Touringplans.com "personalized" tool - 3 questions?

[carpeperdiem]

New to touringplans.com membership and the personalized touringplan wizard - pretty amazing tool!

3 questions:

1. If you want to add more time to an event, such as a forced potty break prior to a parade or more time on Tom Sawyer island (only 30 min default) or let the kids run around for more than 15 mins in honey I shrunk the kids -- how can I add more time to a specific event? I know I can add a "break", but how can I link it to the prior or next event. I know I can drag it around, and even specify the exact time, but if the wizard moves attractions around the timeline, the break is fixed at the time entered. IS THERE a trick to making a specific event longer? I basically want to slow the day down and allow more time for kids being kids, character greetings, etc...

2. If you know you want to reorder 2 events and live with the results, there doesn't seem a way to do it. For example, for HS, if I want to start at Toy Story no matter what the touring plan suggests, is there a trick to override what the computer says? Google Maps allow you to select a route that is longer, but faster. Or shorter distance, but more time required. In my case, I want to get to top-3 HS attractions with a 4 & 9 year old. We will child swap -- but touringplans wants us to start with the 2 attractions that my 4 year old can not go on -- it's not fair to her that for the first hour of our day, she has zero minutes of attractions. I want to force the touring plan to start us at Toy Story at the expense of the rest of the day. And I will have to live with that. Regardless if this is smart or not, I want to run the numbers. Is there a way to ask touringplans to do the math?

3. Touringplans.com assumes that a family will be awake at 9pm. If our family (2 girls 4 & 9) is gonna make park entry @ 8am, the kids will be sleeping by 8:30pm night before. Allow time for dinner/bath and maybe a pool dip before or after dinner, and we have to leave the parks by 5pm or so. If I want to do a 2-day MK plan, 8a-5p, 2 days, touringplans does not really have a starting place for me. I do not want to "take a 3hr break" mid-day. Although we are staying near DD/LBV, and we will have a rental car, and don't mind paying for parking, the idea of leaving the park for 2-3 hours, just to come back and have to leave again, is not our thing. My kids will be sleeping before 9pm or there will not be a tomorrow in any park. What would you do for a 2-day plan with a hard-out at 5pm. This is going to be during Easter week... yes, I know crowd levels will be at maximum. That's why I want to allow extra time here and there and not force a dumbo-or-die touring plan on my family.

PS -- New Fanatasyland does not appear to be in the touringplan math just yet. What are others doing to compensate?

Thanks in advance for any touringplan.com guidance.

 

[lizabu]

For 1. You could set it to the slowest walking speed.

For 2. You can manually drag the event you want to the top of the list and then evaluate rather than optimize.

For 3. Just don't take the break if you don't want it. You can just keep going if you want to.

 

[Tarheel girl 1975]

For 1. You could set it to the slowest walking speed.

For 2. You can manually drag the event you want to the top of the list and then evaluate rather than optimize.

For 3. Just don't take the break if you don't want it. You can just keep going if you want to.

You can also change the end time for your plan.

 

[rharper1496]

3. Touringplans.com assumes that a family will be awake at 9pm. If our family (2 girls 4 & 9) is gonna make park entry @ 8am, the kids will be sleeping by 8:30pm night before. Allow time for dinner/bath and maybe a pool dip before or after dinner, and we have to leave the parks by 5pm or so. If I want to do a 2-day MK plan, 8a-5p, 2 days, touringplans does not really have a starting place for me.

Go to the top of your plan and hit Edit, it will let you change the end time.

 

[ForMyBoys]

I'm not aware of a way to link an extra break to an attraction or to make it longer. You can set it to the slow walk speed, but you have to be sure to click that option every time before you hit evaluate.

Here is what I did. I put all the attractions we wanted to see and hit optimize to see what it told us to do. I then shifted some of it around the way I wanted (I tried to follow the optimized plan where we could) and once it was all shifted I hit evaluate to see where it left me. After I had it lined up right I added the breaks where I wanted them and added various notes to myself etc. Just be careful not to hit optimize after you've shifted it all around because it will screw it up. Just use the evaluate option. For the rides not listed at fantasyland you can just add the time in as a break, but you'll have to estimate length as I'm not sure there is much data out there re: expected ride times.

Also as PPs have mentioned you can change your end time, but not sure it matters, if you have selected the right starting time and put in only the attractions you'll really have time for it should show your day ending at around 5 anyway then it will just show alot of extra time at the end. Probably not a big deal.

A few things that frustrate me about the touring plans: 1) for HS you can not pick signing up for Jedi training and the actual Jedi training. I had to manually add that all in via notes and such. 2) There is no way to put two steps at the same time. For instance I wanted me and my 2 younger ones to do the clubhouse mickey mouse show while dh and older ds ride rock n' roller coaster but it won't let you do that. It would be nice if you could show split steps for your party to get an idea of wait times for that time of the day, but maybe that is too advanced and I'm being too picky. To be honest there are quite a few things I would add to the personalized plans if I could. For instance it would rock if it would list restraunts that are close by to where you are in the park, instead I had to separately look that up. Maybe someone who works on those will read this post I would pay more money for more options

 

[carpeperdiem]

Ah... "evaluate" vs. "optimize" -- Thanks.
Still learning.
Yes, to splitting the family -- I tried making an alternate touringplan so my wife can take the 4yo, but that's hit or miss.

It's an incredibly powerful tool and I am learning so much.
Thanks for the suggestions.