Feel like I have to do and see everything...

[pixxi]

I feel like I have to do and see everything...ok maybe not everything but as much as possible. I think it sounds good to take a break and go back to the hotel and swim/nap. I just can't bring myself/family to do this. It takes hours away from being at the parks.

Anyone else feel this way?

We have ADR's so maybe that's our break. I spend all this $$$ on vacation, I just don't want to miss out. I love to see all the characters around the park, go on rides, see parades...

I don't even think I can do this for 1 day, let alone the 8 days we are there.

 

[disneygirl777]

I feel exactly like this every day we're there. I so badly want to go back to the hotel for a nap or swim in the middle of the day, but I can't bring myself to leave the parks because I need to make sure I have time to do everything. I'm also like that with fireworks. I want to go and eat dinner and walk around WS until 8:30, but if I don't get a spot for the fireworks by 7, I start freaking out and worrying I'll get a bad spot. It's torture.

 

[BrytEydBelle]

I am totally like this too! I was always the Disney commando of my family, while my parents would rather sleep late, take breaks, etc. However, the last few vacations with DH or my sister, I have run on my commando schedule and ended up sick and exhausted. My next trip, I'm going to try to scale it back a bit, because I don't want to come back deathly ill again b/c I wear down my immune system with lack of sleep! Somewhere in the middle of relaxed and commando is where I need to be.

 

[wdw_monster]

YES!!! i can sleep when im dead!! i spent all this money i want to get everything i can out of it.
same here we are using our ADRs as breaks
we dont take naps, if im alseep i wont wake up for hours but we also dont have little ones.

 

[butterfly71076]

I agree to a point. I love the idea of getting the most out of our Disney vacations. As a PP said, you spend alot of money to go, you don't want to miss anything. But, I find when we go commando style, we are so tired after the first 2 days, we aren't having as much fun anymore. My solution= Go for a longer vacation! That way, you can still feel like you've "done it all" with taking breaks in the afternoons to relax!

 

[peabody58]

Maybe I'm just getting older (oh snap I am!), but I am actually starting to slow down and enjoy the journey more. Our solution was DVC and we are now ramping up to longer yearly vacations vs. multiple short weeks.

It's normally just the DW and me, and we totally enjoy our TS meals, relaxing around the pool, and enjoying all the non-theme park activities. It's called a RESORT, so we are treating our vacations more as RESORT vacations vs. Theme Park vacations. Still love the parks, but we don't need to see and do everything each trip, because we will be back in short order!

 

[Celine]

I feel EXACTLY the same way! I keep reading that everyone says to go back to the hotel, but there's just no way with the parks not even being open all that late. I mean, on regular nights they close at 9pm and there just isn't enough time to leave the park for a couple of hours and still see and do a lot. Maybe not everything, I know EVERYTHING isn't possible, but at least I'd like to make sure we do a hell of a lot! LOL

On the EMH days we're doing the waterparks in the afternoon and then heading to that night's EMH park, but that's only two days. The other short days are AK, so we can't park hop since I couldn't get the park hoppers... too much $$$.

So yeah, I know how you feel!

 

[disneyguy1818]

I completely empathize with this. I have already started panicking about not getting everything done and we're not going until December!! I also am regretting the fact that I am a compulsive planner, I am going to drive myself insane and my DFi as well. I have already switched our ADRs 3 times. I am really concerned that when we finally get there- I'll turn into a commando crazy person and not end up enjoying my vacation!

 

[goin' again!]

If left to my own devices I would run myself ragged. It's only due to my laid back husband that our family gets down time. I would have us at the parks from RD to EMH every day!! We seem to find a balance and we do see a lot (not everything) but I think it's a better vacation that way...

 

[roxysmum123]

I tried the "do and see EVERYTHING" approach on my last trip since it was my boyfriends first time and I wanted to make sure we did it all. I lasted about 4 days before I had to say "Screw it" and take a break in the middle of the day. We were there for 8 park days and had more than enough time to do everything even with taking a break during the day. I don't think either of us feels we missed out on anything by doing that, and it made for a much less crabby Roxysmum123 for the remainder of the trip.

 

[Patience]

We will not see and do everything. To us, a vacation, Disney or otherwise, is about spending time together as a family and taking time out from our busy lives to enjoy each other. We are not going to be enjoying each other if I am cracking the whip shouting "hurry up, we're going to miss (fill in the blank)". We will also not be enjoying each other if the 4 year old is having a melt down from exhaustion and over-stimulation. We are not going to be enjoying each other if we are so tired by the 4th day that we have to force ourselves to keep going. Plus, we do have to return to work and school the Monday after our vacation and, if we return from vacation exhausted, what's the point of having taken a vacation?

 

[LaurieN]

I too feel I need to do and see everything (for fear I may not be back) as a PP mentioned "I'll sleep when I'm dead!" but..........reality hit me hard when I realized my kids can not just go go go without any down time. Me I'll go until I am ready to fall down, but my boys just can't they need some down time. We don't take naps (naps are for babies as per DS9), but we do go back to the resort, hit the pool, arcade, maybe watch tv. It's good for them, me however I sit there like a caged animal wanting to escape
We have 10 days at Disney, if we can't fit everything (at least everything we want to do) in in 10 days something is wrong (especially since we go at a slower time of year).
Laurie

 

[chids]

We've got to take it a bit slower this year as i'll be pregnant when we travel. Also we'll have a small baby with us too. I aren't sure we'll be leaving the parks in an afternoon to go back later in the day but i intend to perhaps go in a bit later in the morning or just leave a bit earlier in the afternoon than normal.
We've also not bought as many tickets as we normally do. We have just the orlando Flexi-ticket, and only plan on spending 1 day in Disney doing HWS.
It's just not possible for us to do everything now, we will also have my grandad with us and he'll be 76.

 

[Aunt Bee]

Maybe I'm just getting older (oh snap I am!), but I am actually starting to slow down and enjoy the journey more. Our solution was DVC and we are now ramping up to longer yearly vacations vs. multiple short weeks.

It's normally just the DW and me, and we totally enjoy our TS meals, relaxing around the pool, and enjoying all the non-theme park activities. It's called a RESORT, so we are treating our vacations more as RESORT vacations vs. Theme Park vacations. Still love the parks, but we don't need to see and do everything each trip, because we will be back in short order!

Us too!!! I used to run through the parks like a marathon runner, dragging everyone along with me, referring to my touring plan.... WHEW! Just thinking about it makes me tired....

Now our touring plan has 2 or 3 "We must do this" for each park and that's it. If we do more that's good, too, but the smaller list gives us permission to just stroll in and out of shops, sit and watch the people, eat lunch slooooowly, go back to our resort and enjoy a drink by the pool, have breakfast late....

Getting older and more worn out has it's advantages.

If we don't do something this time, we will do it next time.

Aunt Bee

 

[FosterA]

I have only been to WDW once and that was for a quick weekend solo tour more or less (went w/ a friend but she was involved with marathon). I was so excited that I could not possibly stand to rest for a minute. I had to force myself to actually sit and eat at one time because all I wanted to do was eat pretzels and stuff on the run! I was like a little kid on Christmas morning. Needless to say, when I did get home after that weekend I got pretty sick and had a cough that I couldn't shake for one month! I never get sick so I definitely ran my immune system down that trip. It was fun though and still worth it

Now that I'm taking the family for their first trip in November, I'm going to have to force the family to take it easy. It's going to be sooooo hard to do because if I, as a 38 year old, was excited when I went, I can't imagine how excited and over stimulated my kids will be! But since we have 7 full days and staying at the Poly I think we'll have time to rest. Since we're going in Nov with shorter hours, I don't think we will necessarily do afternoon breaks (besides ADRs) but I think we will do rope drop and then go until we're tired and I really predict we'll get back to the resort fairly early most nights. Also, my kiddos are older (11 and 14) so that makes a huge difference luckily. We can get a whole lot more done versus having to deal with strollers and naps and stuff.

Good luck to everyone. Hope you all can do alot AND rest!

 

[mom2travel]

Crazy commando definitely doesn't work for us. We feel no need to see & do everything. We do everything we want to do on a given trip, but are not relentless in our pursuit of it. I'll call it efficient but relaxed. We plan, use FP, don't wait in long lines, do one TS a day, and take a break - because it's nice to relax at the resort too; we make that part of our vacation. Maybe the fact that we approach each trip as what is right for us at that time and there will be another trip is what helps us

 

[disneydreamkate]

We went commando our first two trips. Last time, after much planning...we threw caution to the wind and kind of went with the flow. This was possible because of a number of things: We only had one child-so we had fewer "must dos", we were there during Jan/Feb, typically a slower time, and lastly, much of the nation's air travel had been crippled by a huge storm...this made for non-existent crowds! So, I guess the more times we go, the less I feel we have to accomplish. We have a few things we are sure to do each trip, including a couple of things that will be new for us. Now I kind of like to "save" attractions, restaurants, etc for future trips since I know we will never be able to do/see everything anyway.

 

[GoHerbie]

It's impossible to do everything so don't try. Whatever you do you'll still have fun, and then you'll have new things to do or see on future trips.

 

[krb2g]

I work on managing my expectations before the trip so I can tour in as good a mood as possible. I know we're not going to hit everything (and we're going the week before Christmas this time, so all the more difficult). It may be that we've been enough times now, we know what we enjoy and what we can take or leave. Or that we know we will get back eventually, so we don't need to experience everything each trip. Last trip, I got a stomach bug (a little girl threw up on one of the busses, and the next day I had a 24 hour bug...), so I had to take it easy (spent some time resting in the first aid center at DHS, skipped some thrill rides on two days)--and we found that we were still able to have a wonderful vacation (and using EMH and our last morning, which we hadn't scheduled, we were even able to go back and do the rest of the thrill rides I missed).

Now we usually pass parades as we're walking somewhere else, and aren't the biggest fireworks family (I discovered this year that my father just doesn't like them very much--who knew!!??), so those are time constraints that we don't face as much, but we find ourselves happier tourists because we stop mid-day (usually around 5-7, which coincides with drinks in the concierge lounge).

 

[whitney37354]

I felt the same way before our June 2010 trip, the first for DH & DD, my second (first one was in 1986, so this was new to me too!). We were there six night, six days (2 half days) & saw a lot, but we know we missed most of AK & half of EPCOT WS. DH had said this was our once in a lifetime trip, but by the time we left, he had promised DD that he would take her back someday!

I decided that DH & I would choose things that were most important to us, then just go with the flow. DH want to go to TL waterpark & stay at CR, MK view. I wanted to do character meals to avoid standing in line for autographs. DD was only five years old & had no clue. She just knew we were going to WDW!

I made our resort ressie as soon as the rates came out in August. I charted all ride height requirements, seating arrangements, ones with photos. I charted all meals by the characters & menus. I made ADR's the morning of 180 out, making the most important (to me) one's earlier in the week. I got all ADR's I wanted within 15 minutes of the times I requested! After that, I made the itenrary, working around where our ADR's were for each day.

We did always come back to the room after lunch for a few hours for a rest break. DD never did take a nap, but it was nice to cool off & rest. We would leave the room for our dinner ADR, then back to a park if the ADR wasn't in a park on that night. We were back to our room between 10 & 11 every night. I was up at 6 a.m. every morning. We kept our schedule pretty much as it was at home and everything worked out great!

I planned that trip for two years & had a huge three-ring binder full of notes & charts! I finally had to step away and realized that we couldn't do/see it all & that we just really needed to concentrate on having a good time doing what we could do.

None of us left WDW disappointed. Next time, we'll spend more time at AK & EPCOT. We spent most of our last trip at MK since we stayed at CR, so close. If you need to leave out some places, I'd leave out DTD & waterparks.

Just plan away, but don't plan it down to the minute---I planned ADR's, then the rest of the time was free for whatever shows/rides we wanted to do.