That's the question I address in my Orange County Register column this week. As the founder and editor of Theme Park Insider, I'm part of a publishing niche built on providing a sometimes overwhelming level of information and analysis to encourage people to spend their time, attention, and money to get the answer to this question.
So I understand the financial and social risk in actually telling you this... the best day to visit a theme park is any darned day you want.
Forget crowd calendars. Forget trying to find some secret day when it's convenient for you to visit but that no one else will want to go to the park. They don't exist, if they ever did. The "off-season" doesn't even really exist at Disney theme parks anymore, not with all the special events, conventions, vacation package deals, and annual passholders filling the parks on even weekdays during the school year. When you arrive at the park and what you do inside it matters more these days in helping you avoid unnecessary waits than the specific day you choose to visit.
Now, allow me to shoot theme park planning website publishers (like tme!) in the foot one more time by saying that you don't need some fancy step-by-step attack plan when you visit a theme park, either.
I've seen waaaay too many people get more stressed trying to keep to their plan than they ever would have been having to spend time in a queue. Heck, if the point of a vacation is to spend time with your family, a theme park queue actually forced you to do that. (Well, at least it did in the time before everyone had a cell phone to divert their attention.)
The point of visiting a theme park is to have fun. And the most important tool to help you do that is not a crowd calendar or a step-by-step plan. It's your attitude. If you come into your day looking for fun, you are far more likely to find it than if you come into your day looking for challenges — whether they be avoiding crowds, maximizing your number or rides, or getting the most photos and autographs you can.
Yes, all that stuff can be nice. But they are supposed to be the means to the end of having fun. When those goals become the end in themselves, too often the fun of visiting a theme park gets lost.
So here's my message to everyone thinking about or planning a theme park vacation in the year to come — chill. Don't worry. Plan to go on the day you want, that's convenient for you, when you can get there early. Get your tickets in advance, then go enjoy your day. The number of rides you go on doesn't matter. If people waited less time than you did doesn't matter either. It's not a competition.
Do what looks good and if you don't get to everything today, don't worry. Just have fun so that everyone in your family will want to come back and do more again another day.
Read Robert's column:
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Typically, by two hours we've ridden half of what we wanted to see, and we sit down to have a character breakfast and relax, we're already light years ahead of the game.
I feel like the Internet bombards fans with the message PLAN! PLAN! PLAN! NOW! NOW! NOW! And I want to back off and let people know that they're not failing if they reject that message. It's YOUR vacation, not anyone else's to manage.
That in mind, there are some easy strategies to make the most of a very busy day at any park. Arrive early, head to the back of the park first, eat early or late, and in case lines get really bad, know what single rider/front of line pass options are available ahead of time.
I think a lot of people need to read your post, Robert. It's not a competition.
The other big mistake I see people make is to create a rigid plan that can be completely ruined by a single miscalculation. I've heard of people with plans so precise that an unscheduled stop at a drinking fountain may result in missing an attraction. How can that be fun? My general strategy is to plan a rough sequence of attractions for the first two to four hours of the day, then decide the rest of the day on the fly based on a priority list. While I do not advise anyone to visit a non-local park with no plan at all, you should be sensible about it. If you're not enjoying yourself, you're doing it wrong.
Otherwise, I could not agree more with Robert's approach here. Cheers....
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