DL Custom Touring Plan

[Marshmelo]

Based on my post yesterday of the custom plan TP gave me for DCA and finding out how terrible it was, I thought I would share the plan it gives me for DL. This will be one of our 2.5 days in this park and an EE day at 7am for us. Predicted crowd level 1. It’s not totally bad from what I can tell but I would think we need to head to PP first thing not much later like the plan says, oh and it has us doing MFSR at 8 am but I’ve heard not to do that but to wait until afternoon.

7:06 Star Tours wait 4 min
7:18 Astro Orbitor wait 4 min
7:31 Dumbo wait 4 min
7:39 Alice wait 4 min
7:59 MF:SR wait 13 min
8:28 get FP for HM return 8:55
8:28 Frontierland shootin’
8:36 Thunder Mountain wait 8 min
8:52 Indiana Jones wait 8 min
9:15 HM uses FP
9:32 get FP for Space Mountain return 3:40
9:32 Winnie the Pooh wait 4 min
9:41 Splash Mountain wait 4 min
10:04 Pirates wait 4 min

Lunch break (Blue Bayou)

12:25 get FP for Buzz return 12:30
12:25 Jungle Cruise wait 4
12:45 Buzz uses FP
12:57 Snow White wait 4
1:04 Peter Pan wait 23
1:31 Pinocchio wait 8
1:44 Mr. Toad wait 8
1:55 get FP for Roger Rabbit return 1:50
1:55 Mad Tea Party wait 4
2:10 Gadgets Go Coaster wait 4
2:18 Roger Rabbit uses FP
2:40 Star Wars Launch Bay wait 20
3:48 Autopia wait 4
4:03 Space Mountain uses FP

 

[Plip]

Reading this, I'm at a loss. I assume the good people at TouringPlans.com have a better sense of things at Disneyland than I do. But this touring plan just doesn't seem realistic to me at all. For instance...

• Even on a slow day, I don't think you can get on Pirates in four minutes at 10am
• I don't think Peter Pan in 23 minutes in the middle of the day is realistic
• The Blue Bayou doesn't open until 11:30 (at least, that's today's schedule), so what do you do between getting off Pirates (at 10:15ish) and 11:30?

In fact, all of those four-minute waits seem pretty optimistic to me. I don't know... maybe I'm wrong. But this just doesn't seem workable to me.

 

[Plip]

You might check out this link:

https://disneylanddaily.com/how-to-start-your-day-at-disneyland/
She gives a couple of Touring Plans, that she says she uses and tests regularly. She has one for "big kids" and one for "little kids." They don't include precise timing (because she uses the same plans for light and busy days), but her plans seem more credible to me than the one you posted above.

I haven't used her plans, so I can't say how well they work, but I have gleaned general principles and strategies from them, and it seems like she knows what she's talking about.

 

[EmJ]

Wow. Well, I don’t know other than to say if riding 24 attractions is actually possible between 7am and 4pm, then I have WAY underplanned our days. Are you going to try it?

 

[Marshmelo]

Wow. Well, I don’t know other than to say if riding 24 attractions is actually possible between 7am and 4pm, then I have WAY underplanned our days. Are you going to try it?

I will try to ride all those rides but not necessarily in that order. As Plip said above and others suggested in my DCA thread, I’m going to check out Disneyland Daily and rearrange my plans.

 

[IsleofDisney]

It seems you will be doing a lot of backtracking. Are you visiting on weekdays or weekend? If it's weekends then I don't see how this plan is possible. Now I'm curious, I want to try this plan on one of my visits!

 

[Marshmelo]

It seems you will be doing a lot of backtracking. Are you visiting on weekdays or weekend? If it's weekends then I don't see how this plan is possible. Now I'm curious, I want to try this plan on one of my visits!

It’s for Tues. 10/22

 

[Plip]

You know, maybe I'm wrong about this. I just looked at the Disneyland app, and it currently (shortly after 10am) shows the wait at Pirates at just five minutes. It also shows the Fast Pass return time for Space Mountain as 10:30, which is just 20 minutes away. And Peter Pan is just a 25 minute wait.

All of those times are similar to what your touring plan says. So maybe it's possible.

I could certainly see trying the plan to see how it goes. And to stick with the plan as long as the times continue to match up.

 

[PiratesMansion]

Honestly, I wouldn't trust TP for DL. Despite the fact that they've been covering Disneyland for years, their custom touring plans (at least) continue to spit out ridiculous information that wouldn't work well in practice.

If you're trying to do PP at rope drop, it's actually easier IMO if you're doing it on a day when you DON'T have (or aren't using) Early Entry. Reason being that if you're doing it on an EE day, you are held at the turnstiles until 7 and you then have to sprint down Main Street to get to Pan on time before everyone else, heaven help you if anything goes wrong. Whereas if DL doesn't have EE you are let into the gates before opening and are typically held at the castle, so you have a MUCH shorter distance to get to the ride.

 

[longtimedisneylurker]

Hmm...interesting list. I don't put a lot of stock in the ordering of things here, but that doesn't mean you can't cram all this into your day. We very rarely do early entry, but we do regularly get into the parks by 8 am and have 9 or 10 rides completed by 10 am, so that is definitely achievable. Here are my comments. MF:SR is probably not a good use of your early morning time since you have early entry. The only way I imagine achieving a 13 minute wait for that ride early in the day is by spending a substantial chunk of your early entry time waiting at the front of the line that will be lead into Galaxy's Edge at regular entry time. You would need to be near the front of that crowd of people and really hustle your way there. It still sounds to me like at least a 30-40 minute time investment with the waiting, walking, and waiting again, and you could be using that time to ride several rides at that time of the day. Ride MF:SR in the late afternoon or evening or late at night when the wait times tend to hover in the 30-45 minute range. It will amount to the same time investment but at a time when you won't be fighting through the press of people and when lines elsewhere for other headliners are going to be longer anyway. Thunder Mountain isn't always best ridden early in the morning because they are somewhat slow about starting the trains up and will run only one for a while and then only two and let the line build a bit before adding other trains to the track. You would probably do better to ride Thunder with a fastpass anytime after 9 AM. Buzz should be a walk-on for early entry and at least the first half hour if not hour after that so you can probably fit that in easily during your first tour of Tomorrowland. I find it unlikely that a Space Mountain fastpass obtained at 9:30 am will already have a return time of 3:40 PM. More likely the latest it will be pushed out if running at full capacity is 12:30-1:30 PM. An Autopia wait of 4 minutes at 3:48 PM (or most any time of day frankly) is highly unlikely; expect 10-20 minutes at slower times of the day. Peter Pan really has been around 25 minutes frequently throughout the day ever since Galaxy's Edge opened; I have ridden it several times this year after ignoring it for quite a while.

 

[Lauren in NC]

You'll have MP right? Honestly, on a low crowd day, we tend to plan around what fast passes are available next as opposed to sticking strictly to a plan.

I would start out in Fantasyland (PP first if you're able to be one of the first bunch in line, otherwise wait til later) and ride all of those rides first, since they're quick and tend to back up later in the day (and have super boring queues). After that, I'd figure out which section you want to head to next and just start pulling FPs for those rides. Normally we head over to Tomorrowland and do Space, Star Tours and Buzz, and then mosey over to Adventureland for Indiana Jones, Jungle Cruise, Pirates, Haunted Mansion, etc.

 

[avalon451]

Yeah, I used to subscribe to TP before each trip, but it ended up just being for the tips. The plans it spits out just aren't reasonable, IMO. I much prefer Disneyland Daily, if you want to do tons of stuff. I also like to take breaks midday, when it's hot and crowded, and stack FPs for the evening.

Like Lauren, I've always done FL first on MM. Then either left side (PotC, Indy, Splash, etc) or right side (Space, ST, Buzz) before taking a break.

We were there for MM on Thursday, Sept. 12th. We did PP, Alice, Dumbo, Carrousel, Toad, Snow, Pinocchio, IaSW, Space, Star Tours-- grabbed some breakfast at QS for about 20 minutes-- then checked out Batuu for awhile (single ridered MF:SR). It was around 11 and getting hot, so DDs and DH went back to hotel, but I did HM, Indy, and BTMRR. Then I mobile-ordered a salad at Jolly Holiday. I was back at the DLH by 1:30. So that was 14 rides, plus a snack break and lunch, and some wandering around getting photopass pictures, too. And we certainly weren't rushing around.