anyone not do a touring plan?

[missummer]

I am wondering if anyone doesn't have a touring plan. Who just goes with their ADR's and has an idea of what they want to ride, but no specific touring plan. How does that work for you?

 

[eeyorethegreat]

Unless you have been to Disney multiple times before and have the leisure of going back multiple times in the future, I wouldn't even think of going with out a plan. WDW is a BIG place and can be VERYoverwhelming if you are not prepared. I use TGM there are other options out there... pick the one that will work best for you but don't go without a plan.

 

[dpuck1998]

I'm not sure exactly what you mean, but our plans consist of....Where we are eating...what park were going to that day and if we are doing anything special (mini-golf, DD, DQ) etc..other than that..not specific touring plan. But we have been many times and I can traverse any park without a map.

 

[DeterminedOne]

We never do a touring plan, but we're a party of two and can get around quickly. We know in advance what we want to ride, but wait until we know wait times and crowd level before making a decision. Works well for us.

 

[madge]

I am wondering if anyone doesn't have a touring plan. Who just goes with their ADR's and has an idea of what they want to ride, but no specific touring plan. How does that work for you?

we've been several times, so we no longer need a touring plan. I wouldn't suggest that a first-time guest take that approach

 

[Mickey1122]

We have gone many, many times, and we go in only with ADRs. It is not overwhelming at all for us. We ride what we want to ride by guaging the wait. You can eventually figure out whether the wait times they post are for real or not. We know our way around and have experienced all the little secrets so it isn't a problem.

 

[lyzziesmom]

I've never used a touring plan and I never will. Heck, I just discovered ADR's last year! But then again, I used to live in FL so have been many many times. Even though Disney is constantly changing, we get along just fine without a plan. In fact, I like it better without a plan, because then things can't go "wrong". We just go with the flow and always have a great time.

 

[Fly me with Balloons]

just our ADR's & what park we plan to go to. From there, we wing it. We go often & for a long period of time, so if we don't do it today...maybe tomorrow.

 

[Twigs]

We have been many times and never go with a touring plan anymore. On our first visits, we tried using a touring plan, but found it was acutally stressful. Someone would see something they wanted to do then, and it was NO, we are doing that later. So on those early trips we learned quickly to use the plans very loosely. This way if someone saw something they wanted to do right then, we didn't get stressed out that we were going to mess up the whole day. Now we just go with an idea of which attractions we definetly want to do, and go by line length, using fast passes and we all have a great time, and everyone is happy. Our trip this upcoming Aug will be the first time we have made all of our ADR's, so we will see how that works for us. On past trips we only made a few for the restaurants we knew we would want, and then called for ressie's the morning of, or the day before (we never went at extremely crowded times).

 

[tn_disney_addict]

Nope, not much of a touring plan. We decide when we wake up what park we want to go to. We schedule a few ADRs and work around them. We usually go the first week in September and it is very low crowds, so it works well. We are going in October this year, five families in all, so I guess we will have more of a 'plan'. We will see how that goes!

 

[BamaFan121s]

We do this every trip and have a blast! Having at least one week to get away from it all and not have to get up at a certain time or be somewhere at 8:00 on the dot is what we look forward to. If I had to go on a vacation and follow another schedule and have someone say, we HAVE to BE in THIS park by 9:00.....I honestly wouldn't even want to go. So what if we don't get EVERYTHING done....chances are good we'll be back in 6 months anyway.

 

[Dan Murphy]

A simple suggestion from me is to use TGM's recommendations for what parks, what days/nights. Then, if you want ADR's, build those into those parks/days/nights. Then go with the flow. Main thing for me is to pretty much know where I start my day, end my day (generally) and know how the transportation system works....how to get from here to there and approximate time to do so, with a bit of built-in 'fudge factor'.


And welcome to the DIS, neighbor.

 

[Mersmom98]

Our first time I had our ADR's and that helped decide which parks we were doing on what day ahead of time. I had an idea which attractions we wanted to see at each park and went from there. We had a great time and didn't worry about trying to see everything because we knew ahead of time that would be impossible. Use fastpasses to their full advantage and enjoy yourselves!

 

[slug]

I've never used a touring plan other than one I create myself.

But we always do things to increase our odds of having shorter lines such as getting to the parks early, knocking out the attractions with the longest lines early and then hitting the easier to get on rides later in the day.

For example, if I'm going to Epcot, we'll get there for the opening, skip things like Spaceship earth and the Universe of Energy and head right to Soarin and TT first, grab a FP for one of them and go on the other. Then go on the 2nd one. After that it's usually pretty easy early in the day to bang out Imagination, SE, and Energy fairly quickly (I'm not including Mission Space because we don't plan on going on it next time). This is pretty basic and probably somewhat obvious.

Obviously the MK is bit more complex but you get the idea.

If I were a first-timer, I would definately get a touring plan or do a TON of research on my own to make sure you have your stuff together before you get down there.

 

[missummer]

What I have planned so far is what parks we are doing on what days, our ADRs are scheduled. I also know what rides we want to do and what my DD doesn't want to do. We also plan to get to the parks right before they open. Do I need to plan what ride I am going on when, or am I okay with the plans we have? Thanks for the help!

 

[yanners]

Well I'm a bad person to ask about not having a plan. My plans were colour coded When I read this thread I almost had a heart attack! I couldn't imagine not having a plan....but then again I have a type A personailty

If you want to go relatively "plan free" I would at least schedule your rides for morning/afternoon. The Unoffical Guide to WDW give great advice for when to hit the "big ticket" rides so you don't have to wait long. Fastpass helps too.

 

[disgram]

I first pick which places we want to eat and then the days. On those days, we plan on spending the day at that park. Either before the meal or after.
Ex: We have an ADR for Crystal Palace on Wednesday morning, so that day we plan on being at MK for the day. If we go back to the resort in the afternoon, we will then decide if we want to go back there or to another park. We know what rides and shows that we want to see and that is what we do. Touring plans just don't seem to work for us, whether we go in the "slow" time or "high" time. If we see something that we really want to do, we do it. With Fastpass this is alot easier to do.

 

[OctDisney]

The first time I took my boys in 2003, I did the research.
I am not sure a specific touring plan is necessary, since one has to be flexible, but you should at least do the following:

1. Plan your ADR's
2. Know what you are going to do each day. For example, AK on Monday, MK on Tuesday, etc. Also have a back up for rain.
3. Know what rides interest you
4. Of those rides, which ones fill up fast
5. Know what you are going to do first thing in the morning.
6. Get to the parks early
7. Read the boards or other internet sites
8. Have fun

 

[grinningghost]

We don't have a specific commando type plan. That's too much work for me.

We more or less plan our park days with our ADR's, so we aren't running all over the place and wasting precious time commuting.

We also like to leave alot of free time with no ADR's so we can eat wherever we land.

But I do agree, a first-timer must do their homework - study the maps, know what parks have EMH's, that kind of thing. Or you will be running around like a chicken with your head cut off.

 

[mking624]

I guess it depends on what you consider a touring plan.

We find out what the evening EMHs are, and plan what parks we'll be at from there (we make sure we're there for evening EMH). At that point, we make our ADRs. We don't always spend the day at the park we originally planned on...the only thing we really stick to is our ADRs and then arriving in time to get in for evening EMH...the rest of the day is usually up in the air and changes.