Do you plan for other trips like you plan for Disney?

[ludari]

I enjoy researching and planning trips but when I plan Disney vacation I have to do a little more planning (because of the crowds) to make reservations for dining, park tickets, fast passes, etc. This is not the case when I travel to non-Disney locations where I can be more flexible or spontaneous with my itinerary and dining options.

 

[hsmamato2]

I'm a planner,and I love to think about trips well before I take them so yes, I do. as A WDW vet, I am looking forward to less detailed planning for our DL visit.... most of my crew prefers a loose plan that can be easily changed last minute, so this will work out great.... but Yellowstone, Tetons, Yosemite, yep just about anywhere I research things pretty well

 

[monorailrabbit]

Not as much as I do for WDW, but I plan a rough itinerary. For example on our upcoming trip to Colorado we planned out what actives we are doing on each day, but for our zoo day I don't have anything like zebras from 3-4 or anything like that.

 

[Flight]

I do all this detailed planning but it comes to naught because I can't get everyone out of bed.

 

[VandVsmama]

It depends. Mostly, it depends on where we're going for a non-Disney vacation. If we're going on a road trip, the sort of planning I do ahead of time involves booking hotel rooms (so we don't have to settle for an icky dive of a place each night) & figuring out what we might want to do each day in whatever place we happen to be. I do this in order to balance out too many hours in the car vs being out of the car and doing something fun.

For example, this fall during our kids' fall break, DH wants to go to Zion National Park for a week. However, he wants tostay inside the park and none of those rooms have TVs. Not a problem, you say. Well, except if you know MY husband, it's a problem because he is always attached to some sort of electronic device. No wifi or Internet access at these places either. I have no problem with it. But I know that my spouse is going to be really cranky after 24 hours. So we haven't booked anything yet and don't have any plans nailed down because we can't agree on what to do/where to go.

When we go to DL, I plan A LOT. Mostly because DH is not a big theme park guy and he hates to wait in long lines. So in order to minimize wait times in ride/attraction lines, I use Ridemax when we've gone to DL and it's worked out really well for us. We don't always stick to the Ridemax plan and we deviate/alter from it a lot once we get there. But for our family, a lot of heavy planning on my part ahead of time has resulted in everyone having a really great time. If we were able to go a lot more frequently, I wouldn't plan so much because I'd think, "We can always skip it and do it next month, next season, etc."

My general DL trip planning sort of goes like this:

1. What dates should we go? need to avoid busiest times of year (Xmas, Thanksgiving, July 4th) & avoid when kids are in school or we have other obligations
2. How long to stay there?
3. Do we tack on an extra couple of days to see extended family in So Cal as well or just make it a DL-only trip? If we see extended family as well, it makes the trip much longer and more complicated. Both DH & I work outside the home, so coordinating kids' schedules + 2 working parents getting time off at the same time can be tricky sometimes.
4. Should we do Universal Studios as well?
5. Where should we stay so we don't have to walk too far or take ART?
6. What sit-down meal should we do each day?
7. Where should we eat for the other meal (CS) each day? Need to think of places that will serve food that DH & I enjoy but also offer something for pickier YDD as well. ODD is much more adventurous with food than her younger sister.
8. Can we use our MM entry on our 1st full day at DL? Sometimes I will alter our arrival day to coordinate this because we're all the most well rested on day 1 & we get more worn out as the trip continues.
9. Will the weather be decent enough at that time of year for the kids to swim in the hotel pool? This is why staying close to DL is important for our family. We have to take an afternoon break away from the parks. DH needs non-theme park time each day in order to unwind and my kids need it, too. Although my kids don't realize that. LOL
10. What are THE #1 rides that each of us MUST go on during our trip? And how can I accomodate getting us on those on the first day we are at DL? So that we can ride them multiple times if we want to throughout the rest of the trip. Or to give us extra opportunities to ride them once if they are offline/broken down/not operating.
11. Will there be fireworks each day we are there? If not, I switch around our travel dates to accomodate for this since we love watching the fireworks at least once during a DL trip.
12. How can I save money on other things in our trip so that we can afford to have a meal at the Blue Bayou?

 

[smartlabelprint]

I plan my trips the same now that I have two babies. I just don't have time.

I used to plan activities in order for both DL & other trips before.

Now with kids we've just been going to places were familiar with. We have a general idea of what we do and we are really flexible.

It's fun to read about everyone's travel styles!

 

[mlnbabies]

My WDW trips so take more planning than my other non-Disney trips. We go skiing 2-3 times a winter and a summer trip to IN to visit family.

WDW takes a lot of planning. So I did plan my dd's 16th birthday trip 1 1/2 yrs in advance. She wanted to stay at the GF. So I researched how to stay at the GF the cheapest way. I looked into renting DVC points at the GF. I found someone to rent points and that was done 11 months before the trip. Then ADR's and FP's. I don't use a touring plan for rides.

We went to DL, I booked room and tickets about 8 months in advance. We didn't book ADR's and we got FP's day of. We park hopped so no set schedule other than fireworks and parade times.

Ski trips planning does involve finding the best condo to rent for the days we need. That takes a lot of research and emailing owners to get rates and such. I do plan hotels for driving there and back so we don't get stuck in a bad hotel.

We went to Branson, MO, I planned hotels, shows, and dinners.

I do agree that planning is half the fun and WDW trips take a lot of planning if you are there for more than 2 days.

 

[GeneralTso]

I plan a reasonable amount for Disneyland and other vacations we take. Disney World was a completely different story. That felt like a part time JOB.
Between the magic bands and signing up for rides (for heaven sake!) and dining reservations, it was overwhelming. If you don't do it though, you miss out on all the top tier places.
Now that I've experienced it once, I can do it again much easier. That first time though---man oh Betty. Not for the faint of heart.

 

[Mugglemama]

I do. From 2 week road trips to Canada and back, to 3 days in San Diego, to Disneyland. I plan because it saves us time, headaches, and money. We did DLR for 3 days with no plan once...my family hated it. It felt like we wasted a ton of time. If we were simply going to a hotel to hang out at a beach for a couple of days, then I wouldn't plan anything. Pretty much everything else for us goes much smoother with an itinerary (which we all know we can deviate from if we want or need to).

 

[disneychrista]

I wish other trips were as easy to plan (for me) as Disneyland is. I am currently looking into an Oregon/Washington trip and I know nothing about it. I also want to go to Arizona/Las Vegas and again, no clue where to start.

 

[Melwhit16]

I always do research to see what is available to do for other vacations but I have a go with the flow attitude for everything but Disney.
Really with Disney you have to plan so far ahead and with a lot of detail. Anyone who laughs at you can wait in line on their Disney vacation!

 

[CassieScraps]

There are other trips? Hahaha...

The last non-disney trip I took was to Hawaii and I had decided to go, booked and paid for it in under an hour. The only planning I did was to buy a city pass and read up on what activities I could do with that while on the plane.

 

[MaryLovesPoohBear]

Yep. It doesn't matter where we are going, I plan it out.

 

[Disney Lvr of Old]

I think I plan BECAUSE I learned to plan out DL. Last year we went to Canada's Wonderland and because of my experience with the DISboards I knew where to look and find the information, reviews that I needed to plan Toronto.

And I really do think planning is half the fun. This DL trip we are going for 9 days and I'm planning only 2 things and it's really hard not to go overboard and start sprinkling other plans into the mix.

 

[Rhie]

Yes, for Pennsic Wars in PA. That's straight up camping in medieval-ish style. I like all the comforts of home when camping, and that requires some doing.

 

[Twilight Sparkle]

Not even close. Thank goodness I have a good friend who loves Disney and made me see the need for planning before our first trip. I think it was a much, much better trip because of the planning, but other trips (unless they involve international travel) I leave very open for spontaneity.

 

[Angel Ariel]

Not as much, no. I've done way less planning for NYC and Europe trips than I've done for WDW trips. DLR trips have less planning than wdw, but still more than most other trips.

 

[Phoenixrising]

I tend to plan for both a Disney trip and other trips in the same way. Do tons of research the first couple of months of the early planning stages. And once I've decided on hotels, and all the basics, I coast, and don't even think about the trip till it's time to book, then start some minor planning.

 

[justgrace]

Nope, not a planner at all. We have a lot more fun by just seeing where the day takes us at Disneyland. We might say when we wake up "I want to do the ____ show today" so we coordinate around the time of the show.

I can't really stand highly structured activities and it wouldn't be a vacation to me if everything was planned. It would feel like a job and I would get too focused on trying to "tick" off each item that I had planned for the day and not have fun. I've seen people bring excel sheets into the park with color coding of what ride they will ride, when they will ride that ride, where they will have lunch, when they will have lunch, where they will have a snack, when they will have a snack, what part of the park they will focus on, when they will focus on that part of the park, when they will set up for the parade, what shop they will buy souvenirs from, etc. These lists go down to the minute... it's insane! That would drive me insane! We pretty much decide randomly in the park of what we are planning to do that day. No planning unless there is a parade or show that we want to see, then we will coordinate around that show time.

Planning for other trips is even less planning! lol

That's why I don't think I would want to even attempt WDW. It seems like EVERYTHING has to be planned there about 60+ days out and that is not fun at all.

 

[Disney_Alli]

Nope, not a planner at all. We have a lot more fun by just seeing where the day takes us at Disneyland. We might say when we wake up "I want to do the ____ show today" so we coordinate around the time of the show.

I can't really stand highly structured activities and it wouldn't be a vacation to me if everything was planned. It would feel like a job and I would get too focused on trying to "tick" off each item that I had planned for the day and not have fun. I've seen people bring excel sheets into the park with color coding of what ride they will ride, when they will ride that ride, where they will have lunch, when they will have lunch, where they will have a snack, when they will have a snack, what part of the park they will focus on, when they will focus on that part of the park, when they will set up for the parade, what shop they will buy souvenirs from, etc. These lists go down to the minute... it's insane! That would drive me insane! We pretty much decide randomly in the park of what we are planning to do that day. No planning unless there is a parade or show that we want to see, then we will coordinate around that show time.

Planning for other trips is even less planning! lol

That's why I don't think I would want to even attempt WDW. It seems like EVERYTHING has to be planned there about 60+ days out and that is not fun at all.

Maybe that's insane to you but to me it's how I keep calm. I'd go insane if I even thought about attempting your way.