How do you decide which park which day?

[disney is my life]

Hi, we leave in a little over 2 weeks and one thing ive been putting off for months is planning what parks to go to on what days. what factors play apart in how you decide which parks to go to on which days?

 

[SA mom]

I use the Touring Plans recommendations: www.touringplans.com. They have a crowd calendar that includes a best park for the day and a park to avoid.

We also factor in Extra Magic Hours. If we stay on property, we hit morning EMH and then hop to a different park when that one gets crowded. If we are not on property, we visit which ever park had EMH the evening before. The theory is that on property guests will have been at that park the night before and will be less crowded.

Hope you have a great time!

 

[nikjd68]

I use the touringplans.com crowd calendar to determine which parks have the best crowds each day

If it is your first trip and you have kids, it might be worth it to go to MK last since the other parks may not measure up, DHS 2nd to last...

 

[Dan Murphy]

http://www.easywdw.com/category/calendar/03-march-2013-crowd-calendar/

 

[deannaf87]

I looked at touringplans.com and easywdw.com

I also knew we wanted MK to be our last day.

We're doing
Mon.-AK/Epcot in the Evening
Tues.-DHS
Wed.-MK
Thurs.-Universal IOA
Fri.-MK again

 

[Paging Tom Morrow]

I like the touring plans recommendations as well, however absent that information we choose to go to any park that had a PM EMH the day before.

 

[AngiTN]

I based our schedule 100% on crowd calendars. EasyWDW is my preferred one.

 

[Mom 2 a Princess]

I have used Josh's recommendations at easywdw.com and touringplans. I prefer to go with easywdw.com, but I think they are both useful. I would recommend just picking one for your trip. Too much information and conflicting information can nearly drive you crazy.

 

[shells4]

We use the touring plans as well but also plan around where our dinner reservations are. Occassionally we change our reservations depending on our mood that day and if we feel like doing a different park then originally planned. Sometimes though we have hard to get reservation like O'hana or Cape May and we plan to be in that park for a part of that day. We have been to disney so many times we don't feel the need to rush and try to "get it all in" so we usually change parks mid-day.

 

[Minnies Dad]

Touringplans.com and easywdw.com.

 

[Stinky_Pete]

I go by the recommended days on touringplans.com too. But I have to ask if you have ADRs planned anywhere, or are you going to try to get any? If you haven't yet, and have certain places you want to eat, you may be limited to where you can get ADRs. That may play a factor in which park you go to on which day.

 

[Izzieheartscindy]

I use easywdw to choose which park and then plan my ADRs accordingly. Good luck and have a great trip!!

 

[JustAKid]

Partial hijack warning - sorry OP (on the bright side, you may have the same questions!)

In regards to the touringplans/easywdw crowd predictors, can anyone tell me when they compile them? So, for example, in January of 2013 do they predict the crowd levels for December of 2013, nearly a year later? HOW?!

Someone said that they plan their ADRs around the predictions, does that mean even 6 months out they are fairly accurate?

I'm a first time WDWer, and feel like this is too good to be true. Can it really be this easy?! I *love* the DIS!!

 

[stargazertechie]

I average out the recommendations of Easy WDW, Undercover Tourist, and Touring Plans, along with parade and show schedules.

When we have hoppers, I always do the AM EMH, and then normally hop to either the least crowded park or the one open latest

 

[Dan Murphy]

Partial hijack warning - sorry OP (on the bright side, you may have the same questions!)

In regards to the ......easywdw crowd predictors, can anyone tell me when they compile them? So, for example, in January of 2013 do they predict the crowd levels for December of 2013, nearly a year later? HOW?!

Someone said that they plan their ADRs around the predictions, does that mean even 6 months out they are fairly accurate?

I'm a first time WDWer, and feel like this is too good to be true. Can it really be this easy?! I *love* the DIS!!

Josh at easy will publish his calendars shortly after Disney releases theirs, typically 6 months out. He currently has August, 2013 up. Initially, he will make his suggestions based on previous years' patterns, along with what is currently scheduled at the time as far as parades, special party (like MVMCP) nights, special groups (like Pop Warner), or anything that may impact crowds. As the weeks and months go on, Josh will tweak the calendars as things that Disney, or some rare outside influence, may impact the crowds. He puts a tremendous amount of personal time and research into the end result. It winds up being very accurate, and helpful to a pleasant vacation. And yes, it can be quite accurate 6 months out. I would be comfortable setting my DR's based on the initial suggestions.

 

[AngiTN]

Partial hijack warning - sorry OP (on the bright side, you may have the same questions!)

In regards to the touringplans/easywdw crowd predictors, can anyone tell me when they compile them? So, for example, in January of 2013 do they predict the crowd levels for December of 2013, nearly a year later? HOW?!

Someone said that they plan their ADRs around the predictions, does that mean even 6 months out they are fairly accurate?

I'm a first time WDWer, and feel like this is too good to be true. Can it really be this easy?! I *love* the DIS!!

At EasyWDW he explains why he makes his crowd levels what they are for a given day. And he doesn't make his as far out as others do. Personally, I have found that his fit more to what I felt while at the park. I like that his have a human to do the analysis. Other sites use a computer algorithm to come up with their levels. Computers are great but they miss little elements that humans can consider.

And yes, since some ADRs are in a certain park and as such you have to be in that park on that day you do have to make your ADR's based on the predictions. It works fine.

 

[khertz]

I use mostly Touring Plans recommendations, and it hasn't steered me wrong yet. Sometimes I have to go against their advice though, since we usually travel during the time of year when there are hard ticket parties going on and there are only a few nights that we can see the parade and Wishes at MK. Of course on those nights the MK is insane because everyone else is trying to do the same thing! But we go in expecting the wait times to be long and that we will not get much accomplished outside of the parade and fireworks.

 

[Disney_Princess83]

We use crowd predictions but generally, we go to whatever park we feel like. Our first three days always are MK, AK and then EPCOT. Our last three days are EPCOT, AK and MK. Usually in the middle we have breakfast or dinner reservations and then go to whatever park we feel like. We have AP's, which include the hopper option. We often start with breakfast on one park and then hop to another after a few rides.

 

[disney is my life]

I go by the recommended days on touringplans.com too. But I have to ask if you have ADRs planned anywhere, or are you going to try to get any? If you haven't yet, and have certain places you want to eat, you may be limited to where you can get ADRs. That may play a factor in which park you go to on which day.

We have adr's for each day
Crystal palace
Akershus
1900 park fare
Chef mickeys

 

[PlutoTheDog89]

Can't say we really have any rhyme or reason to our choosing. We do have park hoppers, but we usually book our ADRs without checking crowd forecasts. Then, we'll just go to parks in the day time as we feel like it, and we usually plan our night parks around EMH.