Is a touring plan still necessary?

[Keishag]

This will be our 4th trip to the world but our first with hoppers and older kids. All the times before we followed a very strict touring plan. Is that still necessary with all of the new wait time apps and fast pass + reservations? I'd love to go and just "wing it" (aside from our ADR's and FP+) but I also don't want to be disappointed that we didn't get to do anything because we didn't have any more of a plan laid out.

 

[tlmadden73]

I would say it depends on your vacation goals.

Are you there to ride as many rides as possible? .. if so .. a plan is key

Do you like just "being there" immersed in the Magic? .. if so .. I would think your Fast Passes and ADRs is enough of a rough plan (That is how I did it in October . .and plan on doing the same in August.

 

[Maleficent Dragon]

In general, I would say no. Disney's spiel was that the FP+ is for those who really like to plan, but other than having your reservations made, I do not find that planning is necessary any longer.

 

[Goofy_Disney_Dad]

My wife and I get to the point where we just slowed down. We've been many times and will return many times so we can tour much different than someone doing a once in a lifetime trip. I don't think I could keep up with some of the touring strategies I see here, but there are many that do repeatedly. I think you just have to decide whether you need to do, do, do or if you are ready to slow down and bit during your vacation. In my opinion, a touring plan is not necessary.

 

[Rivermonster]

For me, a touring plan is necessary in order to enjoy myself, as I am ADHD (really), and with all the chaos and crowds surrounding me, having a general outline to follow minimizes my anxiety and the number of thoughts bouncing around inside my head haha! Otherwise, I'm a scattered mess, and we will spend our days with zero direction and getting nothing accomplished.

 

[smiths02]

We bought the touring plans subscription. It was helpful to me to have all my reservations written in another place (aside from MDE). The touring plan app worked better than MDE, but we were so planned between ADRs and FP+ that we really didn't use the Touring Plan I had made up.
It was helpful for me because it had been several years since we had been and first time with FP+, so it helped me narrrow down which rides we wanted, how far apart they were, and which we should get FP+ for (but you can find all that information for yourself pretty easily).

 

[MissDisneyDora]

I've been several times this year already but I still find that a touring plan is really helpful. I may not adhere to it as rigidly as I did when I first started visiting Disney- these days I kind of use it as a rough itinerary, a reminder of the things I want to see and do on a given day, the document that holds my FP times and dining reservations but I also reserve the right to be spontaneous and move off plan when the mood strikes.

x Dora

 

[mom2cgj]

It probably depends on your personality. If you are OK with being spontaneous and maybe not doing everything on your list, then you probably don't need one. If you are a "schedule person" (like me!) and need to have a plan of attack, then a touring plan is necessary. I would be completely stressed out without one, whereas others are more stressed with one!

 

[itchin2go]

I don't understand the question. Why would having 3 rides scheduled change anything?

That said, we have never had a rigid plan, but I have always known where we were going first, which rides to knock out first before lines build, which rides can wait until a little later, etc. If my family says, oh, let's do this one now - that's ok here and there, but the knowledge of which rides will have 70 minute waits later in the day is key.

Regardless of apps, the same lines build quickly every day - more quickly some days, less quickly others, but the rides to be concerned about are pretty much always going to be the same.

 

[kay1864]

Is that still necessary with all of the new wait time apps and fast pass + reservations?

Wait time apps don't help you if it's the middle of the day, and headliners show 90 min wait. Planning ahead means avoiding those kinds of waits.

Touring plans are cheap; around $3/day for RideMax if you're on a typical 5 or 6-day ticket. To me that's money well spent if it means getting to do more rides for 2-3 hours a day, instead of waiting in line an extra 2-3 hours a day.

 

[itchin2go]

Wait time apps don't help you if it's the middle of the day, and headliners show 90 min wait. Planning ahead means avoiding those kinds of waits.

Right - and the wait times follow a pretty predictable pattern.

 

[Sybernova]

I've been several times this year already but I still find that a touring plan is really helpful. I may not adhere to it as rigidly as I did when I first started visiting Disney- these days I kind of use it as a rough itinerary, a reminder of the things I want to see and do on a given day, the document that holds my FP times and dining reservations but I also reserve the right to be spontaneous and move off plan when the mood strikes.

x Dora

The mood will literally never strike me to wait 2.5 hours in line at SDMT. The easiest way you can "plan" without planning is just know what rides are the must hits, if you wanna have a table meal, and only worry about booking those things. Everything else you can probably "show up" for and still enjoy.

 

[jayfo]

We just mostly "winged it" for our recent Saturday at MK after getting FP for the must do's or stuff I was noticing had the worst wait times. Other than that, we watched the app for other slower wait times and went on those rides. Worked out great. Had a touring plan torn out of a book with me in my pocket but didn't use it at all.

 

[itchin2go]

We just mostly "winged it" for our recent Saturday at MK after getting FP for the must do's or stuff I was noticing had the worst wait times. Other than that, we watched the app for other slower wait times and went on those rides. Worked out great. Had a touring plan torn out of a book with me in my pocket but didn't use it at all.

It's always going to be the same stuff that has the "worst wait times", and the wait times for everything are always going to be lowest at park opening and park close.

I think maybe people are thinking they'll look at the app at 1:00 and Soarin or Peter Pan will magically have a 5 minute wait time? I don't think it works like that.

 

[jayfo]

Who knows what people are thinking. I looked at the "worst wait times" for the few days ahead of our trip and decided whether or not it was worth it to even go on them. Guess it depends on what each person's must do's are.

 

[tabistar]

We do ADRs and FP+ and know which rides to head to immediately when we get to the park. Other than that, we pretty much wing it. We've always done all our must-dos without much of a wait.

 

[Sybernova]

I absolutely love that some people don't plan. It might be selfish but it makes my vacation so much easier to manage.

Knowing I am riding 4-5 rides with very little waiting before some families even get out of bed is awesome. Also a selfish story, but one couple my family went with to WDW recently said I was planning to much and they would wing it. They also wondered why my family could get in line for the much faster FP+ line but they had to wait in the two hour line for TSMM. Same thing for ToT. I loved every minute of it, since I TOLD them it would be like that but they insisted otherwise.

 

[aretha30]

We never do a touring plan really. We plan which 2 parks we will be in each day (we RD take a break and go back to a different park that night), we make a few TS ADR's (for the 9 days we are there) and plan our FP+ for each day. This is it, otherwise we feel over scheduled, we like to "go with the flow" when we are there and this enables us to do just that. We still get to do everything we want and never feel like we are waiting for a long time for everything just because we don't have a set plan.

 

[MinnieMaeve90]

I think that it is important to have reservations and your FP+ in place, but you really should just wing it. Now that the kids are getting older you should ask them what they want to do (favorite rides, parks, etc.) and get an idea from there. Maybe instead of an itinerary, make a checklist of the major things you want to do, and let your vacation go from there.

 

[itchin2go]

I absolutely love that some people don't plan. It might be selfish but it makes my vacation so much easier to manage.

Knowing I am riding 4-5 rides with very little waiting before some families even get out of bed is awesome. Also a selfish story, but one couple my family went with to WDW recently said I was planning to much and they would wing it. They also wondered why my family could get in line for the much faster FP+ line but they had to wait in the two hour line for TSMM. Same thing for ToT. I loved every minute of it, since I TOLD them it would be like that but they insisted otherwise.

I know. But every day there is a thread where someone says, "Do I really have to pre-book my FPs?" I don't get that mentality on any level.

But I think some people see the term "touring plan" and think they have to be rigid and keep a strict schedule. I have looked at a lot of touring plans, and I think that's a good idea. I also liked playing around with the custom ones on touringplans.com, just to get an idea of how much we could get done. However, you can tour intelligently without having a strict schedule at all. That doesn't mean doing no research and just showing up and going to whatever shiny thing you see first. There's a happy medium. The key is educating yourself.

While we have no strict schedule, I certainly would not describe it as "winging it".