TouringPlans.com? Did the plan save you time?

[Ava]

I don't use the Optimize feature because it always has me crisscrossing the park more than I'd like, even if I set it to "minimize walking." But I will use the Evaluate feature to check the timing of my own plans. I use pre-made plans from various sites as a guide and tweak them to the specific rides/characters we want to see, so TP is helpful to see how my changes affect the timing of the plan.

 

[Fiddysmum]

My firs trip I spent at least 50 hours studying maps and working out a tour plan, and we went during a less busy season, but we still saw value in it. We are heading back next month to Disney and Universal and I popped for the touring plan, and it already saved me a ton of time. I tweaked it a bit, but I only spent maybe an hour this time. Lets see how it goes when I am there!

 

[soniam]

My firs trip I spent at least 50 hours studying maps and working out a tour plan, and we went during a less busy season, but we still saw value in it. We are heading back next month to Disney and Universal and I popped for the touring plan, and it already saved me a ton of time. I tweaked it a bit, but I only spent maybe an hour this time. Lets see how it goes when I am there!

I use the Universal one too. I find it to be more optimistic than the WDW one. I still like it, but I find we tend to be behind schedule a little sometimes at Universal; whereas, it seems we are usually ahead of schedule at WDW. We use Express Pass at Universal, and I think that it actually has longer waits than Touring Plans expects. They may also have more ride breakdowns, at least for Gringott's and Forbidden Journey. It's still worth it at Universal, but it just hasn't seemed as accurate as WDW.

 

[MaximumEd]

Maybe it's elsewhere, but I love the fact that they have (for paid subscribers) a Fast Pass avail. report well in advance for any future day that they update every night. A lot easier to use than the official Disney one (since it won't show you times if you already have an existing FP for that time) so you can get a sense of where the demand is and what activities you're better off selecting.

Where is the FP availability feature someone mentioned earlier? We've used TP for years and I've never noticed it.

 

[texasgingerbread]

Maybe it's elsewhere, but I love the fact that they have (for paid subscribers) a Fast Pass avail. report well in advance for any future day that they update every night. A lot easier to use than the official Disney one (since it won't show you times if you already have an existing FP for that time) so you can get a sense of where the demand is and what activities you're better off selecting.

Where is this???

 

[Abatts]

Where is the FP availability feature someone mentioned earlier? We've used TP for years and I've never noticed it.

https://touringplans.com/walt-disney-world/fastpass-availability

But all I can see is FP availability for party of 1.. not sure if you can change that?

 

[Abatts]

Where is this???

https://touringplans.com/walt-disney-world/fastpass-availability

But all I can see is FP availability for party of 1.. not sure if you can change that?

 

[MaximumEd]

Thanks!

 

[mshanson3121]

We're visiting WDW at the beginning of June. We have never visited during the summer. I have used touring plans.com many years ago but since then managed to make my own plans. Our last trip was October 2015 and the parks were definitely more crowded than previous trips.

So I'm thinking about subscribing to touring plans again. Do you think it saves your family time?

Short answer? Maybe.

We did a June trip (end of June), crowd levels 8, and 9s by the end (days before July 4). We were told by most here that touring plans were crucial to our trip, we couldn't possibly have success without them. So, I spent hours perfecting our daily touring plans.

We threw them out after the second day.

My thoughts?

Touring plans are great, if your only/main goal is to cram as many rides in as possible. If that's what you want, then yes, they're great.

But, if you actually want to be able to experience Disney, to stop and smell the roses, to enjoy the unexpected moments etc... then they're a waste of time quite honestly.

My advice is this: figure out which park you want to be in each day, look over the rides, decide which ones are must dos, and plan your FP+ accordingly. Get an idea of the park layout so that you're not running back and forth all over the place and arrive at rope drop. And really, that's it. Enjoy!

Our best memories were the ones that were not on the touring plans. Honestly, the rides are such a small part of what makes Disney, Disney. It's the details, the unexpected moments: like when we saw a cast training session character meet and greet, like when the kids saw Jessie & Woody and decided to stand in line 45 minutes to meet them, or when they saw Alice and the Rabbit and wanted to meet them, like when they decided to stop and play checkers on Tom Sawyers Island instead of rushing off to the next ride, or when they wanted to stop at every PhotoPass place possible for magic shots Catching the tail end of Dream Along with Mickey and stopping to watch that, instead of going on the ride, wanting to ride Tomorrowland Speedway twice in a row, or trying the Sword in the Stone and ending up getting a photo session with PhotoPass, being able to have a sword fight with the Tremaine family (I think that's who they were, lol). THOSE are the things that made our trip magical, being able to stop and let the children experience the magic when they wanted. There are just so many things that you can't plan on.

The first couple days I tried to keep us "on schedule", and it wasn't nearly as fun. In fact, just the other day this came up. We were talking about Chip n Dale and how the kids wanted to meet them. My son pipes up, "I saw them there, at Epcot! I wanted to meet them." I said, "Why didn't you say anything?" His answer? "You were rushing trying to get to a ride, and I was just trying to keep up." Yup. Real magical.

 

[chelynnah]

Short answer? Maybe.

We did a June trip (end of June), crowd levels 8, and 9s by the end (days before July 4). We were told by most here that touring plans were crucial to our trip, we couldn't possibly have success without them. So, I spent hours perfecting our daily touring plans.

We threw them out after the second day.

My thoughts?

Touring plans are great, if your only/main goal is to cram as many rides in as possible. If that's what you want, then yes, they're great.

But, if you actually want to be able to experience Disney, to stop and smell the roses, to enjoy the unexpected moments etc... then they're a waste of time quite honestly.

My advice is this: figure out which park you want to be in each day, look over the rides, decide which ones are must dos, and plan your FP+ accordingly. Get an idea of the park layout so that you're not running back and forth all over the place and arrive at rope drop. And really, that's it. Enjoy!

Our best memories were the ones that were not on the touring plans. Honestly, the rides are such a small part of what makes Disney, Disney. It's the details, the unexpected moments: like when we saw a cast training session character meet and greet, like when the kids saw Jessie & Woody and decided to stand in line 45 minutes to meet them, or when they saw Alice and the Rabbit and wanted to meet them, like when they decided to stop and play checkers on Tom Sawyers Island instead of rushing off to the next ride, or when they wanted to stop at every PhotoPass place possible for magic shots Catching the tail end of Dream Along with Mickey and stopping to watch that, instead of going on the ride, wanting to ride Tomorrowland Speedway twice in a row, or trying the Sword in the Stone and ending up getting a photo session with PhotoPass, being able to have a sword fight with the Tremaine family (I think that's who they were, lol). THOSE are the things that made our trip magical, being able to stop and let the children experience the magic when they wanted. There are just so many things that you can't plan on.

The first couple days I tried to keep us "on schedule", and it wasn't nearly as fun. In fact, just the other day this came up. We were talking about Chip n Dale and how the kids wanted to meet them. My son pipes up, "I saw them there, at Epcot! I wanted to meet them." I said, "Why didn't you say anything?" His answer? "You were rushing trying to get to a ride, and I was just trying to keep up." Yup. Real magical.

For me I generally use them as a guideline. I rarely use them strictly, and if something doesn't work, oh well. One day we will be following it pretty close on our upcoming trip, but that's because we're getting to the park late, and doing several shows (times set in stone) and an ADR, so it has to be done as the plan is laid out. The rest of the days we're there, I have fully organised as plans, but with a lot of room for last minute changes. I could never follow it strictly. But having created them, as others have said, gives us an idea of what is reasonable to expect we can accomplish in a day.

Regarding others who say they use Evaluate rather than Optimise, I do both. I have an idea how I would like a day to play out, I like to stick to areas, and not do a lot of criss-crossing. I know why sometimes it does that even when you choose minimise walking - it's because even with the walking time, it will be less overall walking/waiting to do when recommended rather than when the wait time increases later. I still don't want to cross the park.

So I plug in everything we would like to do, add our FPs and ADRs and Optimise. I have a look at how it comes together, and often it's mostly a good fit. So then I'll tweak the couple of things that want to try and make us cross cross, and then evaluate, and by using both it comes up with a pretty workable plan.

Plans change on the fly though if we check wait times and something becomes longer or shorter.

 

[bwbuddy5]

Both sides of the argument are correct. If you want to smell the roses, don't use it. If you are looking to maximize attractions per visit, it's invaluable.

 

[bwbuddy5]

I forgot, there's a great article about it in this month's edition of WDW Magazine.

 

[Abatts]

I love Touring Plans. I am very much a person who needs a plan laid out for me. Yes they are very specific. But we do not follow them with rigidity! If we want to stop for a snack, we do. If there's something to check out along the way, we stop and do that. I find that touring plans helps me see what is a reasonable amount of time for our activities and the best order. However we do not use them strictly... we allow ourselves to veer off the plan and go with the flow if the opportunity presents itself.

 

[sdomino11]

You CAN use the plans and still stop to smell the roses. Go off plan, chase some characters, ride something three times in a row... and then press optimize from inside the park. It'll take into account the new time, your new position in the park and give you the best option for your current situation. I wouldn't ever tour without TP, no matter how many roses I plan on smelling!

 

[mshanson3121]

You CAN use the plans and still stop to smell the roses. Go off plan, chase some characters, ride something three times in a row... and then press optimize from inside the park. It'll take into account the new time, your new position in the park and give you the best option for your current situation. I wouldn't ever tour without TP, no matter how many roses I plan on smelling!

To each their own. We had a very successful trip as first timers at a very busy time without them. I have no interest in being tied to my phone, optimizing plans etc... on vacation.

I think the vast majority of Disney visitors don't use them. I think the vast majority of this forum (which represents a small minority of the park's visitors) use them, because most of the people here are Disney fanatics which have a different mindset than your average guest.

 

[bwbuddy5]

I think the vast majority of Disney visitors don't use them. I think the vast majority of this forum (which represents a small minority of the park's visitors) use them, because most of the people here are Disney fanatics which have a different mindset than your average guest.

I would agree with that, but that's why they work. If everyone used them, it would be a moot point. That's why we come to these boards, to get a leg up on those who don't research.

 

[candygirl75]

I love Touring Plans but have only used it for WDW. I know they have a Universal section also. We're doing both for our trip in August. Will I get access to both areas of the website when I sign up or do you sign up specifically for one set of parks only?

 

[mshanson3121]

I would agree with that, but that's why they work. If everyone used them, it would be a moot point. That's why we come to these boards, to get a leg up on those who don't research.

Lol. Maybe so. Though my point was more that the vast majority have a great trip without them. But I also think they have a different mindset and either don't realize what they may be missing, or just don't care and are content to do what they do. Whereas people here are more aware of all there is and want to see and do it all.

 

[100AcreWood]

I love Touring Plans. I am very much a person who needs a plan laid out for me. Yes they are very specific. But we do not follow them with rigidity! If we want to stop for a snack, we do. If there's something to check out along the way, we stop and do that. I find that touring plans helps me see what is a reasonable amount of time for our activities and the best order. However we do not use them strictly... we allow ourselves to veer off the plan and go with the flow if the opportunity presents itself.

My only concern with the optimize plan is criss-crossing the park too much. I definitely want to be strategic and avoid wearing everyone out with too much walking. Thoughts on that?

 

[mshanson3121]

My only concern with the optimize plan is criss-crossing the park too much. I definitely want to be strategic and avoid wearing everyone out with too much walking. Thoughts on that?

There's a button where you can select "reduce walking", so even though it automatically optimizes, it does take into account that you don't want to do as much back and forth criss-crossing. You can also select walking speed, to slower, if you need to travel slower for children, older people etc...