Accurate 'crowd levels'...

[search66]

Good morning everyone! I'm curious to see if anyone has found an accurate crowd-type website or resource.

For example... We went for a short weekend (1/14-1/16) and all of the sites/sources said it was moderate to low.... I'm not sure where they got their information from; but it was freakin' insane. FastPasses were gone by 10 on the major rides... and big rides always had a 120-min wait... Terrible!

My sister in law is coming to visit in April (I live in St. Augustine) and want to make sure she comes on a good week.

Thanks for your feedback!

 

[tahqa]

Well, you went over MLK weekend... if some website estimate said moderate to low for that weekend then you should probably find some other website to get your information from.

As a rule of thumb figure that any week that is shortened by a government or school holiday will be busier than you expect for that week and the bookend weekends.

Also, find a calendar for spring break weeks and avoid the weeks where large parts of the country are on spring break.

 

[search66]

Appreciate the feedback... I'll keep digging around. As mentioned; every site I went on showed MLK weekend moderate to low...

I just purchased my annual pass; and wanted to explode.

Not to mention... the Fastpass system is totally different than what I remember and seems completely messed up. When did they change it? You used to be able to have two sets of FP at a time...

 

[jlandis44]

I find touringplans.com to be pretty accurate most of the time. And, if they blow it, they'll let you know (if you follow them on Facebook). You have to pay a small fee to see data for more than 30 days in advance, but it's something like $8 for 3 years. I use it for every trip, and the only time I felt like it was wrong was 2 years ago over Thanksgiving when they were predicting 8's and 9's (scale to 10), and I couldn't move in places in the MK. Even this year when I went, they were predicting 3's and 4's, and the park "felt" crowded, but the line waits were exactly as should have been for 3's and 4's. Sometimes it "feels" worse than it is, depending upon where you are in the parks.

 

[jlandis44]

Also, looking back at their predictions vs. actuals for MLK Monday itself, this is what they posted (first number is prediction, second is actual, third is difference between the two):

Walt Disney World Resort 7 7 0
Magic Kingdom 7.7 7.4 -0.3
Epcot 8.0 7.8 -0.2
Disney's Hollywood Studios 5.8 5.7 -0.1
Animal Kingdom 2.2 2.5 +0.3

Note: a negative difference means we overestimated; a positive difference means we underestimated.

 

[search66]

Wow, very accurate... I'll check them out! Thanks!

 

[MickeyPeace]

The Magic Kingdom is going to be crowded. During value season it will be less so. Check out the Disney site to find which months they consider value.

$8 please!

 

[JIMINYCR]

We have also found touringplans.com to be a very reliable site in assisting us in planning our daily attack of the parks. Arriving at the parks sometimes we find the crowds to be slightly heavier or lighter than anticipated so we adjust accordingly. But we have never found them to be off by much. After all you have to remember - it's only an estimate.

 

[DizneyPryncess]

Ditto on Touring Plans - that's who I use as well. Only once were they wrong for me, and that was on my May trip the year before last. The 'kids stay & play for free' promo had started, and things were much more crowded than what they projected. I just think the new promo threw off their estimates. I've had great results other than that.

 

[DisneyJoe]

Not to mention... the Fastpass system is totally different than what I remember and seems completely messed up. When did they change it? You used to be able to have two sets of FP at a time...

You still can, as long as you meet criteria - you can't just have any two sets.

From http://allears.net/tp/fastpass.htm

If the FASTPASS says 1:00 - 2:00 can I get a second FASTPASS at 1:01?

Yes. You can get another FASTPASS as soon your "window for entering the FASTPASS line" begins. You can get a new FASTPASS up to two hours from the time you actually got your FastPass (it will never be longer than two hours, but can be shorter if it has been programmed into the FP computers to be shorter than 2 hours.) In all cases the time you can get another FastPass is always printed on all FastPasses (if you received an Overridden FastPass because there was a problem with your admission ticket, it will not show a time).


Can I have multiple FASTPASS tickets at one time?

In certain cases, as explained above.