Does using Tour Plan work?

[sldmh5]

Is there a good reason for paying for a Tour Plan? Wouldn't all the users be heading to the same place at the same time of day kind of negate the plans usefulness? I am trying to figure out what the benefit for paying for the Touring Plan site is?

 

[ramee]

Is there a good reason for paying for a Tour Plan? Wouldn't all the users be heading to the same place at the same time of day kind of negate the plans usefulness? I am trying to figure out what the benefit for paying for the Touring Plan site is?

I have made plans for free to get an idea of wait times and walking estimates. But I’ve read that people think the more accurate day of wait times they provide are worth the cost of the subscription.

 

[BarlowFamily]

We started using them a few years ago. I was a skeptic, but with some kind of discount code at the time I figured it was okay to waste a few bucks on a vacation we were spending thousands of dollars on. We found it well worth the money Even after 10+ trips in a 5 year span, I'll still build a touring plan before we go. Sometimes to just check on the idea I have in my head, sometimes to see what the program suggests. We could definitely enjoy a trip without the touring plan, it's just a nice little extra if we want.

 

[_19disnA]

If you have NEVER been to Disney perhaps some of their 'plans' may be helpful to you. Honestly, after you have been there a few times, you already know the location of the rides/shows/restaurants you enjoy best. I have never found where zig-zagging all over the park to supposedly save 5 minutes in some ride line was worth the effort. The most popular rides tend to have the longest lines. Rides might be down for maintenance or bad weather. I don't need to pay some 3rd party to tell me those things.

We were at Disney a few years ago during one of those cheer competitions. We didn't notice it made any difference in how busy the parks were, I assume since the competitors were mostly busy practicing or competing. I have no idea how anyone can predict crowd levels weeks/months in advance when even Disney has no idea how many locals will suddenly show up on a day with good weather.

 

[Nabas]

Is there a good reason for paying for a Tour Plan? Wouldn't all the users be heading to the same place at the same time of day kind of negate the plans usefulness? I am trying to figure out what the benefit for paying for the Touring Plan site is?

As Touring Plans explains somewhere, if only that many paid for their plans.

In reality, only a small fraction of the people at the parks on any given day use Touring Plans.

We use Touring Plans for the Crowd Calendar.

 

[Mle8308]

There are a lot of other useful features available to you when you pay for Touring Plans. It's a small price to pay considering what a Disney vacation now costs. I think it's well worth it.

 

[Best Aunt]

Is there a good reason for paying for a Tour Plan? Wouldn't all the users be heading to the same place at the same time of day kind of negate the plans usefulness? I am trying to figure out what the benefit for paying for the Touring Plan site is?

All of the users wouldn't head to the same place at the same time because different people like different things. Or more importantly, some people dislike certain things. People who get motion sick, people who don't like big rides, people who don't like certain Disney rides even though those rides are popular. Some people have kids who are under the height limit for some rides.

 

[Genie+]

Touring Plans is worth the subscription. We got it when we started going often with our kids without the intention of renewing. We’ve been renewing 11 years now lol.

I’ve gotten so much value over the years that at this point I’m happy to support the site. But I still use it plenty!

My FAVORITE feature is drawing up your own touring plan. I haven’t used it in years but plan to for next week on a short weekend trip. What I do is start by plugging in the major attractions we’d like to do. Add a couple potential meals/snacks stops. Then also add in all the shows and non-listed attractions - you’d be surprised how many of these there are across 4 parks. From there I optimize, then may adjust my plans accordingly.

You don’t have to follow precisely. It’s a very efficient blueprint. What it helps is that I don’t forget something while in the area. It also prevent running out of time to do shows, for example: at HS you might want to do Indy show and Beaty Beast show, but as the day goes you realize the last showtimes mean you’ll need to skip one.

The reason these plans work is because they work around the heaviest wait times, which are not all equal. The way crowds move and overlap are not all the same. Touring Plans updates this data so when trends change, the advice does too.

 

[weather_lady]

I use Touring Plans for multiple things:

1 - Crowd calendar, to decide when to visit and which parks are potentially best on which days (because their calendar will take things into account that we might not think to consider, like the impact of early closures, night-time events, local holidays, cheer and sports competitions, etc.). A companion tool is the "crowd tracker," which will let me know if crowd projections or hours change for my dates, and even, as the trip gets close, tell me the weather forecast for each day.

2 - Touring plans, particularly since we've never visited more than once every 2-3 years. That means that almost every visit, there are one or two new attractions (or closures!) that can influence crowd flow and change the recommended touring order. I like to use the "Personalized Touring Plan" feature to see if the plan I have in my head is going to be likely to work out, or whether I should do things a different way to save time in line. Accessing that plan in the TP "Lines" app on my phone, in the parks, allows me to pivot and have a new, optimized plan quickly, in the event something doesn't work out (e.g., we arrive at rope drop to find multiple attractions "down"). Indeed, in our experience, the "Lines" app tends to be way more accurate with wait times than Disney's MDE app, so that's the one we rely on in the parks.

3 - For onsite stays, the room finder and room request tools are essential. They allow me to see where the rooms within my booked category are located and what their individual views and pros/cons are, and make room requests that will best fit our needs.

4 - The ticket finder tool, which allows me to compare Disney's ticket prices with those of multiple authorized resellers, for multiple date spreads, all at once, and find the tickets that will save us the most money. (Last trip, this tool alone saved us $300 over Disney prices, on parkhoppers for my party of 4).

5 - The menu search tool, which I use to find specific food and beverage items in the parks and resorts. Wanna know precisely where to find a cream-cheese stuffed pretzel (my kids' #1 most-requested snack), 1% milk, or some sushi? This tool is for you!

I don't work for touringplans.com and have no interest in the company, but ever since I first subscribed to it for my family's inaugural trip to WDW with the kids around 2012, it's been a "must" for me, and has saved us so much time and money on trips that it's paid for itself many times over.

 

[MommyToASquared]

We only go to a Disney resort once every few years. In the past, I found this app incredibly helpful. The last trip (Jan 2023 - MLK weekend) was our first visit since Disney Genie+, LL, etc. was implemented. I could not have been more disappointed.

First, when we tried to mark an attraction as "completed" so the touring plan could refresh, the app just spun and spun. Even closing it and reopening the app did not help.

The touring plans were not even close to realistic. I am looking at my screenshots now. For example, my touring plan included two rides on Avatar at AK and one ride on Navi River. The app told us we could rope drop Avatar at AK and then ride a second time 7 minutes later. You can't even make it through the line at Avatar in 7 min. Then had us completing Navi all within the first hour. It had us finishing AK by 1100.

In the past, I would have whole heartedly recommended the app. I would not use it again.

 

[SwanVT2]

We only go to a Disney resort once every few years. In the past, I found this app incredibly helpful. The last trip (Jan 2023 - MLK weekend) was our first visit since Disney Genie+, LL, etc. was implemented. I could not have been more disappointed.

First, when we tried to mark an attraction as "completed" so the touring plan could refresh, the app just spun and spun. Even closing it and reopening the app did not help.

The touring plans were not even close to realistic. I am looking at my screenshots now. For example, my touring plan included two rides on Avatar at AK and one ride on Navi River. The app told us we could rope drop Avatar at AK and then ride a second time 7 minutes later. You can't even make it through the line at Avatar in 7 min. Then had us completing Navi all within the first hour. It had us finishing AK by 1100.

In the past, I would have whole heartedly recommended the app. I would not use it again.

I am so disappointed with how many rides you can actually get done nowadays at Disney. It makes the cost of tickets prohibitive and I do a lot of homework and planning for trips. The idea of waiting an hour in line for a 3 minute ride is just bonkers. We have Universal tickets we got many years ago as a gift and have yet to go.

 

[_19disnA]

I am so disappointed with how many rides you can actually get done nowadays at Disney.

We found the same thing when at Disney a couple of years ago after not going for over 10 yrs. The parks were so crowded that even during the week, it was nearly impossible to walk around. When they let more people into the park then the ride capacity can handle, it makes all of the popular ride lines way too long to be enjoyable. No amount of advance planning is going to make the park any less crowded.

We estimated it now takes twice a long to do the same number of rides/shows as in the past. If a ride line is over 1 hr, then clearly you are going to eat up a LOT of your park time at just a few rides and not be able to do as many. Combine that with the huge ticket prices and large crowds we have ZERO plans to return anytime soon. We get far more 'value' from other places we like to vacation that aren't nearly as expensive/crowded as Disney.

 

[weather_lady]

The idea of waiting an hour in line for a 3 minute ride is just bonkers. We have Universal tickets we got many years ago as a gift and have yet to go.

Off-topic, but just a heads-up to encourage you to use those Universal tickets and not miss out on a good time: if you stay at any of Universal's 3 "premier" hotels, you get unlimited express pass for everyone in the room, meaning you use Universal's version of a lighting lane for almost every attraction -- no touring plan needed, just go where you want, when you want (and save Hagrid's coaster - the only major attraction that doesn't have Express Pass - for last thing in the evening)! Visit during a less crowded time of year (since Universal, like Disney, wildly inflates hotel prices during holiday periods and other popular times) to save significantly on the cost of that room.

My family loves both Disney and Universal, but staying at the premier Universal hotels (we buy seasonal annual passes to save around 30% on the room) has allowed us to enjoy carefree, leisurely, yet action-packed Universal trips that are true stress relievers -- in contrast to what Disney has become with the hassle of choosing between long lines and strategizing with military precision, and a day spent paying through the nose and constantly juggling G+ on the phone.

 

[SwanVT2]

Off-topic, but just a heads-up to encourage you to use those Universal tickets and not miss out on a good time: if you stay at any of Universal's 3 "premier" hotels, you get unlimited express pass for everyone in the room, meaning you use Universal's version of a lighting lane for almost every attraction -- no touring plan needed, just go where you want, when you want (and save Hagrid's coaster - the only major attraction that doesn't have Express Pass - for last thing in the evening)! Visit during a less crowded time of year (since Universal, like Disney, wildly inflates hotel prices during holiday periods and other popular times) to save significantly on the cost of that room.

My family loves both Disney and Universal, but staying at the premier Universal hotels (we buy seasonal annual passes to save around 30% on the room) has allowed us to enjoy carefree, leisurely, yet action-packed Universal trips that are true stress relievers -- in contrast to what Disney has become with the hassle of choosing between long lines and strategizing with military precision, and a day spent paying through the nose and constantly juggling G+ on the phone.

YES,!!This all sounds great and my best friend went with her family and told me the exact same thing. I am waiting for DD to get a little older so she can have the stamina and be up for more of the rides. She is still into Disney, so enjoying it while I can! Thank you!!

 

[SwanVT2]

Off-topic, but just a heads-up to encourage you to use those Universal tickets and not miss out on a good time: if you stay at any of Universal's 3 "premier" hotels, you get unlimited express pass for everyone in the room, meaning you use Universal's version of a lighting lane for almost every attraction -- no touring plan needed, just go where you want, when you want (and save Hagrid's coaster - the only major attraction that doesn't have Express Pass - for last thing in the evening)! Visit during a less crowded time of year (since Universal, like Disney, wildly inflates hotel prices during holiday periods and other popular times) to save significantly on the cost of that room.

My family loves both Disney and Universal, but staying at the premier Universal hotels (we buy seasonal annual passes to save around 30% on the room) has allowed us to enjoy carefree, leisurely, yet action-packed Universal trips that are true stress relievers -- in contrast to what Disney has become with the hassle of choosing between long lines and strategizing with military precision, and a day spent paying through the nose and constantly juggling G+ on the phone.

Where would you recommend we stay at Universal? We prefer quieter hotels and some of the cheaper Universal hotels look a bit hectic. We do like a good pool and decent food. Thanks!

 

[0FF TO NEVERLAND]

The lines app is much better then the Disney app when it comes to wait times. I always use the room request also. Have basically gotten what I wanted each time I used it. Does it work all the time? Probably not, but it eases my stress

 

[Keladry84]

Where would you recommend we stay at Universal? We prefer quieter hotels and some of the cheaper Universal hotels look a bit hectic. We do like a good pool and decent food. Thanks!

Both Surfside and Aventura were fairly quiet. Aventura I heard no noise/had zero difficulty with noise both in the room and common areas and I'm pretty sensitive. Surfside was fine in the common areas, but I heard pool music and it has bleed through the wall with a connecting door (so request no poolside/no connecting room). Of the more expensive hotels, I've heard Portofino is fairly quiet as well, but I haven't stayed/been there.

 

[weather_lady]

Where would you recommend we stay at Universal? We prefer quieter hotels and some of the cheaper Universal hotels look a bit hectic. We do like a good pool and decent food. Thanks!

For you, I'd recommend Portofino Bay (if the construction will be done), Royal Pacific, or if you don't need premier level (which comes with unlimited express passes, but also the highest price tags), Sapphire Falls. They're all walking/boating distance from the parks, and far quieter and more sophisticated-feeling than Hard Rock (the other premier). You can find tours of each on YouTube, if you'd like to compare the theming of each one.

 

[jec6613]

strategizing with military precision

As someone who has read far too much on this topic, I can tell you that this is actually the correct plan to have for any theme park if you want to maximize experience per time spent - but not because of what the average person may think.

"Plans are worthless, but planning is everything." - Eisenhower

In short, go through a thorough planning process: plan what you want to do, figure out optimal times to do it, determine alternates for if something goes wrong, know the walk time and energy to move around the park and plan breaks accordingly, and go through every contingency, and have a plan. Then be prepared to throw it all out of the window at a moment's notice when conditions change, and have planned enough to know what your prioritized objectives are and how to achieve them.

If you don't do the planning, you'll spend a lot of time just trying to figure out what to do and where to go next. And in a family, this can often mean a lot of competing priorities and discussions happening in the park when they should have been hashed out in the months leading up to the visit, chewing up a lot of valuable park time.

In my nearly 50 days spent at Disney locations where I've planned it, I've had exactly two days where the plan didn't change within the first few hours: one a day at Disneyland 15 years ago, and one 8 years ago with an arrival day at the Magic Kingdom.

I won't personally pay for a Tour Plan, but I do use all available data to make my plan.

 

[nighttowll]

I’ve used TP for planning every trip, and the service has always worked well. I’ve never just followed a premade plan straight out, though, except maybe our very first trip which was pre the customize feature.

I love the customize feature. You kind of have to play around with it, but it’s great for realistically seeing what you can fit in where. I’m past trying to simply rush around and fit in as much as possible with as little waiting as possible. I just want to see what we can realistically do. How we can maximize our time without killing ourselves.

Typically, I enter in everything I want to do in a park. Then, I optimize to see what it recommends. That usually has us crossing back and forth a bit, so I’ll play around with manually moving rides closer together using the map to see our journey. Then, evaluate to see if I’ve caused any huge waits or issues with what I moved. It can sometimes take me a little while playing around with different options, but I’m able to come up with a realistic plan that works for us. It’s a great way to see when you need to fit in a show not to miss it completely or how to best make sure you fit in A,B, and C all in the afternoon. It will tell you if there’s not enough time to do what you want. If there’s not enough time between attractions to make a show. It even tells you estimated LL return times. For instance, if you book A at 11:00, you will most likely get return time of 3:00. I’m sure that varies somewhat based on crowds and the particular day, but it’s useful to get a general idea that ride A will be sold out by 11:00 whereas ride B typically returns morning time and ride C evening times.

I think it’s worth the $25 just to be able to make these custom plans, but I’m a big planner. We tend to plan out every little minute of any trip we take, so this software is a huge help. If you are more of a let’s just wing it person or not use to following a plan, you may not find as much value.

As others have mentioned, though, the other features like the room finder and such are nice as well, but I’m not sure worth $25 only for those.