EasyDWD vs. Touring Plans

[redbird423]

ACK! They totally disagree on which parks for which days for our trip in January. How do I choose?

 

[BuzzinDownToDisney]

I'm a pretty big TP advocate, but starting to lose faith. They had today as a 2 at MK, I kept checking their app all day and pretty much every ride was 20+ minutes, most were 30+ minutes and the big ones were an hour +. How is that a 2???

 

[stinkpickle]

I'm a pretty big TP advocate, but starting to lose faith. They had today as a 2 at MK, I kept checking their app all day and pretty much every ride was 20+ minutes, most were 30+ minutes and the big ones were an hour +. How is that a 2???

TP often underestimates EMH days. Perhaps they include EMH waits in the daily averages...I dunno. I ignore their estimates on EMH days. Today at MK was not a 2. It was much more like easywdw's least recommended park on a 5-level crowd day.

 

[JeninTexas]

I agree with Buzzin. We were at MK yesterday and it was packed. No way was that a level 2.

 

[ladyjubilee]

I like EasyWDW. It just seems like a more relaxed approach, and while I can't say the number are more "accurate", it feels that way.

 

[Starhart81]

ACK! They totally disagree on which parks for which days for our trip in January. How do I choose?

For crowd calendars you gotta go with easywdw. I love touring plans for their personalized touring plans and historical crowds, but it seems their crowd calendar is computer generated with no one checking it for common sense. Like PPs said, they predicted a 2 for Saturday at MK, and it was actually a 7. They also have a 2 for MK next Saturday, and if they had any human double checking their numbers, they would know by common sense to change these numbers. Josh at easywdw uses common sense along with historical data, and is never that far off on his predictions. Of course easywdw hardly ever recommends EMHs, and I like taking advantage of EMHs and park hopping to a recommended park, so take that into consideration too.

 

[kevdad]

I'm a pretty big TP advocate, but starting to lose faith. They had today as a 2 at MK, I kept checking their app all day and pretty much every ride was 20+ minutes, most were 30+ minutes and the big ones were an hour +. How is that a 2???

And the 2 prediction was off by 5! 7 yesterday at MK according to the TP actual data.

I can't imagine why TP doesn't have someone who does a reasonability test on their predictions. Either customers believe the prediction and are upset that it was completely wrong or customers "in the know" lose complete faith because it was obviously a bad prediction to begin with.

 

[PoohsFan1]

I like EasyWDW. It just seems like a more relaxed approach, and while I can't say the number are more "accurate", it feels that way.

I agree with this. I tend to look at EasyWDW more then TP (wish I didn't reup my subscription for our upcoming trip). We are going at the end of January and TP has crowd levels that are equal to what you would see during peaker times where as EasyWDW, their crowd levels seems more consistent with the time of year we are going.

 

[BandMom1]

I use both TP & EasyWDW. I also take in to account that their predictions are exactly that - predictions. Even with all of the historical data, etc. the one thing we have seen lately at WDW (at least from what I have been reading on the DISboards this year) is that crowds are a lot more unpredictable than they used to be!

We make our plans using info from both sites and hope for the best. If it ends up being crazy busy, we adjust our plans as needed and go with the flow.

 

[Disneyaunt4]

I'm a pretty big TP advocate, but starting to lose faith. They had today as a 2 at MK, I kept checking their app all day and pretty much every ride was 20+ minutes, most were 30+ minutes and the big ones were an hour +. How is that a 2???

I will second that!!!

 

[Nancyg56]

I use both TP & EasyWDW. I also take in to account that their predictions are exactly that - predictions. Even with all of the historical data, etc. the one thing we have seen lately at WDW (at least from what I have been reading on the DISboards this year) is that crowds are a lot more unpredictable than they used to be!

We make our plans using info from both sites and hope for the best. If it ends up being crazy busy, we adjust our plans as needed and go with the flow.

I am the same. I like TP, like Josh, but take it all with a grain of salt. The crowds are pretty unpredictable IMO, because Disney sends out codes last minute when it looks like they are underbooked, and that throws all the estimates out of the window. I plan for the worst and hope for the best.

 

[Networth]

Josh's site.

Personal experience is much more valuable to me than number crunching done by computer.

 

[Aurora0427]

Another vote for Josh and easywdw. And avoid magic kingdom on Saturday like the plague. The only way we'll do MK on Saturday is if it isn't EMH and we rope drop and leave after lunch!

 

[kerplop]

Another vote for Josh and easywdw. And avoid magic kingdom on Saturday like the plague. The only way we'll do MK on Saturday is if it isn't EMH and we rope drop and leave after lunch!

Yep Saturday and Mondays are the worst days for MK! We did a Monday once and a Saturday once because of necessity and boy were we ever sorry.

 

[soniam]

I love TP's personalized plans. I usually ignore the crowd calendars from everyone. We tend to go when it's so busy anyway (Summer, Spring Break), that the parks and days don't differ much, maybe a point or two. What I do abide by is AM EMH. We do it at RD, but we try not to hop to a park in the afternoon that had AM EMH. I haven't noticed issues with PM EMH. I also follow suggestions about what days, not dates, tend to be busier, like Saturdays. I guess when you have only been when it's really crowded, that crowds just seem normal.

 

[redbird423]

Thank you everyone for your opinions! I am enjoying both sites, both have a wealth of information.

I think I'm going to plan on using Josh's suggested parks for the day, but then make personalized touring plans based on what it is we want to see. And then be willing to make changes once we are there based on how we are feeling, weather, etc.

Thanks again!

 

[TCGMom]

We just got back from a week's stay (Veteran's Day week). We used Josh's crowd calendar, as I really liked that he supplies a reason behind each prediction. In some cases, TP seemed to go against conventional wisdom.

Overall, crowds seemed to be a little higher than anticipated (by both crowd calendars), but, with careful planning, we didn't wait more than 20 minutes for any ride. I did subscribe to TP, and I used the personalized plans as a suggestion - but we frequently varied from the plan.

My best suggestion is to get there early!! This can not be stressed enough! This is more important than any crowd calendar! You can get so much done in the first two hours with very limited waits. Generally I would recommend booking FP for 10:30 or later. You don't want to waste FP time in the early morning hours when the wait times are so low to nonexistent - however, you also want to allow yourself time to "earn" additional fast passes. You can use the additional FP for Pirates or Goofy's Barnstormer, Haunted Mansion, etc.

Good luck with whichever crowd calendar you end up using - just get to the parks early!!