Figuring out which day/which park - craziness!

[GatorChris]

With a trip coming in July/Aug, I'm trying to figure out which parks I want to do on which day so I can make my dining reservation. Been a while since I've done it the WDW way.

There's so much mixed information out there, i don't know which way to go! One site will say don't do MK on Monday or Wednesday - but then WDWPassport will use actual ride line data which shows Tuesday way busier than both of those days. One site will say don't do Epcot on the weekend, while others say Saturday is good at Epcot because it absorbs the crowds. And all the rest is just a jumbled mess.

So...is there a true science? Or is it just guess work added in with a little info? Or maybe all these online tools convince people one day is crowded and they inadvertently make that day really easy.

What's the secret?

 

[leebee]

I think it's mostly guesswork. The parks are pretty crowded these days, regardless of when you go. I usually use TouringPlans crowd estimator to pick my park days, then book my dining around this. However... Although TP is usually pretty accurate, they gave my MK day a "3" (which is why we chose to go to MK that day). That didn't work out. Anytime you see Small World with a 35 minute standby line, you know it's NOT a level 3 day at the Magic Kingdom! Tron never went below 90 minutes, Tianna never was below an hour. We waited 62 minutes (8yo timed it) for Mine Train, even though it said 45 minutes. It was crazy-busy in MK that day!

 

[danceintherain]

I dunno. I have 3 different website's estimates in a spreadsheet. I also look at thrill data. Nothing agrees exactly.
I expect the general estimate for all the days is a better indicator of overall crowds than a specific park number.
Touring plans has always said that a "good plan" is more important than which day you go. In the past, my parks have been largely based on when I could get a harder to get ADR.

I wouldn't worry about "too many people" using the same plan/guide, because as you've noticed there are many different opinions. Implementation varies quite a bit too, so even if every single person who is at the parks that day is using the same calendar....some will still arrive at 11am....or not book ADRs....or whatever.

My best advice is to go in with a plan, and a decent knowledge-base so you can pivot as necessary.

 

[WLWildlife]

We don't do sit down meals, buy LL of any kind, and buy park hoppers. I know this doesn't appeal to most people, but it works for us. We decide the night before where to start the next day. We rope drop the park and stay until we have done what we want or leave if it gets too crowded and hop somewhere else of our choice. I think the key is knowing what will work for your family and going in knowing it will be busy. We prioritize 1 choice for each member of our party and anything else we get to do is icing on the cake. Have a great trip!

 

[scrappinginontario]

When are you going? I use TP too but occasionally they get surprised too.

My only definite recommendation is, visit MK on a party day if you can but you will miss evening entertainment.

We tend to skip Epcot on Fri and Sat during festivals.

We also purchase park hoppers and if waits are high but lower at a different park we may hop elsewhere.

 

[kylenne]

The reason you’re seeing so much conflicting info is because crowd prediction is useless in 2025, those absurd numbers are arbitrary and mean very little in the scheme of things and I am really bummed out by people working themselves into a tizzy about which day to go where. It genuinely does not matter unless we’re talking MK party season or Epcot during Food & Wine.

Having a good plan and being flexible is what matters. A good plan will serve you whether it’s slammed or it’s dead. That’s a much better use of your energy imo than trying to play the losing game of trying to figure out when it’ll be dead.

 

[Summer2018]

I can't stand the crowds, and I really miss the days of TourGuide Mike. His tricks of the trade worked really well for us back in the day. In more recent years, getting up early and being there for rope-drop has been the best solution for us. We leave at lunchtime either eating in the park or at our resort, spend the afternoon at the pool (usually at a patio rental at Polynesian's quiet pool), and have a Signature dinner where we can also watch fireworks or take a fireworks cruise rather than returning to the parks.

 

[tigerlilly]

We leave at lunchtime either eating in the park or at our resort, spend the afternoon at the pool (usually at a patio rental at Polynesian's quiet pool)

Can you tell me the secret to getting the patio? I called 60 days out from check in and every cabana was booked for every day of our trip (we are there 8 nights for the record). Living on the west coast makes calling that early hard lol. I have randomly tried calling about 7 times on different days to check too. No dice ...

I love your daily plan though as it is my plan for my trip in 3 weeks! ... other than the patio (hopefully I will find a lounge or two...or maybe just sit on my balcony and jump in the shower every 20 minutes lol)

 

[Summer2018]

Can you tell me the secret to getting the patio? I called 60 days out from check in and every cabana was booked for every day of our trip (we are there 8 nights for the record). Living on the west coast makes calling that early hard lol. I have randomly tried calling about 7 times on different days to check too. No dice ...

I love your daily plan though as it is my plan for my trip in 3 weeks! ... other than the patio (hopefully I will find a lounge or two...or maybe just sit on my balcony and jump in the shower every 20 minutes lol)

I don't really have any "tricks of the trade" for getting a patio. I'm also in the same time zone which makes it easier. It never took more than one phone call, but I wasn't able to get the patio every single day I wanted. Unfortunately, we had the patio on our last day, and we weren't able to use it because of thunderstorms. We lost that money, waiting and watching the patio sit unoccupied with all of our belongings and not allowed to fetch our things and go do something else. It was a waste of time and money and really disappointing for our last day in WDW. We haven't been back since. In spite of that, I will still rent the patio next time we go because having our own space definitely made the experience more enjoyable for us.

 

[gottalovepluto]

Go to whatever park you want to go on whatever day you want to go. Even if Epcot is a 7 and MK is a 5- you aren’t going to be able to tell the difference. You aren’t going to ruin your trip by picking the wrong park on the wrong day, the crowd levels are just too similar. And none of the bloggers can predict. You cannot just base on historical wait times because that doesn’t take into account moving holidays, events, promotions, AP blackouts. There is a reason you are getting conflicting data.

Whenever you go, it’s gonna be crowded. Literally the only thing I will plan around is MK parties, they noticeably drop crowds at MK for the morning hours.

 

[_19disnA]

There is no 'secret' to deciding which parks to do when. As others have said, plan to do the parks you enjoy/when you want to enjoy them. No 3rd part has any magical way to tell months in advance how crowded a specific park might be. Anyone can apply some formula to make a prediction, but that doesn't mean it will be accurate. You can make all sorts of elaborate 'plans' about how to do a specific park and that goes out the window if a ride happens to be down for some maintenance issue or bad weather requires certain rides to stop for safety reasons.

Disney is a huge place with 4 parks and attract visitors from all over the world. Assume it is going to be crowded regardless of when you go. We have never found that zig/zagging all over the park to supposedly save a few minutes in line to ever work for us. Involves a LOT more walking for very little benefit. We prefer to do the rides/shows in a given area and then move on to the next area. Having park hopper passes also helps since if you find one park too crowded on a specific day, you can go to a different park. Our last time at Disney, Animal Kingdom was wall-to-wall people on whatever weekday we were there, so we went to Epcot instead.