I’m not sure anybody really cares, but since I have them handy, we’ll take a look at Thanksgiving Week wait times. Specifically, we’ll take a look at Monday, the busiest day of Thanksgiving Week with a crowd level of 9, which is the highest crowd level this website assigns without the risk of Magic Kingdom closing to capacity.
There is always some confusion with the crowd levels, which are on a scale of 1-10 with 1s being the least crowded days and 10s being days where one or more of the Parks may close to capacity. Crowd levels run on a bell curve so you see fewer 1s and 10s than you do 4s, 5s, and 6s. And the crowd calendar runs on a 12-month loop so crowd levels are compared only to the six months before and after a date in question.
I’ll often see people say, “There’s really no such thing as a 2 or 3 crowd level anymore, 5 is about the minimum.” That’s not how this website operates. There are, by definition, 1s, 2s, and 3s just like there are 8s, 9s, and 10s. It’s true that those 1s and 2s are more crowded than say…2009 in the middle of a worldwide recession. International visitation, particularly from South America, also tends to bump up crowds during “low crowd times” because they don’t run on the same schedule as domestic visitors. But it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to start the crowd calendar at a 5 and go up to a 15. And it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to start at 5 and go to 10 because then you really just have a crowd calendar that goes from 1 to 5. So we stick with the 1-10 scale, keeping in mind that a “2” in 2014 is going to be considerably more crowded than a “5” would have been back in 2010. That’s just the way things are right now with the Dow at 17,500 instead of 6,500 and strong international visitation helped by the fact everything is so much cheaper here for Brazilians.
Larger: https://i2.wp.com/easywdw.com/reports12/ak1124.jpg or you can download the Excel file at https://i2.wp.com/easywdw.com/reports12/wdw1121.xlsx
We have 8am openings at Animal Kingdom all week to help with the heavy overall crowds. Animal Kingdom came highly recommended and you’ll notice that there are no actual waits over 10 minutes until 9:30am, a full 90 minutes after the Park opens. Things ease again in the evening with no waits over 10 minutes after 6:30pm. Things are rough in the afternoon, but with no posted waits over 60 minutes at Everest or over 90 minutes at Safaris, today should prove to be very good compared to other days during the week. That’s going to be a bit less true with today’s (November 25th) weather. There was a tornado warning at the Parks around 10am and heavy rain has kept just about everyone away. If you’re visiting between now and about March, keep in mind that just about anything that includes animal viewing closes before dusk. This time of year, that means Kilimanjaro Safaris, Pangani Forest Exploration Trail, Maharajah Jungle Trek, and Rafiki’s Planet Watch/Wildlife Express Train close at 4:45pm. That tends to make those areas a little busier during the day because more people are squished into shorter operating hours.
Larger: https://i2.wp.com/easywdw.com/reports12/ep1124.jpg
Epcot both handles and doesn’t handle big crowds well. It’s true that there is a lot of physical space to stand in place and a lot of kiosks that sell $8 Bud Lights with short lines, but there are basically two rides anybody gets excited about and then a handful of minor attractions that see high wait times when Soarin’ and Test Track hit triple digits. With crowds of this magnitude, there’s no way around seeing Soarin’ and Test Track with 100+ minute peak waits, but peak and average waits are reliably lower on recommended days. And fewer people means shorter waits in a lot more places than just the major attractions – more tables available at quick services, fewer people in Mitsukoshi Department Store, “only” a 20 minute wait for Journey into Imagination, etc.
Larger: https://i2.wp.com/easywdw.com/reports12/hs1124.jpg
Hollywood Studios was not recommended with the evening Extra Magic Hours attracting a ton of resort guests. Things are pretty rough there. By 11am, if you want to board something that moves, you’d be in for a minimum wait of 27 minutes at Great Movie Ride. There’s a little window there in the morning where you can hit the headliners with short waits, but Toy Story waits take off immediately after the Park opens with Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster already over a 60-minute actual wait by 10am and Tower of Terror not following far behind with 70+ minutes by 11am. Evening Extra Magic Hours aren’t great either even with the 10pm start. You could ride Star Tours from 10pm to around 10:20pm. But with a 20ish minute wait at Great Movie Ride at 10:30pm due to much lower staffing, that experience is going to take about 45 minutes. Then you make it to Tower of Terror around 11:10pm with a 25 minute wait. Then it’s a choice between Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster or Toy Story Mania without time to do both. It’s not a great scenario. The Osborne Lights and Fantasmic do help, but a 60 minute wait is only a little better than 75.
Larger: https://i2.wp.com/easywdw.com/reports12/mk1124.jpg
Well that’s a lot of big numbers. I’d have to look it up, but I think these are the longest average and peak waits we’ve seen this year with Haunted Mansion and Pirates of the Caribbean both hitting 90 minute waits, in addition to triple digit waits at Big Thunder Mountain, Splash Mountain, Space Mountain, Dumbo, Peter Pan’s Flight, and Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, among others. With the 8am open, the morning remains an excellent time to tour through 10am. even on a non-recommended day. it’s a small world might peak at 70 minutes in the afternoon, but it’s less than 20 minutes until 11am. Still, there are not a lot of places to hide come 1pm, when the average wait at all attractions that post a time is a whopping 52 minutes.
Long time readers may remember that the website often mocked our friends at TouringPlans for their consistently asinine Walt Disney World crowd predictions. It was easyWDW’s New Year’s Resolution not to mention the site in 2014 and I think we’ve succeeded thus far.
A few historical examples for context:
There was this post that pointed out TouringPlans’ only recommended Park on July 4th 2013 was Magic Kingdom. For those of you considering starting your own crowd calendar website, I would advise that you not recommend Magic Kingdom on major holidays, particularly Presidents Day, Easter, July 4th, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s Eve.
Okay I guess I didn’t do quite as well with the resolution thing as I thought, but were you at the gym past the second week in January? Back to the whole holiday thing…Martin Luther King Jr. weekend is pretty rough and chances are the Studios is not going to be a “3 out of 10” on a holiday with a 9:30pm close.
Well this is pretty meta…a screenshot of a screenshot of a screenshot:
One of their worst predictions by far came back in November 2012 when TouringPlans thought Magic Kingdom was going to be extremely crowded after Disney extended Magic Kingdom’s hours to 8am-1am on multiple days in November for New Fantasyland previews. Of course, a “9.1” is insane.
TouringPlans is so dishonest that they came back and tried to tell us crowds really were an “8.6.” Am the only person that misses the decimal points?
There’s this Animal Kingdom one. Another AK one. I could go on.
Okay one more but only because it’s one of my favorites!
This is the Sunday before Easter, one of the busiest times of year. Full post that’s worth reading: https://www.easywdw.com/uncategorized/wait-times-epcot-mediterranean-sliders-figment-habit-heroes-curtained-a-quickie-4112/. Not only is it a great example of TouringPlans’ numbers not even being in the right galaxy, but it’s a great example of them either lying to our faces after the fact about what crowds were really like or simply not understanding that a 105 minute wait at Mission Space is pretty long.
Anyway, it was brought to my attention a few days ago that TouringPlans was publishing a new series:
You can pull up the whole document here: http://tpforum.s3.amazonaws.com/10743f57dbcf86a96804d097ba2c9eb4c139740a16d91.pdf
Looking at the first page, it looks like TouringPlans has crowned themselves champions of something, though I’m not real sure what yet.
Scrolling down, it looks to be comparing TouringPlans’ wait times throughout the day with an “unknown” “competitor:”
The 9:30am thing reminds me of this website’s Cheat Sheets, which include expected wait time charts beginning at 9:30am. It uses the half hour there because there is a substantial difference at most attractions between 9am and 10am.
This competitor sucks!
Looking at the current Cheat Sheet, I noticed the numbers didn’t match up to mine. But then the Cheat Sheets were updated about two months ago on September 29th, 2014 and maybe they hadn’t gotten around to updating? Nope…the numbers don’t match up to the previous version either.
Turns out I had to plug in an external hard drive with documents that date all the way back to April 14, 2013 to find the wait times they’re using for the “competitor.”
Looks like the website’s April 2013 wait times match up exactly with our “competitor.” But maybe it’s just a coincidence? Let’s scroll down one.
And again, the wait times listed under “competitor” match easyWDW’s April 2013 Cheat Sheet exactly. Shockingly perhaps, those predictions were actually better than TouringPlans’ own November 2014 numbers.
I’m not sure how many of you remember April 2013, but it was before FastPass+ and My Disney Experience were a thing, so none of easyWDW’s numbers back then take into account FastPass+, while TouringPlans uses their latest 2014 numbers taking FP+ into account.
I wonder what would happen if we use easyWDW’s current wait times (again, published back in September):
My how things change when you don’t compare your “competitor’s” April 2013 numbers to your November 2014 numbers. And if you look above at the Epcot wait time chart for this particular day, the posted wait for Spaceship Earth was actually 10 minutes at 9:30am, which would give that slot to easyWDW and put easyWDW “ahead” overall.
I’m not sure what’s more pathetic, being disingenuous about the data you’re using or somehow still being wrong 41.7% of the time compared to wait times from over 18 months ago.
I will also mention that this is not exactly the intended use of the website’s Cheat Sheets:
As explained on the Cheat Sheet page. It’s basically to give the reader an idea about whether wait times will be short, moderate, long, or really long throughout the day.
Does it matter that easyWDW had an expected wait of 70 minutes for Jungle Cruise at 2pm (in 2013), TouringPlans had it at 50 minutes, and the posted wait was 65 minutes? No, it means you don’t want to be anywhere near the standby line at that time of day. That’s the whole point.
I’m not real sure what the deal is here. Mother always said, “Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.” And I guess I hope that’s what’s going on there.
I attempted to reach TouringPlans directly for comment before publishing this post, but was ignored.
Insightful post – thanks. We’re going to try going down around New Years for a few days for the first time ever. It’s good to see what a 2014 “9” looks like so I can mentally prepare for a “10”. Basically, plan to do nothing I don’t have a FP+ for between 11:00AM and 6PM. Got it!
Perhaps (hopefully) they made an honest mistake, though I doubt it. They should be ashamed of themselves. Thank you for what you do.
My understanding is that the “Disney posted wait times” are not truly accurate but assist with channeling crowds. If that is true, wouldn’t a better comparison be to the “Disney actual wait times” that this site publishes?
Posted wait times are verifiable, while “actual” wait times (while generally accurate) are less verifiable. In other words, the posted wait will always be “right” while the actual wait can’t really be proved.
Then perhaps I misunderstand where “actual” wait times come from. I thought that was a data stream available from Disney, similar to their “posted” wait times. If not, I understand the verification issue. But it still seems invalid for TP to claim victory when comparing to the fixed “posted” wait times. (Of course, the whole thing is invalid for the reasons you already laid out…)
you quoted one of my posts before on here but it’s worth mentioning on this one. I went during Spring Break a few years ago and Touring Plans had Animal Kingdom around 8 or 9. It ended up raining the entire day when we went, EVERYTHING was a walk-on. We rode Everest over and over around lunch time Park was dead. Next day, Touring Plans had their “actual” for Animal Kingdom at about 8.2 (yes, during the decimal days). I would have been fine with them underestimating because of unforeseen weather but when they came back with their obviously wrong “actual”, I lost complete respect for their data.
We were in MK in Nov 2012 during the pass holder previews. It was our first trip, the ride lines were completely empty after about 9, and we got to do ETWB with no wait. Best of all, my son got to be Beast. It was the best Disney day we’ve ever had. Crowds were very light that whole day. Of course, we were there by your recommendation. In fact, you answered an email from me personally when the times changed and I was confused. Thank you!
This data girl loves a spreadsheet and these are a Hoot! Thanks for Jazzing up a sleepy Tuesday night.
You think everything with Disney should be pixie dust NOT with Disney Bloggers! Apparently someone is a little bit jealous of someones success. Maybe a spreadsheet comparing book sales on Amazon?
Everyone and their Mother now has a crowd calendar so I’m sure it will be said they were not comparing to you. Go out toast your success you have earned it. This is the icing on the cake to your fans.
Josh, thanks for everything you do!
Seems to me that the “competition” is jealous!
What a bunch of douche bags. At least they gave you fodder for a great post. Can’t tell you enough how much I appreciate your site and enjoy reading your pots.
Thanks!
Posts that is. I do not enjoy your lack of an edit button.
I am loving this post. What great self-restraint you have used to make it to the end of November! 🙂 I subscribe to touring plans when planning a trip only to have access to the chat function of the Lines app that can get me simple questions answered quickly. I don’t bother with their plans or predictions. There has been lots of unrest and unanswered questions on there this week. Here is an example of a current conversation, “First trip to WDW. Will be there Xmas week. Did custom TPs for each day. My TP wait times seem too good to be true, especially when I compare them to this week’s posted wait times. How reliable are the TPs during Xmas week??” One response from another poster was, “I asked TP the same question directly and they said they felt the wait times were accurate. I’m still sceptical that we’ll only be waiting the times listed. Maybe be prepared to keep optimising your plan again once in the park if wait times are longer?” I feel bad for the people that are so dissapointed when they arrive and it is so much more crowded than they expected.
I take it this is the technical term: “more people are squished into shorter operating hours”.
All I have to say is thanks Josn!! We have hit all 4 parks hard since Friday Nov21, and the longest we have waited is 18 minutes for RnRC on Sunday after the TSM “sprint”. The rain also helped yesterday :). We bave been on every major headliner and done everything else we wanted to complete. We couldn’t have done it without your calendar and cheat sheet help.
Now it’s time to slow down and take it easy the next 3 days.
Their post is disgusting. I suppose they felt the need to defend themselves because they charge for that information. And people wouldn’t pay if they thought your free calendar was better. I have followed your crowd calendar for the last 3 years and always found it to be accurate. Thanks for everything you do! We’ll be there again in 1.5 weeks and I’m still using your cheat sheets, even though this is my 6th trip since FP+. I also recommend your site and book to all my friends when they are planning trips.
As a fan of statistics and spite, this is my favorite post ever.
I think this might be my favorite comment ever!
Mine too!
I’ve used your info multiple times to tour very successfully at WDW, and recommended your site and book countless other times (I help others Disney travel plan as a ”hobby”). Oh, BTW, your book is spot on as well. We’re going back in March 2015, largely because the last week of Feb through the 1st week of March was very recommended by your site and book. My mother in law is going back in late April, after the Easter crowds (and prices,LOL) have eased a bit, because of the same premise. She’s been 4 times in the last 18 mos, and I always pick times for her based on your calendars. And I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that you’ve actually tweeted and replied to my tweets WHILE I WAS TOURING, to help me navigate my family. Can I give you any more of a ringing endorsement that all of that? HAHAHA! Keep doing what you’re doing. You’re helping a lot of folks plan and make “Magical Memories”. God Bless!
Wow!!! This made my morning. 🙂 I really appreciate the work you do, and to be honest I am jealous of the work you do. Looking forward to my trip next week.
Oh, and I too love the sarcasm, satire, and “attitude” in your writing, and especially this post. You’re one of the sites and “follows” I read daily for a good laugh and a good HAHAHAHA
supposed to read “and a good “jab”….
Oh. My. GAWD! This pisses me off probably more than it should and I want to yell it from the rooftops of Touring Plan’s headquarters! Of course it’s because they’re selling their info and who would pay for less than stellar. . . and they’re using the Progressive Auto Insurance method – we’ll tell you they’re better, cause we’re honest and transparent! OMG make my blood boil.
Well I’ve known you’re the best for years and I will defend that till Disney closes it’s doors and then I will recall this site fondly the days of yore.
Seriously – I’m pissed. Is there a place to write a review for them? I feel a strongly worded letter coming on.
grumble grumble grumble
Josh,
I see a pattern of wait times high, sometimes highest at 12pm. When time do most people take a lunch? Does that fit in to wait times? I would expect a drop around noon, but that is not the case. What are your thoughts and experience on how lunch is or is not factored into the wait time. Thank you in advance…
We’re here this week and definitely finding it more crowded than Easter 2012; people are right there for the 8 am rope drops where I remember feeling like we had the park to ourselves for a few hours back then. The rain was a bummer last night since we had the dessert party, but the kids got to rain Space 8x in a row which was fun. Loved this post, thanks, Josh.
As a subscriber to Touringplans for the past few years, I shifted to using your cheat sheets as my primary resource on our trip last year and (no big surprise, I’m sure) they work! When we chose our dates for our (still upcoming) next trip I relied heavily on your predictions to pick what I think has to be one of the lowest crowd weeks of the year.
Just this past week my wife was looking to Touringplans to determine which park we should visit on each day and she grew increasingly alarmed at the crowds Touringplans is predicting, eventually blurting out, “Why in the world did we pick this week, it’s always been the best week for us, what’s happened??” I told her to check EasyWDW and yep, she found that your numbers are a lot better and that we’ll be all right.
I didn’t know how to tell her that you’re “right-er”, but maybe now I can. Thanks for all you do and for this explanation.
I love the picture posts. I love the commentary on the pictures. I love the food reviews. I appreciate that you drink all that alcohol for us.
This may be my favorite post ever. Not just here, not just on the DisneyWeb, but anywhere.
You just say bingo.
I have never posted before, but have been following your site and forum since last August when planning a WDW trip for October of 2013. The last time we had gone was September 2007. Unfortunately, before I found your site for the first time, I paid for the subscription to touring plans as that was the book and only site I had been familiar with in my planning our 2003-2007 trips. I based my park per day choices on their crowd calendar (before I found your site), and they had a Friday extra morning hours HS day at a 2 on October 25. I am not a disney park expert, but that did not make sense to me, but I thought they are the experts and scheduled our HS day for then. well, a week or so before that day, TP raised their predicted level to a 6. I noticed them changing the numbers several times since I initially looked at it. Of course our FP+ and dinning reservations were made, and were difficult to adjust at these later dates. I had already tried to switch a few based on your calendar Josh one I found it, but this was one of the days I was unable to. Needless to say HS was slammed that day, very disappointing. On another note, their customizable touring plans were horrible, with completely inaccurate wait times. The crowd calendars and custonmizable touring plans were the reason I subscribed and, both ended up being inaccurate. One time they had us hitting Test track two times in a row at RD saying we would be done with two rounds by 9:15 with a 9 AM opening, giving us 10 minutes for each ride. I knew from past experience that this was inaccurate, and this was the way their touring plans were. Luckily, I had found your site Josh and did have copies of your cheat sheets with me (which I used to plug into their customizable plans as I could tell they made more sense than what they were coming up with). Every time we went with Josh’s cheat sheet plans, things went as planned, when we tried to do what TP said, we were always running way behind with what their predictions were, which was frustrating. We are currently planning a Dec. 13-21, 2014 trip and I have let my subscription to TP expire and we are only following Josh’s cheat sheets this time. I really appreciate all you do Josh. I am glad you wrote this article, as it is the TRUTH. I do not understand how TP can be so misleading and inaccurate, when this is your job and how you make your money. They must be lazy and not even use common sense (such as HS will be crowded on a Friday with extra magic hours and shouldn’t be recommended). I am sorry that they are using old stats from your site to make themselves look good, I am sure they did it on purpose, as they are losing a lot of customers like myself to your site and book. They should put their time and effort into improving their predictions and touring plans.
I love you Josh. I found your site nearly 3 years ago while planning an Oct 2012 trip. I haven’t been to Disney since, but still follow you on Twitter just for entertainment value, and I occasionally check in on the blog. This is the best post ever.
Haha! This entire post is perfect. I’ve used your recommendations to plan my past four trips and they’ve worked out without a hitch. We’re planning on heading back at the end of October/beginning of November 2015 and will definitely be following your advice, especially since quite a few things will be different from my last trip in January 2014. Can’t wait! Also, keep the sarcasm coming!
What a great read for a Wednesday morning. Feel the burn TP!
Thank you Josh!
how much can we expect you to charge when you finally start monetizing easywdw??
$15.34 when you buy his book.
http://www.amazon.com/Guide-First-Disney-World-Visit/dp/1941500064
HUSH DOUG
When did TP publish the above? I haven’t seen it on the blog. Is is on their website (which I pretty much now never bother to look at anymore)?
You have to be skeptical of anyone who’s “optimizer” tells you to make a b-line for the swiss family tree house at rope drop. No kidding. This truely happened when I was trying to do a customized touring plan.
I’m guesing they are using the term “competitor” in order to avoid sending more people to this site, as well as the deniability aspect. I’m still amazed by all the disney regulars I run into who are still using TP and haven’t heard of this site.
My first visit to wdw I relied on TP (and was disappointed) because I didn’t discover easywdw until about 2 weeks before we arrived. I’ve been reading and enjoying ever since and this trip I’ll be only using your recommendations. 🙂
Spectacular post! It started strong and just kept getting better!
Easywdw is the best planning website out there. You do a fantastic job Josh!
P
Not even a decision. Free, superior help? Easywdw for me, and every person who asks me. Your book is going to be my Christmas present to myself!
Thanks, Josh. That was an interesting read. Please know that we do care.
Josh,
You rock – they s – – k. We know it, and apparently they are starting to know it, too.
Have a Happy Thanksgiving!
How can I support easywdw? Josh has helped us so much – I don’t want to sponge and want to make sure easywdw will be around for years to come. Any advice how to support easywdw?
Perhaps ordering his book for everyone on your holiday shopping list is a good plan 😉
In all seriousness, I too would gladly pay a premium for membership to the service he provides. I came here after years of subscribing to both TGM and TP and never was as happy with their advice as I have been here.
You tweet? What have I been missing???
Best. Post. Ever.
Been here all week and followed your suggestions except doing MK on Sunday. We had great FP selections. It still was not bad. Though the rain on Tuesday was insane, it really kept people away. Wedensday morning at MK with lite rain was perfect. Had the place to ourselves and a few other unnoteworthy people. ( unless you were there). Overall a good day considering it was a holiday week.
JOSH JUST KEEP DOING WHAT YOU DO & THE COMPETITORS WILL SLOWLY MELT AWAY LIKE SNOW IN F.L.A.
I used to be a TP gal, but no more. I purchased the 2015 book and they still rec. running from one end of the park to another in their TPs. We just returned from a short Thanksgiving trip and I followed your advice and we had a great time. One 11/26 we rode everything we wanted in Tomorrowland & Fantasyland (except 7DMT which we had FP+ for at 5pm) by 11am. Josh, you give better & more realistic advice. Keep up the great work! I’ve purchased your book to gift to several friends going to WDW.
Josh,
This is the final nail in the coffin for me. I have subscribed to TP for several years and have used their personalized plans for two trips, but I have become increasingly disillusioned by the hostility and misleading information on their blog and forum. My subscription expires in January and I will not be renewing. In support of Small Business Saturday, I’m ordering your book from Amazon right now, and I will continue to read and enjoy your posts and gain valuable (and accurate!) information from your site. Thank you sincerely for your time and effort in helping feed our WDW addiction, as well as for your help in making trip planning such a breeze!
Ha! I gladly left touring plans behind when I found your site a few years ago.
So… if I’d like to see 2009 crowd levels again I should start hoping for a worldwide recession?
TouringPlans is the devil. A Mathematically inaccurate devil.
Hey I love your posts and read them all the time even though I only go to “the mouse” once every few years. I just wanted to let you know I cancelled my subscription to touring plans and bought your new book today. Thanks for your hard work and making my wife and I laugh at your great humor.
“There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.”
You know you have to be leary when under their spreadsheet it says
TouringPlans has been more acccurate on 4 of the last 7 days (57%)
TouringPlans has been more accurate on 20 of the last 30 days (67%)
TouringPlans should be more accurate about 100% of the time, based on 35 sample dates.
So, in the last 30 days their fudged numbers showed them more accurate 67% of the time, but they should be more accurate 100% of the time. I know it says sample dates, and they are picking sample dates that show them correct (with the misleading data), but just how they say it is misleading. That one line right there makes their entire post suspect in my mind, and to see them using outdated data and such just cements the point.
Great Post, I liked the trend in the Comments from every one, because it’s exactly what I did. Used TP for a trip, ran all over the park- optimized like crazy…left the World feeling like I’d missed it all. searched the web right when I got home to find this site and haven’t looked back since. Thanks Josh for all you do!
I also found EZWDW as a TP refugee a few years ago.
Apparently rivalries are good for college football and WDW wait times, who would of thunk it? However, it’s crazy that TP uses self-testimonials and “Pepsi Challenge” grid comparisons as a customer acquisition strategy. Must be last ditch effort to generate sales.
Spot-on research, very well lay’d out dissection and presentation, in short another great post and kudos to your continued success Josh.
Now, I am going to print out an optimized TP plan on the softest paper I can find so I can use it as, TP.
Hi Josh! I am so glad I found your website before my early December trip. I have been a subscriber to Touring Plans for years, and when they revised their wait times just a few weeks before my trip, I knew something was wrong. Anyone with common sense knows that you’re not going to wait 13 minutes for Buzz at rope drop on an extra magic party morning! Then it was 18-20 minutes for JC and POC! C’mon! I used your wait times chart for the 12/30 MVMCP party day and they were 100% accurate. We rope dropped at 8 AM among the first to enter, had 3 photos taken on the way in, waited less then 5 minutes in most cases and accomplished 12 attractions (PP, JC, POC, BTMRR, HM, JOTLM, IASW, BLSR, TS, SGE, MIFL, 7DMT), using just one FP for 7DMT ALL by 11:20. AWESOME! Most rides that morning were a total walk-on! We finished over an hour ahead of touring plans schedule and added 3 additional attractions that we hadn’t planned on doing until the afternoon. Leading up to our trip, I also watched Lines chatters complain about heavy crowds on Saturdays following two MVMCP party nights that TP said would be a 2 or 3. They ended up being 7’s and 8’s. You had specifically recommended against MK on those Saturdays specifically because of the two party nights prior. And the winner is….EASYWDW! Keep up the great work Josh! You rock!
That was the 11/30 party date. Oops!
Josh, we love and appreciate everything you do. On the plus side, you do it so well. Keep up the good work!