Software helps optimize Disney experience

Combine this with the virtual queue system and you're one step closer to that whole "booking your day in advance" thing.

I still think it will become a standard to plan each day (including rides, times to ride, meals times, meals, etc) in advance at parks like Disney.

Of course, the cattle wrangling "public queue" will never go away, but once Disney starts using a similar software themselves (and they will) and combines it with the FastPass system, you'll have prebooked days at the park as part of planning you "Disney Getaway"

When we went to Universal a couple of days ago, they had it wear one of there trip travel planners will plan the whole day out for you for a little extra cost. We didn't do it, but it sounded interesting.

They have a company here in Wisconsin that will help plan itineraries for the Florida parks so that one can commando the parks with the greatest efficiency. I remember seeing a story on it on one of the local news shows. It sounds almost the same as this thing that Disney has come up with for their California parks.

I've used RideMax (it's not a Disney thing, but a private company)---admittedly during a slow time of year (February, but not President's weekend) and so didn't follow the plans all that closely. But, it was neat to be able to try out different combinations and see how they got reordered. Most of them were commonsense, but there were a few wrinkles that I hadn't thought of.

Kick: Is that Wisconsin company touringplans.com? They are the "unofficial guide" authors, and they do seem to use a similar scheme, but rather than selling you access to the raw data so you can fiddle with your own plans, you only get one shot at it.

Kyle: take a look at Michael's VIPs; this guy is a former "plaid vest" at WDW (the folks who do tour celebrities around the parks for Disney), and now does private tours to the tune of $95+20%/hour. He also runs my preferred "insider's guide" site to WDW: www.tourguidemike.com (it's a pay site, and well worth it if you are visiting during a busy time.) Based on his posts on the forums there, he keeps pretty busy in the personal touring side of his business. Amusingly, William Shatner was one of his clients.*** This post was edited by Brian Noble 1/4/2005 8:30:41 AM ***