I have tried using the Touring Plans for Disneyland the last few trips and the timing is WAY off. Even if we get there at the time that the plan indicates, the wait time is longer than expected and we are still in line when we should be at the next ride according to the plan. Am I doing something wrong? I love the idea of having a plan, but am frustrated when nothing seems to work.
3 Likes
Hi! I went to DL last year and compelety agree. The LL availability predictions were rarely correct. The queue waits were also inaccurate. However, I will say that IME TP overestimated every queue time and underestimated LL availability. I was able to ride everything on my list and get way more LL than predicted with more time left over.
I’m going back in a month. I have made I plan, but I’m treating it more like a guide than a step-by-step itinerary. 
I’m hoping I’ll be able to do more than “planned” this year too!
3 Likes
I was surprised to look at the Lines app this morning and see that there were lots of wait times before park open and the DLR did not show those times. That was confusing. Super frustrating when trying to use something that ultimately you’re not sure if you should trust.
2 Likes
Wait times before park opens are from the day before.
Did you optimize in the park? I know TP updated the model for Uni and wdw but I don’t know if DLR was updated too.
5 Likes
Yeah, I would optimize while in the parks, and things were still off. I mean, it’s sometimes nice to just have the decision made as far as the order to do things, but it’s annoying when the wait times are way longer than the plan predicts. Throws things off.
2 Likes
I would use the Contact Us form to give feedback on the plan, times, and optimizing not making the adjustments.
2 Likes
One thing I will say in TP’s defense is that the predictability of wait times at Disneyland is negatively impacted by quirks in the operations there. There seems to be a different mentality among management there vs. WDW that, IMO, stems from the fact that Disneyland is for locals who can come back next week if they want to, whereas WDW is primarily catering to long-distance travelers who are spending a week there.
The result is that Disneyland will often intentionally slow-walk morning rope drop, guiding crowds to 2-3 attractions and then opening more rides depending on need. If a ride goes down, there is often no rush to reopen, and it isn’t uncommon for a ride to go down for the rest of the day, especially if it breaks down at night. Also, Disneyland has more rides that go down for holiday overlays – Haunted Mansion, iasw, etc. – for weeks at a time.
Contrast that with WDW where rides often miss rope drop, but CMs are working furiously to get them open ASAP thereafter. Same thing with midday breakdowns. And rides are rarely taken offline merely for a seasonal overlay – any overlays are much less elaborate so they can be placed in a day or so.
All of this makes Disneyland harder to predict than WDW.
4 Likes
So would you say the personalized touring plans for WDW would be more accurate? We haven’t been to WDW yet, but it is going to be our next big family trip. I wasn’t sure if I should get the subscription for WDW if it was going to be similar to DLR. Or if I was just doing something “wrong” that was affecting the accuracy of the Disneyland plan.
2 Likes
I would definitely say that the WDW plans tend to be more accurate and a lot more attention is paid to that coast by the TP staff.
That said, it’s good to have tempered expectations for how accurate a forecast can be. Just like a weather forecast, it is subject to margins of error and constantly changing conditions.
I am very satisfied with the value I get for my subscription, especially as a forum user. If there’s something your personalized plan can’t solve, the folks around here will be able to help weigh in!
5 Likes
Fwiw, I was in DL and DCA last week and found the TP Lines app “expected wait” times to be quite accurate. Now, we used LLMP, so we weren’t always dependent upon the TP wait times. But before we got into any standby line, we looked at the Lines app “expected wait” and found them to be pretty spot on.
While I mapped out plans for our two park days using TP, I didn’t really follow them closely while in the park. Used them more as the outline for our day, and then played the LLMP availability game, along with using TP expected waits for standbys.
5 Likes
My subscription expires on the final day of my trip. I plan to track waits on the other days while there. I want to help! 
4 Likes
I love UG and I like the touring plans app but my recent trips have always been way off in all three. Uni, WDW and DL. But I am one person and the last trip was all LL and EP times to WDW and Uni being off not necessarily the standby lines cuz we LLPP and EP. But I still love being able to make plans. I tend to make them as a list and I always pad.
6 Likes
Everything that @Jeff_AZ mentioned is spot on and why it’s harder to pin down predictions for DLR. And it’s all a product of DLR being so accessible to such a highly populated area that can and do (as much as Disney allows for that flexibility now with needing reservations and with date-based pricing) take advantage of their ability to flexibly pop in.
The date-based pricing model and reservations are very much Disney operations working to control for that element as much as possible. So you’ll never see those away in DLR, unfortunately.
2 Likes