How does Touring Plans work?

[PrincessWithABlaster]

I just want to learn what I can to see if its something I'll actually use and how personalized it really is.

It's as personalized as you want it to be. Mine is completely personalized. You can use their canned plans if you don't want anything personalized (but you can get those for free on other sites so why would you). You can enter all the attractions you want to do and the speed you think you will walk and let it create an optimized plan for you. You can take that plan and reorder a few things to the way you would prefer to do it and get an estimate of how that reordering will effect your wait times. You can pick your own order and get approximate times for that. You can add in meals at restaurants so you can include walking times to the restaurants and know when you need to be on the move to make your ADR. You can add in resorts breaks. You can add in snack breaks. You can schedule bathroom time.

Ok, I guess mine is not completely personalized because I don't do those last two things. But you could ...

... But beware that attempting to force others to strictly adhere to your personalized plans is a recipe for a Disney vacation mutiny.

I create a very detailed plan to see what's possible but we very often deviate and the afternoons for us are typical a multiple choice (pirates adventure or Tom Sawyer Island or watch the parade for example).

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.

There are complaints that the app is ugly but it was designed with basic graphics to load quickly. I haven't experimented or noticed a difference (my battery life is pretty good) but MDE is a bigger 'prettier' app that probably affects both your battery and data so yes, I could see that.

 

[hiroMYhero]

@lentesta is a DIS member and he often stops by to explain the “free” aspects of Touring Plans:

Free, if you just want to use the touring plans. Here's the link to the free sign-up. That includes computer optimization, including when you're in the park.

Len nicely responds to all inquiries sent to him via his TP site.

 

[Dan Murphy]

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

https://www.mousesavers.com/discount-disney-shopping-mall/#touringplans

 

[YesterDark]

I've used TP for the room reservation and getting ADRs. That alone is worth the $15.

The plans themselves are neat, but personally I don't like to use them at the park. I'd like to keep my head up and not on my phone most of the time. Then again I have very young kids so I need my head on a swivel most of the time!