How do you decide which park on which day?

[hannahsmom7]

I just booked on whim and am trying to quickly make an itinerary for November, as my 180 days is quickly approaching. I'm brand new to this, sorry!

Wed 11/12- arrive, no park
Thurs 11/13 - MVMCP
Fri 11/14- MVMCP
Sat 11/15
Sun 11/16 - MVMCP
Mon 11/17
Tues 11/18
Wed 11/19- leave, no park

I do NOT plan on doing MVMCP, and my trying to get an idea of which parks to do on which day. I don't have park hoppers and assume I don't want to do MK on a MVMCP day since they'll kick us out early? That leaves Sat, Mon, Tues. Is Saturday most crowded? I was hoping to spend our first day there, as it is a first visit for my two youngest kids (age 5 & 7). Would anyone be willing to give me some input? Need to get those ADRs figured out!

Thanks

 

[2009CAN]

I look at the crowd calendars and things like extra magic hours and decide. We have three little kids so for our next trip, we'll have 7 park days and and four will be MK days.

We're arriving on Nov 13 and these are our parks based on research

Thurs 11/13 - No parks
Fri 11/14- MK
Sat 11/15 EP
Sun 11/16 - HS
Mon 11/17 MK
Tues 11/18 HS
Wed 11/19- MK
Wed 11/20- MK

I read that parks on MVMCP days are actually recommended because people don't want to go and have to leave early. For us, we do leave early anyway because our children are young and still go to be early.

One of those day, I think it might be Tuesday had EMH in the evening, you could pick that has your MK day if you want to be there late but are not doing the party.

 

[siskaren]

http://www.easywdw.com/category/calendar/11-november-2014-crowd-calendar/

 

[Missymouse18]

A lot of people use the crowd calendars. Personally, my choices of which park which day is based purely from tradition. The day of arrival is spent at DTD but first park day is HS because I like to start my WDW vacation with Fantasmic. Then I have 2 days back to back at Epcot because it's my favorite park. AK we do the 4th day because the park closes early and by the 4th day we are tired & ready to get to bed so we can be ready for our last two days, both at MK. We leave MK for last because to us, it is the most magical and most memorable, so if we did it at the beginning or even in the middle, it would feel like the rest of the trip was anti-climatic. This is just how I do it - most people have a preferred way and this one is mine. I hope you have a magical time!!!

 

[erin327]

I am debating this same thing right now. We will also be there at a lower crowd time, so I am trying to decide how that factors in. The EasyWDW recommendations for our days would have us missing Wishes, Main Street Elec Parade, and Fantasmic. I don't want to do that. I have the same issue when looking at touring plans recommendations. So as I start trading those days around to see the nighttime events, the rest becomes fuzzier. I understand that days when Wishes happens are going to be more crowded than not, but when it is a lower crowd time how big is the impact? Knowing I do want to see Wishes, etc....

 

[wuzzy6]

Definitely check out the crowd calendars. Right now, I feel as though none of them are very accurate, but I suspect that will improve over the next year as the "new changes" will become the norm. Still, it's a good idea to check them out, because they will tell you if there's anything special going on in a particular park on a specific day that may make it more crowded than usual. My favorite is Easy WDW - he does a great job with the details and tries to keep everything as updated as possible.

 

[nat8199]

I go by the crowd calendars.

We avoid morning EMH because we like to do pre-opening buffets for breakfast and LIKE the party days since we leave MK for dinner anyways.

Following the Touring Plans and EasyWDW calendars helped us a lot last fall.

 

[mrsp1030]

We also use crowd calendars and we also park hop to catch evening entertainment as well.

 

[Frozen2014]

Just checked and we are completely going against the crowd calendar. But I noticed that MK is mostly only green on MNSSHP days...so of coruse there's the trade off of having to leave at 4pm if not attending...which this makes other parks busier (plus mid week on Wed).
Also, it seems like if you follow the crowd calendar then it's a trade off...e.g if you want to see the Electrical Parade then you are stuck to only a couple choices if during Halloween party time. For us, the electrical parade is important and so we selected a red day for MK (i.e. not recommended). This is our first travel to Disney but I'd say book what fits your schedule and waht you'd like to see. Also figure out if you will visit all parks / water parks and if any you want to see more than once.

 

[amandahein3]

Good info in here! Thanks y'all!

 

[Dan Murphy]

http://www.easywdw.com/category/calendar/11-november-2014-crowd-calendar/

 

[michsig]

Look at crowd calendars on easywdw, determine if you'll be taking advantage of EMH, and any ADRs.

 

[FlightlessDuck]

The last couple of times we went, Fantasmic! was not showing every day, so we planned our days around Fantasmic!

Also, we usually try to start at the Magic Kingdom and end at Disney's Hollywood Studios.

We very rarely care about "best" and "worst" parks based on crowd calendars. We go in the summer, so everything is crowded.

 

[denneg]

Just checked and we are completely going against the crowd calendar. But I noticed that MK is mostly only green on MNSSHP days...so of coruse there's the trade off of having to leave at 4pm if not attending...which this makes other parks busier (plus mid week on Wed). Also, it seems like if you follow the crowd calendar then it's a trade off...e.g if you want to see the Electrical Parade then you are stuck to only a couple choices if during Halloween party time. For us, the electrical parade is important and so we selected a red day for MK (i.e. not recommended). This is our first travel to Disney but I'd say book what fits your schedule and waht you'd like to see. Also figure out if you will visit all parks / water parks and if any you want to see more than once.

You don't have to leave at 4 on a party day, it's 7 when the party starts. They start asking non-party guests to exit around 630 and continue until after 7 (people in line for a ride or having a meal may be a little later leaving than others). At 4 party guests are allowed in, which is why you have seen that time mentioned often.

We use the crowd calendars, easywdw specifically. We don't always do the recommendation since we do the mornings in the park and leave early afternoon, which helps us get a lot done in a short time. We like to alternate days, and we never set a day aside for Epcot (we may go eat and do attractions late in the day, but it's not a park we dedicate time to). So we rotate between MK, AK and HS with quick visits to Epcot in the evening. If you don't have hoppers, make sure you only use them at a park you could spend all day in!

 

[Rgonzalez79]

A lot of people use the crowd calendars. Personally, my choices of which park which day is based purely from tradition. The day of arrival is spent at DTD but first park day is HS because I like to start my WDW vacation with Fantasmic. Then I have 2 days back to back at Epcot because it's my favorite park. AK we do the 4th day because the park closes early and by the 4th day we are tired & ready to get to bed so we can be ready for our last two days, both at MK. We leave MK for last because to us, it is the most magical and most memorable, so if we did it at the beginning or even in the middle, it would feel like the rest of the trip was anti-climatic. This is just how I do it - most people have a preferred way and this one is mine. I hope you have a magical time!!!

Wow, I thought it was just my family who liked to start things of at DTD! We feel like DTD is the appetizer for the full Disney Experience meal

We actually do use the crowd calenders as a base to start planning, but then it sort of becomes a reverse self fulfilling prophecy. If MK is green on a particular day then more people will schedule that as a park day which then raises the crowd level on this day. We accept this going in and expect every day to be jam packed, if it's not, hooray for us

We actually like to start with AK since that park closes early and we've just flown in early the day before (we normally start parks on day 2). Then we do either MK or HS. Agree that I like to put Magic Kingdom in the middle or toward the end to kind of rev the engines again for the 2nd leg of the trip.

 

[hannahsmom7]

Thanks all! I'm having the same issues as many of you with the crowd calendars. Red days are days of Wishes, Fantasmic, etc, but those are things we want to see, so we either deal and go on more crowded days, or spend the extra on a hopper and go over to whatever park has the evening entertainment we want.

 

[TinkerElsasMom]

Wishes is every single night, unless canceled for some crazy reason. Fantasmic is also running every night, sometimes twice a night. Your problem with scheduling is the extra magic hours. A lot of people don't opt for the park hopper option, so they will go to the park that had the EMH and stay all day. Additionally there are certain days, certain parks attract lower or higher crowds. Normally Saturdays and Sundays MK is the worst because you have a ton of day trippers coming in for the day at the park.

Try to look at the events happening in the parks, including the EMHs and use that information in combination with crowd calendars. Additionally use easywdw.com for cheat sheets to each of the parks.

Hope this helps.

 

[hannahsmom7]

Wishes is every single night, unless canceled for some crazy reason. Fantasmic is also running every night, sometimes twice a night.

Thanks, I wish this were the case! Because of MVMCP, we only have the option of Wishes two of our six nights, with one being the last night (which I don't want to risk weather wise), and the other being the Saturday. And Fantasmic is showing as once nightly, on almost all the nights we are there, except of course for the day it is the recommended park lol. I'm very tempted to just get hoppers, but having trouble justifying the extra cost X 6 people.

 

[siskaren]

Wishes is every single night, unless canceled for some crazy reason.

Not when MNSSHP and MVMCP are going on.

 

[ggaffiganu]

I hope you have a magical time!