EasyWDW v. Touring Plans

[Cyrano]

OP no problem with the duplicate threads.
I did not see them earlier but have now combined them into the one thread

 

[Enjoying Life]

If you read through the explanations given on EasyWDW you will see that he bases his recommendations on the extra morning and evening hours at the parks. Basically, you avoid parks that have the extra hours and you go to parks that have had extra hours on the previous day. It makes sense.

 

[jrtoastyman]

I default to EasyWDW's suggestions. I like the way he explains his reasoning for choosing the parks he does.

I hear this explanation a lot, but I favor TP because I know it's based upon an absolute mountain of data that's been collected over a long period of time. Sure, the explanations for the ratings appear to be stock language, but I care more about whether it's accurate than how nicely the news is being delivered. For that reason, I'm a TP guy. You'll see plenty of diverging opinions on here, though, with both sites having plenty of advocates.

 

[msmileyface]

I am sure they're both good, but I vote for Touring Plans- just because 2 years ago I went in level 10 crowd levels every day and we did AMAZINGLY well. The longest wait was 20 minutes and it was a fastpass wait! So I can't speak to whether Easy WDW is better or worse, but TP worked great for me in the past.

That being said, I sort of ignore both in that I do not avoid parks on their extra magic hour days. I will go to the morning EMH bright and early and tour for a few hours and then leave if it's rough. I also LOVE the evening hours and staying into the wee hours.

 

[Grimlock34a]

I hear this explanation a lot, but I favor TP because I know it's based upon an absolute mountain of data that's been collected over a long period of time.

In case you dind't know, Josh pulls data from DISNEY'S own internal numbers for park attendance when he comes up with his charts.

If you can't trust's Disney's own info...........

 

[ChloesDaddy]

If you can't trust's Disney's own info...........

We hear all the time that we can't.

 

[ammag]

Having the same issue, this year our two park days are polar opposite suggestions between the two. Last year I didn't know About easy, I did TP and it worked out very well for us. Going to run with it again this time, will be interesting to see which one would have been more accurate

 

[mrsz06]

I use Josh's recommendations. We were there last week and followed Josh's recommendations for best park everyday. We arrived at rope drop and walked onto every single ride. Never once waited in line for a ride. I was shocked because crowd calendars predicted 5 and 6's while we were there. You sure wouldn't know it that's for sure. However, I will say that Fantasyland was a MAD HOUSE and CRAZY crowded. We don't have kids so this didn't really put a kink in our touring plans. I only went there to see New Fantasyland and I didn't get to see all of it because the hubs had an anxiety attack so we left.

 

[ajfd]

I didn't know about EasyWDW on our trip last year, so I used Touring Plans. It worked well for me, another family member, and a friend who all visited DW in the last month.

The IOS app was awesome and we referred to it constantly to make decisions on where to go. The wait times on it were often more accurate than Disney's own posted times.

For example, at DHS the kids really wanted to do Toy Story Mania but the FP were gone, the posted wait was 55 minutes, and I wasn't sure whether we'd be getting back to DHS this trip. We had to leave in 40 to hit an ADR. TP said the wait was 25 minutes. We walked the 5 minutes to the attraction where the wait was still posted as 55 min and got in line. Thirty minutes later we were stepping off the ride with happy kids.

We're hoping to go back a few times in the next year, so we'll give EasyWDW a try, too. But we were very happy with TP and felt it was worth annual fee.

 

[Sunnywho]

I figure that using either one is better than going blindly. For myself, I use both and try to avoid the not-recommended parks on both sites. I have a slight preference for Touring Plans because of the math that goes into it.

 

[pfalcioni]

I've used all three, first Tour Guide Mike, then Touring Plans in addition to TGM for a few trips, then TP in addition to EasyWDW for 2 trips, I even had one vacation where I was looking at all three of them! Now I exclusively use EasyWDW.

EasyWDW (Josh) is in the parks every week testing his own recommendations. He utilizes basic common knowledge plus data that's not available to the general public to create his plans.

Like others mentioned, his explanations make it much easier to decide what to do when your plan won't work for the most recommended parks.

Finally, the thing I really disliked about Touring Plans were all the updates. On one trip alone, my Touring Plans email folder had over 50 emails received in the 6 months before our trip, each with changes. If I had made dining reservations based on the first crowd calendars they released initially, we would have ended up mostly in non-recommended parks by the time we actually went!

 

[chekhovgirl]

I am sure they're both good, but I vote for Touring Plans- just because 2 years ago I went in level 10 crowd levels every day and we did AMAZINGLY well. The longest wait was 20 minutes and it was a fastpass wait! So I can't speak to whether Easy WDW is better or worse, but TP worked great for me in the past.

That being said, I sort of ignore both in that I do not avoid parks on their extra magic hour days. I will go to the morning EMH bright and early and tour for a few hours and then leave if it's rough. I also LOVE the evening hours and staying into the wee hours.

I've never used Easy WDW, but we used TP during a very high crowd trip and I think the longest we waited was maybe 30 min. for Dumbo because we didn't prioritize it that day. Was very pleased with the calendar, touring suggestions (we didn't make overly detailed plans, just outlines), and the lines app.

 

[JenCin78]

I used touringplans last year when we went during spring break and have purchased the app again this year but I've also checked out easywdw and in the process have totally confused myself. Now I don't know what to do or which is more accurate?

 

[pfalcioni]

80% of Dis users think EasyWDW is better http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=3072925

 

[epcotitis]

Have no idea what you are talking about....I posted the question once and logged out.

Thanks to all who replied.

Your computer did have a hiccup! It posted three times! Gotta love technology!

 

[MartDM]

I figure that using either one is better than going blindly. For myself, I use both and try to avoid the not-recommended parks on both sites. I have a slight preference for Touring Plans because of the math that goes into it.

This is kind of my approach too. Anything they agree upon is a no-brainer in making my touring decisions. For those days that they disagree on some level, I dig a little deeper and find out what the real differences are then go with whatever philosophy makes more sense for what I want to accomplish that day.

I love Touring Plans data usage and I love EasyWDW's explanations - can't complain about either. Using a team approach with both of them has served us well on many trips!

 

[tink2]

Well- I just really use them for the crowd calendars and basic stuff- we make our own plans for the parks to fit our needs. I will say that when my brother was at WDW over Spring Break- he didn't have his password to the touring plans lines app- so he was texting me to find out wait times- he got the password but we continued throughout the day- testing the wait times the lines app said vs. actual wait times- the lines app was very accurate- much more so than some of the other apps that have wait times. He was just there for a day with his daughter and friend- so we thought it was a good time to test it before our big family trip in June- definitely found the lines app we will be using- it was dead on every ride!

 

[reneaterry]

We used EasyWDW last trip and I had very short waits. We'll follow his calendar next trip also.

 

[pfalcioni]

EasyWDW has free, live wait times that are live from the parks and updated as often as they are updated at the attractions. It's a web page, so no app, no long load times: http://easywdw.com/waits/

And it's free!

 

[mirage0306]

If you read through the explanations given on EasyWDW you will see that he bases his recommendations on the extra morning and evening hours at the parks. Basically, you avoid parks that have the extra hours and you go to parks that have had extra hours on the previous day. It makes sense.

Yup. I use easywdw for this reason, too.