We’ve been watching what the predictions are versus the “what we saw” for the past several weeks and have noticed that on most days a few of the parks are off by a CL of 4 to 5, which seems pretty substantial.
In order to best plan for what may end up being higher CLs, what is the best way to build in a buffer to try to stay on plan?
setting the walking speed to Very Relaxed?
inserting a break (how long?) every few rides and entering longer lunch breaks?
building a TP at each specific park when the CLs are already noted as high?
And what happens if you build in too much of a buffer and then you are way ahead of schedule? Does that pose a problem for what TP is projecting the wait times to be at each ride or in what order you should be doing things?
It’s often a good idea to add in a 15 minute break every 2 hours in the plan to account for bathroom breaks and delays in herding every one through the gift shops.
This is what we do, also.
Floor and upside- we have our basic plan which covers the basics, but sometimes we get lucky.
It is concerning that TP seems to be occasionally pretty far off on the crowd projections- did you find any other source that was more accurate?
Adding in the 15 breaks sounds like a good ideas. Logistically, do you all optimie, add breaks then evaluate? Just thinking how to best get them in there while also letting TP do what TP does best.
I don’t use the TP crowd projections. I do use the personalized plans for the day. I use Kenny the Pirates calendars to plan what days I am going to the parks. They have generally worked out well.
A lot of the problem is Disney not operating at full capacity when crowds are predicted to be low. This means waits will be more in line with those expected on a higher crowd day. And if it actually turns out to be a medium crowd day…waits are insane.
People have been reporting on chat that for instance, only one side of Space was operating. So instead of 1000 people riding an hour (I’m making this figure up), only 500 can ride and everyone has to wait twice as long.
TP unfortunately can’t predict what WDW will do with staffing. And wherever you get your crowd level from, it’s always a prediction. TP’s is at least based on years of data.
I know some of the concessions will be closed on low crowd days, which definitely makes it feel crowded at the ones that are left, and of course there are fewer shows, but I had not heard of them deliberately doing that with rides.
They started doing it Jan 2017, there were so many complaints about how busy it was for Jan/Feb - I felt sorry for people expecting low waits. It was supposed to just be a trial.
Wow- something that makes such a big difference to visitors, and involves such a (relatively) small number of staff. I can’t fathom the logic behind it.
Well the good news is that it tends to only affect the lowest attendance times. If you’re going expecting moderate to high crowds, that’s likely what you’ll get. Barring anomalies like during hurricanes when a lot of people evacuate to Disney.
