Conflicting Crowd Calendars

[suswa]

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?

 

[lovethattink]

Have you compared both if those to Easy WDW?

 

[Alesia]

I always find easywdw.com to be spot on. We go in the summer and rarely wait more than 20 minutes for anything - never more than 30.

 

[suswa]

Have you compared both if those to Easy WDW?

Just went to look and they haven't posted August yet

 

[Kimly]

Those calendars are not very accurate the past two years since it is always busy now.

 

[Alesia]

Just went to look and they haven't posted August yet

He doesn't have the explanations up yet, but the preliminary calendar is here: http://www.easywdw.com/easy/blog/august-2016/

 

[provencio]

I always find easywdw.com to be spot on. We go in the summer and rarely wait more than 20 minutes for anything - never more than 30.

Do you do rope drop? Do you follow the touring plans?

 

[Sean91]

I honestly think that it's only a matter of time before the crowd calendar idea goes right out of the window with how busy it is all year round now. I guess what's important to remember is that its relative... "this is a low crowd season" in relation to how manic it can actually get at WDW

 

[AliceinMaryland]

I honestly think that it's only a matter of time before the crowd calendar idea goes right out of the window with how busy it is all year round now. I guess what's important to remember is that its relative... "this is a low crowd season" in relation to how manic it can actually get at WDW

I believe Josh over at easywdw tried explaining this before because some people were complaining how his calendar said the day was a 2 when it felt like a 5 to them. Someone correct me if I'm wrong but I think basically he said that by his calculations the day was still a 2 and that in the grand scheme of things the percentage of people coming into the parks compared to other days was still a level 2. There are just more people now than there were 5 years ago so the new level 2 now looks lIke what a level 4 or 5 used to and maybe a new level 7 or 8 looks lIke an old level 9 from years ago. LOL I did a really crappy job of explaining that, maybe someone can explain better .

 

[Alesia]

Do you do rope drop? Do you follow the touring plans?

Definitely rope drop. I follow a touring plan that is largely based on the cheats at easywdw.com.

 

[Alesia]

I honestly think that it's only a matter of time before the crowd calendar idea goes right out of the window with how busy it is all year round now. I guess what's important to remember is that its relative... "this is a low crowd season" in relation to how manic it can actually get at WDW

Yes, it's busier now, but it's still possible to predict which park will be busier on a given day. Crowd calendars aren't about which week is best, but which park you should go to on a particular day.

 

[BudgieMama]

He doesn't have the explanations up yet, but the preliminary calendar is here: http://www.easywdw.com/easy/blog/august-2016/

Actually, they're up!

http://www.easywdw.com/easy/calendars/august-2016-walt-disney-world-crowd-calendar/

 

[msjprincess]

Definitely easywdw.com. I like that Josh gives an explanation for each day.

 

[strat68]

During one of their podcasts last year the folks on Touring Plans made the point that the wait times do not reflect the actual numbers of people in the parks. They said that attendance was not up much at all but wait times were significantly higher. They wondered if the management deliberately instituted a slow down to ride loading for some strange reason.

 

[BlueFairy]

I believe Josh over at easywdw tried explaining this before because some people were complaining how his calendar said the day was a 2 when it felt like a 5 to them. Someone correct me if I'm wrong but I think basically he said that by his calculations the day was still a 2 and that in the grand scheme of things the percentage of people coming into the parks compared to other days was still a level 2. There are just more people now than there were 5 years ago so the new level 2 now looks lIke what a level 4 or 5 used to and maybe a new level 7 or 8 looks lIke an old level 9 from years ago. LOL I did a really crappy job of explaining that, maybe someone can explain better .

Yes, that's basically it. TP on the other hand has their numbers correlate to average peak wait times for headliners in a park.

 

[Praying Colonel]

I really don't care about crowd calendars anymore. IMHO most WDW veterans will do fine if they're there at RD and have a plan.

 

[IndyRnRfan]

Parks appear to be getting more crowded as of recently. I keep a watch of the rides almost daily. Just the other day TSM was 120 minutes at 9am. RnR was at 90 by the same time. I thought this was suppose to be a "slow" time.

 

[tlmadden73]

Based on the reports of how crowded the last few weeks have been, I wouldn't even bother with crowd calendars anymore.

- Go when YOU can.
- Don't go on or around a major holiday
- Plan for crowds and minimize the crowds by going early or staying late.

 

[Moonwolf]

I never fully depend on crowd calendars because at the end of the day they are all just educated guesses on what an overall day will be and what would be best for the majority of people. Instead I use them to understand the type of crowd I should expect. I find knowing the reason why something is rated what it is, is more important than the number itself because they are trying to appeal to the masses and if you are not part of the masses things may be different for you.

A big example is a park with EMH would be not recommended because the majority of people either are not eligible for EMH or will not be able to go early/stay late to take advantage of them. I find myself as an exception to this because most of the time I stay on site and am capable of rising early/staying late so I can benefit with the extra time and while the peak hours will be more crowded I use them to do higher capacity attractions. So I will ignore the crowd calendar's recommendation because it does not apply to me.

On the other hand if a crowd calendar does not recommend a park do to an event that is happening that I don't have tickets to then I may reconsider going to that park since I would not be able to take advantage of the extra event.

In the end I like using EasyWDW because they give an explanation on why each park is or is not recommended so I can decide if I fit the majority or not. I also appreciate the cheat sheets when I am planning because they have line estimations for each rating. It really helped me conceptualize the crowds when I was planning my first trip as an adult. (peak line lengths are generally the same, give or take about 10 mins, but the difference is for lower ratings the peak may last only an hour or so while during a heavy crowd the peak may be a lot longer)

 

[Boski]

Parks appear to be getting more crowded as of recently. I keep a watch of the rides almost daily. Just the other day TSM was 120 minutes at 9am. RnR was at 90 by the same time. I thought this was suppose to be a "slow" time.

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.