Detailed Planners...itinerary sheets

[kristie73]

So for all you detailed planners, what do you use to record your itinerary? Do you just write it out on a sheet of paper or have out the maps. I know Disney's website has the collect your favorites thing. I haven't played with it that much though.

My husband asked me if I had it all planned out. We have 3 days in the parks. I guess a possible itinerary (guide) for our days would help, especially me because usually I'm the decision maker.

Like get up at this time, eat here, go to these rides DL, get lunch, come back to pool, go to these rides in CA, stop for snacks at this place, this show, this parade, this for dinner, shop for souvenirs, do these rides, fireworks. Etc - you get the idea.

I'm a planner, but a daily guideline I think would be helpful. I'm not obsessed with following it totally, but some of you have got to know what I mean.

 

[Lissame]

It sounds kind of like Ridemax...but I've never used it so I wouldn't know for sure.

I just pen and paper it. I plan out where we are eating each meal (and the times when I make PS) , and which days/times we're doing which entertainment. Other than that, we tend to just wing it for rides, but we do usually have a general plan in mind (but not written) with which FP we will collect and which rides we want to make sure to ride each day.

We are fanatic FP collectors, we collect FP every single time we can, even if we don't end up using them.

 

[Disney Dreams]

When we went to WDW, we wrote down the "must hit" times:

Meals we had ressies ffor
Parades
Shows

Everything else we did as the Disney spirit moved us. Maybe that will work for you? I HATE having every second planned, so you may need more. IDK

- Dreams

 

[Tablefor5]

I use an Excel spreadsheet...kinda anal and my husband laughes at me
Perhaps it is the Virgo in me...I set-up the page with each day and times. I "schedule" things like parades and show times we want to see, MM, dining reservations, and ballpark which days to do PFF etc...
We don't plan-out rides and aren't sticklers to following every exact detail and we do "plan for impulsiveness" lol
I use it more in the pre-planning of the trip, since I plan far in advance. I can then use the excel sheet to move around times, shows, events based on the schedules once they are released (or speculated by insiders )
It just helps me feel like I am orgainzed and in-control to maximize my fun times and not to miss something we reallly wanted

 

[disneydreamer74]

I bought a Passporter to Disneyland guide book for my first trip and have used it every trip since!! It is awesome. It is indeed a guidebook, but also has spreadsheets that you fill in with all your dining ressies and plans, you can do itinerary and has the best feature..Pocket envelopes in the back to keep all hotel confirmations and tickets so nothing gets lost. It has a velcro closure and is fairly small so I carry it with me into the parks!! I am a plan-a-holic so it is a godsend to me. I found mine on e-bay for a good price..i think it was $12.99....Happy planning!

 

[mommyof2boys1girl]

I do an excel sheet with details (eg MM ride order, what time to line up for PFF or PH, which rides are down for refurb, etc...)
Then I transfer short form info to recipie cards, which can come to the park. Itinerary on front :
Park opens at 8, line up by 7:30.
Do TL, grab FP's, boys split up and meet at hub at 11pm. Eat at Plaza Inn. Head to DCA by 2 to line up for PHD at 2:30.
And so on. On the back, I write down which places we will eat that day, as well as menu choices for each person. This way, I don't always have to be the one getting the food - not sure about everyone else, but dh admits he can't order food for our kids. (Can't remember who likes to eat what, etc...)
With the menu choices on the back:
Plaza Inn
2 kids chicken meals - one with Milk, one with Juice
Adult fried chicken to split between 2 adults and remaining child
side salad with ranch dressing to split also.
With this, he can order food while I take the kids to the bathroom to clean up, and they don't have to wait so long for their meals. It works for us, but isn't for everyone who hasn't adjusted to travelling with an anal retentive planner - according to my family, I am the Disneyland version of Atilla the Hun! I can live with that....

 

[Tikestoublie]

I like to have a bit of a plan as well. Because we are staying 6 days and this is the first time my DD will get to see many of the attractions I am planning even more. Basically I have collected info into a word doc and then been going through and managing it down to days and times for certain attractions like Aladdin and meal ressies I have. This gives at least an outline of what we really wanted to see and where it may fit in on what days.

I have posted a start with some of the meals in my PTR. http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2476217. Hopefully that works, if not let me know.

Hope that helps.

 

[50sjayne]

I just keep a running word document of tips and tricks--stuff I'll probably forget after reading. I try to keep it organized and updated and right before through trip fine comb it. In fact I already did that so far for our trip. I'll read it on the drive to family but once we get there we like having an adventure-- not a schedule.

 

[mom4princesses]

We use Ridemax and love it. You choose all the rides you want to do and them it maps out the best order with minimal wait times. We won't go without it because we get so much more done, the kids help pick out the rides and know the exact schedule for the day. Oh did I say we Love this program.

 

[Hawleys]

I use an online (free) service called Tripit. Check out tripit.com. You forward all your confirmation emails to the service and they make an online itinerary for you. I start with my flights, hotels and SuperShuttle reservations. Then I go in and manually enter my dining plans. There are sections for notes where you could put things like park hours and ride order. I like it because I can easily view on my wife's iPhone so nothing extra to carry to the park. And as a bonus, all my confirmation numbers are in one place. No papers for me to lose.

I've also made spreadsheets of approximate wait times for rides by pulling data from the Ridemax site. I can view these on the iPhone as well.

Planning is half the fun!

 

[Capt Silly]

My wife bought The Unofficial Guide to Disneyland 2010 and we follow one of the touring plans from there. These are absolutely wonderful and detailed, right down to the first step being:

"Arrive at the park, admission in hand, at least 30 minutes before opening. Line up at gate 13."

They also have 6 different plans in the book, including the "Dumbo or Die in a Day" Touring plan which is for:

"Parents with children under 7 who feel compelled to devote every waking moment to the pleasure and entertainment of their small children, and rich people who are paying someone else to take their children to the theme park."

The only problem we had was that due to crowds we finished the tour at noon when the plan call for 3:00. We had the whole afternoon to play it by ear...oh comma well...

 

[TiggerMomNine]

I am completely anal when it comes to Disney planning.

I use the Passporter Pouch, and I create touring plans (based on Ridemax and UG). I put it all into PowerPoint, shrink it down, print it out, and laminate it - making sure it's small enough to fit into the Passporter pouch.

Although, this time, we have iPhones and MouseWait, and I still want to use Ridemax, so I'm trying to figure out the best way to transfer several Ridemax plans to the iPhones.....

On previous trips, I've also copied all the menus for all the restaurants we wanted to go to and laminated them too, although MouseWait on the iPhone will render that unnecessary too!

In case you are all thinking I'm insane (which is true) all the kids love the laminated plans and menus.

 

[prncssmel]

I use an Excel spreadsheet...kinda anal and my husband laughes at me
Perhaps it is the Virgo in me...I set-up the page with each day and times. I "schedule" things like parades and show times we want to see, MM, dining reservations, and ballpark which days to do PFF etc...
We don't plan-out rides and aren't sticklers to following every exact detail and we do "plan for impulsiveness" lol
I use it more in the pre-planning of the trip, since I plan far in advance. I can then use the excel sheet to move around times, shows, events based on the schedules once they are released (or speculated by insiders )
It just helps me feel like I am orgainzed and in-control to maximize my fun times and not to miss something we reallly wanted

I am so glad I am not the only anal one. I have Excel spreadsheets for every Disney trip we have been on. Then I email it to myself, so I can pull it up on my phone.

I use an online (free) service called Tripit. Check out tripit.com. You forward all your confirmation emails to the service and they make an online itinerary for you. I start with my flights, hotels and SuperShuttle reservations. Then I go in and manually enter my dining plans. There are sections for notes where you could put things like park hours and ride order. I like it because I can easily view on my wife's iPhone so nothing extra to carry to the park. And as a bonus, all my confirmation numbers are in one place. No papers for me to lose.

I definitely will have to check this site out. Is there an app?

 

[specialks]

TripIt seems really cool. I am planning on using it for our next vacation. I love that there is an iphone app for it. The iphone app doesn't have great reviews, but I am hopeful that it will work for me.

 

[joeysmommy]

So for all you detailed planners, what do you use to record your itinerary? Do you just write it out on a sheet of paper or have out the maps. I know Disney's website has the collect your favorites thing. I haven't played with it that much though.

My husband asked me if I had it all planned out. We have 3 days in the parks. I guess a possible itinerary (guide) for our days would help, especially me because usually I'm the decision maker.

Like get up at this time, eat here, go to these rides DL, get lunch, come back to pool, go to these rides in CA, stop for snacks at this place, this show, this parade, this for dinner, shop for souvenirs, do these rides, fireworks. Etc - you get the idea.

I'm a planner, but a daily guideline I think would be helpful. I'm not obsessed with following it totally, but some of you have got to know what I mean.

I create an Excel spreadheet, with a column for each day that shows our dining ressies, parades etc that we want to see.
I have become less obsessed with following the itinerary and try to just go with the flow. But it is good to have the schedule at hand, once we get in the park we tend to get distracted and forget any plans we had.

 

[Hawleys]

I am so glad I am not the only anal one. I have Excel spreadsheets for every Disney trip we have been on. Then I email it to myself, so I can pull it up on my phone.



I definitely will have to check this site out. Is there an app?

There is a Tripit app for iPhone, Android and Blackberry. We haven't experimented with changing itineraries using the app but it works just great for viewing.

http://www.tripit.com/uhp/mobile

 

[Hawleys]

Although, this time, we have iPhones and MouseWait, and I still want to use Ridemax, so I'm trying to figure out the best way to transfer several Ridemax plans to the iPhones.....

My wife has done this by hosting a copy of her Ridemax plans on a website and then navigating to the website through the iPhone. Don't quote me on this though as I'm not the tech geek of the family. I'll see if I can get her to come here and post how she did it.

 

[ginormous]

Although, this time, we have iPhones and MouseWait, and I still want to use Ridemax, so I'm trying to figure out the best way to transfer several Ridemax plans to the iPhones.....

There is an easy way to get both the ridemax and your powerpoint slides on the iphone...

My wife has done this by hosting a copy of her Ridemax plans on a website and then navigating to the website through the iPhone. Don't quote me on this though as I'm not the tech geek of the family. I'll see if I can get her to come here and post how she did it.

Yeah, you are the Chief Planning Officer, I'm just IT support.

Putting the plans on the internet would work, but I would NOT recommend it. We do it differently. At best, the plans on the internet would take longer than if they were already saved to your phone. At worst, ATT service gets flakey at busy park times, and this can mean a major plan outage. (The CPO in my family would issue a CODE RED planning crisis alert! ) BTW, this also causes a MouseWait outage.

There are two ways to do get your plans on the iPhone.

1) (recommended) The cheapest and easiest way to get RideMax plans, excel spreadsheets, or powerpoint presentations on your iPhone is what was suggested by prncssmel...

I have Excel spreadsheets for every Disney trip we have been on. Then I email it to myself, so I can pull it up on my phone.

Just attach your files in an email to yourself and you are set. The iPhone Mail application downloads the files onto the phone, so you will be able to access them even if the network is out. The iPhone will let you click and view an HTML, Excel, PowerPoint, or Word documents.

2) (our way) The other way is to use the iphone app "Air Sharing" ($2.99, $9.99 pro version). It allows us to connect our iPhone to our computer through the wireless, and drag our documents onto the phone. The only real advantage over email is that it allows you to organize them into folders. It has other bells and whistles that don't matter at DLR, like managing documents and printing wirelessly from the phone. Though I'd recommend the app in general, I think it is way overkill to get just for DLR, plus you have to mount the iPhone to your computer which will require reading the help and channeling your inner geek.

Have fun planning mobile!

 

[ginormous]

PS

If you are going to be doing a lot mobile viewing of your plans and MouseWait, you might run out of juice. I take in a Duracell rechargeable battery for usb devices. I dig it because it...

- Is small enough, we can recharge the iPhone while in my DW bag.

- It recharges it up about 50% in about 25 minutes. That's enough to make it through the rest of the DLR day.

- The phone is still usable while hooked up to the charging cable.

- It can recharge any device that powers with a usb or micro-usb cable.

- It is a lot cheaper than any iPhone specific extra batter pack I've seen. It is around $18.

There are a few Duracell models available. I use the cheapest and love it. Search for ""Duracell Instant Power Charger for USB Compatible Devices" on Amazon.

Another option is to try to get in on the power outlets around the park. I believe there was a Disboards thread documenting these somewhere. I'd prefer the Duracell because you can charge on the go!

 

[Hawleys]

There is an easy way to get both the ridemax and your powerpoint slides on the iphone...



Yeah, you are the Chief Planning Officer, I'm just IT support.

Putting the plans on the internet would work, but I would NOT recommend it. We do it differently. At best, the plans on the internet would take longer than if they were already saved to your phone. At worst, ATT service gets flakey at busy park times, and this can mean a major plan outage. (The CPO in my family would issue a CODE RED planning crisis! ) BTW, this also causes a MouseWait outage.

There are two ways to do get your plans on the iPhone.

1) (recommended) The cheapest and easiest way to get RideMax plans, excel spreadsheets, or powerpoint presentations on your iPhone is what was suggested by prncssmel...



Just attach your files in an email to yourself and you are set. The iPhone Mail application downloads the files onto the phone, so you will be able to access them even if the network is out. The iPhone will let you click and view an HTML, Excel, PowerPoint, or Word documents.

2) (our way) The other way is to use the iphone app "Air Sharing" ($2.99, $9.99 pro version). It allows us to connect our iPhone to our computer through the wireless, and drag our documents onto the phone. The only real advantage over email is that it allows you to organize them into folders. It has other bells and whistles that don't matter at DLR, like managing documents and printing wirelessly from the phone. Though I'd recommend the app in general, I think it is way overkill to get just for DLR, plus you have to mount the iPhone to your computer which will require reading the help and channeling your inner geek.

Have fun planning mobile!

I can see why you are CTO. Clearly, I had no idea what you were doing. Thanks for explaining!