Easywdw or touringplans

[Bennettsmommy]

I am trying to plan my families first trip to Disney World. I am making ADRs in 2 days so I'm running out of time. I am finding conflicting info on easywdw and touring plans on which park is best. One will say it is the best park and the other says it is the worst. Which site is most reliable in your opinion?

 

[LSUfan4444]

What day are you referring to? They can both hit, they can both miss.

 

[dizzy about daisy]

we prefer touring plans but really anything can change at any time at Disney

 

[bigjrfan88]

I am trying to plan my families first trip to Disney World. I am making ADRs in 2 days so I'm running out of time. I am finding conflicting info on easywdw and touring plans on which park is best. One will say it is the best park and the other says it is the worst. Which site is most reliable in your opinion?

I personally trust EasyWDW more. I have used both for my planning, and EasyWDW has nailed it both times. TP uses all kinds of metrics I dont understand. Then they will call a park the "best park" due to "7day rule". That means a park could be packed, but listed a best park because it hasnt been listed as a best park in 7 days. Josh at EasyWDW is at the parks almost everyday checking things out. In my opinion TP has too much automation going on in their recommendations.

One thing to keep in mind though. Going to a park as early in the day as possible will mitigate all crowd issues. If you can get there at rope drop, you have beat 75% of the park patrons that day. Also, try to go at a not so busy time of year too.

 

[Jewel3k]

I use a combination of both EasyWDW.com and touring plans. I feel like touring plans is always telling me to go to the Animal Kingdom. During our five day October trip it tells us to go to Animal Kindgom 3 times, MK once and HS once. Never Epcot, even when Epcot and the Animal Kingdom have the same "crowd number" on two of the days. So I go check with EasyWDW and he explains what is going on at each park and I feel good choosing Epcot over the Animal Kingdom. He also lets me know that hopping over to the MK one evening for night time entertainment is a great idea that week thanks to the Halloween Parties. I do enjoy the touring plans very detailed estimated to the minute cutomizable touring plans. It helps me figure out if we can fit everything we want into the day or if we are to ambitious.

 

[Bennettsmommy]

I am going from December 9 - 19 which I've heard is a good time to go. I'm going to try to get to the parks as close to rope drop as possible. I'm traveling with a 1 year old and we are coming from California so I can't wake him to early. We are doing a split stay at boardwalk and Wilderness lodge so we will be close to 3 parks at some point which should let us sleep in a bit! Luckily it looks like most parks open at 9.

 

[LSUfan4444]

I think the best advice is to not just follow one or the other blindly. Look at both if you want to, but don't be afraid to go against a suggestion here or there if you follow the general overall theories.

If you have a specific day(s) you are questioning, let us know and even take suggestions from the Dis.

 

[Bennettsmommy]

I think I'm most frustrated because easywdw only recommends DHS one day. Dec 11 out of a week. And it says the Osborne lights may not be on which I want to see.

 

[LSUfan4444]

Can you not do the Osbourne Spectacle of Lights on Arrival day (Dec 9th), then go back on the 11th and not worry about the lights?

 

[Bennettsmommy]

Yes I could probably do that.

 

[MichelinMan]

I would ignore the park recommendation from Touring Plans, because it assumes that most families are at WDW for a week. We will be there for 11 nights, so I use the crowd level figure as a better guide then work out what days to do what parks from there.

 

[patty57]

I use Josh's recommendations at EasyWDW pretty exclusively at this point. Touring Plans seems to change their recommendations for best parks quite a bit. Often when they do, they will then align with Josh.

 

[Senator Tressel]

I just figure it out for myself. Avoid EMH, the earlier the close, the less crowded it'll be. This isn't complex arithmetic. Look at the hours and the entertainment schedules. And really, if you go for rope drop for the first 4-5 hours (avoiding EMH morning park if you don't have EMH) and then take a break, it really doesn't matter which park you pick. If you're using fastpass correctly, you won't be waiting in lines before you take that break.

But I will admit, I do check my personal opinions with both of those sites.

 

[Duffy Lover]

I say EasyWDW! I used TP for an 10 person spring break trip in 2011. I planned my ADR's around their recommendations, and with that what parks to visit when. Of course all their recommendations changed a week before my trip! Their ratings also changed drastically right before the trip! Grrrr.... I do not trust TP. Now if your touring strategy does not involve set parks and ADRs, I would imagine you could use TP, but if you're a planner I don't recommend it. If you're asking this question you must be a planner....

I discovered EasyWDW about a year ago and I am sold. We have a trip planned for a year from now for my extended family and I have printed up the EasyWDW calendar for this year that matches the time frame for next year's trip. Along with that Josh provides what equates to a 30 page word document describing rationale and touring ideas for my two week period. He does not swap recommended days unless something big happens (like eliminating an EMH as WDW did earlier this spring with MK pm EMH). He is reliable, and has demonstrated again and again with his blogs the difference between his recommended parks and the ones he states to avoid.

Josh is also hilarious. I adore his blog - So it is EasyWDW for me all the way!

 

[ArwenMarie]

EasyWDW for us.

 

[msmileyface]

I have relied on Touring Plans with much success in the past, but I think using a combination is best. Then you get the "data drive" and the anecdotal approaches. If they conflict, see why they do (is it because of the "7 day rule" or is it just because a park as extra magic hours?). They try to discourage you from going to a park with Extra Magic Hours because the crowds are higher, however if you take full advantage of those hours (arriving 30 min. before it starts or staying into the wee hours), then they are worth going to.

 

[isk8]

I've been using the Unofficial Guide/Touring Plans since the early 90's, and I have recently switched to using Josh's advice on EasyWDW almost exclusively. EasyWDW really helped with New Fantasyland last year during my December trip.

 

[Tropics]

I used Touring Plans for our first trip in 2011 and EasyWDW for our trip in Jan 2013. I really like that EasyWDW doesn't just give you a recommendation but explains the rationale for the recommendation.

 

[ammag]

I used TP last fall and had great success, the days matched up very well with what was recommended. I didn't read easy WDW at the time. Now we only have 2 park daysthis fall and the sites have exact opposite recommendations. Might go with TP, might just not care and do what we want its pretty off season anyhow and crowds at both sites are under a 3. I any event the unofficial guide book is wonderful if you want a paper book!

 

[nlyons75]

I say EasyWDW! I used TP for an 10 person spring break trip in 2011. I planned my ADR's around their recommendations, and with that what parks to visit when. Of course all their recommendations changed a week before my trip! Their ratings also changed drastically right before the trip! Grrrr.... I do not trust TP. Now if your touring strategy does not involve set parks and ADRs, I would imagine you could use TP, but if you're a planner I don't recommend it. If you're asking this question you must be a planner....

This happened to us this past August as well. I planned our trip and ADR's based off of touring plans and then discovered Easy WDW about a month later. After I compared the two I decided to stick with touring plans. About 4-5 days before we start our drive I received an email from touring plans saying that their recommended parks and parks to avoid had change for 5 of our 7 days. Was not happy. Our second day there touring plans originally had HS as their recommended park and Epcot was their park to avoid. EasyWDW had Epcot as their best park. When we got the email days before our trip touring plans now matched easywdw. We didn't want to change our ADR's so we stuck with our original plan. That day at HS wasn't horrible, but it was definitely crowded to the point that I couldn't believe anyone would recommend it as a "best" park. Later on I saw a review for Epcot for that same day on EasyWDW and the crowds looked very light, a little salt in the wounds.

We don't have another trip planned yet, but I know that when we do plan one I'll probably use a combination of the two, and when there are conflicts between the two, I will go with easywdw's recommended park.