Crowds - May 6th and 7th

[tehSAC]

I've been looking at various crowd prediction calendars, and some say light crowds, some say heavy crowds on these days. However just last night I was able to book Seven Dwarfs, Big Thunder, and Peter Pan fastpasses with ease for May 6th. Knowing that is it a better indicator the crowds are going to be on the lower side than the heavier? Or am I just being overly optimistic?

 

[JennyDrake]

I'll be back this year (same dates) and I've been at WDW the last 5 years around the same time. Crowds are manageable, especially in the mornings, but I would not call them "low" -- you can get a LOT done wo FP+ until noon at each park and the weather is usually great!

 

[dstdis]

I'm also going at that time and I am preparing myself for crowds on the heavier side of average. Not crazy, and definitely manageable, but also not low.

 

[Adit A]

I will also be visiting from 5th to 10th. Hope this means less wait times!

 

[LSUfan4444]

On those days the crowds you experience will vary greatly from what parks you visit on what days and at what times. On busy days all parks will be busy so there isn;t much variance but on days when the overall crowd numbers are lower, the difference between two parks can be pretty drastic.

My suggestion is the same as it is every day if you want to avoid the biggest crowds...start early, have your FP+ scheduled well in advance for the busiest rides starting in the middle of the day (or the park you plan to hop to later in the day), focus on quality for your FP+ and not quantity, be open to staying late, us the the mid days to get off your feet and if you do and table service dining do it for lunch (or very early dinner) when you'll want to be off your feet and not first thing in the morning or late at night when attraction lines are smaller.

 

[PrincessWithABlaster]

It could be a hopeful sign but it might not be. PP tends to be available shortly ahead of the date. You could have lucked into 7DMT but if you had multiple choices for times I would call that a good sign. We're leaving the day before you arrive and have been watching wait times and crowd levels. The last two weeks or so TP had been overestimated for crowd size in general. Some days and parks it's been significantly lower than they estimated. I don't know how long that's going to last. I will say that I'm expecting May 5th to be a busy day. There is a cheerleading competition that weekend and it was very busy that Sat last year. They also extended park hours that day to 8 am to midnight. I'd take a look and see what the park hours are for those days as another pretty good indicator of the crowd size.

All that said, planning for busy but manageable and being pleasantly surprised is better than the other way around.

 

[bobbiwoz]

We will be there. Going to Epcot, Peter Noone from Herman’s Hermits concerts!

 

[tehSAC]

It could be a hopeful sign but it might not be. PP tends to be available shortly ahead of the date. You could have lucked into 7DMT but if you had multiple choices for times I would call that a good sign. We're leaving the day before you arrive and have been watching wait times and crowd levels. The last two weeks or so TP had been overestimated for crowd size in general. Some days and parks it's been significantly lower than they estimated. I don't know how long that's going to last. I will say that I'm expecting May 5th to be a busy day. There is a cheerleading competition that weekend and it was very busy that Sat last year. They also extended park hours that day to 8 am to midnight. I'd take a look and see what the park hours are for those days as another pretty good indicator of the crowd size.

All that said, planning for busy but manageable and being pleasantly surprised is better than the other way around.

There were multiple times to choose from for seven dwarfs, which surprised me. Most were from 5 to park close which is 11PM on the 6th.

 

[loves to dive]

We will be there. Going to Epcot, Peter Noone from Herman’s Hermits concerts!

Yep, me too. I was there a couple of years ago when he was there and that was the only thing I absolutely wanted to do. Wouldn't you know it my son and then DIL decided on a whim to take the tour of DVC (which was really just going to the sales office at BWV which we were staying at and watching a video). They promised us we would be back in time but we weren't. I'm going this year no matter what.

 

[Cornucopiaoflove]

I'll be back this year (same dates) and I've been at WDW the last 5 years around the same time. Crowds are manageable, especially in the mornings, but I would not call them "low" -- you can get a LOT done wo FP+ until noon at each park and the weather is usually great!

This is somewhat of a relief, because we'll be there the 2nd - 8th and some of the crowd calendars have me panicking.

 

[NinaBella]

The Summit (Cheerleading Competition) will be that weekend. Most of the Athletes there can not make fast passes in advance because their priority is to be available at the competition. As teams are eliminated, they will hit the parks.

Worlds (this weekend) and Summit (next weekend) is different from the other competitions and has athletes from around the world. Most cheer competitions the athletes compete on two days. This competition, only the top teams get to move forward to the next day. So everyone will book their stay for the entire weekend not knowing if their team will compete once or multiple times.

 

[doubtingthomas6]

this time of the year, Mid April - Late May IMO has become the new "best time to go" the crowds are never "low" but they will be the most manageable then. The 6th and 7th are a Sunday and a Monday so that should help even more.

 

[SquashBanana]

I've been looking at various crowd prediction calendars, and some say light crowds, some say heavy crowds on these days. However just last night I was able to book Seven Dwarfs, Big Thunder, and Peter Pan fastpasses with ease for May 6th. Knowing that is it a better indicator the crowds are going to be on the lower side than the heavier? Or am I just being overly optimistic?

How many were in your party? That obviously plays a major role in what FPs you can find.

 

[SarahC97]

I've not found the ease of getting FP to indicate anything about crowd levels the last two trips I've taken. So, yeah -- unfortunately I think you might just be feeling optimistic!

 

[vicb]

There were multiple times to choose from for seven dwarfs, which surprised me. Most were from 5 to park close which is 11PM on the 6th.

I'll be in MK on the 6th too! We are not staying all day as we plan to go to Disney Springs that night but the next day Mon May 7th we will be in MK for the eve emh! Some crowd calendars indicate Sat as being busy due to Cinco de Mayo, idk. We are doing AK on Sat. from 2-park close which is 10:30 that night.

 

[tehSAC]

How many were in your party? That obviously plays a major role in what FPs you can find.

True. There is two of us.

I'll be in MK on the 6th too! We are not staying all day as we plan to go to Disney Springs that night but the next day Mon May 7th we will be in MK for the eve emh! Some crowd calendars indicate Sat as being busy due to Cinco de Mayo, idk. We are doing AK on Sat. from 2-park close which is 10:30 that night.

We are doing park open to close on the 6th and afternoon evening at Epcot on the 7th.