Crowd calendars, use them?

[WeLoveLilo05]

I have never used crowd calendars before. Since most of our meals r at our resort this year I don't have to be at a certain park on a certain day for a meal, so thinking about using them. Do you find them helpful or not so much? Going aug 28-sept 4.

 

[loves to dive]

Don't use them, never have, don't even look at them so are they helpful? Not for me, some will swear by them.

 

[Dan Murphy]

Yes, they are excellent. Have used them for 35+ trips, always on the mark.

easywdw.com

 

[ConnecticutNonna]

I really like both Touring Plans and Eadywdw... Sometimes they don't agree, but we have found TP to work for us! (we also love their park touring feature! It's so useful!)

 

[Justin91]

We are headed to Disneyworld in 16 days, we used easywdw to schedule all our park visits, ADRs and fast passes. So far the calendars apear to still be holding except all of the calandars are showing Magic Kingdom being super busy on our day there, when it said a few of months ago that it was recommended. And our first day at Epcot was supposed to be recommended but touring plans has it a crowd level of 10 that day! It will be interesting to see!

 

[cvjpirate]

I use them but don't use them as the end all be all of what I want to do. Just a way for me to prepare how I was to do my day.

 

[Lavitz]

I use them for the same reason I look at next week's weather report if I'm planning something. They're often wrong, but on average you're better off using them.

 

[megster1123]

For my vacation dates though, it seems like the calendars are under-estimating maybe? We'll be visiting Oct 3-9 and a lot of the days are levels of 4 and 5. I've heard repeatedly on this site though that the days of lower level crowds are gone - and that's getting backed up by actual crowd reports hitting near 10 when calendars predicted 6/7/8. So which school of thought carries the most accuracy? The crowd calendars that are data based and being proven wrong or the people that are going off of their opinion?

 

[wdw&sonny]

I use them for the same reason I look at next week's weather report if I'm planning something. They're often wrong, but on average you're better off using them.

I don't use them for the same reason i don't look at next week's weather report (for FL). I know it's going to rain mid afternoon in summer and I know the parks are going to be really crowded when kids are out of school and crowded when they are not.

But, EMH...that's important to know...EMH will mean the parks will be more crowded b/c everyone will go to that park or it will mean that park will be less crowded b/c everyone will avoid that park.

 

[PrincessWithABlaster]

For my vacation dates though, it seems like the calendars are under-estimating maybe? We'll be visiting Oct 3-9 and a lot of the days are levels of 4 and 5. I've heard repeatedly on this site though that the days of lower level crowds are gone - and that's getting backed up by actual crowd reports hitting near 10 when calendars predicted 6/7/8. So which school of thought carries the most accuracy? The crowd calendars that are data based and being proven wrong or the people that are going off of their opinion?

Disney themselves publicized lower attendance the first quarter this year compared to last. That said, if you read the blog at easyWDW, he often makes the point that it is capacity and not overall crowd increases that cause the parks to 'feel' crowded. And since Disney cut capacity first quarter this year, it seems like crowds were up. TP is based on wait times not attendan so it makes sense that their predictions were low (since cuts were announced early this year). I think EasyWDW is also based on something like wait times or 'feel' of the crowds in the parks. We had predicted 4, 5, 6s for the first week of May and I would say that was probably accurate.

 

[siskaren]

For my vacation dates though, it seems like the calendars are under-estimating maybe? We'll be visiting Oct 3-9 and a lot of the days are levels of 4 and 5. I've heard repeatedly on this site though that the days of lower level crowds are gone - and that's getting backed up by actual crowd reports hitting near 10 when calendars predicted 6/7/8. So which school of thought carries the most accuracy? The crowd calendars that are data based and being proven wrong or the people that are going off of their opinion?

You're not going to see crowd levels of 10 in October. 10 is the most crowded you'll see the parks, and that mostly only happens the week between Christmas and New Years. What's more likely is that a crowd level of 5 in 2016 is not the same as a crowd level of 5 in 2006 was.

 

[damskipi13]

I use them and love them. I've convinced Disney haters to be Disney lovers by simply showing them that you can plan your day in a way to maximize fun and experiences. You don't have to plan a minute by minute schedule, simply choosing the right park can have a huge effect on your experience.

 

[Huff]

And since Disney cut capacity first quarter this year, it seems like crowds were up.

That is still an unknown. First Q 2016 Disney laid off 100 painters and caused several reports and comments similar to yours. However, those cuts are seasonal every year and not out of the norm and were not ride workers. Josh at EasyWDW noted seeing partial ride capacity cuts on his visits. But I've seen the same thing repeatedly for years at various times. Nothing really new. Disney has added another screen at Soar'n and a 3rd track at Toy Story. No need to do that if they wanted to cut capacity. What has changed is the use of FP+ which has caused considerable standby line increases and thus the feeling of higher crowds.

I used Mikes crowd calendar for years which was very accurate. Since he closed down his website I've been using Touring Plans and EasyWDW and others to compare. They've worked well.

 

[Shanti]

I haven't found them to be reliable, so no, I no longer use them.

 

[Cruisin Spartan]

We use them as a good guide, especially easywdw, but not as gospel. There are a lot of factors that can change how much they are even necessary. If you're going for just a few days and will spend all of your time at one park per day, they will likely be more necessary to accomplish the most. If you're going longer and have time to take it slow, they won't matter as much.

Even when using them, Josh at easywdw will often comment that it is more about getting to a park early enough as opposed to pick the right park on the right day.

 

[Anal Annie]

I have found easywdw to be more accurate than the others (yes even the ones you have to pay for). I use it as a guide to select SOME of our parks. For example we WILL go to parks for rope drop during EMH's (which will make that park NOT recommended) but then we'll leave after we've done whatever we've gone to do (usually around lunchtime) and we'll pick one of the recommended parks for the day for our afternoon / evening. We may decide to leave before or after lunch depending on where we're headed or where we started (ie we don't like the cs meal options at HS and will try to avoid having to be in HS at a meal time unless we've made a TS ADR). They're not an exact science so I would never place a bet based on one of them but I do find them helpful as a general guide for planning.