TouringPlans.com

[WalkerFamily072906]

Does anyone subscribe to the touring website? Do you use the personalized touring plans?

What are your thoughts. I had originally planned to go straight to Peter Pan. But personalized touring plan has it like this: it states that peter pan would be a good place for FP, so why wouldnt I go first. I plan/hope to get FP for Minetrain, Belle and anna&Elsa.

Your Plan Steps
STEP ARRIVAL WAIT DURATION FREE TIME WALK TIME

1) The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh

9:11am
2) Peter Pan's Flight

9:25am
3) Under the Sea ~ Journey of the Little Mermaid

9:52am
4) Meet Ariel at Her Grotto

10:10am
5) Rest
10:30am for 20 minutes
** Staying inside the park
Notes: snack break 10:35am 0 20 0 0

6) Dumbo the Flying Elephant

7) The Barnstormer

11:07am
8) Enchanted Tales with Belle
Uses your FastPass+ reservation.

12:00pm 4 20 0 3
9) Mickey's PhilharMagic

12:27pm
10) Columbia Harbour House
1:00pm for 40 minutes 12:50pm

11) it's a small world

1:32pm
12) Seven Dwarfs Mine Train
Uses your FastPass+ reservation.

2:01pm 9 3 0 2
13) Prince Charming Regal Carrousel

2:15pm 0 2 0 1
14) Meet Anna and Elsa at Princess Fairytale Hall
Uses your FastPass+ reservation.

2:18pm
15) Cinderella's Royal Table
5:00pm for 60 minutes 4:50pm 0 60 0 12

PLAN TOTALS: 531
TOTAL 106
IN LINE 202
BUSY 171
FREE 52
WALKING

 

[WalkerFamily072906]

This is strange. So When I change the dinner reservation I hop t to get for Royal Table to 4pm instead of 5pm the touring plan optimizes it and puts peter pan 11th, but says it would be a good place to have a FP. I dont want to use one of my 3 FP on it why wouldn't I just go first think at RD?

What are ppls thoughts? I'm am a research analyst and write computer code so using this to map my trip is just pretty cool to me LOL, but I also know to question computer analysis with real experiences.

STEP ARRIVAL WAIT DURATION FREE TIME WALK TIME
1) The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh

9:11am 5
2) Dumbo the Flying Elephant

9:24am
3) The Barnstormer

9:32am
4) Under the Sea ~ Journey of the Little Mermaid

9:42am
5) Meet Ariel at Her Grotto

9:58am
6) Prince Charming Regal Carrousel

10:24am
7) Rest
10:30am for 20 minutes
** Staying inside the park
Notes: snack break 10:29am 0 20 0 0

8) it's a small world

10:49am 7 14 45 5
9) Enchanted Tales with Belle
Uses your FastPass+ reservation.

12:00pm
10) Columbia Harbour House
1:00pm for 40 minutes 12:50pm

11) Peter Pan's Flight

1:32pm
12) Mickey's PhilharMagic

2:11pm
13) Seven Dwarfs Mine Train
Uses your FastPass+ reservation.

2:28pm
14) Meet Anna and Elsa at Princess Fairytale Hall
Uses your FastPass+ reservation.

2:41pm
15) Cinderella's Royal Table
4:00pm for 60 minutes 3:50pm 0 60 0 12

PLAN TOTALS: 471
TOTAL 106
IN LINE 202
BUSY 111
FREE 52
WALKING

 

[laeeyore]

I also subscribed to the TP website for the personalized plan and was also equally confused. With my MK plan they had me doing things like the carousel, and Philharmagic first thing in the morning and the suggested I go to 7DMT in the afternoon with no FP. It made very little sense when I first started using it. I did find that when I minimized walking that helped sort the attractions a little bit more sensibly. Second, I used to evaluate button much more than the optimize button after I had put the attractions into an order that seemed reasonable to me. Finally I just recently picked my FP+ this weekend and once I had that down and went back and inputted those times it seemed to make the whole TP come together much more easily. I cant really say why but I now have several plans that seems to make sense to me and work logically with the FP+ that I have. I did find myself going back and rearranging some FP+ to go with the TP but it all came together much better than when I started.
Good Luck!

 

[BigMommaMouse]

Try not to over think it. I think Peter is a good ride to do first. We do touring plans but also the "cheat sheets" over on easywdw. Best is to tour in a way
that your family likes. One thing a FP for mine train is a must, that line gets way to long. Anna and Elsa are a must too.For Bell we went early and got right in.

 

[GillianP1301]

Have you tried not entering any fastpasses and then optimizing? It would be interesting to see which 3 it recommends for FP+. I'm wondering if it's trying to say that the FP may be of more time savings on PP than one of your others?

I do like touringplans, but I find I use it along with the knowledge I already have to get the most out of it. I tend to do an optimized view first and then shuffle around based on my own knowledge and then just tweak it by having it re-evaluate my changes until it's looking how I want it.

 

[Ava]

I'm also a first time TouringPlans user and had to play around with it a bit until I understood how it works. Change the slider to "Minimize Walking" and it will put attractions in a more sensible order. If you have it set to "Balanced" or "Minimize Waiting" it will have you running all over the park to catch the shortest wait times.

What I've been doing is choosing all the attractions/shows I want, putting in my TS meal times since I already have ADRs, putting in an afternoon break from ~1-4pm outside the park, and then optimizing it. Then if I don't like how the computer has arranged things, I'll move the attractions into the order I want them, then hit "Evaluate" to see how the timing plays out. I haven't booked FP+ yet but if there are some I know I want (like 7DMT) I'll put those in as well.

Kenny the Pirate is working on a touring plans feature for his Character Locator that I'm excited about, because probably my biggest gripe with TP is that the only way to account for character greetings that aren't FP-enabled is to put them in as an in-park "break" and you can't set the location so the travel times are off. (Okay, my other gripe is that you can't choose specific times for the shows, you just have to move them around in your attraction order and hope that the computer figures out which showtime you are aiming for.)

 

[threeboysmom]

I am an EXTREME planner and know that I have "issues" following anyone else's itinerary, lol, but I bought a subscription to Touring Plans anyways - figured it would at least give me some added fun during the trip planning phase.

I tried the "Optimize" once and absolutely did NOT like the plan they put together for me. TP had me doing things that just didn't make any sense to me. I find it works much better for me if I manually add the attractions I want to see in the order I want to do them and my fast pass times, etc. and then click "Evaluate" instead. That being said, it still is very fun to keep playing around with it.

 

[scoobydooby]

The best way to use it is to put all the attractions you want it with your set meal times and park start and end times, evaluate and optimise. Then see what it suggests for FPP and try and book around the suggestions.

 

[WalkerFamily072906]

Thanks
I am getting a bit more comfortable with it...really liking the evaluate button LOL. And yes I stopped putting in FP until after. I'm not close to my 60 day window so I've made some changes based on the website. I like it but it def is still based on my own preference and limited knowledge- haven't been for years!

 

[GWhitten98]

I like TP a lot as it lets me see length of time/wait time etc. and helps me visual with the maps/lists, but I normally don't stick with there optimized version. I find the same thing you are which is that it does not always make common sense to me based on what I know about touring DW parks. I normally put everything in and hit optimize once, then I will adjust individual items and use the evaluate button.

 

[cigar95]

Semi-OT, but a heads-up - one can create personalized plans at TouringPlans without subscribing. You do have to sign up for a *free* account, but you don't need a paid subscription.