We are going on Feb 2 and I have chosen the relaxed walking with minimal wait times. I picked relaxed walking because we have a tendency to walk fast (trying to keep up with DH who is 6’4" with really long legs) so I figured if I chose relaxed that would have built in time for potty breaks and such. There would just be myself, DH and DS16.
Thanks for taking a look.
There is the dubious decision to skip CoP (and do Stitch), but I’ll chalk that up to personal preference. To my daughters’ chagrin, CoP is on of my favorites.
One comment is that I’m not sure it’s worth the 10+ minute walk across the park to get a second ride on Jungle Cruise…especially at the end of a long day. On the other hand, it will be an easy thing to skip if you decide you’re too tired.
Enjoy!
A few comments…
The train is listed multiple times. While it has multiple stations, it is still one train. You might not want or need to take it from Fronierland, Main Street, and Fantasyland. Personally, with your age group, I would use it more as a way to move from one side of the park to the other, on an as needed basis. Done with Fronierland? Sweet, let’s hop a train to Fantasyland and sit for a bit. I wouldn’t schedule 60 minutes of train time if it meant you had to miss out on something else to do it. Also, Jungle Cruise and Haunted Mansion are duplicated as well. If you know your group loves those rides keep them, if not I would plan for one ride on each. (Though keeping all of these might be a good way to add ‘breaks’ to your plan)
I would probably plan for sit down meals to last 60 minutes. They might not take that entire time, especially lunch, but I would hate for you to feel the need to rushed through your evening meal.
I don’t advise using a FP+ for fireworks (especially considering your group has no one younger than 16). I REALLY don’t advise leaving all of your FP+ picks until end of day. I much prefer picking them early, so you can get additional ones.
Thanks for the input. I do have a couple questions.
@nvarnum I’m not sure what CoP is, sorry I’m not up on all the abbreviations yet. But let me know please so I can maybe change it? As for the Jungle Cruise, my DS is crazy for that ride for some reason, but of course he is going on his feelings for it 6 years ago when he was 10 so that may change once he rides on it but that was the reason for the two jungle cruise rides and if he changes his mind and its not the “Best Ride Ever” 
to him anymore we can skip the walk and head out.
@NKHarris329 As for the train my DH is a huge—make that HUGE train fan so I know we will be riding it but I wasn’t sure how to list it on the plans or if I should just not list it and chalk it up to a mode of transportation while in the park? That sounds like what your telling me so I will go ahead and change that unless I have misunderstood. And yes, the Jungle Cruise and Haunted Mansion are duplicated because I have been made aware of a threat of mutiny if they aren’t done twice. LOL DH wants Haunted Mansion twice and DS wants Jungle Cruise. I’m out numbered!! And I went ahead and changed the meal times to 60 min. too. Thanks for the help I appreciate it!
@Crasstastic Thanks for pointing out the fireworks FP+ I didn’t mean for that to be there I will be taking that out, as for the FP+ being at the end of the day, I only chose that because those were the longest wait times, Under the Sea at 15 min and 7Dwarf Mine Train is 28 min, so I was planning to try and get those and possibly the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad because it has a wait time of 12 min. All the other rides all during the day are only 9min or less. I understood that the 7Dwarf Mine train FP+ was hard to get so I figured by the time I had used others up and went to get that one in the afternoon it would be gone and since it is by far my longest I chose to get that one from the start. Am I not understanding how FP+ works? We have never used it, it was all paper fast passes the last time we went. So maybe my brain is not getting it. Let me know if I’m just not getting it. Thanks!!
Ooops and almost forgot, I keep seeing people talk about their plans have “stabilized” What does that mean? Just that they have optimized it to where it doesn’t change any more?
Exactly right. Usually takes about 3-4 optimizations.
What you seem to be doing is picking a touring plan (at first without Fastpasses), then booking Fastpasses around that framework. What I suggest is picking fastpasses first, as early as possible, then optimizing from there.
For instance… book:
FP 1) 9-10 Peter Pan
FP 2) 10-11 Thunder Mountain
FP 3) 11-12 Seven Dwarves
Fully optimize around this FP+ framework until stable.
Then, once your third is used up and you’re free to start booking more, you’ll be free to use (and this is just a fictitious example to illustrate)
FP 4) 12-1 Haunted Mansion
FP 5) 2-3 Journey of the Little Mermaid
et cetera
Yep, that’s basically what I’ve been doing. I do the touring plan without FP+ and then put them in where the software suggests that I put them in. I was just happy with the minimal waits I was seeing on the plan. So much better than when we went in 2009!
I will go back and try it the way your suggesting and see what happens. Thanks!
The problem is that the software sets up your plan assuming you have no FPs, then shoehorns in the FP suggestions into that framework… a framework created not accounting for FPs! So SDMT shows up at roughly 7pm in your plan, which might indeed be the best place for that ride with no FP+. Then it goes looking for the longest waits, sees one there with SDMT, and boom, suggests you use a FP+ there.
What I WISH it did was give me an order that already took into account the fact that the FP+ system exists. If the program knew you could get 3 FPs for any ride, any time of day… would 7pm still be the suggested time for SDMT? Maybe, but probably not. Were it’s computations to even further understand that holding off on Fastpasses 1 through 3 until day’s end means that there will be no #4, or #5, etc., would it STILL want you to book SDMT at 7pm? Surely not.
None of this is to be taken as a criticism of the TP optimizing program… it can only do so much (currently). What it does really well is take a large interrelated group of variables and spits out an ideal path, calculations I either couldn’t or wouldn’t want to do myself. What it can’t do is creatively think and take hypotheticals and potentialities into account. That’s where we come in. Because I know that (for instance) the longest waits on the day are going to be for SDMY, Peter Pan, and Space Mountain, no matter what time of day, I overrule it’s judgement in just that one regard, taking FPs for those 3 rides in some kind of order as early as possible. I optimize based on that, usually getting a plan not unlike my first one, just a different order but with pretty similar wait times… and any rides that have changed times and the waits have increased because of it (say Haunted Mansion goes from a short wait earlier in the day to a longer wait in the afternoon), I just plan to use FP #4 or 5 on that.
So I guess my next question would be (sorry so many questions) how hard is it to get the 4th or 5th FP+? Are you just lucky if you can get those or are they pretty easy to come by so you can count on getting and 4th or 5th one? Since I have no experience with it I’m debating if it is worth chancing being able to go for the 4th or 5th ones.
This first plan utilizes the first three FP+ first thing in the AM. Disney and Universal Touring Plans
This plan puts in the FP+ in the longest 3 waiting lines. Disney and Universal Touring Plans
Which you can see the wait times for the day are shorter by “about” 20 min and there is “about” 30min more free time with the second plan. So that’s why I was wondering how easy the 4th and 5th FP+ are to get, if they are easy to get then I can see how getting them would bring that plan into the front of the choices.
And I agree the software is great and does way more than I would ever want to attempt to do on my own. Lets face it I couldn’t attempt to do it on my own. I am just trying to figure out how things actually work so I can gage how to use the tool to my best advantage.
Thanks for all your answers!! You guys are great!
CoP = Carrousel of Progress. It never has a wait, it’s air-conditioned, it has a catchy tune, and it’s nostalgic.
Ah ok. We are doing CoP, but it is on our second day there! But thanks for clarifying what it was. 
I’ll take this in parts:
Getting additional FP+… some rides will be easy, some not so much. Forget about getting SDMT, so no matter what strategy you use, it must always be one of your first 3. Rides like Pooh (which I don’t see in your itinerary but is fun), Little Mermaid, Haunted Mansion, Pirates, Jungle Cruise will be pretty easy to get the additional ones for most or all.
Comparing Plan 1 vs. 2… yes, I can see what you mean. The two main causes of the disparity that I can see is the 15 backtrack time from SDMT to Splash, and the 14 minute wait for SDMT. I can’t dispute the 15 walking time… but a 14 minute wait for SDMT, WITH a fastpass, is not likely. This past May, we did SDMT on a much busier day, also with a FP+, and including the ride itself, we were in and out in under 12. Even taking that away though, the two plans clearly show you’re better off with the first in a vacuum. I would just add that the current wait times for both plans seem low, and any increase would make the advantage of additional FP+ really valuable.
Now mind you, I have no experience going in Feb. I know that it’s a low crowd time… but I had no idea it was that low. Maybe, with super low crowds, maximizing your FP+ doesn’t matter as much. You should hold off deciding until things get closer, and see if those crowd estimates hold. But if nothing else, book that SDMT spot once you hit your 60 or 30 day window.
Thank you so much for taking the time to answer my questions I really appreciate it!
My husband just told me to stop stressing about it because he is happy with either plan. And he is right I am happy with either too, back in 2009 when I went with DS we had no clue what we were doing and were lucky to get 3 or 4 rides in so either of the plans I have now is 1,000% better than that was. With waiting times in excess of 75 minutes on rides like Soarin’ it was horrible!
Thanks again everyone!
Yeah, I figured I will keep both plans and when I get to around day 65 I will compare and be ready to get the FP+ at the 60day mark.
I do not know if you have only one day at the Magic Kingdom, but here are some tours you may wish to consider:
Ok just beginning to read all of this, but I will point this out:
https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/events-tours/magic-kingdom/magic-behind-steam-trains-tour/
Since you have a train lover,
And this will take you behind the scenes to Haunted mansion…
https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/events-tours/magic-kingdom/marceline-to-magic-kingdom/
CoP Carousel of Progress
It is a show from the 1964 World’s Fair that Walt created, showcasing a family and the tech changes from 1900 to the possible future.
I love it.
Also