Where the day takes me

[branv]

I'd say if someone is a truly a laid back person, and that works for them, that's wonderful! I mean, it's your vacation after all, do what you want. But I also have heard many times from "laid back" people, who didn't want to be restricted, who came back and complained and griped that they never got to ride any rides b/c of lines, or it was too crowded, or they couldn't get into any restaurants. Ummmm...doy!

I always go with an initial plan that we improvise on once we decide how we feel that day. We usually go into a park in the morning, zig-zag around the park riding those rides we know we'd be disappointed if we missed, and then..sloooooow it down for the rest of the day.

I'd say we're planners in the morning, laid back after noon. But honestly, I agree that part of the reason I plan so much before hand is to start the excitement off early DH and I believe that planning and learning about everything now makes it possible to relax later. No hunting for information or standing around trying to figure out what we can do next or

"DW: what do you want to eat
DH: I dunno, what do you want
DW: I asked you first
DH: But I don't know what there is, do you have a list of the restaurants?
DW: Noooo, how about we just stop at the first place we see?
DH: ...sure, I really don't care what we eat
(walk, walk, limp, walk)
DW: How about here?
DH: Ugh, I don't want hot dogs!
DW:
(walk, walk, sweat, walk)"

 

[CleveRocks]

I see many many many posts full of itineraries, schedules, ADRs, plans plans and more plans. I think that is fabulous.

However, I am just one of those people who hate to be put on schedules or have a specific thing I need to do at whatever time. Usually when we go the first day is always a check in, pool, DTD, more pool, type of day. Then that night we say what do you feel like doing tomorrow? I dunno, what do you wanna do? Ok, let's do this. We wake up, have breakfast at the hotel and then do whatever. Then at the park we are like, ok, feel like heading back to the hotel for a while? Sure why not. Then after we swim and whatever we decide where we should go from there ( we always hop).

Are we the only ones who wing it?

WOw, was I glad to read your post. If we were faced with a totally scheduled WDW vacation or no vacation at all, I swear on a stack of DIsney DVDs that we would stay home.

Each time we go, we plan like one ADR, maybe 2. And I hate those days, I really hate them. I hate watching the clock. I hate trying to make sure we make it to X, Y or Z.

Now don't get me wrong, I do exhaustive research and know how things work and therefore given any situation I can make instant decisions about what to do and how to do it in order to maximize our family fun and do it in the most efficient manner. before I leave home, I print out all the park and parade and show hours and EMH's on a single chart that I fold up and carry in my pocket each day. It's not a schedule of what I need to do ... rather, it's a listing of all the possibilities. Like I said, no planning is very different from no knowledge.

Efficient, effective touring does not have to be the opposite of waking up and asking, "What park do you think we should go to today?" If I had to follow a speadsheet or color-coded index cards or a binder, I couldn't have a good time. But that's just me ... and my wife, too.

 

[hrh_disney_queen]

A written schedule for everyone??!! My DH would have a cow!!!!!

A couple of years ago, I swear I saw a woman who had her day's itinerary printed out by the HOUR and laminated... I do have each days' parks in mind when we head out, and I know that there are one or two rides that we have to visit early, but if I had to follow a schedule WRAPPED IN PLASTIC (anyone remember "Twin Peaks"?) I would pass out. Even when I just read the "tours" they have plotted out in the Unofficial Guide, I almost hyperventilate. My heart rate goes up and I start to get very agitated..! I guess that is why I would never even consider going during peak season..

 

[hrh_disney_queen]

Disney Spouses/Significant Others = DISSO?

and if they don't like Disney as much as you, you can refer to them as DISSOpointments!

I refer to mine as GS...(grumpy spouse)

 

[ReninDetroit]

Before any given day starts, we know:

- where we're having breakfast
- what park we're going to (first)
- what the first ride is going to be
- if we have any ADRs.

and that's it. The rest of it is spontaneous.

 

[Coopsmum77]

We are laid back as well. We find what works for us is the EMH, then breaks and park switches. BUT....I will come back and complain about the restaurants. I think I should be able to make a reservation for a Disney owned restaurant the morning I wake up in a Disney owned hotel, and not be laughed at. If they want to keep me on property, that should be a hotel perk. If when I call in the morning, the restaurant is filled for the day, oh well. For each hour, their should be an allotment for walk ups and on-property hotel guest. Just my 2 cents.

So, next time, I will plan on renting a car jus to be able to go out and have a decent sit down dinner somewhere without planning six months ahead. Also, I find that staying at POR gives us the freedom to take a nice boat ride to DTD mid-day for a nice excursion.

I have considered the Beach Club for the next trip as it puts MGM and EPCOT within walking distance. EPCOT would be nice for the food walk up variety.

It just seems like more of a vacation if everything isn't planned and I'm not on a schedule. That's what the rest of the year is for.

 

[KorieDWnut]

WOw, was I glad to read your post. If we were faced with a totally scheduled WDW vacation or no vacation at all, I swear on a stack of DIsney DVDs that we would stay home.

Each time we go, we plan like one ADR, maybe 2. And I hate those days, I really hate them. I hate watching the clock. I hate trying to make sure we make it to X, Y or Z.

Now don't get me wrong, I do exhaustive research and know how things work and therefore given any situation I can make instant decisions about what to do and how to do it in order to maximize our family fun and do it in the most efficient manner. before I leave home, I print out all the park and parade and show hours and EMH's on a single chart that I fold up and carry in my pocket each day. It's not a schedule of what I need to do ... rather, it's a listing of all the possibilities. Like I said, no planning is very different from no knowledge.

Efficient, effective touring does not have to be the opposite of waking up and asking, "What park do you think we should go to today?" If I had to follow a speadsheet or color-coded index cards or a binder, I couldn't have a good time. But that's just me ... and my wife, too.

Oh yeah. I usually know when the parades start because I like to know which side of the park at one tie of the day I should be on. We don't sit and watch the parade, that is when we are going on our favorite rides. I come on boards like this one, do my research, all of that. So I guess I do a sort of planning, but nothing I feel I need to stick to.

 

[KorieDWnut]

We are laid back as well. We find what works for us is the EMH, then breaks and park switches. BUT....I will come back and complain about the restaurants. I think I should be able to make a reservation for a Disney owned restaurant the morning I wake up in a Disney owned hotel, and not be laughed at. If they want to keep me on property, that should be a hotel perk. If when I call in the morning, the restaurant is filled for the day, oh well. For each hour, their should be an allotment for walk ups and on-property hotel guest. Just my 2 cents.

So, next time, I will plan on renting a car jus to be able to go out and have a decent sit down dinner somewhere without planning six months ahead. Also, I find that staying at POR gives us the freedom to take a nice boat ride to DTD mid-day for a nice excursion.

I have considered the Beach Club for the next trip as it puts MGM and EPCOT within walking distance. EPCOT would be nice for the food walk up variety.

It just seems like more of a vacation if everything isn't planned and I'm not on a schedule. That's what the rest of the year is for.

I agree with you about the restaurants. The fact that reservations fill up MONTHS in advance for a Disney owned place so that any other poor schulb who just heard of it can't get a chance to get in is enough to turn me off of them altogether. I don't want to feel like I need months of planning to eat a t a Disney owned restaurant.

 

[Gus]

Well, I am a DH and I love all that is Disney. Movies, characters, WDW parks and resorts etc etc. I can't get enough. It's magical and I love going to get away from reality for a bit. Yeah you may be able to do a little more at home but it's not Disney.

Another planning DH checking in. Many of you won't get the reference, but I plan Bill Walsh style (RIP). The famous football coach would script the first 25 plays of the game; I plan the first couple of hours at each park, then wing it from there based on my extensive (UG, Disboards, podcasts, etc.) research.

I must admit, I have given a little thought to laminated itineraries ...

 

[Coopsmum77]

I agree with you about the restaurants. The fact that reservations fill up MONTHS in advance for a Disney owned place so that any other poor schulb who just heard of it can't get a chance to get in is enough to turn me off of them altogether. I don't want to feel like I need months of planning to eat a t a Disney owned restaurant.

This had me so ticked off this vacation, and I knew what time of year I was going, about the ADR system, etc. But I was with a group of 37, and I couldn't have told you 6 months in advance who would be together on any given day, let alone what park we would be in or where we would feel like eating. So, our options were the CS menus, which are STANDARD across the Disney property, pretty much. Chicken fingers, fried fish, etc. Even the resort cafeteria didn't have one thing that changed every night (other than the soup). Oh well, next time, I'll be heading out for Margaritaville, Red Lobster, etc. Whatever strikes my fancy on that day is where we'll be going. The food quality at Disney doesn't warrant me planning that far ahead. And what is better than a nice dinner out on vacation?

 

[KorieDWnut]

This had me so ticked off this vacation, and I knew what time of year I was going, about the ADR system, etc. But I was with a group of 37, and I couldn't have told you 6 months in advance who would be together on any given day, let alone what park we would be in or where we would feel like eating. So, our options were the CS menus, which are STANDARD across the Disney property, pretty much. Chicken fingers, fried fish, etc. Even the resort cafeteria didn't have one thing that changed every night (other than the soup). Oh well, next time, I'll be heading out for Margaritaville, Red Lobster, etc. Whatever strikes my fancy on that day is where we'll be going. The food quality at Disney doesn't warrant me planning that far ahead. And what is better than a nice dinner out on vacation?

With us, I don't think we ever had more than a few weeks notice that were even going to WDW. This trip I am taking next week I only planned less than a month ago. When we went Nov 1st last year, we didn't even decide to go until Oct 13th. DH and I have wacky schedules so it is sort of when we can go, we go, no messing around. There is no point trying to book reservations because there won't be any, and that is a shame.

 

[Rustysmom]

I'm normally a "wing it" type of person on any other vacation. The problem is that the conversation often turns into "What do you want to do?" "I dunno, what do you want to do?" and so on. So for this trip I made an itinerary and we have ADRS every night. We probably won't stick to the itinerary though and we have hoppers so we can go where we want.

I'm very happy about the ADRs because every night would turn into a "what do you feel like eating?" debate, but this way we are going to a certain restaurant every night and that's it.

 

[sticker231]

with three young kids (6/5/4), we just let them dictate the pace. We pick the park, they set the schedule. Keep them happy and we stay happy.

 

[ZoZo]

We're also a "a little bit of both" group. We go during the F&W Festival, and do plan our activities around some of those events. We also make a few ADRs (but with the F&W Festival, we often snack our way around the food booths). This year, we have planned one character breakfast at Crystal Palace, one lunch at Le Cellier, the KTTK tour, one wine school, MNSSHP, and that's it. I've found that if you don't make at least a few ADRs, you might not be able to get into the restaurants you want.

We pretty much decide which park to go to on which day (based on the activities above), then wing it from there. We don't have an itinerary once we get there, unless it's a special event. I like to plan "just enough, but not too much." Since we go in October, we don't have to worry as much about crowds, and are able to wing it more.

 

[CindyCharming]

We wing it too, I just can't commit to an itinerary. I am a huge researcher. I love to pour over Disney tips and tricks and info. I know the hows and whys and whens and wheres but that's where it ends. I think it's cool other people can use color coded cards and have their days planned down to the bathroom breaks, but I just can't. Our past two trips I felt anxious having to plan and follow through with ADRs for our whole vacation, having everything else planned out would throw me in a full blown panic attack. We have 1 ADR for our upcoming vacation and it feels so very freeing, lol.

 

[FutureCinderella88]

I agree!! The only thing we plan is Magic Kingdom on our first full day unfortunately..... due to the dining plan CRAZINESS (we aren't participating,) we had to make ADRs for the first time ever and thus, we had to decide AHEAD of time where to go, on which day, depending on dining availability... not ok.

It's kind of hard to plan around dining reservations when we used to just grab a bite where ever when we were hungry....

 

[Redbudlover]

I think being free to wing it is dependent upon two things: going when the parks are not busy and going with the idea you won't be doing any fine dining and being willing to wait in line for a long time for places like CP, LTT, etc. I have seen so many people turned away from restaurants or deciding they didn't want to wait 75 minutes for a table that ADRs are compulsory. I made ADRs for Christmas week today and all the Segway tours were sold out. So were the third tier Christmas Processional dinner packages - and the CM told me she thought unless you bought a dinner package you were not even going to be able to get inside....
I guess I really changed from a wing it person to a planner the year after I got on these boards. That year I planned a CG dinner timed to watch Tinkerbell fly from the castle. It was a truly magical moment - so was the boat ride from Illuminations to the Boardwalk where we had had dinner and parked our car to avoid the long lines leaving EPCOT. Watching Wishes from the dock outside Narcoosees sipping on our adult beverages was wonderful. And it all came from the planning we had done. We are not martyrs to a plan, but there are some magical moments you can enjoy due to some good planning - IMHO.....

 

[portia9]

I see many many many posts full of itineraries, schedules, ADRs, plans plans and more plans. I think that is fabulous.

However, I am just one of those people who hate to be put on schedules or have a specific thing I need to do at whatever time. Usually when we go the first day is always a check in, pool, DTD, more pool, type of day. Then that night we say what do you feel like doing tomorrow? I dunno, what do you wanna do? Ok, let's do this. We wake up, have breakfast at the hotel and then do whatever. Then at the park we are like, ok, feel like heading back to the hotel for a while? Sure why not. Then after we swim and whatever we decide where we should go from there ( we always hop).

Are we the only ones who wing it?

I would like to be like this but the phrase "wing it" just makes me really nervous For me half the fun is in the planning

Yvette

 

[Doc CW]

We half wing it like we will go to whatever park on whatever day b/c thats the one we want to go to otherwise we plan it so we kinda wing it.

 

[fla4fun]

I'm very much a wing it kind of person. Sometimes I don't decide until I'm at the bus stop which park I'm going to - I'll just hop on the first bus that comes in. I usually think about what rides I might want to see, especially if I haven't been in a particular attraction for a while, but that's about as far as the planning goes. I don't really mind eating at the CS restaurants. I think the variety of food is much better than it used to be when every single CS was either burgers or pizza. Sometimes I'll try to get a same day ADR when I know where I'm going, and sometimes I don't. I usually travel during the slower times of the year, and I also travel solo a lot (the only one to please is me!), both of which make winging it a lot easier.