No, it’s only about doom and gloom. Doom and gloom click bait thread title and all.
Of course TP is going to attempt to adapt. There are other features not well advertise that you get for the money. They may have to increase other useful features as well. I don’t believe I ever said they should ignore what Disney is doing.
The complexity of planning a Disney trip pretty much ensures there is enough room to capitalize on something.
Disney can’t sell you an upgraded MagicBand with any degree of reliability, but their free app is going to come stomping across the landscape and destroy all that it encounters?
Color me skeptical.
I agree with that. 
But that’s ALL I said…that they shouldn’t ignore what Disney is doing. That’s my entire point.
So, as it relates to the click bait title, there is a LEVEL of truth to it that shouldn’t be ignored. That’s where I’m at about it.
Nope. By strict timetables I mean printing off the plans, having things timed down to bathroom breaks, etc. Those leave zero room for spontaneous things to happen.
I also don’t stress about crowds because there is nothing you can do about them. I have been during Christmas week where they were packed and years ago in October when there was pretty much no one there. Guess when I had the better time? When they were packed - because it felt like Disney. And at that time we were on a CM’s pass (sister) so we could not plan ahead for FP. ADRs were made - if any - the night before or morning of.
My beef is mainly with the OP and the starting of a negatively focused thread.
I’d love to brainstorm, “what Disney annoyances could TP also solve?” Or at least, see what others come up with
No. But there is a math behind it.
Let’s say that TP pays a single software engineer to maintain all their software. Let’s say that engineer makes a modest salary of $80,000/year (which would be low). At $15/year per member, TP needs to have at least 5333 subscribers in order to pay for that one engineer. I don’t know how many subscribers they ACTUALLY have, nor how many employees, etc. But you can see how it wouldn’t take much for Disney to dip into that number enough to make it financially more difficult for them.
This would make a good thread!
I guess successful would have to be qualified. Showing up to Disney, just being in the park, could be successful to many people. Some families would have a failure of a trip if they couldn’t get key ADRs, or hit certain attractions everyone else wants.
Crowds impact lines at attractions. I’ve seen many people make the “once in a lifetime trip”, just on their own, and certain attraction they just have to skip. Making a fastpass for bugs life when they didn’t realize almost anything else would of been better.
I’m not an expert with 5 trips to WDW, but me and my wife have been to most theme parks in the US. A lot of that applies to how to tackle Disney, so we went in with no information. I didn’t even know ADRs were a thing when I was turned away at a table service. Also, when we went you could be more spontaneous with the fast pass kiosk and no pre booking.
6month ADRs and 60 day fastpass makes Disney on a base level much more schedule intensive then any other theme park out there.
Wait, wait, wait. I mean. I think this comment warrants concern. Have you spoken with a psychotherapist lately? Because that sounds like crazy talk to me! 
This part I don’t see as crazy talk. My biggest lament against Disney is how they continually make the “spontaneous trip” harder and harder to do. (Have I mentioned my dislike of FP here? No?)
So, now a Disney trip is an art. Balancing the illusion of spontaneity with the need for planning. Or, in the very least, for the realization that in order to really pull off spontaneity, you will be sacrificing something else in exchange. Sigh
The best memories I have from our Disney trips are the spontaneous moments that fall in between the planned activities. (And by planned, I don’t necessarily mean, “Do Space Mountain at 3:00 pm.” Instead, I mean, “Let’s get a ride on Space Mountain, Buzz, People Mover, and Splash Mountain today, at least.”)
Not for me. I already don’t trust Disney IT nor Disney’s ideas about what makes a great day (remember the predetermined FP plans they tried a while ago that were all the rides/attractions that don’t need FP) nor do I trust Disney’s wait times.
I will stick with an independent source.
I’ve done both and not having a plan stresses me out beyond belief. It’s good there is no “one way” to do Disney. Something for all of us.
We will have to agree to disagree.
One or two ADRs for a trip and 3 pre-planned activities a day do not equal intensive schedule to me.
As has been said, it’s good there are things for everyone. Even if having a printed schedule to try and follow had not driven me crazy in and of itself, an hour or so later seeing a mother loudly berating her child for needing to go to the bathroom at a time when it was not scheduled would have done it for me. There needs to be some give, even for schedule adherents.
Heck, I’ve even been known to play bus roulette and wait to see which park bus (minus Studios because those are dead to me) comes first and go there. Last fall did it and hit Animal Kingdom as the first bus - and even managed to snag a FoP FP+ on the bus. Day of! And not even at a scheduled drop time.
Nothing with Disney tech is straight forward. TP is easy for me to use.
Only ones who do some kind of planning. I would guess that most do very little. We’ve all heard people at 4pm saying “why don’t we try to get in the castle for dinner?” and similar things that indicate they have no idea what they are doing.
Im the same. I dont use a strict down to the minute plan, but i NEED something. Winging it isnt my thing for the most part, lol
I’d rather screw up a plan on TP than one that’s integrated with my FPs and ADRs. I don’t like touching anything that touches those. Even when modifying for FPs, I’m very careful. Much more careful than I am when doing my plans. So for now, I’ll be staying with TP.
Oh man, I didnt even think about that aspect. Disney IT so wishy washy, one minute you could have a perfect plan with everything linked in one place and the next all ur ADRs and FPs are gone! That is the perfect reason not to touch Genie.
As if.