Touring plans

[RN01]

Has anyone used the touringplans.com personalized touring plans where you make your own with the attractions that you want to see and do? How did it work when you actually used it? I've used the premade plans before and they worked well. Just wondering how the personalized ones worked out.

 

[patdoc98]

Yes. It's a useful tool, but I wouldn't try to follow it to the letter. We use it in combination with common sense and other resources. We've found it useful for: (1) getting ideas on how to order things, especially working in shows in HS and AK; (2) roughly estimating walking times between attractions; and (3) being reminded of how long certain attractions can take. We have found it a pain to incorporate fastpasses, especially the suggestions on when to use/not use fastpasses; we've been skeptical on some of the actual wait times that they work into the plans; and the use of rider swaps makes everything too complicated for the software.

Ultimately, everyone's experiences are so specific, it's tough to completely automate a touring plan. For example, we've always had a kid under 40 inches when we've gone - but our older kids don't necessarily want to ride things twice in a row. So we rack up a few rider swaps in the morning and then use them later (which can sometimes mean later in the day, or later in the trip). There are ways we could work all of that into a personalized touring plan, but we find it easier to just make an Excel sheet with rough times, and then move things around ourselves.

We haven't used it in about a year, so it's possible it's improved since our last use.

 

[Laura's Dad]

We have used it once for a day at DHS it it was very good. We have our upcoming trip plugged in for our MK day with MNSSHP and our Epcot day with Food and Wine Festival. I like the fact that you can check off when done and it will recalculate for you. Also they have a list of available FastPass times for your possible extra fast passes when the original FastPasses run out.

 

[Belle5]

We have used it several times and find it useful.

 

[Princesca]

It works pretty well but you have to keep an eye on it. It will do things like suggest a FP for something that has a wait time to get in (like a show) because it's showing a long wait time, but lining up for a show is not the same kind of wait as waiting in line to get on ToT, you know what I mean? At least in my opinion. Like it kept suggesting a FP for me for Voyage of the Little Mermaid at DHS, but I figure I am waiting in line at a show either way, whether I have FP or not, because I'm going to want the best seat whichever line I'm in. If that makes any sense.

Also, be sure to set your park entrance and exit times right, because one time it had my part exit at 7 and even though I was going to be done with attractions by like 3, it made me wait 300 minutes at lunch to compensate. So it can be a little bit glitchy.

 

[ksinniger]

Agree with what everyone has said. You do need to go in and recalculate everything as close to your trip date as possible, because the wait times can change as attendance numbers change. Also, I have noticed that it consistently overestimates the time for the first ride in the morning (at rope drop). We are usually able to ride Everest (for example) 2-3 times in the time it says it should take us to ride it once.

But beware -- it can really be off on times too, and make you think you can get more done in a day than is actually possible.

 

[Laura's Dad]

Agree with what everyone has said. You do need to go in and recalculate everything as close to your trip date as possible, because the wait times can change as attendance numbers change. Also, I have noticed that it consistently overestimates the time for the first ride in the morning (at rope drop). We are usually able to ride Everest (for example) 2-3 times in the time it says it should take us to ride it once.

But beware -- it can really be off on times too, and make you think you can get more done in a day than is actually possible.

I see what you mean about the first attraction. We are doing a Pre-Park Opening ADR at the Crystal Palace starting at 8:05 am this coming Sunday. W plan to have the meal finished at rope drop at go to Peter Pan (we have FP+ for 7 Dwarfs Mine Train). Turning Plans has us waiting 29 minutes before the ride. I hope it is not that long at rope drop.

 

[Allison]

I have subscribed several times. I enjoy using it.

 

[cigar95]

One thing to remember is that the published plans have been tested and re-tested and adjusted and tweaked and . . . . . Whereas if you create a personalized plan and "Optimize", you get whatever the algorithm spits out, with no sanity checking.

I use the plans frequently, but I don't think I've ever used one directly as it came out of the optimizer. I always make rearrangements, and end up with preferable plans that actually take less projected time. (The optimizer uses a genetic algorithm, which will generally get you a good answer, but it isn't guaranteed to find the *best* solution.)

you also have to be ready to be flexible. Some of the items on your plan are going to be scheduled at specific times, so if you're running ten minutes late, you don't just see FotLK ten minutes later, you have to switch to a later show, and now you're adjusting the plan on the fly. Hence, it's good to review your plans in advance, to see where the hiccups might be and what you might do if they arise.

Another thing I tend to do is drop in two or three ten minute rest breaks, not because I plan to stop and rest, but because it gives me a buffer when stuff happens or something just takes longer than I expected. From my experience, when you start falling behind on a plan, it's really hard to catch up, especially since I engineer my plans to have not much slack time.

 

[Ariel on Land]

Good info here, thanks for asking! I've been playing around with it too, trying to figure if it will work or not. Like the PP commented about Peter Pan. It keeps telling me at rope drop, if I hit it first thing, I won't be out of there until after 9:40. That seems weird to me.

 

[SPOERLX3]

We use it but we make our own personal plan for each park. We set ours to very relaxed and I like going in an order instead of jumping all around so about 3 months before our trip, I put our TP together for each park, adding everything that we want to do and in the order in which we want to see/ride it. This gives me an idea of what rides I will need a FP for and what time I will want to get it. I add 1 FP to my TP at a time, since it will adjust the time for your next FP. When I get my actual FP, I add the exact time that my FP is for and tweek my plan. I never use the optimize button. I only use the evaluate button since I don't want my ride/attractions to move. Once I have everything in place, I go in and evaluate my plan about once per week to make sure that the wait times haven't changed. I have been using TP and this process for our past 5-6 trips and it has worked perfectly every trip EXCEPT one day at HS when the crowd calendar figured it on a crowd level of 3 and it was a 6 or 7. Once we realized the crowd level was so much larger, we cut out a couple of things that we didn't have to see and it worked out fine.

 

[cigar95]

Turning Plans has us waiting 29 minutes before the ride. I hope it is not that long at rope drop.

There's a way around that, if you're convinced the line at rope drop will not be as long: give the plan a phantom fast pass for your first attraction. If you want to be a bit cautious, set the starting plan to a bit later than park opening, maybe by five or ten minutes, if the FP wait seems too optimistic to you.
The plans don't care if you appear to have overlapping FP. They won't suggest them, but they won't keep you from putting them in yourself.
I find this especially the case for Peter Pan, where the line stays pretty short for a while before building up. We often do it first, so we can enjoy the new queue area at a leisurely pace.