Not a 2.5 evening- notes from last night at Epcot

Hulacat

Hulacat

Active Member
Original Poster
This is meant for those planning a 2014 trip during the WDW marathon- the Touring Plans website predicted yesterday's crowd at 2.5. Due to the marathon and other factors, it felt more like a level 7 (out of 10). There was a large crowd for the "Pasta Party" at Epcot, and there was quite a few of the Brazilian teen tour group kids (un-chaperoned naturally:(
Normally I don't see big crowds at Japan's QS Katsura Grill, but it was crowded in there with barely any seats left in the quieter outdoors seating area.
The line for Soaring was 60 minutes at 8 pm- but it seemed longer. We are FL residents with seasonal passes, so we opted to mosey through Epcot for a while then head home.
Just an FYI.
 
copcarguyp71

copcarguyp71

Well-Known Member
Touring plans has had pretty good predictors for our past visits but our last visit in Oct their charts were way off and by the end of day two we tossed them out the window. Not sure what happened but their system seems to be off as others have been saying this recently as well. Hopefully they can tweak their logo-rhythms in the future as we always enjoyed having that info in our back pocket on past trips.
 
Cmdr_Crimson

Cmdr_Crimson

Well-Known Member
Hulacat said:
and there was quite a few of the Brazilian teen tour group kids (un-chaperoned naturally):(
Click to expand...

Long ago the off season was a great time to go to WDW.....
brazillian.jpg


Yep..It's that infamous time of the year...

Also it tends to pick up a little again due to MLK Weekend around the corner..But, not crazy crowded..It's still okay. It's just another time for parents to get the kids out for the weekend and fufill a full week..Luckily I planned to go well after all this is said and done..
 
Hulacat

Hulacat

Active Member
Original Poster
Yep, that photo sums it up pretty well. We tried to shop an little, and were crowded out of many aisles by the teens- 3 of whom who were ticked off that I interrupted their shoplifting.
 
HouCuseChickie

HouCuseChickie

Well-Known Member
I gave up on the TP crowd predicitions after two trips of them being way off. I like the predicitions Josh over on EasyWDW puts together. Looks like he had Saturday at an overall 5...so, still a bit off from the crowds you experienced, but closer than a 2.5.
 
Tip Top Club

Tip Top Club

Well-Known Member
Meh, It was more like a 4.

Soarin' and Test Track get long lines 365 Days a year. It's been that way as long as I can remember.

Everything Else was a walk-on yesterday.
 
M

MickeyPeace

Well-Known Member
This crowd prediction "business" and all of those who buy into it has me baffled. If you just went to WDW without paying someone to tell you how busy it might be on that day,you would have just a good of a time. Actually better because you would save a few dollars and not be obsessing that it was a2.5vs a 5.
I really don't get it.
 
S

Sandurz

Well-Known Member
I was there up until last Thursday the 10th, and had planned the trip to be leaving right before the onslaught of the marathon. Unfortunately I was unable to anticipate the swarm of tour groups slowly building throughout the week...I can't imagine how slow everything would have been without 7-8 groups in each park each day, nor how bad the overlap of Marathon Weekend with tour group grazing season would have been had we stuck around.

I will say that the overall behavior from the groups was not nearly as bad as I had expected. No screaming or chanting, only slightly louder than everyone else when chatting in lines, and really no inconveniences other than anything caused by any sort of group larger than 15. Maybe the winter groups are more docile who knows.
 
jharvey

jharvey

Well-Known Member
HouCuseChickie said:
I gave up on the TP crowd predicitions after two trips of them being way off. I like the predicitions Josh over on EasyWDW puts together. Looks like he had Saturday at an overall 5...so, still a bit off from the crowds you experienced, but closer than a 2.5.
Click to expand...
Beat me to it. easywdw.com is one of three sites I use to plan my trips to the world (wdwmagic and disneyfoodblog.com being the others). He is usually spot on, if not awesomely snarky in the process. Has anyone ever seen easywdw's Josh in the same room with our Spirit at the same time? Not ready to make any accusations just yet.

Give easywdw a shot next time. As a local I would be interested in ur feedback.
 
JenniferS

JenniferS

When you're the leader, you don't have to follow.
jharvey said:
Beat me to it. easywdw.com is one of three sites I use to plan my trips to the world (wdwmagic and disneyfoodblog.com being the others). He is usually spot on, if not awesomely snarky in the process. Has anyone ever seen easywdw's Josh in the same room with our Spirit at the same time? Not ready to make any accusations just yet.

Give easywdw a shot next time. As a local I would be interested in ur feedback.
Click to expand...
I have to add one more site to the 3 indispensable ones you have mentioned: eatingwdw.com
 
S

Susan Savia

Well-Known Member
It amazes me that folks rely on a pre printed book to tell them park capacity numbers. We were in Epcot Sunday during the marathon. Lots of folks, but managable. Tons of tour groups. Even passed an all adult tour group clapping, hooting and going on. And of course, they stood right in the middle of the passageway. Got two rides on Toy Story today.
 
copcarguyp71

copcarguyp71

Well-Known Member
Susan Savia said:
It amazes me that folks rely on a pre printed book to tell them park capacity numbers. We were in Epcot Sunday during the marathon. Lots of folks, but managable. Tons of tour groups. Even passed an all adult tour group clapping, hooting and going on. And of course, they stood right in the middle of the passageway. Got two rides on Toy Story today.
Click to expand...

TP is not pre printed but rather constantly updated downloadable predictions from their site. Like I said above up until our trip in October they were spot on so they may need to do some tweaking. I think it is something like $6 or $7 for an entire year so it is not like it is all that much invested. i will probably try them again for our trip in September to see if they have made adjustments that would help accuracy.
 
Tom Morrow

Tom Morrow

Well-Known Member
Remember that Disney themselves have a prediction of the crowd levels for each park at least over a year in advance, and they're usually right within a few thousand people.

There really isn't an off season the way there used to be anymore, where all four parks were ghost towns at the same time. Crowd prediction tools and Disney's own marketing have spread out the crowds more evenly throughout the year. The thing about the supposed "off season", though, is that you will get randomly lucky if you hit the right park on the right day. A park will be the least crowded on a day that:

1. Has an early closing time. Disney is anticipating low crowds and is closing that park early accordingly.
2. Has No EMH. Morning EMH starts the park off more crowded than it would have been otherwise, and evening EMH causes the crowd level to inflate as the day goes on.
3. Is not on a Saturday or Sunday, obviously.
 
BryceM

BryceM

Well-Known Member
Cmdr_Crimson said:
Long ago the off season was a great time to go to WDW.....
brazillian.jpg


Yep..It's that infamous time of the year...

Also it tends to pick up a little again due to MLK Weekend around the corner..But, not crazy crowded..It's still okay. It's just another time for parents to get the kids out for the weekend and fufill a full week..Luckily I planned to go well after all this is said and done..
Click to expand...
"Only the Avatar..."

Nevermind. Nobody can stop them.
 
luv

luv

Well-Known Member
Nobody can predict the crowds perfectly every time. That is why a good plan is SO much more important than this crowd-predicting stuff.

Unless you are local and don't need to care. :)

I admit that I still check the Lines app for their ideas on park crowdedness...but I'm usually in the mood for X or Y park. When you're local, it isn't like it matters if its really crowded. You can skip Soarin or Illuminations and see them another time...

:)
 
Polyman

Polyman

Active Member
This post has in it's title; "notes from last night in Epcot". How about the note about no inferno barge during IRoE. Didn't anyone else notice this. The barge was not even in the lagoon, so it was not a program malfunction. The barge never came out of the marina.
 

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