Touring Plans advising not to use FP+ reservation?

[Aspenmarie82]

Hey!!

I'm planning a trip with my family next month (15 days left!!) I had made my FP+ reservations prior to learning about the Touringplans website. Side note - my already made plans are exactly what the website recommends not to do! oops :-/ For one of my days it recommends I skip my FP reservation for Frozen Ever After which I currently have at 12:50p in favor of doing stand-by at 9:44am. It also recommends I change it to Soarin or Test Track. Knowing that it's a new ride and reading about the ride glitches, I'm not sure that's a good idea. Has anyone had Touringplans recommend NOT using an already reserved FP+ for one of the major attractions, and it come out okay?? My thought is just to keep the FP+ since that ride was the last thing we planned to do in Epcot and if the stand-by line happens to be short at the 9:44am mark do it then anyways. Thanks for any help!!!

 

[Disneylover99]

Don't give up your FEA fp no matter what!

 

[Aspenmarie82]

Don't give up you FEA fp no matter what!

That's what I was thinking!!! When it said that I was like, what??? Computer doesn't know all! lol Thanks

 

[Klayfish]

I've never used Touringplans for that purpose, but absolutely NO!! Do not give up your FEA unless you want to stand in a 2+ hour line. We're here now and I can tell you for a fact that the line never is short. Keep your FP+. Soarin and TT are easy to get on, especially if you do it at rope drop or park closing.

 

[Aspenmarie82]

I've never used Touringplans for that purpose, but absolutely NO!! Do not give up your FEA unless you want to stand in a 2+ hour line. We're here now and I can tell you for a fact that the line never is short. Keep your FP+. Soarin and TT are easy to get on, especially if you do it at rope drop or park closing.

Thanks for the tip! That was my original plan and I think I'll stick to it

 

[MataHari22]

Definitely don't give up your FP+ for Frozen. I've used Touring Plans, but as more of a guide. I basically used Josh's plans from easyWDW, and tailored them for me, since I don't have kids, and then put all that info into TP and hit "evaluate" not "optimize". I put in slow for my pace, and I see how my day times out. I guess I use it to outline my day rather than plan it.

 

[soniam]

I suspect they don't have enough data for the software to accurately gauge the wait for FEA. I sometimes ignore when it says this. New rides are really hard for the computers. Just trust in the evidence on the boards for the really new or newly reopened ones. They should have better data for it soon.

 

[Aspenmarie82]

Thanks again for the help!

 

[lentesta]

Thanks for using our site, @Aspenmarie82!

I thought that was a crazy message, too, so I looked at your touring plan to see what was happening.

Setting aside the fact that the ride may break down, I think the message makes sense in the context of the day.

The current plan has only 6 steps, with FastPasses that range from 9:50 AM to 12:50 PM, on a morning with EMH. Given the amount of free time and walking involved, the plan is saying that it's probably more efficient to visit FEA very early, than to wait around for your 12:50 FP, and then do the walking.

My sense is that adding a few more attractions to the plan (especially in Future World) would result in the plan using your FEA FastPass. And in that case, I'd definitely keep the FEA FP+.

In the meantime, I've added 135 minutes of morning breaks to your plan so the FEA FastPass is used. Adding that 135 minutes of free time saves 18 minutes in line at FEA. But feel free to remove those breaks as you add more attractions.

tl;dr: The software didn't think 135 minutes of free time to finish the touring plan was worth 18 minutes in line.

 

[Aspenmarie82]

Thanks for using our site, @Aspenmarie82!

I thought that was a crazy message, too, so I looked at your touring plan to see what was happening.

Setting aside the fact that the ride may break down, I think the message makes sense in the context of the day.

The current plan has only 6 steps, with FastPasses that range from 9:50 AM to 12:50 PM, on a morning with EMH. Given the amount of free time and walking involved, the plan is saying that it's probably more efficient to visit FEA very early, than to wait around for your 12:50 FP, and then do the walking.

My sense is that adding a few more attractions to the plan (especially in Future World) would result in the plan using your FEA FastPass. And in that case, I'd definitely keep the FEA FP+.

In the meantime, I've added 135 minutes of morning breaks to your plan so the FEA FastPass is used. Adding that 135 minutes of free time saves 18 minutes in line at FEA. But feel free to remove those breaks as you add more attractions.

tl;dr: The software didn't think 135 minutes of free time to finish the touring plan was worth 18 minutes in line.

Thanks so much for the response!!! I thought it was crazy myself. Now I understand and it makes so much more sense. The FP we have for Frozen was the earliest I could get that is why there's a huge time gap. Our plan was to walk around World Showcase beforehand. I think our plan now will be to see how long FEA stand-by time is in that 9am time slot touring plans had and if it happens to be short that day, we will ride it then.

 

[DVCkidsMOM]

I love TP but no computer can feel my quirks. There are some lines I am more willing to experience than others. TP is designed to maximize efficiency - at least that's how it appears to me. But there are sometimes inefficiencies that I want - crazy , but true.
So I always use TP but then alter their "optimized" schedule to fit my own quirks, based on what's uniquely important to me, then "evaluate" my quirky plan as a sanity check. YMMV