Park Plan Calculator

People often struggle with choosing the best schedule of parks based on the Crowd level numbers. This can get tricky - for example, choosing EP on Day 1 because it is the best park on that day might not be the best plan because EP is much lower on other days. So, I came up with a spreadsheet to help me evaluate various park plans based on the total Crowd Levels for each plan.

My personal spreadsheet is quite complicated, as it takes into account park hours and other considerations, and using it is somewhat like launching the Space Shuttle (actually, it’s easier than launching the Space Shuttle as we don’t launch it anymore, but you get my point). So, I came up with a simplified version to share that just uses Crowd Calendar data.

You can download the calculator here . It’s an Excel spreadsheet with three tabs - an instruction page, the calculator itself, and a sample calculation. Let me know what you think of it.

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Predictably, my work computer will not allow me to download. I’ll look at it when I get home. I JUST did this for a possible trip in Sept - It will be interesting to see how your calculator results compare to what I came up with :slight_smile:

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I played with it a little bit - very easy to use. Looking at the crowd levels in an excel spreadsheet - just seems “cleaner” and easier to read than on a website calendar. I mean I guess I could have just jotted down the crowd levels to have them in one place - but this is more fun!

Both the plans that I was considering ended up being the same total number so I guess I am good to go on which one to pick. Actually, I put in one hopping between parks which was the best number - but I always feel like I lose so much time with transport. We have “free” park hoppers with our pin code for June, but I don’t know if we will use them.

I also dislike the time factor to hop, but if you’re going to take a mid-day resort break, it’s no more time to go to a different park than it is to go back to the same park. I always have PHs (either an AP or Military Salute) and I would say I average one hop on a 4-5 day trip. Last trip DW and I hopped from AK to DHS so we could see the Osborne Lights (our original day for this was “rained out”). On my last solo trip, I hopped from EP to AK then to MK - but that was Memorial Day weekend, and I hopping around to meet with different groups of Liners. On upcoming trip AK will close at 5 - so I plan on hopping to EP for the evening until 10 (more F&W).

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Glad that you found it useful! Let me know if you have any suggestions for improvement.

I’m not a big fan of PH tickets. I think that they are a lot like the dining plan - they make sense for some people, but most people do not get their money’s worth out of them as with a little planning they could accomplish the same things during their stay without hopping.