Planning park days

[Belle_1989]

The park hours and recommendations came out last night for March and totally threw off the plan I had in my head for how I wanted to tour. Based on the recommended parks how does this plan sound?

Day one : Epcot (Recommended)
Day two : AK (Recommended)
Day three : MK staying out late for fireworks ( Moderately Recommended)
Day four : Breakday
Day five : Epcot (Recommended)
Day six: MK (Recommended)
Day seven: HS staying out late to see Fantasmic (Recommended)

Thank you

 

[BethR9]

Where did you get the recommendations from?

 

[Belle_1989]

wdw prep

 

[loves to dive]

Ignore them and do what you want to do, they are just guesses.

 

[kappyfamily]

I go with recommendations if it seems to work, if not we do our own thing. My family always begins and ends with Magic Kingdom, we like having it be the last thing we do before we get on the plane. But again that's just my opinion....have a great trip!

 

[yaya74]

use the crowd calendar with discretion. whatever plan works the best of your family is the best plan for your trip. I went against the crowd calendar by going to MK on a Monday morning in August and I never did rope drop. Yes, MK was crowded on Monday morning like the crowd calendar had predicted. But with 3 FP+ and more I could get after the third, my family and I had a blast on that day.

 

[Belle_1989]

I go with recommendations if it seems to work, if not we do our own thing. My family always begins and ends with Magic Kingdom, we like having it be the last thing we do before we get on the plane. But again that's just my opinion....have a great trip!

That was our original plan was to go to MK on the first day at RD to see the opening and close our trip by seeing MK fireworks for our last day. The only problem we ran into was our last day is AM EMH and I've heard those days are worse for visiting parks

 

[Klayfish]

Ignore them and do what you want to do, they are just guesses.

Couldn't agree more. I would absolutely not change my plans because of those guesses. Honestly, before our most recent trip this June, when I joined this forum, I didn't even know those planning websites existed. We have made 11 trips to WDW in the past 10 years without the planners. Our most recent trip, after I was aware of the planners, was a 17 day trip. We looked at the planner simply because we were curious to see what their "guess" was. However, we didn't change our plans at all based on anything it said, we stuck with what we had planned originally. I've said it before, the planner was about as accurate as a coin flip...which is to say 50/50. For us, we'll never use the planners, as they just don't have any significant accurcy.

I also wouldn't worry about EMH stuff. Since we don't stay on property, we don't get to do EMH. Therefore, we never even look to see what park has it. I couldn't even tell you how many parks we went to on our trip had EMH the day we went, as we didn't look and didn't notice any difference that made us think it had EMH. So if a park had EMH the day we were in it, which I'm sure happened at least once, we were oblivious to it.

Plan for your needs, don't let the calendar dictate your trip.

 

[CinderellaElla]

I usually google Disney World Crowd Calendar 2017 and see what they say, I don't know if that's what you meant by "park hours ad recommendations" or not Either way, if you're going in march and if it's not a school break time then I think for the most part you'll be good!

 

[kappyfamily]

That was our original plan was to go to MK on the first day at RD to see the opening and close our trip by seeing MK fireworks for our last day. The only problem we ran into was our last day is AM EMH and I've heard those days are worse for visiting parks

Honestly, we still do them. It's just such a tradition thing for us. But I get why you wouldnt want to. Either way, have a great trip!

 

[DreamFlightCpt.]

Ask cast members about busy periods. Many of them spend time in he parks on their off time even thought they work there and tend to have great insight on what's busy when. Also just be advised, Fantasmic is going to be packed not matter what you do.

Also, I noticed it didn't seem like you plan on seeing illuminations at Epcot durian your stay. Highly recommend you do. My personal favorite fireworks show in all the parks.

 

[scurvyfreedman]

Touring plans just changed all of their crowd levels for October when I'm going. Undercover tourist changed the way it does park recs. EasyWDW doesn't have a day-by-day calendar for October and thereafter due to park hour changes that are not yet final. But, it has its original calendar. There's only one day during my trip that they agree. Sometimes they directly conflict.

The only thing I can recommend is to go to parks that don't have EMH if you're offsite. And, if you're onsite, going during EMH is fine if you're hopping, but during the regular hours the park will likely be more crowded. Everything else is likely a crapshoot unless there's a special event. Some draw more people like weekends at Epcot during Food and Wine. Some cause lower crowds like the Halloween and Christmas parties at MK.

Good luck is all I can say.

 

[Hopefully]

I do look at the planning web sites and think about the why behind their recommendations. They are more than a simple guess, but based on a specific logic.
EMH parks are busier than a non EMH day. Many, if not most, on site guests go on those days to maximize their hours. But if you really are there at Rope Drop on an EMH day and have Park Hoppers, you can get tons done. We go early and hop when it gets too crowded.
Party days are generally less crowded on party days, as they close early. This didn't prove to be true last October.
Most people start their trip in the MK, so Mondays are going to be busier.
Locals attend the various Epcot festivals on weekends, making weekends busier.
Rope Drop is your friend. Most folks don't want to get up at the crack of dawn on vacation.

Whatever you decide have a Great Trip

 

[Jadyreen1282]

Ignore them and do what you want to do, they are just guesses.

Never do what commercial WDW sites recommend. We are the only ones you can trust for Disney planning.