Touringplans Failed Me

[larryz]

To be fair, they do have a money back guarantee.

And so does Josh...

 

[Mickeynutty]

I am not judging the touring plans, because have used them in the past and have had great success but something has definitely gone awry.
I was there for the first week in Feb and had terrible results.
i was looking forward to a lowest crowd ever experience and instead had the highest crowds i ever experienced. I left parks twice due to crowds and long lines. (I have only done that once before)
the high crowds combined with the other thing (need i mention it by name)
made for a less than great week

This is EXACTLY our experience this past week. Thank you for posting!!

 

[hydrotony]

I was at WDW parks 4 separate days in the last month and saw big crowds too. Besides all the cheerleaders, I also saw what I believe were a lot more teen tour groups from Argentina and Brazil. It would be great to figure out how many and when these cheer and tour groups are going. Does anyone read Spanish and Portuguese and can you scour the twitter and facebook traffic from down there?

 

[sethschroeder]

I am explicitly addressing their Crowd predictions. When you use them and they are wrong, that is my concern. Believe it or not, the $10 is not my concern.

People don't consider the crowd prediction to be any better really though....

Its about the other content like the customized line app you can optimize while in the park that makes it worth it.

 

[Honest John]

1. I agree with most everyone here that EasyWDW (free) > TouringPlans
2. But, in defense of TP, OP has basically 1 quantitative observation (100 minutes at RnR) which really doesn't tell us much of anything. Even on low-attendance days, a 100 minute wait at RnR is not anomalous at peak times between 11am-5pm. To say nothing of the fact that the ride might have went down unexpectedly. Saturdays in the winter season are especially high-variance because factors like weather can drive local traffic.
3. That 'packed' feeling can be especially bad when Disney is hit with unexpected crowds they didn't anticipate. Remember Disney has a huge influence on crowd factors via how they staff, how many stage shows they offer, how many ride cars are operating in an attraction, how much staff are dedicated to quick-service. etc. If Disney misses their own internal predictions and staffs poorly, it will 'feel packed' even when the relative population of the crowd is similar to days that feel not-crowded. That's not really anything crowd predictors can control.

 

[Mickeynutty]

1. I agree with most everyone here that EasyWDW (free) > TouringPlans
2. But, in defense of TP, OP has basically 1 quantitative observation (100 minutes at RnR) which really doesn't tell us much of anything. Even on low-attendance days, a 100 minute wait at RnR is not anomalous at peak times between 11am-5pm. To say nothing of the fact that the ride might have went down unexpectedly. Saturdays in the winter season are especially high-variance because factors like weather can drive local traffic.
3. That 'packed' feeling can be especially bad when Disney is hit with unexpected crowds they didn't anticipate. Remember Disney has a huge influence on crowd factors via how they staff, how many stage shows they offer, how many ride cars are operating in an attraction, how much staff are dedicated to quick-service. etc. If Disney misses their own internal predictions and staffs poorly, it will 'feel packed' even when the relative population of the crowd is similar to days that feel not-crowded. That's not really anything crowd predictors can control.

OP here. I said nothing about RnR wait times.