My 3-person family is heading to the World April 7th-11th. A short trip, and we are doing Universal at least one day, maybe 2. We plan on flying in very early and doing MK the 7th (we did this last November and it was fine), then Universal Mon and Tues, then AK, and ending with MK and a late flight home. If do Universal on Monday and feel like we saw everything we wanted to see, we will do EPCOT Tuesday. Not interested in HS at all this time.
Crowd Calendar is at 6s and 7s. In November 2017 (Jersey week, filming) Crowd Calendar claimed 4 and 5 and it was wall-to-wall people in MK. I mean, I could have picked my feet up and moved from place to place by crowd Surfing on two of the days. We had FPP and reservations and it was okay, but if we hadn’t had 3 days in MK we wouldn’t have even seen everything.
Needless to say a 7 terrifies me.
This is 2 weeks before Easter, not classic Spring Break but I know tis the season the whole month. It is just after a marathon weekend finishes up. I need a calm, rationale person or ten to tell me that Disney will be great no matter what, and that it won’t be unbearable. We are very excited and can’t wait to go, but I want to have correct expectations going in. We only reserved one restaurant because I have no idea what I want to eat, but I know I don’t want character meals so I guess all QS in MK.
You will be fine! You could look back on crowd calendar and see what the CL really was back in November 2017 when you thought it was really crowded. Have a good plan, RD, leave mid-day or take advantage of extra FP’s, learn how to do mobile ordering or eat outside of the parks, and have a great time!!!
Actually, I think your timing is pretty good. Although “Spring Break” is a season, it’s pretty much over by the end of March, and the Easter crowds are typically just the week before and after Easter weekend.
Remember that CLs do not reflect how many people are in the park or how crowded it “feels”. The CL is a composite index derived from predicted wait times at select attractions (kind of like the DJ stock average). The other key word is “predicted”. TP uses historical data and a mind-boggling algorithm to make these predictions; the problem is that Disney has been changing things up so much (tiered pricing, festivals, parties, before and after up-charge events, etc.) that it’s hard to get enough stable historical data to run through the algorithms. I guess this a long way of saying don’t freak out about CLs; I mostly don’t even look at them anymore…
I don’t make my bookings based on crowd levels — there are more important considerations for me, e.g. flight prices.
I don’t really understand crowd levels anyway — what’s a 6 compared with a 7, or even an 8.
And I don’t really care about them, either. I don’t need to pack my day with rides. There’s lots of things to do. Your three FPPs will guarantee short waits at three rides.
We went to WDW April 5th-12th in 2016 for my son’s spring break. It wasn’t a week bordering Easter and we had predicted CLs of 6/7/8. I haven’t ever gone back to see what the actuals were but we were surprised with the ease of the crowds & never once felt wall-to-wall with people anywhere.
We aren’t crowd-adverse but we were traveling with a family that are and they also were surprised at how the crowds weren’t as bad as they had expected for the Spring break season.
I do agree heavily with the advice already given that you can’t let CL predictions weigh too heavily into your considerations as you begin to go crazy chasing the low CLs & super disappointed when they don’t live up to your expectations (I have a wise husband who had similar words of advice to offer after I spent the first monts after I subscribed to TP obsessing over when to go with the lowest CL but fighting against other more important scheduling considerations).
And my absolute favorite advice that I have read on Lines is that “A bad/CL10/busy day at Disney is better than any day at home” which I have found is very much so true, especially for a repeat visit.
And then one thing I like to practice in my planning is prioritizing what are your must-do’s, if there’s time to do’s & nice to haves that way when you are on the ground & need to trim the plan back, you know what’s a must-do & can drop off everything else. Vice versa, if you end up ahead of schedule you have ideas of what to do without having to sit bunched up around the map deciding “what should we do now?”
Yes thank you, everyone. I see on the Historical Crowds that that week I went in Nov 2017 was a 10 some days. It’s not that I ride heavily on crowd predictions as much as I am HOPEFUL that crowds won’t be as bad as that! I actually don’t mind crowds - I am tech savvy and flew through the Fast Pass system getting the next one in line for the current ride- think I got 10 one day - it’s just that people aren’t polite and I get nervous with my kiddo.
Thanks for your words of confidence! I will try to just take it in and enjoy the time. Disney time is always great!