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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.