Touring Plans

[zenjenn]

So I shelled out the $8 for Touring Plans because it has served me well for WDW...

But for DLR the Crowd Calendar is predicting a 6 out of 10 on 4th of July (7 out of 10 for DL and 4 out of 10 for DCA)

What the heck? It Touring Plans completely out of touch with DLR? There's no way those numbers can be right for 4th of July. Is there?

 

[mmmears]

I'm getting similar numbers for the middle of August and I'm also skeptical about them. You can check the blackout dates for the APs, though, and see if maybe most people with APs can't get into the parks that day. That can skew things dramatically at DL.

 

[farmfresh]

Well since we are there at the same I time hope they are right But they are probably factoring in the lack of pass holders. Still based on what I hear here, sounds a bit too optimistic.

 

[Winnowill]

Touring Plans is, sadly, WAY outclassed for DLR. I have a subscription, too, but I have it mainly so that I can use it for my own plans using the Lines app. Last year, they had our parks days (8/8-8/12) as crowd levels 5 and 6. They were level 8 and 9 crowds. They updated the crowd levels a while later to coincide with what actually occurred, but have since returned to about a level above their original predictions. Not that it mattered to us - our dates wouldn't have changed, anyway, nor would my touring strategy. But, when I pulled a Space Mountain FP that I expected, based on my touring plan, to have a return time of 2:10 and it had a return of 6:00, that made a BIG difference in how I planned to get around that day. Now that the Disneyland app has FP return times (it did not when we were there), it's a much better guide. TP still works for planning, just don't accept its timing or FP times as gospel.

 

[zenjenn]

Thanks Winnow. Yeah, the absolute lowest crowd day during our time window is that DCA 4 on the 4th of July, but there's just no way I'd trust that. Even though it is *possible* DCA might be low I guess if everyone gravitates to DL for fireworks, I'm still not risking going anywhere near the parks on the 4th of July since we have other date options to choose from.

We have 2-day tickets and right now my dates are June 29th for Disneyland and July 5th or 6th for DCA (being flexible, here). I just considered a combination of factors; their predictions, my logic, and my schedule. All things considered, those seem like good choices for dates under the circumstances.

It's good to know that about the plans and that the Lines app is still worth it.

 

[mmmears]

I love how great touring plans is when I use it for WDW, so I did go ahead and buy it for our upcoming DL trip... I wish it was more accurate, though, since the timing really helps me when I "customize" our plans. But it sounds like I shouldn't count on the wait times listed...