During our last trip in 2018 we had SDD in our plan. SDD had been open for 3-4 months. TP told us when to ride and expected a 25(ish) min wait. When we arrived at said time the line was super long and the CMs “lollipop” said 140 min wait. Later, this forum thought the number was off so much because the ride had only been open 3-4 months and the algorithm hadn’t had enough time/data to predict correctly. I understood, but made a rule in my head that’s if it’s new I should expect the times to be off.
And now we have G+… just 6 weeks old and skewing wait times for all rides in all parks. So my brain is telling me TP hasn’t had time to adjust from “all standby all the time” to the G+ situation. Our trip is in less than 2 weeks.
I know it’s a little different this time because TP has been planning for something like G+ for a long time, but no one knew how wait times would really change… But what are we actually seeing? I am trying to be realistic as to what we might expect, but does anyone really know right now?
Since touring plans are made in advance with more guessing, you can always check the Lines app when in park to verify/compare predicted waits which will be more accurate.
Another must, is looking at the actual historical standby wait times for yourself. Select a day and specific park, also look for the graphs and the green dots! (User recorded waits)
I haven’t been in the parks yet but what I have seen is that the times are still inflated except maybe ILLs. Those may be more accurate? But honestly it depends so much on crowd levels which have been all over the place. There’s a Twitter account @IsGenieWorthIt that will post the next day wait times relative to what Disney posted. I’m trying to remember how they get to those numbers but can’t recall. Maybe someone here knows?
OP here. Without a doubt TPs wait times are more accurate than Disney’s. Disney intentionally jokes up the posted waits.
I was really just asking if TPs wait times (& therefore the waits it would put in a touring plan) are as accurate as they used to be now that Genie has rolled out and increased ALL the wait times. Has it figured out how to estimate what the wait would be now that G+ ILL is greatly impacting wait times?
One thing I realized after I wrote my question and as I’ve read your responses: I really haven’t used a touring plan the way it’s designed while I’m in the park, and I need to start! In the past I would NEVER Optimize while in the park. Why? I love TP very much, but it seems to occasionally decide that even though I chose only a moderate amount of walking it gets rid of the order it had previously come up with that had moderate amount of backtracking, and it replaced it with a “back and forth repeatedly from one side of the park to the other” type of plan. I don’t know of it’s a glitch or what, but I’ve always been afraid it would happen while at the parks so I just don’t hit Optimize. I hit Estimate all the time, but not Optimize. But I probably should since I’m it will take any changes that are happening that day into account.
Sounds like I can feel pretty good about the touring plans I create. I would hate to get there and the tournament my plan I’ve made have underestimated everything… If like to prepare myself now if that’s going to happen because G+ hasn’t been up and running that long. But hopefully the wait times will be fairly accurate.
This has happened to me numerous time in the past!! It was a nightmare, but I always carried paper “back-ups” as I’d learned the hard way.
However, the new App version of Lines is a game changer. It’s so much easier to use. They asked for feedback during testing and the “accidental Optimize” was something many people had concerns about. The Lines 2.0 App is so user friendly and they make you verify before all the steps get moved.
The new layout shows you the posted / actual times for everything in your plan in real time. Plus, getting to see every attractions posted / actual waits is one tap away.
Make a “practice” plan and try it out. You can do it in real time or just see what happens when you intentionally try to “mess up” your plan.
Now… I’ll still always have a paper copy in my backpack out of habit, but it’s in case there’s an issue with my phone not w/ TP!