Our TA/Friend plans it down to what time to take bathroom breaks.
I say have an idea of what the highlights are you want to see. Get an idea of park hours and utilize EMH and FastPass as best you can. Sit down restaurants are a preference thing. If you want that experience then you need to plan, if you are fine without then there are dozens of other options.
Oh my goodness! Could you imagine me trying to set planned bathroom trips for a group of 14? "No my sweet little 6 year old. You cannot pee until 4:32 PM, and it's only 3:44 PM. Sorry!" Hahahaha!
I'm not trashing anyone down, sweetheart. I'm questiong what I would otherwise view as madness. You're right. Your itinerary isn't on the verge of insane as you haven't started putting in times for arrivals at parks. I know it's important for some people to plan out all of their meals, so maybe times for that would be relevant. But it looked flexible enough to me so far. Not sure I don't expect times to start creeping in there over the next nine months, though.
Yes, it's crazy to do four parks in one day. Looney? You bet your life it is. But it's fun. I've gone done to Disney World at least once, sometimes twice, every year since 2001. By now, I don't mind if I miss something because the line is too long. Am I going to pay for the honor of consulting someone else's touring plans and crowd estimator right now for next my trip next Christmas to ensure that I don't miss out on Peter Pan because the line might get too long? No, of course not. Let's not be ridiculous.
My itinerary sheets do say times on them, but not in the way you are speaking of. My sheets have a box for each day with the park hours for the park we are planning on going to. We don't set a specific time to go to a park unless there is something really important for us to get to, in which case I will put a note that we are going to Akershus at 10 AM (bc we are NOT early birds), so that way I know we need to leave by nine.
This is an example of my itinerary sheet for a given park day:
Thursday 10/18/12:
Hollywood Studios
9 AM-12 AM EMH
(this is my arrival date, so of course I won't be there by 9, but I probably won't on any other days either. It's just there so I know when the park opens and closes.)
Crowd level: 7.2
(just so I know what to expect when we get there.)
Flight: 6 AM
Arrival
(if flying) at 8 AM
POR or POFQ
(whichever we decide on)(insert confirmation number here)
Lunch: Counter Service
3:00 PM Pixar Pals Countdown to Fun
(not an official part of our itinerary, it is just there in case we want to go.)
Dinner: Fantasmic Dinner Package at Mama Melrose
4:55 PM
(just a guess for now)
(Confirmation number here, or numbers depending on how many reservations we make for our group.)
Fantasmic: 7:30 PM
I wanted to show this to you so you would see that just because we plan, it doesn't mean we are crazy. I have the information I need at my fingertips just in case I need to see it. I put it into my android phone also in case I am not near my stroller where I keep my written information. I often don't even bring my binder into the parks, so since my phone is always with me, it is convenient to have the info in it. I also have sheets in my planning phase that tell me crowd level predictions and park hours so I can figure out where we want to go. On my final itinerary if we don't have an ADR for the day, then I will plan that as an open schedule day and list park hours for each park and crowd levels so we can make an educated decision as a family. We never know what is going to happen on any given day, so it is impossible to plan exactly what we are doing by the minute. That would stink anyway. On our 2011 trip I got really sick and wasted a whole day of tickets for 12 people. I know I should've done the no expiration option, but was too sick to worry about it. My husband had to push me in a wheelchair at EPCOT b/c I was too week to walk the day after the wasted pictures. When we went home, I got off the plane and headed for the ER. My point is that even if we plan, our schedule can be totally screwed up by an unplanned event. Even a planner has to be open to the schedule changing.
I like to think of it as being organized. I did purchase touring plans for a year for just over $10.00. I have access to it for a whole year, and it is not for the purpose you described. I won't consult it to find out when the line is going to be too long for Peter Pan. I consult it to find out the predicted crowd levels, park hours, and scheduled events for a year away from my planned dates. That way I can consult my family on where we want to go based on if we want to do an EMH,
MNSSHP, or a special show. I'm just trying to make you understand why we do what we do. It's not because we like lunacy, it's just the opposite. We like order, and we like to know what is going to work best for our family. 4 parks in one day would be too insane for our family. We would spend most of our day on the bus going from place to place. We really like to chill in the parks and take in each park at our own pace. Plus...I know that even if I don't get to ride Peter Pan all day, if I slip in line a couple minutes before park close, I am guaranteed to ride the ride!
Well, MY ITENERARY THAT I PUT ON INDEX CARD AND HAVE COLOR CODED
Would NEVER EVER, EVER, have 4 parks on them in one day...
That my friend is just LUDICROUS
But i will tell you one of my kids had a fascination with public restrooms for a couple years and every one we passed he had to go in and pee....NOW THATS LOONEY,
SO on my Itenerary for those years, YES I DID HAVE BATHROOM BREAKS...
And i am serious!!!!
Hahahahahaha!
Speaking of Disney's bathrooms... am I the only one that misses the old gritty hand soap they used to have at the parks, before the anthrax scare forced them to remove it in favor of liquid soap?
Yes, I believe you are probably the only one who misses that. Yuck.
