Universal Planning Help Needed Please!

[EmilysCat]

Hi,

We are in Orlando for two and a bit weeks from 24th July and I have begun planning what we will do each day. I signed up for touring plans, and thought it would be brilliant, put my plans together, felt smug and organised etc...

Then, just out of interest, I compared it with the busy day guide on here and they're pretty much the opposite of each other most days!

Any clues as to which guide is most realistic?

Thanks

EmilysCat

[HappyThoughts]

I’ve never used Touring Plans but I’ve never had any issues with the busy day guide on our last 2 trips & found it to be really accurate, if that helps 😊

[Animagus]

Hi
I have also used the Dibb busy day guide for our two previous trips. Both taken end of August. I pretty much kept my Disney days in line with the recommended/most recommended days.
When it came to Universal, we went when it fitted our schedule, but we did have 5/6 days each time just for those parks. Weekends always show as busier, so try to avoid those if you can.

Other dibbers have used Touring Plans and they get pretty good reviews. I’m sure somebody will be able to offer more info.

Just spotted another thread all about Touring Plans. Seems popular.
https://www.thedibb.co.uk/forums/sho... php?t=1129072

[Moorlandman]

Universal will be very busy whilst you are there. Have you got Express passes?

[scottsman]

The thing is it's all guess work for these plans (no disrespect to the people who put the times in to work them out)

right now it must be really challenging to work them all out when you work out the impact of new rides, new park areas (SWGE) and the impact of people trying to avoid \ beat the rush, extended magic hours, the list just goes on and on.

I personally find the Dibb ones are very good and they have served me well through 3 trips quite well.

[RobandLynsey]

I use both plus other crowd calendars, see if there are similar days for advice. I get it correct most of the time but not others as do all the calendars. Just remember the Dibb's guide is which of the parks are more likely to be busier. In my opinion Universal busy is no where near a Disney busy apart from when something new and big opens.

Check here for the Dibb's take on their own calendar:

https://www.thedibb.co.uk/forums/Bus...acy-p-992.html

[offtoseemickey]

I think as long as we have a good plan, then we have a good day at the parks regardless of how busy it is (we don’t go in peak, peak times so that helps of course!)

We get to the parks for opening, hit headliners first, eat lunch early, break during the busiest part of the day, use fast pass effectively (in WDW), use single rider etc.

[Guest]

I take no notice of busy day guides after finding that they often provide conflicting information. I do take note of extra magical hours though, I avoid parks with extra evening hours and I would either take advantage of extra morning hours or if I am not going to take advantage then I would avoid that park too.

[PoohBears#1fan]

Originally Posted by Claudette

I take no notice of busy day guides after finding that they often provide conflicting information. I do take note of extra magical hours though, I avoid parks with extra evening hours and I would either take advantage of extra morning hours or if I am not going to take advantage then I would avoid that park too.

See more...

100% this. Morning EMH for us then we move to another park as it gets busy. We'll go into a park just for evening EMH, but I pay very little attention to busy day guides, they're a 'guide' not a guarantee.

[DisneyFoodie]

After 3 trips watching the crowd calendars swing wildly once my trip is already planned, I no longer stress.

BUT it seems to me like the reason is going to be a difference in data. I don’t know how the busy day guides work, but touringplans posts quite a lot of info about its crowd calendar and here are some interesting/surprising things:
1. It’s on ride wait times only. So, if there is an Epcot festival drawing people to world showcase who don’t ride the rides, the calendar is unaffected.
2. It’s relative to the busiest days ever at each park. So MK has shut a couple of times due to visitors and a 10 there feels insane to walk around. Epcot is double the size and rarely (never? ) has shut to visitors and so a 10 there feels ok to walk around if you stay away from rides.
3. Because it is based on ride wait rimes, staffing makes a difference. So it can be a really quiet time of year with v few people in the parks but if Disney is understaffing the rides and e.g. only running one splash mountain loading bay, the wait times will be longer and crowd rating higher.

The thing to remember about touring plans is that it was developed in the context of an attraction ordering system (which to get on first), NOT how big is this crowd/how busy does it feel. I love it for what it does but i’m not surprised it may be different to other models.