Do you plan park days around.....?

[la79al]

I'm just wondering if most people plan which park which day around EMH, DAH, etc. Or if people plan around crowd calendars? Or if people plan around when they are able to get the FP they want?

 

[Magical2017]

Recently we have planned some days around our FP. If we can get FoP on day 4, we go on day 4. We book ADRs around that.

 

[disneydreamer1980]

I just generally try to avoid Epcot on weekends, MK on non-party days during party season (and weekends all year). After that I usually like to begin and end each trip at MK just because that’s our tradition, but sometimes FP availability will dictate when we do each park. Luckily we always have 10 park days which equals 30 FP opportunities so we’ve never had a problem getting what we want eventually, if not on FP day.

 

[DisneyWishes14]

All of the above? I check crowd calendars, try to avoid parks with EMH and, right now, may switch a day around if reports come out that the new Villains DAH is affected MK evening crowds. Then, I get to a point, after I've tweaked and tweaked and tweaked our schedule hundreds of times that I end up just going with what will work best with our schedule, realizing, it may not be "ideal" in terms of crowds. I'm currently working on a 5 night trip where people in our party want to do all four parks, one water park, DS AND 2 dessert parties. Thank goodness they only want 2 ADR's. I'm also trying not to exhaust people in the process. It's one big gigantic puzzle.

 

[PollyannaMom]

A combination.

I look at crowd calendars, EMH, and (last trip) which parks were closer to which resort (as we did a split stay).

 

[Klayfish]

None of the above. We plan our park days around our desire on what park we want to go to. Nothing else really factors in. Crowd calendars are a joke, we are offsite so EMH is doesn't apply to us, and we use refresh to get many of our FP+.

We love being non-planners.

 

[Tigger's ally]

We are a little different. Our only rule is No MK on Monday! Most people arrive on the weekend and first park they want to go on is MK. We stay away. Other's that we try to avoid is no parks on weekends when with the whole family. Use the weekend to do the other things like charachter breakfasts, Hoop de doo, golf, shop, etc.

 

[gatorlisa]

Crowd calendars, nope, never. Special events like DAH or parties, not really (we have hoppers or APs...if a park closes early we'll just hop somewhere else). Dining, never. We do like to take advantage of the EMH when staying on-site and historically like to maximize time in the parks. So usually I'll plan for us to start at a park with morning EMH and then in the afternoon hop to whatever park closes latest, which helps me figure out when/where to reserve FPs for each day. That's usually about all that factors into our pre-planning, and we've been known to change things up on the fly once we are there.

 

[SandyinMonterey]

I think the first thing that dictates where we are/go is if we have an ADR. We try to be in that “area.” Then, of course, FP. Thats pretty much all we consider. If I started factoring in EMH, DAH, crowd calender, etc..UGH! Too much. It’s so darn complicated anymore. Takes the fun out of it.

 

[Queen of the WDW Scene]

I pay no mind to crowd calendars.

Personally I like AM EMH so if I can make it work I'll take advantage (next trip only AM EMH while I'm there is Epcot and we just don't do Epcot in the morning if we have PH so it didn't work out this time).

Beyond that I attempt to avoid EMM/DAH since I don't have a ticket to those events but with how many EMH they have pulled over the last few years and how many extra ticketed events they have added in their place its pretty hard to avoid so I just go with it.

I then go based on park hours.
I like them as long as I can get them.

Only after I've decided which parks which days I plan my ADR's and then FP's around that.

 

[SaintsManiac]

I usually wind up planning around FoP FP. It's our biggest priority every trip.

 

[Dallas_Lady]

I have be wondering this myself recently. I used to be pretty vigilant about following the "rules" about planning around events, but now there are just so darned many. I'm staring at my touring plan and I can't find a way to avoid all the DAH, EMM and EMH days.

 

[sscamarogirl2000]

We stay off property so i avoid EMH days.

 

[wvjules]

We are not doing RD, EMH or any DAH or EMM.

The only thing I really planned around was avoiding a park that has EMH since we weren't going to be up and at the parks that early, or stay that late.

 

[Disneylvr1971]

Usually we like to sleep in so EMH, and same day or night before we look at FP's and may decide on which park dependent on that. We do however go 2 or 3 times a year so we don't do commando style touring.

 

[Klayfish]

We stay off property so i avoid EMH days.

Unless you're doing rope drop, there's no reason to avoid EMH days. It makes no difference (outside of rope drop).

 

[L_MD]

I read this and had to think: how DO I plan my park days? I think I just decide when I want to do something. For instance, my arrival day is usually no-park. My first day I have to do MK, I typically like to do Epcot after that, then Animal Kingdom the day after, then the rest of the days are up-in-the-air and I base those ones around catching shows or something.

I used to follow the "no MK on Mondays" for whatever reason but since I've started arriving on Sundays instead of Mondays it puts my park days on "bad" ones...Epcot on a Tuesday during evening EMH, for instance. But I haven't found there's much (if any) difference.

 

[gharter]

We generally plan our days in each park to be the day after EMH hours. There is a no scientific thought that more people go to the parks on EMH days, so they will be less crowded the day after. Probably at this point, the parks are crowded enough each day that it really doesn't matter what day you pick.
Except MK on a no party day when the parties are going. That is guaranteed to be much more crowded.

 

[sponica]

This last trip was the only one where I planned...and that was mainly because the in laws were with me. And even then it was more of a loose plan than super structured (we did better on the looser plan days than the ones we tried to cram too much into).

Usually I wing it though. If there's a tough ADR to get and I have it, I might plan around that.

 

[Simba's Mom]

We generally plan our days in each park to be the day after EMH hours. There is a no scientific thought that more people go to the parks on EMH days, so they will be less crowded the day after. Probably at this point, the parks are crowded enough each day that it really doesn't matter what day you pick.
Except MK on a no party day when the parties are going. That is guaranteed to be much more crowded.

Yup, that's what I do too-plan to go to the park the day AFTER EMH. So far, there hasn't been a FP+ that I've wanted that I couldn't get for the day I wanted. That may change next trip-I'm planning to go to MK my first day, and I really want SDMT. We'll see what happens at my 60 day mark.