Touring Plans service question

wareagle57

DIS Veteran
Joined
Jan 14, 2014
If you have the service, does it still tell you what they predicted vs what they actually saw. It shows how close they were on a certain set of rides, but I'm just curious if they still assign an "actual" crowd level number. I've been tracking wait times on Saturdays to get an idea of what to expect and just curious what number yesterday would have actually been. Trying to prepare for the worst and I assume yesterday will be worse than March 1 since it's President's Day weekend. I'm considering breaking down and buying a subscription even though we'll only be there one day. But I'd like to know if I'll get that info.
 
I don’t see an overall crowd level for the previous day, just the over/under on the rides.
 
I don't subscribe anymore but I do recall seeing them write "Yesterday we predicted X and it was actually X".
 
I still have a Universal Subscription and it doesn’t give a crowd level, just specific ride times. WDW is listed by level for each park. Not UOR or Disneyland.
 


I just went in and looked at the last few days and, yes, it gave the predicted verses actual for the resort and each park for each historic day. On Saturday the 16th they were somewhat significantly off. They predicted 6 for the resort and both parks and actually came in at a 10 across the board. The previous day they were closer--the predicted 6 for USF and were correct, they predicted 6 for IoA and it was a 9.
 
I just went in and looked at the last few days and, yes, it gave the predicted verses actual for the resort and each park for each historic day. On Saturday the 16th they were somewhat significantly off. They predicted 6 for the resort and both parks and actually came in at a 10 across the board. The previous day they were closer--the predicted 6 for USF and were correct, they predicted 6 for IoA and it was a 9.

Thanks! This is exactly what I was looking for. Wait times Saturday and Sunday were horrendous, and if that was actually a 6/7 then I was going to be pretty worried. Of course they could be off by just as much on our Saturday (March 1), but I'm thinking with this past weekend being a holiday weekend, our day will be significantly less crowded.
 
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I still have a Universal Subscription and it doesn’t give a crowd level, just specific ride times. WDW is listed by level for each park. Not UOR or Disneyland.
If you’re on their sit you have to go to their General Universal page first, and then to the crowd calendar menu—otherwise it only shows WDW crowds. For the info the OP is looking for, you’d go to historical crowds and then choose the date to see predicted vs actual. If you have an active subscription I *think* this link would work: https://touringplans.com/universal-orlando/crowd-calendar/date/2019-02-16
 


I went ahead and bit the bullet to get a subscription. It looks like they are just horrendously off every day. They had yesterday as a 4 and it was actually an 8. I have no idea what to expect.

I think you really have to take them with a huge grain of salt. When I tried doing a custom touring plan, it tells me Spider-Man and Hulk will be 20 minute waits even when I put them at rope drop and tells me to go elsewhere first instead, yet their app, even 45 minutes after opening on Saturday (which they ranked as a 10 level) would show expected and posted waits of 10 minutes or less. But on my day, which they are predicted a 6 (yet I'm sure will be more like a 9 or 10) they are saying 20 minutes for Hulk (or Spiderman, whichever I put first) at 9:09... I think I'm just going to ignore their predicted wait times in the future, as they all seem to be way too optimistic, except for rope drop where they seem to be too pessimistic.

I still can't decide if I should rope drop USF or IOA. I'm confident we could run through everything we want to do at USF with more predictability and lower waits, and it would allow us to hit ET when it opens, which seems to be the only way to ride it without an hour wait since they changed the loading procedure. But I think the rides at Islands (Kong, Hulk, SM) are going to be a much bigger issue in the afternoons.
 
Thanks, all. I was looking at the master calendar for UOR, not the individual day.

I know that they were way off on WDW this time last year. Apparently WDW had a significant shift in how they staffed attractions on weekdays, making the earlier predictions way out of wack. They sent people into the parks to count how many people were coming off rides each hour to figure out the problem. They found that they WDW was running fewer ride vehicles and requiring less staff. I wonder if touring plans will do the same thing for UOR this year so adjust their predictions.
 
Yeah looks like their predictions have been off all week, wait times longer than they expected. Had the same issue over beginning of thanksgiving week while we were there. And if they are off on their crowd levels, their touring plans are worthless we so painfully found.
 
Yeah looks like their predictions have been off all week, wait times longer than they expected. Had the same issue over beginning of thanksgiving week while we were there. And if they are off on their crowd levels, their touring plans are worthless we so painfully found.

It would be nice if they would let you pick the crowd level rather than the day. Plan for the worst, hope for the best. You can scroll through a find a day with a 9 or 10 and use that day, but I still find them to be pretty optimistic in the middle of the day. I also wish it allowed for combining the 2 parks rather than having to pick for yourself when to jump and create a new plan starting at the other park. It's a decent template service that probably helps a lot of first timers, but for uber anal planners like myself and many others, we can probably do a better job on our own optimizing our time.

And while most of the day seems optimistic to me, I also find it infuriating that it has Spider-Man being a 25 minute wait, even if I put it first in my plan, and throws off the whole morning plan. Their own app lists the "actual wait" as less than 5 minutes most of the first hour, so why does the plan do this? Yet it will tell me to go to Kong 3rd and only have a 12 minute wait. It's screwy.
 
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It would be nice if they would let you pick the crowd level rather than the day. Plan for the worst, hope for the best. You can scroll through a find a day with a 9 or 10 and use that day, but I still find them to be pretty optimistic in the middle of the day. I also wish it allowed for combining the 2 parks rather than having to pick for yourself when to jump and create a new plan starting at the other park. It's a decent template service that probably helps a lot of first timers, but for uber anal planners like myself and many others, we can probably do a better job on our own optimizing our time.

And while most of the day seems optimistic to me, I also find it infuriating that it has Spider-Man being a 25 minute wait, even if I put it first in my plan, and throws off the whole morning plan. Their own app lists the "actual wait" as less than 5 minutes most of the first hour, so why does the plan do this? Yet it will tell me to go to Kong 3rd and only have a 12 minute wait. It's screwy.

Yeah, I will continue to swear by their plans for disney, but have decided the universal side isn't worth the expense, and won't be renewing.
 
Argh! We used them for Disney last year and LOVED how much it helped. I had hoped to do so for universal for next year too to help us manage being there on a really busy time of year but if they are not accurate then I am not sure how to plan the day...
 
Argh! We used them for Disney last year and LOVED how much it helped. I had hoped to do so for universal for next year too to help us manage being there on a really busy time of year but if they are not accurate then I am not sure how to plan the day...

I think Disney is just so much more predictable, so it's easier for them to be accurate. But it also means you really don't need them. It's really not hard to come up with a Magic Kingdom plan as long as you know which rides to FP. I really don't worry about crowds at Disney. It's still predictable and FP+ being free makes it much easier. Universal the crowds matter so much more unless you have Express.
 
I think Disney is just so much more predictable, so it's easier for them to be accurate. But it also means you really don't need them. It's really not hard to come up with a Magic Kingdom plan as long as you know which rides to FP. I really don't worry about crowds at Disney. It's still predictable and FP+ being free makes it much easier. Universal the crowds matter so much more unless you have Express.

We do plan to have express by staying at RPR but: 1) it will be a spring break day and 2) early close due to grad night. So i’ve been trying to figure out how to manage crowds given that - lots of mixed information.
 
We do plan to have express by staying at RPR but: 1) it will be a spring break day and 2) early close due to grad night. So i’ve been trying to figure out how to manage crowds given that - lots of mixed information.

What all are you trying to get done? Re-rides on anything? I really don't think you'll have any trouble hitting all the headliners by 3-4 pm with Express no matter what you do.
 
What all are you trying to get done? Re-rides on anything? I really don't think you'll have any trouble hitting all the headliners by 3-4 pm with Express no matter what you do.

- Do Diagon Alley spells and shops and sightseeing
- ride Gringotts twice with once in AM
- HE
- Do Hogsmead spells and shops and 3 broomsticks for lunch
- ride the (by then) 3 rides in Hogsmead twice ideally but at least once
- 2 to 2.5 hour break for RPR pool as DH will revolt if I try to make him go from 6:30-6:00 in the parks
- A handful of other rides like ET, the river raft ride, Jurassic park if my kids prevail, Spider-Man

It seems manageable to do the rides in that time as there are so few it is the other stuff that has me worried:
- trying to find the best timing for things to minimize crowds and line waiting during a busy time as DH has a bad back if he stands too long.
- another website says they close the HP spots and issue timed entry if they get too crowded
- maximizing our time for wandering around HP world when it is uncrowned enough to be able to do spells and go in the shops.
 

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