Touring Plans (say what???)

[Amstar]

I keep hearing that people have touring plans? Do they make them up themselves? What is involved in a touring plan? How do I make one? How did you make one?

I want to have a plan.

Is it as easy as say:
we are going to magic kingdom today and we want to ride this ride so go there first? or is there a whole layout, good idea to "walk" navigate the parks?

 

[T1nkerBell]

You could make your own, based on what you would like to do and by researching which rides would be best to do on a certain time of the day.

I'm subscribing to touringplans.com, you can see some free samples here: Touring Plans It also has some info on how they make thir touring plans.

HTH!

 

[Amstar]

Thats what I figured (make the plans based on what we want to ride)

At each park (we will be there for early morning ADR's) isnt there some rides that are a must to get a fass pass for right away?

 

[sharonabe]

Sounds like you need to do a little more research. Do you have a guidebook of any kind? Birnbaum's is the easier to read; The Unofficial Guide has the most detail. Or check out easywdw.com for his ideas.

A touring plan can be as easy or as detailed as you want. You basically need to know what is in each park and which of the attractions/shows/parades/fireworks/character meets your family wants to do. Then you make a plan based on that.

Personally, we don't like going back and forth through the parks, but some people will do that or send a runner to get FPs. Yes, there are certain rides in each park that you will want to FP, but a lot of that depends on when you are going and crowd levels.

If you can come up with what you want to do in each park, when you're going, and the ages of your party, you'll probably get some help in making a plan. We all do it differently, so you'll have to find what works for you.

 

[RivaLJ]

It sounds like you need to do some research before your trip. These boards are great. Very knowledgeable people ready to answer all your questions.
I would recommend getting a good guide book(s); such as The Passporter or The Unofficial Guide to Disney World which also has a website called Touringplans.com. Both are full of good and necessary information to make the most of your time at WDW.
Enjoy your trip.

 

[jjsdad]

There is definitely a whole layout. If you have a list of what you want to ride thats great, but you need to be able to prioritise that list as there are certain rides that need to be hit first time as their line gets crazy as the day goes on (peter pan, dumbo, space mountain ect...) and there are rides whose line really doens't get that out of control relative to crowd levels (pirates)

I think easywdw has some sample touring plans for free, and as a PP mentioned touringplans.com is a great site to subscribe too.

 

[Stinky_Pete]

A touring plan, for me, is so I can experience what I want while spending the least amount of time standing in line. Most people go to WDW having done no research in advance, and do not have a plan. Those are the people in the 120 minute standby queue for Soarin'.

I, too, recommend the Unofficial Guide. They not only have specific plans, but also offer a thorough education on how lines work at WDW so you can make your own plan but schedule attractions based on when they are likely to be less crowded. if you arrive at rope drop you're probably not going to want to go to something like Hall of Presidents first thing because it likely won't have much of a wait in the middle of the day. Space Mountain will likely have a long afternoon wait, so you'd probably be better off planning that earlier in the day.

Couple of hints: many libraries have the Unofficial Guide, and you don't necessarily need the most recent edition - it does't change much.

 

[azkiddoc]

I am a planner too, I totally agree that touringplans.com (and it's companion book The Unofficial Guide to WDW) is the way to go. We used it on our last trip and I believe it really did save us a great deal of time. The book has the basic touring plans and if you subscribe to the website for a nominal fee you have access to even more specialized touring plans (ie late arrival plans if you want to sleep in, and even plans for the Halloween and Christmas parties at the Magic Kingdom). Have fun!

 

[dolphindan1]

here is a great free site to help you plan with a very good crowd calendar...

http://www.easywdw.com/

I find it as good as the pay sites like touringplans and tourguidemike

 

[Taja]

Some people subscribe to various websites offering touring plans and crowd level predictions and find them helpful. I think they could be, particularly if you plan to visit WDW during peak holiday (most expensive) periods.

We're more casual. We note the park hours and event times for each day of our visit and update them monthly until about the last month. Then they're updated weekly, until two days prior to our trip. That's the final update. Don't have time to do it again until after we arrive at WDW! *LOL* And then we can easily update the information using the resort CCTV.

We plan ADRs (we're minimalists--we don't have TS ressies every day and rely on a combination of QS and fresh food options (fruits and veggies) at the resort food courts--based on the primary park of the day (usually we have PH, but not always) to minimize the amount of time spent traveling.

If you click on the subjects on the blue bar at the top of these forums, you'll be taken to WDWinfo.com, which is the website associated with these forums. Or these forums are associated with that website--however you want to view it! In any case, there is a lot of good information available!

You also can check out allears.net, which was one of the first websites (allearsnet.com at the time) I discovered when planning our 2003 WDW visit. They have a newsletter you can subscribe to, as does mousesavers.com.

As others have noted, the published guides can be useful, as well. We haven't used them, but we visit WDW for 10 to 12 nights at a time, so we have the luxury of not having to rush through everything.

Research as much as you can. Plan four or five attractions in each park that are essential to your family/group, with others that are secondary. View park maps to see where the attractions are located and develop a basic plan to avoid criss-crossing the parks. It probably will happen, particularly if you're determined to go on specific attractions that have long wait times and/or require FastPasses, but you want to minimize it as much as possible.

The best way to enjoy your WDW visit is to relax and not expect to be able to do everything in one trip. While WDW changes over the years, it's been there since 1971 and it's likely it won't be going anywhere in the near future!

 

[lilwhiterabbit]

The first, most important, thing to know is that everyone vacations differently. Some people love having a very detailed plan that tells them exactly what to do when and where they need to be at any given moment. Other people can't stand the idea of being scheduled on a vacation and will absolutely refuse to follow any sort of plan whatsoever. There are both sorts of people who can be very vocal about which is the superior method of vacationing.

Ignore them.

Do what's best for you. You don't need a vacation plan to have a great vacation, but if you're more comfortable with one, there are many different ways of getting them.

You can buy books like the Unofficial Guide to WDW or the Passporter's WDW, which have pre-made touring plans included in their pages. I find both of these books to be good resources in general and their regular touring plans work pretty well in most seasons on average.

If you want more customized versions, you can purchase more specific touring plans through sites like touringplans.com, or Tour Guide Mike. I believe these take into account individual preferences, predicted crowds, special events, and so on, but I've never used either of these services, so don't quote me on this.

Your final option is making your own touring plan, going park by park and tailoring it to your needs. This takes the most research, but it also means getting exactly what you want. It also means you can be as general or as specific as you want. Don't care about afternoon parades? Leave them out. Not worried about extra magic hours? Ignore them. If you want to have every hour of your day blocked out, you can. Or not. It's up to you.

Some people are very specific about touring plans. If the park has extra magic hours that day, they avoid it. They'll have attractions and fastpass runs blocked out into specific timed intervals. They go on attractions in a specific order, eat meals at a specific time and make sure they pack as much in as they possibly can. Others are more general. They make reservations for meals, hit the biggest attractions in a specific order, and make time for parades, but tend to play the rest by ear.

Usually, it takes a time or two at WDW before you figure out which approach works best for you. I found I'm happiest with having some stuff set in stone (I like knowing I'll have a table available at restaurants, so I make ADRs) but leaving some room to be flexible (I don't like waiting in super long lines, so I hit the big ticket stuff first or get fastpasses, but I'm not married to the idea that I have to do this attraction in this order). You find you may be different.

 

[lauralong81]

I don't think anyone mentioned him yet, but check out Tour Guide Mike. www.TourGuideMike.com. I have used this paid website ($17 well worth it) 3 times for my own vacations and have signed up ~15 friends to the website to help them plan theirs. I have never had anyone I referred complain, in fact, quite a few of them brought me back gifts to thank me for suggesting the website.

Like other posters said, it depends on what kind of vacation you want to have. For me, I decided that we are spending SO much money on these trips - I want to get the most bang for my buck. So we plan, in detail, using TourGuideMike to minimize our wait times in line and get the most rides and attractions in. We have never waited more than 15 minutes in line, anywhere on Disney property - using TGM.

If you have any questions - just post. I am obviously a huge proponent of TourGuideMike because he not only helps you know what to do when in what order, but he explains the WHY behind it. The other websites are great as well - Touring Plans, Ridemax, etc.... but they just give you a list of what rides to do when - in my opinion, not much support and other knowledge.

Good luck, hope that helps!

 

[Amstar]

I guess for me... the "basis" of a plan is to hit a few of the main rides that the kids want to do. then after that play it be "ear" (HAHA)

I just dont want to be running from one side of the park for one ride to the other side for another.

Basically what I am going to try and do is this:

Magic kingdom has:
X ride
Y ride
Z ride

so we need to get a fass pass for Y then go ride X then walk to Z and by that time X fass pass should be ready. after that.... play by ear. my wife, and my kids have never been to disney... so I want to make sure to hit the "main" rides at each park

so its off to do some research and look at some maps