With all this 'crowd calendar' chit chat ....

[notfrostyjosh]

 

[WedgieSock]

whats with the potato head

 

[junebugTN]

Question for you: had you been to Disney prior to finding this site and if so, how were your vacays different? I often wonder what came first for some - the planning or the DISboards?

WedgieSock, that's an interesting question! I'd be curious how that works out for most people. In my case, I found the site while planning my first trip. Half the fun of a vacation for me is the buildup to it, so I do this for all trips.

But the DIS definitely started an obsession as I quickly realized how much I didn't know. For my first trip, I thought I was being really clever, planning a trip around Thanksgiving. I figured everybody else would be sitting around eating turkey, and we'd have the parks all to ourselves!

 

[larryz]

When they say its a '9' is it just a 9 in the park to avoid, or is it a 9 for WDW as a whole, and most of those '9'ers' will be in the the park to avoid?

Is a '9' in high season the same as a '9' in low season?

How and what numbers do they base this on?

Do you honestly see the difference between, lets say, a 7 & a 9?

I don't actually use crowd calendars and it works fine for me, I'm just really curious as a lot of people seem to plan their vacays around them.

Jimi Hendrix had a song about this dilemma... http://youtu.be/fjOsMvgAMn8

 

[goofy4tink]

Ah, thats what I was wondering - I have looked at TP & easyWDW.

When I first heard about crowd calendars I had a look and I came down with the common "over-planning" illness that so many DISers get so I decided to ditch them completely. We go off-season and I always figure its either going to be crowded or really crowded - thats about as scientific as I get and we just roll with it.

Thanks for your input

Me too. I've got about 30+ trips to WDW under my belt, since '99. I love to plan..have overplanned on occasion. But I have yet to use a park planner for crowd levels. Way too many things can change those predictions!!!
Disney can change park hours with a day's notice...it happens. More often, it happens a month out. So, here we all sit, our planning going on crazily. We've got our spreadsheets out on the desk, we've got our ADRs made based on park EMHs. Now, along comes Disney and changed their hours...most often they make them longer!!! Now, the crowd predictions go up..people love to be in MK at midnight and later!!! So, more people head there.
Same thing with the Saturday nights at Food and Wine over at Epcot. And that last weekend??? OMG... You won't find me in there!!!

So, we put all this time and effort into planning, forgetting that things change. Now? I've learned my lesson. I still plan ahead. But, nothing is etched in stone. Well, my CP pkg is pretty much etched in stone, but that's it. I make my ADRs, and then I go with the flow...pure and simple. I can not worry about possible changes that Disney may make. And that includes various previews and such.

 

[moopdog]

I didn't use to think it mattered a lot. We always went in Sept or Oct and crowds were low, but I had nothing to compare to. Then one year we had a one -day pass as part of a cruise excursion, we went on a "busy" day (spring break maybe?). HOLY cow.... What a difference it made to us. That was a miserable day for us, as we waited almost 2 hours for Test Track, and never did get to ride Soaring' at all. It was crazy.... We will only ever go during "walk-on-ride" times again. If we get to a point where we don't want to talk the kids out of school anymore.... We just won't go at all! :-(

 

[dawnball]

This is my stance, and I'm sure holes can be picked but it makes perfect sense in my head, I will probably save a good hour or more with all the minutes here and there saved in stand-by times ...... but, I would have spent maybe that time at home working out best days to go to X park, which FPs to get first etc etc when I could have been doing something else .... so I haven't really saved any time at all

This is my opinion on rope drop! I read the advice to get to HS 45 minutes or an hour before opening, to be first in line at the turnstiles. Then there's no wait for TSMM! Except for that 45 minutes or an hour you stood in line at the turnstiles for.

 

[WedgieSock]

Jimi Hendrix had a song about this dilemma... http://youtu.be/fjOsMvgAMn8

So Jimi has the answers then

 

[WedgieSock]

Me too. I've got about 30+ trips to WDW under my belt, since '99. I love to plan..have overplanned on occasion. But I have yet to use a park planner for crowd levels. Way too many things can change those predictions!!!
Disney can change park hours with a day's notice...it happens. More often, it happens a month out. So, here we all sit, our planning going on crazily. We've got our spreadsheets out on the desk, we've got our ADRs made based on park EMHs. Now, along comes Disney and changed their hours...most often they make them longer!!! Now, the crowd predictions go up..people love to be in MK at midnight and later!!! So, more people head there.
Same thing with the Saturday nights at Food and Wine over at Epcot. And that last weekend??? OMG... You won't find me in there!!!

So, we put all this time and effort into planning, forgetting that things change. Now? I've learned my lesson. I still plan ahead. But, nothing is etched in stone. Well, my CP pkg is pretty much etched in stone, but that's it. I make my ADRs, and then I go with the flow...pure and simple. I can not worry about possible changes that Disney may make. And that includes various previews and such.

Wow, reading your post stressed me out I do love to hear the experiences of 'veterans' and how they have changed/adapted their tactics over time. Thank you!

 

[WedgieSock]

I didn't use to think it mattered a lot. We always went in Sept or Oct and crowds were low, but I had nothing to compare to. Then one year we had a one -day pass as part of a cruise excursion, we went on a "busy" day (spring break maybe?). HOLY cow.... What a difference it made to us. That was a miserable day for us, as we waited almost 2 hours for Test Track, and never did get to ride Soaring' at all. It was crazy.... We will only ever go during "walk-on-ride" times again. If we get to a point where we don't want to talk the kids out of school anymore.... We just won't go at all! :-(

This is where I can see it works - comparing seasons. Like I said, I go low season for a crowded Disney rather than high season for the omg-I-can't-breath Disney.

But, for instance, you are going low season for 5 days and you plan your days around the crowd calendar .... I don't see the point - can someone change my pov*

* Big Brother fans take note, I am not referring to a Power of Veto

 

[WedgieSock]

This is my opinion on rope drop! I read the advice to get to HS 45 minutes or an hour before opening, to be first in line at the turnstiles. Then there's no wait for TSMM! Except for that 45 minutes or an hour you stood in line at the turnstiles for.

True!

 

[stevb]

Unless you are a theme park commando who wants to ride as many rides and see as many shows as you can I would ignore the crowd calendars and do what you want. Too much planning takes some of the fun out of being at Disney for me. I don't like having to rush around and being stressed out about making it on time for ADRs and such.

 

[Tbiafore]

Its everyones trip and its not cheap so everyone should enjoy it or plan for it as they like...However, on the flip side, I know a family that is never going back to Disneyworld as their take on it was "Too expensive, too hot, food was horrible and overpriced, too many lines, waiting to get into the park, for food, for a ride, wait, wait, wait...and I broke the piggy bank to do it...never again".

Just a little bit of planning or knowledge would have navigated them around many of these problems.

My .02

 

[junebugTN]

Its everyones trip and its not cheap so everyone should enjoy it or plan for it as they like...However, on the flip side, I know a family that is never going back to Disneyworld as their take on it was "Too expensive, too hot, food was horrible and overpriced, too many lines, waiting to get into the park, for food, for a ride, wait, wait, wait...and I broke the piggy bank to do it...never again".

Just a little bit of planning or knowledge would have navigated them around many of these problems.

My .02

Very well said, Tbiafore!

 

[WedgieSock]

Unless you are a theme park commando who wants to ride as many rides and see as many shows as you can I would ignore the crowd calendars and do what you want. Too much planning takes some of the fun out of being at Disney for me. I don't like having to rush around and being stressed out about making it on time for ADRs and such.

You're my kind of Disney traveller

Its everyones trip and its not cheap so everyone should enjoy it or plan for it as they like...However, on the flip side, I know a family that is never going back to Disneyworld as their take on it was "Too expensive, too hot, food was horrible and overpriced, too many lines, waiting to get into the park, for food, for a ride, wait, wait, wait...and I broke the piggy bank to do it...never again".

Just a little bit of planning or knowledge would have navigated them around many of these problems.

My .02

I do wonder if a family that had that many complaints would have enjoyed it even with planning Although you're right, they could have eliminated a couple of the problems. My aunt hated it, for those same reasons but it was because Disney just isn't her thing - she'd rather lay on a beach for 2 weeks.

Now I fully admit that I could have planned the whole dining side a bit better - I did not realise the importance of an ADR but, other than that, can't complain

We go again in December and my touring style will have some DISers develop a nervous twitch

 

[QueenElinor]

As much as I would agree that there is not much control you will have over crowd levels, I would seriously look at easyWDWs recommended park information. He had a blog a while back regarding the same overall crowd levels on two consecutive days, but different park recommendations based on other factors and the pictures he took showed a much reduced crowd level at the recommended park. In other words, while the park levels were crowd level "5" he went to Magic Kingdom two days in a row, with the first day being a "not recommended" based on EMH and other factors, while the very next day Magic Kingdom was a "recommended" park for various other factors (EMHs at other parks, parades and special events at other parks, etc.). The difference was palpable.

Yes, that post was a real eye-opener.

In fact, if you're a dedicated planner, you can go back through his blog, look at the pictures and see how they correlate with his predictions (and other sites' past recommendations) because he usually posts the date the pictures were taken.

A person can do the same thing with the, "Here at (insert name of park) right now... it's TERRIBLE," threads that pop up here almost every day. People have been shocked at the crowd levels this past month because they thought they were coming in the off season, but there is no off season anymore, and the crowd calendars reflect that, for the most part.

We very nearly quit coming to WDW, then I discovered the crowd calendars, and it has made a "World" of difference for us. While it's true that a day at Disney is better than a day at the office, that's really not the choice I'm making. It's between a day at Disney and one in Hawaii, San Diego, Cancun, Europe or D.C.- those are some of the the places we've been since we were last in Orlando.

 

[nansmama]

Its everyones trip and its not cheap so everyone should enjoy it or plan for it as they like...However, on the flip side, I know a family that is never going back to Disneyworld as their take on it was "Too expensive, too hot, food was horrible and overpriced, too many lines, waiting to get into the park, for food, for a ride, wait, wait, wait...and I broke the piggy bank to do it...never again".

Just a little bit of planning or knowledge would have navigated them around many of these problems.

My .02

I know a family like that too. "Too crowded, too hot, too much walking." Some research would have helped them for sure. They still managed to do "everything" (so they assure me ) in the parks in seven days, but were miserable by the end from all the running around. And they went in January! Cannot imagine what they'd think of an actual hot and crowded month.

I think some people are just not "Disney" people and this family is among them. When I told the mom that we enjoy Disney more when we're not trying to cram in as many rides as we can, she looked at me like I was daft in the head. To them, it was just another theme park and they didn't really care about the special touches.