I’m trying to use the crowd calendar to plan parks for each day of our trip before I book ADRs on Thursday. My head is spinning comparing crowd levels. Anyone willing to offer their advice on where they would go each day 11/28-12/4? We can be in the parks by noon on 11/28 and can stay in the parks until 2pm on 12/4. Our plan right now is to leave the parks around 1pm every day to let our kids nap and rest, then head out to dinner or back to the parks around 5pm.
For your full days:
11/29: Epcot, crowd level 2
11/30: Magic Kingdom, level 3
12/1: Animal Kingdom, level 3
12/2: Hollywood Studios, level 5 (lowest projected crowd level that day, a Saturday)
For your arrival day, avoid MK as their is a Mickey’s Christmas Party scheduled that night. If you are staying on site, Epcot may be a good choice as it is an extra magic hours night, but if your aren’t staying on site, I would avoid it. Spending more than 1 day in Hollywood Studios would be a waste, so taking in Animal Kingdom and focus on Pandora or Kilamanjaro Safaris after sundown may be a good choice.
As for your departure day, I would return to your favorite park or a park that you did not see or ride everything you wanted.
If you’re paying extra to stay onsite, and you have access to emh, and hoppers, I’d target the Emh parks, especially the am emh parks.
Also - it sounds like you should know - WDW can and probably will change the park hours between now and your trip. Don’t flip out when it happens, just take it in stride. You are already preparing, so you’re way ahead of the game. You might end up wanting to change your adr’s - it’s no big deal. It is what it is. I’d suggest to look at last year’s park hours on those days, and assume a similar pattern for emh.
Unless you need to get one of the ultra hard to get rezzies, don’t stress too much. I mean if you gotta grab a CRT, and it’s crazy important to you, then you just roll with whatever day you can get, and then plan around it. I’m not a huge adr stresser - plenty of stuff opens up when ppl drop them, and the res finder here is awesome.
For our trip, the only thing I cared about was a pre-rd BOG, an MM F! pkg, a Chef Mickey dinner at a certain time, and an EMM at dhs. With some persistence and help, I got them all, and I don’t think I even started planning meals until a month before. Of course, the harder to get get rezzies require more planning, but if you’re persistent if you don’t get exactly what you want at 180, you’ll be just fine. Even if/when you get exactly what you want - the Dis might change their hours around and screw your perfect plan up. Just be prepared.