Question for Touringplans users

[jenninaustin]

I've got my touringplans account and I've started playing around with schedules for all 4 parks (one of which will be the afternoon of arrival - AK) WITHOUT FP+ b/c it's still too early for me to grab those.

From reading the directions - it seems that what I need to do is create my original plan by inputting the attractions/shows I want then try to get FP+ for the three (hopefully I'll get 3) that seem to have the longest wait times then re-optimize after every entry. The thing that seems odd to me about that advice is that in some cases, I'd be getting FP+ for morning rides (TSMM? Soarin?) - and I do want to optimize but wonder if I'm not thinking this through correctly.

I've struggled a bit getting everything to run smoothly so before I get to my FP+ day I wanted to see if there were other touringplans users that could offer insight or advice. If there are any touringplans users who recently used it with the new FP+, that would be great also. Thanks in advance for any wisdom.

 

[Winnowill]

I just finished setting up my touring plans yesterday. I did it in conjunction with getting my FP+es, using two browser windows. It worked really well and was easy to change. And you can
ask TP to tell you which FP+ will help the most with your plan (and then you tell it, "Hey, I got the FP you recommended!" and it comes back and says, "Yeah, that was bad advice. I can't use that after all."

One thing it did that annoyed me was to pile up rides and things early and late (we're going at a busy time), and leave no activities in the mid-afternoon, even when I got an FP+ for that time period specifically to give us something to do then. TP declined to even put it on the schedule. But that's okay - we'll do them, or not, as we feel like it.

 

[johde]

I haven't used it for an actual trip yet but I have played around with the personalized plans since FP+ was added. Your assessment matches mine right now. Touring plans currently optimizes around your FP+ but it doesn't optimize your FP+. At this point, even though you can't make FP+ for real you can play around with them possible combinations in TP.

It takes some work, but one strategy would be to work 1 FP+ at a time. Start out with everything you want to ride and optimize your day. Take the longest wait and remove it from the day. Reoptimize with the remaining attractions. Remove next longest wait, reoptimize, then repeat a third time for third FP+. Then insert the FP+ where they make sense during the day.

One other hint. If you're planning on staying in the park until closing, put an event in at closing either fireworks or even a 1 minute "rest". Otherwise, the computer packs everything into the beginning of the day even if the wait times will be shorter later on because you'll be doing "nothing". The other option would be to map out a middle of the day "break" to be filled in later with FP+ and shows.

 

[SuperRob]

Yeah, don't let TouringPlans tell you when to get a FP+. I would say, give it times for your FP+ in the afternoons or evenings, even if you don't have them booked yet. Just put in dummy times. When you get your actual FP booked, go ahead and update the times in TP and reoptimize. That seems to be giving me the best results right now.

Generally speaking, the later the Fastpass the better, ride times tend to only increase (particularly for slow-loaded rides like Peter Pan). There are some exceptions, but that should be good enough to get a plan started that you can tweak later.

 

[jenninaustin]

thanks...
for the rides that are the "exceptions" to the FP in the afternoon rule - do you think those are just TSMM and Soarin'? Or am I off on that? (i.e. - I'm thinking that even those FP lines get longer later from what I'm hearing)