Crowd levels

[joseph821]

Hence, not aligned with the common meaning of "crowds."

I haven't looked at that site in a long time, so if they call them "attraction wait time levels," that's fine. But if they're calling them "crowd levels," then that's misleading. Same with other DLR "crowd" prediction sites.

​

 

[joseph821]

Hence, not aligned with the common meaning of "crowds."

I haven't looked at that site in a long time, so if they call them "attraction wait time levels," that's fine. But if they're calling them "crowd levels," then that's misleading. Same with other DLR "crowd" prediction sites.

 

[LKing]

Also if locals come at night...2/3 of the operating hours are gone so the locals only effect the last 1/3 of operating hours and if they have dinner and watch entertainment the locals do not affect wait times for attractions that much. So the swarm of locals affect attendance levels from 6pm to 12 Midnight. So 10 hours out of 16 hours have passed or 62.5% so the rush of locals affects 37.5% of operating time.

Similarly, if visitors go back to their hotel for a longer than average midday break, that impacts calculations. If temps top 90 degrees around noon and don't drop below 90 until 5 pm or below 85 until 8 pm, that leaves a good chunk of the day when the parks are pretty quiet. If someone is at home watching attraction wait times during the 30-40% of the day when visitors are in the pool or hotel room, they will be misled.

As I mentioned up thread, MK reservations for August 29 have been full for close to a month. Until this week, the only other day between now and Thanksgiving when there are no reservations is Halloween. It was pretty clear that there was a lot of demand to visit the parks this past Friday. The heat and humidity impacted the time when guests (both local as well as out of town visitors) felt comfortable entering the park.

The 2 out of 10 for the day for overall crowd level is based on attraction wait times and not the crowds for the entertainment, shows, fireworks, parades, etc.

It is the etc that impacts a guest's experience. It is the number of people in the stores, lines for food & snacks, for characters, pin trading, PhotoPass, restrooms, City Hall, and the general difficulty just walking around the parks.

 

[joseph821]

Similarly, if visitors go back to their hotel for a longer than average midday break, that impacts calculations. If temps top 90 degrees around noon and don't drop below 90 until 5 pm or below 85 until 8 pm, that leaves a good chunk of the day when the parks are pretty quiet. If someone is at home watching attraction wait times during the 30-40% of the day when visitors are in the pool or hotel room, they will be misled.

As I mentioned up thread, MK reservations for August 29 have been full for close to a month. Until this week, the only other day between now and Thanksgiving when there are no reservations is Halloween. It was pretty clear that there was a lot of demand to visit the parks this past Friday. The heat and humidity impacted the time when guests (both local as well as out of town visitors) felt comfortable entering the park.




It is the etc that impacts a guest's experience. It is the number of people in the stores, lines for food & snacks, for characters, pin trading, PhotoPass, restrooms, City Hall, and the general difficulty just walking around the parks.

 

[LKing]

I'm sorry that you are upset.

 

[joseph821]

I'm sorry that you are upset.

 

[Tinkaboo]

I snapped this picture as we were trying to leave NOS and get to Frontierland last night. They wouldn't let us into Frontierland either by River Belle or by Adventureland Bazaar. They directed everyone out to Main Street to make a U turn to enter Frontierland.

I took the picture because people on this forum often think that it will be easy to get from Point A to Point B after a show. If you don't know the layout of the park and you are swimming upstream in a crowd like this, it is easy to get turned around. This photo was taken at 9:50 pm, ten minutes after fireworks ended.

View attachment 999688

YIKES! I'm getting a panic attack just looking at that!!!

 

[LAS2AMS]

Last Saturday DCA was packed. Philharmagic was full, the swings (almost always a walk in) had a 30 minute wait, there was absolutely no tables to sit & people were eating on the sidewalk… but Touring Plans said it wasn’t crowded, therefore it was iuat an illusion. OK….

 

[LKing]

YIKES! I'm getting a panic attack just looking at that!!!

Yeah, I didn't intend to post it in this thread. I was saving it for when someone asks for the best way to get from SWGE to Fantasmic.

 

[irlandaise]

It is the etc that impacts a guest's experience. It is the number of people in the stores, lines for food & snacks, for characters, pin trading, PhotoPass, restrooms, City Hall, and the general difficulty just walking around the parks.

Exactly. If I'm trying to get from Adventureland to New Orleans Square, I don't care how many people are in line for Big Thunder. I do care how many people I have to work my way past. That traffic jam affects everyone, whether they're headed to a ride. have a meal reservation, want to check out the latest NOS/CC merchandise, or whatever.

 

[irlandaise]

The crowd levels on our Crowd Calendar reflect our wait time forecasts for each date and park.
​

That's fine, as long as people on this board make it clear what they're referring to when someone asks, "How crowded will Disneyland be next weekend?"

 

[FLCA026]

YIKES! I'm getting a panic attack just looking at that!!!

We were directed one direction. It was awful after the fireworks.

 

[joseph821]

That's fine, as long as people on this board make it clear what they're referring to when someone asks, "How crowded will Disneyland be next weekend?"

 

[FLCA026]

This has been very helpful. Thank you!

After this thread not answering those questions! L

 

[twodogs]

We were in the parks Friday-Sunday, coming home today. We did EE on Friday in DCA, Saturday in DL. Yesterday, we entered DCA around 8am and stayed until the OBB last night.

We almost always travel in October on Indigenous People’s day in October every year, and attend OBB. We know that weekend will be very crowded, and we just tough it out since that is when our DDs have a long weekend from school. This year we moved to Labor Day weekend due to college application deadlines and the fact that OBB was offered this weeeknd.

Crowds (to us) on Friday morning were incredibly low, short waits and no issues getting a lot of LLs. As the day went on, it became very, very hot (and I am from Dallas!) and very crowded. We did go back to the GCH for a break, but lines were getting very long. Friday night was very, very crowded, but we had stacked LLs so we did ok. Saturday morning was pretty low crowds, though not as low as Friday morning. Afternoon and evening again felt very crowded, despite the heat.

A factor for us this weekend was that Incredicoaster went down mid day Friday, and was down all the rest of Friday, all of Saturday until about 9:30pm, when it came up for about 15 minutes, then went back down again until close, then was down until mid day Sunday (after being up for about 15 minutes during EE, then down again). This put a lot of pressure on everything else at DCA since RSR is down for refurbishment right now.

We used LLs to great advantage and didn’t wait long in the LLs. A lot was down yesterday at DL (in the afternoon, Indy, ROTR, Tiana’s were all down at the same time), but we did pretty well with LLs and then went over for OBB.

Compared to October, the mornings Friday and Saturday were much lighter than we are used to, but evenings felt just as crowded as we see in October. It is just such a jarring influx of people at that time of day, with lines to get into DL on Saturday evening getting all the way out to under the monorail.

 

[LKing]

We went early this morning and it was cooler and more calm than it was on Saturday night. The stores were, once again, very crowded. There were no lines to check out so I think people were just trying to cool off.

When I say that crowds impact more than attractions, this was the line to get photos with Pooh Corner characters at 10 am.



This was the line for strollers at 10:30 am


R

 

[bakofarmgirl]

thanks for the update

 

[SOCALMouseMommy]

It is the etc that impacts a guest's experience. It is the number of people in the stores, lines for food & snacks, for characters, pin trading, PhotoPass, restrooms, City Hall, and the general difficulty just walking around the parks.

I agree with this 100%. The issue I have with crowded forecasters like Touring Plans using attraction wait time data to say how “crowded” a park is is that those wait times on the app are very frequently inaccurate. Additionally, heavy crowds in the park make it difficult to move around, get food, go to the bathroom, all of which impact your park experience.

If Touring Plans is “calling” a day a 2 based on the app wait times, but they have no actually boots on the ground in the parks, experiencing the crowds and checking the accuracy of those wait times, it’s pretty worthless in my opinion. And then people pay for those for crowd forecasts and plan entire trips around them and are disappointed when their “2 level” day is hard to manage.

 

[OlliePop27]

I agree with this 100%. The issue I have with crowded forecasters like Touring Plans using attraction wait time data to say how “crowded” a park is is that those wait times on the app are very frequently inaccurate. Additionally, heavy crowds in the park make it difficult to move around, get food, go to the bathroom, all of which impact your park experience.

If Touring Plans is “calling” a day a 2 based on the app wait times, but they have no actually boots on the ground in the parks, experiencing the crowds and checking the accuracy of those wait times, it’s pretty worthless in my opinion. And then people pay for those for crowd forecasts and plan entire trips around them and are disappointed when their “2 level” day is hard to manage.

Exactly. This is why I look at MK blockouts PLUS ticket price tiers. I don't think the ride wait times are the issue at DLR, which is what TP measures. The bigger issue is crowding of stores, walkways, shows, etc. When the lower MK's are unblocked, and especially during a special season like Halloween, the "feels like" crowds in the parks are crazy. Even if the ride wait times are very reasonable.

This is something that's very different from WDW and I think confuses a lot of inexperienced DLR visitors. Focus less on ride wait times and more on crowding in the parks.

 

[irlandaise]

Exactly. This is why I look at MK blockouts PLUS ticket price tiers. I don't think the ride wait times are the issue at DLR, which is what TP measures. The bigger issue is crowding of stores, walkways, shows, etc. When the lower MK's are unblocked, and especially during a special season like Halloween, the "feels like" crowds in the parks are crazy. Even if the ride wait times are very reasonable.

This is something that's very different from WDW and I think confuses a lot of inexperienced DLR visitors. Focus less on ride wait times and more on crowding in the parks.

You're on to something there. We need the DL equivalent of a "heat index," because as you say, "feels like" can be very different from simply the ride wait times. Instead of the temperature and humidity in a heat index, a DL crowd index would need to combine wait times and the other factors you mentioned.