Why do I torture myself?

[otten]

One of our days went to a 1 and to be honest other than a day where there is a hurricane coming (had that in 2016) I don't think there's actually such thing as a 1.

 

[Bete]

I have to say I personally disagree with this and think your mileage really varies on this from person to person as it relates to how much crowd levels affect the overall DW experience.

I have been at the parks at a 9/10 level and at a 3/4 level, and for me there is no question there is a difference in my enjoyment between the two. And it has little to do with how long I'm standing in lines for rides.

People are by far more rude, more disrespectful, more "looking out for #1" when there are more crowds. It's harder to go to the bathroom. Harder to maneuver from place to place. Harder to get up and go get a ketchup packet from the counter. Everything is harder and more cumbersome when the crowds are higher.

Are there strategies you can implement to "deal with" the crowds? Absolutely. There are things you can do to mitigate some of it, to stand in line less, to be smarter with park hopping and FPs. But no amount of park hopping or FPing can change the fact more people equals more discomfort in general. For me, at least.

Even with regard to the above there are strategies like eating a meal early or late to avoid the bigger crowds. Avoid the prime times for eating. I know every restroom in the parks (weak bladder) and you can find a less crowded one quickly.

As far as attitude of everyone in the park I have found bad and good no matter what the crowd level may be. I will concede more people, more likely to find more bad. But on a percentage level it might be close to the same.

I think the best answer is to assume every day will be a 10 and work out your strategy on that level. Then, if it's less you have an easier day.

 

[amiskell28]

TP cost me less than buying my family McDonald's for dinner tonight. Mom of the year here, I know.

It's cheap, it has great information, useful tools, and I enjoy the heck out of it.

I got the email, too. I appreciate their transparency. And I'm excited as anything to get to WDW in a few weeks!!!

 

[kathy884]

We're going to me doing a day at the MK that first week in March too. I was first going to do the third week in March which is spring break for most schools here, but airfare was out of sight and we aren't tied to the school schedule right now. I was concerned about crowds because this year the first week in March is Mardi Gras. but Disney prices and crowd calendars didn't look too bad. Oh well. I don't have a Touringplans subscription for the moment, but maybe I'll do a refresh of my customized touring plan to see if there are wait time differences. Anyway, we don't have that heavy a day in terms of plans, so we should be fine. But lighter crowds would certainly be nicer and I appreciate the heads up.

 

[KarenP64]

If anyone can give me firsthand experience: What was the crowd actually like in November 2018, the first two weeks? Would you say it was more like a 3-5 or an 8-10 level compared to about 4-5 years ago?

 

[Tiggerlover91]

Same with us. I'll take it even one step further. In addition to the above, we also had no clue what parks had EMH, ABC, XYZ on any given day..with one exception. My kids wanted to try EMH once just to see what it was all about, so we had one day where we knew. While it was fine, it was not all that impressive, so we're right back to our blissful ignorance.

EMH...ABC...XYZ..... I can't!!!!

 

[tsme]

We are going to first week of March and this is concerning! We chose this week thinking it would be moderate crowds since people don't usually have spring break the first week of March yet. And now the week is all 10's when on every other crowd calendar that exists predicts 5-6? Isn't that a bit drastic? 10's every day? I'm trying to take it with a grain of salt since I think the reasoning on the blog post explaination sounds a little outlandish considering the first week of march is not traditionally spring break...it says:

"Thanksgiving 2018 was busier than expected. Our models treat that as evidence that other peak weeks will be busier too. That is partly why we see large increases during early March, a big week for Spring Break. However, the second half of March sees changes on this update in the downward direction."

Is the first week of March really a "peak week..."? I don't even think Disney thinks so considering the pricing.

Mardi Gras is March 5. I’m from LA & can say with certainty a lot of families from here go to Disney that week because the kids are out of school & some businesses also close for at least Mardi Gras day.

 

[Jetta8300]

Mardi Gras is March 5. I’m from LA & can say with certainty a lot of families from here go to Disney that week because the kids are out of school & some businesses also close for at least Mardi Gras day.

There’s no doubt it will be busy the first week of march. But I doubt 10s the first week of March, since touring plans is the only crowd calendar predicting 10s.

We went last year the week of Jersey week, which was also Veterans Day week. It was busy for sure, (FOP wait times were 210 minutes the whole week we were there) very busy in fact, but not what I would consider a 10. And I cannot see a week like the first week of March, that is traditionally predicted one of the lowest crowds of the year skyrocket to a 10. 7-8 maybe. But not 10.

 

[Scar1199]

We're going March 3-13, I've never looked at crowd calendars before, I just expect it to be busy. But when our FP window opened up the other day, we were easily able to get any ride we wanted for all of our dates, so I thought that could be a good sign for crowds, then I saw the updated crowd calendar on twitter, so who knows.

 

[mick1229]

If it’s because Disney is purposely understaffing.. like they did last year during anticipated Slow period than I would blame Disney not Touring Plans..they want to create this idea that there is no “slow season “..it always comes down to the almighty buck for them

 

[yulilin3]

There’s no doubt it will be busy. But I doubt 10s since touring plans is the only crowd calendar predicting 10s.

We went last year the week of Jersey week, which was also Veterans Day week. It was busy for sure, (FOP wait times were 210 minutes the whole week we were there) very busy in fact, but not what I would consider a 10. And I cannot see a week like the first week of March, that is traditionally predicted one of the lowest crowds of the year skyrocket to a 10. 7-8 maybe. But not 10.

maybe TP is anticipating the opening of SWGE by Veterans Day?

 

[KarenP64]

maybe TP is anticipating the opening of SWGE by Veterans Day?

I thought I read they're anticipating SWGE to have soft openings in Dec. with a grand opening by Christmas.

 

[PollyannaMom]

I just got back from a trip last week, and I'd gotten so many changes from Touring Plans that I'd stopped reading the e-mails. The first ones were exciting - crowd levels actually went down! But then they went up again, and down again, and park hours changed, and I just got overwhelmed and stopped paying attention. I got a paper times times guide when we got there, and went by those hours.

Out of curiosity, for those that buy and use the crowd calendars, would you continue to use if your trip is at a 7/8 but ends up being at a 4/5?
On the same note would you continue to use and buy if it was the opposite scenario?

I just got a notification that my subscription will be expiring. I really don't use step-by-step detailed plan part, and MDE has the wait times, so I may not renew just for the crowd calendar. Our vacation schedule will be changing as DS goes off to college anyway, so I may just look at different crowd calendars in the future.

If it’s because Disney is purposely understaffing.. like they did last year during anticipated Slow period than I would blame Disney not Touring Plans..they want to create this idea that there is no “slow season “..it always comes down to the almighty buck for them

I think this is definitely a factor! I've heard that some of it has to do with lack of people in the area to fill all the theme park jobs, but I do think a lot of it is money.

 

[yulilin3]

I thought I read they're anticipating SWGE to have soft openings in Dec. with a grand opening by Christmas.

yes, we are all speculating, but TP being in the business of predicting crowds, and with Disney still saying "fall" for an opening, maybe they're watching their backs. If it's not open then they will probably put that number down

 

[jaceraden]

I totally agree with some of the sentiments here. Sometimes knowledge is power but other times it's good to be ignorant. When planning my WDW vacation becomes stressful and too much work, it's time to re-evaluate how I spend my time and money. YMMV

 

[Jetta8300]

maybe TP is anticipating the opening of SWGE by Veterans Day?

I was actually referring to the first week of march, which the OP is asking about, not Veterans day week. Sorry to be confusing.

I was just comparing these extremely high crowd predictions to when we went in Nov. 2017 during jersey week, which also happened to be veterans day week and they were predicting insane crowds. And I would NOT say they were anywhere near a 10. We went one morning during a Christmas party and literally walked onto every single ride for 6 hours. We did every single thing we wanted to do the entire week. Crowds were probably a 6-7 if you went to the right parks and rope dropped. And a crowd of 1-2 at the MK on the day of the christmas party. I would not compare it to Christmas/peak holiday crowds whatsoever, and that's what I would anticipate when I hear a 10.

 

[kathy884]

Just an FYI for Wed. March 6th, a busy MK day with extra magic evening hours and we are offsite visitors, my custom Touring plan estimated wait time in total previously at 159 minutes for 11 attractions is now at 229 minutes for those same 11 attractions. This is before fastpasses as our window has not opened up yet. We also and this will be necessary for us to get other things we really enjoy in and was prior to the change too, have excluded Peter Pan (not worth a FP or stand by wait to us) and 7DMT (not able to get FP as offsite visitor and not worth stand by wait to us). We've also done these before, so no big deal for us.

If we can get FPs for Space, Splash, and Big Thunder, which we should be able to do when our offsite window opens up, we will still have three rides with predicted wait time of 24-32 minutes and all other attractions (five) have wait time projections of 12 minutes or less. We'll be seeing the parade and watching the fireworks too and doing our Main Street USA shop browsing after fireworks during the EMH that we can't go on rides during as offsite visitors. I didn't include the parade or fireworks in my attraction or wait time list. Just wanted to put a realistic perspective of what one of the busier MK days Mardi Gras week really looks like in terms of lines and rides. To me and DS 23, the two of us going, this still looks like a great 11 hour day at the MK. We are doing counter service for both lunch and dinner too, not taking time out for table service.

We also usually pick a ride that we will skip if we are behind on our plan. For us this time it is Buzz Lightyear's Space Spin -- neither or us thinks it's really worth a 25 minute wait. We will probably do it though, because really and truly we will have the time, and thee waits of about a 1/2 hour are acceptable for us, given that everything else should have considerably shorter waits.

Enjoy -- A busy day at the MK is still a nice change from a busy day at work and from what I am seeing doesn't look all that bad!

We even looked at maybe changing from the Marriott Residence Inn SeaWorld -- nice recently remodeled property with breakfast included, a kitchen, nice pool, nice hot tub, and quick queue at SeaWorld -- basically fastpasses for their popular rides included to the Pop (the same price -- actually $8 less for a four night stay). We decided to stick with original plans as we are just doing one Disney day and thought our MK day still looked really fun, but might have changed if we were doing more Disney parks.

 

[Zippa D Doodah]

I hate to be Captain Obvious, but isn't it common knowledge that Disney is drawing massive crowds every day? They can't raise prices fast enough or high enough to discourage people from coming. The best strategy is to plan for humongous crowds any day you go. It's been that way for years

 

[Cinderumbrella]

If Mardi Gras is first week of March and predicted levels have gone up, it almost sounds like someone at TP didn’t look at a calendar before putting the initial predictions out.

We’re going Feb 13-19. Presidents Day is Feb 18. We just got the email upping our levels to 8 & 9 (from 6 & 7). I laughed when I saw the initial prediction because I knew it was wrong.

In the same email, my early June trip went from 5 to 8 in several instances. And yet Disney just released 40% off AP rates with wide open availability for my week, which leads me to believe that bookings are WAY down.

All that being said, we now go when we can based on school. Crowds are inevitable. I try to pick the least crowded park (and I find Kenny more accurate). I’m still going to get up early, get early FP & refresh, no matter what the crowds are.

 

[cristen72]

It must have changed for every week. I see lots of reports. My week, that covers end of January and beginning of February is now significantly higher CLs.

That’s my week as well. I’m not happy to hear they expect large crowds. I admit I didn’t see the original prediction, so how much worse did it get?