What is the best day of the week to go to each park?

[HoneyBee1991]

My last trip was in September/October 2016. We made the dreadful mistake of going to Magic Kingdom on a Saturday. Yeah, not my brightest moment. We will be going back in early/mid-December of this year and I want to try and avoid making a similar error this time around. Unfortunately, all of the crowd calendars tend to circle around dates and not days of the week. So I'm asking for insight from all you pro's on this forum!

In your opinion, what are the best days of the week to visit each individual park? Is it a different answer for each separate park or does the same day apply to all four?

Is it "safe" to go to a Christmas Party night at MK on a Sunday? **By safe, I mean not super crowded.**

Also, what do you like to do outside of WDW on the weekends for fun?

We are going for 9 nights/10 days so we are planning to skip going to the parks on the weekends altogether. Sadly, we are not big crowd people. It's unfortunate with how much we love Disney.

Thanks for any and all help!

 

[HwdStudio]

Early/Mid December had summer like crowds this last year. Sunday MVMCP will be just as crowded on Sunday as any other day of the week. Historically Monday has always been the day to avoid at MK but each day is crowded. Animal Kingdom is always crowded due to Pandora and ROL. Epcot with have Holiday celebrations and Candlelight Processional and Toy Story Land and all of the Christmas events at DHS will be packed as well. This is not to sound all doom and gloom just realistic. Some will say avoid EMH and some will say the opposite. There are no less crowded times anymore and December will be much more crowded than September. Meticulous planning, ADR at exactly 180 days out and FP at 7am eastern time on you eligibility day will be your saving grace. Be prepared for mobs of people and if you get lucky and come across a slower day count your blessings.

 

[larryz]

I would rope drop MK on a party day and leave about 4:30 as the party crowd kicks into high kreusen.
Tuesday thru Thursday for Epcot, avoiding weekends due to locals hitting the Festival of Perpetual Festivals.
Tuesday thru Thursday for AK, just rope drop it to hit Pandora and then another 4 or 5 hours there.
Any day but a weekend for DHS until TSL starts soft openings, then ... who knows -- probably avoid like the plague for a year or two.

 

[spacemtnfanatic]

Pretty much any weekday, circa 1971-2014

 

[HoneyBee1991]

Early/Mid December had summer like crowds this last year. Sunday MVMCP will be just as crowded on Sunday as any other day of the week. Historically Monday has always been the day to avoid at MK but each day is crowded. Animal Kingdom is always crowded due to Pandora and ROL. Epcot with have Holiday celebrations and Candlelight Processional and Toy Story Land and all of the Christmas events at DHS will be packed as well. This is not to sound all doom and gloom just realistic. Some will say avoid EMH and some will say the opposite. There are no less crowded times anymore and December will be much more crowded than September. Meticulous planning, ADR at exactly 180 days out and FP at 7am eastern time on you eligibility day will be your saving grace. Be prepared for mobs of people and if you get lucky and come across a slower day count your blessings.

Thank you! Honesty is better than an unhappy surprise. I loved how uncrowded it was in September but we are U.P. Michigan people and the heat made us more miserable than the crowds ever could. We are going with the lesser of two evils and praying for 50 to 70 degree temps this December.

 

[Captain Barbossa]

Tuesdays at EPCOT and Wednesdays at MK. Reason? Evening/nighttime EMH.

 

[Driver]

Unless there is a specific event, Thursday is typically a good day for MK. Reasons - most people arrive to WDW on weekend days so Sunday / Monday are the default Goto days. ( very busy) by Thursday they have moved on to the other parks. DHS is a good choice for beginning of the week, but when toy story opens this maybe a huge change for a while. AK is another end of week "slower" time if there is such a thing. For the same reasons as MK. Epcot has the lower draw for beginning of the week. This is what I have been seeing on average over the last few months. Disclaimer- any special events/ holidays etc. and this advice is all out the window.

 

[Crazydisneygirl]

What is your guesses on how busy it will be September 2018. I have gone twice before near end of September and beginning of October and crowds were OK. But that was 4 years ago. Going September 9-19. Anyone go last year at that time? How was the crowds, weather? I know Toy story land will be busy but what about the rest? What park is best on the weekends?

 

[DisneyRoy]

If you use touringplans.com crowd tracker you can put in your travel dates and it will tell you which parks are the busiest on each day of your trip. It's very useful although it does cost a few bucks. But I feel like l get my money's worth from it.

 

[MickeyMomV]

Early/Mid December had summer like crowds this last year. Sunday MVMCP will be just as crowded on Sunday as any other day of the week. Historically Monday has always been the day to avoid at MK but each day is crowded. Animal Kingdom is always crowded due to Pandora and ROL. Epcot with have Holiday celebrations and Candlelight Processional and Toy Story Land and all of the Christmas events at DHS will be packed as well. This is not to sound all doom and gloom just realistic. Some will say avoid EMH and some will say the opposite. There are no less crowded times anymore and December will be much more crowded than September. Meticulous planning, ADR at exactly 180 days out and FP at 7am eastern time on you eligibility day will be your saving grace. Be prepared for mobs of people and if you get lucky and come across a slower day count your blessings.

I think this is the best response to the question. Personally, my thought it that the only thing a crowd calendar is good for is setting people up for disappointment. People read sites like touringplans.com and come away thinking I'll go to park A on this day and B on this other day because those are the "slow" days and then they get to the park expecting a crowd level of "6" or yellow from 2014 and in fact the parked is slammed. You have to remember that everything is relative. Is the second week of September slow? Sure, compared to the week of Christmas. Is the second week of September 2018 going to be slow compared to the second week of September of 2014? HECK NO! Its going to be slammed by comparison.

The best you can do is plan out your day in advance, make your FP's, dining reservations, expect heavy crowds and be flexible and you will do fine. Once your initial FP's are done don't be afraid to "hop" over to another park if its too busy at the one your at. Or head back to the hotel for a afternoon by the pool and come back to the park around dinner time when things start to thin out.

 

[SAV]

Undercovertourist.com has a free crowd tracker that you can use.

 

[joejccva71]

Another vote for Touringplans.com crowd tracker.

 

[SourcererMark79]

What is your guesses on how busy it will be September 2018. I have gone twice before near end of September and beginning of October and crowds were OK. But that was 4 years ago. Going September 9-19. Anyone go last year at that time? How was the crowds, weather? I know Toy story land will be busy but what about the rest? What park is best on the weekends?

Irma hit during this time last year. It historically has been a good time to visit, but with the high crowds so far this year it's hard to say what it will be like. I'll be there

 

[BoarderPhreak]

Forget the crowd trackers and calendars. They're so last decade and wildly inaccurate these days.

I go by a system of EMH. Whatever park has the longest hours, usually in conjunction with EMH - I'm there. Having the Park Hopper option gives you more flexibility, as you can start in one park, bail if it gets too busy and hit another, perhaps with different (later) hours.

 

[AJDMB05]

Maybe I'm naive has to how the crowd tracking sites/calendars work, but isn't it essentially a prediction based on past data? I went 3rd week of January, which is supposed to be, not empty but certainly not crowded, and it was much busier than anticipated. It feels like with how aggressive WDI is being with new lands/rides, I'd be adding +2 or +3 to whatever 0 through 10 crowd rating you see on the internet for the foreseeable future.

 

[joejccva71]

Forget the crowd trackers and calendars. They're so last decade and wildly inaccurate these days.

I go by a system of EMH. Whatever park has the longest hours, usually in conjunction with EMH - I'm there. Having the Park Hopper option gives you more flexibility, as you can start in one park, bail if it gets too busy and hit another, perhaps with different (later) hours.

Not everyone can "bail the park" if it gets too busy. People have different amount of days they can go, schedules, ADR's, etc etc.

I recommend the Touringplans calendars and planners because it will save you a TON of time and headache.

I have found people getting to the parks rope drop, jamming in a bunch of attractions in the morning, and then finding themselves absolutely lost on what to do next because they aren't sure if they should go back to the resort for a break, go to another park or whatever.

Planning matters, crowd calendars have had better accuracy lately and sometimes going to a park JUST because it's EMH isn't always the best way to do it.

According to the OP, they're going around Christmas time. ALL the parks are going to be busy. It's the absolute busiest time of the year.

 

[BoarderPhreak]

...I recommend the Touringplans calendars and planners because it will save you a TON of time and headache....

According to the OP, they're going around Christmas time. ALL the parks are going to be busy. It's the absolute busiest time of the year.

Exactly... All the calendars are going to say are "Very Large Crowds" every day over the holidays. If you want wait times, MDE already does that (and it's a free app).

 

[SAV]

The calendar's aren't a science, it's just a prediction based on prior trend data. The trend data shows that more people start their vacation at MK. So when the most check in's are done on a Saturday, in theory MK will be the most crowded and that is reflected in the calendar prediction. Since on-site folks will more often than not take advantage of EMH's, parks with EMH for a day will have a higher number.

Hopping will skew the numbers even more.