Touring Plans New Look

[AnnaKristoff2013]

Hi folks! A couple of things:



We implemented two layouts for the crowd cal in the new UI. Click on "Row View" to see the classic calendar layout in the new UI:
View attachment 794355

And you get this:

View attachment 794357

Let me know if there's something on that version of the calendar that you're not seeing. We built that second version explictly for people who liked the current layout. And we're happy to keep updating it based on feedback - we want it to be usable, after all.

Right now, we're sending half of the site's traffic to the old version of the site and half to the new version. If you're familiar with the term "A/B testing", that's what we're doing.

The new UI addresses the two consistent pieces of feedback we got on the old site:

• It needed a "modern" look and feel
• It had to work better on phones

Use "n.touringplans.com" to get the new version of the site, or "c.touringplans.com" for the "classic" version.

We'll probably route all traffic over to the new UI in October. The old versions of the pages will still be available and the content will update automatically. All new functionality will be on the new pages.

Finally, let me know if you see anything amiss (or missing) on the new UI: len@touringplans.com. And thanks for the feedback.

Thank you for this explanation of how to bring back the original crowd calendar.

 

[dizneedoll]

I feel like TP did to their website what Disney has done to their hotel rooms...stripped it down to the bare bones and took all the fun of Disney out of it. I was hoping the update would be more along the lines of updating old photos and information.

 

[0FF TO NEVERLAND]

I hate it. Honestly makes me not want to use it ( still will though ). Tried to find the room locator the other day and the whole process just isn't as efficient. Hover over 4 things, get to the resort page which looks too zoomed in and barebones, find the place that says room finder, then that the page has big text and bold, etc. Everything is too bold and big. The resort pages I dislike most. Just my opinion

Then again, everything takes time to get use to

 

[Genie+]

In the room finder area the dropdown menu between floors in missing in the new version.

It used to be on the top right of resort building map image.



In the left hand options for Floor, it’s only ground or upper. The old style also had each individual floor accessible by the toggle top right.

@lentesta Am i missing something? I’ve searched but not finding where to pull up individual floors. Thanks!

 

[lentesta]

In the room finder area the dropdown menu between floors in missing in the new version.

It used to be on the top right of resort building map image.

View attachment 806157

In the left hand options for Floor, it’s only ground or upper. The old style also had each individual floor accessible by the toggle top right.

@lentesta Am i missing something? I’ve searched but not finding where to pull up individual floors. Thanks!

Hey Genie+ - thanks for tagging me in this.

On that first screen, the new UI and the old UI have exactly the same options. Here's the old UI for comparison:



You can still go floor-by-floor once you've selected a building. In the new UI, use the black "Floor" pop-up menu in the lower right corner of the screen (on desktops):



Let me know if that doesn't make sense. I'm pretty sure we tried to keep changes here to an absolute minimum.

Thanks again!

Len

 

[lentesta]

I feel like TP did to their website what Disney has done to their hotel rooms...stripped it down to the bare bones and took all the fun of Disney out of it. I was hoping the update would be more along the lines of updating old photos and information.

Thanks for the feedback, @dizneedoll.

 

[dizneedoll]

I d

Thanks for the feedback, @dizneedoll.

I don't hate it by any means, Len. But for example, room photos at WL are outdated. The rooms were updated several years ago and you guys still have old room photos. On a positive note, I do like how nice and big resort photos are now.

 

[lentesta]

This. Bring back the old crowd calendar!

I think if you click "Row View" on the right-hand side of the calendar, it shows the old row-oriented version of the site:



Gets this as a display:



We added that row-view functionality specifically because of feedback we got from long-time users who were (1) used to it; and (2) wanted to copy-paste the data into their own Excel spreadsheets.

Let me know if that doesn't make sense, please. Thank you!

 

[lentesta]

I d

I don't hate it by any means, Len. But for example, room photos at WL are outdated. The rooms were updated several years ago and you guys still have old room photos. On a positive note, I do like how nice and big resort photos are now.

Oh. Got new photos over the weekend and have given them to our guy Guy to load. Thank you!

 

[Genie+]

Hey Genie+ - thanks for tagging me in this.

On that first screen, the new UI and the old UI have exactly the same options. Here's the old UI for comparison:

View attachment 806167

You can still go floor-by-floor once you've selected a building. In the new UI, use the black "Floor" pop-up menu in the lower right corner of the screen (on desktops):

View attachment 806168

Let me know if that doesn't make sense. I'm pretty sure we tried to keep changes here to an absolute minimum.

Thanks again!

Len

Much appreciated! Thanks for the quick response. Somehow I missed that looking at BWV.

We’ve always loved TP. So many great services and love that our account holds all our past WDW trip details. We just added Disneyland for our first trip there tomorrow. Time to make a Touring Plan

 

[Mle8308]

Oh. Got new photos over the weekend and have given them to our guy Guy to load. Thank you!

I really like the new site design, much more modern looking and I think it's more intuitive. Sent in some photos from our September trip at Copper Creek, hope to see them posted!

 

[LandonDunes]

How accurate is Touring Plans crowd calendar? We are going on Nov 25-28 and the calendar is showing MK at a 5/10 or 6/10 for those days…which is great news. I’ve just seen some others at a 10/10 and it is T-Giving weekend so I’m hoping it’s the most accurate.

 

[AnnaKristoff2013]

I think if you click "Row View" on the right-hand side of the calendar, it shows the old row-oriented version of the site:

View attachment 806171

Gets this as a display:

View attachment 806173

We added that row-view functionality specifically because of feedback we got from long-time users who were (1) used to it; and (2) wanted to copy-paste the data into their own Excel spreadsheets.

Let me know if that doesn't make sense, please. Thank you!

Thank you, I posted that before I read your explanatory post. I can see it now.

 

[AnnaKristoff2013]

How accurate is Touring Plans crowd calendar? We are going on Nov 25-28 and the calendar is showing MK at a 5/10 or 6/10 for those days…which is great news. I’ve just seen some others at a 10/10 and it is T-Giving weekend so I’m hoping it’s the most accurate.

It’s generally pretty accurate. You can look at the “historical” crowd calendar versus the “predicted” crowd calendar to see how well they’ve done. Understand though, the crowd calendar is based on ride wait time benchmarks and not how crowded the park feels. For planning purposes, I don’t think individual park crowd levels are particularly useful, but overall crowd levels certainly are if you’re picking what time of year to go. The most useful part of a touringplans subscription in my opinion is the Lines app. I have generally found that to be +- 5 minutes of the actual ride wait time (unless there is a breakdown), and far more accurate than Disney’s wait time estimates.

 

[C&Jx2]

In the room finder area the dropdown menu between floors in missing in the new version.

It used to be on the top right of resort building map image.

View attachment 806157

In the left hand options for Floor, it’s only ground or upper. The old style also had each individual floor accessible by the toggle top right.

@lentesta Am i missing something? I’ve searched but not finding where to pull up individual floors. Thanks!

I noticed this too, but overall I like the changes! It doesn't look as chintzy to me. I think it's easier to navigate as well.

 

[lentesta]

I noticed this too, but overall I like the changes! It doesn't look as chintzy to me. I think it's easier to navigate as well.

We did SO MUCH TESTING on the navigation. Thank you.

 

[MinnieMSue]

Looked at the new site last night and liked it. When I put my next trip in a month or so ago it was the old version so I didn’t realize it had changed. I navigated around to a few areas and really enjoy the way it looks. More visually appealing. No issues finding what I wanted. Looked at my (upcoming trip ) hotel page. It is really cleaned up from the outdated info that used to be there. Played around with the room finder section which I often use with decent results and looked over the crowd calendar. No issues popped up for me. I’ve subscribed for many years to at least one or two parks offered. The lines app is my favorite aspect. I still need to take a peek at other areas like dining but like what I saw.

 

[mickeymom629]

How accurate is Touring Plans crowd calendar? We are going on Nov 25-28 and the calendar is showing MK at a 5/10 or 6/10 for those days…which is great news. I’ve just seen some others at a 10/10 and it is T-Giving weekend so I’m hoping it’s the most accurate.

I have purchased TP for years and have used it for many trips. Usually it is pretty accurate. HOWEVER, yesterday we went to MK because it was predicted to be a 3 on a day that was overall a 4. It was SOOOOO crowded yesterday and, thank goodness, we had G+. We had stacked a 2 rides for late arrival and it was almost as crowded as the busiest times. We have been here since Oct. 24 and this was the first time I have noticed that the predictions were completely wrong - . Today, TP says that 'what we saw' was overall a 4 but MK was a 6. We had been in MK on Sunday,October 29 and that WAS like a 1-3. Yesterday, no way. My family was teasing me about the '3' all day. On most of our trip so far, their predictions for the parks we were in were slightly higher than what ended up to be reality. Wednesday (HS) and Thursday (MK), we happened to be in the most crowded parks as it turned out but that was not the 'predictions'.

So use it as a guide/tool. I do recommend. I wish Disney would put out the numbers for how many guests have booked reservations so we could make our own predictions.

 

[LandonDunes]

I have purchased TP for years and have used it for many trips. Usually it is pretty accurate. HOWEVER, yesterday we went to MK because it was predicted to be a 3 on a day that was overall a 4. It was SOOOOO crowded yesterday and, thank goodness, we had G+. We had stacked a 2 rides for late arrival and it was almost as crowded as the busiest times. We have been here since Oct. 24 and this was the first time I have noticed that the predictions were completely wrong - . Today, TP says that 'what we saw' was overall a 4 but MK was a 6. We had been in MK on Sunday,October 29 and that WAS like a 1-3. Yesterday, no way. My family was teasing me about the '3' all day. On most of our trip so far, their predictions for the parks we were in were slightly higher than what ended up to be reality. Wednesday (HS) and Thursday (MK), we happened to be in the most crowded parks as it turned out but that was not the 'predictions'.

So use it as a guide/tool. I do recommend. I wish Disney would put out the numbers for how many guests have booked reservations so we could make our own predictions.

Thanks for the info. I’m going Nov 25-Nov 28 so I already know it’s going to be extremely crowded but if I utilize Early entry, Genie +, ILL and VQ, I’m not too worried about it. I was more concerned about ride wait times than I was about actual crowds. Thanks again.

 

[lentesta]

I have purchased TP for years and have used it for many trips. Usually it is pretty accurate. HOWEVER, yesterday we went to MK because it was predicted to be a 3 on a day that was overall a 4. It was SOOOOO crowded yesterday and, thank goodness, we had G+. We had stacked a 2 rides for late arrival and it was almost as crowded as the busiest times. We have been here since Oct. 24 and this was the first time I have noticed that the predictions were completely wrong - . Today, TP says that 'what we saw' was overall a 4 but MK was a 6. We had been in MK on Sunday,October 29 and that WAS like a 1-3. Yesterday, no way. My family was teasing me about the '3' all day. On most of our trip so far, their predictions for the parks we were in were slightly higher than what ended up to be reality. Wednesday (HS) and Thursday (MK), we happened to be in the most crowded parks as it turned out but that was not the 'predictions'.

So use it as a guide/tool. I do recommend. I wish Disney would put out the numbers for how many guests have booked reservations so we could make our own predictions.

I'm sorry about yesterday's MK prediction. We expected a 3 and it was a 6. That's the highest crowd level we've seen for a post-MNSSHP Thursday in the first week of November since at least 2015. I don't think there's any way the models would've predicted that, just based on history.

Our working hypothesis is that the MK is getting more visits from guests using the discounted tickets Disney's been offering. We're going to see if adding that to the models will help.

There were some significant instances of downtime in the MK yesterday:

• IASW was offline about 24% of the day
• Buzz (24%)
• BTMRR (23%)
• Pirates (20%)
• Peter Pan and Haunted Mansion with 10% each

We think about 8% of the park's overall ride capacity was unavailable, where 1-3% is typical. That doesn't explain the 3-point jump, though.

The rest of the park predictions were slight overestimates:

• EP: Predicted 5 was 3 (3% downtime)
• HS: 6 was 4 (5% downtime)
• AK: 4 was 3 (5% downtime)

Keep in mind that the crowd levels are tied to Disney's posted wait times. We use posted wait times because they're objective and transparent - everyone understands what 60 minutes means, for example, and you can verify yourself, without having to believe us, that Disney says the wait is 60 minutes.

That said, Disney's posted wait times are often inaccurate and in unpredictable ways. That introduces errors into the predictions and into the evaluations of what actually happened.