We are doing to Disneyland next week (first week in September) and are doing 2 days at Disneyland only (not CA). One day is an early close day and the other is a late close day. There are 2-day plans for short days and 2-day plan for long days, but how do I change the plans if I’m doing one day of each?
Pick the ones that sound the best to you and then copy those and then modify them to meet your needs.
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Judging by the fact that you said you have one day that falls into the 8pm closure & one late, I’m guessing your trip is Thur-Fri Sept 6 & 7th which is tricky because the plans do say use Plan A for this kind of touring (mornings/when park hours are longer/later) and Plan B for that kind (afternoons/when park hours are shorter/earlier).
What I would do (that is just super expanding on @carthy15’s already great concise answer) is this:
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Take Day 1 from each set (A & B), make copy, add the dates/start times you will actually be using them. So the Day 1 Plan A for your day with short hours and the Day 1 Plan B for your day with longer hours.
Note: If I’m correct about your dates, then Matterhorn & Tiki Room (currently closed for refurbishment) will be automatically taken out of all of your plans with those dates. And any plan for before Fri Sept 7th will also need Space & Haunted Mansion taken out (will be opened Fri Sept 7th for the start of Halloween but until then will be closed to complete overlays). -
Once anything that is under refurb has been removed (and some time freed up) I would then pull up the Day 2 plans for each set & compare to the Day 1’s. If there are any MUST do’s on the Day 2’s I would add them to the Day 1’s. You could also look over anything in the Day 1’s & if anything doesn’t sound super interesting/must-do to you, remove it from the Day 1 for now. But I would wait to eliminate things until after the next step.
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Next optimize the Day 1’s each a few times until the wait times/order stabilize (can take 2-3 spins of the Optimizer). If you’re having difficulty getting the plan to really like everything that you have put in, you can start eliminating steps that aren’t must-do’s but making note of them somewhere in case you have time to pick them up.
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Reorder any steps that you may feel would be beneficial to your day (ie avoiding major-criss-crossing) & Evaulate (this is very important to hit Evaluate instead of Optimize once you start customizing steps as Optimizer will just scramble everything again) Once you have a plan you really really like you’re done!
If you wanted to get detailed in your planning (not for everyone on every trip, but can be helpful to know this level of detail with a short trip), split your plans into just half days. This is probably better to start from scratch & adding your own steps but if the canned plans for those days look good to you in terms of what you want to see in Disneyland then they can be a great starting point.
If I were to start with the 2 day plans then the way that I would do it would be to set the end time of the Day 1’s to be midday sometime & only include in must-do’s on the Day 1 plans (making sure anything that was mentioned in a Day 2 plan is included & eliminating anything from the Day 1 that wasn’t a must-do- optional to pick it up on the Day 2 plan, but more on this later). I would then follow steps 3 & 4 above until my must-do’s in the early part of the day plans looked good for both my park days. Doing it this way ensures you can prioritize what you want to do most.
Then if you’re still not tired of making plans, take anything that looks looks interesting from each Day 1 but that you didn’t include as a must-do & add it to the Day 2 plans. Set the start time of these for later & use as an optional plan to pick up as time allows after you’ve hit your must-dos in the early part of each day. I wouldn’t worry too much about making these afternoon/evening plans perfect or in any particular order since most of them are “as time allows category”
And now that I’ve typed all that, I really want to go play around with the plans and see what I come up with myself for this strategy!!! If I do get around to that, I’ll be sure to post the links to the plans I find.
Oh, I also just realized, that there is duplication between the 2 Day 1’s on Plan A & B. If it were me, I would leave anything that is a must do & duplicated across both Plan A & B on both day’s to ensure if for some reason we can’t get to it on our first day, it was planned for in Day 2. And if we didn’t want to do again on our 2nd day, skip it & be ahead of the plan!
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See, that was what I was tryyyying to say, but in my rush, I forgot a few steps 
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Thank you so much for the detailed reply. I’m going 9/5 and 9/7, and am working on the plan exactly as you’ve mentioned. Thanks so much for taking the time to walk through it in so much detail.
Ooh,even better as that isn’t an EE day which was one of my worries when I started tinkering with plans for 9/6 & 9/7.
So question- are you avoiding DCA altogether or is that where you’re headed on 9/6?? While I love DL and if I could only pick 1 to visit, it would be DL. But I also strongly feel that no visit to DLR would be complete without at very least a half day in DCA for the must do’s of Carsland & Guardians of the Galaxy at the very least.
Pixar Pier is very fun as well. And if you’re one who cares for the soaking rapids rides, the theming for Grizzly River Run in DCA is so perfect. The whole Grizzly Peak area is fantastic, really, but GRR is what is the big draw & unique to DCA from other US Disney parks.
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You said it great with a great amount of words that doesn’t require any large time commitment to digest! I on the other hand get extremely giddy anytime anyone asks what to do with said Touring Plans & I just can’t stifle the nerd inside me 
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Unfortunately work forces me to be less nerdy 
@lolabear_la We did first day of DL today and are doing CA, tomorrow 9/6. Second day of DL is planned to be on Friday 9/7. First day DL went great. I’m really glad I added in the must haves of second day into first, as you suggested. Thanks again for walking me through it.
Darn work that takes you away from Disney pursuits to make Disney dollars. 
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