Crowd Calendar...frustrated

tng123

Mouseketeer
Joined
Nov 20, 2012
I am so disappointed to see EasyWDW not doing crowd calendars anymore. We followed those for our last 3 trips and never waited more than 15 min for anything. Now I pulled up Kenny's, Touring plans, and undercover tourist and they all contradict eachother! I know, I shouldn't go off of crowd calendars, but I do prefer using them - so which one's do you think are the most accurate of those three??
 
Josh probably did his in the most conservative way ever... and he integrated good touring as well. He was my favorite as well, but Disney has gotten so good utilizing Free Dining and other specials to fill the off season - I think he has wisely stopped.

I have seen how Kenny the Pirate and Touring Plans contradict each other.

From what I can tell... Kenny always follows the rule that Extra Magic Hours drives more traffic into the parks, so those are actually the parks to avoid. Josh would say utilize EMH, but then park hop to a less busy park.

Touring Plans is aggregating data as much as possible, but I think they are having issues now that the economy is ticking up and Disney Trips are becoming the status symbol of choice for many millennials...

Disney has a unique marketing tool now with the advent of social media. The most powerful Disney Brand Ambassadors no longer work for Disney... and that has led to the number of Disney Nerds growing at exponential levels.

Disney from a business perspective no longer really needs the "Walt Disney Travel Co" which is what most travel agents are a part of... However - some Travel Agents are thriving now in a world that people thought would be gone in the era of Hotwire, Expedia and Google Flights. Travel Agents are behind some of the biggest marketing Disney has. This isn't a bad thing... Good Travel Agents are masters of managing expectation - and that is difficult to do if you are Disney.

I've been planning using Touring Plans for my latest trip, but I've definitely been reading all of them to try and find a median trend between them all.
 
Sorry to the OP because my comment is pretty off topic.

But - are crowd calendars really saying EMH is to be avoided?! Honestly, EMH is the only reason I am staying on Disney property our next trip. The idea of saving bookoo $$$$ at a rental house is much more appealing to me than any Disney resort by itself. EMH is what adds the value. Do you feel like you get enough time at the parks when you don't use EMH, assuming you take a break in the middle of the day? Are the reduced crowd levels at non-EMH parks enough? Not trying to be judgmental or sarcastic here, promise! This is a legitimate question :earsboy:

I will say - I used Touring Plans last trip, but I guess I used it more for actual touring routes (which ended up being a very useful tool) rather than a park suggestion or crowd level tool.
 


Sorry to the OP because my comment is pretty off topic.

But - are crowd calendars really saying EMH is to be avoided?! Honestly, EMH is the only reason I am staying on Disney property our next trip. The idea of saving bookoo $$$$ at a rental house is much more appealing to me than any Disney resort by itself. EMH is what adds the value. Do you feel like you get enough time at the parks when you don't use EMH, assuming you take a break in the middle of the day? Are the reduced crowd levels at non-EMH parks enough? Not trying to be judgmental or sarcastic here, promise! This is a legitimate question :earsboy:

I will say - I used Touring Plans last trip, but I guess I used it more for actual touring routes (which ended up being a very useful tool) rather than a park suggestion or crowd level tool.

Emh should definitely be utilized if park hopping. If you don't have park hoppers then I would avoid
 
If you're going during a really busy time like Christmas, when they have morning EMH at MK every day, then that has some value.

If you're not, then yeah, I'd agree that it's worth it if you have hoppers or an AP (so you can hop) and you're willing to make it work. But hoppers are more $ too.

If EMH is your driver for onsite, I'd just stay offsite and tour avoiding EMH. We stay onsite because we love Disney transportation.
 
Josh probably did his in the most conservative way ever... and he integrated good touring as well. He was my favorite as well, but Disney has gotten so good utilizing Free Dining and other specials to fill the off season - I think he has wisely stopped.

Actually, Josh has stated that his reason for not doing crowd calendars anymore is the fact that Disney is no longer releasing hours in a timely manner.

But - are crowd calendars really saying EMH is to be avoided?!

I don't know about other people who do crowd calendars but Josh (the guy who writes EasyWDW) typically advised against EMH days because he felt that Disney does such a good job marketing them that people think that Disney is telling them which park to do on which day, and that therefore, those parks are more crowded.
 


Sorry to the OP because my comment is pretty off topic.

But - are crowd calendars really saying EMH is to be avoided?! Honestly, EMH is the only reason I am staying on Disney property our next trip. The idea of saving bookoo $$$$ at a rental house is much more appealing to me than any Disney resort by itself. EMH is what adds the value. Do you feel like you get enough time at the parks when you don't use EMH, assuming you take a break in the middle of the day? Are the reduced crowd levels at non-EMH parks enough? Not trying to be judgmental or sarcastic here, promise! This is a legitimate question :earsboy:

I will say - I used Touring Plans last trip, but I guess I used it more for actual touring routes (which ended up being a very useful tool) rather than a park suggestion or crowd level tool.

We have never taken advantage of EMH, as Josh typically advised against it. Now this trip we are thinking of going over Thanksgiving, and will have park hoppers, so we may do EMH at certain parks.
 
I think Dad's guide to WDW is the best crowd calendar. He uses all the major ones to get an average and our November 2016 trip was spot on with his crowd predictions. I can't say how this past September was according to anyone's calendar because when Irma came all the parks were empty during our stay and the weeks after the calendars were all wrong due to all the rescheduling.
 
I think Dad's guide to WDW is the best crowd calendar. He uses all the major ones to get an average and our November 2016 trip was spot on with his crowd predictions. I can't say how this past September was according to anyone's calendar because when Irma came all the parks were empty during our stay and the weeks after the calendars were all wrong due to all the rescheduling.
I can’t find anywhere on his page that he lists which Park is best on which days...
 
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I agree with some of the PP who mention taking advantage of EMH then moving off to another park for the day. The scenario makes sense. Those people without park hoppers will be able to enter the park and get more park time, thus taking advantage of EMH. EMH are a great benefit when you have park hoppers and a party who can get up early and take advantage of them. You hit the EMH park for up to 2 hours then you make your FP selections for another park and venture off to the other park around 10am.

We would only utilize evening EMH after we have toured another park during the day only going to hit a ride or two with somewhat shorter waits. Going with low expectations and not expecting to tackle a ton of rides -- just something to do with our evening if we aren't tired.
 
But - are crowd calendars really saying EMH is to be avoided?!

Some do. I believe one of the larger theories is that guests go to Park A because it has EMH that day, and then Park A still gets about the same number of guests it would have if there wasn't EMH. Yes, some people then choose to skip Park A as it had EMH, but that number in theorized to be less than those that go because of EMH. So say 7,500 for EMH, plus 30,000 normal = 37,500, while if it wasn't an EMH, it might have only been 32,000. (Those numbers are completely made up) That is why some people will say to do EMH, and then hop to a non-EMH park which should now in theory have slightly lower crowds due to those who are at the EMH park. Of course, @lentesta or someone else could show stats proving this to be completely false and wrong, but I believe that is a common theory.
 
As far as crowd calendars and avoiding EMH:
I remember once sitting at the bus stop at 8:15 heading to MK. Epcot had EMH starting at 8:00, and almost everyone at the bus stop was waiting for an Epcot bus. I thought how crazy it was, that the soonest they'd probably be entering the park would be 8:45, so they'd only get an extra 15 minutes, and the big rides probably already had lines of 30 to 60 minutes. They would have been better off going to MK like me, at that point. We were the only ones waiting for the MK bus.
The only way I'd do morning EMH is if I was SURE I'd be there before RD, and/or I had my FP at another park. Then if something happened and we were running late, we could just drop the EMH and head to RD the park with our FP.
 
Sorry to the OP because my comment is pretty off topic.

But - are crowd calendars really saying EMH is to be avoided?! Honestly, EMH is the only reason I am staying on Disney property our next trip. The idea of saving bookoo $$$$ at a rental house is much more appealing to me than any Disney resort by itself. EMH is what adds the value. Do you feel like you get enough time at the parks when you don't use EMH, assuming you take a break in the middle of the day? Are the reduced crowd levels at non-EMH parks enough? Not trying to be judgmental or sarcastic here, promise! This is a legitimate question :earsboy:

I will say - I used Touring Plans last trip, but I guess I used it more for actual touring routes (which ended up being a very useful tool) rather than a park suggestion or crowd level tool.
General rule I’ve heard a lot Morning ones are great avoid evening ones especially Epcot
 

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