Do you strategize? Or do you 'wing it'?

[tarheelalum]

We don't like to plan things out that much. It seems to take the fun out of for us. But one thing we always try to do is avoid the park that has the early entry hours. We get a lot rides in that morning by going to the other park. By noon everything is crowded so we try to get something to eat and then play it by ear the rest of the day.

 

[HenDuck]

Our biggest strategy is to be there at or close to rope drop. We ride like maniacs for the first hour or two and then ease up. We use FPs liberally and strategically all day. We have a designated FP runner (usually me) to save the group time.

We go every year and stay for a little over a week. Every year, things change. We do our research (mostly here ) before we go and know generally what to expect.

Every year, while we are there, we tweak the strategy. We usually go early in the morning, leave in the early afternoon and return in the early evening. This last trip, I realized that this strategy can be just as exhausting as skipping a mid-day break, especially since we stay down the street and need to catch a shuttle. So during this last trip, on a few days, we just stayed from rope drop until we were done. Then we went back to the hotel, usually before dinner time, and we were done for the day. This allowed us to use our FPs a little more efficiently and to skip the back-and-forth on the shuttle. Then I didn't need to rush everyone to get ready twice a day (once in the morning and then once again mid-day). Also, we could get to bed at a decent hour, allowing us to hit rope drop again the next morning if we so desired.

We have never had a detailed plan. It doesn't work for us. But we go often enough that DL is like our second home. We know how to get around the park to do what we want/need without too much thought.

Having said ALL that, when there is something we want to do (like a meet and greet), we build that in to the schedule. We pick a specific day and plan out a strategy.

HTH!!

 

[SweetAlex]

I could never plan out my days like so many do here. It just doesn't work for me. I need to feel like I'm on a holiday. Having a strategy and feeling compelled to stick to it makes me feel like I'm back at home juggling dance practices with softball games and dinner times.

For us, we may have a few things planned for certain days. Like we know we'll do Fantasmic one night and the afternoon Aladdin show another day but other than that, the day is ours to do with as we please. If one line up is long at any given time, we skip it and come back later. It's too stressful for me if something I spent so much time planning and perfecting doesn't go right so I don't bother with a plan. We love just deciding on a whim which ride to go on next! To us, that's one of the best parts of Disney!

 

[keiraliz]

We don't really 'strategize', but we do go in with a general plan for the day, taking into account EMH/MM, ride popularity/FP status, any ADRs we might have, and show times. If we have rides with a potentially long wait on our must-do list, we'll strategize just that section (usually the first hour or so), then revert back to our general basic plan.

I really enjoy the spontaneity of DLR, and I feel planning down to the minute would ruin it for me. It's what puts me off going to WDW.

This is basically how my family operates too. We'll make sure to plan out where we'll be staying, how long the trip is going to be, what the budget is, and any necessary reservations, but we never plan like a lot of members on the DIS do. We map out a general idea of what we want to do (especially if we want to do some shopping or go on the popular rides), where/when we want to eat, and whether or not we want to take a break. If there's something specific we want to do, we'll plan around that. Otherwise, we don't have our vacations planned down to the minute. My dad and I are the big planners of the family (my mom and my sister are the spontaneous ones), but we also like enjoying our vacations and family time. Trying to plan every minute of our day would probably ruin the trip for us.

 

[geergirl]

My version of a plan is saying that I want to go on certain rides at least once while we're there and then winging it. I don't remember ever having a real plan on family trips when I was a kid either.

We definitely do not have a plan this time. It's going to be a completely toddler driven trip. The extent of my planning is to stay super close so we can walk to the hotel for an afternoon nap. DH and I have accepted that we're not going to be going on all of our favourites multiple times. We will be doing what the kids are interested in (and not scared of!).