Disney's Response about Park attendance

[marriedmarylander]

I emailed Disney and asked them why they would have both morning and evening EMHs - if they were expecting larger crowded. They didn't really answer that question but went on a long email about crowds in general and the 50th anniversary celebration. Go figure.

Just in case anyone is reading.. I'll cut and paste some information:

There is no way to accurately gauge future attendance patterns at any of the Walt Disney World®
Theme Parks. While patterns do emerge from past attendance, new attractions and parks, special
celebrations, special events, and the addition of Disney's Wide World of Sports and other facilities have greatly altered previous trends.

Actual park attendance figures are proprietary and cannot be released.

As a general rule weekends tend to be a little less active than are weekdays although the difference is very slight.

The listings below offer a very generalized pattern of crowd density at representative times of
year. Accurate trends are difficult to determine, though, on a property as vast and diverse as the
Walt Disney World Vacation Kingdom. A crowded day at the Magic Kingdom® Park, for example, does not necessarily mean long lines at Epcot or Disney-MGM Studios.

>> Estimates, below, are representative only and are not to be construed
>> as firm patterns. <<
________________

LEAST CROWDED - means there may be some lines, but by and large most attractions may be visited with minimal waiting.

>> 2nd week of January through 1st week of February
>> Week after Labor Day until end of September
>> Week after Columbus Day until Veterans Day weekend
>> Week after Veterans Day until Thanksgiving
________________

AVERAGE ATTENDANCE - those times when many people are visiting but the line wait times are still
comfortable.

>> 1st week of January
>> 2nd week of February through Presidents' week
>> End of February through the 3rd of week of March
>> 2nd week of April through 1st week of June
>> Last week of August through Labor Day
>> 1st 2 weeks of October
>> Thanksgiving week through December 22
_________________

MOST CROWDED - reflects periods when lines may form in all areas and wait times of an hour or more
may be expected at the most popular attractions.

>> Martin Luther King Weekend
>> Presidents weekend
>> Last week of March and First half of April
>> 2nd week of June through 3rd week of August
>> Columbus Day weekend
>> Veterans Day weekend
>> December 21 through and including New Year's Day

Then they went on about the 50th celebration which I pretty much knew except:
At Disney's Animal Kingdom - from out of the secret labs of Walt Disney Imagineering - will come
Lucky the dinosaur, the first-ever free-roaming Audio-Animatronics® figure. Later in the celebration
year, Expedition EVEREST will take guests to thrilling new heights in a runaway mountain train.
What is Lucky the dinosaur? Expedition Everest sounds cool... Is this later on this year?

 

[UrsulasMyHero]

Lucky is part of the 50th Celebration, and is pretty cool. Expedition Everest opens in 2006, something to look forward to.

 

[KimWDW]

Huh, I always thought weekends were more crowded than weekdays.

 

[ArielsMommy]

Isn't it interesting that they used to say that the weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas were low crowds and now they have them as more crowded? I thought I noticed more long lines that time of year!

 

[drusba]

"Huh, I always thought weekends were more crowded than weekdays."

Except for MK on Sat and except for holiday weekends, we have always found weekends to be lighter than weekdays. AK and Epcot, in particular, seem to always have their lightest days of the week then. People believe otherwise because they think local residents will fill the parks on weekends, but local residents generally avoid the place like the plague during any half-busy season and when they do weekends they are mostly during slow times and you don't even notice any difference. What actually occurs is that Sat and Sun are the biggest travel days into and out of WDW and most of those travelers are not hitting a park on the day they are either arriving or leaving.

 

[marriedmarylander]

"Huh, I always thought weekends were more crowded than weekdays."

Except for MK on Sat and except for holiday weekends, we have always found weekends to be lighter than weekdays. AK and Epcot, in particular, seem to always have their lightest days of the week then. People believe otherwise because they think local residents will fill the parks on weekends, but local residents generally avoid the place like the plague during any half-busy season and when they do weekends they are mostly during slow times and you don't even notice any difference. What actually occurs is that Sat and Sun are the biggest travel days into and out of WDW and most of those travelers are not hitting a park on the day they are either arriving or leaving.

Saturdays in May are EMH morning for AK which I thought would make it more crowded - that's what they say anyways.

 

[CarolinaBlue]

I'm confused. It says that Thanksgiving week through Dec. 22nd is average but then says that Dec. 21st through and including New Year's Day is most crowded.

 

[ophie]

I'm confused. It says that Thanksgiving week through Dec. 22nd is average but then says that Dec. 21st through and including New Year's Day is most crowded.

Hi fellow Tar Heel! What's your confusion?

 

[WDSearcher]

You need to get away from the thought that EMH automatically means more crowds all day long. It doesn't. A lot of people follow the "go to EMH and then leave for another park" plan, and so that helps empty the park out. And during the busiest times of year, it honestly doesn't matter. MK will be busy every day, whether it's an EMH day or not. Epcot may seem busier on an EMH day, but once World Showcase opens, those crowds spread and you don't notice it so much. MGM and DAK are the ones that can get a bump from EMH, but even they don't necessarily stay busy all day long -- the truth is, no matter what guidebook you use, there is no one who can tell you which days are the busiest days.

You KNOW that Christmas, Easter, the day after Thanksgiving, July 4, and other holiday times are going to be incredibly busy. You KNOW that June-August is very busy. Any other day ... who knows? A day that one guide lists as being the least busy at park X may also be the day that 5000 cheerleaders show up or 2500 people celebrating the Smith Family Reunion are there. A day that one guide lists as being extremely busy at park Y could be dead because it's raining or there was a huge convention that just cancelled. There's truly no absolute way to predict. And I know it sounds like it can't be true, but if you're in the MK and there are 35,000 people there, you won't really notice a marked difference if the next day you walk in and there are 40,000 people. Attendance figures are calculated over the span of the day, not at a specific time, so it could be a capacity day at 10am and hardly crowded at all by dusk. There's just no way to tell.

Your best tactic is to plan your days the way you want to plan your days. If MGM works best for you on a Monday, then go on Monday. Have a "busy park" plan and a "not too busy" park plan. In other words, always plan to see your "A list" stuff first, and then fill in with "B" and "C" list stuff if time allows. This will work for any park -- including Universal and IOA. Don't feel you have to schedule everything, but do make PSs for restaurants you really want to try. If you get to an attraction and the line is too long, move to something else. There's not a test at the end -- it's okay if you don't see and do everything!

 

[UrsulasMyHero]

Ahh overlap. Generally you'll find that other than the spring break season (Mid feb - Mid April) Christmas is -THE- busiest time of the year.

 

[CarolinaBlue]

Doesn't the 21st come before the 22nd? How can Thanksgiving week through Dec. 22nd (which would include Dec. 21st) be average and Dec. 21st through New Year's Day be most crowded? That would mean that Dec. 21st and Dec. 22nd are average and most crowded!

 

[LovePug]

Expedition Everest opens in 2006, something to look forward to.

The latest info I've gotten is that EE is ahead of schedule and may open this November ! I hope it's true because the big family vacation is in December :thewave: .

 

[ophie]

Doesn't the 21st come before the 22nd? How can Thanksgiving week through Dec. 22nd (which would include Dec. 21st) be average and Dec. 21st through New Year's Day be most crowded? That would mean that Dec. 21st and Dec. 22nd are average and most crowded!

<shrug> just split the difference on them and call it a day. Or... call it a typo. Not really a big deal, I'm thinking... I have more anxiety about this weekend!

 

[tzuhouse]

I'm so glad ya'll started this thread. Our plans were: MK-Mon; Epcot-Tues; MGM-Wed. and AK-Thurs, to avoid spending any weekend days at the parks. After reading parts of this thread I thought maybe I should change AK to Saturday and go to Kennedy Space Center Thursday and the beach Friday. Checked on the rental car and it saves us half by renting for 2 weekdays instead of renting on a Friday and returning on a Saturday! YEA!!! $40 is much better than $80!

Thanks
Mary

 

[ophie]

The latest info I've gotten is that EE is ahead of schedule and may open this November ! I hope it's true because the big family vacation is in December :thewave: .

The rumor I heard was that it will be "open for the 2005 Holiday Season." I'm not going to get excited about it though until after we go through the Hurricane Season.

 

[UrsulasShadow]

The latest info I've gotten is that EE is ahead of schedule and may open this November ! I hope it's true because the big family vacation is in December :thewave: .

OHHHHH, that would be SO cool! We're going to be there on Christmas (yeah, I KNOW!), and it would be just one more thing to justify a trip there at the busiest time of year...to be one of the first to ride that bad puppy!

 

[dpic]

The crowd levels from the email don't match the resort seasons. For example, we are going during value season--the first full week of December. However, in the email they say this is average attendance. Also, the last few years we have gone the last week of October. This is now resort regular season (it wasn't a few years ago), but the email says this is one of the least visited times.

I think I'll trust the resort calendar. If Disney thinks more people are visiting during a specific time, they'll charge more. I don't know where the person who wrote the email got their information.