Do you follow recommended days??

[suncat73]

I am struggling with trying to plan out my ADR and what days to do which parks. Do you follow a plan as far as what parks to avoid on certain days? I looked at easy wdw and if I go by that I have to change everythingFeeling stressed! (I haven't made my reservations yet, next week!)
Not sure if I should just do my own thing or follow that strictly.

 

[kris4360]

I try not to worry about crowds. We always have a great time busy or not. Use fast passes for the popular rides. You could add park hopper and go to another park if its too busy.

 

[natfrac]

I used to follow recommended days, but since so many people do that now the recommended parks can seem more busy than the others. So now I only avoid the park with EMH.

 

[chimilady]

I went with his recommended days in September and it was awesome! Very little wait times for anything. With the exception of Peter pan and Toy Storia Mania, everything else was 10 minute wait or less. FWIW, 5 out of our 7 days were the same. (I hear ALWAYS do MK on Wednesday) And I did switch our ADRs on those 2 days to make them come out to the same, and I'm glad I did. I think it would depend on your time of the year.

 

[4butlers]

I don't. I go by park hours and EMH. I first figure out which park we are going to be in on what day (if we don't have PHs), then plan ADRs around that. I figure we are bound to run in to some sort of crowd somewhere, regardless.

 

[dvcterry]

I don't follow. Whichever park we choose, we go first thing in the morning, before rope drop. Only plan one adr for dinner and stick with that plan.

 

[wellesleyprincess]

I kind of do. We try to avoid parks to avoid according to recommendations but don't necessarily go to the recommended park

 

[MHSweb79]

We went early December 2010 and our only non-recommended day was MK on the Monday of our week. It was the park to be avoided according to easywdw, but we were meeting people and that's the way it worked out. Well, the park was NUTZ - like over an hour to wait at Columbia Harbor House just to order lunch - at 2:00! The rest of the week we saw no crowds whatsoever.

The recommendations at easywdw are spot-on, at least in my experience. If you are staying off-site they are ideal for planning park days because, as the PP stated, he avoids any park having EMH. If you are staying on-site, then you could do the morning EMH park for a few hours, then hop to a different park for the afternoon. We have tremendous success with this strategy, but you do need to be staying on-site and have hoppers.

Since you haven't made ADR's yet, you might want to give serious consideration to at least avoiding easywdw's worst park for the day.

That said, if you like your schedule the way it is, then by all means keep it. There's no reason why you can't enjoy a more crowded park - some people here act like it's the death knell for fun, and it really isn't. Sometimes you can have a fabulous day AND not get it all done. (*gasp!*)

 

[dmdelight]

we do not follow "the rules" on which days to attend or not visit the parks.

we have had 10 visits to wdw and never encountered any huge problems.

the earlier trips had no planning at all!

the more recent trips if onsite, we visit parks with am emh.
if off site, we often visit the park which had pm emh the previous night.

 

[Mom2Luci]

I followed EasyWDW's recommendations for the most part and didn't have any issues. I will say that the one day we didn't go to the most recommended park was the one day the crowds were a little much for us, but it was also our only chance for CRT.

 

[rebeccaariel]

It kind of depends what time of year you're going. I've always gone during the off-season, so I make a basic plan but I don't stress about following it to the letter because crowds will be low in all the parks so it won't make a ton of difference. If I decided to go during high-attendance times of the year like the summer holidays or Christmas, I'd follow park recommendations more strictly.

 

[North of Mouse]

I am struggling with trying to plan out my ADR and what days to do which parks. Do you follow a plan as far as what parks to avoid on certain days? I looked at easy wdw and if I go by that I have to change everythingFeeling stressed! (I haven't made my reservations yet, next week!)
Not sure if I should just do my own thing or follow that strictly.

Never have, never plan to stick with the plans they suggest. We have always gone with the flow and have a great time. Most of the time we decide in the mornings where we'd like to go, go early, then when crowds hit (lots of people don't get in the parks until 10-11am) we then head off to another park of our choosing - works great every trip. I hate schedules, plans - it's vacation

 

[ScrampShopper]

I always follow the recommended parks using a combo of TP and easy wdw, but I don't follow them blindly. You have to understand why a certain park is not recommended to make your decision. It also makes a difference if you can park hop. My family will never get up early enough for morning EMH so we avoid those parks during the day. We go to a recommended park for the day and then hop to the evening EMH park or a park with evening entertainment (MSEP, Fantasmic, etc), or whichever park has late hours that we want to go to. It is not worth spending the whole day in an evening EMH park because it is very crowded during the day. I ignored the recommended park for one day of our trip in Sept because of something extra I decided to do, and it was the only day we had heavy crowds in the parks. I will not make that mistake again, even during low season!

 

[katied718]

Yup-we follow the recommended days and a "hidden" schedule. My family doesn't even realize we r on a plan or a schedule cuz they are too busy enjoying the attractions.

Spending my day in line waiting is not my idea of vacation-heck I can do that on any Sunday afternoon at Costco!

 

[katied718]

Plus-I like to get the most bang for my buck. My friend went to MK on a busy day-her family was there for 11 hours & got to ride 3 rides. I think I get more for my money when we can ride all of fantasy land in 1 hour.

 

[maxiesmom]

I followed EasyWDW's recommendations for the most part and didn't have any issues. I will say that the one day we didn't go to the most recommended park was the one day the crowds were a little much for us, but it was also our only chance for CRT.

That was us during our last trip too. Followed EasyWDW all but one day, and you could really tell the difference.

OP--I do follow the crowd recommendations from EasyWDW. Plus, if I am going when I know the parks will be packed, I do look at Touringplans.com. If you don't mind doing the rides and attractions in the order they suggest, you can really get a lot done! During a 4th of July trip we even got to the point where the next suggested attraction at AK wasn't even open yet, we were moving so quickly through the rides.

 

[tinkerbell313]

We went Oct. 20 to Oct. 25. During this week, I read on the boards various threads complaining how crowded it was in the parks. Most of those threads were written by people who went to a nonrecommended park.

We followed easyWDW and we felt the crowds were very light. We did not show up at the parks at rope drop. Instead, we slept in and showed up at the parks around 10:30am. The most we had to wait for a ride was BTMRR and that was 20 minutes. Space Mountain was ten minutes. Kali River Rapids was 5 mint yes ( although the posted wait said 30). We had no problem getting into Lion King show and it was half full. These times were all between 10am and 5 pm. The only park we did not go to was DHS.