Anyone else do Disney laid back like us?

[marymac123]

I am a crazy planner before we leave-like packing, I do my TS & maybe an event like MNSSHP or P&P cruise but once we get there all bets are off. I never check for park hrs or EMHs. We get the park hopper because we don't plan on when or where-only to get to our TS.

 

[zorro77]

Have'n fun, years ago we would get up early and try to get a much time at parks as we could. Now, slow morning, have a breakfast, go for a walk most days. The laid back approach is the way to go. We may be a little different because we travel with a person in wheel chair but we do not plan out the next day till night before or that morning. We may go to park 10 out of 13 days we are their but some days only a couple of hours or just to eat and walk around. We just love the time and place we are staying . Been to WDW more the 50 times in past 20 years and still love to go. Our home is OKW and enjoy the place and space that it offers. We do call it our home and glad to have joined vacation club.

 

[Krismom4]

Yup, that's us as well. WIth 4 kids- there's no way we'll make rope drop- so why ruin the day trying?
We go at our own pace and try to steep in the magic.

 

[Doc CW]

We make ADR's and plan what park to go to based on that, but otherwise we dont even know what park we're going to until we wake up at about 10 or 11am. Then we spend an hour listening to music before we go out and then we decide where to go, otherwise we do not plan anything beyond ADR's.

 

[SunnyP4Disney]

When I'm on vacation at the World, I think I'm doing well if I make it to a park by lunchtime.

I'm always amazed at people who make it to this 'rope drop' I read so much about . I don't even have a clue when rope drop is, but I'm sure I'm still curled up in bed when it occurs.

LOL, that's us too. We like to go for a least a few days and our favorite things to do are the water parks and just hanging at the hotels. When we go into the parks it's usually during the off peak seasons and times, I hate waiting and I don't like to use fastpasses unless I'm absolutely forced to!

 

[MamaJessie]

The first time we went was super laid back. We maid our hotel reservation and that was it, just followed the extra magic hours really. We had a fantastic time, the only downside was when we got home I was surprised at how many rides we missed, although at the time they weren't missed at all.....

The second time we went we had the dining plan and I felt like every single second was planned for us. It wasn't necessarily a bad thing, it's just not my thing. But to feed my family for free I'm glad I did it.

This time we hope to strike a happy medium. We'll have a character breakfast scheduled so that will be our water park day. So that day is already scheduled but other than that we'll follow the extra magic hours and basically play it by ear. I hope to have a general idea of QS restaurants that are good matches for us, but no more table side reservation in the parks.

Well, that was a novel.

 

[lathamary]

When I'm on vacation at the World, I think I'm doing well if I make it to a park by lunchtime.

I'm always amazed at people who make it to this 'rope drop' I read so much about . I don't even have a clue when rope drop is, but I'm sure I'm still curled up in bed when it occurs.

One day, after we had been at the Magic Kingdom for extra magic hours until 1 am, we slept in until 2pm!

Now that's a vacation!

Of course that was when we went when our oldest was 3 and he was our only child. He was always a late sleeper. It was different with a 3 month old along on our last trip, but we still never made it out of the room before 10am.

 

[FlightlessDuck]

We are thinking about a June trip. The fact that we haven't already booked it means we are being "loose" this time. We would do the QS dining plan and have no ADRs. This will be a "loose" planned trip compared to most. I'm curious to see how well we like it.

Usually we plan out what park we do on which day, and the order in which we are going to get on rides. Since we are going to be getting the GAD fastpasses this time, I'm not sure we are going to plan all that much this time. And we don't have any ADR"s, except we did reserve a Chef Mickey's dinner for our first night.

 

[deerhart]

we plan adrs, and this year I had to plan to pick a day at Star Wars weekend, but other then that well we figure out when we finally drag ourselves out of bed!

Rope drop, whats a rope drop

 

[npmommie]

With all the threads about planning and scheduling on here, I thought I'd throw this one out:

Does anyone else not plan and schedule out their trip? We have a check in date and a check out date, and that's pretty much it. We don't know what we're doing on any particular day until we get up that morning.

I know some people are chronic planners, and there's nothing wrong with that, and I know not having a plan would totally stress them out. I'm the opposite - I don't like having anywhere to be at any particular time.

We move very slow on vacation. We don't get to see or do as much as a family that has things planned out, but I'm ok with that. I'd rather be stress free and not see as much.

The only thing we have scheduled for our upcoming trip is an Around the World at EPCOT tour for DH. It was his birthday present from me. In 2008 we did a Behind the Seeds tour at EPCOT and that was awesome! One scheduled thing was enough, though.

Anyone else do Disney as laid back as we do?

We are also completely laid back
we go with the flow and what we feel like doing. Last trip I didn't even make adr's. We did the QSDP and some OOP TS, which we made no adr's for. We felt like Chef Mickeys one night so we went, and got in.
I don't like to be on a schedule on a vacation, that would stress me out.

 

[C&G'sMama]

I'd say we're somewhere in between. We have a basic plan with ADRs and which parks to be at but we don't live and die by "the plan", except when we have our 1 night when the kids go to the Neverland Club. We can eat at McDonalds or have saltines in our room but that one night without the kids we love. (disclaimer: We love our kids but by the end of the week it's nice to have one grown-up night and quite frankly they like having an evening without us) We've done it the last two trips and both times, after 4 hours we got the "Don't you have somewhere else to go, we don't want to leave"

We have been known to change the plan

We have been known to sleep in and not get to the parks until 4:00.
We've been known to cancel ADRs and then take what we can get, we haven't starved yet.
We've been known to actually go to rope drop (we've only done it twice) and call it a day by 2.

We usually take one day just to chill out at the resort. We spend the day at the pool, take naps in the room etc

People look at us like we have 2 heads when we say we relax at Disney. I think there's this mentality that you have to go from park opening to closing and not rest to get your money's worth. That's not our mentality. Disney is our annual escape from reality, that one week a year when our biggest decision is, "Do we want to go to Fantasy Land or Adventure Land today?"

.

 

[MinnieForMe]

We try to plan some meals, but otherwise I'm right there with you. Also, it helps that we've taken the kids tons of times.

Sometimes, the kids and I will go to the bus stop, and agree that wherever the first but that comes along is going, we hop on!

That's the best thing I've heard! I love it!

We are laid back too but not that much! I plan what day we'll go where and I make reservations for our character meals. Other than that, we do what the kids want to do. If the lines are more than 20 minutes for a big attraction, my kids have been known to say "we'll hit in next year" if we don't have a fastpass.

 

[leebee]

I used to be a planning maniac, and while we weren't commando, we stuck to the plan. I think that's the way to go for the first few trips, but at some point we realized we would ALWAYS be going back, which really takes the pressure off of trying to do as much as possible every single minute! My "planning" goes something like this:
Decide what TS meals we want (not necessarily TS every day);
Look at evening magic hours;
Get ADR for TS meal at the evening magic hours park (CP for MK day, Boma for AK day, for example) as we don't usually get park hoppers.
We sleep late in the mornings, go to the parks around 2pm, stay til they throw us out at night. Can't burn the candle at both ends, and this works for us!

(PS- even when we DID tour on the go-go-go plan, we never made it to a rope drop- although we HAVE been in Fantasyland when they were doing rope drop WAAAAYYYYY back at the front of the park... those b'fast ADR's came in handy!)

 

[Mrs. Charming]

We just do the ADR's because there are restaurants that we really want to eat at, and we like the dining plan. Other than that, it's by the seats of our pants. Planning and schedules make us *miserable*... learned that one the hard way.

 

[CuteAndFluffy]

Well, you all clearly aren't doing it right then. Vacation is supposed to be about checklists! itineraries! accomplishments! goals! Nose to the grindstone! There is a lot to do in a day, so get off your keister and get to that rope drop! They can't start the day without you, dagnabbit! What? You think this is supposed to be...FUN?!?!?! This isn't about fun! This is about DOING Disney better than anyone has ever done Disney before! It's more than a competition, it's a lifestyle!




Um...or not


I'm a well informed planner who doesn't plan. We'll usually have something we want to accomplish in a day (like--Hey! I want to eat school bread today! or I want to see if we can make Snow White crack up today!). While I'm laid back, we're typically early risers, so I have seen the mythical Rope Drop (ur not missin' nothin') and big nappers. Maybe we'll plan to eat at Boma (the one thing DH looks forward to). I've been known to ditch an ADR with no phone call--mostly we forgot about it. Maybe we'll sit around and drink frozen margaritas and watch kiddos play in the fountains while their parents tap their feet impatiently.

I totally get wanting to get it all in, but for me vacation is about connecting with my family and myself in a way I can't when there are deadlines and to-do lists. For a first trip, sure, go commando (and go commando while you're at it, but beware of chaffing) and try to do all the biggies, but for any trip after that, there are a whole lotta roses to be smelled.

 

[ms_missy66]

A beautiful thing about camping at Ft. Wildnerness is your distinct lack of need for dining reservations. I mean, you don't need them while at the other resorts, but you tend to get sick of quick service meals. With your camper, you can cook, so that definitely adds to your ability to be laid back.

I used to be a super-planner until we got our travel trailer. Happy Trails, my friend! Enjoy your laid back vacay!

 

[badblackpug]

We are also not planners. We plan a sit down dinner, usually at one of the resorts, and an occasional breakfast buffet, again at one of the resorts, and at the latest seating so it is more like brunch buffet, and pretty much wing it from there. We have never used a touring plan, and probably never will. We are not morning people. I have said before, to us rope drop is like the sasquatch, it has been rumored to exist, but we have never seen it!

 

[sjs314]

I use to plan every minute from wake up until our heads hit the pillows at night and at time I know my family grumbled about having to leave one park to make an ADR or the times I insisted we sit and wait for a show or parade so we had a good spot as I had planned on seeing said event on this particular day or time.

Fast Forward to March of 2009 .....I did not pre plan a thing, just went with the flow, why you ask? Having been to WDW quite a few times , this November will be the twelth time , we have pretty much seen everything except for the one or two new things at each park, so we can now take our time , catching that new show, revisiting old favorites that are still around, stopping to smell the roses ( which we did last year since it was the flower show at Epcot) something we had not previously taken the time to enjoy as we were rushing here or there, hopping from park to park.

Last year when we chose the wrong day to go to Disney Studies being it was so very crowded, we just hopped on the water launch took that to the boardwalk , had nice lunch at ESPN and then walked over to Epcot....nothing planned yet a most enjoyable day for all ending with watching Illuminations.

I am planning some this year have 4 ADR's I want to make for Dinners, but no more crack of dawn till midnight, we will take our time and enjoy the resort and each other. We have a few must sees this time around but not so many that we can't take our time doing it.

 

[WDWBlue]

When I'm on vacation at the World, I think I'm doing well if I make it to a park by lunchtime.

I'm always amazed at people who make it to this 'rope drop' I read so much about . I don't even have a clue when rope drop is, but I'm sure I'm still curled up in bed when it occurs.

We try to get to the park about a half our after rope drop on EMH mornings. That way, the diehard masses are in already so no lines at the turnstyle. And, you're ahead of the off property guests.

Seems to work well.

 

[Pixie Princess]

I'm not a hyper planner- I may be some where in between. We usually have the DDP so our ADRs tend to dictate what parks. But even then we have hoppers and if we don't want to go to the park "planned" for the day we'll change. I will confess to wanting to get up and get out pretty early. We have our usual must do's and if there is something we haven't done, we'll plan to do that. I'll also keep up with what's new at the parks, and we'll usually plan to see the new stuff (like the new IBM sponsored exhibit at Innoventions is on the list for our trip in May).

I had considered doing a touring plan this time around, just to check it out. I'm on the fence though because I'm not sure I can stick to something so structured.