How Do YOU Determine Which Park to Visit on Which Day?

[ElsasFan]

So, on our first trip to WDW, I used the Touring Plans Crowd Calendar to choose which parks to visit on which date, and after Day 2, I realized their expected crowds didn't reflect what we were seeing in the parks. Coincidentally, we happened to visit parks the next few days that Easy WDW said would be low crowds, and they were.

Last year, we took Easy WDW's recommendations into account when planning our park days (although we did diverge a bit). Now that Easy WDW is no longer publishing crowd calendars, and crowds seem so unpredictable, I am wondering how others decide what park to visit on which day? EMH? Personal theory of crowd behavior? Other ideas?

 

[Wood Nymph]

I have some simple rules:
- never go to Magic Kingdom on Monday
- avoid the park with early magic mornings (park opens early for Disney resort guests)
- if a park had extra magic late hours then go to it the next morning

 

[lovethattink]

Depends on what I want to do.

For example, the "fireworks" show at DHS isn't every night. So when that's the case. I pick the park based on the experience I want to do.

Illuminations is every night so it doesn't matter what night I choose that.

 

[drp4video]

Before FP+ i would decide when I got to WDW. Looked at the weather a lot as I did not want to do AK or even MK when it rained all day, although one time we did go during the rain and it was basically empty. Also, I always got hoppers so I would go to the early opening park in the morning, then hop later in the day when it got crowded. My daughter was also school aged so we were stuck going during very busy times during the year. I also would hop to a park that was open late at night as well.

Now that my daughter is out of school and working, we try to go when it is not a holiday or super crowded. The last time I went, in May of 2015, I did not plan and picked the park I wanted to go to that morning and the concierge at the AK Lodge make my FP+ reservations before I left for the park that day. I was alone so I just needed one pass, and was able to get everything I wanted. Next trip will be with my daughter, but again probably the beginning of May. Not sure how I will handle it yet, but I do like choosing the park I want to go to the morning I get up. Not sure it will work though for two.

 

[gatorlisa]

I have not ever used a crowd calendar or tour plan. Generally speaking we go where the EMHs are. We stay on site and always have hoppers, so we start with the morning EMH park, then hop to either the evening EMH park or the park open the latest. Every now and then there is a third park in between those for the middle of the day. I do our FPs for the second park, since we are able to make good use of shorter lines earlier in the day at the first park. If we were off site the EMH wouldn't matter that much, so it would just be looking to see who opens earliest, who is open latest, and what kind of events are going on that we want to check out.

 

[Queen of the WDW Scene]

When I've stayed onsite I determined which park which day by looking to see which park had morning EMH which day. We liked that extra hour int he morning because you can get so much done.
I'll be staying offsite in April so for this trip I determined which park which day but avoiding morning EMH and trying to avoid evening EMH.
I have never paid any attention to crowd calendars because I don't find them reliable. I find my own experiences more reliable.

 

[Accident]

I basically decide on my own using some tricks i've learned.. for medical reasons we don't really stay too long at any park (maybe 3-4 hours on average but it varies) so some of this is when you want to hop in and out of certain parks. I'm also not a rope dropper and generally we're in that pack that comes into a park for early lunch but we also can close any park down.

Things i've observed:
- Friday afternoon - sunday night everything is more crowded.
- sunday night if mk is opened late is a dream but the day isn't uncrowded so it's a great use of hoppers. (but don't go in if your looking to linger in the hub for night shows, thats where the crowd is).
- if any park is opened 2 hours after it would be dark that time of year, disney is expecting a really big crowd that day.
- if any park is closing with fireworks or the night show right as it gets dark that time of year, the crowd is not expected to be huge but it'll be a nice crowd where all rides will have some type of line instead of later nights where lots of rides will go walk on.
- any weekday (mon-thurs) that a park is opened much later than the rest of the week, that park is expected to be swamped.
- if only 1 park is opened late, there is going to be a lot of people hopping to it unless it's closing within an hour of other parks.
- if 1 park is opened late and another have an evening emh just roll the dice which is better to be at and it's a great day for the other parks that are closing sooner with a late dinner at springs.
- mk is crowded on mondays, always packed on mondays.
- if you like the street performers in AK, go in the evenings, especially when ROL is running, people tend to all be back by EE or safari making it a really nice evening strolling around and taking in the entertainment. while the first show is happening, EE is a walk on, as it ends, it'll no longer be a walk on for the rest of the night.
- if all parks are closing roughly the same time and earlier in the night, springs is going to be crowded but not impossible (if park to springs hopping, you'll be waiting for a few buses before you get onto a crowded one but springs itself won't be too bad to walk around but impossible to get a dinner spot without an adr.).
- early morning emh makes for very empty evenings but only after the fireworks or full set of night shows end when famillies decide it's bed time. popular rides tend to be more crowded as families aren't the ones that stayed but all other rides are pretty much a walk on so plan accordingly with your ride strategy of when to ride what.
- most parks have the highest crowds in the afternoon except AK but that's because the sun is trying to fry you like and egg so if you don't like to feel that way, avoid ak
- epcot future world has the lowest lines once everyone makes their way into world showcase for dinner.
- most families clear out by 11pm including some teenagers and young adults so parks opened past midnight tend to be great unless it's friday or saturday.
- rides are impossible in epcot during evening emh but world showcase is very empty (and most of it closed) with people getting out of there after illuminations.
- food and wine or flower and garden eating around the world tends to be emptiest after dinner time on weekdays (mon - thurs). if your see massive lines in the app for any park, it's not going to be empty when peopel give up and head to epcot.
- minigolf closes at 11pm if you want a nice night game when all the parks are closing early. it's also a great time for family movie night at springs.

So what do we do when spending a week? we get all the parks things we care about done in the first 24-48 hours, then we go where we feel like it. after that and if we're not ewnjoying hte park we go to another one. I randomly get fp+ ahead of time knowing which parks we tend to just not hop to normally and lots at MK because we almost always end up there somewhere during the day.

 

[BlueFairy]

1) Decide where we're staying, when and how long. Cut parks as needed based on time and proximity. Recent trips are shorter and focus on 1 or 2 sections of property instead of doing it all. Am I doing F&G or a hard ticket party? That comes 1st.
2) When is Wishes or MSEP? Mostly a moot point now that MSEP parade is closed, but that was a major determining factor. Same for Fantasmic!, etc.
3)Avoid EMH parks because we don't hop.
4)Ask Josh about recommended parks. (Or TP, but that's less reliable).
5) Try like crazy to find a day that MK is the recommended park during our dates. Almost never works out. Deal with it as best we can. Other parks are less of a challenge.

 

[Stinky_Pete]

I typically go during F&W or December, so there are parties at the MK. Partly because of this, I get hoppers.

• I go to the MK for RD on a party day. Especially if there's morning EMH. I then hop somewhere else if the MK gets too busy for my comfort.
• Sometimes, in December, HS has an early close due to some kind of private event. I'll also go there then hop somewhere else later, or just call it an early night if I'm tired.

Theory with both of these is that a lot of people, especially those without hoppers, won't go to one of these parks if it's closing "early." But honestly, if I'm at a park for RD, even on a non-busy day, I'm gonna want a break in the afternoon anyway. That would be a long day from open to even 7p.m.!

If during F&W, if I go to Epcot WS for the booths on a weekend at all, I make sure I do the booths early then get the heck out of there when it gets too busy for me.

 

[PrincessWithABlaster]

We usually hit MK on Sun (we fly in Sat). After that I try to balance the days we want to do fireworks with the days that will be earlier nights. Try to guess when DHS will have fireworks and pick that day. Agonize over TP crowd calendar for a while. Check out KennythePirate and WDWprep and see they are different. Remember that we probably can't tell the difference between a 4, 5, or 6 anyway and they aren't likely to be that accurate. Decide which EMHs we are likely to do and get something out of (AK EMH seem like a lot of walking for not much payout). Make sure they aren't after fireworks nights. Show DH the plan. As long as I have not put 3-4 fireworks nights in a row, he will nod. Give corresponding ADR list to TA who will say that it's hard to get CRT for the first full day of our trip, which is probably true but she's come thru. Cross fingers and vow not to look at it again until we find out there will be no fireworks on our DHS night.

 

[bushdianee]

A lot depends on when and where we get our ADRs and FP. I get them first then plan around them. Sometimes we hop so it doesn't really make a difference. I usually like to do our first whole day at MK. Arrival day depends on when we get there. If we can't get at least a half day in a park we will hang around the resort or o to Disney Springs. Departure day is the same. If we have a park day left and aren't leaving until late afternoon/early evening then we just pick one.

 

[Klayfish]

I know we're probably different than most, but when making our "plans" our honest answer is whatever park we want to go to, whenever we feel like it. We do not:

Look at crowd calendars
Look at day of the week relative to what park it is (i.e. avoid park x on Thursdays and always do park y on Mondays)
Look at what park has EMH

We get out a piece of paper and make a simple calendar. We write out the days that we're going to be at WDW. For family tradition, we typically start at MK, like a lot of people do. From there, it's sort of a rotational thing. We go to a different park each day (at least to start, we may hop later in the day) and just try to make it somewhat even. From there, it's a lot of ad lib. That's the full extent of our structure. So when we get down there, we'll have a hand written piece of paper that tell us what park we planned to go to. But we may change that, depending on what we're feeling like doing.

That method works fantastic for us.

 

[gorkt]

It's very complicated these days between the shifting hours, all the various parties, and making fastpasses. I used to be in the camp of never going for EMH, but I am breaking that rule sometime. My thought process and limitations for this trip:

1) Go to MK on days where I am staying at the Polynesian
2) Go to Epcot on Weekdays only during the F&W festival
3) Do one AK evening for the new entertainment
4) Do one evening at HS for the Star Wars fireworks
5) Stagger with two days at Universal Studios.
6) Leave some space in my plan for swimming and chilling out

 

[Mome Rath]

I pick out which park I want to "end" the vacation in, (usually MK) and then I pick out which park I want to begin the vacation in, and fill in the rest. The rest is filled in by rides I want to do, or places I want to eat, and I always have a hopper in case the crowds are too bad that day. In short I don't look at crowd calendars at all. I do look at the hours of the parks because I like rope drop.

 

[Tomh]

I do look at crowd calendars to give me an idea, but I consider some other things as well. We typically have 10 day park tickets, so multiple days in the parks. I try to avoid going to the same park 2 days in a row as much as possible.

If I am staying on site, I will often take advantage of extra magic hours. If I am staying offsite, then I avoid parks with extra magic hours. In this later case, visiting a park the day after it has had evening extra magic hours will often yield lower crowds.

I also check the schedule for Fantasmic. Sometimes it doesn't run every night, so plan accordingly if you want to see it, OR . .. if you would prefer lighter crowds, go on a day it isn't showing. The same for the MK evening parade.

Those are the things I look at, with the crowd calendar being the last consideration.

I always pick park days before worrying about ADR's, BUT .. . I also have a few options picked out and written down so when I get to making the ADR's if I can't get a restaurant I want on a particular day, I can try for a different day. This gives me some flexibility, and increases my odds of getting the ADR's I want.

 

[seelyt2]

I follow a lot of the same as above but will add that we try to avoid MK on the weekend since it's usually crazy crowded. We go mid-August since kids have school and will try to have a little flexibility to fit in AK on the coolest day or the day with the most cloud cover since that park feels like a sauna. Our teenagers are more likely to do EMH mornings in the earlier part of their trip, given their excitement, so we might try for that towards the beginning of the trip, otherwise towards the end of the trip we avoid those parks because we're all pretty exhausted by that point, and will go to the park that had EMH the day prior. We hop in the evening depending on what the parks offer and our whim.

 

[SaintsManiac]

Last year we used EasyWDW and KtP crowd calendars for most of the trip. It worked out really well, but if we wanted to hop to a park we didn't care whether it was recommended or not. Since we are going during Thanksgiving next year we are just going to go to the parks we want to on the days we want to.

It also depends on the nighttime events/shows.

 

[Farps]

I really miss EasyWDW crowd calendars

 

[MidgeD79]

We ALWAYS use morning EMH. We go in the summer so it's not as hot. We stay until after lunch then go back for a swim and then back to another park.

 

[Allybaster]

My husband and I are not planners. I've never looked at a crowd calendar. We sat down and made our dining reservations when we booked our trip and in 4 days we'll book our fp+ based on the ADRs. We're going Jan 4-11, staying at Pop and have marked the 9th for Universal. We've got park hoppers and generally spend evenings at Epcot, but we might be swayed by Trader Sam's and options at The Boardwalk.

I don't like things to be overly structured so I'm not sure how much I like this fp+ thing.