Today's crowds? (April 13th)

[woody74]

New York state has spring break the week of April 25th, that's when we're going. Hopefully not too many east coast folks will be making the longer trip west that week!

We'll be heading out there as well, also for NYC Spring Break

 

[3TinksAndAnEeyore]

I was at the parks yesterday and today 4/14-15) and thought the crowds seemed very manageable! Surprising given how many rides are down.

 

[Nermel9]

We'll be heading out there as well, also for NYC Spring Break

I'm going that week too, also from the east coast (CT) but I didn't pick that week because of spring break, it just happened to work out that way! Hoping for low crowds and that everyone who is off from school around here goes to WDW instead!

 

[Luv_Tink]

after reading this thread I looked on touring plans, and it says they predicted the 13th to be a 2 out of 10 instead it was a 7! yikes. I also looked up what is predicted for our trip in October..an average of a 6. That seemed manageable considering it being halloweentime...i then looked up when we went in 2012 over the week of thanksgiving...it was all 10's. If i can handle that and still have a magical time, I think I'll be a happy camper no matter what the crowds are. I guess I'm one of those people who are just happy to be there.

We were there last week, April 11-15, and found Touring Plans predictions totally inaccurate every single day. We still managed fine, but we relied on the Disneyland app for wait times instead of TP Lines app which had worked well for us in the past. Honestly, I was just happy to be on vacation and in Disneyland. We had one day were our girls managed to obtain 20 character autographs in one day! They were thrilled.

 

[SMD]

Touring Plans didn't take into account Food and Wine, which still draws crowds during the week because the stands are open, and makes the parks feel more crowded because the walkways are cut in half. They probably also didn't account for the school performance groups, of which there have been 4-6 per day on week days. I know now that Disney has an app again I don't bother reporting wait times in 3rd party apps anymore. All apps but Disney rely on guests submitting info. How often do you think guests are going through the motions to submit those either as they're about to board a ride, while they're on the ride, or right after?

 

[Lothlórien]

We are here now. So many things are closed, which is a huge part of the issue. For example, in DL alone, Matterhorn, Disney Railroad, Riverboat, Star Tours, Jungle Cruise and Big Thunder are all closed. There have been others down for a good part of the day as well. So, that makes the lines for everything else ridiculous. It has been like this for a week.

Also, Food & Wine Festival is going on as well as a sporting competition that has a crazy amount of teens and young 20s swarming the parks.

 

[tammytam]

We are here now. So many things are closed, which is a huge part of the issue. For example, in DL alone, Matterhorn, Disney Railroad, Riverboat, Star Tours, Jungle Cruise and Big Thunder are all closed. There have been others down for a good part of the day as well. So, that makes the lines for everything else ridiculous. It has been like this for a week.

Also, Food & Wine Festival is going on as well as a sporting competition that has a crazy amount of teens and young 20s swarming the parks.

Yikes.. I didn't know Big Thunder and Star Tours are closed right now.

Are you using the app to check wait times? I'm curious how accurate it is this week, as apparently last week it wasn't reflective of actual times. We'll be there next week.. hoping it's not too nuts!

 

[Caroline NZ]

We road Thunder Mountain and Star Tours today. I assume the earlier poster meant they were temporarily down at some stage during the day?.

 

[sherilaine]

Anyone who plans their trip according to Touring Plans are in for a whole lot of hurt once they get there!

 

[gsrieff]

Anyone who plans their trip according to Touring Plans are in for a whole lot of hurt once they get there!

i have no intentions of using their plans. my family would be so frustrated with me if i scheduled out our trip like that. i just purchased it for the fun of it... something extra to read and mess around with while i wait impatiently for 6 months!

 

[Cats2]

Yikes.. I didn't know Big Thunder and Star Tours are closed right now.

Are you using the app to check wait times? I'm curious how accurate it is this week, as apparently last week it wasn't reflective of actual times. We'll be there next week.. hoping it's not too nuts!

We road Thunder Mountain and Star Tours today. I assume the earlier poster meant they were temporarily down at some stage during the day?.

Since the PP had stated they had been in the parks since last Tues, the reference to BTRR being down was prob in reference to the scheduled refurb that happened last week. I was in the parks last week, and knew ahead of time that Sunday 4/10 and Fri 4/15 would be the only times I could ride BTMRR (we left on Sat 4/16). Last week there were definitely times that Star Tours wasn't running at park opening (and on Friday my plans to ride Hyperspace Mtn didn't run smoothly due to a temp ride closure) I was sad that Splash was down for the majority of that day too (but had ridden it earlier in the week).
I somehow felt that Mon of last week 4/11 was busier than the day prior (but I do savor my 7AM EMH time in the park). Definitely felt there were a lot of youth groups throughout the week, especially notified it on Friday.
The official app was accurate most of the time, though I do recall one time looking at the Matterhorn line and saying "there's no way that's a 20 min wait--it was a LONG line). Sometimes the app updates the time a little slowly.

 

[realrellim]

How often do you think guests are going through the motions to submit those either as they're about to board a ride, while they're on the ride, or right after?

I did anytime it was a sizable line (more than 2 minutes) but I was frustrated that I couldn't figure out how to report rides closed when they were temporarily down. It probably is hurting their accuracy some.

Anyone who plans their trip according to Touring Plans are in for a whole lot of hurt once they get there!

We actually had a great experience with Touring Plans on the second day, when we were at DCA and most things were working (unlike both of the days we spent mainly at DL where rides were going down left and right). I didn't use one of their plans though; we did our own and then optimized it on a regular basis. It definitely saved us time at DCA because we optimized it again that morning and it told us to go from Soarin' to RSR and ride it (rather than stand in the FP line, as it had suggested earlier), and we only had a 15-20 minute wait for RSR. That left tons of time for the rest of the day. But on Saturday and Monday in DL, neither it nor the Disneyland app were keeping up with actual wait times or the rides going down (due to rain or brief maintenance issues) so it made for a frustrating experience of comparing the two apps to get an idea of what the wait time at an attraction might be like, fighting the wall-to-wall crowds to get there, and then discovering they'd just closed it or the line was really 3x as long as the Disneyland app said.

I think our Monday experience was the exception, not the rule, but I also wish that it hadn't been the last day of our trip. Saturday was great despite the rain and rain-related closures (and non-related brief closures), and Sunday night was really pleasant if crowded. But on Monday I think we wouldn't have minded the crowds so much if the apps had mostly accurate wait times and the rides were all working consistently, or alternately, if the rides were having problems but the crowds were thinner so it was easier to move around the park.

I somehow felt that Mon of last week 4/11 was busier than the day prior (but I do savor my 7AM EMH time in the park).

Yes! I found it interesting that Touring Plans rated DL an 8/10 on Saturday, Sunday and Monday when Monday was way busier, IMO. The other two days were too, but they didn't feature the wall-to-wall crowds from the hub to Haunted Mansion and all through Tomorrowland and Main Street the way that DL did on Monday from about 11 am until 5 or so. I felt like the park filled up earlier on Monday than it did on Saturday and than DCA did on Sunday. DCA was really great on Sunday despite the Food & Wine festival. DCA still wasn't crowded at 11:30 when we left to go to lunch, though it was in the early afternoon. In comparison, I felt like DL on Monday started out crowded and just got more so, and then didn't empty out as much as I expected in the evening either.

Oh well.

 

[Elk Grove Chris]

I popped into DL last Monday around 4:30, people were already staking spots for PTN. It was crowded all night, I had no chance of setting up a tripod to take pictures of the fireworks. MS was packed well after the fireworks were done, no shot of taking tripod pictures there either.

I got back in Wednesday night to see WOC at CA wasn't too bad, I did notice the walkways a bit crowded near the food booths, but not terrible. I was only there from 7 to closing.

I was able to get into DL at opening on Friday, which was kind of late, 9am. I rode PP twice in about 35 minutes as I waited for my DD to get into the park. First hour wasn't terrible, but crowds swelled quickly. BTMRR opened and that helped a bit. HM and POC were 10-15 minute waits until around 11, then POC was extended queue the rest of the day. When we hopped over the CA at 11, Screamin was at 70 minutes, Toy Story was 45, typical. We only stayed in the parks until 4-had to head to airport. So I really got only a little more than half a day in the parks on Friday but it actually seemed less crowded than the few hours I had on Monday.

 

[sheetz]

Yes! I found it interesting that Touring Plans rated DL an 8/10 on Saturday, Sunday and Monday when Monday was way busier, IMO. The other two days were too, but they didn't feature the wall-to-wall crowds from the hub to Haunted Mansion and all through Tomorrowland and Main Street the way that DL did on Monday from about 11 am until 5 or so. I felt like the park filled up earlier on Monday than it did on Saturday and than DCA did on Sunday. DCA was really great on Sunday despite the Food & Wine festival. DCA still wasn't crowded at 11:30 when we left to go to lunch, though it was in the early afternoon. In comparison, I felt like DL on Monday started out crowded and just got more so, and then didn't empty out as much as I expected in the evening either.

Mon had much shorter hours (9am-9pm) than Sun and Sat (8am-11pm/12am) so that probably played a big part. All else being equal, later openings are usually more crowded than early openings and shorter operating hours pack the same number of guests into a smaller time frame.

 

[Lothlórien]

Yikes.. I didn't know Big Thunder and Star Tours are closed right now.

Are you using the app to check wait times? I'm curious how accurate it is this week, as apparently last week it wasn't reflective of actual times. We'll be there next week.. hoping it's not too nuts!

We found the app to be way under-estimated for about 50% of the attractions.

BTMRR had been running off and on during our trip. Same for Matterhorn and Star Tours. Down more than up, though.

We were told when checking out yesterday that there is a huge sports competition (cheerleaders) showing up at the end of this week. Fingers crossed for your crowd levels.