How do you plan what parks, what day?

[lennyd]

First park ak ,it's the 1st day and we start later and since it can be considered a half day park , 2nd day mk 3rd day HS 4th day Epcot 5th day MK 6th day trying to figure out how much it will cost if we extend our trip

 

[jkh36619]

I hit the park that had EMH the day before. Preferably evening EMH. Next I consider special events. Always try to AK on Saturdays if possible.

Edit. I stay off site. Would be different if I stayed onsite

 

[TikiMan0228]

We just got back from a week over Labor Day. I used Touring Plans crowd calendar mainly and avoided EMH mornings. We specifically chose MK on Thursday of MNSSHP based on recommendations that the park is less crowded on party days. We did a ton that day and were actually able to leave earlier than expected and hit EPCOT in the evening.

 

[SaintsManiac]

I use Kenny the Pirate and will use easywdw (if he starts them again), but we also go where we want to even if it's not "recommended."

 

[Dislover1991]

Typically the park with EMH is busiest so we always avoid the park with EMH. According to Josh on easywdw.com, most people tend to go to the park that has EMH so the parks with regular hours are less busy.

IF there are any kind of events too, like MVMCP or MNSSHP, that will factor in too. I know on party nights, MK closes at 7 and they say that the park isn't as busy on party days up until around 4pm because not many people want to pay full price for a ticket & have to leave the park at 7. It seemed true for us last year when we spent the whole day at the park & had tickets for MNSSHP that night, but it was crazy seeing everyone trying to get out of the park that night at 7 when non party people had to leave! Same went for Night of Joy too. So while the entire day may not be too bad it's a mad house from about 4-7 with people entering for the party & other guests exiting.

 

[agavegirl1]

It depends on whether I want a more relaxed vacation or one where I have fewer priorities. For the "get the most done" model, I purchase park hoppers and use morning EMHs. I then hop to the park least likely to be crowded around lunchtime. That is determined by special events, day of the week (weekend evenings at F&W? No). When there are parties at MK, I will do Rope Drop there on a party day and hop to another park when I ridden everything I want to. These strategies are based on recommendations from Touring Plans and Josh. They are the general logic behind what is the recommended park. You really have to be up on the official Disney hours and special events which can change at the drop of a hat though.

If I'm more interested in a more relaxed day, I go to whatever park I want, use my FP+ and wander around before an ADR or two.

 

[brookmey]

I've rarely used crowd calendars to plan our park days. Our plan usually revolves around who has AM EMH, which has always worked out great for us. We've been able to get so much done in those first 1-2 hours that the rest of our day is pretty relaxing. Sometimes we hop to a different park, sometimes we don't. And if a park has AM EMH that we can't fit into our schedule, we avoid that park that day. But we do avoid MK on Mondays, so we don't have a specific park that we must do first.

I also plan our days around when we want to stay until closing at MK, so we can sleep in the next day and have an off day.

 

[Claudia Kellenberger]

First, keep in mind that I am an "older" adult kid, no children, no grandchildren, and I always go to WDW solo.

If I am lucky enough to be staying in the Epcot area, ( YC, BCV, BWV ), my very first day will always be Epcot. After that, as soon as the Extra Magic Hours come out, I am free to make my schedule. I always make my schedule to totally avoid the EMH, especially the extra morning hours. I know fully well I am just not going to be able to get up, and get a full breakfast that early. I would rather be where the bigger crowds are not.

 

[lubob]

We look at the calendar and go to the parks with evening EMH. Then we work in our dinner reservations. My family love and take advantage of the EMH .

 

[BigAlsGal]

I don't follow a crowd calendar. I just pick the parks I want in which order depending on how long we are staying. Then I go to the DW website to make sure that there's no weird early closures (parties) at those parks on those days. If all is good those are my park picks!

 

[bryanb]

I use park hoppers for maximum flexibility. I don't worry too much about crowd calendars. I use my three FP+ reservations, and then decide what to do next. Ever since Disney became more transparent with wait times through the My Disney Experience app, I think it has helped to balance out the crowds... and when I do see one park with unusually good wait times on the things I want to do, it's easy to change plans.

If I've made a specific dining reservation, I might choose a park that's convenient to that reservation. I've found that this style of touring has been really great for maximizing fun without a lot of stress.

 

[Westcoastwild]

I use park hoppers for maximum flexibility. I don't worry too much about crowd calendars. I use my three FP+ reservations, and then decide what to do next. Ever since Disney became more transparent with wait times through the My Disney Experience app, I think it has helped to balance out the crowds... and when I do see one park with unusually good wait times on the things I want to do, it's easy to change plans.

If I've made a specific dining reservation, I might choose a park that's convenient to that reservation. I've found that this style of touring has been really great for maximizing fun without a lot of stress.

I did the same thing with dining. It worked out really well. I don't think crowd calendars are all that helpful. At Dinseyland, how crowded DL feels does dictate when I hop to DCA- at WDW, it was the weather. If it was super hot, I left AK- if it was raining, I left MK, because I noticed people get cranky when the rides shut down.

I will very occasionally rope drop in the beginning of my trip for something I missed the last time around, but generally I skip rope drop and hit favorite (MK or DL) early, hop to DCA or Epcot for dinner or crowd/sun avoidance, and then hop to whatever park closes the latest.

 

[Atilley]

We always start out the first day in mk after that I'm pretty sure I go against the grain on most every recommendation but it works for us. I schedule one table service a day at the 180 day mark. We are a family of 7 so Adrs are often difficult for me to get scheduled. After that I plan fast passes according to our Adr for that day. We do use park hopping so we are usually only in the park with our Adr half the day then switch.

 

[MickeyMinnieMom]

We have been to WDW many many times and usually just go to the recommended park for that day. I was just wondering how many of you do that, or do rope drop, EMH, park hopping, etc. And I'm not sure if websites are allowed to be mentioned, but which one do you think is most accurate in picking the best park/day?

Context: we've been going 2-3 times a year for the past 11-12 years or so. We've gone at the slowest times, at busy times, and times in between. What I have below has worked well FOR US every time.

I have never found crowd calendars useful/necessary in deciding which park on which day -- and their recommended parks were useless to us as EMH users. I use 2-4 of them taken together to help gauge ROUGH crowd estimates when planning when to go to WDW. That's it.

• We LOVE early EMH -- get to that park before they begin and stay until maybe midday. Then we hop to another park -- sometimes the one with evening EMH -- usually with a break at the hotel midday.

• If no early EMH, we get to one of the parks at rope drop, and then do the same as above.

• Sometimes we're deciding which park on which day based on special events (MNSSHP, F&W event, WAT, Senses of Africa, SW dessert party, etc., etc.).

 

[gatorlisa]

Have never used a crowd calendar. Our trips are usually short, with about 3 park days, and we always have hoppers. We usually start with which ever park has morning EMH or which ever park opens earliest if no EMH and then finish either at the park with evening EMH or which ever park is open latest. Every now and then there might be a third park in between those two, if there is something we especially want to do .FP+ is usually scheduled for the second park of the day, taking advantage of short lines in the morning at the first park. We don't do sit down meals, so we are not driven by ADRs for schedule or location. We just eat at counter service when we get hungry.

 

[mco65]

Originally, we always hit MK first and Buzz Lightyear. Its kind of a tradition for the kids but now that they are getting older, they are less concerned about tradition and more about getting to the rides. We will go to the park with EMH first day and if there are none we will got to MK first but ride the 7 dwarfs mine train first..

 

[DiannaVM]

We are the type to hit rope-drop and stay in the park the whole day through (we don't do park hoppers). Last year DH and I mainly winged it based on what we could get reservations for (and also working around MNSSHP, which turned out to be a BIG mistake). I tried to take some advice from here though which proved helpful. Once upon a time we would hit the parks with EMH, but not so much now.

This time around, we are mostly guided by the KtP and Undercover Tourist crowd calendars. As I said before, my usual rule of thumb is not to hit parks (especially MK) on a Saturday, so we never go to the parks on Saturdays. Since we are being guided by the crowd calendars, we are only hitting morning EMH, which should make it OK. One of our MK days will also be a MNSSHP day, so that will be an incredibly short MK day, but we will be back on our last day, which is a few days after the last MNSSHP so I am hoping some of the non-MNSSHP crowds will have dissipated by then and not make MK so crowded. Plus its a Wednesday, so it should be at the very least tolerable.

 

[edk35]

We used to use Tour Guide Mike for years. Loved his plans...always spot on. Then we used Josh...but that is going away too. I just kind of follow both of their ways of thinking. We avoid EMH parks, we always do rope drop, We always do MK on T or W and avoid weekends.

 

[Princesca]

Because I am a giant nerd, I make a spreadsheet where I collect the park recommendations from several sources, then I choose parks accordingly, and assign a color to my pick based on how many other sources agree with that pick. Blue means it's unanimous, green means like 3 out of 4 agree, yellow means half, orange means 1, and red means none. I strive for nothing below a green, but sometimes a yellow slips in.

I also avoid EMH if I don't have park hopper tix.

 

[BarbieGal457]

I have started to really use Josh at EasyWDW's touring plans for my last few trips. I never did despite reading his blog and then after one trip, I realized how I had planned without him lined up perfectly to his recommendations, and the trip was amazing and we waited in very few long lines or bad crowds, and this was around Christmas!! Since then I have used his plans for our past two trips and have my upcoming one based on his predictions as well. I don't let them totally dictate what I plan but in our experiences he has been completely spot on with his recommendations.

That said, we aren't rope drop people (just can't seem to make it out of bed in time...) and we do not have any children yet, so with me and my boyfriend it's a lot easier to go with the flow. Once I map out my days, I do my ADRs and then FPs but the rest of the day is just at our whim and we've definitely changed plans last minute too. We usually get in very early on the first day, but we wait until the next day to do our favorite, Epcot, because despite our short 2 hour flight we tend to only spend a few hours in a park that first day and then go get dinner and rest. That travel day is actually almost always DHS since while we like it we don't feel that it's worth a full day for us.