I have been tracking line times using the mobile app and this site to try to get an understanding of Pandora wait times. I will be leaving this month to go to the parks. I have noticed that the crowd calendar has been off. So looking back the past week, the actual crowd numbers have been greater than the expected crowd numbers for almost every Disney park. Has anyone else noticed? Should I plan for wait times over the Touring Plan Estimates? Are the parks experiencing higher crowd levels because of Pandora?
We are headed over in a couple of weeks, then again just before Christmas- and have been tracking them as well. The crowds are considerably higher than predicted on many days so far in the slow season. Disney is good at marketing- and has lots of good deals at slower times of year. Was reading a ‘stock based’ article where attendance was reported as down in a couple of recent quarters. Maybe they all decided to come now The economy is decent, and people are spending money. We plan for larger than expected crowds, and on our touring days will be there early.
I think there’s a lot in this - I wouldn’t be surprised if large numbers of people are avoiding the expected busy times and going when they think it will be quiet. If enough do that, it will soon get busy! Plus the rearranged trips from Irma.
We are going at Thanksgiving and I am expecting it to be busy. However my friends went last year and got last minute deals. Based on what I am seeing I think it will be busier this year than last year
We were there last week. Nov 5-10. The Pandora projected wait times were pretty far off actual. By 11a the FoP was 3 hrs. We waited until 3:15 and it took us 1:15 for the line. A little later the wait time was 1 hr, however Navi River was 2 hrs! Ride that one in the morning. But the other rides times in other parks were pretty accurate. Seemed crazy crowded to me esp at MK. I don’t know how people go during peak .
Non Party Days at the MK had much higher crowds than predicted // Saturday 11/11 predicted 8 / actual 10 // Monday (our day 11/13) predicted 6 / actual 8 // Wednesday (11/15) predicted 5 / actual 7
Anyway the plan we did was way off – started out fine with Space Mountain, Buzz, and Tea Cups as walk on, but then 7SMT was a two hour wait instead of the predicted 25 minutes. That meant we missed our Pooh fastpass - not a problem – don’t even really care about the ride, just did the FP as one of the longer waits and we had low waits for everything else on plan. Changed Peter Pan fastpass to Pirates, as we didn’t care about Peter Pan, wanted to do Pirates, but didn’t want a long wait projected waits vs. planned waits were way different). Did Philharmagic, Dumbo, Under the Sea, parade, show, two fireworkds who, FP for Haunted Mansion (minimal waits). Skipped doing Pooh, Peter Pan, Jungle, Big Thundar, and It’s a Small World. // Still had a great day, but our well crafted planned plan was WAY off. // Used line app and readjusted. // Any other thoughts on strategies when plans go wrong. Was thinking maybe next time doing plan with a more crowded day as a back up to my actual plan??
What has worked for you if you were in this situation?
The economy is decent, and people are spending money. We plan for larger than expected crowds, and on our touring days will be there early.
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