Crowd Level Question

[KateMW]

Yesterday I got an email from Touring Plans saying that my crowd levels for December had changed. SIGNIFICANTLY. All of my AK days went from like a 4 to a 9/10?? We're going December 6-12th, any idea why? My friend who is going in November later got a similar email with similar levels.

 

[Spork24]

Disney May have posted park hours. Touring plans uses lots of things to track crowd levels. I believe the base some of their rankings off of the hours posted by Disney. The logic here is Disney has lots of data on reservations and adjusts park hours accordingly.

Edited: I checked Disney’s website and they don’t have hours listed yet. So not sure what’s up.

You could always tweet @touringplans or @lentesta and ask?

 

[KateMW]

I don't think they've released the hours, which is why I was so surprised. They didn't list the hours in the email, just said TBD. It is during Free Dining but I'm just so surprised AK would be a 10 on a random Sunday at the beginning of December. I'm naive though. Thanks!

 

[Alison S]

Same here, but November. Ugh it's stressing me out...I wish they would offer some sort of explanation about it!

ETA: the park hours for my stay are just being released but they have not changed. They seem totally normal...opening at 9, EMH at 8 for one park.

 

[Chelsey Boren]

I got an email for our September trip too, our AK day went up but our HS went down to a 1!?

 

[suevee]

I got an email for June. Ours went down for the most part

 

[KateMW]

So weird...isn't level 10 like shut down the park crowds?

 

[OneinThree]

. . . any idea why?

If last year is any indication whatsoever, any dates beginning with Thanksgiving, all the way through New Years' will be crowded. Just the way it is. The week you are considering is Pop Warner week, which we did not at all enjoy this past December. We've moved our 4Q trip to September as a result, but if you really want to see a decorated Disney I would recommend the second of December.

 

[CAS239]

Maybe they just updated to something realistic. There's no such thing anymore as a Disney day under about a 6 on a crowd calendar scale.

 

[KateMW]

Pop Warner is 2-9th so maybe but I've always heard it doesn't effect park crowds as much as the budget resorts. Of course everything I've heard says the sweet spot in December is 5-13th or so, so I'm sure that has something to do with it. We all booked and here we are. LOL Oh week, it's my son's actual birthday so we will just solider on and make the best of it. I'm just still surprised by Level 10 crowds.

 

[KateMW]

I wouldn't be shocked by 5-7 crowds every day that week. 10 is nuts. AK is so spread out too.

 

[Capang]

Yesterday I got an email from Touring Plans saying that my crowd levels for December had changed. SIGNIFICANTLY. All of my AK days went from like a 4 to a 9/10?? We're going December 6-12th, any idea why? My friend who is going in November later got a similar email with similar levels.

I got the same email for my July trips and most of it jumped from a 5/6/7 to 8/9 although given its July I expected that. No, 10 doesn't mean they shut down the park, it just means crowded. Very, very crowded.

 

[Finerfam]

We just got home from a week long trip and before we left, our first AK day jumped from a 7 to 9 on TP (the rest of the week was predicted to be medium to low crowds). I was a little nervous, but we stuck with the plan to go that day and it ended up being perfectly fine! Just checked back on TP and it said they ended up seeing a 5 in AK that day. So you never know, but I wouldn't let those predictions make you change your plans!

 

[KateMW]

I got the same email for my July trips and most of it jumped from a 5/6/7 to 8/9 although given its July I expected that. No, 10 doesn't mean they shut down the park, it just means crowded. Very, very crowded.

Thanks!

 

[KateMW]

We just got home from a week long trip and before we left, our first AK day jumped from a 7 to 9 on TP (the rest of the week was predicted to be medium to low crowds). I was a little nervous, but we stuck with the plan to go that day and it ended up being perfectly fine! Just checked back on TP and it said they ended up seeing a 5 in AK that day. So you never know, but I wouldn't let those predictions make you change your plans!

Good to know. I think I'll solider on and if we are miserable AK is the one park I'm probably ok with ditching honestly so we will be good!

 

[SaintsManiac]

Very rare for parks to close to capacity.

Crowds are all going to be subjective here. We were at AK on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. TP had it at a 9 and it was definitely the most crowded park experience I ever had in some spots, but there were plenty of peaceful places to sit and have a break.

TP had Ecpot at a 9 on Thanksgiving Day. It really didn't feel that way to me at all.

We never experienced the "shoulder to shoulder" crowds that people report. Now I have seen pictures of MK on Christmas afternoon and you couldn't pay me to get into that. I don't think there's even a number for that level. You have to remember that TP is the only one using those numbers and really they are just arbitrary.

 

[CyndiLooWho]

Our June days mostly went down - HS is a *2* one day! Instead of the 7s and 8s, we're 6s and 5s. I'm a happier camper. But we book at 30 days out, and we won't get all the FPs we want (FOP, 7DMT).

 

[whiporee]

My early July days all got bumped, so maybe they're looking at the June people rebooking in order to take advantage of TSL.

I know they have all sorts of algorithms, but I wonder if they look at resort capacity of MCO travelers. That would be the first metric I'd check.

 

[disneyfantotheend]

Happened for our trip too December 11TH-19TH. I expected the closer to Christmas ones to be crazy, but seems they all will be. We are just going to go ion with the mindset of it being packed and hope to be happily surprised. I could understand DHS being a 9 with Toy Story, but AK being 7-9 our entire stay seems strange.

 

[Alison S]

One of the days in November is down to a 1 at HS! I really don't believe that. The other resorts are 3-5 that day. Are they not taking into account toy story land opening yet?

So on a day that every park is a 10, should we go to EMH at AK? It's either that or Epcot.