Crowd Calendars

[TinkPearl]

We are starting to plan a short trip in early May, I'm getting conflicting advice from different sites. Which website do you think is most accurate and predicting the crowd levels and the ones that say which Park is best to visit that day?

 

[Klayfish]

None (that's a good reason you're getting "conflicting" advice, they're just guesses). There are so many variables they could never account for that they just have no real value, IMO.

Really, just pick the parks you want to visit on the days you want to go. There are some common sense things, such as the parks are more crowded on weekends because locals come for weekend trips, etc...but beyond that, don't rely on them.

 

[sdomino11]

I use touring plans and have never been disappointed. Crowd levels are great in early May!

 

[CAS239]

There's really no such thing as an accurate crowd calendar.

I preferred EasyWDW when he had crowd calendars going just for the recommended parks and how everything was on one screen (emh, firework times, average weather temp)

 

[hllb]

The two most people use are Touring Plans and Kenny the Pirate. They are useful, and at least Touring Plans does a decent job with accuracy (I don't know about KtP as I don't use that one). They're not perfect, and with newer attractions, with no or little historical data, they're less accurate. Statistical analysis is not guessing though it does have it's limitations.

 

[bluedolphin32]

We are also going in early May 2018. I used the Touring Plans calendar to plan which park for which day, and then we made some ADRs according to that. We were trying to avoid EMHs in the morning, but they added them on our AK day in the morning after we planned it, so now that park is "not recommended" for that day on some of the other sites, like Kenny the Pirate. I was wondering if I should change it or not, but I don't want to lose the reservations we already made. I'm hoping I can get a fast pass for FOP so we don't have to get there extra early that day to do it at opening. We are doing Hoop Dee Doo the night before and hopefully watching MK fireworks after the show, so I wasn't really planning on an early morning for the next day at AK. I had been thinking about switching our AK day with our HS day, but I haven't done anything about it yet. I looked at reservations to see if I could swap them, but the same restaurant on a different day was unavailable. I figure at the time of year we are going, even a crowded day won't be too bad as long as we have a good plan.

 

[cigar95]

One thing to remember is that you can't compare the calendars to each other just based directly on their numbers. Two sites could mean very different things when they say that the projected crowd on a given day is a "6".

I know that TouringPlans gives very specific definitions of what each number means. Don't know enough about the others to say how much detail they provide. But to do a real comparison, you'd need a "rosetta stone" to transfer each crowd level number into something tangible that is directly comparable.

And also remember not to put *too much* weight into the predictions. While they are certainly better than throwing darts, and they are *quite* good at gauging the four parks *relative to one another*, there are enough variables that variations of two levels aren't uncommon. (And TouringPlans also goes to great lengths to say that a good touring plan is much more valuable than picking a day with a lower crowd level.)

 

[trouttigger]

If you are trying to get a difficult dining reservation, be willing to go to a less than optimal park for the day. We've had to do this when we got a hard to get ressie.

 

[TinkPearl]

Thanks everyone! I used to use Easy WDW and that worked well for us in the past but they don't do crowd calendars anymore

 

[DebbieB]

I’ve had good luck with Touring Plans. Always get there early, especially in the summer.