Plan Parks Based on Fast Pass Liklihood or Crowd Prediction?

[Abbey1]

My dining reservation window opens tomorrow, and I have two separate Park plans that I’m debating between.

Plan #1 was made based on planning AKL and Magic Kingdom later on in our trip to ensure we secure our must-do fast passes and dining reservations at our desired times.

Plan #2 was made based on which parks will be the least crowded each day according to crowd predictor websites.

In everyone’s opinion, which way is the better way to go in determining which parks to plan which day? Am I overthinking this? This will be our second trip to WDW, the first being 8 years ago (pre-kid). We visit Disneyland frequently, but WDW is such a different planning experience.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

For AK I would definitely go with plan #1. I've never found MK FP+ to be hard to get.

I plan on our park days 95% on what we want to do. I know MK is arrival day and our last day. We throw in a RD day at MK in the middle of our trip. I know we don't want to go the same park 2-3 days in a row so we mix it up. We try to RD each park once and then do some sleep in and stay until close some days.

I did swap two mornings for our next trip. I had us going to Epcot in the morning of a day where MK is closing at 4:30 pm. And later during the week I had us going RDing MK. I know from reading the boards that a MK that closes that early will have extremely low crowds. So I swapped those two mornings. Easy enough and it works out fine.

It's good to know why a park is the "worst park" on crowd predictors. That way you can avoid the worst part of the day in the park.

Is it because of AM EMH? If so go to AM EMH and then hop out of the park by noon.

Is it because of PM EMH? There's really nothing you can do there if you want to do PM EMH.

Is it because it's a non party night at MK? If you want to enjoy HEA you are stuck there.

If Is it F&W at Epcot on a weekend? Go on a weekday. Earlier in the day the better. Or just stick to Future World.

 

[Abbey1]

For AK I would definitely go with plan #1. I've never found MK FP+ to be hard to get.

I plan on our park days 95% on what we want to do. I know MK is arrival day and our last day. We throw in a RD day at MK in the middle of our trip. I know we don't want to go the same park 2-3 days in a row so we mix it up. We try to RD each park once and then do some sleep in and stay until close some days.

I did swap two mornings for our next trip. I had us going to Epcot in the morning of a day where MK is closing at 4:30 pm. And later during the week I had us going RDing MK. I know from reading the boards that a MK that closes that early will have extremely low crowds. So I swapped those two mornings. Easy enough and it works out fine.

It's good to know why a park is the "worst park" on crowd predictors. That way you can avoid the worst part of the day in the park.

Is it because of AM EMH? If so go to AM EMH and then hop out of the park by noon.

Is it because of PM EMH? There's really nothing you can do there if you want to do PM EMH.

Is it because it's a non party night at MK? If you want to enjoy HEA you are stuck there.

If Is it F&W at Epcot on a weekend? Go on a weekday. Earlier in the day the better. Or just stick to Future World.

Thanks, this is all really good info! I think we are kind of stuck with going to MK on a “worst” day since we are only going to be in MK one day in addition to our Halloween party and we really want to see HEA (hopefully doing the dessert party will help with the large crowds for the fireworks at least).

 

[Tksolomom]

Thanks, this is all really good info! I think we are kind of stuck with going to MK on a “worst” day since we are only going to be in MK one day in addition to our Halloween party and we really want to see HEA (hopefully doing the dessert party will help with the large crowds for the fireworks at least).

That is our plan too except we are going to MVMCP instead. Our MK day is Wed. We booked AK later in our trip to get FOP. I don’t think you will have any problem getting your MK FastPasses as the park has so many good FP rides and is open longer on non-party days

 

[sharonabe]

My dining reservation window opens tomorrow, and I have two separate Park plans that I’m debating between.

Plan #1 was made based on planning AKL and Magic Kingdom later on in our trip to ensure we secure our must-do fast passes and dining reservations at our desired times.

Plan #2 was made based on which parks will be the least crowded each day according to crowd predictor websites.

In everyone’s opinion, which way is the better way to go in determining which parks to plan which day? Am I overthinking this? This will be our second trip to WDW, the first being 8 years ago (pre-kid). We visit Disneyland frequently, but WDW is such a different planning experience.

Don't forget you'll also have the new Toy Story Land to deal with. You may want to have HS somewhere near the end of the trip as well if you want one of the new rides as a FP+.