Has anyone used the “not a touring plan” plans listed in the books? Was the advice effective?
Im taking DS on his first trip, and have a feeling he’s going to want to stop and do things as he sees them (squirrel!). I might get him to skip things we have a fast pass for, but criss-crossing the park and walking past something interesting would be very hard for him.
Otherwise, I might have to make several mini-plans for each section of the park.
I always use a personalized plan. Things are always in an order I choose to prevent cross crossing the park. And I plan time for SQUIRRELS 
When we took my niece on her first trip I had a plan but planned in buffet time. That worked nicely, allowing me to use TP effectively with built in time to burn with things that caught her eye. I also set walking pace to slow and prioritized less walking over less waiting - that way we didn’t cross cross.
Sounds yummy. 
I guess I’m struggling with how much buffer time to add, or how to group activities. Everyone says a good plan is more important than crowd level, but what makes a plan good? If I move everything around by location instead of optimizing, isn’t that the same as traveling the parks without a plan?
Last time I was at Disney, all you had to do was travel around the park going to the left. 
That reminds me, I need to go add Buffet Time to MY plans
I intentionally set our walking speed to the slowest possible, even though we’re by no means slow walkers - quite the opposite. But it builds in extra time to do all those things you just can’t plan for, like spending five minutes watching a squirrel, or helping a love bug out of a puddle and making sure its wings dry out (DD loves them!). I do also schedule time specifically for the play areas in the parks, since I know DD will want to spend time there. Typically 10-15 minutes for the smaller ones like the one at Splash and Dumbo, and a good 30 minutes for the Boneyard or the F&GF one.
We do have a slight advantage in that we’ve been quite a few times before so we know how long things take and what DD5 wants to spend time on.
Not a squirrel, but it does seem like we always spent at least 5 minutes at some point just stopping to watch the geckos!
Anyhow, after you make a Touring Plan that is fairly optimized, I’d then add in breaks in the middle of each land to accommodate unplanned activities. After inserting them appropriately, you can re-evaluate or optimize again. Now, if something takes longer, or you decide that after riding Small World is the perfect time to do some shopping, it doesn’t throw off your plan because you have an extra 30 minutes baked into Fantasyland.
I warn the kids if you take time to watch the squirrells you might miss the zebras and lions and giraffes.
There are zebras and lions and giraffes?
Actually I promised them a breakfast at Sanaa if we didn’t need to RD on our optional park day.
Thanks everyone. I think I’m going to try making mini plans for lands of the park. Hopefully that will give me some flexibility and let us enjoy an area before moving on.
I hope all the reading I’ve done here will let me make good decisions on the fly when things happen.
I miss the days of not having to obsessively plan. Those were the good old days. I too do multiple plans - 1 for each area of the park, especially for MK. I find it easier than moving and reevaluating. I wish there was an undo button in the plans so that when I mess up something after I move it, I don’t lose a version that was better. I also like to set walking speed to relaxed or even very relaxed to add buffer time
Me too! Oh, me too!
Were there such days…? I’ve always been an obsessive overplanner - still have my planning spreadsheets from 2003!! 
I’m talking about the 80s and 90’s I’m old! Spent our Honey moon at WDW in 1986 - NO PLANNING Whatsoever…those were the days you got to Epcot in the morning and mad ADRs in the park for that evening
Yep. Last trip was in the 90s. There were no fast passes, didn’t make ADRs, no AK. Just hopped around the parks as the mood hit us.
I miss those days as well. Our honeymoon there was in 1995. It was all very relaxing. No FPs, etc.
Now, it is like preparing for battle.
Yes we’ve been going since the '90s, I just hadn’t discovered my deep love for Excel yet at that stage… My point was that I love the planning, even when it’s not really necessary. I certainly don’t need a spreadsheet to plan a WDW trip these days, but I enjoy doing it.
No I did get your point. I didn’t know I was so OCD until Fast passes and touring plans… So I too like to plan, I just wish I didn’t like it SO MUCH
Yep, the “good old days”. the 70s and 80s for me. No FPPs or even FPs - you just walked up to a ride and waited on line. No ADRs. In the MK the only “reserved” seating was for King Stephan’s Banquet Hall (the original restaurant in the Castle) and the Diamond Horseshoe review; for those two, you wnt to the entrance first thing in the morning and got your name on the list. At RP, there were video kiosks in the large room at the exit to SE at which you made your dining reservations for that day.