What do you do? Schedule them anyway? Leave them open so you can grab things during the day if needed? Schedule the ones with the highest wait times even though they may not be your #1 (or may only be 15 minutes)? How much do you trust the wait times and schedule the optimized plans put out?
I usually schedule fastpasses anyway. I’m sure there are several who just trust the TP but I always schedule them just because it seems silly to me not to.
I will say the way times are usually pretty accurate if not a little more than what you’ll actually end up waiting. If you download the app from TP, you can optimize throughout the day and that will shave time off your day as well. We ended up saving tons of time by doing that.
There’s a hidden section at the bottom of the FastPass+ Reservation box, where it says, “Advanced Options” and has the green plus sign. If you click the green plus sign, it should say “FP+ Selections” and have a dropdown box. I think if you have 0 selected in that dropdown, it doesn’t suggest any FP+ times. Change that to 3, and you might get some suggestions.
Or you’ve only got stuff in your plan without FP+/with very short lines, and you’re going on a very low-crowd day? If so, I would still schedule FastPasses for something when you get a chance, because 1 minute in line is still better than 5, all things being equal.
I would say make FPs for the things on your Touring Plan that have the highest waits plus the “must haves” that you don’t want to miss. For example, I am planning to rope drop to PP, but I booked a FP at 10:30 just in case something holds us up in the morning and we can’t ride.
I have it marked with 3 and definitely have things that have FP on the itinerary. When I optimize the wait times are so low there are no suggested FPs. But the route is all over the park back and forth so I think I will rearrange and see what it says. I just can’t decide if there is a benefit to optimize vs evaluating and planning FPs along a particular walking route.
In that case, you can adjust the waiting vs. walking slider, and set your walking speed, and maybe it will cough up some recommendations.
The optimizer is set up to give a pretty-good answer pretty fast, not necessarily the absolute best answer, so it sometimes helps to run it a few times until the answer is not changing. And then, after you define a FPP, run it again. After it seems stable, and if I notice that it’s walking you across the park to save a few minutes in line (or doing pavilions in World Showcase out-of-order), I switch to using Evaluate, and manually move steps.
I have it set to minimize walking and very relaxed. When I optimize several times the stops are more clustered together but it still has me going to the back of the park and all the way around to the front, then back again. I moved my stuff around so that I can walk the park in a circle (this is at AK btw) and got a few suggestions for FPs.
How do I share a plan? I’d like to see if what I’m doing should work out somewhat close to what it’s showing.
Hit the “Edit” button at the top, and check the “Publish this Plan” box. Then, you can paste the URL into forum post, and people will look it over.
Thanks!
I’ve published it and link is below.
First, I’m wondering about the Wilderness Explorers as the first stop. It says the duration is 25 min, but thats only if we were to do the whole thing right then, correct? I was thinking we would just pick it up and complete the activity throughout the day. I want to get to the Festival of the Lion King early enough and the way this plan shows it now, we would only be arriving 6 minutes before show time. Is that accurate?
Second, I’m aware there are no breaks or meals in this plan. I will work them in but wanted to get an idea if this could really work. The wait times are quite low. But then I used FP for the only 2 things with longer waits and we will be skipping Everest.
Here is the plan: Disney and Universal Touring Plans
Thanks for the feedback!
Oh, and I forgot. Is there any advantage to using FP for shows like Finding Nemo?
Wilderness Explorers takes a long time to get all the badges. The optimizer likes to drop it in first thing, I think, even though the booths don’t start passing out stickers until 10 AM. So, I would move that step to later in the day, and just do the activities as you come upon them. (The first post in this thread on another WDW site has info about all the badge locations, if you want to plan which ones you’ll be able to do. Pangani Forest is now called Gorilla Falls, but otherwise, it’s still the same: http://www.easywdw.com/forums/showthread.php?22335-Wilderness-Explorers-Handbook-Distribution-and-Badge-Locations ) They may let you have the booklet at the front of the park at park open (it seems to vary), but you can’t get any badges until 10. I would drop that plan step somewhere between Safaris and Kali. The 25 minute duration plus the walk time is how much time I’d allow for doing WE all day. Each stop only takes a few minutes.
I don’t know what you are going to do before 10 AM, when Festival of the Lion King starts, since you have a Safaris FP at 10:30. Everything else on your list is in DinoLand, or at Rafiki’s Planet Watch, which is a big block of time (and I think opens later than the rest of the park).
Oh, good to know about the Wilderness Explorers. Thanks.
I’ve adjusted the plan a bit. I think we will arrive around 10 and meander to the Lion King show and maybe grab a snack. Then after the Lion King we can do the safari and then wander casually through the rest of the park. With the exception of KRR and maybe Dinosaur, it doesn’t look like many things will have a long lines.
How do I find out when Rafiki’s Planet Watch opens? I didn’t see anything about that on the AK page on disney’s site.
In October Kali won’t have much of a line unless it’s abnormally hot (and even then it won’t be that bad). I’d suggest wearing clothes that shed water and/or dry quickly for Kali, rain ponchos, or doing it as last stop of the day. You will get wet and some may get soaked. Dressed appropriately, it’s fine - but if dressed poorly (think jeans) you’ll be miserable for the rest of the day until you change. Just a heads up - we always enjoy the ride, but you need to be prepared…
TouringPlans pages for the attractions in Rafiki’s Planet Watch say they open 30 minutes after the rest of the park.
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