Touring plans accuracy?

[babyruth]

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.

that's exactly my issue. we are going at peak time and have to take an afternoon break - so yeah I need a specific show time.

 

[IrishNYC]

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

I figured as much, but great to see it confirmed. Thanks!

 

[babyruth]

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.

it's OK I used evaluate and worked things how I wanted. every once in awhile I would optimize again to see how far off I was on TP recommendations. I don't expect the software to anticipate my every thought! It's also a great way to realize what is and isn't realistic.

 

[JessRose]

I agree with previous posts that say the reason Touring Plans recommends you not use your FastPass+ on shows is because it assumes everyone wants to ride the headliners.

Shows are also high capacity venues, unless you are traveling during peak season, it's unlikely you will be turned away from the show if you are in line when they start letting people in - although the FastPass+ might get you a better seat w/ less wait time than the standby line.

If there are other rides you might go on that have the FastPass+ option, I would switch to the rides and go standby with the show, unless its important that you have a great seat for it. Then you're just fine as is!

 

[FredtheDuck]

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.

Wow, thank you! That solved my problem perfectly!

 

[Ava]

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

You can make as many personalized touring plans as you want. I'll often make different versions of a plan for the same day, like a rope drop plan and a late arrival plan, or if it's our 2nd day in a park I'll have a couple versions figured out in case we got more or less done than we planned to on the 1st day.

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.

That's awesome! BTMRR is so great at night but we like riding it in the day time too. Nice to be able to put it in the plan twice and make one of those rides be after dark.

@lentesta Will you also put Early Morning Magic dates into the software, or not since it's not necessary to make a TP for that? I'm trying to get the plan to recognize that I'll already be inside Fantasyland before 9:00. When I just put in the Welcome Show it still assumes I won't get to my first attraction until ~9:10.

 

[lentesta]

You can make as many personalized touring plans as you want. I'll often make different versions of a plan for the same day, like a rope drop plan and a late arrival plan, or if it's our 2nd day in a park I'll have a couple versions figured out in case we got more or less done than we planned to on the 1st day.


That's awesome! BTMRR is so great at night but we like riding it in the day time too. Nice to be able to put it in the plan twice and make one of those rides be after dark.

@lentesta Will you also put Early Morning Magic dates into the software, or not since it's not necessary to make a TP for that? I'm trying to get the plan to recognize that I'll already be inside Fantasyland before 9:00. When I just put in the Welcome Show it still assumes I won't get to my first attraction until ~9:10.

Yep, we're working on that. I'll see if we have an ETA. We were a little surprised that EMM has stuck around this long, which is why we didn't support it out of the gate.

 

[mindeola]

I definitely would not FP Frozen. You will get in! It does fill up, but we have walked in five minutes before start. We have also added it as a FP after using our others.

 

[ArielSRL]

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!

Just an fyi: I've read that the seats you get with the FP for Disney Jr are too close to the stage and make it very hard to see the show.

 

[ArielSRL]

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.

If you want the attractions to stay in the order you put them, use the evaluate button, as opposed to the optimize button.

 

[nikkispurrell]

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.

I am probably wrong but FEA is the epcot ride? Do you mean Frozen Sing Along?

 

[nikkispurrell]

Thanks for all the responses! Just to clarify - I recognize touring plans is just doing things based on what I tell it using an algorithm of some sort. I think it's the best thing ever! Wish I would have done more research before our trip last year.

Just legitimately curious if I could actually get in with 1 minute to spare Hollywood Studios has definitely been the thorn in my side while planning for this trip I'm open to being flexible but at the same time if the kids are in a good mood want to see as much as a I can.

Thanks again for all the responses

 

[coasternut22]

Just throwing in my 2 cents about Fastpass and shows. The Frozen sing along in particular. There are two separate lines. Say for a 5:30pm show they will let the Fastpass line to the waiting area first. At 5:03, they will allow the standby line into the waiting area and the waiting area fill up quickly. Therefore if you have a Fastpass and arrive any later than a half hour before the show, it makes no difference. The Fastpass only guarantees you a spot if you show up right before showtime. In that case, you will have the worst view if the show is full.

I found this to be the same case for other shows such as Nemo, Lion King, etc. I basically stopped getting fastpasses for shows because you still had to get there a minimum of 30 minutes to get any kind of beneficial use.

Other situations may vary, but this was my experience.

 

[nikkispurrell]

Just throwing in my 2 cents about Fastpass and shows. The Frozen sing along in particular. There are two separate lines. Say for a 5:30pm show they will let the Fastpass line to the waiting area first. At 5:03, they will allow the standby line into the waiting area and the waiting area fill up quickly. Therefore if you have a Fastpass and arrive any later than a half hour before the show, it makes no difference. The Fastpass only guarantees you a spot if you show up right before showtime. In that case, you will have the worst view if the show is full.

I found this to be the same case for other shows such as Nemo, Lion King, etc. I basically stopped getting fastpasses for shows because you still had to get there a minimum of 30 minutes to get any kind of beneficial use.

Other situations may vary, but this was my experience.

Thanks! So did you find you got into most shows when you wanted or did you have to wait for the second show?

The only "shows" I've seen at Disney are Country Bears and Mickey's Philharmagic so I don't have much to go on! lol.

 

[coasternut22]

Thanks! So did you find you got into most shows when you wanted or did you have to wait for the second show?

The only "shows" I've seen at Disney are Country Bears and Mickey's Philharmagic so I don't have much to go on! lol.

We did get into all of our shows. We arrived anywhere from 15-30 minutes before each. Of course this was January.

 

[KimBean]

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.

To control that just hit evaluate and it will keep your order then you can manually adjust things around. Might take awhile but you'll get there.

 

[KimBean]

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.

Wow. Ignore my suggestion. Loved touring plans last trip and just purchased again. When I see service like this I know I won't regret it!!

 

[OSUZorba]

The only problems I've had with TP accuracy was in EPCOT where it vastly underestimates the time it takes to ride Soarin', Test Track and Mission Space, even with a FP. For example it says that you can do Soarin' with a FP and child swap in 17 minutes, we've done it three times and it is at least 40 minutes once it was over 60 with FP for both of us to ride. Test track they have at 35 minutes with a 2 minute wait, both times I've done it in the last year it took one person 45 minutes to wait/ride with a FP (the other person said forget it, but it would've been 90 minutes total). Anyways all of my Touring Plans for EPCOT using child swap have been an exercise in frustration.

But like I said, other than that they've been very good for me. Based on my experience at DHS I seriously doubt you'd need a FP+ for a show as long as you get there before they shut the doors, in which case a FP won't help you either.

@lentesta It would be great if you all could add an "undo" button so if you don't like the way the optimize changed something, you can go back. Or if it would be possible to anchor certain rides while optimizing others, i.e. I want to see Tinker Bell between 2-3, but optimize everything else.

 

[mamaofsix]

I am probably wrong but FEA is the epcot ride? Do you mean Frozen Sing Along?

Yes, sorry - typo!