Touring Plans

[DisneyDoesMyHair]

I’m wondering why TP has 7DMT later in the day and not first thing?
It suggests hitting Pirates and Jungle at 8am. I don’t understand this, as 7 Dwarfs line can only
Get longer after RD....

It may be your settings. Are you set to a balance of walk/wait, or reduced wait times? Pirates and Jungle are slow loading boat rides. Once their wait times peak, they remain consistently high through most of the day. If you knock them out early, you will have the shortest wait times for those two rides.

 

[mickey+minnie91]

I’m wondering why TP has 7DMT later in the day and not first thing?
It suggests hitting Pirates and Jungle at 8am. I don’t understand this, as 7 Dwarfs line can only
Get longer after RD....

ive been wondering the exact same thing. seems odd compared to what ive read about doing 7dwarfs first thing

 

[Akck]

Everyone goes to 7 Dwarfs first thing. If you go the other way, Jungle and Pirates will likely be walk-on rides. 7 Dwarfs at RD can be a 20-40 minute wait.

 

[lentesta]

I’m wondering why TP has 7DMT later in the day and not first thing?
It suggests hitting Pirates and Jungle at 8am. I don’t understand this, as 7 Dwarfs line can only
Get longer after RD....

My suggestion is always to re-optimize your plan before you get to the park, and after the first attraction. That may change the order of the steps, based on what we've learned since the last time the plan was optimized.

As to why 7DMT appears later in the day, it's a question of how much all the other lines are getting longer while you're in line for 7DMT. For example, if you save 40 minutes by visiting 7DMT first thing, but lost 20 minutes at Pirates and 25 minutes at JC, that's not a great trade-off.

 

[dznylvr68]

Currently here this week, we noticed that both Jungle and Pirates only load about half the boat. Also, Jungle takes time (I think once on the hour) to send the boats around the entire ride as the skipper cleans the boat. We were in line right after a heavy rain with a 20 minute wait time on the board and very few people behind us. It took 30 minutes to get on as we ”caught” the 3:00p cleaning (they’ll announce it on the PA/Radio broadcast in line) and the line swelled to 50 minutes and back to the Tree House.

7DMT line moves pretty consistently, we entered the line all the way around the back side near Little Mermaid and were on the ride in 30 Min +/- even though the MDE app stated 50 minutes.

 

[g3pak]

Here's what I suggest: Make a copy of that plan. On the copy, move the attractions into the order in which you think they should appear. Then click 'Evaluate' to see what the software thinks your wait, walk, and free time should be.

One of the things the software does is penalize plans that cut it too close to things like meal, break, and show arrival times. So while it's possible to build your own plan that has you diving through the doors at Frozen just as the show starts, which would get you a zero-minute wait, the software's going to try really hard not to do that. We don't show those penalties on the plan, but they're there.

I have been experimenting since this incredible advice yesterday. Very valuable stuff. Thank you again!

Following this advice, once I started adjusting the order and hitting Evaluate, I would work on the first few steps, then when I liked what I saw with wait times and other factors, I would leave those things alone and move on. If I changed the order for another attempt, I would not change the plan from the beginning up to the point I was confident it was good. Almost like a puzzle or game.

 

[BayGirl22]

I have been experimenting since this incredible advice yesterday. Very valuable stuff. Thank you again!

Following this advice, once I started adjusting the order and hitting Evaluate, I would work on the first few steps, then when I liked what I saw with wait times and other factors, I would leave those things alone and move on. If I changed the order for another attempt, I would not change the plan from the beginning up to the point I was confident it was good. Almost like a puzzle or game.

This is the most fun part of trip planning. It can fill the last month before the trip.

 

[wings91]

I use the reservation finder. Works great

 

[Bebacksoon]

I have used Touring plans for years and have always found them to be pretty accurate. I always used the app in the parks, however, the app has changed since I last used it. Now, you can't see any step "notes" you add to your plan on the app. I don't know why they changed it, but I really miss the old version.

 

[Pookie9922]

I used it for our trip in 2018. It was supposed to be a once-and-done trip, so running all sorts of scenarios through TP allowed me to get a feel for how much we'd actually be able to accomplish. I also wanted avoid criss-crossing the park which wastes so much time.
I loved going into the trip prepared! It was scary how accurate it was. I remember one day I looked at my plan about 2 in the afternoon and we were on schedule to the minute! I worked in extra time for bathroom breaks and for flexbility so my family didn't feel like I was a drill instructor. Our trip went perfectly - there wasn't a single thing we missed that we had wanted to do. Best $15 I every spent!
The trip went so well that our once-and-done trip ended up just being trip #1. Going back in Spring 2022! And that one will have the extra challenge of coordinating my family's time and my BIL/SIL/MIL/niece time too! Can't wait to start overanalyzing!

 

[jbrinkm]

Am I the only TP Geek feeling very validated that Len endorses the "Evaluate" method of planning?

Or is it reverse psychology? If you Optimize and it seems funny - then you can go and try to do better yourself, and find out that 40 IS less than 20+25!

 

[mickey+minnie91]

Is there a way in the app to check off the rides as you go ?

 

[Welsh_Dragon]

Is there a way in the app to check off the rides as you go ?

Yes.

 

[Katie Dawn]

Is there a way in the app to check off the rides as you go ?

Yep!
When you're in the park you can use Touring Plan's app, called "Disney World Lines by Touring Plans". You'll have your plan for the day loaded on the app (in a smart phone friendly view/format), and if you'd like you can mark off each attraction as you go. Also, after you mark it done you can have the app re-evaluate your plan to get the most up to date wait time estimates. You don't HAVE to do these things, you could just bring your plan and do the next thing on the list, but we always do as the app knows which rides have gone down (or other unexpected events that impact typical wait times) that morning and can re-adjust wait times based on that, which gives you a more accurate prediction for the day.

 

[zebrastreyepz]

I don't go to Disney without them. I've found them to be extremely helpful.

 

[sethschroeder]

Any tips on how to optimize the use of their service?

Create your daily todo list by putting in all of the rides you want to get on. Then optimize your own plan for a good idea on when to visit rides, how long things will take, and start roughly planning your day.

Then read this forum or elsewhere to see what you should be hitting first. As an example even though the plan may say one thing you potentially are going to want to start out going to 7DMT if you are one of the first people in the park. Flip side if you show up 15 mins before park opening (but actually 15-30 mins after the parked really opened) you likely will want to skip 7DMT to start your day.

TouringPlans is great as getting a rough idea for the day, optimizing while in the park to get an idea of what to go to next, as well as being able to see what historical wait times look like as you approach your actual trip.

Also I will leading up to the trip make a tour plan that I manually put in order of how I think we will attack the park for the day.

 

[jbrinkm]

Create your daily todo list by putting in all of the rides you want to get on.

This is pretty easy to do when you first set up your customized plan (although you can also select & copy one of their recommended, pre-filled plans). There is a list of everything, and you just go down indicating how many times you want to visit each attraction. Just make sure you notice the tab for shows (I think that is the second tab before clicking "next" for meals)? I know there aren't many shows right now, but I almost overlooked it the first time, and there are a few things there to add if you want.

After I've initially set it up, I like looking at the ratings of the attractions and adding steps to my plans from there. I tend to lose track just using "add attractions" from the steps page. The ratings page lets you know if you've added that item or not.

 

[bsmcneil]

Something I'm wondering - is there a way that Touring Plans can be adjusted for things like Boo Bash? For instance, I can't optimize or evaluate because I said I wanted to stay at MK until midnight (when it closes at 8:30). Given the number of parties/after hour events, I'd be surprised if this has escaped the folks at TP - but I'm not figuring out how to do it (on the same subject - it would be awesome if you could add in things like trick or treat, etc. I've worked around it by labeling them breaks, but it would still be super helpful).

 

[Katie Dawn]

Something I'm wondering - is there a way that Touring Plans can be adjusted for things like Boo Bash? For instance, I can't optimize or evaluate because I said I wanted to stay at MK until midnight (when it closes at 8:30). Given the number of parties/after hour events, I'd be surprised if this has escaped the folks at TP - but I'm not figuring out how to do it (on the same subject - it would be awesome if you could add in things like trick or treat, etc. I've worked around it by labeling them breaks, but it would still be super helpful).

Hi bsmcneil
There's actually a forum on the Touring Plan's website that can help with technical questions like this. You'll need to log in of course, but I think tijs will take you to the Disney World part of the forum:

https://forum.touringplans.com/c/walt-disney-world

 

[bsmcneil]

Hi bsmcneil
There's actually a forum on the Touring Plan's website that can help with technical questions like this. You'll need to log in of course, but I think tijs will take you to the Disney World part of the forum:

https://forum.touringplans.com/c/walt-disney-world

Thank you - I hadn't seen that!