Planning which rides to go on

[rufio]

I just picked up a Passporter and I like how they break down all of the rides. I've got a ridiculous binder filled with our daily schedules including all of our ADRs, which parks we'll be visiting, etc, but do any of you actually plan which rides to go on? Like, which fastpasses to get on which day? I've been thinking about it, and I think it might be a good idea. On my last two trips I noticed that we just kind of run into the parks and end up getting FP completely randomly and end up only getting 2-3 per day that we get to use. Maybe there's a better way?

 

[Blueskyze]

I typically make a touring plan and then loosely follow it based on the length of lines. I looooove the touring plans website! I always start with one of theirs, and then customize it for my family. There are certain rides that we KNOW we'll be FastPassing in each park, and certain rides we want to ride again and again. Of course, if we stumble across a ride with an unusually short wait time, we'll go ahead and ride that instead of sticking to the plan. I think having those plans definitely helped us get more accomplished on our first couple of trips, and made it so much easier - there was no standing around asking what we wanted to do next, I just pulled up my app to see what was next on our list. Making the touring plans is actually one of my favorite parts of the planning phase, because I get to imagine what each day will be like.

 

[rufio]

I typically make a touring plan and then loosely follow it based on the length of lines. I looooove the touring plans website! I always start with one of theirs, and then customize it for my family. There are certain rides that we KNOW we'll be FastPassing in each park, and certain rides we want to ride again and again. Of course, if we stumble across a ride with an unusually short wait time, we'll go ahead and ride that instead of sticking to the plan. I think having those plans definitely helped us get more accomplished on our first couple of trips, and made it so much easier - there was no standing around asking what we wanted to do next, I just pulled up my app to see what was next on our list. Making the touring plans is actually one of my favorite parts of the planning phase, because I get to imagine what each day will be like.

I'm actually making touring plans right now! For some reason it keeps saying that I'm going to be waiting at Living with the Land for like, 5,000 minutes... I had a problem with the app on my phone last trip for some reason. Maybe I'll stick to the paper copy this time.

 

[GenerationX]

We typically plan the first set of FPs of each park tour and play it by ear for the rest. Pre-planning FPs is a bit more difficult now that they're enforcing FP return times.

 

[Jeff456]

We follow a touring plan and tend to do rides in that order.. if we don't like a ride (there aren't many!) then we just skip it. To be perfectly honest we try and do almost everything!

 

[foreverbelle]

We don't go to crazy planning...I think we generally go in with this is what we want to do, and what rides but at the same time we know things will change and all.

 

[Weather_Lady]

I typically make a touring plan and then loosely follow it based on the length of lines. I looooove the touring plans website! I always start with one of theirs, and then customize it for my family. There are certain rides that we KNOW we'll be FastPassing in each park, and certain rides we want to ride again and again. Of course, if we stumble across a ride with an unusually short wait time, we'll go ahead and ride that instead of sticking to the plan. I think having those plans definitely helped us get more accomplished on our first couple of trips, and made it so much easier - there was no standing around asking what we wanted to do next, I just pulled up my app to see what was next on our list. Making the touring plans is actually one of my favorite parts of the planning phase, because I get to imagine what each day will be like.

I'm doing this, too -- my family functions best with a specific plan, and I'm having a ball futzing around with the touringplans website's "Personalized Touring Plans" app. We build in plenty of flexibility for bathroom and snack breaks, and taking advantage of unexpectedly short lines, but I love having a no-brainer template to generally follow, so my family doesn't go wandering off in all directions -- or feel stalled and helpless if a much-desired attraction has a huge wait time. That app. is also a great way to test out our plans and make sure that things aren't going to take significantly shorter or longer than we thought. I've discovered, for example, that the Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios are far more time-intensive to cover than Epcot or the Magic Kingdom, which although it has the largest number of attractions, seems to be the most efficient park to cover, time-wise. That's probably something the veterans around here already knew (seeing as the first two parks have more live shows, less convenient sizes/layouts, and fewer E-tickets to spread out the crowds between), but it came as a surprise to me.

*EDIT: I should add that if the touringplans website is accurate, using their tools to "optimize" my touring plans for October 2012 shaved 45-60 minutes off our projected wait times each day for most parks (Hollywood Studios excepted -- apparently there is virtually no way to tour that park more efficiently than to hit the 3 e-tickets first, and then wander the park aimlessly, stumbling into random attractions like a meandering zombie hoarde). This was with switching just a few attractions around, AND arranging the settings to favor minimum walking, so we're not zig-zagging around too much. Over-planning, I know, but I felt full disclosure was best.

 

[bgraham34]

I don't personally really plan what attractions to do first except for when we hit the Studios. I will try and ride TSMM or get a fast pass for it.

 

[disney magic 06]

We have been so many times we seem to follow a basic pattern for each park, with variations according to queues, weather etc. Before we go we always say we aren't going to follow our pattern, but it works so well we automatically do. We then start making a conscious effort to deviate by going on things like Universe of Energy, Carousel of Progress or Backlot Tour.

 

[wolf359]

There are only a handful of attractions that really require advance pre-planning, with Toy Story Midway Mania and Soarin' being the only two that really stick out as being "must see first thing to avoid a LONG line" attractions.

I wouldn't worry too much about planning too much attraction-wise. Unless you feel like you've really missed out on certain things using your old touring style I'd say stick with it.

The only bit of advice I'd offer is if you already have a lot of dining reservations made don't try to overfill your days too much. The two biggest time-eaters are table service dining and traveling from park to park. When attraction wait times are added in to the mix you can often find you accomplish less than you think you would.

 

[bethymouse]

I guess we do just go w/ the flow, but we generally head for BTMRR or Splash Mountain- perhaps Space Mountain (depending upon our mood) and grab fast passes for later. We head to TOT and RNRC 1st, and get a fast pass for TSM! Typically we'd head to TT 1st, but w/ that down I guess we'd try for a Soarin fast pass along w/ millions of others! We go on the safari 1st, and then head to ride EE. We usually just stumble upon the characters, and try to avoid the real long lines if we can (early morning works well for us). We tried evening EMH @ HS- what a disaster! We weren't able to ride anything and ended up just waiting in line for The Voyage of the Little Mermaid and riding The Great Movie Ride.

 

[shmmrname]

I just picked up a Passporter and I like how they break down all of the rides. I've got a ridiculous binder filled with our daily schedules including all of our ADRs, which parks we'll be visiting, etc, but do any of you actually plan which rides to go on? Like, which fastpasses to get on which day? I've been thinking about it, and I think it might be a good idea. On my last two trips I noticed that we just kind of run into the parks and end up getting FP completely randomly and end up only getting 2-3 per day that we get to use. Maybe there's a better way?

We tend to set a general rule of "no waits over 30 minutes" for our trip. But, then we also keep in mind what we think is a reasonable time for each attraction. However, I've heard good things about the "Lines App" for iPhone. I will be looking into using it, as it can recalculate your best route on-the-fly.

 

[Pooh Lover]

I don't plan much beyond the park for the day and with free dining, obviously the ADR for the evening. I look at the park hours to see what park is open early, open late and plan dinners around that first off. Knowing I'll be at WDW for at least 7 days, I figure if a ride has too long of a wait, I'll either catch it later that day or another day. The thought of planning each ride for each day actually makes me a tad claustrophobic. If I had to go in the summer or anytime other than September, I would possibly have to rethink my strategy.

 

[DisDadEddie]

We don't plan rides, but we get on all the ones we want to. The only ride we get a fastpass right away for is Toy Story Mania when we go to Hollywood Studios.