Park strategy

[Mick West]

I will be at Disney World from 1/10 to 1/15. I have been before but not in a while. Can someone suggest ways to plan a park schedule without using a paid service such as Tour Guide Mike? Is ther any books that could be purchased that could help with this, or some other websites that may have good information. Thanks for any and all suggestions!

 

[Robo]

any books that could be purchased that could help with this

The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World. HERE

and

The OFFICIAL (Birnbaum's) Guide to Walt Disney World. HERE

Of course, they COST about as much as TGM.

 

[brentalex]

You can go to touring plans.com web site. they have a predicted crowd calendar and which are the best and worst parks to go to on certain days. You can see the next 30 days for free, if you want to see for a longer time period then you need to purchase a membership. You can also purchase the Unofficial Guide to disney which is a great guide to the parks. I believe if you purchase the book that you get a free one year membership to the touring plans web site.

 

[Robo]

Unofficial Guide... I believe if you purchase the book that you get a free one year membership to the touring plans web site.

That is no longer the case.

 

[MomBoyd]

Try the library.

 

[jagafen]

This is kinda what we did:

Listed all our FP attractions in the order that we wanted to see them.
Then, listed (relative to each area the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, FP attraction was) the "filler/non-FP" attractions that we wanted to see....viola, touring plan on the cheap. FWIW, after I came up with this masterful plan, I checked my touring plan against what the touringplans site generated for each particular park, and guess what....it matched almost point for point! The order of "acquiring" sequential FPs may have ben out of order, but the general idea was the same.

 

[Planogirl]

The UOG is really useful IMO. It has a lot more than just touring guides (which I've never used) so that's the way that I would go. I'm one who prefers to plan my own strategy though.

 

[Nicole&Becker]

We ordered the PassPorter from PassPorter.com. I have always heard great things about it. So we are going to try it out. You can also get a one month membership there for $5 and download a bunch of shreadsheets and e-books. Hope that helps.

 

[Sagginit]

I read a half dozen books before I went and also used websites. This website was more helpful than some of the books such as touring plans. My favorite book for ride info was "the complete walt disney world 2010". I would decide what rides are most dos and then get a map of each park. FP indicates the popularity of a ride so pick a FP ride to start with and then just work your way around, knowing how to work the FP into the plan. Take into account where you will be eating, even if the book says there will be more people in that part of the park its not worth it to have to make the trech back across the park to eat after working your way to the otherside sometimes. We had plans for every park and ended up doing our own thing once we got there and saw what the lines were really like. It was useful though to have an idex card with a list of ride and the amount of time they took to make snap decisions. Our first day was supposed to be the most crowded day that week at MK and books said fantasyland would be packed, yet when we got there after lunch we walked on almost all the rides.

 

[wmharley]

I just walk into the park and go where I want. I know up front which rides I like and from experience. then based on the popularity, I either do it first or get a fast pass and move to another area.

 

[julieneal]

I'm so glad the book was helpful! We're sort of perpetual guests in that we're in the parks all the time (appx. 1,400 times total, to research our book and take photos), so we're always looking for ways to make the experience more fun for readers.

 

[Ashes8380]

Try the library.

I love to see people supporting public libraries! I'm a librarian and just looked at our catalog and we currently have 16 different guidebooks, including the Unofficial Guide, Fodors, Birnbaums, and the Hidden Mickey books. Topics include with kids, without kids, with itty bitty kids, luxury WDW, WDW on a dime... Granted, I work in a well funded library, but even the last tiny library I worked at had 1 or 2 recent WDW guide books.

and that is the end of my library advocacy for the evening

 

[TinkerbellinLouisian]

I really don't understand why folks pay for touring plans...when there are so many folks on here that would do touring plans for FREE...

I guess ppl have money to burn.

Anyway... I for one...would be willing to help anyone with Touring plans...but of course I would want to know more about a family to help them....age of kids...fav characters, ADR's, etc.

Hugs,
Mary

 

[craZmom]

I really don't understand why folks pay for touring plans...when there are so many folks on here that would do touring plans for FREE...

I guess ppl have money to burn.

Anyway... I for one...would be willing to help anyone with Touring plans...but of course I would want to know more about a family to help them....age of kids...fav characters, ADR's, etc.

Hugs,
Mary

Well, Mary - have I got a job for you!!

This is our first trip to Disney World. We are myself and my husband, 46 and 43, my sister, 50, my sister's 2 kids, 22 and 19, and our 2 kids, 13 and 12. We're going mainly for the rides - the kids, of course, think they're too big for the characters. My daughter (13) loves all rides and can not wait for TOT; my son (12) is a bit more reserved and will pick and choose. Their older cousins will ride most rides also, I assume.

Thurs, Feb 11 - We will fly in at noon, have ME and will be going to Pop Century. No plans after that but thought we'd hit the MK and try to make Spectro and Wishes.

We have the Quick Dining package. We have the Park Hopper option.

We have ADRs for Fri, Feb 12 at Cape May at 10:05 a.m. and Rain Forest Cafe at 5:10 p.m. Those are the only ADRs we made. I wanted Le Cellier for lunch but have not been able to get reservations.

The only other thing is that we are going to take a beach day either Mon or Tues, the 15th or 16th, depending on which day looks best for weather.

We leave around noon on Feb 18. The rest of our trip is totally open. We have no shows or tours planned - just thought we'd go with the flow.

Can you make a plan out of this info??? Thanks so much for your help!

 

[TinkerbellinLouisian]

Thanks CraZmom !

I just PM'd you !


Hugs,
Mary

 

[pepe of ohio]

I just walk into the park and go where I want. I know up front which rides I like and from experience. then based on the popularity, I either do it first or get a fast pass and move to another area.

We've done 43 trips so far and just take the parks in a clockwise or counter clockwise fashion, doing each and every attraction as we come to them. We're not going to criss cross a park to get to this or that and repeat the whole day. We figure the parks are open basically 9-9 giving us ample time to wander in a circuitous route and enjoy all. We do a noon break, and then come back and travel opposite the direction we took in the am and end up where we left off, missing nothing. Works for us. Best bet is to study park maps and get a feel for direction.

 

[Needafix]

I buy the books because it adds to the excitement while I wait to get there. I plan and plan and plan obsessively, then other than a few key things (EMH & FP) we wing it. I haven't been in 5 years, so reading and planning has increased my 4 day trip to 4 months. It gets me through these cold winters.

I just got Passporter and love it - it has all these cool pockets one for each day where I can store the different things that apply to that specific day. I also signed up for TGM, can't wait to see how his strategy of which park to go to on my days works.

 

[mkleinbe]

Try the library.

I just checked out Fodor's 2010 guide from my public library and it's teeny in a pretty poor town. I got it just to see if there was anything I've missed. It's pretty decent. I have a subscription to touring plans and spend a lot of time here and other websites. But I agree, check the library.