Given the unexpectedly large crowds for September and at least seeing chatter about larger than expected crowds October too, any consideration of revising crowd predictions? We were there for the week after labor day, so dealt with the crowds first hand. Still had a blast, but pretty much had to throw out my customized touring plans and cherry-pick as the day went on.
I love the customized plans and when crowd predictions are accurate, they work great. The issue I ran into was my plan assumed crowd level 2 and I had it filled to park closing. When reality was closer to level 7, it wasn’t just re-optimizing, I needed to delete a lot of planned rides to end by park closing.
We have another trip planned for the first two weeks in December (1-16) and I have my customized plans all set again, but wondering if I should back off filling days up if the trend continues for larger than expected crowds. To be clear, I’m not complaining, just wondering if I should start working on a backup plan.
As if you don’t have enough feature requests, one could be a crowd level “override” on touring plans so we could see how a touring plan fares if crowds are different from expected. Less crowded isn’t a big deal, more is where the expert advice of the TP is handy.
Please plan for massive crowds. Last year TP says that crowds were 3/4 when I was there. Did you see photos from Epcot today? Wall to wall people? Yes, that is what it was like last December 13th. Magic Kingdom at 10:00am- Small World had a 50 minute wait. I wrote multiple emails after my trip just pointing out that the data seemed to be based on inaccurate posting (I will be kind and just assume people were timing fast pass wait times and reporting them). It is the last year for OL. Plan for the crowds!
Thanks PrincipalTinker. A bit worried after the September experience as the delta was so huge. About 6-ish months ago the crowd levels got updated for my trip time and crowd levels pretty much went up across the board and massively so toward the end of my trip (Dec 12-15). Predicted crowds went from 3’s to 8’s. My secret hope is those changes were from lessons learned when you went last year and may now be a bit more accurate–especially early Dec which is still predicted to be low. I’ve purposely planned a few days around predicted crowd level 1 days as I’d really like to see one. I know odds were low to begin with and even lower now, but would be fun.
For the September trip, my vivid memory was that there is a queuing area for Muppetvision 3D that I had never seen before–and it wasn’t short! It had a lot of cool Muppetized posters I had never seen before which was cool, but I’ve never done anything but walk right in to the pre-show ever before!
Yes! My weekend last year was the 13-15! I am glad it seems as if they updated that second weekend crowds. An eight seems perfect (with higher crowds maybe in unexpected places). I had never ever seen the store in Japan wall to wall people!
cmillar: Hmm, never thought of myself as “part of the problem” until you brought it up! We only do a serious trip every 3-5 years, so I’d like to think my average is not so bad. I have to rationalize something–especially to my more than understanding DW. Of all the things I’ve been accused of, I guess that one isn’t so bad.
We only do a serious trip every 3-5 years, so I’d like to think my average is not so bad. I have to rationalize something–especially to my more than understanding DW. Of all the things I’ve been accused of, I guess that one isn’t so bad.