Theme park "Cheat Sheets" - your opinions, please

[timandlesley]

I love these, what a great and useful tool. Where would they be available?

Lesley

 

[robinb]

As a frequent guest, I love the cheat sheet! I like the format just the way it is because the focus is on the time of the day and not the attactions. Guests are more likely to ask the question "It's 1:00 PM, what should we do now?" and not "When's the best time for Space Mountain?". Of course, your cheat sheet will answer both questions quite easily.

I do agree that "Until 11 am" should be "10 am - 11 am" and so on. "Until 11 am" is a bit confusing.

Great job!

 

[Wishing on a star]

Wow, this is a great idea.

I too think the attractions should be down the first column!

As the prev. poster mentioned, it could be flipped either way.... But, for me, what attractions I am interested in is not affected by the hour of the day. I am more likely to think, I want to do 'XXXXXXX' so how should I plan accordingly.

Also, it should be layed out hourly... not with more confusing time frames... Sometimes, a good time to hit a certain attraction can change from one hour to the next. Ex. Dumbo line usually becomes long very quickly... or, like the affects that the Parade times might have... etc...

Also, a lot more info could be conveyed by using different icons in the squares. How about green for 'Good' Yellow for 'Yes, maybe but maybe not' Red for 'No! not a good time'... and a Gray box, maybe with an X thru it for times when an area or attraction is closes... (ie. Toontown opens later, EMH, Closed during Parades/Fireworks etc....) The FP symbol could still appear, in the green or the yellow. Instead of indicating that this time is a good time to experience this attraction, it is a good time to get a FP to experience without a long wait. For example, for some very busy times, FastPasses can be all gone by a certain time of day. So, at Park opening, this could be a green square... Then a little later, it would be a green square with the FP in it. Then later in the day, when even the Fastpasses might all be gone, it would be red square, with no FP symbol.

Does that rambling make any sense to anyone but me!!!

 

[swilphil]

I love this idea and like the format a lot too. I agree with the previous poster, it would be nice to have a little more information. Using colors or A,B, C, you could tell if the ride had a short wait time, a moderate wait time or a long wait time.

 

[crazee4mickey]

I agree that the many, many Y's make it look way too busy. Possibly instead of a letter have a symbol (Mickey's head or smiling face).
Colors are also a good idea but would that increase the printing cost of the book thus increasing the price of book to customers? I think the extra cost(if any) would be worth it though as it would be so easy to figure out!

 

[jacksmom]

This is great!! I will definetaley use it!! Do you have one for MGM and/or AK??? We are going the week before Easter and I am worried! I think this may help us quite a bit! Do you want a review when we get back? Thanks!!

 

[LSUDis]

For our trip, I put together a cheat sheet for each park listing the counter service meals and snacks our family would be interested in. I got the info from the menus on allearsnet.com. It was very helpful to be able to quickly look at my list and decide where/what to eat. Also knowing what we wanted ahead of time made it easier for one of us to quickly order while other one grabbed a table with the kids.

I see that you understand exactly what I am talking about!

You gave me a good idea.....I'll just list the places that offer kids' meals that my DKs will eat for each park....with options so that we won't have to walk all of the way across a park to get chicken nuggets at the only place that offers chicken nuggets as a kid's meal.

Do you have any other suggestions from your experience of doing your own sheet?

 

[nhdisnut]

A fantastic tool - I would certainly use it!!

 

[JABEAR]

The only thing I could ask for is a more printer friendly version. I prefer the layout just like it is. It looks really good. Thanks again Len!!

 

[aec]

Do you have any other suggestions from your experience of doing your own sheet?

It wasn't too fancy. I just cut and pasted the menus from allearsnet. I included the food that looked good to me and the kids meal info for each place. I included a couple of the table service places like LTT for lunch. I had a seperate page for each park. It was very helpful since we ate almost all of our meals at counter service.

 

[fausz4]

Excellent !!!!

I would also like to see the rides down the side instead of the top.

That is my only suggestion.

 

[lentesta]

Thanks very much for the feedback, folks. I'll work on a second draft on Sunday, and post here.

aec, we've already got most WDW restaurant information in our online database. We could add something to the Guide's Trip Planner application to let you make a mini restaurant summary page for each day. Would that be useful? If you don't mind, I'd like to see a copy of your spreadsheet. Can you email it to me?

Thanks!

Len
len@touringplans.com

 

[aec]

aec, we've already got most WDW restaurant information in our online database. We could add something to the Guide's Trip Planner application to let you make a mini restaurant summary page for each day. Would that be useful? If you don't mind, I'd like to see a copy of your spreadsheet. Can you email it to me?

Len - Hope I didn't give you the wrong impression. My restaurant "cheat sheet" was not a spreadsheet. Just a wordperfect document with menus. I squeezed it all on one page and printed it out. BTW, I didn't see the restaurant info you mentioned on touringplans.com.

 

[mickeysaver]

I love it. To be honest, the info sheets with the recent changes in EMH's would be enough to make me buy the book. Maggie

 

[paigevz]

would be very helpful when we want to make changes to one of your plans for PS or kids' insistence........................

Edited because now I've read through the thread, and I disagree with adding more info or changing the hours..................the hours until 11...........gives you the option of going anytime before 11.....not necessarily just 10-11...........which makes people think it's not a good idea before 10.............I actually like the rides across the top, but it would be okay down the side if you decide to go with the board popular opinion.........more info isn't needed.....as Len said, this is to supplement the main plans, you can add any info you think is important in the margins....................

 

[musicmom3]

Good format, definitely useful!

 

[FromVatoDisney]

I'd be thrilled to have that for our July 13 trip! Please keep us posted!

 

[allisonwonderland]

I would LOVE this..however,,I think when my DH and his friend were setting up our computer,,they did domething that comprimises some prints ,etc on some pages and I could not really read the sample.....LEN..please pm me if i can help,,,thanks!!!!!!!!!

 

[3CindersMom]

I think the cheat sheets are a great complement to the touring plans. We are thinking of using a touring plan from UG, but there are a number changes we need to make based on likes and dislikes of our group. I especially like that it is organized by "lands." It is much easier to read than the recommended attraction visitation guides in the 2004 UG. When do you think you will have them published? Any chance they'll be on your website as an update?

 

[jehma]

That is great! So will you have all 4 parks for Presidents' week before this Friday?

(just kidding)