I think the advice here is all good, especially setting the walking pace as low as it goes, but I’m a bit on the side of @brklinck if they start to complain. That is the worst. I’ve toured with my immediate family (5) and they get it, they don’t complain because they know all the work that goes into it.
I’ve also toured with people who don’t get it and frankly after a couple of days I quit trying, the complaining got so bad. They did not know what went into it and would complain about the most minor things, except one angel of a friend who was just happy to be there.
So I think a lot depends on how easygoing they really are, in personality as well as touring style. Those may be different things.
One…sorry “Touring Plans”…but ditch the phrase “touring plan” when talking to them at first. Sounds intimidating to a non planner. Once they have seen the light you can use the term
Just call it a loose plan. Then don’t concentrate on the “how”…just paint the picture of the why.
I want to help us all…
Minimize wait times
Make the most out of the money we are spending and give more time for everyone to get in rides they want.
Move around the parks with a minimal amount of back tracking
Plan the best times and attractions to use our fast passes since you are not familiar with them.
Seriously…who would say those items sound bad?
To do that I have a “loose” plan than builds in our FPP and gives us a general order in which we may move around the parks.
Once they experience it, as long as you remain flexible in the plan, I think it will sell itself.
I had another thought - in general, we are all pretty familiar with the parks and how to make the magic happen. They seem likely to be aware that you know a bit more. Can you just offer to take the lead?
I did this for my family, and made the plans keeping in mind that they wouldn’t want to crisscross move super quickly (two things I tend to do). I just sort of asked what their priorities were and they were happy to let me lead them through the parks. Again, this only works is the group is passive, but it worked well with my group. Only my brother in law really caught on to the details of what I was doing, and once he did he actually took part and enjoyed the type A part of the trip.
I don’t try to “convince” them. I’ll share my knowledge with them, and help them if they ask, but it’s their vacation, not mine. I rarely go with anyone other than my wife, who has no interest in planning, but trusts me completely to come up with the best possible plan. An if she just doesn’t want to RD one day, I start off alone and she joins me at lunch.
You don’t “convert” them. You have a great plan, show them a great time and they will be amazed and in awe of your mysterious and godlike powers. Then you have them for life.
Since about 1994 we’ve usually visited WDW with more than 6 people or newbies.
I have learned: don’t try to convert. Merely inform.
Most get on board with the idea of a plan during the months before our arrival. Especially if I email a couple of “helpful” tips about how far apart the parks are (from your town to the next town). How big they are - useful to compare their local amusement park to some small feature (like [local park] fits inside World Showcase Lagoon) or there are over 50 attractions at MK and if you do them as fast as you can with no breaks it’ll only take you 11 hours. They’re usually happy to let anyone else do the planning.
I’ve used a variety of some of the tips mentioned here - showing how much waiting time you can save by comparing, as well as would you like to make your money and time go further. Even asking do you want to tour on your own? Most of our newbies were: NO ! ! !
Another thing I’ve done at MK is this: upon entering *land (Adventureland for example) I’ll say we’re here for 90 min. Be sure to have been to the bathroom, the ATM machine (if there is one ) the shops and the attractions by 10:30 (example). We’ll be moving to the next land. They’re usually ready.
After all the above there are still holdouts - usually male in-laws. I’m not going to argue. I’m not going to debate. I’m going to do what I’ve planned.
So I say: this is what I’m doing next. You’re welcome to do whatever you choose to.
I think my husband thought I was crazy until he saw how long lines were and how many things we’d done by 11 with a 9am open.
Do what others have suggested and just ask if you can take the lead on making plans and booking meals/FPP. Find out a little about what they all like and run with it. Then tell them they are free to join you or not. It may be that once they’ve hit headliners and managed 10 attractions/shows in a couple of hours time they will be converted. And it may be not be and you can still meet up for the FPP and the ADRs.
You really helped to focus me and gave me some great places to start. I know I need to take a deep breath and let some things go, compromise, inform, and tour separately at times if need be.
I’m going to ask them today what are their top three rides for each park and plan FPs from there. I love the idea of setting the walking pace to slow and minimize walking. I’m going to build a couple of TPs and see how they look.
Thank you for all your help and support. I feel much better now and have the beginnings of a plan I think can work for my whole group.
I planned a trip for 17 a few years back with TP. It worked great.
Basically I explained why I was using it (avoiding hr+ long lines is usually an easy sell), created plans that I felt would make everyone happy, added 2-hour meal breaks, put us on the slowest walking speed.
I published the plans, distributed links and explained that these were merely optional. That is what my family unit would be doing and those who wanted to join us could. I was more than happy to tailor some plans for other people who wanted to do their own thing. (I mean… create another TP? That’s not a fate worse than death. )
Most of our 17 came with us, but we had a couple of family units that bailed on a couple of the 6am reveilles.
And… very important… the fate of the world does not rest in whether or not you use that Fastpass for Dumbo.
I think if you guide them around for a day, or part of a day if they’re not in line with it, that would be the best way to explain to them how to tour. It’s kind of hard to understand as an abstract. If they don’t like your way of touring you could split up and meet again at certain times. Like ADRs times.
Make a TP and follow it and tell them what’s next and if they don’t want to go right then, they can text you and you’ll tell them where to meet you when they are ready and let them have their own fun their own way. This is my approach with my older teens (they mostly tag along though b/c they are TP believers!)
Or
schedule your FPP for 10, 11, 12 and a lunch ADR and tell them to meet you at 11:00 on the dot at FPP1, then go to FPP2, FPP3, and lunch and then tell them to meet back for nighttime spectacular. And you do you the rest of the time.
You can have fun with both plans and spend a lot of good time together and have some personal family time as well. Either way, I suspect when they meet up at night and you tell them the 17 things you did compared to their 5, they will stick close the next day.
Yep, very true. There are lots of ways to have an enjoyable trip without having to convert them or make them feel like they are on a death march. I think the key is not to spend every minute with a huge group, although I’m sure it works for some
I’ll admit, I’m kind of gun shy about trying to “convert” anyone to the idea of using TP. Why? Because when I used Touring Plans for our Universal trip in 2018, I eventually ended up getting mocked by my family at how wrong the predicted wait times TP was given compared to reality as well as the Universal app. TP was almost never correct. Universal’s app was most often correct, or in the very least CLOSER.
I had to just stop using our TP entirely for the remainder of the trip.
So, I’m afraid that all my planning using TP for Disney this year will come to the same end…claiming how much better our day will be due to having this plan in place, only to have the estimated times blown to bits by reality very quickly after arriving. We shall see. If even I’m not convinced any longer…how am I supposed to convince anyone else?
But you still have a smart plan. You won’t look at SM at 1:30 PM with a posted 90 minute wait and decide it would be a great time to ride without FPP. A smart plan is what matters and knowing how to address.
Our last trip we had 17 - some newbies and some cranky folk mixed in with seasoned park goers. We wound up never actually having 17 all at once as people came and went at differentent times and two had their travel plans change in mid trip.
I typically made 3 ADRs at each restaurant we were eating at. Usually bumped up the number at each table to reserve for an odd number for each ADR. If we had 13 at a meal I’d make 3 ADRs for 5.
Reasoning: everyone on the ADR has to be there to be seated. When touring separately everyone may not show up.
It’s easy to add a sixth to an ADR for five or fourth to an ADR for three which came in handy.
A couple of meals we wound up canceling a table. So glad to have that ability and still eat where most of us wanted to.
Way easier to relax and enjoy your time at Disney without stressing about what others are or aren’t doing. And if they show up, it’s all good, too.
We usually got seated near each other. Great and different photo vantage points. Some places seated us all together anyway.
