The most reliable crowd predictor

[mggeary]

Looking at Easywdw's detailed attraction wait time charts, its pretty obvious it still makes a BIG difference what day of the week you go to each park. But this isn't rocket science, just common sense. Using well know strategies like going to a park the day before or after it has popular EMH, on days where there is an early close/hard ticket party, or on days when there is no or less nighttime entertainment still works. I think MK is the most important to avoid on Saturdays, but now also AK with Pandora, and of course Epcot for F&W weekends.

Its a shame that easywdw doesn't still attempt monthly crowd calandars. Maybe he will go back to it when he is done with his new series that looks at if there is any true downtime of the year to go. I think this will be very helpful with the dramatic shifts seen with changes in South American attendance and Disney lowering ride capacity in the "downtimes". Hopefully there are still some sweetspots that are low attendance, but Disney doesn't yet throttle down staffing and ride capacity, maybe June.

For those that don't feel comfortable picking days on your own. Kenny The Pirate is probably the most accurate currently, IMO.

 

[Animal]

Everyone says try to avoid during EMH, but since everyone knows to that information, it just makes me think that it doesn't matter. In the end the EMH park would be less crowded since everyone is avoiding it ;]

But if folks start going to the EMH park because most folks avoid the EMH park because it's so crowded, won't the EMH park become crowded again, thus pushing folks in-the-know to avoid the EMH park because of all the folks who chose to go to the EMH park because of all the folks avoiding the EMH park in the first place?

 

[Upatnoon]

But if folks start going to the EMH park because most folks avoid the EMH park because it's so crowded, won't the EMH park become crowded again, thus pushing folks in-the-know to avoid the EMH park because of all the folks who chose to go to the EMH park because of all the folks avoiding the EMH park in the first place?

People will always go to the EMH park because of all the "extra magic." It's a free incentive and people are looking to find value and advantage over others. EMH attracts visitors like moths to a flame. I think many people will plan their park days around EMH. The sad thing is that people will head to a morning EMH park even if they slept in and missed the bonus time. Now with Fast Pass, they may have no choice.

Anyway, we are outliers, spending hours researching and trying to find the magical "less crowded" time. Sadly, those times have pretty much gone away, but people are still looking for some advantage over others. Some perfect map to the parks that will have us zooming past all those "not in the know."

There are more issues with trying to find those "less crowded times." Disney now looks for them too, so they can lower staffing on those days to save money.

This can lead to even more crowds (or long waits) on a "slow day." For example, I go to walmart the week before Christmas and every checkout is staffed and I get out of there in 10 minutes. I go to walmart during a "slow" time in February and there are 15 people in line and one checker, because its a "slow" time and no need to staff it up. So we all wait 45 minutes or just leave.

Same thing at Disney. "Slow" times and they are running the rides at 50 percent, have less food service open, etc.

 

[Jimmy Mouse]

Usually the park that closes the earliest is less crowded. Except Monday at MK and weekends at Epcot during F&W.

 

[Animal]

People will always go to the EMH park because of all the "extra magic." It's a free incentive and people are looking to find value and advantage over others. EMH attracts visitors like moths to a flame. I think many people will plan their park days around EMH. The sad thing is that people will head to a morning EMH park even if they slept in and missed the bonus time. Now with Fast Pass, they may have no choice.

Anyway, we are outliers, spending hours researching and trying to find the magical "less crowded" time. Sadly, those times have pretty much gone away, but people are still looking for some advantage over others. Some perfect map to the parks that will have us zooming past all those "not in the know."

There are more issues with trying to find those "less crowded times." Disney now looks for them too, so they can lower staffing on those days to save money.

This can lead to even more crowds (or long waits) on a "slow day." For example, I go to walmart the week before Christmas and every checkout is staffed and I get out of there in 10 minutes. I go to walmart during a "slow" time in February and there are 15 people in line and one checker, because its a "slow" time and no need to staff it up. So we all wait 45 minutes or just leave.

Same thing at Disney. "Slow" times and they are running the rides at 50 percent, have less food service open, etc.

A couple days before New Year's, the parks were crowded but incredibly well-staffed and with long hours. A couple days after New Year's, the parks were still crowded, but there was less staff and hours were a bit shorter. We enjoyed the days leading up to New Year's more than the days after!