Touring plans for 12/26-12/30- ? On wait times

[Jen cook]

we are heading down for 12/26-12/30 in the parks. I upgraded the touring plans site and am planning my first day, however the wait times look really low. Do they take into account the crowds with their data or is it based in current (today) wait times?

Any help is greatly appreciated. Also, anyone have plans that worked well
For you that you'd be willing to share?

 

[Steven G]

I noticed that too when I created my plan for dec 23 to 25.
I know the site knows that those are 9 or 10 days, but maybe the holidays are so unusual it just doesn't handle them.

I created 3 plans, if the wait times are too long I'll just do some creative shuffling and deleting stuff as necessary when I am there.

 

[disneyland_is_magic]

Eh I think Touring plans has majorly lost their edge. Frankly, they have gotten lazy, my last trip it had me dashing off at rope drop to...Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln. They hadn't updated for Hyperspace Mountain at the time and when I logged on recently before my membership expired they had a notice about Fantasmic fast passses. I was like just shaking my head.
Use your common sense, make rope drop, keep moving, know where you're going next, use single rider lines, have fun! Get a refund!!! That's my advice!

 

[Steven G]

They also don't have the Jedi training signup, which I intend to do first thing on my MM day, so I had to do reserve 15 minutes at the start of the day as a break time.
At this point I'm just using it as a wish list, and just go with the flow (or lack of flow as it most likely will happen),

 

[Steven G]

As another example on dec 24, they have DCA as a 4 day with DL being a 9. I'm pretty sure with the food festival and other stuff going on there, that can't possibly be right.

 

[disneyland_is_magic]

Steven, sounds like you have it well in hand. I think why Touring plan usually works is because it takes out all the "what do you feel like?" And "I don't care, what do you want?" And just jumping into lines rather then wasting 15 minutes looking for a shorter line.
Please report back on the crowds, interested to hear how it goes!!!

 

[prestoncaldwell]

we are heading down for 12/26-12/30 in the parks. I upgraded the touring plans site and am planning my first day, however the wait times look really low. Do they take into account the crowds with their data or is it based in current (today) wait times?

Any help is greatly appreciated. Also, anyone have plans that worked well
For you that you'd be willing to share?

What I'm doing, which is very laborious, is using slowest walking for the calc parameters, and adding a 20 minute break every 3 rides or so to stretch out the plan.

 

[Steven G]

What I'm doing, which is very laborious, is using slowest walking for the calc parameters, and adding a 20 minute break every 3 rides or so to stretch out the plan.

Good idea, I may end up doing this.

 

[disneyland_is_magic]

The slowest walking time is a wise adjustment. I don't think Touring Plans should even show the higher speeds above a 7 or 8 day. It's completely unrealistic.

I don't care if you hold your high school record for the 100 meter hurdles or if you're not necessarily morally opposed to knocking over old ladies. There are times when a walkway will grind to...a...complete...halt.

The better prepared you are, making adjustments to your plan, the better it will go.

 

[Winnowill]

I don't care if you hold your high school record for the 100 meter hurdles or if you're not necessarily morally opposed to knocking over old ladies. There are times when a walkway will grind to...a...complete...halt.

Not to mention times CMs put up ropes seemingly randomly, meaning your intended route is no longer available.

 

[Steven G]

Since we are talking plans, I have TS setup at blue bayou lunch, carnation cafe dinner, then Ariel grotto lunch (character), and trattoria dinner, and finally plaza inn breakfast (character).

It's first time for both of us at everything except plaza inn character breakfast which we did before. I was hoping that getting reservations would help with long lines at CS.

We also have WOC desert party, which we have done before too.



Can anyone give me estimate on how long I should set aside for each (including waiting for table). Right now I am putting one hour for each, we tend to eat quick, but I don't know how long serving time is.

 

[figment_jii]

I generally allow between 60 and 75 minutes for a TS meal, except at the Blue Bayou. One of the biggest draws of dining at the BB is eating waterside. I request a waterside table when I check in and the CMs will usually accept the request, but it can add significantly to your wait time for a table. For Blue Bayou, I would allow 2 hours, including the time waiting for a waterside table. Once seated Carnation Cafe is fairly quick, but I've had mixed luck waiting to be seated (anywhere from almost no wait to close to 30 minutes).

 

[DLRExpert]

Not sure about Touring Plans, but the trick is to get to the parks early.

- If the park opens at 8am you have about two hours until the park starts to get busy
- If you do not have access to Early Entry skip the park that does. Especially if the Early Entry park is Disneyland
Disneyland
- Start with Fantasyland at an 8am opening, you have about an hour until this area starts to get busy
- If you cannot be near the front of the line for Peter Pan skip it. Dumbo should be next, then Alice, then Toad, then Casey Jr., Pinnochio, Snow White, Matterhorn, and Small World Holiday.
- It should be around 930am-10am at this time. Grab FP for Indy, ride Jungle Cruise, ride Haunted Mansion, Splash Mountain, Winnie the Pooh. Save Pirates and Big Thunder Mountain for later in the day
- Around 11am it should be time to use that Indy FP, but first, grab FP for Hyper Space Mountain, then use FP for Indy
- Have Lunch
- You now want to waste time until it is time to use that Hyper Space Mountain FP.
- The next FP you should get is for Star Tours and Buzz Lightyear at the same time.
- After the Star Tours FP is up, get FP for Big Thunder.
- Things you can do without a lot of waiting, Enchanted Tiki Room, Great Moments with Mr Lincoln, King Arthur Carousel, Tea Cups, Sleeping Beauty Castle, Tarzans Treehouse, see a parade, or Magical Map show.
- Ride Pirates before or after you use the FP for Big Thunder. Don't worry if that line looks long, it moves quite fast. When it splits into two lanes, stay on the right.

ME

 

[Steven G]

ill change my tourinplan to 1.5 hours for each meal. Thanks.

My touring plan is pretty custom since we are just going on my sons favorites, and that Christmas will be busy. We did follow that plan you listed or quite close to it earlier this year.

 

[theluckyrabbit]

...Can anyone give me estimate on how long I should set aside for each (including waiting for table). Right now I am putting one hour for each, we tend to eat quick, but I don't know how long serving time is.

I generally allow between 60 and 75 minutes for a TS meal, except at the Blue Bayou. One of the biggest draws of dining at the BB is eating waterside. I request a waterside table when I check in and the CMs will usually accept the request, but it can add significantly to your wait time for a table. For Blue Bayou, I would allow 2 hours, including the time waiting for a waterside table. Once seated Carnation Cafe is fairly quick, but I've had mixed luck waiting to be seated (anywhere from almost no wait to close to 30 minutes).

The dining reservation service at DLR is called Priority Seating for a good reason. These aren't "reservations" for a specific time per se, but more like a dining FP. A lot depends on the party dining ahead of you. If they eat in a reasonable time and vacate their table, you'll be seated fairly quickly (no wait to a short wait). If they linger and linger and linger, you'll be waiting for a while until a CM seats you. So no matter how quickly you yourself eat, you may still need to allow more than an hour for each meal. figment_jill's advice is good -- overestimate the time needed for dining, then if you finish before that, you have extra time to catch a ride or go shopping.

 

[mseyre]

Good thread. I had the same thing happen. I put in our day and it showed me being able to do everything by noon on the 28th (a 10 day!). I didn't get it. We used it at WDW last year and it worked great.

 

[mjf]

I just signed up for Touring Plans as well as this is our first visit to DLR. I just completed a customized touring plan for DL on Jan3 (crowd level 9) and am very skeptical even more so now on the amount that we could accomplish. Granted I have us starting for EMH at 7am but I can't believe we could get 14 rides in between 4 hours?? Is it too good to be true?

 

[DLRExpert]

I just signed up for Touring Plans as well as this is our first visit to DLR. I just completed a customized touring plan for DL on Jan3 (crowd level 9) and am very skeptical even more so now on the amount that we could accomplish. Granted I have us starting for EMH at 7am but I can't believe we could get 14 rides in between 4 hours?? Is it too good to be true?

14 rides in 4 hours is doable, but most depends on attractions not breaking down.

ME

 

[Winnowill]

14 rides in four hours is eminently doable on an EMH day, depending on which rides they are and how thoughtfully you plan your FP strategy.

 

[coaches24]

Not sure about Touring Plans, but the trick is to get to the parks early.

- If the park opens at 8am you have about two hours until the park starts to get busy
- If you do not have access to Early Entry skip the park that does. Especially if the Early Entry park is Disneyland
Disneyland
- Start with Fantasyland at an 8am opening, you have about an hour until this area starts to get busy
- If you cannot be near the front of the line for Peter Pan skip it. Dumbo should be next, then Alice, then Toad, then Casey Jr., Pinnochio, Snow White, Matterhorn, and Small World Holiday.
- It should be around 930am-10am at this time. Grab FP for Indy, ride Jungle Cruise, ride Haunted Mansion, Splash Mountain, Winnie the Pooh. Save Pirates and Big Thunder Mountain for later in the day
- Around 11am it should be time to use that Indy FP, but first, grab FP for Hyper Space Mountain, then use FP for Indy
- Have Lunch
- You now want to waste time until it is time to use that Hyper Space Mountain FP.
- The next FP you should get is for Star Tours and Buzz Lightyear at the same time.
- After the Star Tours FP is up, get FP for Big Thunder.
- Things you can do without a lot of waiting, Enchanted Tiki Room, Great Moments with Mr Lincoln, King Arthur Carousel, Tea Cups, Sleeping Beauty Castle, Tarzans Treehouse, see a parade, or Magical Map show.
- Ride Pirates before or after you use the FP for Big Thunder. Don't worry if that line looks long, it moves quite fast. When it splits into two lanes, stay on the right.

ME

All good advice except that during the week the OP will be there (I will be there the same time) they are having EMH/ MM in both parks every day. So that will put a damper on things with FL rides unless you are staying on site and have EMH/ MM yourself.