How do TPs work in the park?

Hi All – First, let me start by saying there may be a thread for this, but I cannot seem to locate it. Pretty basic question…

I am using TPs for the first time and I am wondering how they actually work in the park. What I mean by that is, what happens when you stray from the plan? We have a large group going, and while I am trying to anticipate stops/breaks, I just know there will be unplanned stops for character greets, snacks, etc. How does the Lines’ app deal with me running behind if it should happen? Can I re-optimize if we stop somewhere unplanned, or do I have to find a way to catch up or the plan is blown?

Thanks!

The beauty of the app is that you can do just what you are describing. As you go through the plan, you mark the attractions that you have completed as “done”, and if you find that you are going off-plan because of unplanned stops, longer than predicted waits, of doing things out of order you can re-optimize and it works out the best plan from that point forward.

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I have to say when we went in June it was so/so. This was my first time using it and our first day was MK. We did Buzz and then headed to 7DMT as the plan suggested. My BIL was having a fit passing rides with little or no wait to do MT. I said…follow the plan. Plan suggested we would actually wait about 30 min, posted time was 45 min. Needless to say, we waited over 1.5 hours - totally not worth it! After that, the plans, for the most part went out the window. It was nice to have an idea of what we wanted to do, but other than dining reservations and FP’s we just kind of went with it. My DD8 also hated having a plan, she said it felt more like work - ha!! We are going again in Feb - just our family, not in-laws, cousins etc and plan to try the touring plans again.

Put breaks & such in your plan. Don’t forget that you can set your walking speed also. This has to be done on the main site with a computer, not the app. Those things being said, I’m a practicing believer. I set the plan in the order I want to tour (DON’T HIT OPTIMIZE) and then select evaluate. I’m always amazed at how efficient it is!
*regarding OPTIMIZE: I’ve found it ends up wanting me to run all over the park. Time I’m not standing in line I’m running here & there. My plan has me doing attractions in my order. Works for us!

From the sounds of things, there probably was a ride shutdown/delay which slowed down the queue - something neither TP nor the WDW posted wait time could anticipate.

Not sure, we were not experienced, but they did not tell us there was a problem (not sure if they do that or not), but it totally skewed our faith in the TP

I used a combo of the TP and MDE app as well. I used the TP to check of and re-optimize often (basically because it was just my husband and I - so we kept getting FPs for things that would be waits later). The nice thing MDE and TP is that both have wait times reported on them. I found this particularly helpful in the morning before I crossed a park for what should be a short wait time.

Ex: In EP, my plan was RD Soarin’ then head over to TT to still hopefully beat some of the crowd. Checking the app while walking out of Soarin’ saved us a walk because both MDE and TP told me that TT was closed. At that point, we moved on with the plan and I just kept checking of attractions and checking on TT on the apps occasionally (it never re-opened).

Anyway, the TP in the park was most useful for me to keep track of what we had and had not done, and the app in general was most useful to see what FPs were available and what current wait times were.