Our Park days crowd calendar jumped from 4 to 9!

Pluto468

DIS Veteran
Joined
Mar 11, 2020
So it looks like our park days will be MUCH busier than expected. I’m pretty bummed about that but have a plan…..

Rope Drop most days, stay until 1:00 then take a break, return at 5ish.

Use Genie+ and buy lightning lanes.

Have sit down meals instead of walk up

Any Other crowd managing ideas?

It’s also going to be hot! 93 on our first day and we won’t even arrive until 1 pm.

Tomorrow is our first day. Can’ t wait!!!
 
We went on days that were 7 and 8. Honestly, I just went in with the expectation that it would be crowded and hot. It wasn't as hot as your days, but we had 84-86 a few days. We did what you are planning, arrived as early as possible, left after lunch and came back at dinner. With rope drop, genie, mobile order quick service meals we did amazingly well. The park was very crowded but didn't feel crowded in regard to lines. We didn't wait more than 15 min for any ride. All our food was mobile ordered and ready within 5 min of our arrival, often already ready for pickup when we got there. The only time it felt crowded was navigating around the parks. Tons of people in the walkways, especially the bottleneck areas. We brought misting bottles, cooling towels and UV umbrellas. We only used the misting bottles one day. The biggest help was taking a break in the heat of the day. We'd get back into the AC, shower, nap and rest. Stay hydrated too, I intentionally drank a lot of water to be sure I didn't get overheated and dehydrated.

The 8-10 am time was amazing, we could get a lot done in that window while also using up LL with Genie. We did 9+ rides in 8-9 hours in the parks each day. I know some people might want to get more out of it, but we took a long break in the afternoon and weren't rushing from ride to ride. We'd enjoy a break to eat a snack and rest and we did shopping. We caught all the nighttime shows (didn't do any dining packages for those).

Use your break in the afternoon to strategically stack up LL for when you arrive in the evening. I would use the 12-4 window to snag evening LL for rides, so when we arrived back at the park, we'd have 2-3 LL already loaded up plus an ILL on top of that. This is key because the LL return times will start to push out later and later as the day goes on.

Without Genie, without arriving early at the parks, we would not have gotten as much done and probably would have had a miserable trip. But we had a fabulous time!!
 
Is 7:30 a good time to aim for Rope drop?

For stacking LL, I can do that from my hotel?

I always forget about those AC shows- great idea!
 
Our first day we tried to arrive by 7:45, but didn't get there until 8:15. The lines to get in the gates were long and took almost 25 min to get through (we picked a dud line that really moved slow though). The rest of our days, we arrived about 8:15/8:30 and got in within about 10 min. Even arriving after official rope drop, the lines were short still. Not sure if you're driving, but the first day we went to the Mickey & Friends structure and that was way more crowded and took longer. After that, we used the Toy Story lot, which was closer to our hotel anyway. Much easier and quicker time to get into the parks for us. Especially nice in the evening after the shows when there's a mass exodus from the parks. Most go toward Mickey & Friends and not many went to Toy Story, so quicker to get out of the parks at night too.

You can stack up LL anytime after you've all scanned into the parks. So even after you leave for your break, you can keep booking more.
 
What crowd calendar is it?

And a hot weather tip - Freeze solid a few plastic water bottles. Then either leave them in a locker for a few hours until it gets hot and they are half melted to drink, or do what I did and carry them around in a day back against my back. Got a little damp in the pack and on my back, but sure felt nice for a good portion of the day. Plus had ice cold free drinks.
 
The parks have been absolutely slammed the last few weeks. Disney is packing them in. If you know, you’ll be able to navigate better and hopefully feel less bothered by the crowds. I’m supposed to go on Wednesday with friends who are visiting from out of town. Super crowded and 90 degrees will be interesting for sure!
 
It was Touring Plans. But another Crowd calendar said the Same thing. I’m glad I know what to expect but it sure will be Harder to deal with than light crowds. I’m hoping we might avoid both crowds and heat by staying late, too. 10 or 11:00
 
What crowd calendar is it?

And a hot weather tip - Freeze solid a few plastic water bottles. Then either leave them in a locker for a few hours until it gets hot and they are half melted to drink, or do what I did and carry them around in a day back against my back. Got a little damp in the pack and on my back, but sure felt nice for a good portion of the day. Plus had ice cold free drinks.
Love the water bottle idea! I’ll do that if our hotel has a freezer.
 
It was Touring Plans. But another Crowd calendar said the Same thing. I’m glad I know what to expect but it sure will be Harder to deal with than light crowds. I’m hoping we might avoid both crowds and heat by staying late, too. 10 or 11:00
Honestly the parks were crowded even late. I think the nighttime shows attract more crowds late. We only stayed late twice and both times were for shows, so maybe the ride wait times were lower then, but there were still a TON of people in the park at night. The temps were great though, very comfortable after the sun dropped. The mornings were still the best for crowds and wait times. Better than nighttime by far.
 
We will focus on mornings. We do have a couple of night time reservations that should be fun. WOC dessert party and River Belle Terrace premium Fantasmic viewing. Out of curiosity, is DCA just as crowded as Disneyland right now?
 
We will focus on mornings. We do have a couple of night time reservations that should be fun. WOC dessert party and River Belle Terrace premium Fantasmic viewing. Out of curiosity, is DCA just as crowded as Disneyland right now?
Having those reservations really makes things nice in my opinion. DCA and DL are both super super crowded right now. Never know, you might get a nice day here and there. Starting early makes a huge difference as you’re always ahead of the crowd.
 
I always thought it was the busiest since school is out.

That's what I thought too. We did July last year and it was really nice with relatively low crowds, but that was still coming out of the shutdowns. In years past we would see youtube videos of summer crowds and it looked like the entire state of California was in the park with barely a spot to wedge through anywhere. We would usually visit in November or Jan/Feb and it would be dead/empty compared to the videos of summer.
 

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