All that work out the window!

[ObsessedwithWDW]

OK I need help! Every year I spend the entire year from the minute we book reservations to go to Disney (or anywhere for that matter) PLANNING, researching, PLANNING, reading reviews, ideas, tips etc. Then I get there and I go completely away from my plan and forget sooooo much or miss soooo much! Probably b/c I freak out and just run in every direction as if I am 8 years old! Now I am in obsessive planning mode for our first trip to Disney with our daughter for September. She'll just be a baby so she doesn't really have much say or much to do other than go along for the ride but I still want to make the most of the trip with her. Take her picture everywhere......let her just take the sites in with as little stress as possible. I know this trip will be much different than any we have ever done....b/c the baby will be only 9 months old but any suggestions? I'd love to read people itineraries that have small children with them? Do people really take breaks throughout the day....sounds like a great idea but does it really happen?

Thanks for any help!

 

[AJKMOM]

I think anyone with small kids takes a break. If you are onsite at, say the Contemporary, you could walk back to your room. When my kids were little, we were offsite, and they napped in the stroller, rather than us going back to the room. We took one that they could lay flat in, and it was great. Of course, when they were little, now in college, there weren't as many choices if you wanted to stay at a Disney Resort. The "baby" was six before we found Dixie Landings. The best place we thought of was the FW cabins, with a kitchen and door to close off the bedroom.

 

[goofy4tink]

Obviously you have been to WDW more than once...so you know that you can never see it all/do it all in one trip. I have found that the trips we take, where we just go with the flow, are much nicer. We have been multiple times, so the urgency to do it all has gone away. If I were you, I would just enjoy seeing the delight in my dd's face. You are going to have to do things very differently than before. But, that doesn't mean it is going to be a boring trip. You may just find that going with the flow is very enjoyable. Sure, make a few dining choices before you get there, but don't obsess over them. Plan to take your time, rather than scurry from attraction to attraction. But, first and foremost....enjoy your dd's first trip!!!

 

[Lulu's Mom]

We just got back from a trip with our 15 month DD and we took her the previous year when she was 5 months. The only planning I did was for dinning and park days. We are not commando type people and like to take in the atmosphere and relax a bit and be more spontaneous on our trips. It would be hard for my family to ba a such ride at this particular time or be waiting for this parade or this show at this time... we have always been luck enough to show up for things right when they are starting and be able to see evrything fine.

That being said we did not need to take breaks during the day... our DD slept in her stroller as needed. We also never woke up until we were ready and we did not stay until the parks closed, except to see Illuminations because DD was passed out in her stroller. We did go to MNSSHP twice, but during the day we went to the pool or DTD.

We also used Disney transporation everywhere and we stayed at CSR, and the buses were great.

I would reccomend a very light schedule and with time for your DC to relax and people watch and if old enough to run around and play. You know what is best for your family go by your instincts and you will have a great trip. If you need any other pointers about what we did PM me and I will be glad to share.

 

[Goofy4]

Then I get there and I go completely away from my plan... :

I know what you mean. Wilma did it to us.

Do people really take breaks throughout the day....sounds like a great idea but does it really happen? :

Up until this trip, absolutely. Especially in the Summer and Fall.

 

[zookeeper]

I had a similar experience this past Sept. I had planned and planned and figured out the "best" way to do everything,but by the end of the first day I realized that we would have to just go with the flow in order to make the most enjoyable vacation possible. The first of my plans to go out the window was the notion that we had to be at the park for opening each day. We took our time and arrived each day around 10:30 or 11:00 and stayed until we'd had enough.It helped that we went at a time when the crowds were really low so waiting in lines wan't an issue at all. The baby slept everyday in the stroller which I wasn't expecting him to do so that made things somewhat easier for us. We were really lucky in that he seemed to fall asleep in his stroller just before our TS meals so we were allowed to roll the stroller right into the restaurants which you can't normally do. You can plan and plan (because it's so much fun to do!) but once you're there you'll figure out what works for your family. As long as you're flexible and realize some things won't work out the way you want and you might even have to miss some things you were really looking forward to doing, but you can always catch them on the next trip right?!!
Best of Luck!!

 

[WaltD4Me]

Don't sweat it!

I planned and planned and PLANNED our big December trip in 2004....did things worked out the way I planned them? Ummmmmm, mostly no. Did we have a GREAT time? YES!!!!!!!!

I'm still very glad I did all the planning though because the parts of it that we did use worked out great, we still missed stuff, but we all survived.

While planning I kept a small notebook that I made notes in through all my planning, then I made a list of MUST do or see for each park or resort or whatever. I took that notebook with me and each night I would read through the must do's for the next day, this helped refresh my memory and if it was something we really HAD to see I tried to do it first so I didn't have to worry about forgetting to do it!

Here's a funny story too.......
When we went it was in December and we were going to MVMCP, on the day of the party, I planned to get there at 4pm so we could see Adventureland. Well, the kids were having so much fun in the pool, we didn't get to MK until after 6pm so we would up NEVER made it to Adventureland the whole trip!

After we got home my brother commented to me that it was a shame that they had taken out the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. And then he absolutely would NOT believe me when I told him it was still there, but we just didn't make it there. I had to show him a park map! He wanted to know how come it wasn't in my "plan", I said it was, but we'd blown it off for the pool. (which was fine) but he still can't get over that we missed a whole land!

The point is, you are gonna miss stuff....it's OKAY, you'll still have a wonderful time and there's always next trip!

 

[WDW Poly Princess]

I usually do the same thing! Tons and tons of planning, lots of research, and then when I get there, I just play it by ear.

The thing I've learned, though, is that none of that planning is really wasted! If you hadn't gone to all that work, you would never know the best places to see the parades, which nights the fireworks are on, or the neat little secrets. Just because you don't use your knowlege the way you had planned doesn't mean it's wasted!

I've never gone with a baby, but it sems like your best bet is to let a lot of what happens vary with how she reacts to things. You know her better than anyone! She may be enchanted by the characters, or love quiet dark rides, or the complete opposite!

 

[mmcguire]

You're not alone. I'm a planning freak-a-zoid for six months before our trips, but sometimes plans get ignored. Trip-before-last, we all woke up one morning totally exhausted, and unanimously decided to sleep in and spend the day at the pool. It was refreshing, and now we all have an extra day left to use another time. BTW -- we do religiously take mid-day breaks, and we find that spending 2-3 hours resting seems to buy us an extra 3-4 hours of stamina in the evenings. Pretty good ROI, if you ask me! If kids are getting grumpy, overstimulated, etc., it doubles as a good "time out" period.

I think I used to overplan because I had conditioned myself to think as I did on my first trip, "I might not ever get back here again; I better cram as much in as possible!" Now that I've been 7 times, I figure we probably will be back, and if we miss something, we'll catch it again next time. Eliminates a lot of stress/urgency. I now think of my plans more as "guidelines" rather than a concrete agenda. I plan which park(s) we'll be in each day, make a daily dinner ADR in or near that park, but if we end up someplace else, we cancel and wing it.