TouringPlans.com? Did the plan save you time?

[100AcreWood]

We're visiting WDW at the beginning of June. We have never visited during the summer. I have used touring plans.com many years ago but since then managed to make my own plans. Our last trip was October 2015 and the parks were definitely more crowded than previous trips.

So I'm thinking about subscribing to touring plans again. Do you think it saves your family time?

 

[soniam]

Absolutely every time! We use it every trip. We have been at Spring Break, during Summer, and xmas to New Years Eve.

 

[hiroMYhero]

Len Testa recently joined this thread to explain the free options on his Touring Plans site:
Does anyone have the WDW Touring Plans?

 

[Karin1984]

Yes, it helped me to tour as efficiently as possible in the morning and after lunch more freestyle. Also I found it useful to estimate how much time it takes from ride A to B.

 

[mernin]

Yep. Each visit.

 

[meggers628]

I used it once and the longest wait I had was 20 minutes for my whole 9 day trip. Although this was back in the good old days of paper FPs.

 

[ottawamom]

I use it every time I visit. I make up my own plan, but I like that it will tell me how long it takes to get from point A to B at various walking paces. My recent trips have been with the seniors set so minimizing walking and gauging how long we are in the parks is key. When I travel with the kids we pack as much in as we can before we slow down and smell the roses.

I find it very useful.

 

[Mrs. Ciz]

YES!!!! I use Touringplans.com every time I go. I've been in late July and Easter Week. We avoided the crowds and avoided the lines at some very busy/crowded times of year due to our touring plan. Even my skeptical DH is now a touring plans convert!

 

[Bella34]

I used it for our May 2016 visit. I did a customized plan & it saved us a ton of time! I highly recommend it. It is great for finding the perfect room at your resort too!

 

[Spoisal]

Have the plans saved anyone time on non-RD days?

 

[Mainemama]

Yes. Works equally well for summer trips and other times of year trips. Although I may not stick to every plan, the order of attractions, and knowing the time it takes to either ride an attraction or walk from place to place is so worth the minor investment. Plus the lines app is much easier to navigate these days than MDE wait times. Not to mention more accurate.

 

[MaximumEd]

We use it every trip. Highly recommended. Definitely a huge time saver.

 

[chelynnah]

Yes. Even without the plans the Lines app saved us hours on our last trip. I just said on another thread even if it was just the app I would pay the money. The planning help is a bonus on top of that for me. It was esp invaluable this time planning FPs for a couple of short days with inflexible ADRs.

 

[soniam]

Have the plans saved anyone time on non-RD days?

Yes, we used it on 12/30/16 at MK. We wanted to stay late for the NYE fireworks, so we didn't do rope drop. That's a 10 day, and we got a ton of stuff done before dinner. We didn't get to the park until about 10am. It also helped a lot, because some of the attractions closed earlier than we expected.

 

[teammjs]

Maybe it's elsewhere, but I love the fact that they have (for paid subscribers) a Fast Pass avail. report well in advance for any future day that they update every night. A lot easier to use than the official Disney one (since it won't show you times if you already have an existing FP for that time) so you can get a sense of where the demand is and what activities you're better off selecting.

 

[coasternut22]

For my last trip, I planned using touring plans obsessively. I'd say it certainly saved us time. But more importantly, by obsessively planning beforehand, it set our expectations of how much we could actually do in a day.

There are two features when creating a touring plan. The first is the Optimize feature that allows you to put in all of your attractions, breaks, and meals, and out spits the absolute efficient plan. However this can cause you to crisscross the park, and if you miss a time, you will be off schedule. We did not do this.

The other feature is the Evaluate feature. This allows you to put in the attractions, breaks, and meals in the order you choose, and it will provide you the time each thing will happen. This allowed complete flexibility in the order you want to do things, and the wait times were not much more than the Optimize feature. The biggest advantage is that you control where you are at what time, if you miss a time, you are not "off schedule", and it eliminates crisscrossing. For example, I set up plans where we were in a "land" certain parts of the day. Fantasyland from 9-11, Frontierland from 11-1, etc. Then I put in the attractions, meals, and breaks, and built the day that way. With a little (or a lot in my case) of trial and error, I built plans that worked well for our touring style, that allowed a lot of flexibility, and set very reasonable expectations on what could be accomplished each day.

 

[Tomh]

I have used both Touring Plans, and Ridemax, and had good results from both. Now that I have been to Disney World 9 times, I no longer find that I need plans made for me, as I have the experience to plan myself. If you have been a number of times, and have a good idea as to what rides to hit in what order, then you can probably skip the touring plans. However, if you feel you need the help they offer, indeed they can save you a substantial amount of time.

 

[dreiwhit]

It did help us on both of our recent trips. On a few occasions, the order of rides seemed a little strange, but it did work perfectly.

 

[chiisai]

I used it for my first visit to wdw. I don't have a non-tp trip to compare it to for wdw, but I will say it was wonderful.

As others said, I loved lines in-park.

But what I also liked, a whole whole lot, was changing the plans for the following day based on how the current day went. We had two days in mk and hs, and what we learned we liked and didn't allowed me to modify the touring plans and let tp figure out how I should rearrange the day. Took any stress out of changes.

I have toured DL and CA with and without tp, without only before I knew about tp. I have had lot of DL experience and I still liked the tp, it just allowed me to enjoy the day instead of racing around. I *knew* I would get to everything on the plan and could relax.

We selected the slowest walking option, too. This gave time for the many bathroom breaks and "ooh, a Mickey bar/popcorn/cupcake" stops without delaying the plan.

 

[distherapy]

I have tried twice to make plans (just now) and am super confused by the plans it gives me. For one, on an MK day, it tells me to rope drop Magic Carpets of Aladdin and then ride BTMRR around 10 with a 7 minute wait. For the DHS day, it tells me to do Muppets early and then RNRC at 12:30, expecting a 26 minute wait. The actual wait times for recent, less crowded days were way worse.