Buying a Touring Plan? Is it worth it?

[GoofyinBuffalo]

This will be my 10th trip and I pretty much know what we're doing, but I still subscribe to touringplans.com because I just love all the planning and information. I love how it continually updates crowd levels for the resorts & parks not just day of but months in advance. I watch it every couple of days to see if they expect crowds to increase (which they have for this trip; originally days 1 & 2 were listed as crowd level 1 but have since been boosted to 4 & 5) so I can plan accordingly. Plus I use the app when in the parks to check wait times, which are very accurate. The rate to subscribe isn't crazy plus you get a discount when you renew.

 

[loves to dive]

I've never used either one but we are pretty relaxed in our style of just kind going with the flow. I've glanced at them and find the thought of having to plan out my day that close is a little rigid for me. I think if you haven't been or it's been a while these boards are probably going to answer any questions you might have. As far as wait times, it could be because we've been so often but we can pretty much just look at the line and know how long we are going to wait. Having said that, yes, you have to walk to where the ride is and possibly discover the line too long for the amount of time you want to wait so I can see how some people might not like that. I also don't pay attention to the crowd calendars, I might look at them before a trip just for giggles but we just go to whatever park we are in the mood for. We do get PHs so that does make it easy to move over to another park if we find the one we are at is too busy.

 

[LoveThatMouse!]

We just returned and because of the wonderful feedback from this thread, we did purchase the Touring Plan and found it very helpful...especially the Line App. We consider ourselves veterans and still enjoyed the touring plan. IF this had been our first or second trip, I can assure you, the plan would have been a LIFESAVER.

 

[PirateD]

I have used touringplans(.com) since it was a book and you couldn't customize plans. Our last two trips were Christmas and Easter break trips. So HIGH crowd levels.

We didn't rope drop. We didn't use EMH. We saw every attraction we wanted to. And we never waited more than 20 minutes in a line.

In my experience it has been money well spent.

Wow! I would love to hear more on how you toured so effectively without rope drop or EMH at Christmas. We are headed there this Christmas. Some of us are committed to rope drop, but a few (like my parents) may need to skip it and can't do the super late hours. I would love to help that part of our group still have a good time without incredibly long waits. I have purchased the newest edition of the Unofficial Guide and the subscription to TP. In the past, we just followed their general advice, but I think a touring plan might be more beneficial this trip since we haven't used FP+ before. I'm loving playing with the personalized plans. Good to hear of your success, @Love That Mouse and how much it has helped everyone else!

 

[lwc]

We tried rope dropping once. Not all of our family are morning people though, so we quickly realized it was not for us.

We also found that we REALLY like having a sit down, air conditioned, table service meal (or two.) so we "waste" touring time with that as well.

In the past, before the custom plans, we would use the late start plans.

Now I just make custom plans and balance our start and end times with what we want to fit in. (I do tweak, and optimize and re-optimize, and see what happens if I move this or that)

My kids know that what they want to see is in the plan, and they know that the plan knows when to go so that we won't have to wait as long in line. Because they know that, they are pretty good about walking right past a favorite knowing that they will ride later.

In the past I have generally set our speed at "average". This has not left a lot (any) time to lollygag.

For this trip I have set or pace at whatever the most relaxed setting is. We are visiting at a somewhat slower (though hotter) time and I hope that the more relaxed pace will give everyone a little more time to stop and smell the roses.

 

[DisneyBelle27]

I would just like to reiterate, as pp's posters have said, that you do not have to pay for a touringplans subscription to get access to the personalized touring plan builder. When you go to register, look to the right for the option for signing up for the basic membership. Once you've done that, go to the 'Touring Plans' dropdown menu at the top of the page and select 'Personalized Touring Plans'. Personally, I would never bother paying for a touringplans subscription to use for touring plans or crowd calendars, since I use easywdw for crowd calendars. I think I might only use it for the wait times app.

 

[Praying Colonel]

Been a happy touring plans.com subscriber since 06 and will continue to be a subscriber. Love the Lines App, crowd calendar and personalized touring plans.

 

[PirateD]

Thanks @lwc for the tips! It is very appreciated! We have a mix of morning and non-morning people in our group, but most of our morning people are coming from the West Coast so the time change makes it more difficult. I'm glad to hear that the personalized plans work so well and can be easily adjusted. I will continue to play with them!