Understanding Crowd Levels (if you went April 2-13, your opinion would help a lot)

[summerw]

We went April 2-13. We were expecting 5-7s and got a lot of 10s. April 6 at HS, Touring Plans has "expected 3, saw 10." While I now know we can handle the parks with these kinds of crowds, in terms of rides and just general walking and enjoying, a few things were pretty unpleasant: counter service and the MK parade. We waited about 50 minutes just to order food at HS one evening, 50!! Ok, that was bad planning as we ate on Sunset Blvd before F!.

We rode everything we wanted and then some. Good planning and FP+ really made riding what we wanted great, but sometimes you're hungry between 4-8, so I'd like to avoid 10s again. So my questions are...

1 Looking at TP, it looks like the week of March 13 was supposed to be 5-6s and ended up 10s too. Is this just the new normal for March/April or was it a fluke? I did meet A LOT of British people who were on a 2-week school holiday, so maybe it was just bad coincidence?

2 Is TP reporting these as 10s because the ride times are high due to the reduced capacity/staffing cuts, or were the crowds really 10s?

3 If TP is reporting that April 6 for instance was a 10, is that the same as Easter week 10s or is that week more like off the scale?

Thanks, everyone.

 

[Accident]

TP hasn't been very accurate for a long time.. (nobody else has been much better) oh and the crowds this year have mostly been like this.... It's going to just get worse, so much stuff is changing, opening, etc.. nobody really knows where the crowd is gonig to shift and how many people, especially locals are going to jump in to see it. I know I'm hitting HS tonight just to see the new fireworks show..

spring break+younger sporting competitions (close enough to overlap if people came early to vacation also)+reduction in hours giving college program workers more spare time+25% of HS no longer opened to spread people out+ ak morning and hs night being considered a good way to do those 2 parks+star wars half marathon and that equals unpredictable crowds, especially at the star wars park

But in short, name any week and you can list things happening or people who have time to come.. Disney is always crowded and hence why many will pay $150 for an evening with no crowd now... HS a little harder at night with so many doing the ak+hs combo day..

 

[Praying Colonel]

As others have reported in other threads, TP isn't alone in being off on many of their park days.

This has been an issue going back at least as far as last fall. TP did a series of blog posts discussing why wait times were significantly increased, by park.

DHS

EP

AK

MK

TP bases actual crowd levels on average wait times, so it really doesn't matter whether the avg wait time was due to increased crowds, reduced capacity or other reasons.

 

[summerw]

TP hasn't been very accurate for a long time.. (nobody else has been much better) oh and the crowds this year have mostly been like this.... It's going to just get worse, so much stuff is changing, opening, etc.. nobody really knows where the crowd is gonig to shift and how many people, especially locals are going to jump in to see it. I know I'm hitting HS tonight just to see the new fireworks show..

spring break+younger sporting competitions (close enough to overlap if people came early to vacation also)+reduction in hours giving college program workers more spare time+25% of HS no longer opened to spread people out+ ak morning and hs night being considered a good way to do those 2 parks+star wars half marathon and that equals unpredictable crowds, especially at the star wars park

But in short, name any week and you can list things happening or people who have time to come.. Disney is always crowded and hence why many will pay $150 for an evening with no crowd now... HS a little harder at night with so many doing the ak+hs combo day..

Agreed.

As others have reported in other threads, TP isn't alone in being off on many of their park days.

This has been an issue going back at least as far as last fall. TP did a series of blog posts discussing why wait times were significantly increased, by park.

DHS

EP

AK

MK

TP bases actual crowd levels on average wait times, so it really doesn't matter whether the avg wait time was due to increased crowds, reduced capacity or other reasons.

Thanks. I will check those out.


I just read the other thread on crowd calendars. Some good info there. I guess I'm just wondering if why I experienced that week are the new norm or more the worst it gets?

And can we expect it to get at least a little better if they ease up on the cuts and once some things open or is that kind of crowd here to stay? Obviously it's pure speculation here but I'm curious what everyone thinks