Are touring plans worth it?

[vleeth]

Whether or not the plans from that particular site meet your needs or not, I don't enjoy going without any plan at all. I absolutely hate those "What now?" moments and all the time they waste.

Funny thing is, my touring plan led to those 'what now?' moments. Mostly trying to decide if we should stand in the long line or skip it, but I hate those moments as well.

Our next trip I will use easywdw for a starting point and make the plans myself.

 

[lipejeff]

We subscribed and there's an app for smart phones so there is no need to print. We will see how accurate the site is for August.

 

[bastos]

I am terrifyingly prejudiced, but love touring plans. I usually head back and forth between sites - but always try to work with an optimized am plan. The key is to not be TOO ambitious. When I first started, I tried to MAXIMIZE my seeing - and ended up getting frustrated when things went off the rails.

No plan can predict how long you might be delayed with the Little Mermaid - or if Ariel is late to work that day.

Instead, work at maximizing your work, and then adjusting it to fit your schedule. For example, when you optimize at Animal Kingdom, it always puts the safari in the middle of the day. After I peruse the setup, I usually plan my own day - and attempt to minimize walking. The easywdw plan is a good one - but very concrete. Move back and forth between the two plans - and evaluate - not optimize - your touring plans plan.

 

[BuzzinDownToDisney]

I had such a great time customizing mine. I loved being able to put things in the order I wanted, change it around and see how long the waits would be (and how much I could get done in a day.)

Then I got to the parks and it was way off. It also told me it was going to be a '2' for crowd level. Not sure what happened but when I went to BTMR for my 5 min wait, it was a 30 min wait. It was 20-30 mins off on quite a few of the wait times. Same thing at Universal. Yes, I paid extra for the Universal part. I did not renew my subscription.

This is my concern with my upcoming trip as well. I have FP for any headliners I'm doing and it is 4 day, yet TP says I'll never wait SB for more than 10 minutes. That seems exceedingly optimistic.

 

[jiminykrikkit]

I just thought of something...

Should your plans be "re-optimized" or "re-evaluated" like the day before your trip? Just in case things have changed? Could this be why TP may not have worked for some people?

We're 2 months out and I'm making plans. Perhaps something should change in that time period that may drastically change wait times, etc.

Did someone say there's an app so I can do that on my phone on DME on the way there? Pretty cool. I'll have to look for that.

 

[bless7ings]

I have always wondered about buying them.

I did my own research for our 2008 trip. When I used the tips I could get from this disboards I did 14 rides on EMH at MK from 8 am to 11:30 or noon. (I can't remember, I just know we always left the parks around 11:30 because it was too hot and getting too crowded.) This was in September. I thought that was good.

So my question is What would touring plans have for the amount of attractions to hit in MK on 8 am to 12 we will say. EMH versus one of there chose parks to hit MK? These would be headliners for toddler to adult. We all went together with my parents to boot. ( my parents get around quite well)

 

[joannamet]

I just thought of something...

Should your plans be "re-optimized" or "re-evaluated" like the day before your trip? Just in case things have changed? Could this be why TP may not have worked for some people?

Good point! We're 10 days out. I'll wait a few more days and then re'evaluate and see if it changes.

One of my favorite parts of the Touring Plans site is the map it creates for you. I can show the touring plan non-believers in my group exactly which part of the park we're headed for and what the plan is. Last trip I tried to foist the touring plans on them and they balked like mules at all the criss-crossing. It got ugly!

 

[j2thomason]

Can you not change the order of the rides using the ipad? Or am I crazy

I use my iPad for everything, but I have not been successful in trying to change the order of my attractions on my iPad only on a computer. I probably won't renew my subscription unless that changes.

 

[W.E.D.]

No. IMHO.

Why pay someone for something you can do yourself? IMHO.

I've never used one of those sites, and we've always had a wonderful time.

Before you flame, I said In My Humble Opinion