I’m a little bit curious to just take a boilerplate TP and follow it exactly as it is printed. Partly because it would be stress-free, and partly because I feel that we’re missing something by always skipping certain attractions. Have any liners actually done that? I would think we’re all a little type A and unlikely to use one without adjusting it, but if you have I would like to hear how it went and why you did it.
A very good question and I agree, it seems like it would be stress free.
1 Like
We did use the preplanned TP for our trip in 2012 (?). 2014 I only tweaked a little. In 2012 my MIL interfered (“but why are we just walking past that ride? Let’s just ride it now”) and we had a lot of time in line. 2014 worked great but it was mid September and there were no crowds to speak of. Curious about people’s more recent experiences. As I obsess over my current plans for Feb I, too, wonder about just plugging in the FPP I have on a standard plan and follow it without question.
2 Likes
in 2017, DH had the same question. By end of trip, he “got it” and realized how much time we saved even if we had to back track a bit
2 Likes
Before the new fast pass system, I always just went by the preprinted TP in back of the Unofficial Guide. Always worked just fine. I skipped & added a few attractions but pretty much stuck with UG’s plan.
In 2014, a lot had changed, especially in my case. Of course, now we had fpps vs the paper passes. But even more important to me, it was my grands’ 1st Disney trip. Also, they were 2 and 4 that year. I’d been to Disney with my kiddos but only when they were 4 and older, so that made a bit of difference too.
The UG talked about personalized plans, so I hopped on the website, joined up to do that. The other big bonus of course, was I found Chat and later Forum, and all you wonderful people and your accumulated wisdom!
I have to say that I would never go back to the preprinted TP for any of our fam’s trips. Of course, it’s great if someone is just starting out, visiting Disney on a 1st trip. But even then, it’s just so much fun I think to set things up and have all my “ducks” in a row.
Also, if I were on a solo trip, or a very short one, maybe feeling like winging it for a change, I might go back to the preprinted version. It is easier, to not have to do the planning ahead.
4 Likes
We always used to use the ones printed in the UG before FPP, but after the first trip when we literally did everything on it, we skipped what we didn’t like. Now I just think it’s so easy to do personalised ones, and account for extra rides, and miss out what you don’t want, that I can’t imagine going back to them. But for a first timer who doesn’t know what they like yet, preset plans could still be useful.
3 Likes
We used the preprinted ones for our trip in 2010, and they worked great. Lots has changed since then, so I’d be curious to hear your experience!
1 Like
I used the plans in 2005 and 2010, but that was before FPP and we haven’t been since. This will be our first time using FPP and personalized plan. When we followed the plan, it went pretty smoothly from what I remember. We had a 4 year old at the time, so sometimes things got a little derailed. We’ll have a 13yo and 7yo this time, so the odds of us being able to run our plan perfectly is pretty slim.
1 Like
I got curious and looked at all the “canned” plans and there are a ton of them…early, late, old, young, and everything in between. Rather impressive TP
2 Likes
One of the nice things about the personalized plans is I’m able to adjust quite easily if we hit any glitches or changed plans.
Fam loved FOP so much, wanted to ditch an entire EP day, to go back to AK. I was able to do that w/o too much trouble. We actually just went by the order for attractions similarly to what we’d done the previous AK day, which actually worked pretty well.
I know that lots of folks continue to tweak their PTPs while at Disney. I don’t do that. I print my plans, adjust if necessary in my head as we go. Ds is in charge of the plans on his iphone. Also we use TP’s wait times, to add rides as we go, if we have extra time that day.
3 Likes
We haven’t’ used a standard TP due to having TS reserved in the parks, and midday breaks at the resort planned. Considering the standard is 45min lunch and dinner I have to adjust the length of meal, which in turn changes what wait times are following that. It’s nice to know what are reasonable expectations for what you can do in a day and what a low wait time for an attraction is. 7Dwarfs may have a posted wait time of 60 minutes to 110 minutes on a crowd level of one so anything less than that I feel is a positive when put in perspective.
1 Like
I’ve never done a standard one, always just personalized my own. May try a standard in the future though to see how well it does lol.
1 Like
What, your 13yo doesn’t follow along with your plans unquestioningly? 
I’m taking a 14yo (along with 17, 8, and 6) and she has SO many opinions about what she needs to do and refuses to do. Like, for some reason she doesn’t appreciate the genius of Country Bear Jamboree or Livin with the Land.
1 Like
MIL never bought in and FIL still talks about the “forced predawn march” since we did RD most days.
3 Likes
Our EP day will be broken into FW in the morning and WS in the afternoon like many people. Decided to try the canned TP for each (rather than the full day EP plan that takes you back and forth quite a bit). We have FPP for TT, SE, MS so I did add those in. But, I hit a snag. FW morning plan has no Character Spot listed at all! So, back to personalization I go.
1 Like
I would only follow my own customized plan. Too much money being spent to follow a suggestion, and it’s WAY too easy to create your own. Easy enough to research attractions, and schedule breaks / meals / other things where needed. TP, for me, just does an awesome job of organizing what I’d like to do, and then allowing further customization. I’d just rather start off with a blank slate since it’s so easy to create.
LOL - Droid user here. (Some may get that from the “Iphone vs Android” descriptions of yore.
1 Like
I have used the standard TPs but it was years and years ago. Now I make personal ones for each trip.
1 Like
It took a lot of talking to get my family past Astro Orbiter with its “short little line”, for sure
1 Like
Right, for specific groups personalized is definitely better. But you mentioned a solo trip or short one, and I agree that’s where I’d be tempted. I’m not sure I want to subject everyone else to my experiment!
My kids have kind of grown up on TP. They’re now young adults and because of TP have only ever been on the rides I like!
1 Like