Trusting Touring plans...MK on a Sunday

[Justkeepswimmin]

Hi guys, new to this forum so go easy on me!

I'm planning my days out for disney trip based on avoiding EMH days and following touringplans to avoid crowds. Now the touringplan website suggests MK on a Sunday and I would have thought Sunday would be busy with school kids, weekday breakers etc.

How religiously do you follow Touring plan guides and would you trust them to visit on a Sunday, or would you still avoid it?

 

[BigRedDad]

I don't follow anyone's plans on what park to go to and when. If I go to a park, I map out my must do's, hit those hard and fast early, then settle into the other attractions that have faster lines for shorter waits. I usually avoid morning EMH parks.

 

[dm11]

There are a lot of factors at play when predicting what the crowd levels might look like, the day of the week being just one of them. Touring Plans have a pretty good record. After each week they also publish analysis how they've done, comparing their prediction against actual crowd levels. It's never 100% hit and it can't be. But most of the time the huge majority of predictions is within 1 level, which is in reality more than good enough. If they predicted a 2 and it is a 3, or if they predicted an 8 and it is a 9, it will make no difference to you.

That being said, their *recommended* park of the day is not necessarily the park with lowest crowd level that day. They have an algorithm which attempts to recommend each park at least once during specified period (not sure what the period is, probably some variation of weekly). I usually completely ignore this recommendation but I do rely heavily on their crowd level prediction. So far I've been very happy with that.

As for plans themselves, I think that depends on your familiarity level with parks. If you are new to the parks they will immensely help to keep you on track to see and do most of the things that would be of interest to you. However, if you are already familiar with the parks then they are not as necessary. I still use them (almost) every time but more as a guideline and reminder than anything else. And I always customize them.

 

[Weather_Lady]

I pay very little attention to the crowd calendars in picking which days to visit unless there's an obvious, giant difference. As you probably know, a good touring plan is exponentially more valuable than a crowd calendar in minimizing your wait times (as touringplans is the first to admit). I love touringplans and have relied on it heavily in choosing weeks to visit and then formulating my touring plans for each day, but I don't use it heavily in making park selections for each day.

The rule of thumb I follow (which almost always ends up being consistent with parks with lower projected crowds, anyway) is to avoid the "EMH" parks. (There is one exception to this rule: if we're visiting during a time of peak, 9 or 10/10 holiday crowds, when the extra time is more valuable than any increase in crowds, then we deliberately go to the EMH parks). We also plan to visit parks on days that they have truncated hours due to hard-ticket or private events -- we can enjoy the lowest crowds of all, and then hop to another park (if we have parkhoppers) or do a special dinner at a resort (e.g., Hoop-de-Doo) in the evening.

 

[EvilQueen-T]

When isn't MK busy anymore? Last year we were there Jan 22nd - 25th...no school holidays and in the coldest part of our year here in FL and there was still 100+ minute wait for 7 dwarfs for example. I just go with the idea it's going to be crowded all the time. Disney has gotten really good at getting people into the parks when they use to have value/slow season so there really isn't one anymore imo. On top of that the new tier pricing for tickets and annual passes may be having an effect of changing what use to be slower times into busier times and since this was the first full year for all of that I think it's hard to tell. Mostly I'd go with Christmas through New Years, 4th of July weekend, and Easter week are always most likely to continue to be the mob scenes they've always been. Anything other than that just seems to be crowded to really crowded at MK.

 

[JillC LI]

Hi guys, new to this forum so go easy on me!

I'm planning my days out for disney trip based on avoiding EMH days and following touringplans to avoid crowds. Now the touringplan website suggests MK on a Sunday and I would have thought Sunday would be busy with school kids, weekday breakers etc.

How religiously do you follow Touring plan guides and would you trust them to visit on a Sunday, or would you still avoid it?

I've found TouringPlans.com to be pretty helpful. I tend to choose which park on which day based on park hours and EMH, but if I'm torn, I'll probably go with the Touring Plans recommendation. As others have said, the most important thing is to have a good touring plan on crowded days. Sometimes Touring Plans will suggest a park on an unexpected day because of special events at that park on surrounding days.

 

[Herdman]

We've used touring plans for several trips now. I try to use their crowd projections where I can, but I don't always go by it. As many have said already, the plan itself is by far the most important thing.

 

[Justkeepswimmin]

Thanks so much guys, your comments have really helped and I can now tweak my plans to suit me and my family more!

And you're right evil queen T, some crowd are impossible to avoid, and I have a feeling 7 dwarves mine train will have to be missed out completely