Wow, thanks Disney for messing up people's plans

FortForever

Disney since Day 1
Joined
Aug 16, 2011
We have had reservations for our week at Disney for many months now. I carefully chose the week based primarily on crowd level. Cooler weather and Christmas decorations were secondary factors.

Now, just a couple of weeks before we go, Disney decides to mess up everything with their Fantasyland Expansion passholder preview!! The crowds at MK on 11/13 & 11/14 have went from a 1.2 and 1.3 to a 9.0 and 9.1! These are like Christmas or spring break crowd levels. I guess we will avoid MK on those days, but it seems to have slightly jacked up the expected crowds at the other parks as well. :headache:

I am annoyed for our family, but I am more upset for other families who may have saved for years for this vacation and are coming a long distance. We go to Disney quite a few times a year for quick over night trips, but only once for our week long extended family trip. I can't imagine how disappointed I would be if this was our only trip.

Really, Disney should have made this known in advance. It's just not fair to do this to people at the last minute. We are passholders who live just a couple of hours away, but I refuse to take part in this madness.
 
We have had reservations for our week at Disney for many months now. I carefully chose the week based primarily on crowd level. Cooler weather and Christmas decorations were secondary factors.

Now, just a couple of weeks before we go, Disney decides to mess up everything with their Fantasyland Expansion passholder preview!! The crowds at MK on 11/13 & 11/14 have went from a 1.2 and 1.3 to a 9.0 and 9.1! These are like Christmas or spring break crowd levels. I guess we will avoid MK on those days, but it seems to have slightly jacked up the expected crowds at the other parks as well. :headache:

I am annoyed for our family, but I am more upset for other families who may have saved for years for this vacation and are coming a long distance. We go to Disney quite a few times a year for quick over night trips, but only once for our week long extended family trip. I can't imagine how disappointed I would be if this was our only trip.

Really, Disney should have made this known in advance. It's just not fair to do this to people at the last minute. We are passholders who live just a couple of hours away, but I refuse to take part in this madness.

I do not believe for a moment that crowds will increase anywhere near to those predictions. I would love for you to report back after your trip and tell us how accurate those numbers turn out to be.
 
I don't think the crowd level went up because of ap previews, crowds have been unseasonally high in the last couple of weeks, also ap going to previews will spend a good part of their mk day inside the new fantasyland area and will not affect the rest if the park.
 
I would be super excited to be at Disney when they open a new ride/new land. I would just be excited to be at Disney. There are lots of things to do, even when there are a million people there.
 


I had no idea it changed until I read your post! Our days have been scheduled for some time now, and it's not that easy to change your plans! It's odd that they changed the crowd levels though, since the official opening of FLE isn't scheduled until the next week! :confused3 Kinda stinky! I truly hope mesaboy2 is right and they won't be that bad! :(
 
They extended hours. So they did you a favor rather than jamming all those people in from 9-10, now there are four extra hours.
 
WDW pays someone good money to bring crowd levels from 2 to 9. I'm sure they wanted this thing to open during a slow time.
 


I would be super excited to be at Disney when they open a new ride/new land. I would just be excited to be at Disney. There are lots of things to do, even when there are a million people there.

Me too....but I hope you have a great time and that the crowds aren't that bad. :)
 
I do not believe for a moment that crowds will increase anywhere near to those predictions. I would love for you to report back after your trip and tell us how accurate those numbers turn out to be.

If, by chance, I happen to go to MK on one of those days I will absolutely post about what it was like.

I don't think the crowd level went up because of ap previews, crowds have been unseasonally high in the last couple of weeks, also ap going to previews will spend a good part of their mk day inside the new fantasyland area and will not affect the rest if the park.

I'm getting my information from touring plans website. The predicted crowd just changed when Disney changed their hours to 1am for FLE previews.

I sincerely hope they are wrong. I think the whole thing is just awful. As passholders, we clearly have more opportunities to go to Disney for whatever reason. We will have plenty of chances to see the new stuff. I don't want to participate in jamming up MK and ruining things for families who may not get to go often. If we go to MK at all those days, it will be late night.
 
We have had reservations for our week at Disney for many months now. I carefully chose the week based primarily on crowd level. Cooler weather and Christmas decorations were secondary factors.

Now, just a couple of weeks before we go, Disney decides to mess up everything with their Fantasyland Expansion passholder preview!! The crowds at MK on 11/13 & 11/14 have went from a 1.2 and 1.3 to a 9.0 and 9.1! These are like Christmas or spring break crowd levels. I guess we will avoid MK on those days, but it seems to have slightly jacked up the expected crowds at the other parks as well. :headache:

I am annoyed for our family, but I am more upset for other families who may have saved for years for this vacation and are coming a long distance. We go to Disney quite a few times a year for quick over night trips, but only once for our week long extended family trip. I can't imagine how disappointed I would be if this was our only trip.

Really, Disney should have made this known in advance. It's just not fair to do this to people at the last minute. We are passholders who live just a couple of hours away, but I refuse to take part in this madness.

So, don't go. But think about how exciting it's going to be for those who do go. Or for those people who have planned long and hard and then find out they get to be there during this time and it's a pleasant surprise.

I'm a passholder and I'm not going for the previews. Many passholders won't. I live eight hours away but I'm not making a special trip. Methinks you are making a mountain out of a molehill.
 
WDW pays someone good money to bring crowd levels from 2 to 9. I'm sure they wanted this thing to open during a slow time.

Yes, I thought that same thing. It would have been nice to have some warning, though.
 
As one of those people who saves for years to go, and travels about 12 hours in total by bus/plane, I appreciate your consideration for folks such as us :)

However I will also add that Disney World is so special of a vacation that it probably wouldn't affect our enjoyment whether the crowds were a 2 or a 10 :) I was there in August after dreaming of it for years and save for a very long time, crowds were very busy most days, rides were closed and queues were long....but we LOVED it none-the-less :)

I hope the predictions are wrong, and I hope you have a magical trip :)
 
Not a bit of snark in the following question...I'm trying to be thoughtful in my response. :thumbsup2

I am unsure how it's Disney's fault that a non-Disney person/business/touring plan writer gave an estimation of crowds and you used the outside source to plan your visit?

At least I'm guessing it's an outside source...I don't know of an inside crowd estimator but if there are I'd like the link!

ETA: I just read where you said the source was Touring Plans. I was re-reading my post so many times to make sure I wasn't being rude that you posted the answer while I was still asking my question! Sorry.
 
We have had reservations for our week at Disney for many months now. I carefully chose the week based primarily on crowd level. Cooler weather and Christmas decorations were secondary factors.

Now, just a couple of weeks before we go, Disney decides to mess up everything with their Fantasyland Expansion passholder preview!! The crowds at MK on 11/13 & 11/14 have went from a 1.2 and 1.3 to a 9.0 and 9.1! These are like Christmas or spring break crowd levels. I guess we will avoid MK on those days, but it seems to have slightly jacked up the expected crowds at the other parks as well. :headache:

I am annoyed for our family, but I am more upset for other families who may have saved for years for this vacation and are coming a long distance. We go to Disney quite a few times a year for quick over night trips, but only once for our week long extended family trip. I can't imagine how disappointed I would be if this was our only trip.

Really, Disney should have made this known in advance. It's just not fair to do this to people at the last minute. We are passholders who live just a couple of hours away, but I refuse to take part in this madness.
Since Disney has never opened a Fantasyland Expansion before, I'm wondering how the touring plans folks determined that MK will be at 9.0? I'm sure they're figuring that tons and tons of people will be visiting on those two days, but nine times the number who are normally there? That seems a bit ... well ... optimistic. Touring Plans is guessing too. No one knows how many people will be there, but I suspect that it will influence the FLE area the most and the rest of the parks not nearly as much.

And if you think of all the people who are probably just now finding out that FLE even exists (because not everyone plans things like DISers plan things), they're probably absolutely delighted that they get to see all the new stuff and probably have no idea what a "crowd calendar" is to start with. And in a few days, there'll be a half-dozen posts yelling at Disney for opening FLE "exactly one week (or day) after we leave!" :mad:

Can't win for losin'

:earsboy:
 
I hope the predictions are wrong, and I hope you have a magical trip :)

:) Thanks, and I am so happy to hear that crowds have not taken anything from your enjoyment!

I am unsure how it's Disney's fault that a non-Disney person/business/touring plan writer gave an estimation of crowds and you used the outside source to plan your visit?

At least I'm guessing it's an outside source...I don't know of an inside crowd estimator but if there are I'd like the link!

ETA: I just read where you said the source was Touring Plans. I was re-reading my post so many times to make sure I wasn't being rude that you posted the answer while I was still asking my question! Sorry.

It will only be Disney's fault if the predictions are true. Most people plan their trips more than two weeks in advance and are unlikely to be able to change it at that point.

A few months would be much more reasonable to announce things that could mean major changes in crowd levels.

I didn't take your reply as rude. There is only one sentence on this thread that I have considered rude. And it wasn't one of yours. :duck:
 
Unfortunately, it's the nature of the beast when going to Disney, or any other major theme park, close to a planned opening of a new attraction.

It's a risk that should be considered when booking. But, I agree, could be a bit of a downer if the crowds approach that level.

I would still go though; I agree with others that the accuracy of that prediction is likely too high.
 
Those aren't actual crowd levels. That's just the guess of Touring Plans. You're making way too much of it.

I would call them predictions as they have some stats behind them. And I too would be upset, OP! I despise crowds which is why I plan for slow times, best parks, and rope drop. Hope the crowds are much better than the number predictions!
 
Since Disney has never opened a Fantasyland Expansion before, I'm wondering how the touring plans folks determined that MK will be at 9.0?

I have wondered the same. They are usually very accurate, but this is a unique occurrence.

And in a few days, there'll be a half-dozen posts yelling at Disney for opening FLE "exactly one week (or day) after we leave!" :mad:

:rotfl2: Probably. Unless they are passholders, they would not be seeing it anyway. If they are passholders, they will clearly be going back sometime soon.
 

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