Do you put any faith in crowd calendars?

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JourneysEnd

JourneysEnd

Well-Known Member
rkelly42 said:
If a majority of people booked based on previous years crowds and this years predicted crowds, the calendars will be off. Everyone I know who travel to disney use a crowd calendar to help decide what week to go. Fact is there is no such thing as a slow week anymore.
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I've been in September when it was so crowded you literally couldn't move in front of Peter Pan. As long as you just accept the fact the parks tend to be crowded and enjoy yourself anyway you'll be okay.
 
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NelsonRD

NelsonRD

Well-Known Member
tmitch said:
If I think their 2 is busy, why on gods green earth would I attend an 8 or 10? That's stupidity in motion
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Because not everybody has the freedom to schedule a vacation around a crowd calendar until it reports a 1, or a 2. It provides people what to expect, and to help plan - knowing ahead of time if it is anticipated to be above or below average crowds. If you are looking at these calendars and going on a '1', '2', or '3' day expecting no crowds, you are going to be disappointed. Like I said earlier, that is not how to interpret the numbers, as they are relative.

These pictures included in this thread are also misleading. They are taken at the entrance while people are looking for transportation. I can snap a picture of main street after a crowd level 1 and claim there are 'crowds'.
 
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MickeyKimmy

MickeyKimmy

Active Member
NelsonRD said:
These pictures included in this thread are also misleading. They are taken at the entrance while people are looking for transportation. I can snap a picture of main street after a crowd level 1 and claim there are 'crowds'.
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I have to disagree with you on this about the pictures being misleading as someone who was at MK this morning. I saw the same crowds outside the entrance this morning as the person who posted pictures. We have been making September trips for 10+ years and I have never seen crowds like this. There were large crowds and lines just to get up to the bag check and inside the park wasn't much better. Maybe everyone has finally discovered what a good time to go September is or maybe today was a weird fluke. Guess we'll find out with how the rest of our week here is. Also had a couple of cast members talk about how unusually busy it was today so they all seemed surprised by the crowds too. So you need to stop implying the crowds are something people are imagining.
 
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JourneysEnd

JourneysEnd

Well-Known Member
PlaneCrazy1978 said:
Come on. Peter Pan is a bad example. I could be the only person in the park and the wait for Pan would still be 50 minutes ;)
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I didn't write "wait". The crowds were so heavy there was gridlock between Small World and Pan. You literally could not move forward. I got behind a woman with a stroller who plowed her way through using the stroller as a battering ram.
 
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PlaneCrazy1978

PlaneCrazy1978

Active Member
NelsonRD said:
Because not everybody has the freedom to schedule a vacation around a crowd calendar until it reports a 1, or a 2. It provides people what to expect, and to help plan - knowing ahead of time if it is anticipated to be above or below average crowds. If you are looking at these calendars and going on a '1', '2', or '3' day expecting no crowds, you are going to be disappointed. Like I said earlier, that is not how to interpret the numbers, as they are relative.

These pictures included in this thread are also misleading. They are taken at the entrance while people are looking for transportation. I can snap a picture of main street after a crowd level 1 and claim there are 'crowds'.
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I been doing exactly what you say for about 40 trips and I never been let down. Sorry history says you are wrong
NelsonRD said:
The problem is these scales are relative. It is not an indication of how busy the parks will be, rather an indication of how busy the park is compared to other days. A crowd level of 1, 2 or 3 does not mean non existent crowds. It means a 3 is not as busy as 4, but busier then a 2. As crowds has increased, so has the wait times across the board. Your '3' today, may have been a '6' in the past, but it makes no sense to grow the numbers outside of a 1-10 scale. So if you think its busy, or not accurate, attend on a day that it's a '8', or '10'.
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The problem with what you say is that it goes against all my experiences. I go a lot and use it as one of the many factors in trip planning. 2 has always been a 2. Ok so maybe 2 changes a bit every year. But not like I saw today. The fact here is something happened that increased crowd level predictions. Everyone was unprepared including Disney, who I'm sure has much more comprehensive crowd prediction tools.

Also the bag check line was back to the bus stops. Never seen that. Not many people have.
 
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PlaneCrazy1978

PlaneCrazy1978

Active Member
JourneysEnd said:
I didn't write "wait". The crowds were so heavy there was gridlock between Small World and Pan. You literally could not move forward. I got behind a woman with a stroller who plowed her way through using the stroller as a battering ram.
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Oops. Sorry. My bad!

True about that spot. It has gotten better with the tangled bathroom bypass though. A little :)
 
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tmitch

tmitch

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
NelsonRD said:
Because not everybody has the freedom to schedule a vacation around a crowd calendar until it reports a 1, or a 2. It provides people what to expect, and to help plan - knowing ahead of time if it is anticipated to be above or below average crowds. If you are looking at these calendars and going on a '1', '2', or '3' day expecting no crowds, you are going to be disappointed. Like I said earlier, that is not how to interpret the numbers, as they are relative.

These pictures included in this thread are also misleading. They are taken at the entrance while people are looking for transportation. I can snap a picture of main street after a crowd level 1 and claim there are 'crowds'.
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You are so wrong it's not even amusing. Those pics were taken of myself and others waiting upwards of an hour for security bag check. You shouldn't be commenting on something you're not aware of. Those people weren't looking for transport
 
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tmitch

tmitch

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
image.jpg

NelsonRD said:
Because not everybody has the freedom to schedule a vacation around a crowd calendar until it reports a 1, or a 2. It provides people what to expect, and to help plan - knowing ahead of time if it is anticipated to be above or below average crowds. If you are looking at these calendars and going on a '1', '2', or '3' day expecting no crowds, you are going to be disappointed. Like I said earlier, that is not how to interpret the numbers, as they are relative.

These pictures included in this thread are also misleading. They are taken at the entrance while people are looking for transportation. I can snap a picture of main street after a crowd level 1 and claim there are 'crowds'.
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Here's more proof you don't know what you're talking about
 
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NelsonRD

NelsonRD

Well-Known Member
MickeyKimmy said:
I have to disagree with you on this about the pictures being misleading as someone who was at MK this morning. I saw the same crowds outside the entrance this morning as the person who posted pictures. We have been making September trips for 10+ years and I have never seen crowds like this. There were large crowds and lines just to get up to the bag check and inside the park wasn't much better. Maybe everyone has finally discovered what a good time to go September is or maybe today was a weird fluke. Guess we'll find out with how the rest of our week here is. Also had a couple of cast members talk about how unusually busy it was today so they all seemed surprised by the crowds too. So you need to stop implying the crowds are something people are imagining.
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I am not implying crowds are something people are imagining. I am implying that the crowd levels are relative. It may be busier in September that the years past, but it is also busier in December in the years past, hence, a lower crowd level for September.
 
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NelsonRD

NelsonRD

Well-Known Member
tmitch said:
You are so wrong it's not even amusing. Those pics were taken of myself and others waiting upwards of an hour for security bag check. You shouldn't be commenting on something you're not aware of. Those people weren't looking for transport
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Relax, the comment was suggesting that the pictures were taken at a bottleneck of the park, and can be a little misleading. I get it, the parks were abnormally busy.
 
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NelsonRD

NelsonRD

Well-Known Member
tmitch said:
View attachment 110674

Here's more proof you don't know what you're talking about
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Instead of posting a Tourning Plans App screenshot as 'proof' - which is historically inaccurate, why don't you post what the wait times of the attractions were over the day? That is the best way to determine how busy the parks were. And don't try to suggest that Peter Pan and Mine Train over 60 minutes was something that you should not see in September. I do not consider the parks over a 7 until the extended queue is in use for the people mover...
 
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Weather_Lady

Weather_Lady

Well-Known Member
I use the crowd calendars to help choose what week we travel. I don't rely on them so much for the day-to-day "best park" recommendations unless there's a really dramatic difference from one day to the next. We visit parks on the days that work best for us, and if we don't plan to stay/arrive early for EMH, then we tend to avoid the parks with EMH, but that's about it. With a good touring plan, you can accommodate typical crowd fluctuations at any park.
 
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disneyfirstLJ

disneyfirstLJ

Well-Known Member
I use crowd calendars as a guide only. I do look up the days I will be attending the parks and use them to help me determine which park I will visit each day but I take other factors into consideration as well.
 
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PlaneCrazy1978

PlaneCrazy1978

Active Member
NelsonRD said:
Instead of posting a Tourning Plans App screenshot as 'proof' - which is historically inaccurate, why don't you post what the wait times of the attractions were over the day? That is the best way to determine how busy the parks were. And don't try to suggest that Peter Pan and Mine Train over 60 minutes was something that you should not see in September. I do not consider the parks over a 7 until the extended queue is in use for the people mover...
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Like it was yesterday? Yes. The extended queue was in use for PeopleMover yesterday.
 
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