Need for lines app with FP+?

[lisakramer]

Hi again -
In the past we've used the lines app and found it to be very useful in terms of reducing wait times. I'm wondering if it is more or less useful since FP+ has rolled out.
I know I can see wait times in MDE, but I liked that the lines app allowed me to enter what I wanted to do and only scheduled those rides.
Are the standby lines so bad now that this is a must have?
Our dates are 12/13-12/21.

 

[DisFanJen]

Personally I find it very useful post FP+.

The way I use it is to lay out the ride I want to do, jig the order I'd like to do them (I don't like criss crossing the parks) then I tell it to evaluate.

When it's done it comes back with what it thinks are the best times for FP+ so that I can book them.

 

[jodiey]

Is this the touringplans that you are talking about or is it something different?

 

[lisakramer]

Yes. The touring plans app

 

[JenniBugInPink]

I didn't really use a 'down to the minute' touring plan on our previous trips (our last trip was in 2011). I've always had a membership at their site, and followed some of their advice (we aren't rope drop folks - not our idea of a vacation, and with my arthritis, not much fun).

This trip though, with FP+, I could tell while I was planning that I was going to need a specific personalized touring plan for each day. I used the options at their site to make them. It was VERY helpful, especially on our "Frozen Fun" day at HS (they were still doing premium package then - we went 9/27-10/5), and the days when we had other special events planned. Actually, that was every day, so it was helpful all the time, LOL! I did find that we tended to get behind on the touring plan, though, even though I made the settings for "slow" walking. I was using an ECV, but DH was walking. It did seem to take us longer to get from point A to point B than the plan thought it should, but we're older and Husband (I've called him that, like it's his name, since we first married) isn't a sprinter. We usually dropped something we didn't care much about in order to catch up and it all worked out fine. I had built in some 'fluff' just in case we needed it. Next time I think I would plan 'breaks' just to allow for catch up time.

At any rate, with rides scheduled in advance, and the ability to customize the touring plans to the rides YOU want to ride and your touring style, I can't recommend them highly enough. Without their plans, I would have been trying to figure all that out and plan it in Excel, and I had enough of that to do as it was, LOL! I didn't use the Lines app itself much at the parks, except to bring up the touring plans I had done in advance and follow them. Since my FP times were worked into the plans, along with my ADRs, Food & Wine Deminars and events, etc., I only had to refer to the touring plan to keep up with everything. You do need to be a little creative to get things entered (as meals, breaks, etc.) when really they might be something else. It worked out really well and kept me from having to switch from MDE to my spreadsheet, etc. It also helped keep us from criss-crossing the parks, since you can set that as an option when you do the plan.