I've never used an actual "touring plan" although I subscribe to that site and use it to plan which park to attend on which days.
First question: Does the touring plan portion of that site take into account that the new Fantasyland should be mostly open? I imagine that would change up even the best laid plan.
Second, I'm not trying to be mean or judgemental at all. But if you want to slow down, why do the touring plan at all? How about just picking a park, setting a few early morning priorities when the lines are short..... then just winging it. How can you know sitting at home months in advance what will strike your fancy? If you have down time, grab a table by Casey's and just absorb the atmosphere. Maybe something struck your fancy in the Emporium the day before and you want to go buy it. Maybe the kids loved Dumbo so much you must do it again. Maybe you want to get in line early to try out the Be Our Guest counter service lunch.
In my opinion, open time n the Magic Kingdom is not a problem to be solved. It's a gift left to be unwrapped when you're AT the park.
TP does have listed the Fantasyland attractions that we know will be open. Of course, that's subject to change in the next 4 months.
I know that a lot of people don't do detailed touring plans but I can't really work that way. Keep in mind though, that planning to that level does not mean the plan is inflexible. For me, planning to the nitty gritty detail, means more flexibility. It means that if something does change - we sleep in, someone gets sick, a ride breaks down, we decide to ride Dumbo repeatedly - I know exactly what needs to be moved, rearranged or skipped altogether. And I know where in the schedule we can move things to. I know which items on are schedule are hard times (like shows) or non-negotiable, like our Le Cellier reservation. Everything else is flexible; it's just a matter of trade-offs. At the end of the trip, I want to know that we did everything that was on our priority list and that where we made trade-offs, they were ones that made us happy.
I think the big thing that is tripping me up right now is that my in-laws have never been. So there's a few things I know they will love, but most of it, I'm just guessing. I did spend a couple hours today working through the plans for all 4 parks and I'm pretty happy with them. I ended up with "free" time in all of them, so I think that's a good thing. But I shifted things around so I didn't have huge gaps.
I also realized we had a lot of extra time in Epcot before 11am (when WS opens), so I booked the Segway tour for DH, DSis and my in-laws. My in-laws recently did a Segway tour around town and my DH has always wanted to do this, so I know they'll love it. I'm keeping it a surprise. Only downside is I can't go because DS is too young. But I'm sure we'll find something fun to do. And I might schedule the GF Pirate Adventure for him on one of our off days. Mostly that depends on whether I want to get out of bed on our off day to take him over there.
Anyway, thanks for the advice. I feel better about the plans now that they are reasonably fleshed out. And I'm excited for the extra surprise I planned.
