Touring Plans vs. EasyWDW

[3levinson]

Oh, yeah - these boards aren't anything like that at all!

Where you have a point, over there, they are known to make fun of how horrible DISboard members are and how much more friendly they are, when in reality they are as bad or worse then the very posts they pick apart over there. At least here people don't pretend to be something they are not.

 

[Dorisk3]

I always liked easywdw and Josh's advice and will continue to use it. The sycophants anywhere can get annoying, but I won't hold it against his site. The recent "talk" about him discontinuing the site was interesting, I was wondering when he was going to get sick of the whole Disney thing. His fans remind me a little of the tour guide mike boards of old.

 

[Bored Housewife]

Does easywdw have apps?

No I don't think so. Used to have some sort of wait times site but that appears to be broken. Not sure if it was ever functional or accurate.
http://www.easywdw.com/waits/

 

[Mikie]

I use both, with a slight edge to TP due to their mathematical approach. I love their associated app and used it in the park a lot. It has Disney posted wait times as well as actual wait times submitted live by other users - I found their "actuals" pretty accurate, and they do sometimes differ quite a bit from posted times. When TP and EASY don't agree with each other, I read the analysis on Easy and see whether it applies to me (like avoiding EMH)

 

[GeorgiaHoo]

I've found easywdw to be pretty accurate. It is also free (unlike TP) and provides a ton of other helpful info like restaurant reviews, resort reviews, etc. The best advice that you can get is reinforced over and over at easywdw - get to the park before opening and you'll get a ton done.

 

[tcherjen]

We always use Josh's website. He has made the last 2 spring breaks for us awesome. Using it for our 3rd spring break trip in a few weeks.

 

[GeorgiaHoo]

The info/crowd predictions on easy site are not always spot on. Dead wrong recently and at times in the past. Just be forewarned- don’t ever question the author. Take a look at the front page post on the blog. Lots of fans over there who think a response like that is funny - seems arrogant and rude to me.

Also heard he has talked about closing the site soon.

I often wonder if these TP vs easy threads are not planted here to start up more “easy is awesome” talk.

How do you know easywdw is "dead wrong"? Seems like that would require going to each of the parks on any given day and testing wait times. Of course, any prediction might be off on any particular day, but to say the predictions have been "dead wrong" "recently and at times in the past" without any support, then say "don't ever question the author" and THEN say he's going to shut down his site seems REALLY suspicious. And THEN you imply that this entire thread is a plant? And you joined today and have two posts about how bad easywdw is? That all seems fairly suspicious.

 

[siskaren]

For example, one Saturday we are going to be there...TP says Animal Kingdom is the least recommended because of crowd levels and EWDW says Animal Kingdom is their most recommended for that very same day.

What I like about easyWDW is that it says why AK is recommended. DHS has Star Wars Weekends and MK has evening EMH and both MSEP and Wishes, which will draw more people to those parks.

 

[SeanTomorrow]

How do you know easywdw is "dead wrong"? Seems like that would require going to each of the parks on any given day and testing wait times.

Ok serious question. Where does EasyWDW predict wait times? It's been driving me a little nuts, as I'm not sure what prediction there actually is to be wrong.

(not interested in a fight about the author, but seriously, am I missing an entire section of the site?)

 

[Bored Housewife]

How do you know easywdw is "dead wrong"? Seems like that would require going to each of the parks on any given day and testing wait times. Of course, any prediction might be off on any particular day, but to say the predictions have been "dead wrong" "recently and at times in the past" without any support, then say "don't ever question the author" and THEN say he's going to shut down his site seems REALLY suspicious. And THEN you imply that this entire thread is a plant? And you joined today and have two posts about how bad easywdw is? That all seems fairly suspicious.

lol

 

[GeorgiaHoo]

lol

"LOL" doesn't really answer my questions, and in fact simply avoids everything I asked. Thanks for the input.

 

[GeorgiaHoo]

Ok serious question. Where does EasyWDW predict wait times? It's been driving me a little nuts, as I'm not sure what prediction there actually is to be wrong.

(not interested in a fight about the author, but seriously, am I missing an entire section of the site?)

I don't know that easywdw predicts wait times, because that is a prediction that could change from day to day. What I've seen them do is provide recommendations based on what they believe to be the best parks for a particular day. Wait times are lower in the morning, higher mid-day to late afternoon, and usually dwindle as the evening progresses, though sometimes that isn't true. Why is it driving you nuts?

 

[fancifull]

I'll always use easyWDW. I do think his sense of humor is funny.

I did come into this thread hoping there would be a little drama and y'all didn't disappoint

 

[SeanTomorrow]

Why is it driving you nuts?

Ahhh! If true this sheds so much light on things.

It drives me nuts because I kept seeing comments that EasyWDW was "accurate" but couldn't figure out what people are talking about. If what you're saying is true, there's literally nothing to be accurate or inaccurate about. He makes a recommendation on which parks to visit, but that's never objectively right or wrong. There's a crowd rating but not actually tied to anything measurable (unless I missed it).

This is all fine, of course. I'd say EasyWDW offers sound, rules-based recommendations and a set of similarly rules-based cheat sheets (probably manually optimized). Very helpful for many people. But to me it misses the point when people say it's "accurate" compared to touring plans, because there's no prediction to be accurate about.

 

[BradChristian]

Easywdws

Totally had missed this! Helping to confirm my plans for March 1st!

 

[Magpie]

My very first trip, back in 2005, I used the Unofficial Guide to WDW, which gave me access to the Touring Plan website. In 2007, I had a subscription to the Touring Plan website. I kept the subscription for a couple years, and then realized I wasn't using it. I'd switched to EasyWDW. Why? Because I'm entertained, not offended by Josh's snark. His logic makes good sense to me and I prefer the way he tackles the parks. I've tried both approaches, and I find that - in my experience - Josh is better at steering us clear of the crowds. Also, with many trips now under our belt, Touring Plans has come to feel unnecessarily rigid. That said, I'm grateful to them for being there when Josh's blog wasn't, and for being my "training wheels".

 

[chiisai]

So, I use TP's personalized touring plans. The optimize in park option was great for our spring break trip last year to CA and DL. I use it in combination with Lines.

I also enjoy all the base info TP has about dining, attractions, etc. I go to easywdw when I want to see a recent review of something, or see if he has any tips and tricks about something in particular.

I'm screwed when I go this year to WDW as it's during a peak spring break week, there is no "what crowd day is this" so really I feel I need the TP personalized plans.

 

[Shibo]

We use easy pretty religiously. The crowd calendar has never steered us wrong in the years that we've used it.

As far as EMH, the site is fairly clear that if you really want to go to a park with EMH, then you can probably do ok in the early AM, as long as you leave when the crowds start to build. It's not "never go to the EMH park", it's "the other parks will be less busy". Let's face it, EMH does funnel the majority of the on-site hotel guests into one place. There's really no denying that the EMH park is not where you want to be if you're looking to avoid the crowds on any given day.

And, yeah, Easy is not where you want to be if you get offended by the snark. It's important to be able to laugh at the ridiculousness of Disney sometimes. Dry humor and sarcasm isn't for everyone. But, if you're not easily offended, it's informative.

 

[perditax]

We use easy pretty religiously. The crowd calendar has never steered us wrong in the years that we've used it.

As far as EMH, the site is fairly clear that if you really want to go to a park with EMH, then you can probably do ok in the early AM, as long as you leave when the crowds start to build. It's not "never go to the EMH park", it's "the other parks will be less busy". Let's face it, EMH does funnel the majority of the on-site hotel guests into one place. There's really no denying that the EMH park is not where you want to be if you're looking to avoid the crowds on any given day.

And, yeah, Easy is not where you want to be if you get offended by the snark. It's important to be able to laugh at the ridiculousness of Disney sometimes. Dry humor and sarcasm isn't for everyone. But, if you're not easily offended, it's informative.

Trust me, I'm very careful to keep my dry humor in check for this particular site. Which means I have a deep appreciation of dry humor. And I don't mind if anyone snarks about Disney--it's just that the first blog post I saw, he was ridiculing a traveler who had written in with questions.

 

[3levinson]

And, yeah, Easy is not where you want to be if you get offended by the snark. It's important to be able to laugh at the ridiculousness of Disney sometimes. Dry humor and sarcasm isn't for everyone. But, if you're not easily offended, it's informative.

Snark is fine, especially when pointed to Disney or just random things. But when posts, emails, and private messages are posted with full names attached and then everyone mocks and belittles that individual into submission or until they want to just leave...that's bullying at it's best and has completely crossed the line from snark to being just plain rude. It is this behavior that I can no longer condone and that has driven me to Touring Plans and wdwprepschool....as well as posting here (I've been lurking for quite a while now). At least these sites know that calling people out by name and publicly ridiculing them is inappropriate.