is the largest park and handles large crowds the best, on high attendence days that is often the recommended park. It is my feeling from reading posts that last 10 days is that this spring break the crowds have been much larger then TP and Disney planned. There is just no way to predict the crowds with the promos right now. The miliary discount and 4/3 deal is really driving folks to the park.

Like I said this is just my interpretaion of what I have read on here, as I have never used touring plans crowd calendars before this upcoming trip. The moral of the story is plan for the worst and hope for the best.

 

[Luvamouse]

Can you give us a link please?

I've looked all over, including Disney's Official website and there is no such thing posted. At least when we're going, there is one day that EMH hours means they are open to midnight. All the rest of the time they're closed at 9 or 10 pm, mostly 9.

As far as I can tell from Disney's website there are no park closings at 3 am.

I went to the Disney website and I don't see the extended hours am I doing something wrong?

I am NOT sure what week either of you is asking about, sorry. But MK IS open until 3 a.m. twice during the week after Easter... It shows EMH of 12:00 to 3:00 for Sunday, April 12 and Friday, April 17. Here is the link. WDW Park Hours. Change the dates to reflect when you will be there of course.

**ETA-- I reread the posts again and looked at the May 3rd hours. The 10-1 that is shown IS the EMH hours. So yes, it does end at 1 a.m., not in addition to 1 a.m.

 

[pwdebbie]

Do you know the dates of the International cheerleading convention???
Please tell me BEFORE May 3rd!!!

April 24 - 27. Here's the link to their booklet:

http://www.myvirtualpaper.com/doc/usasf/2009_Cheer_Worlds_Registration_Packet/2008110801/

 

[Daddee]

April 24 - 27. Here's the link to their booklet:

http://www.myvirtualpaper.com/doc/usasf/2009_Cheer_Worlds_Registration_Packet/2008110801/

thanks for the link,
looks like they are staying at AllStars and CBR..


Oh the Joy!

 

[marlower]

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.

We were there on March 15-19th and though it was busy, we stayed ahead of the crowds by following tour guide mike--I highly recommend his program!! Although it was busy it was nothing like Christmas week!!

 

[mamalle]

alot of counties including Orlando schools are starting spring break. I have lost count of all the families we have talked to in the past week that are headed up to orlando for spring break starting today thru next week- the big pull is either disney or seaworld/aquatica..we were there also over thanksgiving and I found the crowds managable. I think we rode splash mtn like 4 times that saturday after thanksgiving and thundermtn 3. The only think I didnt like was the crowds at the end of wishes. it was claustrophobic. I would hate to see something really happen because it was not pretty all of the pushing and shoving down main street..