Touring Plans park plans

I've had terrible luck with touring plans. We traveled to DW 2/4-2/9. Crowds were predicted to be a 4-6. I spent lots and lots and lots of time inputing my plans and having them optimize them. Their plans were WAY off. For instance, they would predict 10 minutes for its a small world early in the morning. Actual wait time: 50 min. This happened over and over. In my experience, it was totally useless and in fact got our hopes up for short wait times and then they were off by huge margins.
I have never seen It's a Small World have a 50 minute wait in the morning. It has usually been about a 5 or 10 minutes or walk on for us.
 
I should add, I don’t rely on any one touring plan like it’s gospel. Rides close, weather changes, and any other number of things can happen. Many times I’ve planned to go right to Test Track first thing and it’s closed. Or, I’ve planned to go to Dumbo later on and there’s lightning in the area so it’s closed, then I have to circle back later if it was the last thing we were doing in Fantasyland. Then the nearby rides are also busier, and I’m trying to dodge a rain storm. The key is to be flexible and roll with these things or it’s just a set-up for disappointment.
 


We've had great success with TP the many times we've used them for WDW and DL. Am using them again for our March/April trip. We tend to stick with the plans for early morning and later at night. After lunch we are more spontaneous...sometimes we want ti go back to the resort, sometime not. Always been accurate for us.
 
I am trying to set ours up for our coming trip- I know that many folks recommend RD certain rides if you can't get a FP, but TP never seems to optimize that way.
Ie- it does not have any of the TSL rides back to back, but has RnR, then SDD, then a show etc!
What is more logical- follow the plan or follow what people say works best?

Last time, I literally only used it to say "this ride has a 15 minute wait" and we would go to it.
 


This does not seem right on a day that there is EMM. Is this because Wednesday is historically low for HS right now?
I would think we should RD SDD to get a 30 min wait!
I mean, my son wants to ride RnR first, so should we just trust this and see how it pans out? We have no FP for TSL right now.
Screen Shot 2019-02-16 at 1.47.44 PM.png

"EMM" stands for Early Morning Magic.
That is not to be confused with, nor considered to the same as "EMH" (Extra Magic Hour.)

EMM does not affect the crowd-levels at the parks.
 
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I might try this instead of touring plans. Are the wait times reasonably accurate?

He tests them so as long as you're not going at a super busy time they're probably pretty good.

I am trying to set ours up for our coming trip- I know that many folks recommend RD certain rides if you can't get a FP, but TP never seems to optimize that way.
Ie- it does not have any of the TSL rides back to back, but has RnR, then SDD, then a show etc!
What is more logical- follow the plan or follow what people say works best?

Last time, I literally only used it to say "this ride has a 15 minute wait" and we would go to it.

They assume you will not be at the front of the pack and as such don't want you waiting in an hour line at RD. If you are at the head of the pack do the biggest headliner first and then follow the plan. If you're pretty far back in the pack then follow the tp.
 
He tests them so as long as you're not going at a super busy time they're probably pretty good.



They assume you will not be at the front of the pack and as such don't want you waiting in an hour line at RD. If you are at the head of the pack do the biggest headliner first and then follow the plan. If you're pretty far back in the pack then follow the tp.

Awesome- so, take this plan and see if we can RD and be at the front, hit the headliner and then "optimize" and follow the plan? I doubt we will get FPs for any headliner and as much as we would love to RD- we are NOT morning people.
 
This does not seem right on a day that there is EMM. Is this because Wednesday is historically low for HS right now?
I would think we should RD SDD to get a 30 min wait!
I mean, my son wants to ride RnR first, so should we just trust this and see how it pans out? We have no FP for TSL right now.
View attachment 382852

"EMM" stands for Early Morning Magic.
That is not to be confused with, nor considered to the same as "EMH" (Extra Magic Hour.)

EMM does not affect the crowd-levels at the parks.
There's no way SDD will be only a 36 minute wait at 10am. I would say you'd be looking at 90 minutes that time of day. I love Touring Plans but that's definitely not right.
 
There's no way SDD will be only a 36 minute wait at 10am. I would say you'd be looking at 90 minutes that time of day. I love Touring Plans but that's definitely not right.

That's what I was thinking- even on a 5/10 crowd day, I would assume over an hour.
 
I think a moderator combined my post there-

I know what EMM is.
I did not know it would not affect RD times since there would actually be X number of people ALREADY in the parks. I guess it is because they would have already been there and rode things and then moved on?
 
I think a moderator combined my post there-

I know what EMM is.
I did not know it would not affect RD times since there would actually be X number of people ALREADY in the parks. I guess it is because they would have already been there and rode things and then moved on?

Yeah, it’s definitely not going to impact TSL waits at RD because they will have done all those rides and be heading out of the land to avoid the crowds coming in.

And it’s a pretty small number of people relative to park capacity, so even if they all jumped in line for RNRC at 8:45 it wouldn’t be a giant hold up—but they don’t, because some will go have breakfast, some will go to ToT or Star Tours, etc. (And many may have young kids who can’t do RNRC too)
 
EMM is a small guest count - probably something in the 600’ish range or somewhere around there. Other than lingering guests for characters, most want nothing to do with the rope drop crowd and are heading in the opposite direction to go hit other rides in the park, go to breakfast that is included, etc.

I do agree that 36 min wait for SDD seems well off.
 
They've always worked for me-I put relaxed walking speed (not very relaxed) and generally wind up with more time than the plan says I will have. I usually let the plan optimize but rearrange them to suit me. It has always given me a fairly accurate idea of how much I can get in.
 
I am going to plan on hitting the headliners first, then will optimize TP afterward. The alternative is to wait on those rides until the evening-? Stinks not having FPs
 
Touring Plans had a 33 minute wait at 7DMT at 10:30 for me on a 8/10 day. Is there something wrong with their software for the headliners?
 

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