Opinions on Park Choice

[TinkSassy]

I will be arriving Easter weekend with high crowds. We usually spend our first day at MK. This trip that is a Saturday so we are planning on going in for a BoG breakfast and staying until the parade (which if they add shows per the last few years) should be noon. Assuming horrible crowds, we plan on hoping to HS for the afternoon where I have a Mama Melrose Fantasmic reservation.

We were planning on doing a full day on Wednesday later in the trip. In planning that day - I've noticed Touring Plans has this park at a 10 that day (one point higher than Saturday) also that there are almost no ADR times that night and the Dessert party is sold out.

Wednesday will be the last full day for everyone that is traveling - some are staying longer - but our tradition is usually to start and end at MK.

Thoughts? Would you readjust the planning? (The only day TP is showing lower than a 9 is Easter Sunday - that seems counter intuitive to me as I would think MK would be overrun with locals that day).

 

[Klayfish]

It's just my own $.02, but as I've said many times on this board, I think crowd calendars are absolutely silly. They have no true accuracy value, they simply can't...too many variables they cannot predict or control. So no, I would never readjust my plans because of someone else's prediction. Go to the park you want, when you want to go.

 

[pitpat]

It's just my own $.02, but as I've said many times on this board, I think crowd calendars are absolutely silly. They have no true accuracy value, they simply can't...too many variables they cannot predict or control. So no, I would never readjust my plans because of someone else's prediction. Go to the park you want, when you want to go.

You can ignore them and do your own thing and that's great. But Saturdays are almost always more crowded at MK than Sundays.

 

[TinkSassy]

Thanks guys! I have a newbie on this trip and she is only staying 5 days so I always put too much pressure on myself to make their visit super special. Appreciate your input - I need to ignore some of the tools and trust my instincts. FP window is a week away so I'm questioning myself on everything!

 

[Animal]

Your challenge is that your first (Saturday) and last day (Wednesday) are the most crowded for MK. Saturday...because it's Saturday. Wednesday because of evening EMH. If the first/last at MK thing is an unbreakable tradition, go for it! Just understand other days will be less crowded at MK.

 

[Klayfish]

You can ignore them and do your own thing and that's great. But Saturdays are almost always more crowded at MK than Sundays.

I don't know if that's true or not, can't really say I notice. But my point is that even if that's true, so? There are certainly a handful of days that are far different than others...Christmas Day, 4th of July, New Years (especially at Epcot), etc... but outside of those days, IMO it really doesn't matter. It's the most popular tourist destination in the USA, so it's always going to be busy. Major holidays aside (which are the extreme), the small fluctuations between days really doesn't sway into our opinion where to go.

 

[pitpat]

I don't know if that's true or not, can't really say I notice. But my point is that even if that's true, so what?

The point is you travel to WDW frequently throughout the year, spend many days there and don't seem to care about crowds. Others are there once a year or less and would prefer to use the resources available to avoid the worst crowds.

If you are not even sure if Saturdays are a busy day at MK, I'm not sure how you would know whether crowd calendars are useful or not.


edit: at 12:15 today (Sat.) some current wait times - Dumbo-55, Barnstormer-35, Journey of LM-40, Teacups-30, Magic carpets-35, Carousel-15. If myself or someone else remembers, maybe we can see what they're like tomorrow at this time.

 

[BDemps7]

I honestly think the use of crowd calendars is overrated. If there’s a 1 point difference on TP I wouldn’t expect much of a noticeable crowd difference at all.

 

[Klayfish]

The point is you travel to WDW frequently throughout the year, spend many days there and don't seem to care about crowds. Others are there once a year or less and would prefer to use the resources available to avoid the worst crowds.

If you are not even sure if Saturdays are a busy day at MK, I'm not sure how you would know whether crowd calendars are useful or not.


edit: at 12:15 today (Sat.) some current wait times - Dumbo-55, Barnstormer-35, Journey of LM-40, Teacups-30, Magic carpets-35, Carousel-15. If myself or someone else remembers, maybe we can see what they're like tomorrow at this time.

Right, and that's exactly my point. While I am far from being an authority on WDW, I have a good amount of recent experience. No, I don't look at crowd calendars...as I said, I don't see any way they can have much true statistical accuracy. Regardless, my experience just tells me that you really don't see a huge difference in days of the week. For instance, sure, I can tell the difference between a random Tuesday and Christmas day. But the difference between a random Tuesday and a random Saturday.. not so much. But that's just my opinion. Everyone sees things like this in their own way, and nothing wrong with that. When someone asks advise about it, my subjective opinion is to not worry about it and do what you want. As far as crowds go, I think time of year is far more important than day of the week.

Besides, the FP+ system makes most of it a non factor most of the time.