touringplans.com - Less than impressed

[Jackatkc]

Hands down, bet $7 I have ever spent. The touring plans have saved my family all kinds of time. I remember the first time we ever went to Disney in 07. I was amazed at how we walked on Peter pans flight and only an hour later there was a 30 minute wait. It's especially useful for first time park goers in my opinion. I also love how they break down each parks expected attendance. It's very useful for when I am planning on which park to go and which days.

 

[kennythepirate]

I just joined the site this morning. I'm a WDW vet, but expected to get a new perspective with crowds levels, etc.
So far I'm just not impressed with the site and what is available. No mention of character m&g's, etc.
Am I missing something?

Touringplans and Tourguidemike don't cover meet and greets very much. They may post about a new character coming, but don't track schedules or provide meet info. To my knowledge it's only easywdw (in the parks often), wdwent (schedules are generic and often incorrect) and me.

 

[kennythepirate]

Now there is the free My Disney Experience app from Disney themselves that lists wait times and fast pass return times.

The main reason for paying for Touring plans in my opinion was for the lines app, but now that I can get an app for free that does the same function just as well, I won't be paying for touringplans anymore.

I've been testing the My Disney Experience app on wife's iphone and it often doesn't report wait times and fastpass times outside the park. It did at first, now it's hit or miss (mostly miss) It's REALLY slow to load as well. Mobile Magic was better than this, but only worked in the park.

 

[dtum]

Just curious, do you all walk around constantly looking at your phone for wait times? I'm pretty sure my family would mutiny if we ran around the parks using my phone. I do use UT for best parks and looked at EasyWDW, but they don't have July 2013 up yet. Will see how they compare.

 

[christie_megansmom]

Just curious, do you all walk around constantly looking at your phone for wait times? I'm pretty sure my family would mutiny if we ran around the parks using my phone. I do use UT for best parks and looked at EasyWDW, but they don't have July 2013 up yet. Will see how they compare.

I don't. I have a plan that I follow and when I finish the plan, or have some unexpected free time, I'll pull up the app on my phone and check wait times. I'm super excited for My Disney Experience for Android.

And thanks for the app, Kenny! I downloaded it (and then paid for it!) the day you announced it!

 

[lisakramer]

Touringplans and Tourguidemike don't cover meet and greets very much. They may post about a new character coming, but don't track schedules or provide meet info. To my knowledge it's only easywdw and me.

Hey Kenny -
Thanks for the info. I really appreciate it.
Love your site and you... In the least creepy way possible!

 

[MrEVILdrPorkchop2u]

I love touringplans.com! I used it to make a decision on what time of year to take my family's 1st trip to WDW, then to decide on what day to be in what park for ADRs (so we wouldn't have to buy a Park Hopper), and I created detailed touring plans for each day of our stay. Once we arrived in a park, I used the Lines app on my iPhone for checking wait times. We rarely waited in any lines for any rides by missing the crowds and working the FastPasses. It was invaluable to us!

We agree! Made our life much easier in the parks! We will be using it again this Dec.

 

[PIRATEGIRL007]

Now there is the free My Disney Experience app from Disney themselves that lists wait times and fast pass return times.

The main reason for paying for Touring plans in my opinion was for the lines app, but now that I can get an app for free that does the same function just as well, I won't be paying for touringplans anymore.

Disney's current app and new app will only list the posted wait times in the parks. Which are often over inflated to control crowds. I wouldn't plan on using them exclusively if you want the most accurate info. We have found that while Lines isn't perfect it provides a more accurate actual wait time than any of the other apps.

 

[AmberHeartsDisney]

The Disney app does wait times for free and that comes directly from the source. They might not have crowd calendars I personally don't use them anyways.

 

[heather13]

I think it's great for what it is. I primarily use it for which parks to avoid and then when I am in the parks checking wait times. For that reason alone it is worth the $$ to me. Plus, I just love Len Testa [in the most appropriate non-stalker kind of way].

I'm an efficiency freak. So touring plans exceeds my needs. You're right that character M&G aren't addressed, and that really messed up our touring plan last time at AK (who knew we'd spend two hours at Camp Minnie Mickey? And how do you plan for something like that?). But for my purposes it does a great job of anticipating the ride portion. You can always add in a character M&G to a touring plan as we've done for Rapunzel. The nice thing is that if it takes more or less time than my guess, I can adjust our personalized plan accordingly and figure out where to go next.

This year we'll be trying Mobile Magic also - just downloaded it and am eager to see if it lives up to expectations for M&G info.

 

[fairestoneofall]

The Disney app does wait times for free and that comes directly from the source. They might not have crowd calendars I personally don't use them anyways.

i don't know if the newer Disney app is different, but i don't like that i can only see the wait times in the park where i currently am visiting. we do use it when we're in a park.

with Lines, i can check other parks, even from my house. love it. i've also noticed they've started including Disney's posted wait time. i wasn't sure if they've somehow tied into Disney or if it's a prediction.

 

[kennythepirate]

I'm an efficiency freak. So touring plans exceeds my needs. You're right that character M&G aren't addressed, and that really messed up our touring plan last time at AK (who knew we'd spend two hours at Camp Minnie Mickey? And how do you plan for something like that?). But for my purposes it does a great job of anticipating the ride portion. You can always add in a character M&G to a touring plan as we've done for Rapunzel. The nice thing is that if it takes more or less time than my guess, I can adjust our personalized plan accordingly and figure out where to go next.

This year we'll be trying Mobile Magic also - just downloaded it and am eager to see if it lives up to expectations for M&G info.

Just use my site. It's better than Disney's apps by far.

 

[disneyfan123]

I love touringplans.com; the crowd calendars are second-to-none, imho, and having the ability to see individual ride wait times is great. I think it takes a while to truly go through the website to see all it offers. Having the ability to customize your own plans is great. We used to use ridemax, but they don't do Sunday plans, which is a bit of hassle, and there's no benefit to using them over TP anymore.

 

[heather13]

Just use my site. It's better than Disney's apps by far.

Checking into it now Kenny - thanks!!

FWIW, our neighbors used Ridemax earlier this summer and loved it. They primarily used it for Universal though.

 

[wickersham]

I subscribe to touringplans for their crowd calendars and have loosely used their plans which were helpful. I also love the "Official Guides." I love planning our family trips to Disney and usually spend many happy hours doing so even though we are always flexible to make last minute changes.
I'm wondering if anyone has tried Tour Guide Mike since the FP return time enforcement has occurred? We used his advice and had perfect, virtually waitless visits during busy park times at two different times of year. Flexible FP return time was integral to his system.
As for cost, with the price of a Disney vacation, we have always felt that a few extra dollars dedicated to planning bought us more ride and attraction time in the parks. Good cost-benefit ratio!

Thanks!

 

[kennythepirate]

On the TP side, I've been a member for a long time. Mostly to support Len's efforts to help people plan well and travel to every disney park each year TP is good for what it does and no one product does everything. It's just too much data to constantly upkeep.

 

[ikaki99]

I've used TP in 2 different trips to Disney, both in very crowded days, and I followed the plans, and I really made it to enter all rides... I think it can be very useful in cases like that

 

[dtum]

I've used TP in 2 different trips to Disney, both in very crowded days, and I followed the plans, and I really made it to enter all rides... I think it can be very useful in cases like that

What are the "plans"? Do they tell you what to do or do you put in what you want to do? Can you print your plan? Since we're going in July, I think it it's going to be very crowded.

 

[disneyfan123]

What are the "plans"? Do they tell you what to do or do you put in what you want to do? Can you print your plan? Since we're going in July, I think it it's going to be very crowded.

The plans are under the heading "touring plans" and you can use their pre-made plans or create your own.

 

[wgeo]

Disney's current app and new app will only list the posted wait times in the parks. Which are often over inflated to control crowds. I wouldn't plan on using them exclusively if you want the most accurate info. We have found that while Lines isn't perfect it provides a more accurate actual wait time than any of the other apps.

I must be missing something here. I'm sitting in WI and am currently looking at the wait times for Magic Kingdom, using the newest Disney app? It's listing wait times and fp return times, although this late most fps are no longer available. I've been playing with it for a week and it has always listed the wait times for me.