Touring plans accuracy?

[nikkispurrell]

Going to Hollywood Studios.

We have two toddlers (1 & 3) and planned to FP: TSMM, frozen sing along, and Disney junior.

After plugging in my itinerary, touring plans is advising me not to use the FPs for the shows (rides instead)giving just a 1 min wait for frozen and 4min wait for Disney junior.

How accurate are the plans? And how bad would entering frozen and Disney junior without a FP be?

TIA!

 

[TeamEvansGo]

Going to Hollywood Studios.

We have two toddlers (1 & 3) and planned to FP: TSMM, frozen sing along, and Disney junior.

After plugging in my itinerary, touring plans is advising me not to use the FPs for the shows (rides instead)giving just a 1 min wait for frozen and 4min wait for Disney junior.

How accurate are the plans? And how bad would entering frozen and Disney junior without a FP be?

TIA!

We have done both of those shows a few times now and depending on when you are visiting, a FP+ really isn't needed for those shows. Sometimes this is precipitated by the need for FP+ on certain headliner attractions. We found though that since we had a toddler and weren't planning on riding most of the headliners (due to height requirements) our FP+ priorities were different from what Touring Plans suggests. In those cases, we ignored what TP said and manipulated the plan to still use the passes we wanted.

That being said, I have been a paying member of Touring Plans for 10 years and have found them to be accurate and extremely useful for our trips.

 

[jaysmom4285]

If you look at their crowd calendar, it will show you how close they were the day before on their predicted wait times. They're within ten minutes or less on most everything. There can always be cause for exceptions that can't be anticipated - a spell of rainy weather will cause crowds to spike when conditions improve, unexpected ride breakdowns can lead to backups later in the day, etc. But as a general rule, they're very close. It's important to remember that they are predicting only wait times for specific attractions, not how crowded the park feels while you're walking around or how long the bus/bathroom/quick service lines are.

 

[TeamEvansGo]

If you look at their crowd calendar, it will show you how close they were the day before on their predicted wait times. They're within ten minutes or less on most everything. There can always be cause for exceptions that can't be anticipated - a spell of rainy weather will cause crowds to spike when conditions improve, unexpected ride breakdowns can lead to backups later in the day, etc. But as a general rule, they're very close. It's important to remember that they are predicting only wait times for specific attractions, not how crowded the park feels while you're walking around or how long the bus/bathroom/quick service lines are.

They do provide a resort wide crowd level as well that is meant to address how crowded the entire park will feel. Not just for specific rides.

 

[babyruth]

Yes I know what you mean OP. It keeps telling me the same things about shows I'm picking at DHS and AK. I have an almost 3 yo daughter. I CANNOT RISK missing the Frozen sing along or waiting 20/30 min to get into a scheduled show. I know they think Dinosaur is more important to fastpass (just an example) but not for me! I take their advice on all the rides and I force it to optimize/use my show fastpasses.

 

[abinormal]

I also found it accurate and useful but had to take my own needs, preferences, and situation into account. What was most helpful were the wait time estimates. There were several times I more or less went in with a general idea of what we wanted to do and used the optimizer to see what to do next.

 

[lentesta]

Going to Hollywood Studios.

We have two toddlers (1 & 3) and planned to FP: TSMM, frozen sing along, and Disney junior.

After plugging in my itinerary, touring plans is advising me not to use the FPs for the shows (rides instead)giving just a 1 min wait for frozen and 4min wait for Disney junior.

How accurate are the plans? And how bad would entering frozen and Disney junior without a FP be?

TIA!

If you really want TP to use those Fastpasses, click the "Advanced Options" button where you entered your FP info, and check the box that says "Force the Optimizer to use these Fastpasses."

The plan has you arriving 8 minutes early for the Disney Junior show. Even in mid-April, I'd be tempted to try that without a FP.

Here's what the plan sees for Frozen:

Frozen has these show times on your date of visit: 10:30 a.m., 11:30 a.m., 12:30 p.m., 1:30 p.m., 2:30 p.m., 3:30 p.m., 4:30 p.m., and 5:30 p.m.

Your plan has a 5-hour afternoon break starting at 2 p.m., which eliminates the last 4 shows from the plan.

The plan's 12:15 p.m. lunch eliminates the 12:30 show.

The 1:30 p.m. show is probably a bad idea, because your lunch runs until 1:15 pm. and you want to leave the park at 2. The plan strongly discourages the choice of the 1:30 p.m. show because of those two things.

So the only Frozen shows that you can see are the 10:30 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. performances.​

It's the same for Disney Junior, I think: the one at 10:20 a.m. or the one at 11:20 a.m.

Whichever of those Disney Junior shows you see, eliminates the Frozen show that overlaps it. That leaves only one choice for Frozen.

In short, there's only two possibly ways to see Frozen and Disney Junior, given the other things going on in the plan. The plan picked the one it thought was best.

 

[FredtheDuck]

On a slightly related note, I'm trying to figure out how to tell TP that I want the "adult" rides (read: ones with height requirements) to be after a certain time of day, because we have a sitter for our 18-month old for the after-dinner hours on an EMH evening. Does anyone know how to hack this?
So, for example, I don't need to ride 7DMT first thing in the morning since I'd have to use a rider swap to do it and would rather focus on stuff she can ride and enjoy, too, then do 7DMT when we get back to the park around 8:00 PM. Every time I reorder and hit optimize, it pushes things like Pooh and Belle to late in the evening, after she'll have gone to bed.

 

[IrishNYC]

Going to Hollywood Studios.

We have two toddlers (1 & 3) and planned to FP: TSMM, frozen sing along, and Disney junior.

After plugging in my itinerary, touring plans is advising me not to use the FPs for the shows (rides instead)giving just a 1 min wait for frozen and 4min wait for Disney junior.

How accurate are the plans? And how bad would entering frozen and Disney junior without a FP be?

TIA!

Yes I know what you mean OP. It keeps telling me the same things about shows I'm picking at DHS and AK. I have an almost 3 yo daughter. I CANNOT RISK missing the Frozen sing along or waiting 20/30 min to get into a scheduled show. I know they think Dinosaur is more important to fastpass (just an example) but not for me! I take their advice on all the rides and I force it to optimize/use my show fastpasses.

I've found Touringplans to be very accurate. I've also found that FP aren't necessary for shows unless you need to guarantee a particular showtime during a high crowd level time. You're both probably in that sweet spot where your kids are too small for the headliners, so you don't need to worry about FPs for them for headliners that have a height requirement. You can tailor your plan a bit more by filtering by height requirements.

The wait times are tricky for shows like Frozen and Disney Junior, because it's a lot of "hurry up and wait" whether you have FP or not. You're still lining up to wait, but you're let into the theater before the standby line. The advantage being that you will get in to the show your FP is for, and you're waiting a couple of minutes less than standby.

 

[IrishNYC]

On a slightly related note, I'm trying to figure out how to tell TP that I want the "adult" rides (read: ones with height requirements) to be after a certain time of day, because we have a sitter for our 18-month old for the after-dinner hours on an EMH evening. Does anyone know how to hack this?
So, for example, I don't need to ride 7DMT first thing in the morning since I'd have to use a rider swap to do it and would rather focus on stuff she can ride and enjoy, too, then do 7DMT when we get back to the park around 8:00 PM. Every time I reorder and hit optimize, it pushes things like Pooh and Belle to late in the evening, after she'll have gone to bed.

You can do two things...
1. Choose all your rides for the whole day, open to close (or arrival time to close), then after you optimize, you can drag to reorder, and evaluate.
2. Do 2 different TPs for that day. One with your arrival time to the time you leave the park with you little one, then a second TP for the time you plan to reenter the park until you plan to leave.

 

[lentesta]

Yes I know what you mean OP. It keeps telling me the same things about shows I'm picking at DHS and AK. I have an almost 3 yo daughter. I CANNOT RISK missing the Frozen sing along or waiting 20/30 min to get into a scheduled show. I know they think Dinosaur is more important to fastpass (just an example) but not for me! I take their advice on all the rides and I force it to optimize/use my show fastpasses.

Especially at DHS, the fact that Disney overlaps show times seems to be the thing that drives the software's decisions. but let me know if you want me to look at a plan.

In the waning days of Lights! Motors! Action!, when Disney sometimes scheduled only 2 or 3 shows beginning late morning or early afternoon, it would create problems for anyone wanting to take a mid-day break.

 

[lentesta]

On a slightly related note, I'm trying to figure out how to tell TP that I want the "adult" rides (read: ones with height requirements) to be after a certain time of day, because we have a sitter for our 18-month old for the after-dinner hours on an EMH evening. Does anyone know how to hack this?
So, for example, I don't need to ride 7DMT first thing in the morning since I'd have to use a rider swap to do it and would rather focus on stuff she can ride and enjoy, too, then do 7DMT when we get back to the park around 8:00 PM. Every time I reorder and hit optimize, it pushes things like Pooh and Belle to late in the evening, after she'll have gone to bed.

Ah, not yet. There's a work-around that we might be able to make available. We built in the ability to specify that some rides can have an "after sunset" time window. (It was for Kilimanjaro Safaris, where you can say specifically that you want to experience it after dark.) If it's only a couple of rides, I can enable that feature for you. I'd agree with 7DMT, if that's important to you.

ETA: Also, consider the "Evaluate" option, which allows you to re-order the steps the way you want. It'll score the plan using the same logic it uses for Optimize, without re-ordering the steps. Useful if there's something specific you want to do, that isn't otherwise supported in the software.

 

[FredtheDuck]

You can do two things...
1. Choose all your rides for the whole day, open to close (or arrival time to close), then after you optimize, you can drag to reorder, and evaluate.
2. Do 2 different TPs for that day. One with your arrival time to the time you leave the park with you little one, then a second TP for the time you plan to reenter the park until you plan to leave.

Didn't know you could have two for one day. That's perfect for us, thanks!

 

[loutoo]

a slightly related note, I'm trying to figure out how to tell TP that I want the "adult" rides (read: ones with height requirements) to be after a certain time of day, because we have a sitter for our 18-month old for the after-dinner hours on an EMH evening. Does anyone know how to hack this?
So, for example, I don't need to ride 7DMT first thing in the morning since I'd have to use a rider swap to do it and would rather focus on stuff she can ride and enjoy, too, then do 7DMT when we get back to the park around 8:00 PM. Every time I reorder and hit optimize, it pushes things like Pooh and Belle to late in the evening, after she'll have gone to bed.

The best way to handle this situation is to create 2 separate plans for that day, one for the morning with the little one and one for the evening. Instead of putting in a break move the end time to the beginning of the break and then make a second plan that starts when you will return. Do this and pick which rides for each plan.

 

[FredtheDuck]

Ah, not yet. There's a work-around that we might be able to make available. We built in the ability to specify that some rides can have an "after sunset" time window. (It was for Kilimanjaro Safaris, where you can say specifically that you want to experience it after dark.) If it's only a couple of rides, I can enable that feature for you. I'd agree with 7DMT, if that's important to you.

You are so kind to offer, but I'd hate for you to have to "program" all the classic big-kid rides (BTM, 7DMT, Splash, Space) just for one person. If the option to do two plans in a day works, I'll just make one for when she's with us and one for when she's not.
Would be a fab feature to have someday, though! From looking at these boards, it looks like there are lots of families that either have sitters or have grandparents who come along and are happy to take the kids for an evening! : )

 

[IrishNYC]

@lentesta while you're in here, I have a question. Once MNSSHP dates are official, do you include those hours in the plans? Thanks.

 

[mamaofsix]

We got fast passes for FEA last Spring Break (crowds were a 10). It was TOTALLY not necessary and we actually felt kind of silly that we wasted fast passes on it. They loaded us into the waiting area right along with everyone else. It didn't even really give us any advantage to getting better seats. The theatre has a huge capacity, and the only way you wouldn't get in is if you showed up at the very last second.

 

[soniam]

I would say that the shows at DHS are the only achilles heel I have seen in Touring Plans for WDW. Partly, as Len pointed out, the show times overlap a lot and make it difficult to impossible to see them all. It isn't completely the fault of Touring Plans; it's just us asking it to do unreasonable or impossible things. If you don't feel comfortable getting to a show that late or not using an FP+, then don't. I have specifically ordered stuff at DHS and used evaluate instead of optimize to get a plan with shows that I felt comfortable with. The only show we see now is Indy, so it hasn't been a big deal in a while.

 

[lentesta]

@lentesta while you're in here, I have a question. Once MNSSHP dates are official, do you include those hours in the plans? Thanks.

Yep. Give us a day or so after they're announced, to do all the database work to get them in.

 

[lentesta]

You are so kind to offer, but I'd hate for you to have to "program" all the classic big-kid rides (BTM, 7DMT, Splash, Space) just for one person. If the option to do two plans in a day works, I'll just make one for when she's with us and one for when she's not.
Would be a fab feature to have someday, though! From looking at these boards, it looks like there are lots of families that either have sitters or have grandparents who come along and are happy to take the kids for an evening! : )

It's no trouble - I just turned it on for those four attractions. You should be able to specify something like 'after sunset' for them now. Email me if not: len at touringplans.