Which park which day

[Ndusmama]

looking to get an idea of which park to go to and which day. Most of the crowd calendars say to avoid the parks on days where there is an extra hour. Is it really that bad on those days? I'm mainly looking for ak. I can't go on my first day (a Friday) because the day before is all day travel from west coast, so jet lag with time difference. Thinking maybe HS or MK that day. Then try for ak Saturday with extra hour in morning assuming no torrential downpour scheduled all day. But all three parks on days I'm looking say to avoid them because they all have extra hours those days. The crowd forecasts all mainly give those days 1-2 for busy. Thoughts?

 

[Alesia]

Use the crowd calendar at easywdw.com.

If you don't have park hoppers, avoid any park with EMH like the plague. EMH will make the park significantly busier than the other parks.

 

[Cruisin Spartan]

I agree with PP, but also think that you're probably fine if that's what works best for your schedule. Easywdw often says that it's more important to go at the right TIME rather than the right DAY. We tend to find that AM EMH work well for us, so we don't avoid them. However, if you're going to hit a park on an AM EMH day, I highly suggest trying to get there to use the EMH time. If you don't, then the extra guests that did head to that park will add to the crowds that will build over the next few hours, making waits longer.

 

[Ndusmama]

Thanks. I was looking at easy WDW for crowd calendar. I think the main thing I am worrid about is seeing ak on a sunny day versus rain and if that's an EMH day how crazy busy will it be. Plus last time I was there it took forever to get anywhere except the ferry to ds.

 

[Richard M Nixon]

I grab a few numbers to help me pick and build a small calendar.

1. Decide how many days you want in each park.
2. Sort each park day from most important to least important (For 6 days, mine would be: MK day 1, EP day 1, EP day 2, MK day 2, AK, DHS)
3. Write down each day of your trip (Monday the 12th, Tuesday the 13th...)
4. Check the Disney Travel Agent calendar for those dates and write down which parks have AM/PM EMH for each day
5. Check a crowd calendar (I like touringplans) and write the estimated crowd levels for each park on each day
6. For each day, rule out any park that has an AM EMH
7. For each day, rule out any park that has a PM EMH that I won't attend
8. For each day, rule out any park that has a special event going on that I won't attend

Now what I'm left with is a list that has every day I'll be at WDW and each day has 1-2 parks scratched out already. Then I go through the park days I listed based on priority and I pick the date that has the lowest crowd prediction.

For example, if I had the following written down;

Monday 12th: no DHS, no EP, MK crowds 4, AK crowds 3
Tuesday 13th: No MK, no EP, DHS crowds 5, AK crowds 4
Wednesday 14th: No DHS, no AK, MK crowds 3, EP crowds 4
Thursday 15th, No DHS, no AK, MK crowds 4, EP crowds 5

And I had 4 days which I prioritized as: MK day 1, EP, MK day 2, AK

Then I would start with MK day 1 and pick the lowest level day (Wed 14th), then Epcot (Thursday 15th), then MK day 2 (Monday 12th) then AK (Tuesday 13th). It means not always being in the absolute lowest crowd level park every day, but I've picked the best days for my prime parks and the rest will be pretty good. Sometimes if the crowd levels get extra high then I'd also mark off days with a level over, say, 8.

 

[Alesia]

Do not base your plans on the weather. Any forecast more than a few hours out is completely useless.

 

[Ndusmama]

Do not base your plans on the weather. Any forecast more than a few hours out is completely useless.

I have actually lived in Seattle so I never base anything in rain. But I know animals don't come out in the rain, so ak with all day forecasted rain is a definite out. When I went my first time there was a torrential downpour and we still did Epcot. Went back a second day just for the closed weather rides.