Does the day of the week really matter?

[PNWmom]

Does it really matter what day of the week you visit what park? Has the internet changed the rules so now everyone avoids the MK on Mondays so now its a good day to go?

[GrumpyFan]

I'm assuming you're using the Intercot When to visit Walt Disney World (http://www.intercot.com/infocentral/weather/whentovisit.asp) page as your guide on this? If so, you should probably look around the net at what some other places say, you might find some big differences. There's at least one site that I know of that does a day by day forecast up to 12 months of crowd levels and which will be the best day to visit which park.

There are many factors that effect park levels, and some of them are unknown to even the best planners. Some things to consider are, whether the park your visiting that day had an EMH the night before, if so, then it will be less crowded that day, at least for the first half. Special events in the park will effect levels as well.

There are three ways to handle crowd levels,
1) Just deal with it, go with the flow.
2) Park hop. If the park you want to visit is too crowded, go to another (requires park hopper).
3) Do your homework. Look here on Intercot, but also other Disney planning sites to find out what's the best park for which day.

[dteed]

IMHO it does not matter much. I have never found that one was more crowded on a certain day over another day according to the internet. If the park is too packed, just hop over to another one. Our plans are made to be very flexible and our dinner reservations are usually at resorts so we can move if necessary.

[IloveDisney71]

IMHO it does not matter much. I have never found that one was more crowded on a certain day over another day according to the internet. If the park is too packed, just hop over to another one. ...
:ditto: I agree and we do the same thing, if it gets too crowded we will either take a break or hop to another park.

[kbean]

I think it does matter because some forget about us floridians that will visit when school is closed. But it also depends what park you visit. I avoid weekends, but I also live by so it does not bother me what day I go. When I do go, I go mid week and have been very pleased on those days.

[LCPZA]

I have found that MK is crowded on Sat/ Sun. AK has been our best bet on Sundays. Hollywood Studios?(MGM) has been our best bet for Sat. We allways spend atleast 14 days at Disney when we go. So I usually get 2 weekends out of each vacation and no matter if we go in October, December, or January it always seem to be the case. Holidays are horrible at Epcot and MK from my experiences. We avoid those parks on those days.

[SBETigg]

To my experience, the most crowded days list is pretty accurate. It may be more or less effective depending on season, but I do think the busiest days per park are on target with what they say.

[MrPeetrie]

IMHO it does not matter much. I have never found that one was more crowded on a certain day over another day according to the internet.

I couldn't disagree more. On our most recent trip, we attended the Magic Kingdom four of eight days. On Friday and Saturday, the park's regular hours were open until Midnight. On those days, every ride had at least a 20 min wait and FastPass was a must. On our last full day, Tuesday, Magic Kingdom was only open until 7 p.m. (because of MNSSHP), and Epcot had early magic hours. We went to the Magic Kingdom and rode EVERYTHING! I guess people think they're not getting their money's worth if the park closes early. After eating at the Main Street Bakery, we rode Swiss Family (no wait), Aladdin (no wait), Jungle Cruise (5 min.), POTC (5 min.), grabbed a FastPass for Peter Pan (which was valid in only 45 minutes) and rode Haunted Mansion (10 min.), IASW (5 min.), grabbed FastPass for Winnie the Pooh (which was again valid in 45 min.) and used FastPass for Peter Pan, Philharmagic (5 min.), shopped in two stores then used FastPass for Winnie. Then went to Toontown and rode Goofy's Barnstormer (10 min.), grabbed the next train over to Frontierland and ate lunch at Pecos Bill's. This was all before 2 p.m.

On Friday and Saturday, POTC and Haunted Mansion each had 45-minute waits.