Touring Plans during Jersey Week —— driving me nuts

[mi*vida*loca]

I personally don't go by the crowd calendars. We go to which parks we want on any given day and feel that having a plan is more important than best or worst park.

We are going during Jersey Week and all I hear on the boards is that week will be bonkers. Insane. Crazy.

Today I received another update from TP DECREASING the crowd levels. We are there from 11/2-11/11 and each day has decreases. Some days have MK at a level 3-1. It's just insane to me. I can't believe that crowds would be that low that week.

KTP has crowds that week as very heavy with some AVOID days for MK with predictions that those MK days will have spring break level crowds.

I was hoping that some hours would get extended but if predictions are lower crowds I'm doubting they will extend hours. I'm sure WDW doesn't go by TP predictions and has their own way of predicting crowds.

Either way we are going to have fun even if crowds are very high. We will have a great plan, our FP+ and PH's. 93 more days!

 

[PSUGuy]

I've always felt the Jersey Week thing is way overblown. Been there 3 or 4 times starting in 2002 and as recently as 2016 and crowds seemed no worse than slightly more than Moderate. I don't give it a thought when scheduling our WDW trips.

Bill From PA

 

[JohnneeO]

It isn't just that it's Jersey Week.

It also that F & W at Epcot ends on the 12th. It's that MK closes early on 11/5, 11/8, 11/9 & 11/12. It's that long weekends like Veteran's Day tend to increase crowds. Without Jersey Week, these events would all combine to impact touring strategy anyway. The Jersey Week crowd will push the needle towards more crowded, but no one knows exactly how much.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

It isn't just that it's Jersey Week.

It also that F & W at Epcot ends on the 12th. It's that MK closes early on 11/5, 11/8, 11/9 & 11/12. It's that long weekends like Veteran's Day tend to increase crowds. Without Jersey Week, these events would all combine to impact touring strategy anyway. The Jersey Week crowd will push the needle towards more crowded, but no one knows exactly how much.

Yup. Lots going on. I expected more increases in crowd level prediction. Not decreases.

 

[SaintsManiac]

This is why I believe the number system that TP uses is completely useless. I know others disagree and that's fine, but come on. What is a 1 compared to a 3? a 4 compared to a 6? I don't get it.

 

[focusondisney]

I got an update decreasing the numbers for our weeks in September too. Second time they have decreased them too. There are discounts for some resorts & room types when we are there, but not a crazy amount of availability. I was wondering if TP has changed the way they assign numbers again. But the blog posts says they changed them because of room discounts & lower crowd levels this summer. Guess we’ll see next month.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

I got an update decreasing the numbers for our weeks in September too. Second time they have decreased them too. There are discounts for some resorts & room types when we are there, but not a crazy amount of availability. I was wondering if TP has changed the way they assign numbers again. But the blog posts says they changed them because of room discounts & lower crowd levels this summer. Guess we’ll see next month.

This is also the second time they’ve decreased it for my dates also.

 

[SaintsManiac]

LOL I just got an email from them for our dates, also.

 

[SLim501]

I have been during Jersey Week and I felt it wasn't bad at all. The busiest park we went to was Epcot and it was primarily crazy in the world showcase since it was the end of F&W. Everything else was manageable and the MK had low crowds the days of the MVMCP

 

[Alison S]

I find the changes really annoying. What are they basing these changes on? It's my first time going to DW and using touring plans, so when I booked I (naively) assumed the numbers stayed the same. Every time it changes it just stresses me out. After my FP+ booking day I think I'll just ignore the emails and stop looking at the website!

For my dates (Nov 11-14) they started off low, then a few months ago they went super high (10s on the 11th and 12th!) and now are back down again. At least the Monday is now lower than the Sunday- it made no sense to me that a holiday Monday would be higher than a holiday Sunday!

 

[mi*vida*loca]

I find the changes really annoying. What are they basing these changes on? It's my first time going to DW and using touring plans, so when I booked I (naively) assumed the numbers stayed the same. Every time it changes it just stresses me out. After my FP+ booking day I think I'll just ignore the emails and stop looking at the website!

For my dates (Nov 11-14) they started off low, then a few months ago they went super high (10s on the 11th and 12th!) and now are back down again. At least the Monday is now lower than the Sunday- it made no sense to me that a holiday Monday would be higher than a holiday Sunday!

That weekend was crowd level 10s last year. Veterans Day is Sunday but observed Monday.

Who knows how it’ll be crowd wise but i truly believe going in with a plan and FP+ is the most important part.

 

[PSUGuy]

Last year our party of 11 were there from 11/2 - 11/10, Jersey Week and the last full week of F&W. We had no crowd issues aside from problems created by the various foot races that I failed to factor for, not knowing they were on. We did fly out the Sat of the last F&W weekend so we missed the worst but our trip was not harmed by crowds.

Bill From PA

 

[McFly913]

Can some one let me know what Jersey week is. Never heard of this before.

 

[PSUGuy]

Can some one let me know what Jersey week is. Never heard of this before.

It's a week when, supposedly, most if not all of New Jersey public schools are closed so, supposedly, Jersey families flock to Disney.

Bill From PA

 

[tex1989]

Not an authority by an means since I am from Texas, but it's a week with no school for kids in the state of New Jersey due to what I have been told is a statewide conference for teachers so a large number of folks from Jersey go to WDW.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

Can some one let me know what Jersey week is. Never heard of this before.

All schools close the Thursday and Friday of the first full week of November for a teaching convention. Ive heard some close the entire week although i know of no nj schools that close the whole week. I’ve only read about it.

My district, and some others, also close for Election Day every year since our schools are used as polling stations.

On top of it my district uses the Monday and Wednesday as parent teacher conferences so those two days are half days.

Some years it goes into Veterans Day which some schools have off for too.

The perfect storm to go to Disney for the week. Although some people don’t get all the additional days so they head down Wednesday. We are leaving the Friday before and staying the whole week.

 

[TinkSassy]

I am hoping they are right! But as my last trip was Easter, I have a feeling the crowds will seem small after that.

 

[Epcotgal8]

We went during Jersey week in 2016 and 2017. Crowds were not bad. It did get a little crowded in the evenings in Epcot but it didn't bother us. It wasn't anything like Spring Break crowds from my experience.

 

[disneyworldsk]

going 11/3-10. there is extremely low availbility for hotel rooms now for that week. I have a split stay which I didn't really want but lucky now to have considering most standard rooms are all booked. Especially for the flanked weekends. Next year we're spending jersey week elsewhere maybe disney cruise or something else...It will be fine but it's not just jersey being off that week. it's a storm of everything. I booked some special events to off set the crowds.

 

[Murt17]

We are going 12/1 - 12/8 and got an e-mail today as well with decreased crowds - down to 1 or 2 at MK several days during the week. There are Christmas parties most nights we are there, so maybe that is why. I am not complaining - hope the numbers are correct or at least in the ballpark.