Touringplans Failed Me

[Mickeynutty]

Yesterday, we were at DHS becasuse I chose it months ago based on the crowd predictions on Touringplans. *What a bust! *RnR had a 100 min wait. *Everywhere was packed. *I do not plan to renew my subscription. *I will stick with easywdw in the future.

From their website this morning their blurb about yesterday. *Note what they say about the Studios! *Turns out it was the LAST park I should have chosen. *Frustrating.

At Magic Kingdom we predicted a crowd level of 5. The actual crowd level was a 4
* *At Epcot we predicted a crowd level of 5. The actual crowd level was a 4
* *At Disney's Hollywood Studios we predicted a crowd level of 3. The actual crowd level was a 6
* *At Disney's Animal Kingdom we predicted a crowd level of 3. The actual crowd level was a 3

 

[Robo]

* *Sorry.
* Sometimes they get it right. * Sometimes they get it wrong.

And* that goes for
* * all of them.

 

[Hoodie]

I was poking around there the other day, wondering if it was worth the subscription. On that day, the note about the previous day said "At Magic Kingdom we predicted a crowd level of 3. The actual crowd level was 8." That's a HUGE difference. I checked easyWDW and MK was not recommended that day.

When you're charging someone for your services, you had better be more accurate than 3 vs. 8.

 

[eliz603]

* *Sorry.
* Sometimes they get it right. * Sometimes they get it wrong.

And* that goes for
* * all of them.

This.

I've used them since 2009 with mainly good results. Last year, we felt the crowds had been slightly underestimated. This time, I'm using a combo of TP and easywdw. I'm sorry you had a bad experience.

 

[CanadianPaco]

we felt the crowds had been slightly underestimated. .

This is certainly a theme we keep seeing over and over!

 

[sethschroeder]

Didn't feel like doing more but from 1/20 to 1/31 at most they were off by 2 but most of the time they were exactly on or just off by 1. You can do more research into that. That being said looks like the last week they have been off about 4 times for being more than 3 points off attendance to a park....? Could be an issue with when the Super Bowl fell????

In the end any of these services will be off and you can tell easier at TouringPlans as they don't hide it they show you what they were off.

As a note:
*Yesterday morning was EMH (most people would say skip that except unless your rope dropping)
*Touring Plans was wrong but did you compare to other calendars yesterday before going? (should always compare all sources and make the FINAL call of which park you want to go to)
*The real point of touring plans in my mind is for the rides, did you use it while in the park and optimize your schedule throughout the day? Did that help do you think?

Signed - TouringPlans Fan

 

[vicb]

Why we buy hoppers, gives you options.

 

[sethschroeder]

I was poking around there the other day, wondering if it was worth the subscription. On that day, the note about the previous day said "At Magic Kingdom we predicted a crowd level of 3. The actual crowd level was 8." That's a HUGE difference. I checked easyWDW and MK was not recommended that day.

When you're charging someone for your services, you had better be more accurate than 3 vs. 8.

Again Touring Plans tells you the level and easyWDW does not. I assume you are talking about 2/2 (Super Bowl Sunday) and it was projected to be 4 and was a level 7. Which the largest they been off at MK since before 1/20/14.

Note that MK was NOT SUGGEST by touring plans either and had the WORST ranking out of any of the parks. You could have been in a shock at AK though but that also was not the #1 park of the day which was HS which held up.

http://touringplans.com/walt-disney-world/crowd-calendar/date/2014-02-02

FYI - touringplans is not the only calendar you should look at just trying to give a little background to when you see some of those off numbers.

 

[eliz603]

This is certainly a theme we keep seeing over and over!

In my case, I mean we had 4s for our trip last year, but the lines were more like 5s. So I really meant slightly!

 

[GovieMom]

* *Sorry.
* Sometimes they get it right. * Sometimes they get it wrong.

And* that goes for
* * all of them.

That's true, as the "other" crowd predictor site got it totally wrong two days of our last trip.

 

[Pixie Princess]

* *Sorry. * Sometimes they get it right. * Sometimes they get it wrong. And* that goes for * * all of them.

Yep. Have been steered wrong by EasyWDW, but not TP. Just the way the cookie crumbles.

 

[prudence64]

Undercover tourist had it not recommended too.

 

[crostorfer]

I think FP+ has screwed up the wait time predictions so badly that no one can accurately predict the crowd levels or recommended parks, in terms of wait times. I'm not trying to turn this into a FP+ bash thread, this is just one of those "it is what it is" things.

I've been keeping a very close eye on the wait times, and DHS seems to be having the biggest issues. There is no reason that in the first week of February the wait times for RNRR and ToT should be at 60-75 minutes. That is a little crazy to me. Almost every day I've looked at DHS they are in the red, in terms of wait times.

 

[sethschroeder]

I think FP+ has screwed up the wait time predictions so badly that no one can accurately predict the crowd levels or recommended parks, in terms of wait times. I'm not trying to turn this into a FP+ bash thread, this is just one of those "it is what it is" things.

I've been keeping a very close eye on the wait times, and DHS seems to be having the biggest issues. There is no reason that in the first week of February the wait times for RNRR and ToT should be at 60-75 minutes. That is a little crazy to me. Almost every day I've looked at DHS they are in the red, in terms of wait times.

Well its not really a bash just pointing out that people tour differently now... Everyone will catch up eventually as with every day they get more historical data to draw from.

 

[alc571]

I've only been steered wrong by TP once, and I believe it was because of the weather. It had MK as the worst park on the Monday, and the best park on the Tuesday. Well, it poured rain all day on the Monday, so MK was really crowded on the Tuesday from people who put it off a day. I still like them. I share my subscription with a coworker.

 

[Silock]

TP failed me this past week, too. But then, so did EasyWDW. I used EasyWDW's park recommendations for each day and then set up a TP for that park.

That didn't work out very well at all.

 

[jlm196]

I am using easyWDW so I am hoping Josh is right more often that touring plans.

 

[jlm196]

It really is a roll of the dice no matter who you pick..... We buy park hoppers so if we need to switch we can

 

[Alice Royal]

Okay, I'm sorry, but did none of you notice the veritable SEA of gigantic bows and matching warm-ups at DHS yesterday, and the fact that Indiana Jones was closed?

We were at WDW yesterday. There was a huge high school cheerleading competition. All of the teams were roaming DHS (and a few in Epcot) when they weren't performing, and THAT drove the lines up. Obviously TouringPlans should have taken that into consideration when they made crowd level predictions, but seriously, there's NO way of knowing how many teams will be 'off' at any time and what ride they'll all run to, since they tend to roam in packs.

Sick of seeing people blaming FP+ when there's obviously another factor at play here. Should have been obvious.

 

[Silock]

Okay, I'm sorry, but did none of you notice the veritable SEA of gigantic bows and matching warm-ups at DHS yesterday, and the fact that Indiana Jones was closed?

We were at WDW yesterday. There was a huge high school cheerleading competition. All of the teams were roaming DHS (and a few in Epcot) when they weren't performing, and THAT drove the lines up. Obviously TouringPlans should have taken that into consideration when they made crowd level predictions, but seriously, there's NO way of knowing how many teams will be 'off' at any time and what ride they'll all run to, since they tend to roam in packs.

Sick of seeing people blaming FP+ when there's obviously another factor at play here. Should have been obvious.

Except that's a factor EVERY year.