Crowd Calendars

[mickeysmith]

Way off on our last trip.

 

[Eve & Wall-e]

I’d rather read Josh’s site for his experience and candor.

I agree. I really enjoy Josh's site, too.

 

[Klayfish]

Sorry, I misunderstood. We don't predict or track attendance. We measure crowds using attraction wait times. We think it's easier to understand differences like, say, 60 vs 90 minutes in line at Space Mountain, than 28,000 vs 35,000 people in the park.

So then, you're really not actually predicting crowds. You're predicting wait times, which may or may not have anything to do whatsoever with how many people are in the park...which is one of the things people seem to really want to know most.

Sorry, but that's one of the big reasons I just don't buy into crowd calendars at all.

 

[Superchikk]

So then, you're really not actually predicting crowds. You're predicting wait times, which may or may not have anything to do whatsoever with how many people are in the park...which is one of the things people seem to really want to know most.

Sorry, but that's one of the big reasons I just don't buy into crowd calendars at all.

This is true. Yes, I care about how crowded it is, but what I REALLY want to know is how long I'm going to have to wait in line. If there's a 60 minute wait for Small World, I can guarantee I'm not going to want to stand in the e-ticket lines, so I'd choose another time to go. It irritates me that Disney manipulates the wait times so much by decreasing ride capacity. But that's for another thread. I really just want to know how much patience I need to take with me. All of it isn't enough some days. Ha!

 

[jaysmom4285]

Touring plans has always been clear that they are predicting wait times, as those are about the only concrete things one could calculate. One person's uncomfortably crowded park is someone else's moderate crowd. Trying to judge crowd levels by how many people are in the parks or how crowded it "feels" is just too subjective. A reasonable person can pretty easily extrapolate that, when wait times for very popular attractions are two or three hours, the park will be pretty crowded by anyone's standards - walkways will be congested, counter service eateries will have long lines, and parade/fireworks viewing areas will be packed. And I think that what many people really mean when they ask how crowded it will be is how long will they have to wait in line to see what they want to see. At any rate, it's the only thing that can be objectively measured to any degree.

 

[FastPasser.]

Touring plans has always been clear that they are predicting wait times

Below is from their website.

Our trip planning tools show you the least crowded park to visit every day, customized touring plans for visiting Disney's best rides, honest restaurant reviews, how to save on Disney tickets, the best hotel rooms to ask for, and so much more.

Disney World Crowd Calendar
Our Crowd Calendar shows how busy each Disney theme park every day of your trip, on a simple 1-to-10 scale. Using our crowd calendar, you'll be able to plan which park to visit each day to avoid crowds. You'll also see:

Each park's opening and closing times
The park's Extra Magic Hours schedule
Any special events that might affect your visit

We're so confident in our crowd predictions that we show yesterday's results - our predictions and what actually happened - in the How We Did section of the page for everyone to see.

If you're trying to decide when to visit Walt Disney World, the crowd calendar will show you how busy Disney is across different weeks, months and seasons.

 

[Shanti]

How accurate are the crowd calendars from Touring Plans?

Your guess is as good as theirs these days. WDW crowd patterns have been in an overall state of flux the past few years, which is why fewer people put crowd calendars out at all, and why those calendars that exist are unreliable.

 

[Klayfish]

Touring plans has always been clear that they are predicting wait times, as those are about the only concrete things one could calculate. One person's uncomfortably crowded park is someone else's moderate crowd. Trying to judge crowd levels by how many people are in the parks or how crowded it "feels" is just too subjective. A reasonable person can pretty easily extrapolate that, when wait times for very popular attractions are two or three hours, the park will be pretty crowded by anyone's standards - walkways will be congested, counter service eateries will have long lines, and parade/fireworks viewing areas will be packed. And I think that what many people really mean when they ask how crowded it will be is how long will they have to wait in line to see what they want to see. At any rate, it's the only thing that can be objectively measured to any degree.

Then they should be called wait calendars. But they call them crowd calendars, very much on purpose I'm sure. People actually avoid parks simply because of what they post and talk about how big the crowd is "going to be", as if it were fact. Each to their own.