And now, the good news (ROTR impacts on HS)

I’ve been trying to keep tabs on crowd levels for the dates this year that correspond to the dates my wife and I will be going next year. Dec. 1 next year falls on Tuesday, which is the same as Dec. 3 this year.

I was also curious to know how SWGE and ROTR affects CLs this year. And, as I predicted, ROTR played overall little impact on CLs.

Here, I compare 2018 CLs to 2019 when mapped to the same day of week:

2018 HS (Starting first Tuesday of December):
T - 5
W - 4
T - 4
F - 6
S - 7
S - 3
M - 6
T - 5
W - 4
Avg - 4.9

2019:
T - 5
W - 1
T - 4
F - 5
S - 2
S - 3
M - 4
T - 2
W - 1
Avg - 3

A couple things to note…for the most part, 2019 saw lower CLs. The 1 on Wed. was likely due to the opening of ROTR the next day and the media event, so I think that the 1 is likely an anomaly.

I stopped on the subsequent Wednesday because I covered the dates I was concerned about for our trip…it will be interesting to see if the trend holds.

What surprised me was that we didn’t actually see a “chaos” moment with ROTR apart from the drama of the ride itself. I had expected CLs to go up for the week of the opening itself…but then, I had also expected people to be tied up in line for ROTR, which should have reduced overall waits in other rides. But with the use of BGS, that statistically didn’t matter, since those in the BGs could line up for everything else. Despite all this, CLs went down (not up) or stayed the same.

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This makes me feel hopeful. This is when we are going in 2020, too.

We are planning to hit hs the day before mmrr opens. I realize its nbd compared w rotr but am hoping for a similar albeit much more modest effect on march 3

I don’t think the opening of MMRR will effect crowds the day before opening either way. Guests will still be filling up DHS to ride RotR.

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Oh for sure. But if you were there for a week would you choose a day before or after a brand new ride opens??? Idk maybe it doesnt matter at all.

Tough call …

On one hand the day after ride opening may bring more people into the park. On the other hand, if RotR is no longer using BG and MMRR does not use BG, then so many guests may be lined up for RotR and MMRR (particularly in the morning) that the other attractions may have lower waits. And if many guests who are interested in the other attractions decide that it is better to go before MMRR opens, then you have an additional factor.

Overall, at the end of the day, I agree with you and I would go the day before MMRR opened instead of the day after, but I don’t think it’s a clear choice as to which day will ultimately be better.

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