Disney in a Minute: What is a Touring Plan?

In simplest terms, a Touring Plan is a plan for touring the parks (seems obvious now, right?). In a more comprehensive definition, a touring plan is a step-by-step itinerary outlining the most efficient way to visit a park. It typically includes which attractions to ride and when to ride them in order to minimize wait times. Does using a Touring Plan matter? Does it make a real difference in your trip? The answer is a resounding yes!

The Disney parks are huge. On our last visit, we walked more than nine miles a day to see what we wanted. (It’s easy to walk even more.) There’s no need to add to that by zigging and zagging all over the park, looking for an attraction with a low wait time. When you know that wait times for each attraction vary throughout the day, a smart plan can help you go where the crowds are lower, minimizing wait times.

There are lots of ways to create a plan for touring the parks. But the starting point for any plan should be to decide what you want to see. (Our “Attractions in Five” series can help with that.) It also helps to “know thyself;” in other words, think about how much you can reasonably do in one day.

Both questions can be challenging to answer. But Touring Plans is here to help! We’ve created plans for touring Disney World, Disneyland, and Universal Orlando. Each considers factors like ride location, wait times, and even show schedules. Our pre-made plans also take into account how many days you want to spend in each park, your interests, the size of your group, and your desired pace. You can view and choose from pre-made plans for kids, tweens, adults, seniors, and families.

You can print these plans and use them as a checklist. But we also offer an option to make custom plans. These plans include which rides you want to prioritize and when you want to take breaks. You bring the list of attractions; we’ll tell you what order to do them in to minimize your wait times.

Now if all this sounds like a commercial for a Touring Plans subscription, it isn’t. Our mission is to save you time and money on your theme park vacation, and there are a lot of resources on our site you can take advantage of for free! But it’s worth noting that a Disney World subscription is just $24.99 per year. (We also offer plans and subscriptions for Disneyland and Universal Orlando.) Over a week in the parks, that’s $3.57 a day – and it can save hours of time in line! Need more reasons? Five Reasons You Need a TouringPlans Subscription

Disney in a Minute is a series of short posts designed to help you better understand a Disney term or planning topic. Do you have a Disney term that you think needs a bit more explanation? Let us know in the comments.