I forgot how to schedule a trip. lol

[leebee]

@Chili327 I feel your pain. I used to be a pro at this and now, I pretty much roll the dice. I don't think the crowd calendars are very accurate anymore; it all went out the window with Covid. About the only reliable "crowd" recommendation I can make is to go to MK on a party day, if it's an option. It's shocking how empty that park can be, and you can get a full day's experience before the party crowds flood in (like by 6pm). Other than that, although I will look at crowd calendars, I don't have much faith in them anymore. Mostly, after considering the crowd calendar I book my restaurants and hope it was a smart decision.

 

[Chili327]

10/13 is showing but that is 60 days out. Are you going after that day?
https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/c...ingdom,hollywood-studios,epcot,magic-kingdom/

Try changing the number to your day "2025-10-13" and it might work

Yea, that's what i was going by, but our dates are Oct 26 - Nov 2, so hopefully they'll stay the same.

Typically our trip planning is based off crowd calendar average predictions. However, those are becoming much more inaccurate than they once were. We generally go Sunday through Thursday, do park hopper and use the crowd calendars to guestimate where we'll be and when. We'll schedule basics and go from there as time gets closer. We always do at least one breakfast at Boma so we schedule that, often on our day of departure as it's a great way to kill time between checking out and heading to the airport. Typically we end up arriving Orlando around 2pm, and we've kind of started going to MK after getting our room since it's open later. We go to Liberty Tree Tavern for dinner since we've been traveling and we're hungry. then we hit up MK until close.

so, for us, that's two "given ADR's" first night and last morning.

Yes, I need to just fill in the the ones that I know I will be near, & just wing it the rest.
Definitely need to try Boma this trip!!

 

[Chili327]

@Chili327 I feel your pain. I used to be a pro at this and now, I pretty much roll the dice. I don't think the crowd calendars are very accurate anymore; it all went out the window with Covid. About the only reliable "crowd" recommendation I can make is to go to MK on a party day, if it's an option. It's shocking how empty that park can be, and you can get a full day's experience before the party crowds flood in (like by 6pm). Other than that, although I will look at crowd calendars, I don't have much faith in them anymore. Mostly, after considering the crowd calendar I book my restaurants and hope it was a smart decision.

Yea, that was my plan, but the crowd calendar said MK was a no go on a party day, so it threw me off. I agree, I'm pretty sure MK is a great option on a Party day & I do have it scheduled already.

 

[sndral]

Yea, that's what i was going by, but our dates are Oct 26 - Nov 2, so hopefully they'll stay the same.



Yes, I need to just fill in the the ones that I know I will be near, & just wing it the rest.
Definitely need to try Boma this trip!!

I’m planning an early Oct. stay & discovered that you’ll get several days further out w/ park hours on the MDE app than you will on the WDW site. Right now I can see 65 days out on the WDW site to 10/17, yet on the MDE app I can see park hours through 10/23.
By this Sunday you’ll probably be able to check park hours for your first day - 10/26 & by the following Sunday you’ll be able to see all your dates on MDE - which will still be a couple of days before your 60 day window opens.
How I plan - first I list all of the places I want to eat.
Then I look at my best guess on park hours & pencil in where I want to be when & adjust a couple of days ahead of time if there are any park hour surprises.
Then I slot the ADRs in where they fit - putting the hardest to get ADRs later in the stay & going for them first at 60 days out because there’s less competition for ADRs on days 7, 8, 9, & 10.

 

[Chili327]

I’m planning an early Oct. stay & discovered that you’ll get several days further out w/ park hours on the MDE app than you will on the WDW site. Right now I can see 65 days out on the WDW site to 10/17, yet on the MDE app I can see park hours through 10/23.
By this Sunday you’ll probably be able to check park hours for your first day - 10/26 & by the following Sunday you’ll be able to see all your dates on MDE - which will still be a couple of days before your 60 day window opens.
How I plan - first I list all of the places I want to eat.
Then I look at my best guess on park hours & pencil in where I want to be when & adjust a couple of days ahead of time if there are any park hour surprises.
Then I slot the ADRs in where they fit - putting the hardest to get ADRs later in the stay & going for them first at 60 days out because there’s less competition for ADRs on days 7, 8, 9, & 10.

Awesome!!

The MDE app pro tip is amazing, but I think I get screwed on booking dining for the whole trip because it’s split stay, so I can only book the first half.?

 

[sndral]

Awesome!!

The MDE app pro tip is amazing, but I think I get screwed on booking dining for the whole trip because it’s split stay, so I can only book the first half.?

Unfortunately yeah, w/ a split stay you’ll have two 60 day windows. In the past they treated split stays as one continuous stay for dinning, but they stopped that about a decade ago.

 

[zavandor]

So I usually feel pretty good about knowing which parks I want to go to each day, so booking dining is usually pretty simple, but looking at crowd calendars, & event dates/times, etc. I'm so lost, I have no idea where I want to be, except glad to be at Boardwalk for EEH at Epcot, & DHS (if the schedule stays the same thru the end of Oct).

How do you go about this process... my 60 day dining window is going to open in a couple weeks, & I feel like I have no plan.?

Avoid MK on Mondays at all costs. During party season, go to MK in the morning when there is a party scheduled, then parkhop at 4pm at the latest (when mix-in starts). Watch the second Starlight parade, if possible.
Plan DAK for a Saturday or Sunday, because it's the easier park where to beat crowds.
Go early, stay late.
Everything else is lower stakes.

 

[kilik64]

Other than Monday night in Epcot and Wed night in HS, sounds like you are pretty open on what park to visit.

Trying to game what park is "Best" to go to is a crap shoot, I'd just go by what ADRs you want to get. I kinda think you are going about this backward, other than those two days I mentioned, just let the ADRs be your guide on what parks you do when?

Only surefire bet is MK on a party day is gonna be "slow"

 

[Chili327]

Avoid MK on Mondays at all costs. During party season, go to MK in the morning when there is a party scheduled, then parkhop at 4pm at the latest (when mix-in starts). Watch the second Starlight parade, if possible.
Plan DAK for a Saturday or Sunday, because it's the easier park where to beat crowds.
Go early, stay late.
Everything else is lower stakes.

Good tips.. These apply to my schedule so far:
Avoid MK on Mondays and weekends.
Am half day at MK on Party days.
AK on weekends (but i need to visit more than just our last day, so I have to squeeze it in at some point during the week)

Other than Monday night in Epcot and Wed night in HS, sounds like you are pretty open on what park to visit.

Trying to game what park is "Best" to go to is a crap shoot, I'd just go by what ADRs you want to get. I kinda think you are going about this backward, other than those two days I mentioned, just let the ADRs be your guide on what parks you do when?

Only surefire bet is MK on a party day is gonna be "slow"

Dining is usually pretty open, so I like to have goals for when I want to book them. But it may determine for me which days I will be in certain places.

Ultimately I started penciling in on my Google calendar to get a good visual, but now I find myself spending almost every night at Epcot, and not visiting AK until my last day, so I need to work on those still.
Having the prior week showing in the app has given me more confidence that the EEH should be the same, so that helps and we’ll get the full view next week.

 

[Chili327]

These are the ones I've been using and they completely contradict each other, does anyone use any different ones?

https://www.undercovertourist.com/orlando/crowd-calendar/october-2025
or
https://magicguides.com/wdw-crowd-calendar
or
https://wdwprepschool.com/wp-content/uploads/october-best-parks-disney-world.png

 

[Mouseforward]

As per usual , I just got a "crowd calendar" update 2 weeks before my check in date completely changing the predictions. At this point it's too late to use any info for ADR'S but maybe it can help with LL or not decisions.

 

[Mouseforward]

These are the ones I've been using and they completely contradict each other, does anyone use any different ones?

https://www.undercovertourist.com/orlando/crowd-calendar/october-2025
or
https://magicguides.com/wdw-crowd-calendar
or
https://wdwprepschool.com/wp-content/uploads/october-best-parks-disney-world.png

https://touringplans.com/walt-disney-world/crowd-calendar

A man with one watch always knows what time it is, A man with 2 watches is never sure .....

 

[Chili327]

https://touringplans.com/walt-disney-world/crowd-calendar

A man with one watch always knows what time it is, A man with 2 watches is never sure .....

Yea, actually touring plans is the one I use for everything, but went searching for others when TP was showing a tie. So technically you’re right on the money with that proverb. I should have just stuck with TP and all would have been fine, it wasn’t until I went searching that it got messy and confusing.

 

[zavandor]

Do you still think crowd calendars are reliable?
Since when Josh of Easywdw (RIP) stopped publishing his, I stopped following. He wrote factors like Disney trying saving expenses with lower staffing levels and attractions breakdown make trying to predict crowd levels a fool's errand.