Commando or Laid Back - what works for you?

[bairdbeth]

On our first couple of trips we did commando style. Now we go for longer stays and do whatever we want. We know we will be back so if we don't get to it this trip, it will be a first to do on the next.

 

[Sabbie]

My plan..

Find out two-three days before we actually go.. that we're going... and then go!

I have never planned for ANY of my Disney trips until my next one coming up.. but that's because it's a major one.

 

[El Tel]

When I saw the title of this thread, I thought it was discussing whether or not to wear underwear at Disney. Guess I'm still really new here. I was trying to figure out what "laid back" underwear was.

I was! It's everyone else that's got it wrong. BTW - laid back underwear is big baggy, knee-length sort of thing

 

[El Tel]

Thanks for your feedback. From the majority of your posts it seems like I'm on the right track.

Our first trips were more commando. Coming from the UK for a fortnight isn't cheap so we originally thought our Millennium vacation was a one-off. (But you have to return as its sooo much fun and sooo much to do). Second trip was with another family and offsite - that made it a bit more hectic but for other reasons.

This time there is less pressure to see everything as I've seen a lot of it before - though we still have our favourites to enjoy and new things to discover (e.g. new attractions, AKL, DDP, KTTK and discovering what the various acronyms mean ). The planning I've done and the October vacation date are mainly intended to make sure we can do more of what we want with less queuing and hassle. I also love the planning - it's helped me cope with the withdrawal symptoms

Staying in the World should also help, especially now the kids are in their teens and can do their own thing and get back to the resort on the Disney transportation.

I'm so looking forward to it now.......

 

[hbehrman]

Actually we did a hybrid style of commando and laid back. We went for 7 days and this is what we did:

Adenturing Family of myself, DW, twin DD4 with events geared only for twin DD4.
9/24 to 9/30
Sunday: Arrive at noon; No parks planned; Chef Mickey for Dinner
Monday or Commando Day
AK Morning EMH:
Africa Kil Safari
Pangani Forest Trail
Festival of Lion King
Pocahantas and her Forest Friends
Lunch at Flame Tree BBQ
Rest at Resort noon to 3pm
MGM Evening EMH:
Brown Derby Fantasmic Dinner Package @4pm
Beauty and the Beast
Fantasmic
Playhouse Disney
World of Disney Animation and Interactive Studio
Voyage of the Little Mermaid
Tuesday: DTD day and dinner at Whispering Canyon
Wednesday or Best of Day
MK Magical beginnings EMH (awesome)
Main street bakery (snack and rest for everyone)
While eating we saw barbershop quartet and bus performers
Launch to GF; Bus to MGM
Playhouse Disney
ABC Comissary
Beauty and the Beast
Shopping/Character shows on the Streets of MGM/Autographs
Dan Zane and Friends concert
Bus to Epcot @3pm
Dinner at San Angel Inn 4pm to 5:30 pm
Journey into Imagination and Imageworks
The Living Seas esp Turtle Talk with Crush
Spaceship Earth
Back to resort at 7pm
Swimming at the resort
Thursday: Magic Kingdom all day (9 to 9), CRT at 9:50am
Friday: DTD in morning, CP 5:05pm, MNSSHP
Saturday: Resort for packing and swimming, leave at 2pm

That first monday was the most packed because I wanted to schedule as much for the girls to see and knock out AK and MGM in one day, but after that everything was at a more leisurely pace (even though it seemed as if it wasn't). We went back to MGM primarily because we gave the girls a choice of going to see Belle or Pocahontas (both of which they wanted to see again) and they chose Belle. Their bonus in that choice was that Dan Zane was in concert (which my wife really wnated them to see, and I was clueless) so we got tickets for that. On Wednesday we did the Magical Beginnings which the kids really enjoyed a lot and besides riding all the rides in Fantasyland in an hour they also played follow the leader with Snow White; London Bridge with Minnie Mouse and Daisy Duck; watched Peter Pan, Wendy and Captain Hook play another game (they did not want to participate); rode Dumbo with Stitch (second ride of the day, just missed being the last car on the first rids of the day); and played with Mickey Mouse (forget the game). Consequently our MK day (Thursday) was a relaxing day throughout the park.

Next time we will probably only due two days of theme parks and two (or three) days of water parks, because we will have their younger brother along.

 

[labdogs42]

My philosophy is to plan like a crazy commando before the trip, then "go with the flow" once we get to WDW. Since I've planned everything, I don't feel like I need to run around when I get there. All that pre-planning makes the actual trip very nice and smooth.

That's pretty much what I do. Plan what days where, ADR's, and must do attractions, but we let DS wake up when he wants to and go with the flow when we get to the parks, keeping touring strategies in mind, but not following a plan, perse. We do hit Dumbo first if it is on the must do list, though!

 

[tinkerbell1953]

We are definitely laid back. We have gone so many times that I don't feel like I have to rush around. We plan the night before which park to go to the next morning and where we might want to eat that night. Other than that it is go with the flow. We might end of hitting two or three parks in one day .

 

[jjk]

we are laid back we book a cou[ple of ADR's and then go with the flow

 

[Todd&Copper]

When we lived in FL and would visit WDW 5 or so times a year, of course we were very laid back (and there were only 2 parks back then). Since I hadn't been back for 15 years, this past August, we went commando style and were able to see/do everything we wanted to most days by early evening.

 

[jeffd101]

I thought we would be commando types, but after reading the UoG and coming on the DIS, I felt like we knew enough not to have to use this approach. We always get there at opening, have a loosely-structured plan of what we want to see and do, and then try to go with the flow to achieve our goals for the day.

We probably have done one commando day in our two trips and we were wiped out from it, so lesson learned.

 

[ransom]

Commando at first, then laid back later.

I like to get as many headliner attractions done as possible early in the morning, then spend the rest of the day perusing the rest of the park in a laid back manner. Same goes for the whole vacation: front-load the "gotta's", so that the last part of the vacation can be more relaxed, filled with returning to favorite places and attractions, etc.

 

[photobob]

I agree with most here, get to the park at opening go wide open to the bigger attractions and then scale back. I don't do ADR's, don't won't to have food plans dictate our entire trip. We usually have our TS meal at lunch. I can't tell you how many restaurants you can walk in and be seated almost immediately at if you arrive around opening time. Have done that the last 3 trips and raely have to wait for than 5 minutes..