Anyone else feel like they overplan?

[DalmatianDad]

Impossible to over plan! The planning piece is extremely fun to me.

I have the routes for each park drawn out with every stop planned out with time framed schedules for the routes. We pay a lot for these trips and i want to get the most out of them.

It doesn't hurt to have a very solid plan. The only advice i can offer is once you get there be prepared to deviate from the plan, make sure the plan is more of a "guideline". This way you aren't stressed out if you miss or end up skipping something. I usually have my last day at the parks are a repeat day at MK. I leave that one completely open and dont plan besides fast passes, all though this trip we are doing a tour in the morning... After that, i let the magic guide me.

 

[Pmlocke]

We aren't big planners, we like to relax and take each day as it comes.
Out next trip is in February, a quiet time for WDW so we have booked 1 meal for our first 4 days (one day in each park) and then the other 10 days we'll plan as we go.
Each of us has our 1 or 2 'must do's' for the trip, be it a meal or a ride, and as long as we get those things done then our trip is a success! I book FP+ for each day based on which park I think we might go to but then we decide at supper which park we're doing the following day and change them accordingly.

My friend plans every minute of their trips and I'm sure they all have a great time but she comes home absolutely exhausted which, in my opinion, goes against the point of a vacation! We've agreed that we will NEVER be able to vacation together

I have to agree. My wife and I seem to have a more enjoyable trip when we do the elast amount of planning. I still make my DR's but because I get Park Hoppers there is no reason to schedule a whole day around my DR. We never get fast passes. When we get up in the morning we don't even know what park we are going to. We return from each trip fully rested. I should state we are in our 60's and we don't have children go with us anymore. Did the children and grandchildren trips but now it's just the two of us and the trips are more relaxed and pleasant.

 

[DISbot]

My trip two years ago I discovered how to overplan but still be flexible and spontaneous.

I spend 6+ months planning, making ADRs, Fastpasses, and aligning every ride and break around them. I rework them and review them until I know them pretty well. I put them in a pretty spreadsheet, and print out touringplans maps and routes for my disney binder. I make sure reservations and FP+ are available on the phone (easier now).

Then...I leave the binder at home (or if I can't let it go that far, I leave it in the hotel). I have a rough plan in my mind from what I can remember of the binder, and my phone has the need to know reservations. The planning doesn't totally go to waste, but the spontaneity and flexibility shows up by throwing the documents out the window and relying on what I thought we wanted to do.

 

[PlutoTheDog89]

I'm a total planner.

I usually make a mock itinerary leading to our 180-day window.

It's small stuff like planning the parks we plan on going to. We know that we love MK on Christmas and EPCOT on NYE. From there, we'll say "okay, we wanna sleep late this day, so we'll do an afternoon in EPCOT".... then "alright we're doing EPCOT on NYE and MK on 12/30, so let's head to DHS in the evening on this day.."

It helps so that we don't book, say, Tusker House on a day we plan on being at MK.

From there, I'll start to look at times. Okay, we like being at MK early Xmas morning. From past experiences, we'll head to Space Mountain at 8am then Buzz. We usually try and fit in one more ride, so I know that when I book Crystal Palace, it has to be after 9:30am.

I usually make a to-the-hour itinerary. I know that sounds like a lot, but I know my family well enough by now.

I usually pack in a ton of stuff the first few days, then the rest of the trip we hang out at the resort a lot, head to DS and get in anything we missed at the parks.

Do I plan a lot? Yes. But like you said, it's half the fun.... and it keeps me busy when I'm counting down the days!

 

[Tinkbum]

I think planning the trip is half the fun, but I sometimes feel like I am OVER planning and wish I could be more spontaneous.

Anyone have any tips to balance the obsessive plan freak in my head and my desire to throw caution to the wind?

I do the same thing and nine times out of ten my planning goes out the window anyway. You'd think I'd learn and just stop doing it. I honestly can't imagine not planning though, I don't think I have it in me.

 

[moesy4]

This is our first true Disney trip and I am really excited about it. I LOVE to plan and to me, it's almost as much fun as the trip itself. That being said, I am totally a perfectionist and figuring out a way to make the trip the best...plan, place to stay, and budget is a big one. The past two bigger trips we have planned have involved kids, and the planning has been way more stressful. This trip alone we have booked and cancelled a couple of different places to stay, changed the dates at least twice, and changed our flights several times. I would love to get to a place where I would just pick something and stick with it, which will be my goal on the next trip.
That being said, the actual planning out the days and parks and all that has been great fun.

 

[Karin1984]

If you want tips on how to he spontaneous, ask yourself: what happens if we don't do x, but y instead?

Most of the time, the world will not come to an end. You usually will not explode automatically when you skip a FP, ride, show or ADR. Accept that change is fine.

 

[DrunkJam]

This is the thing that is really making me NOT enjoy my Disney holiday.

I mean, in 2010, we were getting married on property and, you expect to plan loads for that, but, this is meant to be a fun, big deal HOLIDAY.

On holiday, I don't expect to be booking my dining reservations 6 months out - heck, I can get michelin starred food at home booking just a couple months out - I don't expect to have to book which theme park rides I want on a certain day 2 months before I get there.

I have a will be 11 yr old child with ASD, a will be 4 year old, and a sick husband. We want to have a nice,relaxing holiday. This is super stressful.

I mean, I know we will enjoy it more when we are there IF we put the work in before we go, but, seriously, this is a crazy amount of work to go through. Imagine anywhere else, staying in a hotel as expensive as the disney deluxe, and not being able to imagine that you can just go to the restaurant there for dinner or breakfast...

A disney holiday feels like a military expedition. A LONG way from the relaxing idea of a holiday. I can't understand how people who do it every year find it fun...At least in the planning stages. I am already worrying what if we can't get the ADRs my ASDer needs? What if we can't FP+ the rides he needs?

 

[FLkid]

This is my first time going to WDW with no dining reservations...It honestly scares the poopoo out of me.
I also have been very simple with my fast pass selections, Picking them as if I may or may not do them basically.

I am a CHRONIC planner, Especially when it comes to Disney. But for this trip I decided I wanted to try something different, Just be present and enjoy my time with my loved one. I did plan what parks we were going to each day based on crowd calendars, and I did make a list of things either I have never done at Disney, or things that I have never experienced with my GF.

I think what is different about this trip for me is I haven't been since February, This trip was not expected to fit in the budget but somehow we were able to manage a 6 day stay, And I will be taking my girlfriend for her 2nd time to WDW and she will get to experience F&W + MNSSHP for the first time.

I am all for planning, I love to plan. But I think sometimes you need to experience Disney as a real *vacation* and relax a little. I've done about 4 solo trips now and regardless of how many plans I made, My favorite experiences were the things that were not on the schedule.

 

[JRawkSteady]

I always overplan and then usually don't even follow it (besides ADR's and which parks we are visiting). The only time I ever really followed my plan 100% was in 2005 when I had to prove people on this board wrong who said I couldn't do everything in WDW in a 7 day trip and still have enough time to "smell the roses". My friend and I planned everything out and videotaped the whole way. It was a fun little experiment. (And yes, we were able to do everything and had TONS of downtime to just hang back.)

 

[MinnieSweetheart]

We treat WDW the same way we would a trip to Kauai or France, we want to see the sights and relax. Being "part of something" instead of just "rushing through." We could never be one of those families that has every 30 minutes planned out on Touring Plans.

We do both!!

What works for us is having small toddlers, LOL and also planning downtime into our schedule. We usually plan more time than we need for snack/meal breaks and that gives us time to take in the ambience a lot. We do enjoy just being at the parks at this point, but we also like having some direction for what we will see and when.

Planning is especially important to me, because I want to know that we will be near a restaurant where we want to eat at the right time of day. Otherwise, we tend to skip meals.

 

[BayouQueen]

We are heading to WDW this Wednesday and while I've made myself crazy with the planning, I'm really glad I put the effort in. The weather is supposed to be very dicey, and I'm thrilled that I have a lot of ADRs to look forward to. If it pours rain, I'm gonna be jumping on rides in my poncho with short lines, and eating lots of yummy stuff indoors. Beats housework!!

 

[Michelle.Moss]

I love planning. It makes me less stressed. I was supposed to go in September, but it's been moved to January. I had a spreadsheet down to the half hour, color coded and it had my nieces naps on there. I didn't go into too much detail with rides, but yeah there is no such thing as over planning in my opinion.