Someone explain touring plans to me

[Mrs. Ciz]

I ALWAYS use a Touring Plan from touringplans.com. I'm a teacher so I can only go to DLR and WDW at the busiest times. I also HATE waiting in lines! Standing just kills my feet, and at WDW time is $$$! I've been in late July, 4th of July and Easter Week...used a touring plan every time and had wonderful trips. This past Easter Week, my roommate couldn't believe how well the plans worked. We walked right through the Peter Pan queue and when we got off the ride, it had a 35 minute wait. We really were literally steps ahead of everyone else. The longest line we waited in over three crowd level 10 days was 35 minutes for Jungle Cruise!

 

[beldred]

I ALWAYS use a Touring Plan from touringplans.com. I'm a teacher so I can only go to DLR and WDW at the busiest times. I also HATE waiting in lines! Standing just kills my feet, and at WDW time is $$$! I've been in late July, 4th of July and Easter Week...used a touring plan every time and had wonderful trips. This past Easter Week, my roommate couldn't believe how well the plans worked. We walked right through the Peter Pan queue and when we got off the ride, it had a 35 minute wait. We really were literally steps ahead of everyone else. The longest line we waited in over three crowd level 10 days was 35 minutes for Jungle Cruise!

How did you set up your plan? Did you use one of theirs or customize your own? If you customized, did you just choose your attractions and let it assign everything or did you manually re-order things?

I've signed up for touring plans for the first time for our upcoming trip (concerned about the reports of crowds being bad now in the fall). Our last fall trip was 2009 and from reports it seems like things have changed a lot! So I've been playing with setting up the plan for September and just feeling not so sure about it. LOL I'm not looking forward to heat AND crowds, guess I didn't think this though! I have a feeling I'll be missing my February time.

 

[JZCubed]

What's the benefit of using a touring plan instead of say, heading to Fantasy Land at rope drop and working clockwise as the day goes on. Because that's basically how I do it, pick an area, keep moving and stopping at interesting rides/stores/shows as we go along.

Your outline shows a familiarity with the Parks, some people are not so lucky.

Think about this - some folks get FP+ for Captain EO. Do you think using Touring Plans might have helped them?

 

[Mrs. Ciz]

How did you set up your plan? Did you use one of theirs or customize your own? If you customized, did you just choose your attractions and let it assign everything or did you manually re-order things?

I've signed up for touring plans for the first time for our upcoming trip (concerned about the reports of crowds being bad now in the fall). Our last fall trip was 2009 and from reports it seems like things have changed a lot! So I've been playing with setting up the plan for September and just feeling not so sure about it. LOL I'm not looking forward to heat AND crowds, guess I didn't think this though! I have a feeling I'll be missing my February time.

I didn't really customize the plans. I chose the Adult Plan, plugged in my FP+ times and my mid day break and then followed it. I tried customizing last trip and the more I customized, the more the plan changed. It changed so dramatically by the time I finished that I no longer trusted it. So, I scrapped it and used the standard Adult Plan instead.

 

[IrishNYC]

How did you set up your plan? Did you use one of theirs or customize your own? If you customized, did you just choose your attractions and let it assign everything or did you manually re-order things?

I've signed up for touring plans for the first time for our upcoming trip (concerned about the reports of crowds being bad now in the fall). Our last fall trip was 2009 and from reports it seems like things have changed a lot! So I've been playing with setting up the plan for September and just feeling not so sure about it. LOL I'm not looking forward to heat AND crowds, guess I didn't think this though! I have a feeling I'll be missing my February time.

I first set it up using their plans but my child fell in between the age groups they were best for. Instead I just used it to plug in my own rides, then let them customize, then I tweaked it to my own liking because their way sometimes has me cris crossing too much, or it just made no sense.

On this trip we've done all 4 parks and followed the plans I made in all but AK. Our MK plan ended up being much faster than touringplan's timing, which was great. It gave us a lot of time to linger where we wanted.

 

[Ava]

I first set it up using their plans but my child fell in between the age groups they were best for. Instead I just used it to plug in my own rides, then let them customize, then I tweaked it to my own liking because their way sometimes has me cris crossing too much, or it just made no sense.

On this trip we've done all 4 parks and followed the plans I made in all but AK. Our MK plan ended up being much faster than touringplan's timing, which was great. It gave us a lot of time to linger where we wanted.

Glad to hear your customized plans are working out! I keep playing with mine and wondering if they're going to work since I'm really not following what the pre-made plans recommend at all, so its encouraging to hear a success story.

 

[IrishNYC]

Glad to hear your customized plans are working out! I keep playing with mine and wondering if they're going to work since I'm really not following what the pre-made plans recommend at all, so its encouraging to hear a success story.

I really like it for the timing, and it's really been pretty correct. AK went out the window because we left and came back because we got beyond soaked on Kali.

 

[Mrs. Ciz]

Glad to hear your customized plans are working out! I keep playing with mine and wondering if they're going to work since I'm really not following what the pre-made plans recommend at all, so its encouraging to hear a success story.

That was what bothered me about customizing. Customizing took me WAAAAAY to far away from the standard plans. I have used the standard plans for years and I know they work. They have been very carefully planned out by experts using queue theory, wait time algorithms and 20 years worth of wait time data. Touringplans says if you follow a standard plan you will shave about 4 hours off your wait time in a day. I just couldn't see how my customized plan could beat that, and I didn't want to chance it.

 

[Ava]

That was what bothered me about customizing. Customizing took me WAAAAAY to far away from the standard plans. I have used the standard plans for years and I know they work. They have been very carefully planned out by experts using queue theory, wait time algorithms and 20 years worth of wait time data. Touringplans says if you follow a standard plan you will shave about 4 hours off your wait time in a day. I just couldn't see how my customized plan could beat that, and I didn't want to chance it.

Isn't that what optimizing is supposed to do? Take your list of desired attractions and use the wait time data to put them into the best order. That's how I've been using it, then tweaking things where I feel like it has me criss-crossing the park too much (even though I chose to minimize walking).

 

[madjohn]

I love touring plans and have found Ridemax (hope I am ok saying that) to be the best. If I have a plan going in it reduces stress and I know what I am doing. We get there at opening and stick to the plan until early afternoon. We are either done by then or it has fallen apart because of us. We then spend the rest of our afternoon and evening just going around and see things and if we see a short line, we jump in. I have used them at all the parks in California and if Florida. Works great. In our trip to Florida we did 10 days in the park the second and third week of June. Very Busy. We had a plan for each day, I timed all the lines we stood in, we never stood in a ride line more then 20 minutes. We rode everything. I swear by them and I tell everyone. For me it is the only way to go.

 

[Mrs. Ciz]

Isn't that what optimizing is supposed to do? Take your list of desired attractions and use the wait time data to put them into the best order. That's how I've been using it, then tweaking things where I feel like it has me criss-crossing the park too much (even though I chose to minimize walking).

Yes, that's what optimizing is supposed to do, but the results I got were so crazy. I tried it when the customizing/optimizing ability first came out. I think they've done some tweeks since then to make it better.

 

[Ava]

Yes, that's what optimizing is supposed to do, but the results I got were so crazy. I tried it when the customizing/optimizing ability first came out. I think they've done some tweeks since then to make it better.

Yeah, sometimes I get crazy results too. I'm working on a plan for our first MK day right now and when I first optimized it it had me criss-crossing all over the place a few times. I want to start with Peter Pan so I can see the new SB queue but not wait forever, then do Frontierland and Adventureland before lunch and go back to Fantasyland when we return in the evening. I had to move things around a bit to get it to do that.

 

[soniam]

I always use optimize. The only issues I have ever had are with shows being scheduled too close together or with not enough wait time. However, this has only happened at DHS or AK on days heavy with shows, 4+. It will put stuff in the proper order. Just trust in the force, ... Uh, I mean the touring plan

 

[dreamit]

We just make detailed plans from Rope Drop until lunch. We have our FP reservations right after lunch, and then we just slow down and do whatever we want for the rest of the day.

That's just 2-3 hours of detailed plans for the day and it saves us many hours in line. By the end of the trip we've done everything we wanted to do, had plenty of time to relax, and minimized line time. It's totally worth it.

We use EasyWDW plans, but I'm sure any of them are better than none. We're also realistic and are prepared to skip something until later if the time just isn't working for whatever reason. We use the plans but we aren't married to them!

This is me. I think the touring plans do provide a lot of guidance as to what you should be doing during the morning hours to minimize future wait times. I tailor the plans to my family's wants for the day, and I stick with it through lunch time. I also ask my family to let me run the show the first two hours, and they're great sports and found that following a plan the first few hours can make such a difference. After lunch, I have a plan to follow for the afternoon, but am totally fine if we don't stick to it. I leave the afternoons for taking in the atmosphere, catering to others' wishes/whims, and it makes for such a pleasant vacation. We don't feel that we're missing any must-dos and the laid-back afternoons keep everyone happy.

 

[tstottle]

Help! I feel like a dummy...I subscribed to touringplans.com but am not sure if I am doing it right. I've put in 1-day tour for adult selective, then got a list, then deleted all of the things we don't want (like Tiki Room). When I have a list of what we want to do, then do I hit optimize? Then get the FP+ info from the top to make my FP+ and follow the plan?

I'm not a newbie to WDW or to touring plans in general, but for some reason this interface is not intuitive to me. Can someone tell me if I am doing it right? And can I also plan my second day this way, which is an EP and HS day?

Thank you!

 

[tstottle]

Ugh follow up... I have deleted Winne from the ride list, but it is still one of my recommended FP+ in the top section! I am surprised at how difficult I am finding this. Thank you~

 

[IrishNYC]

I didn't find it intuitive at all, and none of their pre-planned tours seemed to fit us. I went with the planning your own option. You choose your rides and attraction, then it optimized it for you. Everything stays on the FP+ list, so I just made my FP based on necessity and what made sense. It will place everything on the map for you so you can see how it looks on the ground.

 

[kathy884]

Help! I feel like a dummy...I subscribed to touringplans.com but am not sure if I am doing it right. I've put in 1-day tour for adult selective, then got a list, then deleted all of the things we don't want (like Tiki Room). When I have a list of what we want to do, then do I hit optimize? Then get the FP+ info from the top to make my FP+ and follow the plan?

I'm not a newbie to WDW or to touring plans in general, but for some reason this interface is not intuitive to me. Can someone tell me if I am doing it right? And can I also plan my second day this way, which is an EP and HS day?

Thank you!

Sound like you nailed it. That's what we do. We delete Tiki Room too, even though it's nostalgic, once every 10 year or so is good lol.