Crowd levels, EMHs, crowd calendars - help

[Christi Rose]

So I'm trying to plan our park days so I know where to book ADRs (my 180 point is Monday). I typically use Kenny the Pirate, WDW Prep, and Touring Plans crowd predictions but they're conflicting for my week (9/24-9/30). It seems like Kenny and WDW Prep always advise against a park with EMHs whereas for some of my days, Touring Plans is predicting lower crowd levels for a park with EMHs than days with no EMHs. Are crowd levels shifting to where people are actually avoiding parks with EMHs? Do you find Touring Plans to be generally more accurate than the other sites? TIA

 

[sharonabe]

I doubt that crowd levels are shifting that much. Reports here are that TP has not been as reliable as in the past. Too many variables for which they don't have the data with FP+.

Do you have hoppers so that you could start or end at an EMH park, but enjoy a better crowd park for the rest of the day? Can you be certain you will be up and at rope drop for an early EMH? Alternatively, can you stay until the end of a late EMH when the park gets less crowded? Personally, the only park where I would do late EMH is MK as the others just don't stay open late enough and don't have enough attractions open.

If we had hoppers, we would start our day at an early EMH and then hop to the most recommended park, but that's just the way we roll.

 

[starjazz]

I kinda thought the week you're planning is in the middle of a particularly low season. Not that you don't need to plan, but just that you'll actually be able to follow it closely! ;-)

 

[Christi Rose]

I doubt that crowd levels are shifting that much. Reports here are that TP has not been as reliable as in the past. Too many variables for which they don't have the data with FP+.

Do you have hoppers so that you could start or end at an EMH park, but enjoy a better crowd park for the rest of the day? Can you be certain you will be up and at rope drop for an early EMH? Alternatively, can you stay until the end of a late EMH when the park gets less crowded? Personally, the only park where I would do late EMH is MK as the others just don't stay open late enough and don't have enough attractions open.

If we had hoppers, we would start our day at an early EMH and then hop to the most recommended park, but that's just the way we roll.

We don't have hoppers but I'm expecting we will have to add them if we are able to get FD (we currently have the no-longer-offered water park only ticket). I've got three kids though (9, 7, 4) and we already push the kids to the max by doing parks from rope drop to close so I don't think they would do well with extra time every day doing EMHs. We are planning on doing one day with late EMH at Magic Kingdom to see the fireworks since most of the other days the park closes at 7pm presumably for MNSSHP.

 

[sharonabe]

We don't have hoppers but I'm expecting we will have to add them if we are able to get FD (we currently have the no-longer-offered water park only ticket). I've got three kids though (9, 7, 4) and we already push the kids to the max by doing parks from rope drop to close so I don't think they would do well with extra time every day doing EMHs. We are planning on doing one day with late EMH at Magic Kingdom to see the fireworks since most of the other days the park closes at 7pm presumably for MNSSHP.

Just an FYI, if you only have one night at MK for fireworks due to MNSSHP, so does everyone else. MK will be PACKED that whole day. You may want to bite the bullet and get the park hopper, so you can enjoy a less crowded DAY at MK on a party night, and just hop to MK for the fireworks that one night.

 

[Traver Freeman]

We always avoid the EMH days, but that's just us.

 

[Christi Rose]

I kinda thought the week you're planning is in the middle of a particularly low season. Not that you don't need to plan, but just that you'll actually be able to follow it closely! ;-)

It is very low crowds. Drawback is its also very rainy season so seeking shelter can take time out of the day, but overall it wasn't a big problem when we were there in Sept. 2015.

 

[focusondisney]

I kinda thought the week you're planning is in the middle of a particularly low season. Not that you don't need to plan, but just that you'll actually be able to follow it closely! ;-)

Unfortunately I don't think the end of September is low season anymore. Food & Wine, Halloween parties & I think the last few years many schools have breaks then. Early September has still been less crowded, but Disney has started the parties & F&W earlier & earlier. So even early Sept may be busier this year.

Edit to add: Rosh Hashana is Sept 20, Yom Kippur Sept 30, so many schools do have off for those holidays.

 

[Christi Rose]

Just an FYI, if you only have one night at MK for fireworks due to MNSSHP, so does everyone else. MK will be PACKED that whole day. You may want to bite the bullet and get the park hopper, so you can enjoy a less crowded DAY at MK on a party night, and just hop to MK for the fireworks that one night.

We are planning two days at MK... one day is just not enough.

 

[Christi Rose]

Unfortunately I don't think the end of September is low season anymore. Food & Wine, Halloween parties & I think the last few years many schools have breaks then. Early September has still been less crowded, but Disney has started he perties & F&W earlier & earlier. So even early Sept may be busier this year.

Edit to add: Rosh Hashana is Sept 20, Yom Kippur Sept 30, so many schools do have off for those holidays.

Touring Plans says that the week days resort crowd levels are 3 to 4. The Saturdays are 5s. I have no idea how accurate that is though.

Edited to add: Just realized September 30 jumps to a 6.

 

[focusondisney]

Touring Plans says that the week days resort crowd levels are 3 to 4. The Saturdays are 5s. I have no idea how accurate that is though.

Edited to add: Just realized September 30 jumps to a 6.

I bet those numbers will go up as they get closer. We are going in May. They have May 11 & 12 as a4. May 11 is the last day of Wishes, May 12 is the first day of the new fireworks show. There is no way those days are going to be 4's. No idea when TP will update, but if they don't I bet they will be way off.

 

[DisneyMom2000000]

So I'm trying to plan our park days so I know where to book ADRs (my 180 point is Monday). I typically use Kenny the Pirate, WDW Prep, and Touring Plans crowd predictions but they're conflicting for my week (9/24-9/30). It seems like Kenny and WDW Prep always advise against a park with EMHs whereas for some of my days, Touring Plans is predicting lower crowd levels for a park with EMHs than days with no EMHs. Are crowd levels shifting to where people are actually avoiding parks with EMHs? Do you find Touring Plans to be generally more accurate than the other sites? TIA

Just pick one and go with it. If you aren't into EMH, just avoid that park, if you can. I think you'll be fine either way, especially with some planning and fast passes. I used touring plans last time we came and it was great.

 

[newestkg06]

We were also there in Sept of 2015 (3rd week). We did a Tues (a MNSSHP day) and the crowds were fairly light during the day. Waittimes at 7DMT were still high, but nothing like summer. We stayed for the afternoon parade, did a few more things, and left around 4:30 as the partiers began to enter. We relaxed around the pool that evening. We then did the following day (Wed) that had fireworks. It was much busier that day, and wait times were much higher. We planned and took an afternoon break (left around 1pm), swam at the pool, ate dinner, and came back for the parade and fireworks around 6:30. It was so much more crowded on Wed, so that is definitely the way I would do it again.

 

[Christi Rose]

We were also there in Sept of 2015 (3rd week). We did a Tues (a MNSSHP day) and the crowds were fairly light during the day. Waittimes at 7DMT were still high, but nothing like summer. We stayed for the afternoon parade, did a few more things, and left around 4:30 as the partiers began to enter. We relaxed around the pool that evening. We then did the following day (Wed) that had fireworks. It was much busier that day, and wait times were much higher. We planned and took an afternoon break (left around 1pm), swam at the pool, ate dinner, and came back for the parade and fireworks around 6:30. It was so much more crowded on Wed, so that is definitely the way I would do it again.

That sounds like the exact days we did MK! We were there the 15th and 16th. We were able to knock out a lot on the Tuesday so on the Wednesday we mainly just used FPs and rode the less popular rides. I remember character lines were pretty long though.

 

[FrenchGirl]

So is the park generally quieter during the day when there is a MNNSHP that evening?

 

[Amy Hammack]

I just purchased touring plans for our trip in July. It has the crowd calendar between 6-9 for our whole trip. I plugged in Epcot for a highly crowded day, and it's telling me I can ride all the rides we want, with a 45 min lunch break from 11-5:15. How realistic is this? I was expecting things to be much worse with longer waits. This include soaring, test track, frozen, spaceship earth, living with the land, nemo, gran fiesta tour, figment, agent p. Mission space will be closed during this time. I just made up fast passes, but selected soaring for the pass and it says I'm able to ride FEA SB at 2:45 with a 41 min wait and TT after with 61 min wait. How likely is it we could do all of this, at a relaxed walking pace within that timeframe. I was expecting longer lines.

Thanks in advance!

Edited to add:

I just entered AK for 7/23, an EMH morning. It has us able to hit both pandora rides, safari, everest, kali rapids, dinosaur, and the maharajah jungle trek all before noon without even using a FP+. Is is realistic? I was not thinking this would be so easy, but it's our first trip to WDW so I'm really not sure how all this works. Thanks again!

 

[Christi Rose]

I used Touring Plans for custom plans each day of my trip in October and found their line predictions to be fairly accurate. We were at Epcot two days - a 6 crowd level and a 7 crowd level. I really liked using a custom plan which we followed pretty closely for the most part and when we didn't, I used the app to update the plan so that it reconfigured the best options. Having said that though, riding FEA midday on a crowded day with only a 41 min wait doesn't sound right, as I think we waited almost that long to ride it when the park opened on a level 6 day.

I'm not sure I would trust their predictions for the Pandora rides since it's purely speculative at this point.

 

[Christi Rose]

So is the park generally quieter during the day when there is a MNNSHP that evening?

Yes, the MNNSHP dates are usually lower crowd days, but not significantly lower in my experience.

 

[edk35]

We went in Oct. this past year and MK was really crowded the days between the MNSSHP. There was a day sandwiched between two parties and my daughter and her bf went that day and said NEVER AGAIN.