Hi, I’ve been looking into if it is worth it to buy Premier Pass as we plan to be in the parks for just one day during D23. The crowed calendar is predicting fairly low crowds, but other site are saying it’s going to be very busy and to plan on 10/10 attendance. Can you explain why the algorithm in Touring plans is predicting very low crowds? I would love to save to $400 per person price, if the lines are expected to be lower.
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Welcome to the Forum! Since you are looking at $400 for the Premier Pass, I assume you will be there on Sat Aug 15? The price for Fri and Sun are showing at $299.
What sources are you looking at to get a 10 out of 10 prediction? Even Isitpacked.com, which I find to be pretty reliable, shows Aug 14-16 to be “alright” on Fri and Sat, and “ghost town” on Sun.
Touring Plans makes its crowd projections based on previous years of the same days measured crowds. They measure crowds from 10 or 11 (I forget which) to 4 or 5 pm. (Ditto). The crowds on the D23 days last year measured at 2, 4 and 3 for the 3 days. The event was on Aug 29-31. Even if you go by the mid-Aug weekend last year, the crowds were in that range.
I don’t have any personal experience being in the parks during D23, but I read that there is a park event for the D23ers on the 13th, and that day may be more crowded, but they are tied up at the event until 4 or 5 p.m on the 3 days of the event, including Sat. You can expect big crowds once the D23 day is over and they pour into the park.
Also, local pass holders frequent the parks more heavily during the evenings, and those crowd levels don’t get measured by Touring Plans. You can almost always expect crowds after 5 regardless of the crowd predictions.
If you are only doing one day and expect to cover both parks, and if you aren’t frequent visitors and won’t break the bank with the Premier Pass purchase, you might be the ideal candidate for the purchase. If you can push your day to Fri or Mon, you can save $100 per person.
Will the parks really be a ghost town on Sunday? It’s hard to say. Is covering both parks hard to do in one day? Yes. Even with the Multi-pass, I find it exhausting, and I know how to get good use out of it. If you want to hit more than the Lightning Lane rides, your best shot at doing so would be to buy the Premier. Honestly, I never thought I’d say that, because of the price, but with a one day visit on a weekend, I say go for it.
Unless you only plan to be in Disneyland, in which case you can probably see it all with the multi pass, rope drop, closing the park, and careful use of the pass.
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