Tell me about Touring Plans

[mernin]

I’ve had a subscription for a few years. We used the touring plans, reservation finder & lines app. I check the crowd calendars but don’t rely on them. I wouldn’t hesitate paying for it.

 

[PirateFish989]

I can’t speak much on Touring Plans as the one time I subscribed while planning a trip we had to cancel due to an out-of-state family emergency that used all our remaining vacation funds. But The Unofficial Guide is great!

As far as using a Travel Agent, I’ve used a TA for both of my trips. I used our local AAA for our March 2014 trip (we live in California) and for our upcoming June honeymoon trip I used Dreams Unlimited Travel (affiliated with this site). My main reason for using a TA was simply because I don’t have time to do all the dirty work when it comes to planning (I love to, but I just don’t have time). Using AAA wasn’t worth it. They weren’t knowledgeable and we had to go in to do anything - make a payment, apply a discount that WE found, make any changes, etc. You also used to be able to get some discounts by using AAA, but I don’t believe that is true anymore. Now Dreams Unllimited Travel is a totally different story. I wouldn’t hesitate to use them again. I put in a request and my TA emailed me back within an hour with a ton of options and pricing and as soon as I told her what we wanted, she booked it. I’ve been able to email her with any changes and she makes them immediately. She sends reminders about making ADR’s and FP+, and she automatically applies any discounts Disney releases that are applicable to the reservation. And I can make payments online! So worth it to me.

 

[adelaster]

Can anyone speak to how well the plans feature actually plays out in park? So far all of the plans I've mapped out seem too good to be true.

 

[Dbktmc]

Can anyone speak to how well the plans feature actually plays out in park? So far all of the plans I've mapped out seem too good to be true.

I would love to know this as well. I’ve been going to Disney for 25 years and decided to try a touring plan this year to limit wait times with my 6 year old. I just wonder how much time it really saves.

 

[disneyinthespringtime]

I think you can lurk on their discussion forum w/o buying a subscription. If you don't want to spend the $15 (again, I'd say it's worth it for the room views & ADR finder alone) I'd suggest you do that to check out the raves from those that have used it a long time before you decide.

I'll caveat it though to say that they have been in the process of updating their models recently to account for what they believe is a shift in how Disney was staffing during slower periods such as Jan/Feb of this year. That may be done by now though.

 

[Delilah1310]

Heck, I use the TP lines app as a way to get my Disney fix when I am between trips!
"Oh, look ... it's just a 10-minute wait for Pirates right now ... aaahhhh, Pirates! "
and then I'm off to my happy place! HAHAHA!

 

[gatormom2tots]

I believe the reservation finder is free. I have scored several ADRs using it. I also love where you can see room views and then it will fax the hotel your room requests. And I follow their line app over Disney. It shows the posted (MDE) and actual (according to TP). I also has a feature that shows you fp availability left for the day. Honestly, $12 is such a small amount compared to what you are paying for Disney.

 

[pcoleman]

I have never found the tour plan any good. I do like the other information found with them helpful. I have been to Disney many times and every time i was much better off doing my own plan. I do like being able to input that info and it publishes it.

 

[msk]

I love using touring plans. Last Feb we had fun timing our waits at different attractions. Their attraction times were pretty much on point. Like the others I enjoy looking at possible rooms. I make plans ahead of time but don't always follow them.

Also, we've used a travel agent in the past but have never used an actual Disney agent. Any recommendations there, as well? Should we go with someone local (we are in Iowa) - or someone else?

I love my travel agent, she is an actual Disney agent and has always helped make my trips so much better. Besides, she is just fun to talk "Disney" with. This site is operated by Disney travel agents. They would be happy to help you find someone in your area who knows Disney.

 

[tnolan]

I like it! It helps me keep track of what park on what day, the line waits, and of course the room request fax feature is worth it alone for me. On our last trip, we got the room next door to the one we requested!

 

[PHXscuba]

Your subscription would be for a year, so just get it 9-11months before your probable travel dates and you'll have a whole year to make use of it. As a PP pointed out it's a tiny fraction of what you spend on the trip to make the most of your money and time.

PHXscuba

 

[lovethesun12]

If it's your first/second time at disney it is so valuable. I didn't learn about the site until my second trip and I can't even describe how much better that trip was than our first. After our first I felt disappointed because it felt like we hardly did anything (went during Easter but we kind of just showed up and didn't know how crowds were, etc). Our second trip was so much more enjoyable and we still go during Easter but Touring Plans makes it so much better =)

 

[slpeters]

Can anyone speak to how well the plans feature actually plays out in park? So far all of the plans I've mapped out seem too good to be true.

We found the touring plans shockingly accurate--and I had the same impression going in that you did. I was building these touring plans with like 30 items in them--and we were taking afternoon nap breaks! But I'd never been before and I didn't really know how long stuff took and how far it was apart and so I just went with it. And it worked totally to plan, pretty much all week. Even when the parks threw a wrench at us--a ride closure, or just deciding it would be nice to sit and drink margaritas for two hours instead of one--the planning software helped us figure that out too.

The one thing I will say is use it to plan; don't just push the button and let it plan for you (not unless you're in the parks and something has fallen apart). If you just optimize you will get some weird suggestions. Use that as a starting point and then figure out what logically makes sense to do by moving around the steps and evaluating as you go. We thought it was an extremely valuable and accurate tool.

 

[disneyinthespringtime]

"If you just optimize you will get some weird suggestions. Use that as a starting point and then figure out what logically makes sense to do by moving around the steps and evaluating as you go. "

+1
Optimize was useful as a first step once I'd made a custom plan with the things I wanted to do/see, but I knew I didn't want to ride Splash at 9:00 for instance so then used evaluate a lot to play around with various orders.

 

[10CJ]

If it's your first/second time at disney it is so valuable. I didn't learn about the site until my second trip and I can't even describe how much better that trip was than our first. After our first I felt disappointed because it felt like we hardly did anything (went during Easter but we kind of just showed up and didn't know how crowds were, etc). Our second trip was so much more enjoyable and we still go during Easter but Touring Plans makes it so much better =)

So have you found the plan times accurate even during high crowd times. I have been happy with them in the past but we are going over Easter this year. I know the parks will be much busier than we are used to. I am concerned I have too much in my plans and I am prepared to drop things.

 

[lovethesun12]

So have you found the plan times accurate even during high crowd times. I have been happy with them in the past but we are going over Easter this year. I know the parks will be much busier than we are used to. I am concerned I have too much in my plans and I am prepared to drop things.

I was actually surprised at how accurate they truly are *but* I would suggest making your FP+ for rides that have lines build like 7DMT, space, PP, etc even if the plan suggests otherwise.

Sometimes they can be way off in their assessment for those rides. (Usually underestimating). When we are behind for some reason we just skip ahead to the step at the time it is and try to fit in the missed attraction later.

Thinking back, there were times it was off (leaving AK at 4pm for example when we planned on 1pm) however to be fair we had two toddlers at the time and some things are out of their control

 

[BrookieM2001]

We love TP. We decided to spring for it last trip because it was our first time going after FP+ was begun. Due to the inflated standby lines that have become commonplace from FP+, we thought it was worth some extra planning. I had no idea what i had gotten myself into! It provided us the option to completely organize and schedule our days in the parks, to customize which rides we wanted to ride, at what times we could get our FPs, schedule in breaks when we were near snack or quick service options we wanted to check out, and gave us a TON of data on ride wait times for every 15 minutes of the days in the parks. We followed a fairly strict schedule during out trip, but i also scheduled a 2+ hour break each day in case we fell behind or to use for shopping or riding rides again. It took the pressure off so we didn't have to worry about missing anything. But the best part was, their times were spot on, and we NEVER waited in a line for longer than 20 minutes, ever. And the parks were usually in the 6-7 range that entire week, so there were plenty of people there. TP just told us how to tour and when to ride what, and also suggested the most effective use of our FP. It was such a huge success that we paid for the subscription again this time and hopefully things will go equally as smoothly. We are also using their ADR finder to hopefully get a couple reservations we didn't get because we started planned after the 180 day mark. Honestly, i cant recommend TP enough, it honestly was the most useful tool I could imagine for WDW planning!

 

[china mom]

Reference the TA question: why not? it costs you nothing to use one. Disney builds a commission into every trip and if a person books their own trip, Disney keeps the commission. If you use a TA, Disney pays the TA.

Advantages:

A good TA will stay on top of newly released promotions and apply them to your trip when they come out.

You don't have to sit on the phone for hours (actually has happened) to get a promotion applied to your trip.

A good TA can advise you on which resort/package would be best for your family.

Disadvantage:

If you get stuck with a bad TA, it can be difficult to get ownership of your reservation back.

Naysayers often say that they don't want to give up control of their trip (ie planning meals and FP) but this doesn't happen. YOU can still do everything on your own other than make payments or make changes tot he actual reservation (change hotels, change dates etc). I fact, Disney does not want TAs making guests FP reservations.

We have used Dreams Unlimited and have never had a complaint.

 

[GBBTomorrow]

Can anyone speak to how well the plans feature actually plays out in park? So far all of the plans I've mapped out seem too good to be true.

I'm a big fan of Touring Plans. For the plans, it seems like when they work, they REALLY work. There have been lots of times where I spent a day going on a ride with little wait, and coming off of it to find the line had increased dramatically just in the time I was in there. Those are always fun days, being one step ahead of the crowd.

That being said, on my last couple trips I didn't have as many days like that. As others have said, the app seems to be having a little trouble adapting to some changes at WDW. I feel reasonably confident that once the changes shake out, Touring Plans will catch back up again. And even on a day it seems "off," I still appreciate having a plan for my day. Nothing is more of a waste to me than when the group stops after every attraction to have a protracted "what next" discussion. Just having a next place to go already planned is a tremendous help.

 

[jwolfpack]

I often use the touring plans tool to figure out my rope drop strategy (what I can most efficiently accomplish in the first 1.5-2hrs of the day before I use FP) and what I can reasonably do between big commitments. For example, if I have an ADR at 4:00 and want to catch an evening show, the tool is good at helping me figure out what I could reasonably fit in between. I’ve done full day plans before, but most often things like snack breaks, bathroom stops, luck with 4th FP, and other distractions throw those plans off. The tool is very good for well defined chunks of time.