Touring Plans accuracy?

[shyjade]

What is your experience with Touring Plans? I just subscribed and am very excited to see the crowd level predictions ranging from 1-4 during our upcoming trip.

In your experience, are these predictions accurate? Do you follow the suggested parks to visit/avoid and have you found them to be accurate?

I've always done my own research and have my own ideas on where to go/where to avoid on certain days. But since I subscribed (mainly to have full access to the mobile app while in the parks), I'm curious if I should revise my touring plans if they are more accurate?

What are your thoughts?

 

[Kfamilly]

We did Touring Plans for our last trip. We picked what Parks we were gonna do fairly far in advance, as it coincided with the selection and booking of our ADRs.

We checked the crowd calendars, a couple of days before we left, and they were vastly different.

To clarify, this is not necessarily a knock on Touring Plans at all. They were predicting the crowds, with the information they had at the time I looked at it. Plain and simple. But my Crowd Calendar numbers definitely changed from the time we planned out our schedule, till D-Day.

The biggest difference was Animal Kingdom being a 1.7 when we planned our schedule and ADRs, to a 6.3(Park to Avoid)

 

[luvsJack]

We did Touring Plans for our last trip. We picked what Parks we were gonna do fairly far in advance, as it coincided with the selection and booking of our ADRs.

We checked the crowd calendars, a couple of days before we left, and they were vastly different.

To clarify, this is not necessarily a knock on Touring Plans at all. They were predicting the crowds, with the information they had at the time I looked at it. Plain and simple. But my Crowd Calendar numbers definitely changed from the time we planned out our schedule, till D-Day.

The biggest difference was Animal Kingdom being a 1.7 when we planned our schedule and ADRs, to a 6.3(Park to Avoid)

Did you change your plans for that day or did you go to AK? How was it?

 

[Kfamilly]

Did you change your plans for that day or did you go to AK? How was it?

We went anyways!! Haha. It was crowded, but our dinner reservations were as such, that changing plans was out of the question.

Lesson learned, but also learned the lesson that its never as bad as it seems. We had a blast anyways, and that's all that matters.

 

[Valley Twin]

We used TP for our trip last October during Food & Wine and it was great. For the most part, we went with the recommended parks and breezed through everything. Download their mobile app if you can and use it during the day to "check off" the things you've done. It will update your touring plan as you go based on info it's receiving from other users in the parks. Made things sooooo much smoother than the times we've gone and just wandered on our own.

 

[christie_megansmom]

You'll have better luck with easywdw.com. He has crowd level predictions that don't suddenly change a week before your trip, throwing off your entire plan, resulting in either higher crowds or missed ADRs.

 

[LisaTC]

I've used them 4 times. Found them to be very accurate and for the times, generally, were fairly close to easywdw. I like them. I base our days on the crowd calendar and then choose ADR's based on what days we are at which parks. I've only changed a couple of times but it wasn't a big deal. I changed AK day for DHS day. We went to DHS, took the bus there for our Boma ADR, then back to DHS for Osborne lights...worked out fine. Used them both as a general guide for which parks on which days. The thing I did was really did go by the Park to Avoid days, attempted for Best park days, but sometimes settled for neutral parks.

Some of this depends on what type of visitor you are. We tend to be early morning people. Get our ride selections in early and 'tour' the rest of the day. That's worked well.

 

[JRawkSteady]

He has crowd level predictions that don't suddenly change a week before your trip, throwing off your entire plan, resulting in either higher crowds or missed ADRs.

Yeah, I've never had that problem with Touring Plans and I've been using them for a long time.

 

[raidermatt]

Depends how far in advance you are looking at them. As others have said, they can change significantly in the last month or two.

We subscribe, but since I book the ADRs so far in advance, I don't really use their crowd calendar. I just avoid the EMH parks and that usually works well. If Fantasmic isn't running every night, that's a factor too as DHS will be much busier on nights that it does run.

But their actual touring plans work very well. Also their Lines app is extremely useful while in the park. Their expected wait times are usually far more accurate than Disney's posted wait times. And since users can input info real time, you get current info on FP availability and attraction downtime.

 

[fabulousfive]

I'm curious too as I just subscribed this morning! I was surprised to see big differences between TP & WDW one. It made me happy though because the TP recommended parks are the ones we already have scheduled. So it helped me feel more at ease. Love hearing feedback on its accuracy!

 

[Lita]

It worked well for me for the most part. I loved using the app and using the optimize function in the park to revise our touring plan if we made a slight deviation from the original plan. We were at WDW from May 23-29th. When I booked in December, neither Touring Plans nor easywdw knew that Disney would make the 24th (my daughter's birthday) an all-nighter. I already had CRT booked for an 8am breakfast with the intention of being in the park before opening. This day quickly went from being a recommended park to a park to avoid not long before our trip. This is something that no crowd calendar can predict. Fortunately for us, the crowds still were not bad during the first part of the day. We just could not get that coveted picture of the castle or Main St. Before park opening.

Sent from my iPad using DISBoards

 

[Gr8t Fan]

You'll have better luck with easywdw.com. He has crowd level predictions that don't suddenly change a week before your trip, throwing off your entire plan, resulting in either higher crowds or missed ADRs.

+1

We tried touringplans one year (2008) and were disappointed because the crowd levels changed significantly right before our trip. Since then we've followed easywdw and have had great experiences.

 

[fabulousfive]

+1

We tried touringplans one year (2008) and were disappointed because the crowd levels changed significantly right before our trip. Since then we've followed easywdw and have had great experiences.

Just curious as to why levels & predictions would change? Due to Disney's changes? And, the reason I purchased TP is for the actual touring plans more so than the crowd calendars. I'll have to see if easywdw has these plans too.

 

[vicki_c]

Just curious as to why levels & predictions would change? Due to Disney's changes? And, the reason I purchased TP is for the actual touring plans more so than the crowd calendars. I'll have to see if easywdw has these plans too.

TP puts out their initial recommendations very early. Then they adjust them as Disney adjusts their schedules or as crowd estimations are more known, etc. That can lead to some significant (relatively) last-minute changes in recommendations.

 

[Gr8t Fan]

TP puts out their initial recommendations very early. Then they adjust them as Disney adjusts their schedules or as crowd estimations are more known, etc. That can lead to some significant (relatively) last-minute changes in recommendations.

Exactly. In 2008 we didn't have park hoppers, so we bought a subscription to touring plans hoping to get the best bang for our buck during a very crowded time (just before Christmas). We were disappointed and have since found easywdw's recommendations and touring plans. Easywdw has not only been better (in our experience), but also free.

 

[christie_megansmom]

Yeah, I've never had that problem with Touring Plans and I've been using them for a long time.

Then I'd say you got lucky. For example, until April 4, they predicted Cinco de Mayo to produce LEVEL 9 crowds. That is NUTS. There's no way that would happen. Even I knew that, and knew something was off. So, on April 4, I got an email with the dates I'd been tracking. The worst kinds of changes are the <PARK NAME> is no longer a best park. Thanks a lot, but I made my ADRs 6 months ago and most of them can't be changed, so now I'm going to be at a park with a crowd level of 6 instead of the 2 it was predicted to be, because there's no way I'm getting a new Be Our Guest or CRT reservation 27 days before I'm going to be there. So you have no choice but to go to the park you originally planned to be at. It's just super annoying. This stuff just doesn't happen with EasyWDW unless there's some MAJOR event (like them adding a 24 hour day for the Monstrous Summer kickoff).

Here are the changes I got before our trip.

May 02: Resort-wide Crowd Level updated from 6 to 5.
May 02: Disney's Hollywood Studios Crowd Level updated from 4.1 to 2.9.
May 02: Animal Kingdom Crowd Level updated from 6.0 to 4.9.
May 03: Epcot Crowd Level updated from 2.6 to 5.3.
May 03: Disney's Hollywood Studios is now a best park.
May 03: Disney's Hollywood Studios Crowd Level updated from 5.2 to 3.2.
May 03: Epcot is no longer a best park.
May 04: Epcot is now a best park.
May 04: Epcot Crowd Level updated from 5.7 to 2.9.
May 04: Animal Kingdom is no longer a best park.
May 04: Animal Kingdom Crowd Level updated from 5.3 to 6.8.
May 04: Magic Kingdom Crowd Level updated from 6.4 to 7.9.
May 05: Resort-wide Crowd Level updated from 9 to 5.
May 05: Animal Kingdom Crowd Level updated from 9.7 to 5.2.
May 05: Magic Kingdom Crowd Level updated from 9.3 to 5.4.
May 05: Epcot Crowd Level updated from 4.6 to 2.3.
May 05: Disney's Hollywood Studios is now a park to avoid.
May 05: Disney's Hollywood Studios Crowd Level updated from 7.4 to 5.7.
May 05: Animal Kingdom is no longer a park to avoid.
May 06: Animal Kingdom Crowd Level updated from 4.8 to 3.3.
May 06: Animal Kingdom is now a best park.
May 07: Disney's Hollywood Studios Crowd Level updated from 2.6 to 4.4.
May 07: Animal Kingdom is no longer a park to avoid.
May 07: Animal Kingdom Crowd Level updated from 4.6 to 3.2.
May 07: Disney's Hollywood Studios is no longer a best park.
May 07: Disney's Hollywood Studios is now a park to avoid.
May 08: Disney's Hollywood Studios Crowd Level updated from 2.9 to 4.3.
May 08: Animal Kingdom is now a best park.
May 08: Animal Kingdom is no longer a park to avoid.
May 08: Animal Kingdom Crowd Level updated from 4.8 to 3.1.
May 08: Disney's Hollywood Studios is now a park to avoid.
May 09: Disney's Hollywood Studios Crowd Level updated from 2.4 to 4.3.
May 09: Resort-wide Crowd Level updated from 4 to 5.
May 10: Disney's Hollywood Studios Crowd Level updated from 3.2 to 4.5.
May 10: Resort-wide Crowd Level updated from 5 to 6.

I got 4 of these kinds of emails with major changes, between February and the end of April.

 

[mistysue]

I think it was back in 2008 but I went to touring plans and tourguide Mike for advice on that trip... there was one day where they had dramatically different recommendations. I went with what touring plans said and it was by far the worst day of any of our trips. It was AK, it was hot, crowded and everybody was all stressed out everywhere. Otherwise we go in late August so it's usually not a big deal if you pick the wrong park. This made it that much more annoying that the site was THAT far off.

Tourguide Mike will still charge you money to go on his site, but doesn't seem to update or actually do anything anymore so I don't recommend that route. Unless you just want to give somebody money in which case that should take care of that need for you.

I started picking days myself our second trip, the parks I pick tend to coincide with easywdw and his advice is fun to read. Plus it's free. He gives useful information on good ways to do things, sometimes it takes a bit of clicking around to find what you want but the info is there.

It can be hit and miss, predictions are that way but I haven't had a bad day when I was somewhere easywdw suggested, which I guess is something.

 

[christie_megansmom]

It can be hit and miss, predictions are that way but I haven't had a bad day when I was somewhere easywdw suggested, which I guess is something.

I've used easywdw since 2011 for three separate trips and Josh has been spot-on. And now that he has the wait time site, I'm 100% done with Touring Plans.

 

[bnhonest]

We are going the second week of December and just booked our ADRs this week. I actually planned the trip out by looking at both TP and EasyWDW. 4 days of our trip, they agree with each other, and on the days they don't, they aren't that much in disagreement. TP may have a park listed as best and Easy may have it listed as good or second best. I figured that at least gets me in the ballpark.

 

[Sunnywho]

I look at both easywdw and touring plans. Have had good experiences with both. We don't make too many ADRs so are more flexible at changing plans last-minute if needed.