How does Touring Plans work?

[JasonMak2000]

I've got 2 Disney trips planned for this year and I've been intrigued by all the positive feedback about Touring Plans. Seems that people who use it really like it. I wanted to see how the plans are actually set up. Is it just a pre-fab plan based on the dates of your trip? How does it get "customized" ? Do you log in to the website or app while at the parks? Any info on how it is set up and works would be much appreciated.

 

[Tksolomom]

You pick the rides and attractions that you want, and it will recommend an order and what to FP. You can then put in your ADRs and fast passes and optimize your plan. You can meet be things around as you like, pick walking speeds, breaks, etc.

I really like it as it gives an estimate of the walk and waiting times. I use it as a starting point, but if things don’t work out, I skip a step or come back later.

 

[yaya74]

You pick the rides and attractions that you want, and it will recommend an order and what to FP. You can then put in your ADRs and fast passes and optimize your plan. You can meet be things around as you like, pick walking speeds, breaks, etc.

I really like it as it gives an estimate of the walk and waiting times. I use it as a starting point, but if things don’t work out, I skip a step or come back later.

that's how I use TP as well. The plan just gives me an idea on where to go and when. The plan will lay out all attractions on a map so to help me plan out my "routes". otherwise I will be zig-zagging all over the place.

TP is also excellent for sending room location request.

 

[rdaky]

I plan our days based on Touring plans crowd predictions. I don't die hard stick to it, but the plan is helpful if you want to maximize what you can do, especially during a busier time.

I also recently used them for the first time for a room location request and got exactly what I had requested.

 

[JasonMak2000]

So is it something that you are logging in on the website and checking or modifying throughout the day?

 

[Ladyandthepuppies]

Mousesavers offered a discount to join Touring Plans, it was like $12. When you're spending thousands on a WDW trip, what's another $12 really

I say you should join and check it out for yourself! I like it, I think it's been worth the $12 for me.

 

[AnnieOakley]

So is it something that you are logging in on the website and checking or modifying throughout the day?

You can. They have an app you can download to your phone to make checking more efficient. You can view your plans, wait times for attractions (and my personal favorite- search for specific food items.)
I also like the feature of checking off steps as we go so we can see the timing of things, and modify or re-evaluate our plan. If we are trying to get to a meal or something at a specific time, we can get a better picture of how many things we can do beforehand without stretching ourselves too thin.

There are a lot of functions built in that we've appreciated. We've felt the subscription was worth the price both times we've subscribed.

 

[KittyKitty]

You can pick your type of touring, mine is relax. You get email alerts on changes of crowd tracker. I have 2 trips I'm working on. Love the views posted from different Disney resort rooms. I use that to request an area I want my room to be. I'm still finding new stuff to figure out on the website.

 

[Stephy811]

Also on their lines app they give “actual estimated” waits. For example MDE may show 60 mins and TP will give estimate of 48 mins. I find very helpful-especially at end of night when MDE waits tend to be inflated.

 

[rwdavis2]

I would recommend you pay for a subscription and test it out. It's barely a rounding error as compared to the cost of any trip to WDW.

 

[JasonMak2000]

Is there a separate 'lines' app and touring plans app or are they one and the same?

 

[rwdavis2]

Is there a separate 'lines' app and touring plans app or are they one and the same?

Same. Although other sites have wait time apps (I think) and touring plans as well.

 

[JasonMak2000]

I'm not worried about the cost. As you say it's just a drop in the bucket compared to everything else. I just want to learn what I can to see if its something I'll actually use and how personalized it really is.

 

[rwdavis2]

I'm not worried about the cost. As you say it's just a drop in the bucket compared to everything else. I just want to learn what I can to see if its something I'll actually use and how personalized it really is.

I use it mainly for which park on what day, wait times, and checking park hours as they change. I've never used their touring plans since we've been many times and know the drill for efficiently touring the parks.

 

[samsonjs]

I used the lines app to check wait times. I had heard that it doesn't drain your battery as fast as the official Disney app.

My complaint was that it would always close out and not finish recording a time when I tried to update the expected wait time for a line. I wish it had the option for me to time it on my own and manually enter it rather than using their time. I never got the timer to work.

 

[slpeters]

For our week in November we found it to be freakishly accurate. Plus if you change plans, whether it's because Splash Mountain went down or because you decided what you would really like to do is sit at the Brown Derby Lounge and have margaritas for an hour, it will redo your plans based on current time of day, crowds and your location in the park. We thought it was brilliant. Plus playing around with the plans was a great way to learn about the parks beforehand.

 

[Sarcazm]

I have an account with TouringPlans.

I think the main benefit is that you get a really good idea of which rides to ropedrop and FP+. That way you're not wasting a FP+ on rides that don't need one.

I did create my own personalized touring plans with the account even though I know wait times can vary from day to day. You can't take things into account like rain or rides breaking down, but that's just life. However, it does give me a rough estimate of what I can do each day.

Also, there are other benefits. They have a reservation finder. So, if you're having a hard time finding a reservation at a popular restaurant, you can just put your preferred date and time, and they'll check the availability every so often and text you when it's available.

They also have a Room Request Fax. So, say you have a room booked at Pop Century, but you want a room overlooking the lake or a room that's in a "quiet area," you can put this info in the Room Request Fax, and TouringPlans will fax it to the resort at the appropriate time (4-5 days before you arrive). It's not guaranteed that Disney will fulfill all of your requests, but it's a nice little extra.

They have a Historical Crowd Calendar. So even if you question what the Crowd Calendar "could be" for November 2018, you can actually look at the Crowd history all the way back to 2009. They even have hour by hour (minute to minute even) of historical wait times. So, you can see that on Nov. 15, 2017, Flight of Passage had a wait time of 180 minutes at 10:00 AM.

Anyway, I love the site. It gives me a really good idea of what to expect, what to ropedrop, what to FP+, etc. I think it's worth the $$$ in my humble opinion.

 

[Maxie86]

I agree the wait times on TP are more accurate than Disney's posted times, both are listed on the app. It tells you the best time to ride and you can also check for available fp times. MDE is so glitchy and if the parks are crowded sometimes I can't even get the app to load...lines app always loads quickly.

 

[lynnzrae]

Mousesavers offered a discount to join Touring Plans, it was like $12. When you're spending thousands on a WDW trip, what's another $12 really

I say you should join and check it out for yourself! I like it, I think it's been worth the $12 for me.

I have search for this discount code and can't find it. Can you please pass it on? Thank you.

 

[gharter]

There are several options. they have preset plans based on adults/kids/ages for each park.
As a subsriber, I can do customized plans whih I prefer. You enter in your FPs, ADRs and then select the hours you will be in the park and the rides you want to do. It will then create an optomized recommendation of the order for the attractions. Most of the time, it works well.