So many Crowd Calendar's ..... who's the best?

[Easto]

My last trip to disney I used Undercover Tourist and EasyWDW.

Kenny the Pirate was my go to for Character Meetings.

Kenny the pirate also has a crowd calendar.

Now I am trying to get an itinerary going for our Aug 26 - Sept 2 trip and there seems to be a big difference our first park day.

August 27

Kenny the Pirate:
MK - HS - EP - AK

EasyWDW
MK - HS - EP - AK

Undercover Tourist
MK - HS - EP - AK

Hollywod Studios was the park we WERE going to choose based on Kenny's suggestion. It has the frozen sing-a-long and we figured it would be the 2nd best park to choose (since MK is projected as being real busy)

After looking at a couple crowd calendar's it's actually more confusing.

Who do you go with?

 

[minnie mum]

Easywdw. Even if I decide to do with a non recommended park, I have at least a clear understanding of the problems I may face by reading his analysis for each day.

 

[Zippa D Doodah]

None of them are perfect; none are completely off base. Let's think this through... Hollywood Studios tends to be people's third park, so if they are starting a vacation on a Monday then they will find their way to DHS on Wednesday. By this logic Easy WDW often downgrades DHS on Wednesdays. AK has the EMH, so it is not a factor in deciding between MK/DHS. My guess is DHS would be a good park to try on 8/26, with teh caveat that it matters more a) what time you get there and b) how you plan than it does which park you go to

 

[Easto]

None of them are perfect; none are completely off base. Let's think this through... Hollywood Studios tends to be people's third park, so if they are starting a vacation on a Monday then they will find their way to DHS on Wednesday. By this logic Easy WDW often downgrades DHS on Wednesdays. AK has the EMH, so it is not a factor in deciding between MK/DHS. My guess is DHS would be a good park to try on 8/26, with teh caveat that it matters more a) what time you get there and b) how you plan than it does which park you go to

Sorry, the date I was referring to was August 27. We arrive on the 26th, likely won't do a park that day

 

[Easto]

 

[Easto]

I made that chart above that compared my vacation days between the three crowd calendars. Some days they seems to have completely opposite predictions, for example with MK on August 29 or say HS on August 30.

For the most part they are consistent, however when there are discrepancies it's not like 1 of the crowd calendars is always the odd one out.

 

[grecorj]

Does UT or KtP have detailed daily explanations for the recommendations? EasyWDW does. I like that. I can agree/disagree with the logic, but gives you food for thought.

I wouldn't go too nuts trying to line up "best" park days. Usually attending a park at RD cures all crowd problems. If you can do that you'll be fine. But even a recommended park can be quite busy and difficult to tour if you arrive mid-day.

I use the crowd calendars to remind me to not choose an obviously bad park -- like heading to MK on an EMH but arriving at regular opening time LOL.

 

[LetsTalkWDW]

Just took a look at Touring Plans for those dates everything is 5 or lower. I don't think you'll have a problem no matter what you choose to do.

 

[Easto]

That's what I was also curious about. Even with EMH, during this week the crowds are (out of 10): 3 - 3 - 3 - 5- 5 - 3 - 3 and 3 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 5 - 4 - 4- 4

Even with EMH, will the parks even be real busy?

Last time we went was March Break and it was rammed. Would a park with EMH be comparable to a March break day?

 

[senadler]

I use easywdw since there is always a description of why a park is rated a certain way. If you read the description for 8/27, Josh indicates that there is nothing specific drawing crowds and it will only be marginally busier. I think you are fine with HS that day.

 

[LetsTalkWDW]

To me, it looks like the overall crowd levels are fairly low for this time period. Possible exception Animal Kingdom on Aug 26, 29 and 30th looks to be the worst. This kind of surprises me.

Taking all these crowd calendars into account, they all have their differences on individual day recommendations but they all seem to agree that there won't be high crowd levels to begin with. I guess if it were me, since crowd levels are less of a factor, I would probably first line up my ADRs, then select the parks that fit best.

 

[fsupharm77]

I really like easywdw For many of the reasons listed above. Plus Josh will periodically go to the parks on his recommended days and other plans recommended days. Dig through past posts of his and you can see the difference between a most recommended and least recommended day.

 

[Easto]

We fly in August 26 and arrive around noon.
We fly home September 2.

The tickets we have are 6 Park tickets + 1 Fun day (Typhoon Lagoon, Blizzard Beach, or Disney Quest)

Given all this, how would YOU plan around these dates?

I am trying to get a few points of view.

 

[goofy4prez]

I have used Easywdw as well as Touring Plans over the past few years. My personal preference and now the only one I use is Easywdw. I think they are much more accurate and I like the detailed explanations to their recommendations.

 

[AndiSlamberg]

Hands down Josh at Easywdw! THE.BEST.

 

[LoveMMC]

Easywdw. Hands down. Love everything about his site.

 

[BrokeMack]

^this. I've had great success with his calendar. Only time it was drastically different was the monday after New Year's 2014 when a big storm shut down all the major airports and all the Christmas travelers got stuck in Orlando and decided to add another park day. MK had like an 8-9 instead of the predicted 4, but that was pretty unusual.