Walking Distance with Touring Plans

[sowkit]

Disney Newbie here. We'll be in WDW in about 45 days and I'm reviewing the plans in touringplans. They don't appear to be optimized by walking distance at all. Is there a reason for this? How bad is it going to be if I just visit one area of the park and complete all the rides of interest there instead of walking back and forth multiple times?

 

[ChloesDaddy]

Disney Newbie here. We'll be in WDW in about 45 days and I'm reviewing the plans in touringplans. They don't appear to be optimized by walking distance at all. Is there a reason for this? How bad is it going to be if I just visit one area of the park and complete all the rides of interest there instead of walking back and forth multiple times?

Their plans are optimized on total time to complete the plan, so they can have you zig-zagging quite a bit. When I’ve used Touring Plans, I’ve used the app to create my own customized plans following more of the approach that you’re describing and seeing what possibilities exist for line skipping (fast pass back in the day, and G+/LL now). It takes some work, and I really use it more to get an idea of what is doable than as an explicit step-by-step plan. Others have used their predetermined plans and had success. It just depends on what your objectives are.

 

[scrappinginontario]

There is an option in TPs to select waiting over walking which minimizes walking. It’s a slider so you can choose what works for your family. See the second slider below:

 

[Stratman50th]

Are you looking for raw distance, or has your question already been answered?
If you are looking for distance Google Maps has a measuring tool that works cross country or at street level. Pretty sure phones won't do it because it requires a right click, but open Google Maps, right click on your desired start location and go to the very last menu item on the list which should be measure distance. Just move along your route of travel by clicking the mouse and it will add the distance graph in feet/miles/Km.

 

[nicksinger8]

Disney Newbie here. We'll be in WDW in about 45 days and I'm reviewing the plans in touringplans. They don't appear to be optimized by walking distance at all. Is there a reason for this? How bad is it going to be if I just visit one area of the park and complete all the rides of interest there instead of walking back and forth multiple times?

If you want to minimise waits in line follow the pre made plans and keep refreshing the App to get updates. I just came back (I was there the last two weeks of August). Didn't stand in line for more than 15 minutes 85% of the time. You have to use their strategies for Genie + too and sometimes you just cannot avoid standing in line with the current situation at Disney. But those plans will ensure you see most of what you want to see. Staying in a land is likely to be a bad idea unless you have a lot of time to spread your visits. For example, we did Fantasyland in one morning, but we had 3 mornings and one evening. As other have said you can customise it.

 

[_19disnA]

If you have never been to Disney, good to understand that the parks are HUGE and can involve miles of walking. Zig-zagging from one end of the park to another just to catch a ride that supposedly has a shorter line may not be the best approach and can add significantly to that mileage. On peak park days when some areas are wall-to-wall people, it will take a LOT more time to get somewhere else then you would expect from just looking at a map.

 

[ande2428]

We usually pick 3 - 5 must dos and try to knock them out early when the park opens. Using lightning lanes easily took care of that for us last trip. From there we just hit anything else that was available knowing that lines get longer through the day until fireworks start. However if you all don’t care for the fireworks that is also an ideal time to hit a couple stray rides too. Good luck and most importantly, HAVE FUN!!!!