Advance planning blues

[pjhootch]

It's not just you. That is me to a t. I like "planning" my next trip, but by that I mean booking it and making payments, and choosing our resort. If there is a specific meal we know we want, I will do that. But all my meals 6 months in advance. No. The planning my rides just pushed me over the edge. Needless to say, we are now looking at DL and other options. Not gonna say we've given up on WDW, or I wouldn't be on this board. But they definitely killed the magic for us. Just crossing my fingers it gets better.

Yeah... that's what I meant exactly! I am frequently sleep deprived and slugging coffee like a fiend at 5:00 a.m. But trying to make a dinner reservation six months away in that state is a bit much.

There is a difference between planning for fun and planning the smallest details out of necessity. I will still enjoy myself- make no mistake. We really do like just drifting from one thing to the next with only a rough itinerary and lots of flexibility. I did this to myself by booking the FD promotion. We all know it isn't really free, but it does give some value if you work it correctly. So naturally, in order to really get my bang for the buck... I am making sure I use the sit down dinners the way I want to. This isn't Disney's fault, this is me being a dork!

 

[leebee]

It's not just you. That is me to a t. I like "planning" my next trip, but by that I mean booking it and making payments, and choosing our resort. If there is a specific meal we know we want, I will do that. But all my meals 6 months in advance. No. The planning my rides just pushed me over the edge. Needless to say, we are now looking at DL and other options. Not gonna say we've given up on WDW… but they definitely killed the magic for us. Just crossing my fingers it gets better.

This is exactly how I feel about all of this. I just booked one ADR for October; I'll get around to the rest of them, or we'll wing it or do counter service. I still can't bring myself to contemplate the FP+ debacle. Any time I think about it too much, I start to stress out, big-time. The problem is I worry too much about not getting on our favorite rides and that the trip will be a disappointment. Not loving the changes at WDW (especially all the interactive stuff and tracking via MBs); knowing that this could be our last trip for awhile just adds to the stress and disappointment.

Honestly, if DD hadn't been planning (for about 5 years) on celebrating her 21st birthday by going to the Food & Wine Festival, I think we'd cancel our plans and head over to the DarkSide; seems easier, and a more relaxing vacation.

 

[Missymouse18]

I have never been huge on using FP in the past, so the new FP+ definitely doesn't have me bothered. I just booked what I thought was necessary, tried to have them as consecutive in time and location when possible, and as early as possible. after that we will book any further FP+ if necessary. We do rope drop and we don't mind standing in queue. I'm a huge planner, but at the same time flexible and laid back when it comes to the parks.
I do get something similar to "planning blues" but mine would be more like "planning anxiety."

 

[Sparkly]

You honestly don't need to worry too much. We got a bunch of great ADRs for perfect times maybe 4 months out because that's when we decided we wanted to upgrade to the table service DDP.

And short of A+E, you don't REALLY have to book those 60 days out either. I was still adjusting them with no problem up to a week away from going!

You don't need to plan to the nines to have a good time- that's kinda a DIS mentality. as long as you've done some sort of basic pre planning you'll be one up from those just turning up at the park at 10am.

This is exactly how I feel about all of this. I just booked one ADR for October; I'll get around to the rest of them, or we'll wing it or do counter service. I still can't bring myself to contemplate the FP+ debacle. Any time I think about it too much, I start to stress out, big-time. The problem is I worry too much about not getting on our favorite rides and that the trip will be a disappointment. Not loving the changes at WDW (especially all the interactive stuff and tracking via MBs); knowing that this could be our last trip for awhile just adds to the stress and disappointment.

Honestly, if DD hadn't been planning (for about 5 years) on celebrating her 21st birthday by going to the Food & Wine Festival, I think we'd cancel our plans and head over to the DarkSide; seems easier, and a more relaxing vacation.

Take a step back. Honestly. Deep breath. It'll be okay. You don't have to wear the MBs. You don't have to book all FP+s right at 60 days. You don't have to eat at TS places. And don't read the theme parks board because it's enough to make anyone stressed out.

Your daughter is going to Disney World!!! for her 21st birthday!! That's enough to make anyone happy and excited. No matter what she'll have a amazing birthday.

(and great minds think alike, as I'm going next March for my big 21st birthday bash too! Scary thought...)

 

[Sparkly]

-double post, sorry!-

 

[agavegirl1]

LOL...this was me, last month, on Easter Sunday no less. 5AM on Easter and I still did not get some ADRs I wanted. I did get BOG on my 8th day (not the 4th day as I wanted) but couldn't get a pre-park open CP that I liked or a F! dining package at Mama Melrose on day 2. Because this will be my last trip to WDW for some time (at least 4 years), I was pretty motivated. However, since that fateful Easter morning, I have relaxed a bit on my expectations. The fact that this level of commitment and crazyness is almost a requirement, bothers me to no end. I will, however, do what I have to because I may or may not ever be back. (Lots of possible reasons but too personal for this post).

 

[kaylasmom07]

I like planning for a trip. To me its a part of the fun. I have to admit it is craziness to have to book a restaurant 190 days out or continuously stalk the website for a cancellation.

It's hard not to get sucked into the madness, but the truth is you don't even need all this stuff to have a great trip. IMO BOG wasn't even that good.

 

[photo_chick]

Hi everyone,

It is 6:00 a.m. 180 days from my trip, so naturally, I have my eyelids propped open with toothpicks and am siphoning coffee down my throat. Can I say, just between you and me, I really hate having to do things this way?

I DO like planning ahead at least a little bit, or I wouldn't be on the DISboards (and a member for quite a while). But when planning ahead reaches the level of detail where I am trying to figure out what time I will be riding a certain ride in a certain park months ahead of time... it ceases to be fun.

I totally understand that most DB members enjoy advance planning more than I do. I enjoy picking my hotel, and using strategy to figure out which day is best for which park. I like knowing which rides are closed for refurbishing and how to avoid crowds as much as possible.

But I absolutely DESPISE trying to figure out where I am going to eat dinner 6 months from now. And I hate even more that feeling that I am missing out on something if I didn't get exactly the reservation I wanted. What is the MATTER with me? I don't travel this way.

I think I have a little bit of an excuse. I am old. I started going to Disneyland in 1967. I remember E tickets for crying out loud. I am just having trouble adjusting to this FP+ madness and 180+10 for dining reservations. It can't be just me. I am cool with technology and have spent many years coming to terms with the competition between Disney and my Better Judgment when it comes to $$$.

But I really am over the advance planning I need to do to take full advantage of the money I am spending. Yikes.

I'm a big planner (I have mapped our gas and food stops on the drive with google maps complete with timing) and even I started to feel the stress this trip.

I made ADR's for every day of our trip at the 180 day mark. Then DH and I started to rethink the plans. We had 8 days of ADR's. We've now dropped the dining plan and have 2 ADR's. And I'm much happier for it. We've got the places we feel we must do and have let everything else go. There's a ton of QS place we've never tried since we always do so many ADR's so we'll be doing that this trip.and we're looking forward to that this trip.

As far as the FP+.... I made mine at 60 days out. I've had no problems shifting them around (we're 40 days out now and I just moved some) with the exception of A&E. There's just no more times available for that one. But with everything else it seems I can still switch to whatever I want. So I wouldn't stress to terribly much about being locked in on those until it gets much closer to your trip.

 

[dumape]

I have mixed feelings on advance planning. Our next trip is the only one that I've had enough time to really do the 180 day reservations. Usually I have 1 month sometimes 2 months to plan. I was a Wish kid my first trip, a Disney newbie the 2 trips following that (I had no idea what I was doing lol), and short notice on our last 2 trips. Short notice meant no BOG even though I tried everyday for a month. It also meant a lot of 9pm dinners to get reservations that worked for us. So I'm really excited to have more time to try and get better reservations this trip.
On the other hand, I'm not a fan of the Fast Pass+ planning. I tried it 1 day last trip and we spent more time running back & forth in Magic Kingdom than enjoying the park. It's great for 1 ride but planning 3 rides for 3 people was a mess. I'm disabled and couldn't ride the rides my brother wanted (no rollercoasters for this girl!) and that meant people in my party were all scheduled different places. In the end we just got him a FP+ a day for popular rides & skipped the rest. I'll never advance plan rides again.

 

[Trix]

I'm blown away by the crazy planning...we aren't planning a thing. Half these posts I can't even read with all the ach, mucg, bcc, kic, etc. lol. I have zero clue what all this crap stands for. Our kids are 1,2 and 7, we are probably going back in another 2 years so we are just flying by the seat of our pants.

 

[pjhootch]

Good for you Trix. I haven't ever stressed a Disney trip in my life and I don't plan to be stressed for this one. I am pretty amused by my own temporary insanity on Tuesday.

I prefer seat of the pants most of the time and I have managed to have a great time in past years with very little advance planning. I seriously had been going to Disney World and Disneyland for years (or decades) before I realized that people staked out spots and sat for a long time to have a place to see parades or fireworks, or what have you.

Call me clueless, 'cause I always just thought they had those parades so I could ride space mountain (or haunted mansion) over and over without waiting in line.