Itineraries - detailed or general?

[r&kmommy]

So when you make your daily itinerary, do you do it detailed or general?

We just do a general one. Monday - Magic Kingdom, PS Crystal Palace 12:15, spectro 8:00 . . . we don't make a to-do list of rides or characters.

How do you make your itinerary?

 

[trvlgirlmq]

We are very general. Since we have only stayed offsite we pick one park for that day. We always go to MK for 2 days and do half the park 1 day and the other half the other day. We never miss anything we want to do and we can go at a slower pace.

This year is our first time onsite and it will be the same; 1 park per day. The only difference is we are doing 1 table service meal a day so will have to watch our time a bit to make reservations. Not a problem since we've been before and don't have to do/see it all again. We are trying to take a more laid back approach to this trip.

 

[tmbacon]

When the kids were much younger (like 1 and 3 years' old each) we were pretty detailed. As the kids get older I see us getting much more general, making sure to hit maybe 3-5 things that day as "must sees", and the rest just falls into place.

 

[toddinboston]

our itinerary only includes which restaurants to eat at and which parks we need to be at...once in the park, we wing it...

 

[astraltravel]

That is a hard word to spell. LOL
We are leaving on Saturday for POFQ and have made rezzies for dinner for three nights of a seven night trip. Other than that, we mostly wing it, as we have been so many times before. Our main priorities are MK, Epcot and lying around the pool reading. Our don't misses are: Lunch in France, Narcoosie's, O'Hana, IL Mullino and sometimes, Citrico's. We have a rental car so we are going to go over to Univeral to walk around, not even go in the parks at this point. I just want to scope out their three resorts and Citywalk with an eye to going there in a future trip. Epcot takes two days for us, mother and daughter; 66 and 45, respectively. MK is usually done early in the day, with breakfast at CP to start, then back to the resort mid-afternoon to relax. We love driving around to the various resorts to shop and have a snack or drink and for that, a car is essential. This trip I am going to take pictures of all the resort pools as a focus for a potential album, which I will post when I get back. I am an artist with a web site so I may just put it on there. As many times as I have been, I still get excited pre-trip. I'm starting to get that giddyness that comes with anticipation and doesn't abate until the plane lands. Can't wait!!

 

[tlh0726]

We just wing it.
Heck we sometimes do not even pick which park we are going to until we go to bed the night before.
We could be in MK at 10 and decide to hit the Lion King show in AK at 3.
Totally on impulse based on what we feel like doing, crowds, and heat. We take a vote and majority rules.
We do not do ADR's because having to be at a certain place at a certain time is not for us.
I obsess (seriously obsess) about t shirts, room reservations, flights, car rentals, etc. Once that is done it is just waiting for the trip to finally get here and then having fun.

 

[bouncy54]

We use a pretty general itinerary. We usually plan what day to visit each park and I use Ridemax to get a feel for what FPs to pick up in what order, then just wing it after that.

We aren't making any dining reservations because my guys wouldn't touch most of the food in these restaurants. They're meat and potatoes kind of guys and turn up their noses at any item on a menu that they can't pronounce.

 

[bdoyledimou]

Part of te Magic of Disney is the unexpected surprises that pop up on your visit. I would hate to miss something just because i had to be somewhere else RIGHT NOW!!!! (short of a potty break!)

We plan our parks, but nothing more...

 

[Dan Murphy]

I just keep track of what park on what day, based on being at the low crowd park/s for that day, if and who and where I am meeting up with anybody, any extra things, like a tour or a party event. That's about it.

 

[Melknor]

I plan out what parks on what days, especially if we have TS meals planned (we don't hop). I will usually put together a detailed touring plan as part of the planning process, however it just gives us an idea of where to start. We don't follow it to a T. Heck I don't think I looked at the details at all on the past trip, but it is nice to have if need be. Did we do everything in the book? No, but that was the best part, to just slow down and take it all in as well.

Which ever you go with, enjoy the magic of being at Disney.

 

[CarolAnnB]

We pick the park ahead of time and make ADRs if we want. We usually just plan out the first few rides (Space, Splash, BTM, Peter Pan, Pixie Hollow) to make sure everyone gets their fave and then wing it.

 

[exwdwcm]

i do sort of middle ground---

we have a schedule for what time to get up (in order to be at park opening when we are going early), estimated break time in the afternoon and park closing info. WE have selected parks for am and pm and meals planned out. I don't get into the specific of ride by ride detail, just knowing I need to hit the big ones early and first - so i'll note those- like TSM at HS etc. Anything extra special, i also add in, like times for specific shows we don't want to miss, parades and fireworks.

We do little notecards with our daily schedule and ADRs on them for easy reference- all on a little round key ring to keep it together. makes it easy to know where we are going tomorrow, what time to be up etc. This level of info/detail works for us!


[FONT=&quot]SUNDAY, DECEMBER 5[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]7:30am head to MK[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]7:45am Crystal Palace breakfast[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]9am MK opens (dumbo first, PP FP)[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]2pm back to BLT for break/swim[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]5:30pm head to HS[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]7:30pm fast food dinner [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]9pm see Osborne lights[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]11pm HS closes

[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]THURSDAY, DECEMBER 9[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]7:15am breakfast Chef Mickey’s[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]9am Epcot opens[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]12pm lunch sunshine seasons fast food[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]2pm break[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]5:30pm dinner in room[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]7pm MVMCP starts[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]8:15pm early parade[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]9:30pm holiday WISHES[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]10:30pm late parade[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]12am park closes[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot][/FONT]

 

[whitney37354]

This is our first family trip. My only other trip was when I was 13 years old.

I worked our daily itinerary around character meal ADRs. I have an index card for each day showing which parks we're in with meal time & ADR #. I also have the parade & firework times, FP rides, & the few rides DD can't ride listed.

Once we get to the park/have our meal, I'll let DH take over. This is how our vacations go: I do the planning & give the info to DH once we're on vacation. He then decides what to do.

DD asked what we were riding first at WDW. I asked her what she wanted to do first. She said "Daddy should pick." DH told her we would ride whatever she wanted. We will be headed to Buzz Lightyears ride at MK first!

Since we have 7 days, I hope we can do all we want without racing from one thing to another. It'll be a chore for me to not try to hurry my way through everything. I'll try each morning to take a deep breath, enjoy every moment, & watch DD have fun!

 

[Planogirl]

We don't ever have a specific list but we know which rides we want to hit early to avoid crowds as much as possible. I also loosely plan where to eat just to make sure we get to our favorites. That is when we don't have ADR's which is most of the time!

 

[danceintherain]

I like to do a mixture of both. Usually I plan our mornings with the major must see attractions, but our evenings are more open. They usually involve wandering the Magic Kingdom or Epcot World Showcase. Sometimes Hollywood Studios makes the evening list but there is much less to do there after dark unless we have Fast Passes from the morning.

I expect my planning will change for my next trip, because it will be the first time that I'll be taking my own child. His age will cut back on the number of attractions we'll be trying to fit in and its important to be more flexible with a toddler.

 

[FlightlessDuck]

We have a todo list of rides so we do them in an order that helps us keep lines low.

Although by this point I think we can do that from memory.

 

[TerrytownGrl]

I've done it both ways. I will say that the last time we went was Thanksgiving Week 2008 and having never been to WDW during a major holiday, I really planned our days down to the details! It worked out so well that I'm basically using the same plan for our next trip for TG week 2010. I couldn't believe how much we accomplished in the mornings and then we were more relaxed in the afternoons and evenings.

 

[seals]

but we eat counter service meals so that makes it easier (which is one reason we eat counter service meals). Now that we've been a couple of times in the past few years DSs know what they want to do and can prioritize so we do it that way with trying to minimize walking. In the evening, we discuss what we want to do the next day so we have a general idea and are all on the same page and everyone's favorites are hit.

One trip I was behind a mother and daughter on a bus from POP to Epcot. They were looking at an itinerary (that I read over their shoulder) that said something like "9 am arrive at park. 9:10 get FP for Soarin. 9:20 Ride the Seas..." Thing was, it was already 9:30 and they were still on the bus! I wondered how they adjusted when they arrived at the park or if they felt thrown off for the rest of the day.

 

[THESCHULTZFIVE]

We normally do a general itinerary, but this year I'm doing a detailed one. We have 3 kids who each have their own "must do" list. I figured to avoid everyone going " I wanna go here, I wanna do this", it would be better to have them all make up their list of what they wanna do and then put it in order.

 

[2Tiggies]

Very general for us, although I do plan quite carefully for CS locations in the parks (where we expect to be around what time) due to allergies.

That said, I use a touring plan, nail the things we want to get done and when we are satisfied we drop the plan or wing it. If the park gets unbearably insane, we leave and head off to another park or back to the resort. I plan for unplanned time during the day as I believe you need this to get the full experience, coupled with a sense of achievement in doing what we want to for that day. But then we go at least 2 weeks or more so we have the time to play with. Not sure how I would do a short trip.