Friday vs Monday in the parks??

jenhelgren

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Mar 13, 2010
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I am looking into a trip for the 3rd or 4th week in October. Are Monday's generally more crowded than Friday's in the parks? For both of the last two weeks in October Touring Plans has a higher crowd predicted for Monday than Friday! They also have Halloween which is a Saturday predicted to be a 3-which I find hard to believe! I have had great luck with Touring Plans in WDW sometimes and other times it has been way off but I have no experience with DL yet so would love to hear some comments and suggestions!
 
I can't imagine Monday being busier than Friday. We've gone numerous times in Oct (weekend of CHOC walk and a couple days before). There are MHP on Mon and Fri except the last week there isn't a party on either. If I had a choice I would definitely go with Monday. As for Halloween a prediction of 3 can't be correct. There's a MHP that night and it's already sold out, only 10 days after going on sale to the public.
 
I think it may depend on the time of year but when I have researched the Mon Vs Fri question it has always been Friday that's busier.
 
Touring Plans crowd predictions do not work at DLR
 

I can't imagine Monday being busier than Friday. We've gone numerous times in Oct (weekend of CHOC walk and a couple days before). There are MHP on Mon and Fri except the last week there isn't a party on either. If I had a choice I would definitely go with Monday. As for Halloween a prediction of 3 can't be correct. There's a MHP that night and it's already sold out, only 10 days after going on sale to the public.


Which night is sold out?
 
Which night is sold out?
Halloween night sold out online yesterday.

Like the other posters, I can't really think of a reason why those specific Monday's would be busier than a Friday. In generally Friday's (the evenings) are among the busiest days of the week (although Saturday's and Sunday's are also usually busy - Saturday's with day guests and Sunday with AP holders).

Crowds do ebb and flow and there can be unexpected surges on random days. It's possible that in the past, there was something that bumped up line wait times on a Monday in the latter half of October and so that's what is causing Touring Plans to predict high crowds.

I haven't heard of any major events happening on those Monday's either, although there may be something. UEA is on the 15/16. CityRace has an event on Sunday (the 19th), but I don't think that'll impact Monday crowds.
 
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Touring Plans don't work "right" at DLR. Basically, when it is all added up, their numbers don't jive with how they explain them. There's a sticky here somewhere about it, but, in essence, they say that a 10/10 day should be 10% of the days, but they list 25% of the days as being 10/10. Secondly, they use historical data... but there's only 3 years of historical data to count when you consider DCA just did a major overhaul and added in a whole new land. Are you willing to trust a product to predict crowds based on only 3 days?? Not me! Third, they don't factor in things like no school days for the area and neighboring states (yes, neighboring *states* affect DLR's capacity at any given time, since it's a relatively short drive even for people in Oregon). Fourth, they attempted to use a formula for a destination vacation (that is, WDW) for a park that is most frequented by locals in the immediate vicinity of the park (which hits back to point #3).

As for the main question, though, Mondays *should* be less busy than Fridays. People tend to leave work early on Fridays, which, for the locals, often means they leave early on Friday and hit Disneyland. (A fair amount of locals have annual passes so they can drop in a few hours at a time whenever.) On Monday, most people are recovering from a maniacal Monday, and don't have the energy for crowds at Disneyland :)
 
While the last 2 trips we've gone Monday has been one of the busiest days of our trips (one trip we arrived Monday afternoon, did all day Tues-Thurs, skipped Friday, and did Saturday morning which was by far the lowest crowds - Saturday morning for real! the 2nd week in December!....the other trip was all full days Sunday-Thursday), I would still, hands down, choose Monday over Friday. Friday afternoons & into the night will be insane because of the locals.
 
Is there a touring system that does work better for DLR? We frequent WDW often so I make my own touring plans there but being newbies to DLR I really wanted something that would give me an idea of a route in the parks...
 
The only reason for Fridays (and Halloween) to be ranked low in October is because Friday, October 9, 16, and 23 DL closes early for Mickeys Halloween Party, this will deter full-day guests.

But on the average Friday night, the parks are the place to go after work and hang out for the locales with AP's. It gets pretty crowded as people squeeze in a few rides and hang out for the fireworks. The Mad T Party is part of Disney's effort to make DCA regular spot for the high school/college/post-college crowd. When we lived in L.A., it wasn't unusual for us to just cruise to DLR on a Friday for dinner, fireworks and a ride.
 
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