Questions and Concerns

[gavakie]

First of all does anyone have one of the Crowd Calendar sites that are remotely accurate? We were in the park for the last week of October and it was busier than we have ever seen (including spring break) and all the crowd calendar things were saying the parks should have been 2's and 3's.

Second question is more on peoples opinions. We go to the park once or twice a year since our kids have been old enough. I really have felt the friendliness and full on experience by the cast members has gone down. They all seem a lot less patient and willing to help. I have a cousin that used to work at the park that had noticed it too. She mentioned when she was there they were told it was all about the "Experience" and that she doesn't feel that way anymore either. Just a thought!

 

[tlovesdis]

First of all does anyone have one of the Crowd Calendar sites that are remotely accurate? We were in the park for the last week of October and it was busier than we have ever seen (including spring break) and all the crowd calendar things were saying the parks should have been 2's and 3's.

The 60th celebration through a wrench in any and all crowd predictors this year! None of them were close to being right. No one could have predicted the HUGE crowds this 60th anniversary brought in and is still bringing in!!!

 

[figment_jii]

I agree with tlovesdis that the 60th Anniversary Celebration has significantly increased crowds in the park. Most (all?) of the crowd calendars rely on past years to guest-imate the future, so they're all mostly to be under-estimating the crowds because the past few years haven't been anything like this year (since May). I think you can still use the crowd calendars, but I would bump them up a few steps to get a better sense of how things are likely to be in the parks (at least through the holidays - no one really knows whether the crowds will remain higher than normal come January when the holidays end and the Rivers of America area shuts down).

In terms of the Cast Members, I think it varies by CM. I've had wonderful experiences with the CMs even on really busy days and some less than magical experiences on low crowd days. It probably depends on the CMs' moods and personality more than anything else.

 

[tzeitel]

Not sure about crowds since this past Oct was our second time - but from what I've heard we got super lucky and had great weather (highs of low 80's) and pretty low crowds (I was comparing them to WDW crowds). While planning I checked isitpacked.com, and touringplans (did not have a subscription but they show dates close to when you need them). They were pretty accurate for our week.

As far as CMs go, we were there for 5 park days and 1 DtD day (Oct 18-23) and only encountered one CM who was less than magical. Of course it was one of the first CMs we interacted with - picking up our PhotoPass card at the camera shop. Maybe it is a mix of the crowds and the 100 degree weather making everyone a little testy.