Touring Plans

[MandyJ72]

Has anyone ever used the online Touring Plans recommended in the Unofficial Guide? Do they work?

Am thinking the Happy Families 2 day one might be best for us with an 7 1/2yr old and a 12yr old? Dont particularly want to have to walk back and forward all the time as it gets the kids too tired.

Mand
x

 

[ThinkTink721]

That is my only gripe about the plans.
They do require alot of skipping around.
That probably would not work w/ my kids.
When we get done w/ one attraction, they usually want to go immediately to the next one that they see!
We are going in Sept. when it's not supposed to be too crowded.
I basically planned our schedule around the places where we are eating.
:wave:

 

[MandyJ72]

Thanks - ended up subscribing, still can't find exactly what I want but I think if I combine 2 of them it may give us what we want - Im happy to just wander about but we are leaving on Thursday and there at the busiest time so I think a plan of attack may be best - if we follow it we follow it, if we don't we don't but it gives us an idea.

Thanks
Mand
x

 

[Boray]

I really think that the time of year that you visit will determine whether or not you need to use the touring plans. We usually go in October, and really have no need for a touring plans, no line is longer than about 20 minutes. We always see everything that we want, so we have no need for them. On the other hand, those going during peak times, it may behoove you to use one. Take it along and see what happens. If it doesn't work for you, punt! And above all else, have fun! Don't get too caught up in the plan and let it dictate your vacation.

Good luck and let us know how it works out for you! :wave:

 

[AEfx]

It's really not rocket science (even though they try to make it sound such). I'm sure mathmatically they can prove this and that, but it really is all just common sense.

Each park has several landmark attractions. For example, at MK it's Splash/Big Thunder and Space Mountain (and now Pirates too). At MGM it's the ToT and the RnR. At AK it's Everest and the Safari.

These are the big ticket attractions, you want to hit them EARLY or LATE. Get to the earliest showings of theme park shows you can - they (generally) get more crowded in later in the day as people go "oh darn, we haven't done that yet". For nighttime shows (Fantasmic! and Spectro, mostly) the 2nd show is ALWAYS much much less crowded than the first (which is a great time to experience attractions while everyone else is at the first showing).

Really, the best bit of advice those tour plans give is what any good Disney fan will tell you : GET THERE EARLY. EARLY! EARLY! I mean it...EARLY. I know it's your vacation and all, but getting to the gates of a park at 8:30, versus 9:30 or worse 10 or 11:30, is like night and day. NIGHT AND DAY. If you are walking in a park as it is opening, you can see half of the attractions before lunch if you keep going and keep head of the crowds building behind you.

Nothing against touring plans, just think they are unnessesary in a lot of respects. If you are going to show up on 4th of July or something I'm sure there is some mathmatical advantage, but you'd never catch me dead at the parks when they are busy enough to really matter. I'm just so spoiled at this point in off-season, early AM touring - you can see most rides with a less than 5 minute wait if you do it properly, so I can't imagine ever waiting more than 10-15 for a ride. On the days when you need a "step 32, empty bladder" touring plan, you still will be waiting in lines and crowds that I just wouldn't ever want to deal with at WDW.

AEfx

 

[PotteryGal]

It's really not rocket science (even though they try to make it sound such). I'm sure mathmatically they can prove this and that, but it really is all just common sense.

Each park has several landmark attractions. For example, at MK it's Splash/Big Thunder and Space Mountain (and now Pirates too). At MGM it's the ToT and the RnR. At AK it's Everest and the Safari.

These are the big ticket attractions, you want to hit them EARLY or LATE. Get to the earliest showings of theme park shows you can - they (generally) get more crowded in later in the day as people go "oh darn, we haven't done that yet". For nighttime shows (Fantasmic! and Spectro, mostly) the 2nd show is ALWAYS much much less crowded than the first (which is a great time to experience attractions while everyone else is at the first showing).

Really, the best bit of advice those tour plans give is what any good Disney fan will tell you : GET THERE EARLY. EARLY! EARLY! I mean it...EARLY. I know it's your vacation and all, but getting to the gates of a park at 8:30, versus 9:30 or worse 10 or 11:30, is like night and day. NIGHT AND DAY. If you are walking in a park as it is opening, you can see half of the attractions before lunch if you keep going and keep head of the crowds building behind you.

Nothing against touring plans, just think they are unnessesary in a lot of respects. If you are going to show up on 4th of July or something I'm sure there is some mathmatical advantage, but you'd never catch me dead at the parks when they are busy enough to really matter. I'm just so spoiled at this point in off-season, early AM touring - you can see most rides with a less than 5 minute wait if you do it properly, so I can't imagine ever waiting more than 10-15 for a ride. On the days when you need a "step 32, empty bladder" touring plan, you still will be waiting in lines and crowds that I just wouldn't ever want to deal with at WDW.

AEfx

:lol: :lol: Good one!

Seriously, this fall will be our second trip to WDW, and the only other time we were down there was the week following Thanksgiving, so the crowds were pretty reasonable. I think the touring plans website is OK if you're going during peak seasons, but I've pretty much just used them as a guide to developing a more generalized plan based on what my family is most likely to do. That, plus deciding when and where we use our TS on the dining plan sets our agenda at the parks. The most useful tool I found when I subscribed to their website was their crowd level calendar. It really helped us determine the best time of year for our family to go.

 

[AEfx]

The most useful tool I found when I subscribed to their website was their crowd level calendar. It really helped us determine the best time of year for our family to go.

And that's exactly how to use it - as a useful tool. It sounds like you used it for it's intended purpose. The only problem with the crowd level calendar is when people take it TOO seriously, i.e. on another board (with a much lower S:N ratio than here) every time they change one point on one date the "OMG MY TRIP IS RUINED!" threads begin.

People forget that it is an estimate (a pretty accurate one) of the PEAK wait times at the PEAK part of the day at the PEAK attractions. If you are going on Splash Mountain at 1PM, without a fastpass, then that's what you'll experience. But if you go to Splash at 9:30AM, or 8PM, or use a fastpass, you'll have a much different experience; it's just an indicator of general crowd levels and not set-in-stone what you will experience.

It's like the Big Mac Index. Comparing how much a Big Mac costs between countries and other localities is a great way to compare consumer culture and get a general idea, but it isn't the be-all-end-all.

AEfx

 

[MandyJ72]

Thanks got the advice! We don't have a choice, are not "allowed" to take the kids out of school for vacation (well, they are missing last 2 days of school but that's it) and in Scotland our holidays are earlier than the English holidays anyway but still works out as peak season.

Nothing we can do to get around it but will make the most of it - have been at the same time before but that was our first trip, stayed off property, didn't hire a car and had 2 weeks to saunter up and down to Disney whenever, this time it's 1 week at AKL then 2 weeks off property so want to get as much of what we want to do at Disney done in the first week.

We pretty much know what rides we don't want to do - teacups, it's a small world (I might end up strangling someone with that song!!), stuff like that that the kids just don't want to do but will be first time my son can do stuff like Space Mountain and the likes so want to get as much in as possible!

Have a few reservations for things and will just work round that, have the days all organised so will print a couple of plans and re-work them to a rough idea of what we want to do - good thing is they show all the parade times and stuff for the day so know in advance when they are and stuff!

Getting excited now - need to start packing tomorrow!!!!

Thanks again

M
x

 

[tigger1968]

We've used the plans in The Unofficial Guide, but not used the ones on the website. We found them to be very good. Several years ago, we used the one for MGM and were through the park in less than three hours. We walked on to every ride, and hit every attraction we wanted to, and loved seeing the huge crowds flowing in as we were leaving to go back to our resort for lunch.

The plans are great for new or less experienced visitors, and I agree that they should just be a good guidline to touring, feel free to make changes based on your group's wants and needs. All in all, we like 'em.

 

[PotteryGal]

Thanks got the advice! We don't have a choice, are not "allowed" to take the kids out of school for vacation (well, they are missing last 2 days of school but that's it) and in Scotland our holidays are earlier than the English holidays anyway but still works out as peak season.

Nothing we can do to get around it but will make the most of it - have been at the same time before but that was our first trip, stayed off property, didn't hire a car and had 2 weeks to saunter up and down to Disney whenever, this time it's 1 week at AKL then 2 weeks off property so want to get as much of what we want to do at Disney done in the first week.

We pretty much know what rides we don't want to do - teacups, it's a small world (I might end up strangling someone with that song!!), stuff like that that the kids just don't want to do but will be first time my son can do stuff like Space Mountain and the likes so want to get as much in as possible!

Have a few reservations for things and will just work round that, have the days all organised so will print a couple of plans and re-work them to a rough idea of what we want to do - good thing is they show all the parade times and stuff for the day so know in advance when they are and stuff!

Getting excited now - need to start packing tomorrow!!!!

Thanks again

M
x

Have a great trip! And remember, whatever you run out of time to experience this time justifies returning in the future!

 

[met19]

i am firm believer in the unofficial guide, but only as a guide. I take the plans with me and if I feel like changing or skipping a step, I do it. My plans usually involve mult trips of splash and space mountain and there plans need some alterting for that. However, their crowd calendar and their online plans for 1/2 days (e.g. arrival day at MK) are really well done.

 

[Eyorefan]

This is probably off topic, but has anyone ever done MK in a day? I know that Unofficial guide has a touring plan for it and it is something I wouldn't mind trying to do one day. I'm just curious.

 

[PintoColvig]

It's really not rocket science (even though they try to make it sound such). I'm sure mathmatically they can prove this and that, but it really is all just common sense.

Each park has several landmark attractions. For example, at MK it's Splash/Big Thunder and Space Mountain (and now Pirates too). At MGM it's the ToT and the RnR. At AK it's Everest and the Safari.

These are the big ticket attractions, you want to hit them EARLY or LATE. Get to the earliest showings of theme park shows you can - they (generally) get more crowded in later in the day as people go "oh darn, we haven't done that yet". For nighttime shows (Fantasmic! and Spectro, mostly) the 2nd show is ALWAYS much much less crowded than the first (which is a great time to experience attractions while everyone else is at the first showing).

Really, the best bit of advice those tour plans give is what any good Disney fan will tell you : GET THERE EARLY. EARLY! EARLY! I mean it...EARLY. I know it's your vacation and all, but getting to the gates of a park at 8:30, versus 9:30 or worse 10 or 11:30, is like night and day. NIGHT AND DAY. If you are walking in a park as it is opening, you can see half of the attractions before lunch if you keep going and keep head of the crowds building behind you.

Nothing against touring plans, just think they are unnessesary in a lot of respects. If you are going to show up on 4th of July or something I'm sure there is some mathmatical advantage, but you'd never catch me dead at the parks when they are busy enough to really matter. I'm just so spoiled at this point in off-season, early AM touring - you can see most rides with a less than 5 minute wait if you do it properly, so I can't imagine ever waiting more than 10-15 for a ride. On the days when you need a "step 32, empty bladder" touring plan, you still will be waiting in lines and crowds that I just wouldn't ever want to deal with at WDW.

AEfx

Yeah, what he said.

Basically, the busier the parks are the more useful the touring plans. To avoid the criss-crossing back and forth in the parks, it is best to plan to visit each park on more than one day (especially MK and Epcot) and just plan on covering one half of a park on a given day.

An admission: The touring plans came in super handy during a busy June trip and my first-timer friends thought I was a hero because the longest we stood in line was probably 15 minutes.

 

[Zummi Gummi]

During peak times, the touring plans can be invaluable. When the park is not crowded, they'd not that necessary.

I think they're really intended for visitors who are not as familiar with WDW as many of the members of these forums are. For example, a first-time visitor to MK might go to Space Mountain first thing, but rather than hustle over to BTMR or Splash afterwards, they may just wander over to Stitch.

 

[lentesta]

A topic near and dear to my heart. Of course, they're my touring plans. :lol:

The reason why the plans are step-by-step is for first-timers, and people who don't yet know the parks like the back of their hands. Clearly that's not the time to be imprecise with directions. I know a lot of folks think that a 27-step plan for the Magic Kingdom is overkill. All I can say is that you should read our mail. We wouldn't do it if people - lots of people - didn't ask for it. (Okay, we probably would because we're Type-A and geeks. Still.)

I'm happy to see that folks also improvise on the plans. If you're comfortable navigating the parks and know your favorite attractions, think of the plans more as guidelines. (In the 2008 edition of the book we've done a whole section on general-purpose touring strategies that aren't step-by-step plans. If the publisher keeps it in, I quoted almost verbatim from Curse of the Black Pearl the whole "guidelines" thing. Ha!)

Eyorefan, I followed some folks as they did the Ultimate MK Touring Plan in 2005. It was exhausting, but a lot of fun. They ended up seeing 40-something unique attractions in around 11 hours and change. The current record is 48 unique attractions in 11 hours 20 minutes. I think it can be done in around 11 hours if everything goes exactly right. You'd have to catch a lot of breaks (like just squeezing in to a show or two), but I think it's doable.

Len

 

[KaliSplash]

I read both Birnbaum and Unofficial Guide pretty much annually, and study their touring plans for some general advice.

But over the years, my family has come to consider ourselves as touring experts. We've pretty much done at least one trip a year for the past 20 years, so we know our way around.

Eyeorfan, if you mean riding literally everything in the MK in one day, no, never done that. If your mean doing literally everything my family wanted to do at MK, yep, can do that. Not having to stand in the line for Dumbo or the Astro Orbiter, Indy speedway etc. saves tons of time.

The importance of getting to any park no later than posted opening time can NOT be overstated. Many people take the attitude that they are on vacation and can sleep until 9 or 10 oclock in the morning and arrive at 11. These are not happy tourers of any of the parks. This doesn't mean they won't have a good time on vacation, but it does mean they will be waiting and waiting.

So I keep up to date with the recommendations of the touring time and we take that into consideration as we plan our days. And we do plan our days, down to the half-hour increments. But we do not follow them religiously. Opportunities present themselves (ride-throughs or unexpected live entertainment, etc.) What we do after a couple of days is see what we've seen, what we've missed and how we want to adjust.

Planning is important and the most important aspect of planning is to get their early.

Enjoy!

 

[PintoColvig]

A topic near and dear to my heart. Of course, they're my touring plans. :lol:

The reason why the plans are step-by-step is for first-timers, and people who don't yet know the parks like the back of their hands. Clearly that's not the time to be imprecise with directions. I know a lot of folks think that a 27-step plan for the Magic Kingdom is overkill. All I can say is that you should read our mail. We wouldn't do it if people - lots of people - didn't ask for it. (Okay, we probably would because we're Type-A and geeks. Still.)

I'm happy to see that folks also improvise on the plans. If you're comfortable navigating the parks and know your favorite attractions, think of the plans more as guidelines. (In the 2008 edition of the book we've done a whole section on general-purpose touring strategies that aren't step-by-step plans. If the publisher keeps it in, I quoted almost verbatim from Curse of the Black Pearl the whole "guidelines" thing. Ha!)

Eyorefan, I followed some folks as they did the Ultimate MK Touring Plan in 2005. It was exhausting, but a lot of fun. They ended up seeing 40-something unique attractions in around 11 hours and change. The current record is 48 unique attractions in 11 hours 20 minutes. I think it can be done in around 11 hours if everything goes exactly right. You'd have to catch a lot of breaks (like just squeezing in to a show or two), but I think it's doable.

Len

The great Len Testa! :sohappy: Thanks for the Touring Plans! I just bought a membership to your site the other day. Your plans have saved me on more than one overly crowded day at WDW!

Love the Unofficial Guide, too! I'm one of those Disney geeks who buy the Unofficial Guide each year and read through it even though it doesn't change drastically year to year. Keep up the great work!

PS: Oh, just discovered the wdwtoday podcasts and have been listening through the old episodes. I'm up to Episode 41 and counting!

 

[ThinkTink721]

This is probably off topic, but has anyone ever done MK in a day? I know that Unofficial guide has a touring plan for it and it is something I wouldn't mind trying to do one day. I'm just curious.

We did in 1994.
There is no way that we could have done it last summer w/ the kids.
I think we went to the MK at least 3 times.
In Sept., we are planning to visit the MK 4 times (not for full days each time).
:wave:

 

[ask!]

OK, I admit it! I am a Disney novice...what web site for touring plans are you all referring to? Sounds helpful for our August trip...espcially since I can't figure out how to visit 4 parks in 6 days without having to wake-up at 6 am everyday...got teens and sleeping in 1-2 dyas will surely help improve the mood!

Andrea

 

[lentesta]

Thank you, PintoColvig. A couple of tips on the podcast: In Episode 72, Christina is joking about everything she says. At the time I was using my daughter's Barbie microphone (no kidding) and it didn't pick up the sarcasm in her voice. We got a lot of mail from people who thought she was serious. I bought a better mic.

Episode 110 is the source of one of the show's running jokes about Narcoossee's. Episodes 100 and 200 contain blooper audio, some of which isn't suitable for young ears. (It's Hochberg's fault! All of it! I can only hope that Matt's reading this, too.)

Len