Touring plans every really wrong

[cfw213]

I love Touring Plans, but I do have to say that you can't really plan based on the crowd calendars. It's not really even a matter of them getting it "wrong" so much as the calendars getting updated a few days or weeks before your trip and suddenly the previously level 1-2 days that you planned around are now all 8s and 9s.

Ye, that happened to this for the upcoming run Disney weekend. We are locked into that time anyway so we didn’t choose it specifically because of TP recommendation but it went from 2-3 down to 1-2 and now 6-8 two weeks before

 

[anniet]

Are people using the touring plans app for Disney World for wait time? It appears to be a social app and looks like it would be an awesome reference if a lot of people were using it. Wondering what experiences people have had with it?

 

[amylevan]

Yes, their Lines app has been around for quite a while and lots of people use it. The wait times are usually more accurate than what disney posts.

 

[AnnaKristoff2013]

Are people using the touring plans app for Disney World for wait time? It appears to be a social app and looks like it would be an awesome reference if a lot of people were using it. Wondering what experiences people have had with it?

Much more accurate then the MDE app. I used it July 9- 19th of this year. I found that every single wait it predicted was within 5 minutes of the actual wait time except for one ride that broke down.

 

[Happy_2_B]

Are people using the touring plans app for Disney World for wait time? It appears to be a social app and looks like it would be an awesome reference if a lot of people were using it. Wondering what experiences people have had with it?

Have used it since they came out with it over multiple trips. Very accurate wait times in my experience. We head there again in a few weeks and I renewed my membership mostly to have access to the lines app.

 

[PepperjackDragon]

Didn’t want to start a new thread so my apologies for revitalizing this. However I am super confused with the crowd calendar. Last Saturday was fully booked MK HS and Epcot for all reservations via any format including incredipass. However, TP said each park was an average of 3-4 “actual crowd”. Yet, they predict 10s during the holidays coming up-which are similarly fully booked. Do we believe TP has information that several times as many people were allowed to make park reservations on those days? I mean, if the crowd size is limited by reservations and they don’t significantly increase reservation availability for those days, it can’t possibly be that much busier. That seems pretty obvious to me, so I am pretty confused.

 

[Upatnoon]

Didn’t want to start a new thread so my apologies for revitalizing this. However I am super confused with the crowd calendar. Last Saturday was fully booked MK HS and Epcot for all reservations via any format including incredipass. However, TP said each park was an average of 3-4 “actual crowd”. Yet, they predict 10s during the holidays coming up-which are similarly fully booked. Do we believe TP has information that several times as many people were allowed to make park reservations on those days? I mean, if the crowd size is limited by reservations and they don’t significantly increase reservation availability for those days, it can’t possibly be that much busier. That seems pretty obvious to me, so I am pretty confused.

You don't seem confused at all.

Traditionally, the holidays are always the most crowded, however with Disney limiting attendance, all fully-booked days would seem to be the same.

However, there are some variables that we don't know about.

For example, Disney could increase the number of park reservations available during the holidays by increasing staffing to "handle" the crowds. They could also extend park hours to increase park capacity.

No matter when you plan to visit, I would expect the parks to be crowded.

Disney charges more for tickets during crowded times. It blocks out annual passes. It charges more for resort stays. Park reservations fill up early. Those are all clues as to when it will be crowded.

 

[qv09vvp]

Long time user and fan of touring plans. We just got home from wdw on Dec 4 after spending a week where days were slated 2,3,4 and upto 7 toward the end of the week. There is NO way those 2 and 3s were accurate. Full disclosure tried genie plus, just hated it for the most part ..bought ILL for Rise insteadof genie plus at HS. I'm just going to say this has got to be the oddest year to predict anything. Historically my week and this past week should be low crowds. I have another friend there this week. Not low crowds at all. Pent up covid time, stimulus money and the borders opened to foreign travel has a lot of people going to the 50th. Not to mention Disney struggles with fully staffing and some shows like fantastic not back. Character greets and parades and shows.draw.crowds off the rides. Just not happening right now. Shopping is also challenged. We saw it in n every store and you know SOmETHING is wrong when Disney is low on merch. Back to touring plans...the room request, and restaurant availability is still good. I like the checklist also.

 

[PepperjackDragon]

I actually just got back today, and while it was very crowded Saturday it wasn’t at all like the articles I have read describe New Years. It was busy but with a bit of patience it was fine, only had to wait for one monorail (almost walked straight on but just missed it) after fireworks, no big restroom lines, short lines for mercy, etc. also going back New Years so am trying to understand if TP has any reason to actually suspect a huge jump to something they would consider a “10” or if my assumption that it should be similar is reasonable. Been a lot of hotel availability back open for those dates now as well, and while they go fast restraints are pretty easily obtained with a bit of refreshing as well.

 

[AnnaKristoff2013]

Didn’t want to start a new thread so my apologies for revitalizing this. However I am super confused with the crowd calendar. Last Saturday was fully booked MK HS and Epcot for all reservations via any format including incredipass. However, TP said each park was an average of 3-4 “actual crowd”. Yet, they predict 10s during the holidays coming up-which are similarly fully booked. Do we believe TP has information that several times as many people were allowed to make park reservations on those days? I mean, if the crowd size is limited by reservations and they don’t significantly increase reservation availability for those days, it can’t possibly be that much busier. That seems pretty obvious to me, so I am pretty confused.

So far despite Touringplans predicting 10’s a few times (October 1st, Thanksgiving, etc), if you look at their historical crowd data, crowds never exceeded a 6 even when park reservations were sold out. It appears that for now at least disney has capped park capacity at what equals a touringplans 6 roughly. As someone who is going over Christmas I am hoping those 10’s similarly end up being 6’s. Disney is still clearly capping park capacity well below what a phase IV closure was before Covid.

 

[kathy884]

Like many here, I really like touring plans, but that is for the plans and other park information, not the crowd calendar. I've found their crowd calendar to be inconsistent and unreliable especially really far in advance.

Their crowd calendars IMHO are frequently off and I would not rely on those for choosing when you go on vacation. I would look at crowd calendars from others, how Disney is pricing tickets, and things like that. And I think COVID-19 has made things harder to predict now than in the past, so I wouldn't take anything as gospel. I think there is a lot of pent up demand for WDW and some US families not comfortable traveling abroad seem to be doing more domestic travel and picking trips to places like WDW pushing up demand even more.

I do have to say though I was looking at those same dates and thinking wow -- is it really less crowded then? -- maybe I should have booked that instead of my crowded March week? I once though (about 10 years ago) picked a March week based on their estimates being lower that week than other March weeks and that didn't work out. The 4s/5s I initially turned into 7s/8s/9s same as all the other March weeks I was looking at.

 

[Grumpy by Birth]

Like many here, I really like touring plans, but that is for the plans and other park information, not the crowd calendar. I've found their crowd calendar to be inconsistent and unreliable especially really far in advance.

In the "before times" I wouldn't use the crowd calendars to decide when to go to Disney (that's always been more a function of when I can go). But I did find it useful to decide which days to go to which parks a lot of times (which I would be doing closer to the actual trip... 30-60 days out depending on whether we were onsite, when making FP+ reservations).

If the day we had planned for DHS, for example, is predicted to be a "7" and the next day is predicted to be a "3" we would often adjust our plans based on that. Of course, with park reservations now being a thing, that kind of flexibility is pretty much out the window. So I don't know that ANY crowd calendar matters much any more.

Disney is back to always being busy. So just pay up and skip a few lines with genie+ and don’t worry about crowds

Fixed it for you.

 

[JCornell]

Are people using the touring plans app for Disney World for wait time? It appears to be a social app and looks like it would be an awesome reference if a lot of people were using it. Wondering what experiences people have had with it?

I always use both Disney's and TP's. It seems like Disney is intentionally inflating their times more lately even with all of the variability that happens. If you watch the Defunctland youtube on lines, they seem to have a lot of data that backs that up.

 

[PepperjackDragon]

I always use both Disney's and TP's. It seems like Disney is intentionally inflating their times more lately even with all of the variability that happens. If you watch the Defunctland youtube on lines, they seem to have a lot of data that backs that up.

having gone in October and last week the real issue is that unless you can physically see the lines the wait times mean nothing right now. A 105 min wait might be 30 or might be 105. 40 min wait might be 40 or might be 15. Got to be able to see it and make a decision as you walk by it, which unfortunately means a lot of wasted time backtracking or just getting in the line anyway. Of course this is a separate issue from whether or not they have reason to suspect certain holidays have significantly higher park capacity than other sold out days.

 

[JCornell]

having gone in October and last week the real issue is that unless you can physically see the lines the wait times mean nothing right now. A 105 min wait might be 30 or might be 105. 40 min wait might be 40 or might be 15. Got to be able to see it and make a decision as you walk by it, which unfortunately means a lot of wasted time backtracking or just getting in the line anyway. Of course this is a separate issue from whether or not they have reason to suspect certain holidays have significantly higher park capacity than other sold out days.

I'd argue they're also playing games with their lines to make them look longer/shorter as they see fit. One day Pirates was out of the building and was only about a 20 minute wait.
Multiple times we stood in a seemingly long line at Everest and were on in less than 30.

 

[gharter]

When we were there in October, all the parks were 1's and 2's until about 2 weeks before and 3 of them jumped to 5-8's.
Not really helpful by that point as you can't really change anything.

 

[Bobb_o]

You can do your own calendar, just check park pass availability and combine it with Disney hotel availability/pricing. This will give you a rough estimate but it should be accurate enough.

Also crowds don't tend to change year over year so you should know the hot spots (School holiday weekends, Spring Break, Peak Summer, October F&W, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years) plus random stuff like race weekends or other events.

If you want to go during low times go in Jan/Feb when there's nothing happening or September when schools go back and it's hurricane season. May can also be decent as long as you stay away from Memorial Day.

 

[DebbieB]

I arrive that weekend, showing full availability now.

 

[JBird77]

Hi, friends! I am working out my Touring Plans, as I always do...we are going on 1/29 and I'm looking at the wait times that TP is predicting in order to determine the order of the rides that we do. Are they still relying on pre-covid data for those? Or are those predicted wait times coming from a more recent, relevant source of data? (The wait times will, of course, determine whether or not we get G+, and from the projected wait times I've seen on TP, we won't really need them because we tend to tour the parks at rope drop and do most of our stuff in the morning.)

 

[scrappinginontario]

Hi, friends! I am working out my Touring Plans, as I always do...we are going on 1/29 and I'm looking at the wait times that TP is predicting in order to determine the order of the rides that we do. Are they still relying on pre-covid data for those? Or are those predicted wait times coming from a more recent, relevant source of data? (The wait times will, of course, determine whether or not we get G+, and from the projected wait times I've seen on TP, we won't really need them because we tend to tour the parks at rope drop and do most of our stuff in the morning.)

Your question has been merged with a recent thread with a lot of great information to answer your question.