So long Touring Plans

Walt Disney World
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Your replacement arrives in 2020 in the form of the Disney Genie app.

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That’s the wolf guarding the hen house.

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As if :joy: Disney can’t get MDE to work properly, I wouldn’t bet on them getting this right.

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That is true for some people, but the writing is now on the proverbial wall. I’d rather use a Disney app in the parks than use the not-so-user-friendly Touring Plans app.

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I find the Touring Plans app much more user friendly than MDE :woman_shrugging: and I don’t believe that Disney will be attempting to help people get more done. But time will tell.

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Bye!

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lol, I could link at least 10 threads in the last few weeks here (including one from this morning) where MDE does not work. I could then post another 10 threads where you get the wrong info when you call. Yup- let them plan for you. Len did say it is nothing like TP. He said it was “something different”(?).

I am a part of this community because of the liners and the help they provide. The reservation finder and room requests are just unexpected gifts to me.

Editing to add exactly what Len posted on chat:

(Copy and paste) As you can imagine, I’ve heard from the people implementing this, both current and former, over the last year . I don’t think we’re going to be direct competitors. They’re going for … something else.

7:40pm on 8/25/19 by len (staff)

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Keep in mind, it’s not in Disney’s best entrance to get you through the park quicker. It’s not about the cost of a park ticket, it’s about how much much money you spend while you are there. It will be interesting to compare the plan that you get from the Genie with the touring plan you get here.

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I kind of hope Genie helps steer crowds to lower wait attractions on the fly. I would wager it will be significantly more prevalent in the parks than a touring plans app. Anything to help with crowd control is a plus in my book

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To have a successful WDW trip, you need to use multiple external sites. You’ll need TP to efficiently use this new app… nearly guaranteed.

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And then there are those of us who have successful and AMAZING WDW trips by getting our base ADRs and FP+s and going with the flow - no plans beyond the basics, and definitely no timed-out must stay on schedule papers or lists to deal with. I tried the plans thing and within 30 minutes was going crazy and miserable. Trashed the plans and had an amazing rest of my visit.

I get that people on here do not think that is possible. But it is. And it leaves room for magical moments - which do not stick to timetables and schedules.

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This May 2020 trip will be my first DIsney trip where I use TP. Before, all I used was Undercover Tourist Crowd calendar, and a little personal experience. We had VERY successful WDW trips.

I think TP can help improve one’s experience. But I would wager that a vast majority of people going to WDW are having successful trips without TP.

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Touring Plans will always be better for the average tourist.
Remember, they are the “unofficial” guide to WDW. Their job is to make our trip more enjoyable.
Disney’s job is to control crowds and make more money.

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I think it will be a hard sell to replace TP. If the Genie system works anything like the current Disney site/app, it will be unreliable enough for me to avoid using it without seeing a lot of positive reviews over a long period. TP has been exceptionally easier to access, better with clarification, and offers more information than any Disney-created resource I’ve used.
¯_(ツ)_/¯

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Disney apps don’t work well. TP made my last trip awesome with low waits. Very important for someone with little kids! Plus all the advice from my touring plans “friends.” Not sure they will pull us over that easily! Also the Genie app will be for people who use nothing prob not focused on low waits.

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I would consider 6 month out ADRs and 60 day out FFP sticking to pretty strict timetables.

I’d never use the touring plans themselves. Access to some crowd calendars and looking at historical data just to get a feel of when to an is pretty valuable information.

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Still using external sites to make a successful trip…

My point was TP is probably safe, as people having the best trips are using third party sites. Whatever those are, TP is in a handful of the many. And they’ll still be used to make successful trips

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You said “multiple external sites”. I’m saying a single site. The crowd calendar at UT. And that was only to try to select an ideal time period to go. Never needed more than that to make a successful trip. And, frankly, we didn’t really NEED that to have a successful trip. We just might have picked a week where we had slightly larger crowds.

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You may use one, but there are multiple. And people use them for successful trips. Meaning sites like TP are going to stick around no matter what Disney comes out with. The point is more about the doom and gloom of “so long touring plans”.

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I think you may be missing my point here. It is that TP’s current business model depends at least partially on people being willing to pay for their planning tools.

If Disney’s Genie sways enough people that they don’t need to use planning tools from a third party site that they have to PAY for, then that can have a negative impact on TPs. So, TP will need to adapt, I think, to remain viable.

It isn’t about doom and gloom, it is about how capitalism works! You sell something that others want/need to make money. And then when/if others make that something less attractive, you improve upon the idea to keep yourself in the game.

Imagine if Ford, GM, and Chrysler, back the 80s, NEVER responded to the improvements the Japanese imports starting making. They would have gone under entirely. Instead, when the Japanese imports started to impact their sales, the domestics had to react and change to remain relevant.

I’m suggesting TP may need to do the same.

People are loyal to TP here. They wouldn’t be here if they weren’t. But TP will always need NEW people coming and paying for their products. If Disney does things to make their products LESS necessary (which is different from saying unnecessary), TP risks losing revenue itself.

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