Bye!
Or worseā¦you spent days coordinating your plan to obtain the perfect FP line-up, including a one-in-a-million 7DMT FP for 7 people. And then at the last minuteā¦Genie decides you would RATHER ride IASW.
Ryan love. Hush child.
Yes Disney knows best after all
This. Genie will give the nonplanners a plan but it wonāt necessarily be the best most efficient plan.
Me neither. Oh boy.
I plan because I hate having to make quick decisions. Being in the middle of somewhere and having to think about what am I going to do next, it leaves me feeling anxious and overwhelmed.
I am more then happy to give up a plan if something that I really wish to do shows up, but I like having a default so I canāt avoid decision paralysis.
If Disney genie is just a ādo this nextā thing, it might be helpful to a lot of people, but it is nothing like an optimized touring plan.
I think from Lenās post I am assuming that Disneyās definition of āa planā and ours might be different ā¦
I like multiple opinions to expose what people feel when they actually are in the park. Iāve seen so many people around me that look like they are in a nightmare.
Heading to Disney, once in a lifetime, picking presidents weekend, not knowing you need ADRsā¦ FPP reservations that can disappear at 60+. Assuming you can get your kids into certain character meals that have been booked many months before you started looking. I donāt see that trip going wellā¦ and many people plan trips around the school calendarā¦ which typically puts them in prime time to need planing.
Pretty much every other theme park, you can pay the poor planning tax ( express pass lanes). I personally would always recommend someone plan their first Disney trip out a year in advance just because of some of these things.
Heck, itās still common enough for me to explain the fastpass system to someone I am in line with at least once a day. Planning a couple ADRs and a couple things to do a day is low planning. When some of those things require you to do then 6 months out thoughā¦
This is me!! I donāt stick to my plans necessarily but I canāt imagine going without one. Well I can, but I certainly wouldnāt see as much. That matters when you donāt go often.
And Iām also all for leeway, I donāt schedule our bathroom breaks or anything like thatā¦but I need an order. The āreoptimizeā button is my bestie.
Since itās official, I think it could be a great thing for the average park goer.
Disney doesnāt need people in the park to be efficient, but happy. I donāt know how many times I look at a big family, just through the gate, stop and ask āso where do we go first?ā
To which the answers come in:
āSpace Mountain!ā
āI donāt want to do a roller coaster first thing.ā
āLetās go see the castle!ā
āAdventureland has that Johnny Depp themed ride, doesnāt it?ā
So, yeah. I think even basic functionality might be helpful for newcomers.
I totally understand your POV.
However, I use the TPs for the planning, not the execution.
By the time I go, I know what is realistic to achieve in say 3 hours. I use Evaluate, not Optimise. And although I have a plan, it will not resemble anything like 95% of linersā plans lol! Itāll have two rides and then a 45 minute break, where I put things like āgo to wishing well, sit and chillā or āwatch Gastonās m&gā or āexplore areaā.
I donāt just smell the roses, I smell each individual roseā¦ I could quite easily spend a whole day in every park without riding anything, without seeing any show. But I use the TPs to have an outline of the day and know we will cover NFL and Frontierland on Tuesday.
It is possible to use TP and not print out anything. I didnāt even look at the plans in the whole of the two weeks we were there. I simply didnāt need to. Spontaneity is my middle name. And it gives other liners here palpitations at the mere thought of it, Iām sure.
And, as @PrincipalTinker said, Iām here because of this forum. I donāt even use the app (which I feel guilty about because I realise it relies on liners to feed them actual wait times).
There is no one size fits all for TP.
I always forget to tap when Iām done and am then afraid of messing up their data!
It seems that if the app smartly gets people moving around the park, TP still has its place to make it more efficient (and after collecting data of wait times with the system, TPs will react to whatever models Disney used to move people around ).
If the app doesnt move people around smartlyā¦ then TPs here are even more efficient
I use relaxed walking pace and it gives us so much flexibility because of the added time.
See Ya Real soon
Hmm. The TP app looks like a website from the 1990s. It could be substantially prettier and substantively better if they invested some money it. Modern users expect more.
God knows Iāve had my stresses with MDE, but when it works ā which is most of the time ā itās really very good.
Really?
I am known for my obsessional planning, but Iāve never been a slave to my plan. As much as anything the planning teaches you what is possible. You learn about the parks and the rides and the timings.
Iām fortunate that Iāve done four trips in two years and have another two coming up in the next year, but I absolutely agree with with @lizzieanne771 that an ADR and three FPPs and a bit of research and youāve got yourself a great, packed day out.
This. Very much this. I hate whizzing from ride to ride, with my head stuck in MDE looking for the next FPP and missing everything around me. Iām really trying to stop doing it.
This is surely true. The regulars on these forums represent a tiny percentage of TP members, let alone WDW visitors. WDW is vastly successful and it must be because people have a great time. It might be a different experience to the one you have, but they keep coming back.
Thatās an entirely reasonable point.
Iām slowly coming round to this point of view. Iām praying that they donāt introduce FPPs at SWGE before my December trip. I donāt want an FPP for MFSR or ROTR and I donāt want anyone else to have one, either. I want to wait in line. A bunch of people put a bunch of effort into making that line spectacularly rich. I donāt want to be rushing past it or cutting it out altogether. But nor do I want my progress hindered as I watch dozens of people rush past me in the FPP line.
Yup.
Really?
Really?
Agreed.
I think the Unofficial Guide is really excellent in design and content, though necessarily it may not be current. But nor is the website. This is disappointingly common. (Iām looking at you, DFB Guide.)
Iāve had a mixed, mostly positive experience with the forum and the chat feature on the app.
I found the planning tools useful initially but I donāt use them now. They were useful to work out what might be credible to achieve.
The reservation finder is terrific. The fax room request is terrific. The crowd calendars are . . . of questionable value.
Thereās a whiff of Kool-Aid in this thread. Len is not God. Disney is not the Devil. Each have their plusses and minuses. People are entitled to have views and to express them. A good business especially values the critical views. It doesnāt shush them away.
(I wonder how many of my friends I have alienated in this post.)