first timer. do I really need a touring plan?

[jewelsb]

Okay first family Disney trip for us and I've done a fair amount of planning, reading, researching, etc. Staying at Port Orleans Riverside, all of the ADR's have been made and I've figured out which parks to go on which days according to the crowd calendars. The one last thing I'm struggling with is, do we really need a touring plan? We're going to be there for eight nights and we'll have 7 full days at Disney. if we're planning on a couple of days in both MK and Epcot, will that be sufficient to see most everything without being on a schedule?

 

[mesaboy2]

Okay first family Disney trip for us and I've done a fair amount of planning, reading, researching, etc. Staying at Port Orleans Riverside, all of the ADR's have been made and I've figured out which parks to go on which days according to the crowd calendars. The one last thing I'm struggling with is, do we really need a touring plan? We're going to be there for eight nights and we'll have 7 full days at Disney. if we're planning on a couple of days in both MK and Epcot, will that be sufficient to see most everything without being on a schedule?

I don't think you need a specific touring plan. Just have a good idea of all the things you want to do in each park and I think you'll be just fine.

 

[Thumper_Man]

Looking at your ticker and the days you are going, you will want at least some kind of touring plan or general idea how you want to tour the park. I'm sure you've read some attractions tend to get more crowded than others. You'll want to allow yourself time to either go to those attractions early, grab a fastpass for them and work them into your day.

For some, they make a touring plan and stick by it. Danny Tanner's clipboard of fun. For others, (like DW and myself) we have a general idea what we want to do, but don't rush through the park to get it done. The way we look at it, gives us an excuse to go back if we don't get to it.

I will give you the same advice that I and many others give. You will not see and do everything in one trip. Take your time and enjoy what you see and do. If you allow yourself to have a good time, you will have a great time.

 

[BlueStarryHat]

I do everything you've done, and never used a touring plan as such. The one thing we do upon entering a park is get right to our top priority attraction and get a Fastpass if they're available.

Other than that, making all of our ADRs 180 days in advance and figuring out what parks to visit when is all we do. I'm a hyper-organized person, but never had the desire to do the "proceed here, ride this, proceed there" touring. Too much for me. This means I wait in some lines, but I don't mind.

 

[Magpie]

Some idea of which rides are likely to have very long waits and run out of Fastpasses may save you from disappointment. Similarly having a rough idea of crowd patterns helps, too.

For example, it's good to know that most people will arrive at Epcot between 10 and 11 in the morning. If you head straight for Spaceship Earth along with everyone else, you'll face much longer waits for the ride than if you try later in the day. So being able to tell the family, "Don't worry, we'll come back for that later," is very helpful.

On the other hand, if you leave a ride like Test Track for later in the day, you're likely to find waits of 90 minutes all the Fastpasses long gone. The lines for that one are only short at park opening. So get over there early to grab your Fastpasses.

A Touring Plan basically saves you the trouble of learning the ins and outs of all the rides. If you follow it, you'll be avoiding long waits in line.

Do you need one to have a great time? No, absolutely not. But I'd still recommend reading through Josh's Cheat Sheets, just to familiarize yourself with things. http://www.easywdw.com/category/cheat-sheets/

It's not like it's a terrible chore to read up on the fun you'll be having at Disney, after all!

 

[tcoopman]

I recommend making a list of your "must-dos" and just plan for your first step that day. For instance, if you are going to DHS and Toy Story is on your list, make sure you start your day there...and then tour at your leisure.

Pick the most popular attraction to do first (or get a FP)...that at least gives you a direction to start and usually puts you in the middle of the action. So you can choose what to do next from there...you can say "Hey, that looks like fun, lets do that!" and not worry that you are throwing off some master plan.

 

[baldy6060]

I would at least go to the touringplans website or get the Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World and follow the "Not-A-Touring-Plan Plan." That way you don't have to stand in so many long lines. The other plans they offer will get you on rides even quicker though. And if you do experience the whole park you can always revisit those you liked and explore the details of the park.

 

[SpaceMtMan]

No not at all, but you should do some research on all the parks (Rides/attractions you want to go to, where stuff is, etc.) We've never used anything like touring plans. Yet I wouldn't discourage using something like: http://www.easywdw.com/waits/ to check out when to avoid certain rides and parks. Best of luck

 

[Karen Elaine]

Yes get a touring plan! I think Disney veterans forget how overwhelming it can be when you first enter a park you've never been to. And as others have pointed out, if you don't know which rides to ride early in the day or at least get a fastpass for, you could be stuck in very long lines. We have always heavily scheduled in the morning and kept in more laid back in the evenings and this way of touring has kept our group of 12 effortlessly and peacefully(no stopping to debate what we will do next) moving through the parks seeing everything we want to see with minimum wait. There is no harm in having a touring plan and then if you find you want to make different choices and that's working for you, great!

 

[Sphinx610]

Okay first family Disney trip for us and I've done a fair amount of planning, reading, researching, etc. Staying at Port Orleans Riverside, all of the ADR's have been made and I've figured out which parks to go on which days according to the crowd calendars. The one last thing I'm struggling with is, do we really need a touring plan? We're going to be there for eight nights and we'll have 7 full days at Disney. if we're planning on a couple of days in both MK and Epcot, will that be sufficient to see most everything without being on a schedule?

I would at the very least make a list of what you want to accomplish. Especially with you being newbies. Decide what you want to do before getting to the park and focus on doing those things. Then whatever else you get to do is just icing on the cake! But I wouldn't stress about it. That takes the fun out of it and then you are just rushing around. Being on too tight a schedule is just stressful.
7 full days is a good chunk of time! Have an awesome vacay!!!

 

[Peachkins]

Okay first family Disney trip for us and I've done a fair amount of planning, reading, researching, etc. Staying at Port Orleans Riverside, all of the ADR's have been made and I've figured out which parks to go on which days according to the crowd calendars. The one last thing I'm struggling with is, do we really need a touring plan? We're going to be there for eight nights and we'll have 7 full days at Disney. if we're planning on a couple of days in both MK and Epcot, will that be sufficient to see most everything without being on a schedule?

I think you'll be fine with the plan you have. You've done the same thing we do anytime we go to Disney- plan which parks are on which days and schedule our ADRs. I think you'll have plenty of time to see everything you want given the number of days you're there. As another poster said, it may be a good idea to get an app with wait times. When we weren't quite sure what to do next it was great to be able to see in a glance which attractions were good options.

 

[fairy8i8]

I think it depends on two things: when you go and how long you want to wait in line. As a teen, I didn't care about 2 hour lines because I was chatting the whole time. We went Christmas week, and I honestly had a great time and don't remember the lines. However, I remember my in laws spending 2 1/2 hours waiting for Dumbo in Disneyland in May when no other ride had that long of a line because their kids wanted to ride it again. No way would I do that with a bunch of toddler to preschoolers.

A touring plan will save you time standing in line. If that appeals to you, then play around with some of the software. If you will force your family to skip potty breaks, stress when they want to stop and buy a snack and put you off your "schedule," get grumpy when they just want to go back to the hotel and swim rather than finishing everything on the schedule, or focus only on getting from one destination to the next instead of soaking in the theming detail and ambiance that Disney does so well, then skip a touring plan.

In my opinion, having a basic plan from the start is a great way to save stress in the park, so long as you are willing to deviate from it according to what will make your family most happy at the time. If you love a ride and want to do it again, grab a fast pass or ride it again (just don't waste over 2 hours for a single thrill repeat- I promise you can ride it another time with a shorter wait unless it's Christmas/Easter/The Fourth).

 

[sharonabe]

One more piece of advice....go online and familiarize yourself with the maps of each park. You'll at least know which way is up and where you want to go when you enter the park.

 

[carissa1970]

Some idea of which rides are likely to have very long waits and run out of Fastpasses may save you from disappointment. Similarly having a rough idea of crowd patterns helps, too.

For example, it's good to know that most people will arrive at Epcot between 10 and 11 in the morning. If you head straight for Spaceship Earth along with everyone else, you'll face much longer waits for the ride than if you try later in the day. So being able to tell the family, "Don't worry, we'll come back for that later," is very helpful.

On the other hand, if you leave a ride like Test Track for later in the day, you're likely to find waits of 90 minutes all the Fastpasses long gone. The lines for that one are only short at park opening. So get over there early to grab your Fastpasses.

A Touring Plan basically saves you the trouble of learning the ins and outs of all the rides. If you follow it, you'll be avoiding long waits in line.

Do you need one to have a great time? No, absolutely not. But I'd still recommend reading through Josh's Cheat Sheets, just to familiarize yourself with things. http://www.easywdw.com/category/cheat-sheets/

It's not like it's a terrible chore to read up on the fun you'll be having at Disney, after all!

That is an awesome website! Thanks for the link.

http://www.***********************/tickers/kwkz3p9ufbl3koi6.png

 

[torinsmom]

You need a plan, but not necessarily a touring plan. On my first few trips, it helped me to know where to go first because otherwise we wasted some important minutes standing around discussing,"What do you want to do first?" I
don't know, what do you want to do first?" "Which way is that?" etc.

Reading guidebooks really helped me. For example, at Epcot, many people see the big ball(Spaceship Earth) and jump in line. The line is longer first thing and besides, getting to Soarin' early is important.

To me, knowing the first few rides we're going to hit at rope drop is important. The rest we play by ear.

 

[bumbershoot]

...Danny Tanner's clipboard of fun...


I will give you the same advice that I and many others give. You will not see and do everything in one trip.

OH my goodness, I'm going to have to watch the youtube clip I just found by googling that phrase. I'm sure it'll end up being negative about it, but honestly my family is going more TOWARDS the "get a plan and stick to it" sort of touring. I've been too wishy washy, too "lenient" in following whims, in the past, and no one gets what they want when you're doing half of one plan and half of a non-plan. For us, at least. We spend 14 days each time in Orlando and still haven't done anything near close to everything at WDW, and we're approaching our 4th trip. (we do quite a bit more at Universal but love re-rides!)


At the very least you need a plan of attack. Conversations with the family about "what interests you?" and "what could you leave behind?" As a newbie it'll be hard to figure out that list. So there might be more on the "must do" list. And the more there is, honestly, in my opinion, the MORE of a need there is for a proper plan.

When some people think of plans, they think of rushing and ignoring everything you're walking past, and no fun whatsoever, but that's not what I think of. I think of knowing what you want, getting it, and then having the time to do more. Also, look around while you're walking. Enjoy even the experience of walking briskly from point A to point B.

For us, having more and more solid plans (even at disneyland, where we started with Disney) is making our trips better. Allowing us to enjoy them even more.

Because for us, it has never been possible to "decide" that we'll have a good time and then just let it happen. The higher expectations WE put on something, the quicker we'll have the fall. The quicker the tantrums will start. If I don't *schedule* a meal we'll literally forget that there is such a thing as food until 9pm and we're at each others' throats. That's NOT fun. So, for us, the more scheduled the better, it turns out!

 

[fla4fun]

OP - a question . . .

Do you prefer a structured vacation, where you know exactly what you are doing and what you will accomplish? Or do you prefer a more laid back vacation, where you maybe have one or two "must do" items, and the rest you just take as it comes? How much will it bother you if you don't get to some of the more popular sites? I'm not asking in regards to Disney specifically, but anywhere you go on vacation.

Only you know how you like to travel. You've done good research, you've booked your hotel, and you've made your dining reservations. That puts you well ahead of many people in the planning department. But ultimately, only you know how much structure you need or want in order to have a great vacation.

I am not a fan of structure on vacation. If I'm going to a new place I've never been, I do the reading and the research, and decide if there's anything that is an absolute must do. I usually try to get the must do items done early in the trip so I can just relax and smell the roses for the rest of the trip.

 

[jewelsb]

Thanks for all the tips!! I love the link for the cheat sheets from easyWDW - I'll be using those! I've always liked the idea of just walking through, taking it all in as we go, but I don't want to spend hours waiting in lines or like someone said - standing around wondering what to do. So I think we'll at least be making a list of our "must do's" and getting all those in right away, then maybe having the afternoons to slow down and take in everything else! I'll read up on the touring plans and maybe use them as a guideline instead of using them to act like a drill sargeant to the rest of the family!

The next 58 days cannot go fast enough!!!

 

[fairy8i8]

Ok, I just finally got around to EasyWDW's Cheat Sheets. I LOVE their map! If you are not one for forming a touring plan, then just print off the Map and look at how the rides are color coded (according to rides that should be ridden first hour, second hour, and then anytime, so you have flexibility and an overall idea of which rides are most popular and will likely have a long line mid-day).

I would print the map just because it's honestly one of the easiest maps to read of the parks-- the one you get at Disney can be confusing because of so much going on and so many symbols. This will help you find bathrooms, restaurants, and rides a little easier.

 

[4under4]

Yes get a touring plan! I think Disney veterans forget how overwhelming it can be when you first enter a park you've never been to. And as others have pointed out, if you don't know which rides to ride early in the day or at least get a fastpass for, you could be stuck in very long lines. We have always heavily scheduled in the morning and kept in more laid back in the evenings and this way of touring has kept our group of 12 effortlessly and peacefully(no stopping to debate what we will do next) moving through the parks seeing everything we want to see with minimum wait. There is no harm in having a touring plan and then if you find you want to make different choices and that's working for you, great!

Yes this! I prefer Ridemax, but I also have a touringplans subscription. For the minimal investment cost, these are well worth taking the time to explore. Even if you don't want to strictly follow a plan, it will help educate you in the order things can be done the most efficiently, and help you plan your breaks.