Your preferred pre-made touring plans?

speeb

Mouseketeer
Joined
Feb 12, 2016
Messages
256
For our upcoming trip, we have 3 adults (34, 40, 62) and 3 kids (4, 7, 9). I'm in charge of everything and I just want everyone to have a good time. Crowds can stress me out and put me in a really bad mood, great idea going to WDW, right?

Anyway, ADRs are procured (though I'm still on the lookout for an 8AM BOG if I can get it), park days are planned... but touring. I understand that as long as I go in with SOME plan, I'm better off than many people. That said, I know I need a plan to use as a guide. I've played around with building my own and using the tools on TouringPlans, but I'm still a little overwhelmed.

If you were going to use some pre-built touring plans, whose do you prefer? There are things I like about all the ones I've seen. Right now I'm leaning toward Kenny the Pirate's because I do want to fit in some character time. But there's also TouringPlans, easyWDW, WDW Prep School, and I'm sure many others.

Thoughts?
 
I don't follow any specific touring plan. I do use them as guidance. My reference is easywdw. I like the fact that Josh periodically follows hist touring plans and reports on how his experience differs from his plan.

I do not have any experience with Kenny's plans other than the character finder which is great.
 
I also use them as a guide (with EasyWDW as my main reference).

My goal in making touring plans is to never have longer than a 10 minute wait for any attraction, whie still being able to tour at a relaxed pace.

We usually do long trips of 8-12 nights, which gives us a lot of park days and allows us to split up the attractions in the bigger parks for different days (for example, we usually do at least 3 MK days and at least 2 EP days).

The combination of having many park days, arriving at rope drop, and using our 3 reserved FP+ per day, enables the creation of very workable home made touring plans that typically enable less than 10 minute waits for virtually every attraction (about the only time I have to wait more than 10 minutes for anything is when there's an unexpected closure for a very popular attraction).

Most days, we've done everything we planned to do in the park before 1 pm, and then it's time for relaxation at the resort pool.
 
I base my plans on the cheat sheets at easywdw.com. I just take out what doesn't interest me and keep the rest in order. I can plan an entire 10 day trip in a couple of hours and I very rarely have to wait in line for more than 20 minutes (and never more than 30.)
 

Thanks, I'll check out easyWDWs plans again! I like what I'm hearing though. I don't mind a 30 minute wait here and there, but naturally want to minimize that time.
 
When are you going to the parks? That will make a big difference in the crowds you see. If you are going the first week in September, then enjoy yourself and don't stress too much (but the major rides will still have 45 minute waits, so prebook them and ride them first thing if you want to ride more than once). If you will be in the Magic Kingdom on the Fourth of July or the day after Christmas, well, you're in for wall to wall people EVERYWHERE. Regardless of a touring plan, you will see 2 hour plus waits, and will be practically touching people as you walk and weave your way through the crowds from ride to ride.

In May, we had low to average crowds (3-6 on easywdw scale), and for regular days, time of day makes a bigger difference than anything else. Mornings will always be pretty free and easy, but even on "low" or "average" days, lines start to get longer and the crowds on the walkways get more congested towards lunchtime and in the afternoon. I was in a wheelchair our last trip (broken ankle and foot), so my DH had to wheel me around, and afternoons (and evenings around parade and fireworks times) were really frustrating for him because there were so many people, it was hard for him to wheel me around and keep people from hitting my booted, but still very sensitive, foot. People will cross right in front of you without thinking or looking. I guess they are just too caught up in the magic.

Touringplans' advice of an afternoon break can get you away from the madness. We would get 8:05am ADRs in the parks and be ready to leave about 5-10 minutes before park opening. We would be one of the first people in the parks and tour from 9am-2pm or so before leaving for an afternoon break. If you can swing it with your group, I would leave at 12pm and be totally free of the afternoon crowds, however, in reality, only 3 hours in the parks just doesn't quite feel like enough, so we would keep going until 2pm. However, those extra 2 hours were a lot more crowded. Our son was 4, almost 5, so we only did late nights a couple of times, but if you can go 3 hours in the morning and then relax all afternoon, and then coming back to the parks after dinner, your crowds will be a lot less than the 12-5pm time.

If you are staying on property, particularly with park hopper, my favorite thing to do is EMH in the morning and then park hop to a less busy park later in the day. All those things people tell you about avoiding EMH in all the literature assume 2 things: 1. you will not get to the parks 30 minutes plus early before EMH and position yourself at the front of the line or holding area, 2. you will be staying at the EMH park for the afternoon. KNOW THYSELF. If your group won't get out the door in the morning to be at the park right at opening, if not 30 minutes prior, then heed the standard advice. If you are morning people, or at least motivated in the morning, you are ahead of most people who are not motivated to get up an hour earlier on vacation, and you will have MUCH more free time in the park. My favorite days in the parks are semi-busy days where they open at 8am and have EMH starting at 7am. We got more done from 7-11am with no crowds than on any 9am-2pm day, by A LOT, and the walkways weren't crowded and lines were short until about 11am. 4 hours of free and clear touring was pretty awesome, and that's how I would like to do my vacations in the future. It even works on crazy days like Christmas where you can do as much as you can in 4 hours from 7am-11am as on a regular or low attendance day with a 9am opening, but I would GET OUT after 11am on Christmas unless you want to be a human sandwich.


As for which plan, I am am one of those crazy planners who uses/subscribes to all of the plans and services and reverse engineered the programs to get minute by minute wait times for every ride for my planned days. If you want a stock plan, I prefer easywdw in conjunction with his map of best times to hit different rides in case you want to switch a ride or two up in the plan. The problem with stock plans is that they are general and may not cater the the preferences of your group. The other problem is that you may not know the preferences of your group until they get there and actually ride the rides. I planned 2 days in the Magic Kingdom because my son was 4 and I assumed he would be like most 4 year olds and love the rides there. Turns out he LOVED DHS, particularly the Star Wars ride. We did Star Tours for 2 hours straight from 9-11pm one evening, with him just running off the exit and back into the line- no wait at that hour and because it is high capacity. We literally rode it as may times as his little feet could carry him until park closing. The next day in the Magic Kingdom, he just wanted to go back to DHS (I had ADRs in the park and didn't buy park hopper for our 5 day trip, so we didn't shell out the extra money to add on park hopper on our second to last day. We won't go again without park hopper). By this time, I was a walking touring plan program, so I knew which rides to do when from memory.

However, this is where a service like touringplans comes in handy. Sounds like you already have it, so if you bring a laptop or tablet that can run the program, just plug in what you think would be good for your next day in that park. Say your child wants to ride a single ride 5 times or more, but you want to add in others as well. Go ahead and plug that in and see what it spits out. Say you are all tired and don't want to get up early the next morning even though you committed to rope drop every day. Plug in an 11am arrival time and your preferred rides and see what happens.

Stock plans are great for an overview of the parks and first time visits. If you have 4 days, then follow those each day for each park. IF you have more days, do stock plans for the first time in each park, and then for your extra days, choose your park, pick your favorite rides and if you want to repeat them, and then see where the touringplan program takes you.
 














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