Touring Plans questions

[japanese maple]

Hi! We are using Touring plans again this trip (love the room request - yes I know it's not guarantee) and we got an updated crowd calendar. Crowds seem very low for end of October - which pleases me greatly. One of our Animal Kingdom days is a 2!!!

Crowds do tick up a bit the next week, but still mostly 4/5/6s.

Do you all notice differences enough between 5/6 or 6/7 to switch park days while planning?

 

[sponica]

There's a blog post about the updated projections. https://touringplans.com/blog/crowd...ust-updated-the-crowd-calendar-for-all-parks/

But a one point difference in either direction isn't enough for me to plan around.

 

[scrappinginontario]

If I'm happy with my plan, I wouldn't swap things for just 1 or 2 points. I don't notice a huge difference between a point or two.

Our projections all dropped by quite a bit yesterday. I'm cautiously optimistic that they're right as our entire late Aug trip dropped to crowds between 2-4!

I will say the one that has me stumped (and I'll be happy to be proven wrong!) is Thurs, Aug 28th dropped from a 5 to a 2 in Epcot which surprises me for the first day of Food and Wine Festival. We're planning to go there for a few hours before our flight home so we'll see how the crowds are.

 

[sponica]

I will say the one that has me stumped (and I'll be happy to be proven wrong!) is Thurs, Aug 28th dropped from a 5 to a 2 in Epcot which surprises me for the first day of Food and Wine Festival. We're planning to go there for a few hours before our flight home so we'll see how the crowds are.

I feel like opening day of a festival is mainly bloggers/influencers/etc for the food booths and they don't necessarily ride the rides (if that makes sense) and TP's crowd levels are based on wait times. With the only exception ever being the 50th of MK, then they broke their own rules.

 

[Stacybaeasm]

I think, if I understood the article correctly, the drop in the points wasn't because of fewer people attending, just a shift in their algorithm. Most of Thanksgiving week went down as well which made me do a happy dance until I read the article and they said it didn't change the actual crowds, just the scoring. So please, if I didn't understand the article right, please correct me so I can go back to the happy dance.

 

[sponica]

I think, if I understood the article correctly, the drop in the points wasn't because of fewer people attending, just a shift in their algorithm. Most of Thanksgiving week went down as well which made me do a happy dance until I read the article and they said it didn't change the actual crowds, just the scoring. So please, if I didn't understand the article right, please correct me so I can go back to the happy dance.

I think that's a correct interpretation, the numbers were renormed...which should happen every so often anyway as capacity increases or decreases.

 

[japanese maple]

I think, if I understood the article correctly, the drop in the points wasn't because of fewer people attending, just a shift in their algorithm. Most of Thanksgiving week went down as well which made me do a happy dance until I read the article and they said it didn't change the actual crowds, just the scoring. So please, if I didn't understand the article right, please correct me so I can go back to the happy dance.

I think it shows a decrease in ride wait times, be it through DAS changes, LL or more accurate wait time postings.

Regardless a 2, 3 or 4 sounds fantastic for ride times. I don't mind "crowds" as long as wait times for rides are good, makes for great people watching. And I want a crowd for the night parade with people cheering!

 

[scrappinginontario]

I just read the article and will say I still see the decreased number updates I received yesterday to be a good thing. It just appears in general that wait times are down for summer 2025 and I'll count that as a win!

We'll be there next month and hoping my cautious optimism proves to be warranted and we enjoy lower waits than we've experienced the past couple of summers. I'm sure once all the current enhancements/refurbishments are complete over the next few years, I'll be looking with envy back at these days of shorter waits! Appreciating them while they're here!!

 

[Stitch'sCousin]

We are also going to be at Pop Century for the 2nd last week of August and received our Touring Plans update yesterday too. All but one of our park days are now between 2 and 4 (although we lost one park day when Westjet cancelled our outbound early morning flight and switched us to a late afternoon flight.) It has me reconsidering whether or not to bother booking LLMP’s for the parks. Since our adult kids may not be up to doing rope drop like we used to do when they were younger, we were thinking of booking LLMP’s once for each park in case they want to sleep in, but seeing 2’s and 3’s …..

 

[japanese maple]

We are also going to be at Pop Century for the 2nd last week of August and received our Touring Plans update yesterday too. All but one of our park days are now between 2 and 4 (although we lost one park day when Westjet cancelled our outbound early morning flight and switched us to a late afternoon flight.) It has me reconsidering whether or not to bother booking LLMP’s for the parks. Since our adult kids may not be up to doing rope drop like we used to do when they were younger, we were thinking of booking LLMP’s once for each park in case they want to sleep in, but seeing 2’s and 3’s …..

Oh I'm still booking what rides we want for certain. Or buying them. Crowds may be low, but you never know what can happen. If you have the funds, I would rather be safe than sorry!

Now we may not purchase for everyday we are there, but certainly once for each park.

 

[Stitch'sCousin]

That was also what we figured we would do. It only adds about $100 per person to get 4 days of LLMP’s, which is a small amount compared to our overall trip cost by the time we factor in hotel, DDP and return airfare from Toronto. We only take one vacation a year, so we definitely don’t want to mess it up!

 

[scrappinginontario]

We are also going to be at Pop Century for the 2nd last week of August and received our Touring Plans update yesterday too. All but one of our park days are now between 2 and 4 (although we lost one park day when Westjet cancelled our outbound early morning flight and switched us to a late afternoon flight.) It has me reconsidering whether or not to bother booking LLMP’s for the parks. Since our adult kids may not be up to doing rope drop like we used to do when they were younger, we were thinking of booking LLMP’s once for each park in case they want to sleep in, but seeing 2’s and 3’s …..

We visited the last 2 weeks of Aug 2024 and did not purchase LLMP except for one MK day. While we saved a bit of time, we didn't feel we 'needed' it.

Hearing in general about lower wait times, we're likely not going to purchase it this year unless wait times start to climb closer to our trip.

LLMP for MK the week before our trip is $32. Exchanging that into CDN it's around $45/person which quickly adds up for something we may not need. We'll use that $ towards food and enjoy our time together in the lines. At least that's the plan should wait times hover around what they are currently. We're open to changing our plans if we feel it's worth it to us.