How Important are Crowd Calendars? Finalizing Plans for First Trip

[DISfirstTimer]

Almost time to do my FP for our 1st Disney Vacation and I'm finalizing what days we will be in which parks. We are visiting late January/early February and TouringPlans shows 4 and under for all days but one day. Its a Monday and our first full day at Disney. I'm debating between MK and AK? AK is a 5 and MK a 4. I originally thought MK as its our 1st Park Day. However, I'm also debating on AK. We are staying at AKL and are coming off a long travel day and a day at LEGOLAND. I thought doing AK may be more relaxing start due to low transportation time. (Perhaps we can sleep in longer) The following day is MK for sure as we have a dinner reservation at Ohanas and I plan to make that our late night of Fireworks as we have a Resort Day following that. So do I do 2 Back to Back Days at MK or do AK first even though it has the highest crowd levels of any park I'll be at that week.?

*Note I'm doing 2 MK days on this trip so if we don't do them back to back the other option would be to do one before and one after my resort day.

Thanks for any feedback. I've never obsessed over a trip so much!

 

[rwdavis2]

When easywdw used to do calendars Josh said Mondays at MK can be the most crowded park. Mainly because many people arrive Sunday and make MK their fist park on Monday. AK on Monday should be fine.

If you can find the older crowd calendars at easywdw.com they give the rational why one day is better than another.

 

[richmo]

Okay, the best advice I can give you is to step back and relax. A couple things: one, you're going at, relatively speaking, a fairly uncrowded time. That should work in your favor. Second, contradicting myself a little, you're not going to see everything. Don't even try.

The usefulness of crowd calendars is debatable. Some that have produced them have given up on them entirely since they were not proven to be effective. You're going to see uber planners on this board that plan things down to when they can do bathroom stops. I'm not saying that's wrong, but since this is your first trip, try to enjoy the experience as much as you can without obsessing on details.

I'm sure several people will chime in with some very good advice and do take it into consideration for your planning. Its good you're preparing, but try not to get too obsessed with it...leave room for spontaneity.

Finally, have a great time...it'll be a wonderful trip!

 

[rwdavis2]

Okay, the best advice I can give you is to step back and relax. A couple things: one, you're going at, relatively speaking, a fairly uncrowded time. That should work in your favor. Second, contradicting myself a little, you're not going to see everything. Don't even try.

The usefulness of crowd calendars is debatable. Some that have produced them have given up on them entirely since they were not proven to be effective. You're going to see uber planners on this board that plan things down to when they can do bathroom stops. I'm not saying that's wrong, but since this is your first trip, try to enjoy the experience as much as you can without obsessing on details.

I'm sure several people will chime in with some very good advice and do take it into consideration for your planning. Its good you're preparing, but try not to get too obsessed with it...leave room for spontaneity.

Finally, have a great time...it'll be a wonderful trip!

OP, this ^^^^ is great advice. Just relax and have fun.

 

[MickeyMinnieMom]

I've said this many times on DIS... I only use crowd calendars loosely to decide when to travel to WDW. There is a difference between going during a TP 4 and a TP 8 period. But the difference between TP saying a 4 or 5? I wouldn't consider that informative at all. Not uncommonly, they'll predict a 4 and ultimately observe a 6, or vice versa. I would just decide on which park on which day based on whatever other factors matter to you: not doing the same park back to back, taking advantage of EMH if you're into that, etc.

 

[Klayfish]

Okay, the best advice I can give you is to step back and relax. A couple things: one, you're going at, relatively speaking, a fairly uncrowded time. That should work in your favor. Second, contradicting myself a little, you're not going to see everything. Don't even try.

The usefulness of crowd calendars is debatable. Some that have produced them have given up on them entirely since they were not proven to be effective. You're going to see uber planners on this board that plan things down to when they can do bathroom stops. I'm not saying that's wrong, but since this is your first trip, try to enjoy the experience as much as you can without obsessing on details.

I'm sure several people will chime in with some very good advice and do take it into consideration for your planning. Its good you're preparing, but try not to get too obsessed with it...leave room for spontaneity.

Finally, have a great time...it'll be a wonderful trip!

This, completely. Step back, put down the crowd calendar, put down the uber planning stuff. As noted, crowd calendar usefulness is debatable, and I'm on the "not useful" side. But regardless, this is your first trip, you're just going to be a bit of a deer in headlights no matter what. Embrace it, enjoy it. Sure, it's good to try to at least have a good game plan walking in...know which parks you'll be in which day and how to use FP+. But don't sweat whether park A has 3% more people than park B. For a first timer, you probably wouldn't even notice anyway. You won't see it all, so don't even try. Enjoy the things you do see, take the time you want to take to stop and smell a certain rose. If you're really into uber planning, then leave that for visit 3, 4, 5 to WDW.

 

[dreiwhit]

Keep in mind that crowd calendars are only a guess of how attendance will be. I've seen park days that are more crowded than the calendar said they will be.

We do use crowd calendars, but just use them loosely to plan. We tend to plan more around avoiding parks with EMH, normally don't go to MK on a Monday, avoid special events, etc.

 

[MickeyMinnieMom]

Adding another thought... I am NOT going to tell you to put the breaks on planning, personally.

Good to not be completely obsessed by it, and to remember to enjoy everything you do get to do (even if it's not everything you had hoped to cover).

But WDW is not a trip that first-timers should just wing. I think you're right to have a solid plan in place. Just don't place too much stock in a 4 vs 5 rating on any crowd calendar.

 

[PrincessWithABlaster]

I’m a perpetual user of TP (to the point where I have personalized plans for Universal - which is totally unnecessary in our case). I agree with PPs that you will not notice a difference between a 4 and a 5. A 5 and an 8, definitely but not between two consecutively levels.

I just went thru this to make ADRs today and I finally just let my kids pick between doing AK on Thurs and MK Fri or vice versa since the crowd calendars conflicted anyway. Having a good touring plan is probably going to help you more than picking a slightly lower crowd day, especially for your first trip. That way you aren’t standing around wondering what to do next or chasing lower wait times back and forth across the park.

To echo what a pp said, plan and plan away but if it starts to get stressful try to remember it’s not going to make or break your vacation to have a busy day or miss a ride.

 

[DISfirstTimer]

Thanks everyone for talking me down a bit! I think I've put a lot of pressure on myself to make this trip perfect mostly because my husband is not in favor of taking it. He wanted us to go a resort in Mexico. I felt this was the perfect time to take our DS6 and DD4 to Disney. Also this is my last year as a SAHM so I wanted to take advantage of my time to plan. The problem is I think I've had too much time and researched too much!

 

[sharadoc]

I also don't think ALL of AK will be busy, everyone will be in Pandora so don't fret about AK being "most" crowded anyway.

 

[AngieInOH]

I agree with the rest of 'em. Don't sweat the crowd levels. I went middle of January. For the most part I used Touring Plans crowd levels and when I checked the actual crowd levels TP reported they typically were a little off. Go on the day that makes the most sense for you!! But yes have a plan layed out but don't get to stressed if things don't go exactly as planned!! Enjoy your first trip!!

 

[richmo]

Thanks everyone for talking me down a bit! I think I've put a lot of pressure on myself to make this trip perfect mostly because my husband is not in favor of taking it. He wanted us to go a resort in Mexico. I felt this was the perfect time to take our DS6 and DD4 to Disney. Also this is my last year as a SAHM so I wanted to take advantage of my time to plan. The problem is I think I've had too much time and researched too much!

Good...it'll be great, but don't feel pressured to make it perfect. Quite honestly, something will go not according to plan, and try not to sweat it when it does.

Since this is your first time and you have ages 4 and 6 going along, keep everyone, especially the kids, well rested. Sometimes the highlight of the trip for kids that age are the hotel pools, or meeting a character, or something you haven't thought of. After a ride they like, you may hear "do it again", or they may get scared off of a totally innocent ride. You just never know. Try to stay flexible and when one of the kids seems to be wearing out, know its time to take a break or call it a night. I guarantee every person on this board has seen at WDW a child that has hit the wall and parent(s) that chose to yell at them instead of taking that break.

 

[DISfirstTimer]

Good...it'll be great, but don't feel pressured to make it perfect. Quite honestly, something will go not according to plan, and try not to sweat it when it does.

Since this is your first time and you have ages 4 and 6 going along, keep everyone, especially the kids, well rested. Sometimes the highlight of the trip for kids that age are the hotel pools, or meeting a character, or something you haven't thought of. After a ride they like, you may hear "do it again", or they may get scared off of a totally innocent ride. You just never know. Try to stay flexible and when one of the kids seems to be wearing out, know its time to take a break or call it a night. I guarantee every person on this board has seen at WDW a child that has hit the wall and parent(s) that chose to yell at them instead of taking that break.

Oh yes, keeping everyone well rested is a goal. One of the reasons for my debate on days. Trying to determine what would be less intense! This is also the reason I decided to upgrade to AKL from POP. The atmosphere just seems more relaxing. My husband and I are worse than the kids when we get tired, lol!!