# Disney questions



## TerriJ (Mar 11, 2012)

I have two quick questions.  How do we find out about doing princess stuff at Disney?  And how busy will the parks be on Thursday March 28 and Friday March 29?

Thanks!


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## Weimaraner (Mar 11, 2012)

We booked a visit to the Bippity Boppity Bootique for our daughter to have a princess makeover and lunch with prinesses at Royal Table. But we booked it a few months ago for late April. i called their tollfree number and their customer service was amazing. She advised me to get a birthday button for our daughter so staff is aware of this occasion. There is a website where you can search for character dining including princess. Don't know offhand what it is but you can Google. I think people book way in advance since I did a search for Chef Mickeys the other day and almost everything was gone. You never know...you might find something that works. Good luck!


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## TerriJ (Mar 12, 2012)

Thanks, I will give it a shot!


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## stanleyu (Mar 12, 2012)

As for the parks being busy: Last year we went to FL for the two weeks prior to Easter. The week prior to Palm Sunday (which is where your two days in question are) the parks were very slow. The only lines were at Midway Mania, and then only real bad in the afternoon. The following week, in between Palm Sunday and Easter, it was an absolute zoo! For example, by mid-day thew parking lot at MK was totally filled.

But for your two days, it should be fine.


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## thebreards (Mar 15, 2012)

Princess Stuff:
*At the Magic Kingdom* you can visit Belle's Magical Garden where she will read a story (check guide times), have breakfast, lunch, or dinner, in the castle (probably fully booked), and you can meet a princess at the character meet and greet at Town Square Theater.
*At Epcot* you can eat with the princesses at Akershus Royal Banquet Hall in Norway and can sometimes meet them in different countries- Mulan in China, Belle in France.
If not at one of those parks, I would suggest making an early breakfast reservation or a late dinner reseravation at the *Grand Floridian.*  We are doing dinner there on the 30th with Cinderella after a day in the Magic Kingdom.  It's easy enough to take the monorail to.
We have never done the bibbity bobbity boutique- it's expensive and I don't know what they really get- their hair in a french twist with some glitter sprayed in.


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## Jay_G (Mar 16, 2012)

From Touringplans.com  (I'm a premium member)

Thursday, March 29, 2012
The Walt Disney World crowd level is in the top 20% of all days. All parks are going to be crowded. We are recommending Hollywood Studios because it has the lowest per park crowd level. We are recommending Epcot and The Animal Kingdom today because of the 7-Day Rule. The best way to beat crowds is a touring plan. Touring plans are 5 times more effective at saving time than picking the right day. Today we recommend avoiding the Magic Kingdom as it has the highest per park level and it has morning Extra Magic Hours (EMH).  Off-site guests are not eligible and we know from past research that more than 75% of Disney resort guests don't arrive in time to take advantage of EMH. The Studios' crowd level is below its weekly average. Today Animal Kingdom has its lowest crowd level of the week. Predictions are accurate within 1 point 90% of the time. So if we predict a 9 we're confident that the crowd levels will be between an 8 and a 10. 

Overall Crowds
•Crowd Level: 9 out of 10 
Magic Kingdom
•Crowd Level: 9.5 out of 10 
•This is a Park to Avoid 
•Park Hours: 9:00am - 11:00pm 

Epcot
•Crowd Level: 8.3 out of 10 
•This is a Best Park (due to the 7-Day Rule) 
•Park Hours: 9:00am - 9:00pm 

Disney's Hollywood Studios
•Crowd Level: 7.2 out of 10 
•This is a Best Park 
•Park Hours: 9:00am - 10:00pm 

Animal Kingdom
•Crowd Level: 8.1 out of 10 
•This is a Neutral Park
•Park Hours: 9:00am - 7:00pm 

Friday, March 30, 2012
The Walt Disney World crowd level is in the top 10% of all days. All parks are going to be crowded. We are recommending Hollywood Studios because it has the lowest per park crowd level. We are recommending The Animal Kingdom today because of the 7-Day Rule. The best way to beat crowds is a touring plan. Touring plans are 5 times more effective at saving time than picking the right day. Today we recommend avoiding the Magic Kingdom as it has the highest per park level. Today Epcot has its highest crowd level of the week. The Studios' crowd level is below its weekly average. Today Animal Kingdom has its lowest crowd level of the week. 

Overall Crowds
•Crowd Level: 10 out of 10 
Magic Kingdom
•Crowd Level: 9.6 out of 10 
•This is a Park to Avoid 
•Park Hours: 9:00am - 12:00am 

Epcot
•Crowd Level: 9.6 out of 10 
•This is a Neutral Park
•Park Hours: 9:00am - 9:00pm 

Disney's Hollywood Studios
•Crowd Level: 7.4 out of 10 
•This is a Best Park 

Animal Kingdom
•Crowd Level: 8.0 out of 10 
•This is a Neutral Park
•Park Hours: 9:00am - 7:00pm 

FAQ from TouringPlans.com Croud Calander

A park is recommended as the Best Park because of the "7-Day Rule" -- what is this?
Occasionally there will be a seven-day period in which we don't recommend a specific park at least once. When this happens, we look at the seven day period, and recommend the day with the lowest crowd level for this park. If you're looking at specific day (like this one at the Magic Kingdom), we'll explicitly tell you when we're applying this rule.

What If I Want to Visit a Park on an "Avoid" Day?
Remember, these are just recommendations. You can go to Epcot on a day its listed as a "Park To Avoid" and still have a fabulous time! Doubly so if you're armed with Lines and a good Touring Plan.

Reverse Psychology - Should I Avoid the "Best" Park Because Everyone Will Go There?
"If you tell everyone to head to Animal Kingdom," you ask, "won't that quickly become the most crowded park?" Unfortunately, no! While we'd love to dictate the ebbs and flows of crowds at Walt Disney World, we just ain't that big (yet!). We estimate that less than 1% of people in any park have seen our Crowd Calendar. We monitor wait times every day at every park, so if we do start to influence crowds, we'll be the first to notice.

Should I care about the Park Recommendations during slow times of the year?
The recommendations are equally valuable no matter the crowd level. Whether the crowd is listed as a ‘9’ or a ‘2’ the recommendations will always identify the best choices for that day. Use them as a planning guide to meet the needs of your group.

Shouldn't Magic Kingdom always be more crowded than Epcot, Epcot more crowded than the Studios, etc?
Our reader surveys tell us that people judge the size of the crowds not by how many people are in the park but by how long they have to wait in line. For this reason we base our crowd calendar on wait time data in each park, and compare it to other days at the same park. Thus, we could say that a below average day at the Magic Kingdom with 30,000 people is less crowded than an above average day at Epcot with 25,000 people.


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## stanleyu (Mar 16, 2012)

Interesting that Touringplans should rate that week - the week before Palm Sunday - as so busy. As I said above. last year it was relatively dead that week. Now granted, Easter came later last year. It would be interesting to know what the forecast was for the pre-Palm Sunday week in 2011.


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## chunkygal (Mar 16, 2012)

three years ago we went Easter week and I vowed NEVER AGAIN...but then last year the military had a deal and I was able to book a room and DEAD. We had done AK in 8 hours with many ride repeats. So I am going back this year,armed with reservations for dining and looking for a good time.

I never heard of the crowd service and will definitely look into it.


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## TerriJ (Mar 16, 2012)

We are planning to do Islands of Adventure on the first day, then Magic Kingdom on the next day.  Thanks for the princess info!


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## MichaelColey (Mar 16, 2012)

easyWDW, my favorite Disney resource, rates those days as 8/10, which is fairly busy but manageable.  They also agree on the best park for each of those days, although their choices for second best are quite a bit different.


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## Twinkstarr (Mar 17, 2012)

MichaelColey said:


> easyWDW, my favorite Disney resource, rates those days as 8/10, which is fairly busy but manageable.  They also agree on the best park for each of those days, although their choices for second best are quite a bit different.



It's become our favorite too, and the daily blog entries are funny.


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## sdbrier (Mar 17, 2012)

chunkygal said:


> three years ago we went Easter week and I vowed NEVER AGAIN...but then last year the military had a deal and I was able to book a room and DEAD. We had done AK in 8 hours with many ride repeats. So I am going back this year,armed with reservations for dining and looking for a good time.
> 
> I never heard of the crowd service and will definitely look into it.



Since Easter is a floating holiday, I imagine at times it is far enough away from spring break times to be quite, while a March easter would beg for a larger crowd. Just thinking out loud.


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## Twinkstarr (Mar 17, 2012)

sdbrier said:


> Since Easter is a floating holiday, I imagine at times it is far enough away from spring break times to be quite, while a March easter would beg for a larger crowd. Just thinking out loud.



I think either week of Easter is busy, on a par with Xmas/NYE week. We usually go to DVC Vero Beach and have break around Easter. I know in the past few years MK has approached at least the 1st level of park closing on multiple days those weeks. 

I remember one trip a family decided to drive to WDW for the day. Went to DHS and the parking lot was full and they had to park at Epcot and Disney bussed them over to DHS. And this was mid week. It was the talk around the pool. 

When you run into the 1st week of April, both the states of Georgia and Michigan have that week off for break.


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## stanleyu (Mar 17, 2012)

keep in mind that when people talk about "the weeks of Easter" we usually mean the week prior and the week after. this week in question is the week prior to Palm Sunday: two weeks prior to Easter, which is April 8 this year.


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## TerriJ (Mar 17, 2012)

I am planning to get everyone there as early as possible and the go back later in the day too.  Thanks again for the info.


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## spencersmama (Mar 18, 2012)

I think the busy times are dependent on spring break, not Easter.  The dates sometimes coincide, but not always.


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## chunkygal (Mar 18, 2012)

I love new resources! I am going to check out easyWDW..thanks.
I only knew about wdwinfo and the disboards.


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## Jay_G (Mar 18, 2012)

My Favorite unofficial Disney Web Sites.

http://allears.net/index.html   They have menus from all the Restaurants and reviews for everything.

http://www.mousesavers.com/  Tips on saving money on all things Disney including rental cars. 

http://www.wdwradio.com/   Best podcast ever, also trivia books, a magazine about the parks, forums, special events.  

http://touringplans.com/  From the co-author of the unofficial guild to WDW they test everything.  Also works with the "lines" application on smart phone but is about $12 a year without a coupon code.

http://intercot.com/  This was one of the first ones I started going to, but usually just go to All Ears.net

I also listen to WdwToday 3 times a week.   http://wdwtoday.com/


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## TerriJ (Mar 21, 2012)

We are planning to do the bippity boppity thing at downtown Disney.  The other one was full, as mentioned above.  Thanks!


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## logan115 (Mar 21, 2012)

Jay_G said:


> My Favorite unofficial Disney Web Sites.
> 
> http://allears.net/index.html   They have menus from all the Restaurants and reviews for everything.
> 
> ...



I'd add Mouseowners.com to that list.  Tons of info on that forum and if you can't find the answer using the search function someone there can probably answer it for you.

Chris


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## ciscogizmo1 (Mar 21, 2012)

We've done the bippity boppity thing and my girls loved it.  They really do a good job with the hair and all of the role playing.  My girls were a bit older when they did it 9 and 12 years old.  So, they didn't wear princess dresses but they did wear some matching princess t-shirts.  We went over to the princesses after the appointment and got pictures and then, had dinner in the castle.   It is pretty popular so, you might not get your choosen time or location.  Good luck!


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## TerriJ (Mar 30, 2012)

Were you ever right.  The crowds at MK were crazy today.  Too crowded really to do much.  Can someone recommend the best Disney park for tomorrow?

We are home on a grandma rest time.  I am taking a cab back and meeting the kids for the lighted parade and fireworks.  Do they eve consider the park to be full?


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## brigechols (Mar 30, 2012)

TerriJ said:


> Were you ever right.  The crowds at MK were crazy today.  Too crowded really to do much.  Can someone recommend the best Disney park for tomorrow?


 Epcot and Animal Kingdom for Saturday, 31 March 2012



TerriJ said:


> Do they eve consider the park to be full?



Lol, yes! Disney will close the gates if the park is filled to capacity. I've heard of this happening around Christmas. Haven't heard of this happening for spring break.


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## Twinkstarr (Mar 30, 2012)

brigechols said:


> Epcot and Animal Kingdom for Saturday, 31 March 2012
> 
> 
> 
> Lol, yes! Disney will close the gates if the park is filled to capacity. I've heard of this happening around Christmas. Haven't heard of this happening for spring break.



Easter week 2009 they hit at least the first level of closing at MK a few days. We were at DVC Vero Beach and ran into a few people doing split stays and were glad to get away from the crowds.


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## dundey (Mar 31, 2012)

brigechols said:


> Epcot and Animal Kingdom for Saturday, 31 March 2012
> 
> 
> 
> Lol, yes! Disney will close the gates if the park is filled to capacity. I've heard of this happening around Christmas. Haven't heard of this happening for spring break.



We were staying at a Disney resort Christmas week 1999 - so on New Year's Eve (Millennium eve!) All the parks were full by around 10AM! They did open a couple of them again later in the day.  We saw Cheap Trick that evening at the Studios.  I'm not sure if that was the busiest day ever but it had to be close!


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## TerriJ (Mar 31, 2012)

Yesterday about 1 there was hardly a place to sit or eat.  I heard there were about 70,000 people there and that they quit letting people in at 80,000.


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## MichaelColey (Mar 31, 2012)

TerriJ said:


> Were you ever right. The crowds at MK were crazy today. Too crowded really to do much. Can someone recommend the best Disney park for tomorrow?


MK was one of the least crowded parks on 3/30, so I suspect that the problem was TIME OF DAY.  Get to the parks at least half an hour before they open, and maximize your use of the first hour or two (by visiting the most popular rides first), then get the maximum use of FastPasses throughout the day.


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## Jay_G (Mar 31, 2012)

dundey said:


> We were staying at a Disney resort Christmas week 1999 - so on New Year's Eve (Millennium eve!) All the parks were full by around 10AM! They did open a couple of them again later in the day.  We saw Cheap Trick that evening at the Studios.  I'm not sure if that was the busiest day ever but it had to be close!



I went to Disney World in November of 1996 and I have a video of our cab driver saying that all rooms both built and unbuilt were all ready book from 12/31/1999 for the Millennium. 

I think that is still the busiest day on record at WDW.


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## DebBrown (Mar 31, 2012)

Ahhhh.... we leave for Orlando in the morning.  Weather looks wonderful.  We may just hang out at the pool all week.  We're still working on using our 7 day park hopper passes that I bought 10 years ago.  Maybe we'll have one Disney today.  I've printed out the calendar but I bet there will be no "good" choice.

Deb


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## TerriJ (Mar 31, 2012)

Hollywood Studios was doable today.  We figured out how to do FP and got on some fun rides.  Even with all the good advice it took us awhile to figure things out, with a group of seven.  There was room to sit and eat too.  And then it stormed, but we left before that.


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## Jay_G (Apr 2, 2012)

DebBrown said:


> Ahhhh.... we leave for Orlando in the morning.  Weather looks wonderful.  We may just hang out at the pool all week.  We're still working on using our 7 day park hopper passes that I bought 10 years ago.  Maybe we'll have one Disney today.  I've printed out the calendar but I bet there will be no "good" choice.
> 
> Deb



It depends on your goals.  The great thing about your tickets is they don't expire and you can park hop.  If you do want to do Ride, expecially rides with lines, get to a park before it opens.  Follow a touring plan.  You can do Space Mountain, Splash Mountain, (Thunder is still closed) the more kiddy rides like Dumbo, Peter Pan etc.  Within two hours of park opening with out much of a wait at all.  Same is true for Toy Story Mania, Star Tours, Tower of Terror & Rock 'n Rollercoaster, or Everest, Dinosaur, and Killmanjaro, or Soar'n & Test Track.

Then you can leave go back to the pool, and come back for the fireworks, Frantasmic or Illuminations and some more rides.   

If the day had 80,000 people or 30,000 people you really can't show up a noon, wander around and try to go on the Big attractions. 
There should be shows and other fun things to do that will will not have to wait long for, I really enjoy the TTA (peoplemover) and there is almost never a line for it. Tiki Birds I think you can still always get into next show, Carousel of Progress has almost no wait, which has had a new show with Obama for a couple years now.  It's now almost 1:00pm and while the wait for Splash Mountain is 96 minutes, Space is 49 min, Peter Pan is 46 min.  There are still attactions with under a 10 mintue wait, and that's probibly just the average for the next show.  Seating every 15 minutes your wait will be from 0 to 14.9 minutes depanding of luck.


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## TerriJ (Apr 2, 2012)

In retrospect, we could have been more organized.  We did have a great time and got to go on quite a few fun rides.  DIL got quite a few autographs.  We will go again with other son and family and we will be more experienced!  The lighted parade was something to see.

We did four parks  plus downtown Disney in three days and that may have been too much.  

Lots of fun and great memories, now that I am back home.


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## DebBrown (Apr 3, 2012)

Jay_G said:


> If you do want to do Ride, expecially rides with lines, get to a park before it opens.  Follow a touring plan.



Yeah... no one in my family is very industrious on this vacation.  That's why today we are playing miniature golf, shopping and seeing a movie.  I told my GD that she'd have to get up early for Disney.

We are lucky to have wonderful weather this week.  Yesterday we played in the pool all day.  I bought a big inflatable boat at Publix for $10 and we got a whole day of entertainment from it.

Deb


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## TerriJ (Apr 3, 2012)

Getting to MK did seem like a lot of work!


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## spencersmama (Apr 5, 2012)

We were at Magic Kingdom yesterday and did the whole park, or at least the rides we wanted to do, from about 9 pm to 12:30.  The crowds really thin out when people line up to see the parade and fireworks. Most people leave after that. We even stopped by the new Dumbo ride and it was walk-on. It looked very pretty with the new water feature and lighting. Even though they like the  bigger rides, I made my kids do Snow White since it will probably be our last time. They close it next month to make a princess meet and greet area. Even the temporary princess area and the Mickey meet and greet had no line that late. I guess most mini princesses were in bed at that hour.


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## cindi (Apr 6, 2012)

Yikes!! We got back from a week in Orlando on Wed.  It was so doggone busy! Both crowd wise and weather wise I felt like I was there in summer. I am just too old for this.  

There was a point that the line for Splash Mountain was 2 hours! Insane.

We only went on a couple of rides when we were there. Just wasn't worth fighting the crowds.


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## DebBrown (Apr 6, 2012)

We decided to do one crazy marathon day.  We got up early and started at MK with two Space Mountain rides plus a couple of others.  We were at HS by 11am, picked up fast passes for the Tower of Terror and did the singles line for the roller coaster.  We caught Beauty & the Beast and a couple other rides before heading home for naps around 4pm.  We went back for the Fantasmic light show and then back to MK until 1am.  It really felt like more than one day!  I used park hopper passes that we bought back in 2003.  

It really was more doable than I expected. 

Deb


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## stanleyu (Apr 7, 2012)

cindi said:


> Yikes!! We got back from a week in Orlando on Wed.  It was so doggone busy! Both crowd wise and weather wise I felt like I was there in summer. I am just too old for this.
> 
> There was a point that the line for Splash Mountain was 2 hours! Insane.
> 
> We only went on a couple of rides when we were there. Just wasn't worth fighting the crowds.



Exactly the same experience we had the one day we did WDW during the week prior to Easter. When we arrived at MK mid-morning (by monorail) I noticed that the MK lot wasn't full (good sign?), but when wew left in the evening it was in overload status. Not sure if they stopped letting people in, but it was PACKED!


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