Conflicting Crowd Calendars

[suswa]

Thanks you all! It all makes perfect sense. I like the easy WDW explanations.

 

[IndyRnRfan]

What some of the others have said, and Josh does a great job explaining this on his site, is that wait times aren't really a good indication of "crowdedness". With up to 70% of capacity being given to FP+ users and the overall better understanding of how the system works wait times have jumped up, especially for those 2nd and 3rd tier attractions.

What site is this? I'd be interested in seeing the theory behind this. Thanks

 

[siskaren]

What site is this? I'd be interested in seeing the theory behind this. Thanks

easyWDW - Josh is the guy who writes it.

 

[Shanti]

Ack so what to do when you locate some vastly conflicting crowd calendars?
We are not traveling until Late August but I am trying to hammer out our ADR's
Touring Plans and Kenny the Pirate are showing a lot of conflicting info.
What are your experiences with crowd calendars? yay or nay?
Go where you want, when you want?

We go to Disney when it works for our real-life schedule, and I use logic & knowledge from my own experience in planning what to do when we're there.

I've studied & counted on crowd calendars in the past and been burned by them- am so done with that. The year-round crowds are reaching the point that crowd calendars have much less value than they used to. The important thing is knowing how to tour effectively, and I don't need a computer to plan that for me.

It's liberating to go whenever & wherever works for us, without relying on "experts" to give us wrong advice. It's kind of like being on vacation.

 

[Boski]

We go to Disney when it works for our real-life schedule, and I use logic & knowledge from my own experience in planning what to do when we're there.

I've studied & counted on crowd calendars in the past and been burned by them- am so done with that. The year-round crowds are reaching the point that crowd calendars have much less value than they used to. The important thing is knowing how to tour effectively, and I don't need a computer to plan that for me.

It's liberating to go whenever & wherever works for us, without relying on "experts" to give us wrong advice. It's kind of like being on vacation.

I'd say the majority of people going to Disney are working around their real-life schedule. Overall crowd calendars can't help those individuals that have very narrow travel windows due to their other obligations. If you do have a option of when you travel it is nice to review the calendars to see when would be a good time to travel. What crowd calendars are the most helpful for, IMO, is figuring out what park is best visited during the time you are there. You said knowing how to tour effectively is very important, could not agree more with you here. However this is where those "experts" advice plays in. You've got a guy like Josh who is in the parks every week noticing patterns and coming up with ways to tour the parks to maximum efficiency. They tend to know what they are talking about. If you like to go with the flow and at your own pace that is awesome, but there are others who may want to try to hit the parks hard and experience as many attractions as possible even though it might be a bit more "stress". Some enjoy trying to squeeze in as much as possible, and some are a bit of both. Again I think a bit of education never hurt and then its up to you on how to use that knowledge.