Ummmmmmmm. Crowds for Early May Like Summer?!

[WaltD4Me]

I have never subscribed to Touring Plans before, but I gave it a shot for my May trip and their crowd calendar for my week May 3rd-8th was showing fives and sixes...now it just changed apparently and is showing 8's for every day that I'm there! What is that all about?! I've been in early May three times and crowds were moderate and very manageable...those 8's are really sort of scaring me. And Disney is doing layoffs???

ETA....Yes, I know to except crowds when you go to Disney, but I've always had such a good experience in early May...when we went end of October 2008 it was packed and just not as much fun.

 

[Blue Skies]

I saw the same thing! Our days went from 5 to an 8-9?

We will be there the first week of May. One of the reasons we booked at this time was the hope for lower crowds.

Oh well, I guess we will have to stick to a touring plan... we were hoping on just "winging it".

 

[WaltD4Me]

I saw the same thing! Our days went from 5 to an 8-9?

We will be there the first week of May. One of the reasons we booked at this time was the hope for lower crowds.

Oh well, I guess we will have to stick to a touring plan... we were hoping on just "winging it".

I've been thinking about it, I find it hard to believe the whole first 2 weeks of May will be 8's and 9's. I know the 4/3 deal went better than Disney hoped, but still, that's a hard time to take kids out of school, right after Easter break and before the end of the year. And none of the park hours have changed yet according to Disney and they haven't added any extra Spectromagics or Fantasmics so far. I've gone the first week in May 3 years and crowds were 4-6, never anything near 8. I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

 

[UrsulasShadow]

Your Disney 4/3 promotion at work.

 

[jodeeb]

Okay, we didnt know about the crowd levels when we went, but we actually have went to DL at the sper of the moment before in July and have had at least one day of low crowd level. One year we were there July 1-3 and left the 4th and had no problem seeing everything we wanted to including rideing most of the high desired rides more than one time.

My advice is... go at rope drop and get in line at most desired ride first and at the same time get fast pass for your next favorite.

We are going to WDW this year in June with high crowd levels expected. My plan is to go for the most desired rides early in the morning, get fast passes, then enjoy the Majic. We've never had a BAD trip at Disney. Just expect the worse and hope for best and enjoy the magic!!! Dont let the predictions damper your enjoyment.

 

[aspen37]

Your Disney 4/3 promotion at work.

My thoughts exactly!

 

[norestneeded]

Hey all...Len Testa (the co-author of the Unofficial Guide and the founder of Touring Plans) addressed this on the most recent edition of the WDW Today Podcast. They recently made these changes to their May and June 2009 on account of the recent March crowds.

Apparently their prediction formula relies a great deal upon Disney's published park hours and parade schedule. The past few weeks Disney underestimated their crowd expectations and as a result had to add parades and extend hours last minute. The crowd levels, which were originally expected to be 5 and 6's according to Touring Plans, ended up being mostly 8 and 9's.

As a result, if my understanding is correct, Touring Plans has begun making changes to it's May and June schedule by lessening their reliance upon Disney's published May and June park hours and instead comparing March's original published hours and the May/June published hours and then correlating it with the resulting March crowds.

Like it was said above, your 4/3 Promotion at work.

 

[Kimberle]

Hey all...Len Testa (the co-author of the Unofficial Guide and the founder of Touring Plans) addressed this on the most recent edition of the WDW Today Podcast. They recently made these changes to their May and June 2009 on account of the recent March crowds.

Apparently their prediction formula relies a great deal upon Disney's published park hours and parade schedule. The past few weeks Disney underestimated their crowd expectations and as a result had to add parades and extend hours last minute. The crowd levels, which were originally expected to be 5 and 6's according to Touring Plans, ended up being mostly 8 and 9's.

As a result, if my understanding is correct, Touring Plans has begun making changes to it's May and June schedule by lessening their reliance upon Disney's published May and June park hours and comparing March's original published hours and the May/June published hours and then correlating it with the resulting March crowds.

Like it was said above, your 4/3 Promotion at work.

You did a great job of explaining. What s/he said. You can listen to last weeks WDW podcast to hear their explaination for yourself if you like. I don't remember the number, but it was released last week.

 

[DavidandLeahZ]

Read this blog which is an explanation of the changes by the TP statistician:

http://www.touringplans.com/tp2/UG2_index.php?PageID=222&action=viewUserBlogs&Param1=hazefre

 

[DISNEYNV]

I hope it's not too crowded, but it is what it is! We are going early May as well and I can stand the crowds ( we have a daily plan, ADRs and use fastpasses) buri just hope the weather holds up nicely... I know FL needs the rain though so it can pour until May 4th just kidding everyone who is going prior

I can't wait for Disney! Crowds, rain or shine

 

[WaltD4Me]

I was really wondering because I can still change my plans. We went late October 2008 and it was WAY more crowded than I expected, so I was looking forward to the early May crowds I've experience before...but if crowds are going to be the same as October, I was thinking of changing my trip to the week before Thanksgiving. That is why I was asking about TP's accuracy. Sounds like though, that no one really knows. Disney is winging it, so TP has to wing it. Stupid 4/3 Deal.

 

[Poohbug]

I really hope it is not horrible crowded. I have gone in May before and it was very nice but I hate crowds and crowds of people and really hate lines.

I guess if it is really bad we will just hang around the resort and have a truly relaxing vacation.