Feel like crowd calendars let me down a bit

[MrInfinity]

DITTO!

I'v been going to WD 3-5x/year for the last 10 years and truly there is no SLOW time anymore like there used to be. I put VERY little faith in crowd calendars.

Agree, the crowd calendars are just someone else's guess, nothing more. Often times they point to completely different parks! You can read them, try to understand what the idea behind them is, but then realize they're just a good guess, and you could probly do as well guessing yourself using the info they provide.

And if you get to a park and think it sucks when it should have been better, it probly would have sucked at the other parks or on a different day too. It's just busy in general, with only light differences sometimes day to day.

The biggest things are things you can't plan for. Like rain. Nothing clears out a park faster than a big storm rolling thru.

 

[wdwcoltsfan]

I wonder if FP+ is wreaking some havoc with this? I looked at the calendars before booking our FP, but it all came down to what day I could get each ride. I first tried for 7dmt and once that was booked, I went on to TSMM and then TT, etc. At the end, I had to see which day I was in which park because I was booking the first thing I saw. I did tweak some times, but other than changing one day on the fly, I stayed in park I originally scheduled. Of course, these didn't always mesh with the touring calendars.

Just a thought....

 

[nkereina]

Here now and also finding it to be busier than anticipated. Definitely busier than last year. I'm wondering if the earlier than usual free dining announcement had an large impact.

 

[MaryKatesMom]

I don't ever use the numbers put on a given day. It doesn't matter to me if it's a 4 or a 6 or an 8. What I go by and follow is red/green or recommended/not recommended. A 2 at a red park and a 2 at a green park feel very different. As long as I go with the most recommended park that day I have had success. Anytime I deviate from that I can tell. When you stick with the most recommended park the numbers assigned for the crowds is less significant.

I've had success with that also.

A couple of years ago we walked out of the BC heading for DHS and I just couldn't do another morning of the running of the bulls for TSMM and we made a last minute decision to walk to Epcot instead. It was a non-recommended park and we had been there yesterday when is was a recommended park and what a difference! There was a huge line where the day before there was no-one but I think it is a matter of everything is relative.

 

[AngiTN]

I've had success with that also.

A couple of years ago we walked out of the BC heading for DHS and I just couldn't do another morning of the running of the bulls for TSMM and we made a last minute decision to walk to Epcot instead. It was a non-recommended park and we had been there yesterday when is was a recommended park and what a difference! There was a huge line where the day before there was no-one but I think it is a matter of everything is relative.

Yep. And more than likely the crowd level assigned for the day was the same.

 

[emldrl]

Does having PH tickets help with this at all? My thinking is if we go to one park and it gets too crowded, we'll just try a different one (other than our FP times, and any ADRs)?

 

[AngiTN]

Does having PH tickets help with this at all? My thinking is if we go to one park and it gets too crowded, we'll just try a different one (other than our FP times, and any ADRs)?

Sure, if you find yourself miserable due to crowds you can hop to another park and hope it's better. Our last trip was our first with hoppers but we didn't use it much at all. I can't seem to adjust myself to that mind set. I think it's what you get used to doing. We have comp tickets for our next trip and they are hoppers. We are going try and use them at least one day

Some people plan their days that way. Mornings are rarely crowded in any park. I see people who like to tour by starting at Park A in the morning, rope drop and all stand by rides. They head to their resort, take a break and hop to a different park that afternoon.

 

[chrisuofa]

Does having PH tickets help with this at all? My thinking is if we go to one park and it gets too crowded, we'll just try a different one (other than our FP times, and any ADRs)?

That's what we do. We do half days at parks so for example i will have lunch ADR at Epcot and dinner ADR at MK and Epcot is very crowded, then we leave for MK right after we eat lunch. If epcot is near empty then we may stay pretty close to our MK dinner ADR and hop to MK then. I try to use FP early then get what I can on arriving at the other park.

 

[lugnut33]

Maybe it's better to not have any recommended par, and instead have a touring plan based on a crowd level of 8. I know Touring Plans has almost gotten to this point already because they emphasize that a touring plan is much more effective than trying to pick the least crowded park.

 

[Love Tink]

I've kind have come to the conclusion there is no such thing as a 1-4 crowd anymore, except a few rare days in September. Our last week of August trip showed a 4 and MK was most recommended on Easy, and we had to leave by 2pm when I was questioning if they were near closing due to capacity. The economy has rebounded, there's practically nothing to do at DHS, many people don't go to AK at all, so the MK will always be crowded.

I see "there is no low time at Disney anymore" all the time on here and I couldn't disagree more. We were also there the last week of August and we thought the crowds were great - they seemed lower to us than they had the same week the year before. Neither of our MK days seemed particularly busy and we were able to add almost any 4th, 5th, 6th, etc. FP we wanted at any park.

I think that A) Perception (also known as "it feels crowded) and B) Where you are in the park at what time of day - can make a big difference in whether you think the park was crowded. But individual observations always have a counterpoint (as in the last week of August: "I was questioning if they were near closing due to capacity" vs. us getting Space Mountain FP at 5:30 for 5:35).

 

[Davey Jones II]

Another strategy is to go to the theme parks in the morning, then hop to the water parks on hot afternoons, then back to the parks for the evening events. We did that three times during our October trip. You just have to remember to pack your bathing suits and towels in your carry on or back pack, as well as empty plastic bags for bringing wet stuff back from the water parks.