How much touring planning to do?

[Puffy2]

I enjoy the planning and reading about the trip. I always have a detailed plan but I don't freak when we divert from it. The best part of planning is that you know where everything is and when the show times are and what is doable and what isn't. It's kind of like making a list for grocery shopping and then leaving it at home - by making the list you know what you want.

It really helps to have an idea about where to eat or at least to know what the choices are. I HATE wasting time in a themepark staring at a map trying to figure out what to do next or where to find food. The planning helps you know in advance what the choices are.

 

[Lillian Gracey]

I like to plan which parks on which days and which FPs we want and then that's mostly it. For the FPs we make sure there is a bit of time between each FP in case of the unexpected like a ride going down as well as a lunch break. I'm definitely a major planner, but I know DH would be absolutely miserable if we planned every minute. We're making lists of things we have to do that we didn't get to do last time as well as things that we enjoyed during our last trip. Our FP selections are the rides that are most important to us and then we go hop on the rides with the shortest wait times via the Lines app or go explore the park. I also don't like wasting time trying to figure out what to do so having a generic plan will hopefully prevent that. We're going during a slower time so hopefully we'll get lots done like during our last trip.

 

[Southern Bell]

I like to make a few plans during the week of what parks I am going to visit, especially with fast pass now before you leave home . I have found over last few years that one reservation for dining a day is enough for us. I mix it up with a couple of breakfast, lunch, dinner reservations. I like to make fast pass in the morning, along with a few breakfast and lunch reservations , to free up my evening. I also like to free up a couple of days of no planning and to sleep in.

 

[Karin1984]

To me the planning is part of the fun before the trip. I love playing around with Touring Plans to see what happens if we add a ride or a show or remove one. But I know that I will most likely stick to which park on which day due to ADR & FP, and during waiting for rope drop we will decide on which ride first. I don't want to look on my phone / papers constantly to see what's next. It'll be in my head from months and months planning anyway ;-)

 

[nat8199]

I love making the plans for our trip!

I use touring plans to set up a plan for each day. The plans are basically to help us focus on which area of which part we are going to explore that morning, which are the best rides to do at RD, which are the rides we have FPs for later in the morning, and to make sure our ADRs are located near the part of the park we will be in. My plans typically only include two or three rides after lunch that we could not fit into the morning, and then the rest of the afternoon is free until dinner.

Having most of the plans for the morning gives us focus and flexibility. It also helps the kids understand that while they see a ride or attraction right then, we do have plans to do it later, but that we might not have a "ticket" for it right then.

Last time we went we had two 2yos and one 4yo. Next time it will be 2 4yos and a 6yo. Plans are necessary for us.

 

[lily2521]

I enjoy the planning and reading about the trip. I always have a detailed plan but I don't freak when we divert from it. The best part of planning is that you know where everything is and when the show times are and what is doable and what isn't. It's kind of like making a list for grocery shopping and then leaving it at home - by making the list you know what you want.

It really helps to have an idea about where to eat or at least to know what the choices are. I HATE wasting time in a themepark staring at a map trying to figure out what to do next or where to find food. The planning helps you know in advance what the choices are.

Yes I will say the planning has helped me in terms of mapping things out, and just knowing overall what is at the parks. So far I've only mapped MK, then I posted this And it helped to know that my 'must do' list looks very doable (according to touring plans) and still gives us lots of free time, should we divert from the plan and end up in longer lines than predicted

I use touring plans to set up a plan for each day. The plans are basically to help us focus on which area of which part we are going to explore that morning, which are the best rides to do at RD, which are the rides we have FPs for later in the morning, and to make sure our ADRs are located near the part of the park we will be in. My plans typically only include two or three rides after lunch that we could not fit into the morning, and then the rest of the afternoon is free until dinner.

Having most of the plans for the morning gives us focus and flexibility. It also helps the kids understand that while they see a ride or attraction right then, we do have plans to do it later, but that we might not have a "ticket" for it right then.

Last time we went we had two 2yos and one 4yo. Next time it will be 2 4yos and a 6yo. Plans are necessary for us.

This is pretty much what my plan looks like now and I like it. I like that the morning looks full (but we'll be doing RD), plus our FP's are in there, and then our afternoon is pretty open. I'm comfortable with this, to have some structured time, and some unplanned time. As you said, with a 6yo. I do think the general plan will help.

I have found over last few years that one reservation for dining a day is enough for us. I mix it up with a couple of breakfast, lunch, dinner reservations. .

We only have 3 ADR's for our entire stay, and I'm 100% okay with that. We'll see the characters we want to, and I don't want to be too tied to meal reservations either. The rest of our meals will come from QS, or just snacks, we'll eat when hungry. But the planning is helping too to know what QS places will be near us, I've looked at menus and made notes as far as which ones will appeal to my family.


Thanks to everyone here for the advice/help! It helps to know I'm not over-doing it in my planning - DH thinks I've lost it

 

[Dan Murphy]

Generally which park on which days and who I am meeting up with on any particular day.

 

[lroger01]

In addition to UG's recommendations, check out the park plans (cheat sheets) at EasyWDW. While UG's plans are based primarily on metrics and algorithms, EasyWDW's plans are based more on human tendencies. He has blog posts that walk you through the plans, with pictures to show wait times and crowds. Understanding his theories regarding touring will help you if something throws a wrench in your plans.

 

[mylittlebuttercup]

For me, a much less rigid plan works best. We schedule Fastpass+ and any dining reservations before we leave and decide which parks we will hit each day (occasionally leaving some open slots on a couple of days to hit wherever we feel like that day.) Then we arrive at the parks at or near rope drop and get any headliners we don't have FP+ for out of the way early. Then we tour land-by-land, skipping over anything with long wait times and coming back to it later. We often save rides with typically short wait times for the busy mid-afternoon time.

Usually on the bus/monorail/boat on the way to the park, we will discuss what rides we might like to hit that morning, but it is not set in stone.

ETA: We used to go by Touring Plans' recommended and non-recommended parks, but we threw that out the window for the last trip because it didn't mesh with what we wanted to do. It still worked out great for us, especially since we always get park hoppers.

 

[mylittlebuttercup]

The other part, just wants to plan our RD strategy for the first hour or two, and have our FP's scheduled, and let the rest of the day be, and end up wherever we went up at any given time.

This is totally what we do (not counting dinner reservations, which we do make,) and it's always worked well for us, especially now that we have a toddler.

 

[DaniMoon]

We did the rope drop, FP and let the rest of the day play out. We also had one ADR a day.

I didn't know how well my 5 and 6 yo would do and we basically followed their pace. It was such a relaxed trip. We did do everything we wanted and more, but it wasn't so structured that it was stressful. We had a couple a few must dos a day and the rest was bonus.