Touring Plans

[Disneyhappy]

Freaking out after seeing crowd calendar showing 8 and 9 during our visit in March. We are WDW vets who are first time DLR visitors. I was feeling pretty confidant that I could pull it off on my own based on information gleaned from scouring these posts but my confidence was hit after reading the crowd levels. We purposely stay away from WDW on crowd levels 8 and above so I am feeling ill equipped. Yikes! We fly in the afternoon of Saturday March 21 and plan to eat dinner in a resort or DTD (staying GC) that evening. We have three day park hoppers for Sunday, Monday and up to early afternoon Tuesday when we have to leave for a conference. It will be young-at-heart DH and myself. I'm seriously thinking of subscribing to a touring plan service. We enjoy taking advantage of early park entry and like to take afternoon breaks to hang at the pool after which we return to the parks at night. (Just realized that I am assuming it will be pool weather the end of March - another thing to check!) Is Touring Plans or Ride Max worth signing up? I think I know the headliners for FP. Are crowd levels 8 and 9 at DLR similar to the same levels at WDW?

 

[figment_jii]

There is some discussion on this board about how accurate/good Touring Plans is, but I would guess that some of the high crowd predication is due to the United Spirit Association (Cheer) convention/competition at the Anaheim Convention Center on March 20 through 22, and there is also a Mini-Gay Day on March 21. So those things can/do add to the crowds in the parks. You'll be a little ahead of when the peak Spring Break crowds are expected (3/28 to 4/11 based on the AP blockout calendar), but the parks will likely be on Spring Break operating schedule (long hours, more entertainment, etc.).

Here is a link to HydroGuy's weather data thread:
http://www.disboards.com/threads/detailed-weather-data-for-dlr.1711391/#post-23004158

 

[momsmail]

Hi! I am not an expert on crowd levels, you will get great info from others on here, but I wanted to let you know when we went in February (I know, not the same as March) 2013 there were some 8 and 9 days because we went over President's Day weekend. It was awesome! We walked onto rides, except for RSR, and the park did not feel crowded at all- not one bit. Just wanted to give you that perspective.

 

[HydroGuy]

There is some discussion on this board about how accurate/good Touring Plans is

For example, see "Why I Am Skeptical of the Touring Plans Website DLR Crowd Calendar" http://www.disboards.com/threads/wh...ing-plans-website-dlr-crowd-calendar.3196851/

 

[Lauren in NC]

I think an important thing to remember, also, is that crowd patterns are very different in DL. There's a lot more locals, so the crowds tend to build starting in the late afternoons into the evening. Your plan to get there at rope drop and then taking a late afternoon break would probably work very well!

 

[Rjmdds]

So is the consensus that TP tends to OVERESTIMATE or UNDERESTIMATE crowd levels? It sounds that many here feel that they overestimate.

 

[Geemo]

I tried TP for a past trip. Once we were there and tried to follow the TP plan, it really didn't flow well. We ended up doing our own thing.

For our next trip I'm going to try MouseWait. It's a free app I've put on my tablet. I play with it every once in a while to get a feel for it. I think MW will give us the best info while we're there.

My group is famous for Park-Crossing and Park-Hopping for rides. 10 miles a day on the pedometer isn't uncommon. With MW I can see what the line times are before we make the trek to the kids next desire.

For those that have used MW, how do you feel it is for accuracy?

As you know, the key will be to get an early start in the parks each day. Staying at the GCH is a nice advantage too. You will have EE to the parks, DCA on Sun and Mon and DL on Tues . That extra hour in the morning will be great!!

Enjoy Saturday exploring DTD.

Geemo

 

[figment_jii]

I've used MouseWaits and DL Waits in the past and I haven't really found one to be consistently better than the other. Both rely on guests inside the parks updating wait times, but there aren't any controls put in place to ensure that everyone is reporting the same thing (posted wait time? actual wait time experienced by the guest?). I do like the fact that Mousewait includes the time when the wait time was last updated in it's information. That way you can look and see that the wait time hasn't been updated for hours hours, so it's probably not a very reliable estimate anymore.

 

[HydroGuy]

So is the consensus that TP tends to OVERESTIMATE or UNDERESTIMATE crowd levels? It sounds that many here feel that they overestimate.

Since they have way too many 9's and 10's than their method says is possible, they definitely overestimate. But be careful looking at any day and saying "this is an overestimate".