Goodbye Late April

[Baptist]

I was just there too (April 17th-20th). To the OPs credit, it did seam busy. I kept asking myself, "where are all these people coming from?" Fortunately, I did not experience problems getting a 4th-7th fast pass (thanks MK for being open until midnight). However, it seamed like a full house on Main St.

 

[AshleeH]

I subscribed to Touring Plans one year and never again. My novice crowd planning at the time was better than theirs. Now - with a few more years experience for myself - I have a finely honed system that works better than the majority of the Touring Plans types.

 

[Hezzy04]

My family was at Magic Kingdom April 23 and 24 and we got SO much done!!! It was definitely crowded, but I feel like it always is. I planned like crazy though, and we did so much more than I had expected!!

 

[Sevey13]

I subscribed to Touring Plans one year and never again. My novice crowd planning at the time was better than theirs. Now - with a few more years experience for myself - I have a finely honed system that works better than the majority of the Touring Plans types.

I'm giving TP a shot this time purely for the room fax service. I use EasyWDW for my crowds and I know how to prioritize what I want without other people telling me, and I'm trying Kenny's for the Characterpalooza. If TP doesn't garner anything, I won't try again. If it does net me a room close to transportation, though, it will be worth the ten bucks.

 

[busymommy2pink]

Am I the only one who had the single mom comment go way over my head? Why would "value" pricing appeal to Only single moms? I travel often with my girls alone.

 

[JimmyV]

I haven't found touring plans to be accurate in years. Easywdw.com is always spot on for us.

Next time use EasyWDW instead of Touring Plans. Josh had Epcot as recommended yesterday. He also takes the time to explain why to go to or to avoid each park for each day. You may have had better luck with the crowds if you had followed his suggestions. Glad you are still having a good time!

Yep, used wrong crowd calendar too. Touring Plans has some great aspects to it's site. Crowd Calendars is not one of them.

Whoa now. Not so fast. Touring Plans gives park recommendations as well as numerical predictions and EasyWDW gives park recommendations. Just because Touring Plan's numbers have missed on their numbers this Spring doesn't mean that it is inferior. For our recent trip, eight days out of eight Josh and Touring Plans aligned 100% on park recommendations. Both sites agreed. It just so happened that Josh's recommended park and Touring Plan's recommended park (with a prediction of "5"), turned out to be a 7, but still the best option. Bottom line is that in terms of recommendations, the two sites align most of the time. I'm not suggesting one over the other. But saying that EasyWDW is more accurate is misleading.

 

[JimmyV]

Am I the only one who had the single mom comment go way over my head?.

No. That one stumped me too.

As far as crowds are concerned, believe it or not, there are few better indicators of our economy's performance than WDW attendance. (Along with many other telltale vacation spots). You wouldn't know it from the deluge of political ads and rhetoric in an election year, but our economy is actually doing quite well and WDW attendance reflects that.

 

[AngiTN]

Whoa now. Not so fast. Touring Plans gives park recommendations as well as numerical predictions and EasyWDW gives park recommendations. Just because Touring Plan's numbers have missed on their numbers this Spring doesn't mean that it is inferior. For our recent trip, eight days out of eight Josh and Touring Plans aligned 100% on park recommendations. Both sites agreed. It just so happened that Josh's recommended park and Touring Plan's recommended park (with a prediction of "5"), turned out to be a 7, but still the best option. Bottom line is that in terms of recommendations, the two sites align most of the time. I'm not suggesting one over the other. But saying that EasyWDW is more accurate is misleading.

I'm glad it worked for you. I believe you would be the exception not the norm. In my experience their recommended parks do not align often at all and when they don't EasyWDW gets the recommended park right and Touring Plans doesn't. Interpret that how you will.

But don't get me wrong at all, I do like Touring Plans website a lot. I pay for a subscription. I just don't use their recommended parks, unless they so happen to align with EasyWDW

 

[JimmyV]

I'm glad it worked for you. I believe you would be the exception not the norm.

How can this be true? If EasyWDW recommended that one go to the MK on Tuesday (which it did), and Touring Plans recommended that one go to the MK on Tuesday, (which it did), then no matter which advice one took, they would have ended up in the same place. So by following TP, one could not have been outside of the norm. It is simply mathematically impossible. I think you are missing the larger point that the two sites align on the vast majority of days. If you want to ignore the numerical predictions, fine. But the park recommendations are almost lockstep.

 

[Alesia]

Whoa now. Not so fast. Touring Plans gives park recommendations as well as numerical predictions and EasyWDW gives park recommendations. Just because Touring Plan's numbers have missed on their numbers this Spring doesn't mean that it is inferior. For our recent trip, eight days out of eight Josh and Touring Plans aligned 100% on park recommendations. Both sites agreed. It just so happened that Josh's recommended park and Touring Plan's recommended park (with a prediction of "5"), turned out to be a 7, but still the best option. Bottom line is that in terms of recommendations, the two sites align most of the time. I'm not suggesting one over the other. But saying that EasyWDW is more accurate is misleading.

Okay, how about this:

In my experience, Touring Plans is sometimes right and sometimes wrong. It is also my experience that easywdw is always spot on. I'm sorry, but I'm always going to recommend something that has been 100% accurate over something that is 80% accurate. Why on earth would I do otherwise?

 

[Disney Khaleesi]

Also, a lot is closed at Epcot right now, driving more people to Magic Kingdom than usual.

I'm not saying it won't be busy next year, but perhaps not as busy as you experienced.

 

[JimmyV]

Okay, how about this:

In my experience, Touring Plans is sometimes right and sometimes wrong. It is also my experience that easywdw is always spot on. I'm sorry, but I'm always going to recommend something that has been 100% accurate over something that is 80% accurate.

Again...it's math. If the two sites align more than 80% of the time, then there cannot be a 20% gap in the success rate.

 

[SaintsManiac]

Am I the only one who had the single mom comment go way over my head? Why would "value" pricing appeal to Only single moms? I travel often with my girls alone.

I didn't get it, either.

 

[AngiTN]

Again...it's math. If the two sites align more than 80% of the time, then there cannot be a 20% gap in the success rate.

Thing is, in my experience they do not align 80% of the time. Maybe 20% of the days I've looked at for my trips.

 

[DavidNYC]

I was in the parks April 11-15 and was actually very surprised how manageable the crowds were. Got lots of add'l FP in MK. I'm sure others must have pointed out that you picked the absolute worst two days to hit MK. And with the other parks having the construction, you really do want to go to MK on the more recommended days.

 

[AshleeH]

Okay, how about this:

In my experience, Touring Plans is sometimes right and sometimes wrong. It is also my experience that easywdw is always spot on. I'm sorry, but I'm always going to recommend something that has been 100% accurate over something that is 80% accurate. Why on earth would I do otherwise?

Agreed. For me it wasn't even 80% accurate in the fall - they were right for 1 out of 7 days. Maybe 2 out of 7, if I'm being generous. That is a little over 28% accuracy. I would not take that to the bank.

 

[Alesia]

Again...it's math. If the two sites align more than 80% of the time, then there cannot be a 20% gap in the success rate.

Even if it was 98% accurate (which I absolutely don't find to be the case) why would I recommend it over something that has proven to me to be 100% accurate?

And, for what it's worth, my original point was that for the specific days the OP was talking about, she would have been better off using easywdw because it was Touring Plans that steered her wrong in the first place.

 

[PrincessWithABlaster]

Agreed. For me it wasn't even 80% accurate in the fall - they were right for 1 out of 7 days. Maybe 2 out of 7, if I'm being generous. That is a little over 28% accuracy. I would not take that to the bank.

But how do you know that? You went on the day TP said and it was crowded. But that means you didn't go to the easyWDW recommended park and it may have been just as crowded. If you aren't in both places at the same time it's hard to know which would have been better.

 

[lynzi2004]

My family was at Magic Kingdom April 23 and 24 and we got SO much done!!! It was definitely crowded, but I feel like it always is. I planned like crazy though, and we did so much more than I had expected!!

We were there on Saturday and Monday as well. We rode basically any ride we wanted and had little trouble getting more FP+. But I had things planned...not crazy lady on a mission plan, but I wasn't going to spend all day hiking back and forth across the park. We went methodically through the park and had no trouble!

 

[2prince'smom]

Sorry, but I think you should have taken your own advice.

My sister and her family were there last Tuesday and used 16 Fastpasses. Tuesdays are better.

How did you use 16 FPs? Can you help me to understand better?