How many trips under your belt before...

[webcreatrix]

you felt comfortable winging it?

As you can tell by my sig, we've gone from 4 parks in 4 days (all EMH and hopping) in 2000 to visiting on- and off-site for the last four years. Next year, we're planning a 10 night trip off-site at Windsor Hills. We won't have Magic Bands and I'm not counting on FP+. We're super excited about the new Fantasyland attractions and visiting water parks for the first time, but otherwise, our plans are 2-3 ADRs and 7-8 day park tickets and just winging it. This will be in early June.

Can we do it? Is this sane? I've had a spreadsheet and itinerary and daily plans for every other trip. Can we wake up when we want to, stop for breakfast on the way, arrive whenever, and still have a fabulous or even better time? I'm hoping the 10 nights gives us time to kick back and relax. DH hates rope drop and me freaking out about our schedule!

Let me know what you think!

 

[tinydancer312]

I'm planning trip 11 and I'm still crazy planning. I think with as many days as you have, you should plan days you definitely want to do parks. There won't be a need for a rush, and you'll have extra days to relax or to revisit your favorite rides. It might take some of the pressure off each day but I think you might be better with a skeleton plan at the least

 

[MissMaryQC]

I'm no expert but I say heck yes you can!! I've been going yearly (at least) since I was about 8 months old, sometimes we plan, other times we don't, it's always been fun for my family. You might miss a few scheduled shows or parades, but that unplanned magic is awesome! Hope your family has a great trip!

 

[Planogirl]

We've been often enough that I just kind of automatically head towards certain attractions at certain times. It's bad enough when they simply add an attraction but now this FP+ thing has me all confuzzled. (That's a word, honestly. ) I will plan a few ADR's and when to see certain special things but I'm doing some of my planning under protest!

I always hope to spend the last half of the day just mostly wandering wherever the mood strikes. I love to do that.

 

[kathy884]

This coming trip for me is #34 (This one is just a mini trip). I started going the year the park opened -- 1971 when I was 11. lol -- I still don't wing it. We are just doing one Disney park day on this trip. I got a subscription to the unofficial guide web site, reviewed the ratings by age group and rides with DS, started with their adult highlights touring plan and we subtracted the attractions we wanted to skip. We didn't see anything we wanted to add. Then we with our custom plan used their optimization program to get an efficient order and advice about when to get fast passes and when to use them.

Probably a reason not to wing it though is the Disney portion trip is only one day, so we want to make the most of our very limited time.

 

[wisblue]

Obviously in that amount of time you can have a great time doing whatever you want at whatever pace you want.

My one comment about early June is to factor in the inevitable heat and humidity. It may sound good now to wake up when you want, but you might find that it's more enjoyable to get up early to get to a park before they get too hot and too crowded and get your rest by the pool or in the air conditioned room when it's the hottest outside.

 

[runmommyrun]

Yes, you can wing it SO LONG as you are not obsessed about hitting everything or anything particular. If you want to hit particular things, plan those things and only those things. We had a few set things on our last trip and the rest was waking up and deciding what to do. We enjoyed it. However, early morning is still best. We frequently go in early June and with heat and wait times, I'd recommend going as early as you can, be back to hotel by lunchtime to rest, pool, do other things, dinner, etc... Have fun! We hope to go in early June, too!

 

[webcreatrix]

I can certainly understand planning around the heat and humidity. There are times when we visit in June, or especially August, where I just cannot believe the heat and humidity. That said, when we come back to north Texas after an August trip, I realize Disney feels better! How pathetic is that?

I'm 99% certain I know the top attractions at each park which require rope drop or fast pass. I have this fantasy we sleep in, hit the pools or go to water parks, and then spend some evenings in the park with no EMH but still have a great time. I don't know!

I've seen some reports of doing RD at the beginning of the trip and evenings at the end and I think this might work for us. My kids are ending school a week before our trip, so they'll still be conditioned to wake up early and even if we don't make RD, we won't miss it by too much.

I just hate all the fast pass running and DH may mutiny if I run him ragged with RD and FP running on this trip. I'd really kind of like to make plans that don't involve running across the parks, like maybe plan new Fantasyland for one MK RD and the mountains for another?

 

[nansmama]

I think some people never feel comfortable winging it. If you like to uberplan, nothing wrong with that. We're pretty mellow, but we usually know which park we'll be in ahead of time.

 

[Q-man]

I just hate all the fast pass running and DH may mutiny if I run him ragged with RD and FP running on this trip.

The new FP+ system where you can reserve 3 FPs sounds like the answer for you.

 

[bigskip]

I'm very fond of the get on the first bus that comes along strategy, With 10 days, you can make sure you hit your favorite rides and still play it by ear. I'm not a planner at all.

 

[BlueStarryHat]

I sort of winged it on my solo trip in 2006. I *did* plan which park on which day, but other than that I did as I pleased and had a marvelous time. It was my fifth trip. I didn't really plan anything because I figured being just one I'd get onto rides and into restaurants easier than if I'd been with other people, and I did.

 

[katt789]

I'd say it's definitely possible!

I've done a bunch of trips now, and it's safe to say some of them have been pretty quick and have involved some "winging it". That being said, I usually still decide what park I at least "plan" on doing each day. Once I get there, it could change, and I usually wing whatever "touring plan" we do haha

Taking it slower is an interesting thing for those of us who are used to going commando though, we arrived at AK around 10am this past trip and it is not something I'd like to do again, because we were clumped on a bus/in the entrance with all those "late wakers" I was not too happy, used to being there before rope drop and this was crowded to me. I'd wait another half hour even to clear it out? It's of course up to you!

I would still plan a day, maybe MK if you do really want to see all the FLE stuff to do rope drop.

 

[JennyDrake]

I have been 3x/year since 2005. I now do only 1 ADR per trip--that's it. I stay on site and make no other plans.

 

[BuenaVistaBound]

I have been 3x/year since 2005. I now do only 1 ADR per trip--that's it. I stay on site and make no other plans.

We go every year, and while winging it sounds fun, the biggest obstacle for us is dining reservations. Due to some dietary restrictions, we avoid eating counter service. Tables mean ADRs, which means planning your schedule months in advance. I wish it were possible to walk up and get a table somewhere in the parks, but that's practically out of the question, even at moderate crowd levels.

We're leaving tomorrow and have dinner planned every night, so we know where we'll be!

 

[ShayBells]

You can do it for sure but don't be disappointed if you don't get as much done. I go after school starts so it's less busy. I always make a plan and usually scrap it haha. We do stand by lines. FP when we see them and do major attractions at or near rope drop. We always just wake up but we are early risers so it works out for us.

I think in early June it's be hard w/o a plan. It sounds like you usually go all out. Maybe you can just do a small plan. Know what park you'll hit and the basic direction you are going in?

Sent from my iPhone using DISBoards

 

[Murron]

We stopped counting at 50 trips and wing it every time. (Oh wait...we did take relatives with us last year and did some actual planning...it was painful.) Big big "however" though....we do not go during summer months or holidays. So that is indeed a big "however." Also, we rent a car every trip so we are not a slave to Disney ADR's or dining plans. After all this time (since '71), we did EMH at MK to find that basically, only Fantasyland was open! It's been that way apparently for years. Go figure. So...we are successfully laid back people. Commando is not in our vocabulary.

 

[whitney37354]

We were winging it on our second trip last week. We're planning a third now, inviting grandparents, so we might not be able to wing it next time, depending on who decides to go with us.

 

[jensen]

Our last trip (#5 with the kids) we did our version of "winging it". I still did plenty of searching these boards beforehand and had a small spreadsheet laid out with a rough plan of what days we'd hit which park. But, we did the QS dining plan, so no dining reservations. We were without a stroller for the first time, too.

It was so liberating to be able to just go with the flow and let our whims lead the way. It was our best trip, yet.

 

[Vemnox]

Who wants to wing it?! 90% of the fun is planning it.