when plans and crowd calendar collide

[sam_gordon]

What do you do when your plans don't match what the crowd calendars (Touring Plans) say to do. Here's our plans...

June 1... arrival ~ noon, AK, then Boma for dinner.
June 2... MK (park to avoid)
June 3... water park/pool
June 4... DHS (park to avoid)
June 5... EP (park to avoid)
June 6... park TBD, departure ~4p.

Our (my) reasonings...
June 1... we only have a 1/2 day that day, and that's about all AK is for us.
June2/3... these two days can swap, but doesn't make sense to me to have an "off day" the 2nd day there. Hoping we might make RD if not EMH (doubtful) on June 2, and then sleep in on the 3rd.
June 4... SWW. Never been & DS(7) is huge into SW. So SWW would be a "must attend" at some point.
June 5... DD(13) birthday day. She got to pick the park & ADR. She picked EP.
June 6... Another 1/2 day. I'm guessing either back to DHS or MK.

We do have ADR's for every day based on the above plans.

The highest crowd level (for all parks) is a 6 on June 6. The others are 4/5.

 

[MayzDisney4]

I don't follow any sort of touring plans for that exact reason! I go and enjoy the parks either way. if its crowded, then its crowded.. Its still doable. Every single day we have planned for our upcoming trip touring plans says they are the parks to avoid. Every trip, the park we plan to go to is the park to avoid. Utilize fast pass and get there early.

And I don't think 6 (or 4 and 5) are any kind of crowd to worry about. Stick with your plan and go enjoy! (and happy early birthday to your daughter)

 

[monkeybug]

You will be fine! Just get to the parks early if you can.
Have you looked at the per park crowd numbers? Sometimes the recommended park is not necessarily the park with the lowest crowd #.
We have been during 6's and not always to the recommended park. We got to the park at rope drop, used a basic touring plan/strategy, and didn't have any issues at all.

 

[teach22180]

I'm a believer that a good plan works in any situation, even 10's!

It seems most of those park recommendation sites say to avoid EMH's, and I like to take advantage of them. That's probably why you're at odds with the site.

 

[ktmo]

We went last year during Spring Break, and I think that we picked the "park to avoid" each day. We had a blast and got to do tons of things. We didn't do everything, but that was fine.

 

[pepe of ohio]

It's all some hocus pokus predictions.....we've been on 44 trips and never checked or looked at any of them.....we have the parks we want to go to, when we want and do as such.....who's oging to count the guests on any day let alone say it's 25% more crowded than some other park......nope...we go, have fun, lend cautuin to the wind and never regretted a trip to any park yet......we're believers in EMH's and attend accordingly....extra time in the parks to us......others can pay for and believe in subscription services and predictions and the like....it's not our way and guests have been doing Disney since 1972 before computers and these services we even thought of....just a way for someone to make money to us, but they don't get any of ours.....go, do it your way and have fun....

 

[eliza61]

Think of tour plans has simply a guide. IMO, they have been wrong a lot. The problem is you never know what's going to effect the crowds at a park. One year I went to HS and a regional meeting of Baptist churches was touring so it was ridiculously packed and it was only supposed to be a 2/3 day. Those type of things touringplans does not taken into consideration.

My family and I are very lucky in that we are "wingers". we don't really do a lot of adrs so in the morning whatever park we decide to go to, that's where we head. We've always been fine.

 

[jjsdad]

I'm not sure how gay days affects park levels, but just so you know this is going on while you are there at the following parks:

Thu, June 2, 2011 Gay Days at AK*
Fri, June 3, 2011 Gay Days at HS*
Sat, June 4, 2011 Gay Days at MK*
Sun, June 5, 2011 Gay Days at EP


So to be honest, it kinda looks like you're plan is perfect to jive with teh days at those parks. You might want to think about trading your epcot day since it lines up with teh gay days epcot day, although like I said, I have no clue how much extra crowds wind up there. You'd have to assume since these days are park specific, that park on its day is going to be crowded.

 

[creativeamanda]

I probably if I were you would try to switch DHS and EP. Sunday is the best day to do SWW at DHS. I don't know why, but last year when we went to it on a Sunday, it seemed less crowded. I think it may be because most vacationers start their trip on Sunday and they don't make it to a park that day.

 

[ekraxa]

We're planning on spending June 4th at Hollywood Studios as well. I've struggled with using the crowd calendar because they do seem to consistently recommend against parks with Early Morning Hours. EMH is one of the reasons we're paying extra to stay on-sight so I don't want to avoid those parks.

I say stick with your plans!

 

[sam_gordon]

I probably if I were you would try to switch DHS and EP. Sunday is the best day to do SWW at DHS. I don't know why, but last year when we went to it on a Sunday, it seemed less crowded. I think it may be because most vacationers start their trip on Sunday and they don't make it to a park that day.

You want to tell my DD she can't have her bday in the park of her choice? Not only that but it's to do more Star Wars stuff? Yea, that will put me on her good side.

 

[PirateMommy]

You want to tell my DD she can't have her bday in the park of her choice? Not only that but it's to do more Star Wars stuff? Yea, that will put me on her good side.

Found your old thread through a search because I have the same dilemma... do I do what seems best for us according to my plans, or go with the crowd projectors?

But I can't help cracking up at the idea of you telling your eldest child she gets more SW on her birthday! As the mother of a 7 year old SW fanatic myself, I know just where you're coming from. Good luck on your trip, and I hope to hear all about the SW visit. Next time I'll have to plan for this one myself.

 

[debdebdebby13]

We'll be there 31st through the 8th and we are planning on DHS Saturday and using TP as well. It says there that IF you are planning on SWW then Saturday is the better day. I dunno, we've never been to SWW, but they know more than me so I'll go with it.

That said, if it ends up more or less crowded that we expect, we'll go with it, no big deal

 

[mill4023]

It's not all hocus pocus.
There are definite patterns to crowd levels and sites like TourGuideMike, TouringPlans, and EasyWDW are actually pretty good at knowing which parks will be the most crowded based on things like EMH, Fantasmic showings, typical vacationing patterns, etc.

So I always use these sites to plan which days we will do which parks and I've always had great results.

But that doesn't mean you will have a miserable time if you go to the "park to avoid". It just means there will be more crowds and longer lines than there would have been on a different day. Being at the least crowded park each day is great, but it's not the only important factor in planning your vacation. There are always other things that need to be considered.

So if it works better for your plan overall to be at the "park to avoid", go ahead and do it. Just be prepared for crowds, be at the park at rope drop, use FP as much as possible, and have a good time.

 

[atsolomon]

No matter which park you go to, it's important to remember that the group that did ten attractions hasn't necessarily had twice as much fun as the group that did five.

I need that tattooed on my hand. ;-)

 

[ezmom]

so glad to see this post, this was my concern for the week of May31-June 4.
I looked at the crowd levels and which parks to avoid.. All of which were totally opposite of what we have planned. Anyway my ADR's can't be changed this late in the date so my day's will stay the same, crowd level be darned.

Amy

 

[Colleen27]

Even the touring plans site will tell you - a good touring plan for your day is more important than choosing the right day of the week for each park. I've been a TP member through all 5 of my trips as an adult and a TGM member for 2, and I don't follow their best/worst days to the letter.

We go with avoiding morning EMH because we're not morning people, but I seldom plan a trip that doesn't involve at least 1-2 evening EMH because we love the parks at night. We never follow the advice that hard-ticket party days are good days for the Magic Kingdom because we hate the shorter park hours and lack of evening entertainment. And we occasionally go for events that the ride-focused touring plans would recommend avoiding like ESPN the Weekend.

Besides, their recommendations aren't infallible. The second most crowded day I've ever seen in a Disney park was Epcot on a "neutral" day during low-crowd late Sept. It was also the first Saturday of Food & Wine, and the crowd calendar didn't seem to take that into account at all. The rest of the trip was lovely and uncrowded, except for that Saturday and the sold-out first MNSSHP of the year (in '05, when the party season was much shorter than it is now).