Anyone do the MK withOUT a touring plan?

[FLAgirl73]

Just wondering how many of us use a touring plan. I mentioned it to my friend who has already taken her preschoolers several times and she cracked up - had never heard of such a thing. I think maybe living in Florida makes us more laidback about the whole Disney thing, but I still am planning on taking and following my plan!

 

[lnh'smom]

We've gone every other year for quite awhile now and we have never really done a touring plan. We do make our ADR's, but we don't even really plan out what parks we are going to until that morning. (We always get park hoppers so we don't have to worry about our ADRs). You never know who is going to be in the mood to do what! I know that doesn't work for everyone, but it does for us!

 

[Jitzy]

We've never used a touring plan either. I had never heard of such a thing before I joined the DIS. We only live 2 1/2 hours away, there's always the next time. Maybe if we lived farther away I would use one? But to tell the truth, I've been so many times, I would rather just do what we want.

 

[picktails]

We never did, but I always read extensively and knew which attractions tend to have the longest waits. Your strategy changes over the years depending on the age of your kids. If they're young, just make sure you plan for the "important" rides and the rest is a plus.

 

[KristiMc]

We never have a touring plan. I know what park I want to go to and we have ADR's for dining but after we enter the park we just do whatever the kids want to do. We go at slower times (Oct. and Feb.) and we have never had a problem.

 

[WantToGoNow]

Maybe it's because we go in the off season but we've never needed a touring plan and we never stand in lines that more than 20 minutes. We have a plan as to what park we are going to on which day and we always have those arranged with our ADR's for either lunch or dinner but once we enter the park, we do whatever we wish - although I've noticed after several trips that we tend to do the parks the same way each trip.

 

[mom2travel]

we've been to WDW quite a few times and have never used a touring plan. Always book ADRs and know which park/which day generally, but we don't follow any specific plan. Just see what the mood is

 

[pixidust77]

I actually made touring plans last October, but the park was not that busy. I think the longest wait was around 20 minutes...so we ditched the plans. We did however know which parks we were visiting on which days. Park hoppers were great too! Loved taking advantage of a different parks EMH.

 

[FLAgirl73]

I think I feel compelled to have a plan because I'm just so unsure of how the day will go since we've never done anything like this with the boys. I think if we were going in Oct or Jan I wouldn't be a "worried". But ugh, standing in ANY kind of line in this kind of heat that we're having right now is NOT going to be fun!

 

[Colinsmom]

We have never used a formal touring plan, but know which rides form the longest lines and make a point to hit those first. We're also pretty good at taking advantage of fastpasses. But we don't mind if we get slowed down riding the kids' favorite rides over and over and over for an hour or more, as long as the lines remain short.

We go during slow season - usually early December, but this has also worked for us in mid-October and late September.

 

[LoveTheEars]

Every trip we make advance dining reservations. We also know which parks we will be visiting each day. Since the park choices are mainly based on our dining plans i find it easy to coordinate plans based on this.

As for touring plans, we don't really have any but this is what we do:
I ask all the travelers Me, DH, DD, DS to choose 1 thing they cannot miss at each park. So,each day we have 4 rides or attractions we must do before we leave. It worked really well last year. We will be doing this again in August.

Hope this helps

 

[crisi]

We don't do MK with a touring plan. We do know what to ride early, what can be done when the park gets busy and how to use fastpasses.

 

[TheLadyTremain]

I don't really follow a touring plan. I do try to go to parks on lower crowd days but that is really about it. The last two times I went, I travelled with small children. So trying to stick to a plan that involved thrill rides, running from one side of the park to the other and rushing just doesn't seem to work. Plus, both of these times, we went during a not so crowded time so that helped.

Now when my kids are older and we travel during school breaks, I will follow a touring plan. Until then, we just go where the stroller leads us.

 

[Manda]

We've never used a touring plan other than decided which park to start the morning with and planning to arrive at rope drop. After that, we pretty much just wander at will. Obviously, if we're at HS or something, we do plan on heading to TSM first, etc. Otherwise, we pretty much just wander and stop when the kid wants to stop.

 

[StitchandPooh'sMom]

We go early, ride Dumbo first (very slow loading), ride Pooh and Peter Pan (or Fastpass) before we do Cinderella's Carousel, IASW, etc. We move out of Fantasyland by lunch and FP the mountains if they are open (usually Splash is closed when we go - this time it will be Space Mountain that is closed). We take a break and come back in the evening to catch some more favorites. We don't plan any more than that, but we make ADRs and know which park we will be in on which day.

 

[FLAgirl73]

Thanks for all the input everyone!

 

[~Kristina~]

We let our kids decide where we're going for the day.