How much planning do you do?

[nealsmith]

I've been having a lot of fun planning our trip. Just curious, how much planning do you do?

 

[lizzyb]

I know what parks we are going to each day, maybe the first few attractions and then....

 

[gray2402]

I voted: have custom touring plan and I know what we will be eatting for each meal.

The planning is 1/2 of the fun for me! Though if things change for whatever reason, I don't flip out or anything ... but I do enjoy planning it out!

 

[Disney Commando]

You got to have a solid plan Started planning our trip in August on the way home in Dec The 1st half hour I could make ADR's they were done with all the places and times I wanted I plan the days events around the ADR's and hit a different park after dinner (keeps it fresh)

I've had a haircut ressie at Harmony Barbershop at noon since the 180 day mark

IMO the better the plan the better the trip, already starting to plan June & Nov 2012 trips and we haven't even gone on this years yet

 

[EKW]

I buy The Unofficial Guide and read it. Then I go to the library and get a half dozen other guides and read all of them...making notes as I go. And, I spend hours here and on the Disney site.

Then, based on what my family enjoys, I make touring plans. I decide which park we'll be in each day prior to the 180 day dining cut-off. I know that the whole dining thing has changed since our last visit, so that may not apply now. Anyway, then about a month out I build a general touring guide for each park, each day. When parade and show times are released I do the final blow-by-blow plans for each day. I have our touring plans done to the half hour.

The thing is, if we're in the park and something catches our eye, we stop and enjoy it. I try to build extra time into our touring plan to accommodate little magical moments. In four trips the only thing we missed was Lights! Action!, and that was due to a storm. We could have gone back to do it on our last half day, but my kids wanted to go back to Epcot instead.

Doing my own plan works for my family!

 

[Iron Mouse]

.

 

[LCoulter]

I know what parks we are going to each day, maybe the first few attractions and then....

This is the closest to what we do. I know what parks we are going to do in the morning, although it is not set in stone, and the afternoon we park hop over to another park but which one depends on our mood at the time. At 180 days, I make 3-4 ADR’s for the week and I keep in mind a couple of restaurants that I want to hit at some point during the trip, some of them off site.

As for the rides, we know which ones we need to hit before the lines get too long. We rarely are willing to wait more than 20 minutes for a ride and will either skip it for now or get a fastpass if they are available.

DD4 influences our touring greatly…if she wants to ride PoTC a dozen times, as long as there isn’t a long line, we will ride it a dozen times (thankfully she hasn’t asked to do that on Small World and although I like the ride, I don’t think I could ride it 12 times in a row without falling asleep).

The only other thing that I do is watch the boards, Disney related articles, BLOGs, podcasts for information on anything that may affect one of our trips, whether it is new attractions, changes to attractions or if there is a review of something that peaks my interest that I want to try. I enjoy this part of planning.

 

[FlightlessDuck]

"made my own custom touring plan and know WHERE we will be eating".

But not what.

 

[nu2dvc]

The planning is almost as fun as trip IMO, but our trips almost never go exactly according to plan, and that's OK! With 3 young kids, I expect deviation to occur. I just like to plan, but I'm not obsessed with sticking to it. A waste of time? Heck no! I just think of all the enjoyment I got out of the Disney dreaming I got to do! I may be sick in the head now that I think about how dumb that sounds, but I know many of you are right there with me...

 

[mom2val]

!

 

[mommyrosa2]

I plan a year in advance... Make a spreadsheet with days of the week listed, once park hours are posted, I insert park hours & EMH for each day. I then plan which park we want to go on each day (usually based on the EMH) and then plan our meals accordingly. I only plan our sit-down meals which are normally for dinner - we like to use Quick Service for lunches and will tend to go eat wherever (kids are not as picky when it comes to lunch time) and we tend to use our snack credits for breakfast items (we're not big breakfast people). I also plan a lot of "Open" time or "Free" time for certain days which works out nice since there are mornings that no one wants to get up too early (especially if we were up late enjoying EMH at a certain park). For our family, we like to hit a park early for EMH, ride all the rides, etc., leave the park by 1:00ish and go back to the resort for pool time or R&R, then we go for dinner and hit the parks back in the evening and it seems to work for us. I found that when they were little, they needed that break during the day and it's no different now that they are older (17 & 13)...lol. I have friends who tended to "goof" on my planning & spreadsheet until their first trip when they tried to "wing" it and came back crazy & exhausted...Many now ask me to help them with their planning b/c they see how much easier it is to go in with an actual plan...lol

 

[luvmy2babies]

"made my own custom touring plan and know WHERE we will be eating".

But not what.

This. I picked "made my own custom touring plan", but I make ADR's so I know where we will eat.

But I only look at the menu to make sure we can find something on it we like. I don't decide what we'll eat ahead of time.

And like someone else said, if deviation is necessary it's no problem. It's a vacation. I told my daughter if you see something you want to do or look at just tell me and we'll stop. The point of a vacation is to get away from the hustle and bustle that home tends to be at times. Everyday it's Get up, get dressed, then "GET IN THE VAN!" But I vow not to do that on vacation and at Disney I didn't even drive. Looking forward to going back to get a break from driving for a week.

Course somehow, my daughter magically became a morning person at Disney...go figure.

 

[DisneyCrazyMomma]

"made my own custom touring plan and know WHERE we will be eating".

But not what.

I'm kind of like this. Where we are eating. I voted I know what parks we are going to each day, maybe the first few attractions and then.... because I don't have a plan down to the order of things within the park. Do know where we are eating, and we have our "must dos" for each park. Planning is half the fun and I miss it a lot when it's over!

 

[nealsmith]

"made my own custom touring plan and know WHERE we will be eating".

But not what.

Yes, I wanted to change the poll about 10 seconds after I posted it. Didn't see any way to edit it...

Thanks to everyone who voted. I really wasn't sure what results to expect.

 

[Melissalovespugs]

I took touring plans for each park as well as a spreadsheet with where we would eat, and what we would be doing (parks, DTD, swimming, etc). We mostly stuck to the plan but not always, which was fine too.

 

[Paradise18]

We know what parks we will be in and on what days. We also plan our ADRs. After that, we hit up all of our favorite attractions and try a few new things. We go once a year so we can go at a more relaxed pace.

 

[tricia]

I know what parks we are going to each day, maybe the first few attractions and then....

For me this means getting there at rope drop and knowing what we are doing for the first hour or 2, and then winging it (mostly with fast passes), for the rest of the day. Also, I have all of our Dinner ADRs planned out before the 180 day mark.

 

[StephMK]

I do a lot of pre-planning but not much in the parks planning other than knowing our top attractions to hit. I love planning & reading the boards & have checked on packing, wifi options, airline & car rentals and nearby restaurants. I check out the park menus so I have an idea of what the lunch options will be, but don't keep track.

For this trip, I don't even know which parks on which days but I have some ideas. A lot will depend on the weather & if we want to hit any SWW events or avoid the whole area.

 

[ALittleDisneyFan]

I plan what parks we're going to, and what our dining for each day is. This upcoming trip we're only doing MK.. so it should be fairly simple.

 

[ice cube]

I'm the lone commando....I just don't get how anyone can know what they are going to do and eat months and months in advance.How do you know so far in advance that you are going to want to do that park and specific ride on that given day.Even eat in that specific restaurant months ahead of time.Most probably don't even plan their regular dinners at home a day ahead so how can anyone plan months in advance....just my take....