Here now - EasyWDW vs. TP

[JeninTexas]

We arrived in the world yesterday and despite EasyWDW listing MK as the least recommended park with a level 5 crowd, we went there due to a CP reservation and a SDMT FP. TP showed MK as a 2 or 3 crowd level (showed 3 on my app and 2 on the website).

I think EasyWDW was dead on and TP was way off. If that was a level 3 crowd I cannot even imagine an 8 or 9. There were lines for most everything and it was difficult to walk in many places. We were armed with a personalized touring plan and arrived at out first attraction right on the dot. However, after waiting 10 minutes for Peoplemover and several train cycles for the Disney RR we quickly fell 30 minutes behind and had to start cutting attractions.

Our Magicbands worked flawlessly though and we had only very short waits for all our FP rides. The standy line for SDMT was 80 minutes when we arrived but we waited about 5 minutes with FP. It was a fun ride. Very smooth and good animatronics but no way is it worth waiting 80 minutes for!

 

[disneyAndi14]

We also arrived yesterday and were at MK all evening and the crowd levels were at least a 7. Waits were high on everything, TP was way off. Makes me nervous that this week is going to be way busier then we anticipated.

 

[stinkpickle]

I always ignore TP for EMH days. Josh's recommendations are much better. TP was WAY off yesterday for MK...not even close.

 

[TISHLOVESDISNEY]

TP actual says 7. Wow, that's a jump. Hope the rest of your trip goes smooth!!

 

[kerplop]

Our first two trips we used both TP and EWDW and honestly? TP was never right. It was so un-right rotfl that I have basically written them off at this point and all hail Josh!

 

[Disneyaunt4]

Totally agree, we were at MK for about an hour yesterday. Crowds were at least a 7, we ended up leaving.

 

[tinkerbella16]

We were also at MK yesterday.. Got there around 7 and it was wall to wall people. Thankfully with FP+, we got on SDMT in 5 minutes and did all of Tomorrowland. Getting around anywhere during the MSEP was impossible and annoying. I walked right on Splash due to it being pretty cool out. This used to be such a wonderful week to come here but the cats out of the bag now. Luckily we have are attending MVMCP tonight so hopefully we will be able to enjoy MK with lower crowds than the other 2 times we went. We are having a great time, it is just more crowded than I thought it would be.

 

[busywdwfan]

Did anyone who was there yesterday find large crowds from rope drop until lunchtime or was it mostly in the afternoon and evening?

 

[Aurora0427]

Magic Kingdom is ALWAYS packed on Saturdays. Does Josh ever recommend MK on Saturday? We always go with easy WDW recs!

 

[rbrbnd]

Personally I find that neither of them them are generally right. Generally they both tend to agree about which park will be least crowded so I'll use either as a guide but they are both generally wiring about how crowded they will end up being

 

[stinkpickle]

Did anyone who was there yesterday find large crowds from rope drop until lunchtime or was it mostly in the afternoon and evening?

I don't know. We hopped to MK around 8:30pm last night to ride out EMH, and ran into a sea of people. We started at AK, had dinner at EP, and both of those parks were on the moderate to light side. MK was a completely different beast.

 

[summerw]

Did anyone who was there yesterday find large crowds from rope drop until lunchtime or was it mostly in the afternoon and evening?

One of the reasons I trust josh so much is that he'll follow his own touring plans and take crowd pics around the park. He does Saturday mornings at mk once every few months at least. Here are two great ones that show the crowds. He gets a lot done before 11. I love his site!

http://www.easywdw.com/uncategorize...led-ideal-morning-plan-day-2-friday-april-26/

http://www.easywdw.com/uncategorized/magic-kingdom-cheat-sheet-day-1and-fastpass-kiosks-part-1/

 

[babydoll65]

Josh always recommends guests to stay away from mk on Saturdays. The crowd calender for yesterday showed mk was a non recommend day. Some people I talked to yesterday followed easywdws calender and went to epcot and said the crowds were great. Most guests make mk there last park of there vacation and with the emhs and locals the crowds were going to be in full force.

 

[kathy884]

You got me scared, so I went ahead and checked Josh's crowd calendar prediction for our Magic Kingdom day in December, the week before Christmas. He recommends that park the day we are going and gives it a level 4 crowd prediction. Touringplans.com predicts a crowd level 5. Hopefully we'll be fine with that. We've visited the MK tons of times before and would have not problem skipping some of the things on our touring plan. We actually added extra things in to kill time, as we want to stay for the evening parade and fireworks and don't want to leave the park. We are rope drop people. // Also, we almost always visit high season, so this is actually the lowest predicted crowd level day for us ever. To date full day visits have been with crowd levels 7-10, never 6 or below before.

Last year when I visited Josh and touringplans had the very same crowd level prediction, and it was unbelievable how on ride time predictions were on touringplans.com (We did a one day park hopper at the MK and Epcot and made a custom plan) and incredibly the plan worked like clock work. They couldn't have been closer to what was predicted. I was so impressed. (I'll keep low expectations for this next trip, though.)

 

[JayT]

Agreed - we just got back today and TP was WAY off almost every day. Our MK days were overwhelming because there was so many people - I was not expecting it. And with the construction around the hub, it seemed to be really bottlenecked, especially after parades/fireworks.

Last night they opened up the backstage exit and had fireworks viewing in that little parking lot, I'm assuming because Main St and in front of the castle were full. TP forecast yesterday was a level 2 (I think?). It was very busy. The only time we didn't see 40+ minutes on POC, JC and HM were on our MVMCP night. (And I didn't meet one person from NJ!)

We still had a great time because I did so much planning, (Thanks DIS!) but if I was a newbie I'd be very turned off.

 

[alisigns]

This is good to hear! I didn't purchase the TP subscription plan and was nervous that maybe I should have. Glad to know that I don't have to be nervous and can trust my easy WDW plan. Thanks!

 

[AngiTN]

Magic Kingdom is ALWAYS packed on Saturdays. Does Josh ever recommend MK on Saturday? We always go with easy WDW recs!

Generally no he does not. A few times in the Summer he does.

You got me scared, so I went ahead and checked Josh's crowd calendar prediction for our Magic Kingdom day in December, the week before Christmas. He recommends that park the day we are going and gives it a level 4 crowd prediction. Touringplans.com predicts a crowd level 5. Hopefully we'll be fine with that. We've visited the MK tons of times before and would have not problem skipping some of the things on our touring plan. We actually added extra things in to kill time, as we want to stay for the evening parade and fireworks and don't want to leave the park. We are rope drop people. // Also, we almost always visit high season, so this is actually the lowest predicted crowd level day for us ever. To date full day visits have been with crowd levels 7-10, never 6 or below before.

Last year when I visited Josh and touringplans had the very same crowd level prediction, and it was unbelievable how on ride time predictions were on touringplans.com (We did a one day park hopper at the MK and Epcot and made a custom plan) and incredibly the plan worked like clock work. They couldn't have been closer to what was predicted. I was so impressed. (I'll keep low expectations for this next trip, though.)

Just remember, with Josh you need to look at more than his crowd level projections. You need to look at his recommended/not recommended parks, or red/green parks. Go by those.

I always tell folks if you go to a red park on a crowd level 4 you will swear the crowd level is 8, not 4. If you go to a green park with a crowd level of 8 you'll think you are there when they are a 4.

 

[JoeyAnyc]

Thanks for all of the feedback on TP and EasyWDW. I've only been on TP and have subscribed the past three years. I am going to head over now to EasyWDW to check it out. I haven't given it much thought, but now having FP+ already set up, not sure how much I'll need any predictions since my parks are planned. I guess if I should park hop after my 3 FP+ are used up.

Anyway, thanks for the heads up from your trip.

 

[kathy884]

Just remember, with Josh you need to look at more than his crowd level projections. You need to look at his recommended/not recommended parks, or red/green parks. Go by those.

I always tell folks if you go to a red park on a crowd level 4 you will swear the crowd level is 8, not 4. If you go to a green park with a crowd level of 8 you'll think you are there when they are a 4.

He's rating our day at the MK too, so that's good news.

 

[disneyAndi14]

I have been here several times in November and right now this is very crowded, much more than the last couple years at this same time. We have seen long waits everywhere. It is raining now so wait times have dropped greatly in both Epcot and MK. Two years ago this week we walked on everything with 10-15 minute waits tops, not this year. Still having an awesome time, meeting a lot of characters this trip.