Now I am booked , how do I plan???

[meldud]

I would like some advice on how to plan our itinery for August 2010??

I have never been to WDW, so am unsure as to what on earth I am doing!!

My husband is already getting stressed about not having enough spontaneity in our holiday. But reading several blogs it appears that planning is reasonably important.
Is there a way to plan and be spontaneous at the same time? I feel a compromise coming on!!!!

We will be staying on site for 2 weeks from 13th august 2010, with me, my husband, a ten year old boy and a nine year old girl.

Thanks in anticipation,

mel

 

[~Piglet~]

Is there a way to plan and be spontaneous at the same time?

Planning is the best part! How about just deciding on which days you spend at a certain park and then being spontaneous once you are inside the park?! (for me that wouldn't work though - I need to have some structure!)

There is so much to see and do though in Orlando that some kind of loose plan is a good idea

 

[wayneg]

Do whats best for your family. Some people plan every little detail down to routes around the parks and estimated ride times. Some just plan the park itineries, some their evening meals and others don't have a single plan.
For a 1st trip I would try decide which parks you want to goto, basically so you can pre-buy your tickets. Plus if you are doing Dining plan try book a few in advance, August gets very busy in the popular restaraunts so you need to book at your 180 day mark if poss. Some are essential others you can walk in and get a table.
If you are not sure on anything post and ask, there are no right or wrong way to do things, its finding the best way for your family.

 

[loobylou44]

I think a good guide book is a good place to start you can then get an overview and then you can ask more detailed questions on here. I really like 'The Brits Guide to Orlando' by Simon and Susan Veness a new one for 2010 has just been released.
Its a good idea to have a rough plan of 'must do's' and the best days to visit each park, but its still possible to be spontaneous, we definitely manage it. Have a fab trip!

 

[mcco5543]

This is how my family does it (A mix of planing and being spontaneous is our way of doing it)


1. we look at the menus on allears.net and since we have the dining plan, we choose what table service restaraunts we'd like to go to.

then we look at the Extra magic hours for the parks for the time we will be in Disney. (We stay on site so we get to participate in the extra magic hours. My wife and much prefer the PM Extra magic hours and prefer not to go to the AM magic hours at all.)

We then see if any of our restaurant choices are in any parks and put that restaurant on the PM EMH day for that park. (We do this if we can because we think the less time we spend "traveling" between parks, the better since "traveling" stresses us both out).

Once our "park restaurants" match up with our evening EMH hours we see what other locations are chosen retaurants are in and try and put those restaraunts on the days that we will be at the nearest park for traveling to that location. (I.E) Boma is in the Animal Kingdom Lodge which is closest to the animal kingdom, so if we aren't eating in the Animal kingdom park that day, we will put our Boma dinner reservation on this day for the shortest amount of travel.


We then look in each park and choose our top 3-5 must do's for each park. since there's only the 2 of us, we have the ability to make sure we each get at least a few of our "top must do's" in. The rest of that park day is devoted to "whatever we feel like doing!" We also don't neccesarily do our "must do"s first thing. We do them as we come across them in the parks. So are "plan" is in between all the "go with the flow" .

A lot of time are top choices actually match so that works out well too! But we've been before so we know already what to expect when we pick our top choices. You have the element of still getting to experience it for the first time! (So exiting!!!)

I also take note of one last thing: parades, shows, and fire works times and locations.

I write/type all this into a word processing document. I start by listing the day of the week and the date. Under the appropriate day I:

Then I list what park we want to go to on each day and note if it's an AM or a PM EMH.
Then I list our food reservations and the confirmation numbers
then I list the shows/parades/fireworks times for that day

on a 2nd piece of paper i type in the names of the 4 parks and under each appropriate park I list our "must do's"

finally my third sheet of paper lists how to best transport ourselves between the parks and to and from our dining "ressies" I do this by using the travel wizard at the laughing place.com

One last note. Since my wife and I go for a week we ALWAYS plan a "whatever" day in the middle of the trip. Nothing at all is planned for this day except our meal reservations. We use this day to go back to a park and do things we feel like we didnt' get a chance to do, explore our resort, go resort hopping, swim at the pool, sleep in all day, or do literally whatever we want for as long as we want. We dont' take a break during the middle of the day and take naps so this day is really important to us. Also, you can use this day to swap out any other day if you have an emergency or bad weather. (I ended up in the ER on one of our "park days" and felt like poo so we used it as our "hang out" day and went to the intended park on our original hang out day!

Finally, even though we take this 3 page document with us the whole trip. We only use it as a reference and then only if we feel like it!. It's just a guide, suggestions for ourselves. We're both totally willing to trash the whole thing if we find we're doing just fine without it and are having a blast. It's a "just in case" . I just enjoy the planning so I don't mind if all my "planning" goes "to waste". For me , planning is fun.


No matter what y'all decide. Plan , no plan or semi plan. Have a great first time!!!!

 

[DISWolves]

I agree that a guide book would be a good investment, but also suggest that you make a plan for each day. Use this plan as a guide rather than set in concrete. August is usually quite warm so be prepared to have 'time out' when you need it. We pre-plan every day of our annual 3 weeks but probably only stick to 70% of the timetable. Be prepared to be flexible, but also remember that time (especially in Orlando) is precious....ENLOY!

 

[Disneynutinlondon]

I agree that if you do nothing else then with 2 children you MUST plan and by that I mean make ADR's for your meals.

We have been to WDW many times and it breaks my heart when we are sitting down to eat and we see families walking up to the resturant check in with tired, gumpy, hungrey children only to be turned away or told that there is 1 1/2 hours to wait. If you are like us and enjoy a sit down family dinner then plan your evening meal in whatever park has evening EMH and then you can enjoy the park without to much travelling.

Also August is very hot and also very humid. For our family we have found that we get up and hit the parks fairly early and do whatever we want before it gets too hot. Then about lunchtime we go back to the hotel and spend the afternoon just chillin by the pool or catching a nap. After our relaxing afternoon we are refreshed and ready for dinner and whatever exciting thrills the EMH park holds for us.

 

[PChef]

I second the recommendation for a guidebook, but remember a lot of libraries will have copies of Brit's Guide and others so worth a look there to see which book you prefer.

On our first trip we had a plan of which park on which day, an idea of which rides were gonna appeal to us most, and had made some dining reservations. It is useful to know which days are busiest at each park as it can make a huge difference to how many rides you can get on! Definitely have some days 'unplanned' though so you can go back to parks you particularly enjoyed, our two boys loved Epcot and Blizzard Beach so we went back to those. Also factor in some shopping and chilling time!

We are just planning our second trip now, waiting for flights to come out for end October 2010.

 

[torsie24]

I would reccomend you go and subscribe to Tour Guide Mike for your trip. it's like £10 and will really really help you.

The most valuable part of the site (in my opinion) is his Best Day guides. For each day he rates which parks will be quietest and which to avoid, a really helpful thing to have!

That's just the start though as there is a real wealth of information.

We used it and it allowed us to be confident we would be at the least crowded park each day, be able to plan suitable ADRs but it didn't mean we were really regimental with our days. I jsut saved the guide and took it with us, so days we didn;t have any set plans we could just have a look at where mike suggested for that day and then went to one of the green rated parks.

 

[JohnnySharp2]

I agree planning is part of the fun but personally never plan past the first couple of days, for me 'planning' is deciding on accomodation and having a rough idea what different things we want to do this time.

Once you are out there plans can change, to be honest we have never had it set that we go to Magic Kingdom on day 9, or Universal on day 12 etc. Partly because with our son we prefer some flexibility, everyone is different it's just about finding your way of doing things.

My suggestion is to resarch on here and ask questions , read up or use the internet to get as much information on what there is to do, and most importantly have a few days where you are free to do other things away from the theme parks.

 

[eeyorefanuk]

I would reccomend you go and subscribe to Tour Guide Mike for your trip. it's like £10 and will really really help you.

The most valuable part of the site (in my opinion) is his Best Day guides. For each day he rates which parks will be quietest and which to avoid, a really helpful thing to have!

That's just the start though as there is a real wealth of information.

We used it and it allowed us to be confident we would be at the least crowded park each day, be able to plan suitable ADRs but it didn't mean we were really regimental with our days. I jsut saved the guide and took it with us, so days we didn;t have any set plans we could just have a look at where mike suggested for that day and then went to one of the green rated parks.

How far in advance can this be done?

Also we have in our minds now our itinerary (only done really because of the free dining and booking the ADRs) ........... do you think it is still worth it?

 

[torsie24]

You could definitely do it now. I think it might be like 2 years out you're allowed. His best/worst day guides wont be out until the park hours are, but you can take your time planning ADRs and setting them up on there and stuff and reading all the info.

 

[disneyholic family]

i would read Simon's book, 'The Brits Guide to Orlando' , as your first step.

i used to inhale guidebooks to WDW....i still do even after 50+ trips to the mouse.. ..the ones i still read are: the brit's guide, the one by birnbaum, the one by the neales - i think that's their name, and the unofficial guide to WDW...
but read the brit's guide to orlando first....it's really very comprehensive and particularly good for brits who are firsttimers...

 

[meldud]

I have already devoured the unofficial guide to WDW and have made marks in it as to which restaurants I like the sound of. My daughter is a coeliac, so meal planning is reasonably important for us.

When do the park opening hours for august 2010 get published?

Mel

 

[eeyorefanuk]

When do the park opening hours for august 2010 get published?

Mel

Snap .... same here for August 2010 opening hours

 

[wickesy]

How far in advance can this be done?

You could definitely do it now. I think it might be like 2 years out you're allowed.

I subscribed a couple of months ago for a trip in October 2011 so definitely two years, in fact I don't think there is a time limit as such - the cost is the same whenever you subscribe and runs until 60 days after you return from your trip.

When do the park opening hours for august 2010 get published?

Mel

Snap .... same here for August 2010 opening hours

180 days before so somewhere around 1st February 2010.

 

[disneyholic family]

I have already devoured the unofficial guide to WDW and have made marks in it as to which restaurants I like the sound of. My daughter is a coeliac, so meal planning is reasonably important for us.

When do the park opening hours for august 2010 get published?

Mel

180 days before so somewhere around 1st February 2010.

This past year, they only published park opening hours 90 days in advance of september, so i don't know what it will be in 2010.

 

[eeyorefanuk]

I subscribed a couple of months ago for a trip in October 2011 so definitely two years, in fact I don't think there is a time limit as such - the cost is the same whenever you subscribe and runs until 60 days after you return from your trip.





180 days before so somewhere around 1st February 2010.

So since we have to book our ADR's 180 days out, do you just normally look at the previous year's opening hours and work from there for closing time/parade time/firework etc??

 

[wayneg]

This past year, they only published park opening hours 90 days in advance of september, so i don't know what it will be in 2010.

Since ADR'S moved back to 180 days park hours are supposed to be the same.

"Effective October 27th, theme park hours will be released 180 days in advance."

 

[wickesy]

So since we have to book our ADR's 180 days out, do you just normally look at the previous year's opening hours and work from there for closing time/parade time/firework etc??

If you particularly want one of the most popular restaurants then yes do it that way, but personally I have always been able to get in to most places by booking at 170-odd days out once I have worked out where I am going to be when. The only restaurant I haven't been able to get into on the day I wanted was Le Cellier in April this year, although that was when ADR's were only being taken at 90 days out.