Any Husbands here do all the planning?

[Gumbo4x4]

I do all the planning with one exception - DW won't approve any of my hotel choices without checking the bedbug register first. Yes, I have spreadsheets - in fact, I have tabs for trips we haven't even committed to yet.

 

[steves100]

I am married 23 years, ALWAYS do all the vacation planning. Would love it once for my wife to surprise me and tell me we are going somewhere out of the clear blue : )

 

[buzznina]

Count me in as the vacation planner of our family I do all the leg work, looking for resort discounts(this trip using magical) and then correlating them with our AP black out dates, DDs school schedule and DW and my work schedule. I get input from DW and DDs on the resort. We do not like to do many ADRs(1 maybe 2 a trip), so that is never an issue. I know the key rides we want to get FP+ for and I will layout our park days with a resort day or 2 mingled in. I use to do the park touring plan, but we found that we have so much more fun and relaxing trips by not doing that and just scheduling our FP+ and the occasional ADR.

 

[wdwrich]

Another hubby here. Married for 41 years and I do all the planning for our Disney trips. DW has always been happy with the choices of hotels, restaurants and parks.
Happy vacation, happy wife, happy life!

 

[olecow]

Reading all these stories is heartwarming.
It reminds me of my father-in-law. He loved to travel and plan trips but my mother-in-law did not like to go. She is a stay at home all the time type (what if you get sick, what if the car breaks down...) One year he finally talked her into a fall trip to the Blue Ridge Mountains. By all accounts it was a lovely trip. Four months later he died unexpectedly.

As we went through this things we found boxes and boxes of travel brochures (some 50+ years old). Many of those are now framed and hanging in my kitchen. We also found manila folders labeled by geographic region. Inside each were mapped out plans for vacations he never got to take.

So thanks husbands/dads who plan the trips! You are making precious memories.

A few of my father-in-law's travel brochures from the trips he planned:

This sounds somewhat like my neighbors in laws. My neighbors like to travel and the wife's parents NEVER do. They wonder why you'd want to leave home. To each their own I guess. Thanks for sharing your story. I think it's touching, and a sign of how much your father in law loved his wife.

 

[KingLlama]

<-is the planner in our household. Probably stems from me saving my money to buy my first Birnbaum Guide back in 1984 as a 10-year-old. The rest is history, as they say.

Wife has input into resort(actually, that's probably a 50/50 call), and she'll ask for certain restaurants to be included, but in terms of what we do each day of the trip(FP's, which park to hit, daily touring plans, etc.), she happily leaves up to me.

 

[Maxpowers]

I do all the trip booking planning parts (flights,hotel,ADR, FPs etc...), but I cannot take credit for the packing end of the spectrum.

 

[slickpoetry]

I do pretty much all the detail work on all our vacations. My wife would say I'm too detailed--she kind of rolls her eyes at me sometimes. But yes I would say I do about 90% of the planning. She just gives me general ideas of what she wants to do.

 

[Dr Gunnie]

Put me down for another husband of the year that does it all... it's not that my wife wouldn't help, but she knows how much I enjoy doing all the planning (except waking up in the middle of the night to schedule the FP+ and ADR's).

I love doing the planning. It's almost like day dreaming what you would do if you won 100 million dollars... only the disney plans come true eventually.

 

[danjoan14]

Yes, add me to that list. I do 100% of the planning. I have an Excel spreadsheet where I list everyday of our stay. I include parks hours, dining reservations, fastpass+, historical park crowd levels, best park to visit, extended magic hours, parades and fireworks, and the weather. Everything is color coded. My DW just wants to know where she has to be at what time. DS just wants to be sure we can get on his favorite rides and eat at his favorite restaurants. I really enjoy the planning. It's a lot of work, but taking part in the final result is magical. We just returned from a trip a few weeks ago with DW's friends from CT. I had to do all the planning for them as well. Then my DN decided she was going to join us with her two DK's for a couple of days. That was a challenge getting her into our plans as well. But she want to enjoy the Magical Experience with us. She had such a great time, she wished she had joined us for the entire week. So in the long run, I think it really pays off!

 

[wookiebeck]

I am one of us, also! Same story as many, 100% all of the planning with 30+ years of WDW experience and knowledge. DW wouldn't dare try to do what I do.

 

[skateshome]

Very cool guys! I feel much better knowing there are so many of you out there. Kind of felt like I was one of the few guys that got "into it" that much.
Some fantastic stories here. I laughed, I cried, I planned 3 more trips in my head......

I must admit, I did have a "come apart" last trip. Doing all the planning can be stressful to make sure your get everything just right. We had been over the plan numerous times to make sure everyone was good with it.....we walk into the park and DW looks at the schedule and first words out of her mouth were "why are we eating lunch so late"....not good. I really thought about hanging up the planning duties for a while. But then I came to my senses.

Disney....I can't quite you!!!

 

[skateshome]

It was amazingly perfect, and yet not relaxing at all.
.

Man this really made me laugh hard....

This is SOOOO me. I really have a hard time dialing it back at Disney. But I'm getting better.

 

[walker0829]

Yes. I did all the planning the last two trips. I come up with everything, run it by her and once agreed, I book. I have to give her a little credit though. She's really good at finding ADR's so my wife and mother took care of all that in an evening. I'm less picky about where to eat so I conceded those decisions.

 

[DisneyFive]

Yep, I do all the plans and then go through them with the whole family. Typically I have a couple of scenarios for which park(s) to be at each day of the trip. We decide together on one of the two plans. I also lay out the ADR's and (now recently ) FP+'s and we discuss/modify/agree to those as well.

...but yes, I always make the first pass at it. I love it.

Dan

 

[Disfan1968]

When we finish a Disney trip, my wife and I always talk about it anecdotally... when went right, what went wrong... from rides choices, to park choices, to restaurant choices, to break time choices, etc... I then take those thoughts into consideration as I build the next trip: right now planned for summer 2017 (taking a year off).

I am definitely the planner in our relationship, and that's the way my wife likes it.

 

[FireCaptMac]

I plan all the vacations for the family myself. My 50th birthday is coming up and I asked my DW to plan a Disney trip. She started to plan then got frustrated and gave up. So I am planing my own birthday party but really I don't mind because I get to go to WDW!!! The DW just loves that I do all the planning because then she can just pack and go along for the ride!!

 

[revdon64]

DW books the trip after we sort out a date, and then hands the reins to me. I plan all the ADRs, FPs, and touring plans. I don't do it without input from DD1, DD2, DS1 and DW, but mostly it's all me.

 

[Dr Gevil]

I do all the planning for our WDW, because I love doing it. I'll ask my DW and DDs if there is anything new or different that they would like to try on the next trip and go from there.

My DW sometimes doesn't like all the time I time I put in on the DIS boards researching, and would like a less RD days. But she quickly doesn't mind it when when get most everything in by lunch and are back poolside with drinks in the early afternoon, or that I can locate a bathroom anywhere on WDW property when she and girls need one the most.

 

[mickeyfanachey1999]

I know it's mostly wives or so it seems.
Little different in my family. I do all the planning and just run it by the wife to make sure there will be no complaining. She likes Disney World a lot but it helps to make sure everyone is on board. Any other guys in my boat?

Sorry meant to post this on this forum instead of DVC forum.

I do 100% of the planning from arrival night offsite hotels to ADRs and fastpasses to what time we leave to drive home on departure day.