Does anyone else miss the spontaneity

[KimBean]

I am sure we will have fun. We leave in 10 days after 6 months of planning. I just hope that the build up of planning and thinking about what we are doing lives up to what our expectations of our past experiences have been.

I'm an ultra planner. Have been on every trip to Disney. I've learned in all those trips (since sometimes I have gotten it wrong and DH and I have fought at the happiest place on earth) is the planning all comes before you leave. Once you are there then don't worry about the plan so much. Don't stress about whether it would have been better to do a different meal, or different park, or different FP+, etc. Just don't second guess your decisions and enjoy. There will be hiccups but just live in the moment and enjoy your time.

It reminds me of people I just saw at Disney On Ice last week. Some people were video taping the whole thing on their screens and staring at the screen!! They never looked away from their phones or tablets. Might as well watched it on YouTube.

Look up from your itinerary and breathe and you will have a great time. Don't judge your vacation because of how successful your plan was or how many people were in front of you at rope drop or how many minutes you saved from the standby line.

 

[Mimarian]

I'm an ultra planner. Have been on every trip to Disney. I've learned in all those trips (since sometimes I have gotten it wrong and DH and I have fought at the happiest place on earth) is the planning all comes before you leave. Once you are there then don't worry about the plan so much. Don't stress about whether it would have been better to do a different meal, or different park, or different FP+, etc. Just don't second guess your decisions and enjoy. There will be hiccups but just live in the moment and enjoy your time.

It reminds me of people I just saw at Disney On Ice last week. Some people were video taping the whole thing on their screens and staring at the screen!! They never looked away from their phones or tablets. Might as well watched it on YouTube.

Look up from your itinerary and breathe and you will have a great time. Don't judge your vacation because of how successful your plan was or how many people were in front of you at rope drop or how many minutes you saved from the standby line.

If I spend months before my actual vacation planning it, it will not be in my nature to ignore the plan once I get there. We have already said that if we are doing something we are enjoying we will not worry about our fastpasses. I guess I just don't like having to reserve a Mexican dinner in Epcot 6 months ahead of time on a Tuesday that hasn't arrived yet. I may not want Mexican in 6 months on a Tuesday.

 

[JennaDeeDooDah]

My husband and I are talking about taking a trip without doing much planning at all. We aren't going to make any ADR's or FP+ reservations. Instead, we will wake up that morning and decide which park we want to visit. We might swing by guest relations that morning and see if they have any dining opportunities for us, but otherwise, we will just do counter service. I'm sure that ADRs and Fast Pass+ help to fuel all of this planning which, in turn does bring in more money for Disney, but it's likely to have the opposite effect with us. We have been planning detailed trips for years. This summer, we are doing a parks-free vacation and have little planned. We have talked about going to a water park, but intend to just do that if the weather looks good and we feel like it on any given day. We also plan to just get on whichever bus shows up at the hotel first. We have talked about miniature golf, Tri Circle D Ranch, Characters in Flight, Disney Quest, resort exploring, and all sorts of things, but have no set plans. We might do some of these things and we might not. And we are loving talking about it. If this goes well, we will definitely end up doing a park trip this way.

 

[kermiebudge]

Always been a planner...but enjoy aspects of just "going with it". This seems much tougher now to do, but I'm sure it's still there. Just need to look & prepare for the spontaneity.

Oh wait!!! Darn....lol.

 

[Mimarian]

My husband and I are talking about taking a trip without doing much planning at all. We aren't going to make any ADR's or FP+ reservations. Instead, we will wake up that morning and decide which park we want to visit. We might swing by guest relations that morning and see if they have any dining opportunities for us, but otherwise, we will just do counter service. I'm sure that ADRs and Fast Pass+ help to fuel all of this planning which, in turn does bring in more money for Disney, but it's likely to have the opposite effect with us. We have been planning detailed trips for years. This summer, we are doing a parks-free vacation and have little planned. We have talked about going to a water park, but intend to just do that if the weather looks good and we feel like it on any given day. We also plan to just get on whichever bus shows up at the hotel first. We have talked about miniature golf, Tri Circle D Ranch, Characters in Flight, Disney Quest, resort exploring, and all sorts of things, but have no set plans. We might do some of these things and we might not. And we are loving talking about it. If this goes well, we will definitely end up doing a park trip this way.

I hope that works out for you. I guess if you have no desire to eat a table service meal then ADR's are not a big deal anyway. I am sure that you can probably arrive at the parks and get FP+ that day but I dont think that you will get ideal times. Which if you don't care then its not a big deal. I do think the FP+ concept is a good thing. I just hope that in the future maybe it can get tweaked a bit to allow for more flexibility. It just seems so regimented the way it is now.

 

[SuperRob]

I'm with you on this with the ADRs. On one hand, it's convenient, but if you don't have an ultra-planner in the family, it's got to be a little difficult. When people ask me about going to Disney, I let them know that it's possible to go and have a great time without lots of ADRs, but if your kids (or you ) are stuck on the idea of a particular character meal, you better be ready to reserve 6 months in advance.

Here's the best way to think about ADR's if you're the kind of person who wants to be spontaneous ...

They're a fallback plan. There's nothing worse than going somewhere like Hollywood Studios during a Free Dining promotion and finding out everywhere is booked up. ADR's are a great way to make sure that you have SOMEPLACE to sit and eat if you want to go that route.

Sadly, Disney does make you pay for that privilege now, so it behooves you to stick with it, but you could cancel the night before and not get charged. But there's really nothing stopping you from throwing the plan out the window and winging it if you want.

If I spend months before my actual vacation planning it, it will not be in my nature to ignore the plan once I get there. We have already said that if we are doing something we are enjoying we will not worry about our fastpasses. I guess I just don't like having to reserve a Mexican dinner in Epcot 6 months ahead of time on a Tuesday that hasn't arrived yet. I may not want Mexican in 6 months on a Tuesday.

No offense intended, but you do understand that this isn't something Disney has any control over, right? People make reservations months in advance at popular restaurants all over the world every day. Sometimes "what you're in the mood for" doesn't factor in. I don't understand why people look at a Disney reservation differently.

Regardless, you don't have to book a reservation for anything in advance. But you do have to understand that if you don't, and what you're "in the mood for" happens to be the most popular restaurant in the park, you'll likely be turned away. I watch it happen every day of every trip. Spontaneity has it's drawbacks.

I would say that if you're not the kind of person that wants to do any advance planning, don't book a dining package.

For what it's worth, I'm the planner in my family ... my wife prefers to leave that to me. She's constantly tells me that it's great that I've planned things, but she doesn't feel like she's forced to stick with it. If we want to throw out the plan one day, we can do that. But she also knows that once the plan is out the window, the smoothness of our trips (due to the planning) may not happen. It's an acceptable loss to her, so we just make sure we're doing something like a waterpark day or something that wouldn't have benefitted from advance planning.

 

[KB'sMom]

That's the reason we don't do ADR's. We stick with counter service and then we can eat what we want, when we want. Not sure that we'll do much in the way of FP+ either - other than maybe for the A&E meet and greet. I'd rather just just go with the flow while there. We don't try to see/do everything, just have fun and follow the kids lead!

 

[MakiraMarlena]

I hardly ever plan anything 6 months in advance. I don't make ADRs that early (you have to if you want BoG but I don't worry about anything else - I don't do character meals anyway - I don't know where it came about that people think you have to make all your ADRs precisely 180 days from your trip for EVERY MEAL because you do not have to do that) and I don't make fastpasses a whole 2 months out. You do not HAVE to make them that early. You can make them the night before for the most part (special events and freakishly popular things like Anna/Elsa not included). The day of, that's when it gets tricky.

Unless there is some kind of emergency you should know the night before whether or not you're actually going to be attending a restaurant you booked. You can't change your mind on the fly the same day, but that's what was causing all the no-show problems in the first place. In a true emergency they will possibly let you waive the no-show fee.

 

[pjhootch]

Although I only like to plan the big stuff (which resort, which park on certain days... but can change that one on a dime depending on how we feel) I learned to plan a little more to take advantage of the "free" dining offer. The last time we went I was able to live with having dinner reservations every evening in a different park. That was the first time we ever made reservations at Disney more than a couple of hours in advance. And THAT was for Cinderella's Royal Table on Christmas eve. We made a reservation in the morning and ate in the afternoon.

Obviously, that was a few years ago. I accept the need to make advance reservations now. But it seems downright silly how much effort is required to find a place to eat. Especially since we are a family of 5.

I am swearing off Fastpass Plus. I am just not dealing with it. We used fastpasses sometimes in the old system. Mostly, we would grab a fastpass and then get in standby line for rides we wanted to ride twice that we know get crowded in the afternoon. We just have a laid back approach usually and always have a great time.

My work tethers me to a cell phone and tightly scheduled calendar where I run from one meeting to the next 8-10 hours a day. When I get to Disney I am NOT going to use my phone or wait in line at a kiosk to schedule or change fastpass times. I don't begrudge anyone that loves the new system, but I am not enthusiastic and plan to have a fun trip and ignore as much of the hype as possible. Sometimes it is really hard not to get sucked up in everyone else's panic though.

 

[mare1203]

I just got back from a one-day trip to the parks. Went with a CM and they cannot make FP+ before entering NOR can they make changes on a mobile device. We utilized the FP+ kiosks and got 3 rides we wanted after walking into the park, even arriving at noon.

You absolutely do not need to make FP+ in advance if you don't want to. Go to the parks like you always do and don't make any prior plans. Or, make your FP+ on the bus or as you're walking in, or even at a kiosk. The plus is that you can then make changes to BTMRR even if you're over by Space Mountain. You'll still have fun.

 

[anniemae]

I have posted this before, but we are not "planning" people on vacation. We like to wake up and see where the day takes us. It seems you can't really do this now with Disney and the extreme crowds that seem to be year-round.

Now, we could be that way when we used to go during slow season and there were no crowds and you could walk on everything. But now, you really do need to plan ahead and book those fast passes and dinners etc.

 

[Mikie]

DH and I are struggling with this. I can't seem to explain that "planning" is not necessarily scheduling every moment. We have traveled several times with free dining and both of us (DH more so) get a little stressed about feeling like we need to know what we'll want for dinner 180 days from now. However, I try to reassure myself that it's really not that different from what we'd really do anyway - thanks to the planning we selected many favorite ADRs and got them at our "normal" meal times. even though it feels a bit restrictive from a distance, when we're there, we know we'll be hungry and ready for a break at around the same time every day and sure enough, we'll have a reservation at a fave restaurant waiting for us!

The fact that ADRs pretty much dictate which park we're in on which day also feels bothersome, but I asked him, what exactly would happen on vacation that causes you to say "no, I don't want to do Epcot today! I'm feeling like AK instead!" Since we're not water park folks, really, as long as we wake up in the wonderful a World and hop a bus to fun, fantasy, and adventure, what's not to like? Do we care which park we're headed to?

We're going to try to treat our FP+ as a fallback/guarantee - ask the whole family about their "must-do" activities, book the FP+ and when we're actually there we'll do more whatever we feel at the moment - if a favorite has a short SB, we'll hop on! If it's crazy, we'll smile and say "be back later for our FP!"

I like the anticipation, so I'll plan, but it does feel a bit oppressive and I'm hoping it will still feel like we're just enjoying things in the moment when we're there.

 

[MightyGitis]

I just got back from a one-day trip to the parks. Went with a CM and they cannot make FP+ before entering NOR can they make changes on a mobile device. We utilized the FP+ kiosks and got 3 rides we wanted after walking into the park, even arriving at noon. You absolutely do not need to make FP+ in advance if you don't want to. Go to the parks like you always do and don't make any prior plans. Or, make your FP+ on the bus or as you're walking in, or even at a kiosk. The plus is that you can then make changes to BTMRR even if you're over by Space Mountain. You'll still have fun.

This.

 

[smokeyblue]

Our January trip this year was filled with "opportunities for improvement" (that's what we have to call problems at work, HA!). The over-planning we had to do with FD and FP+ just killed the enjoyment. This was the first time we stayed on-site and we had 8 park days as opposed to our normal 5 or 6 staying off-site. We saw and did only half as much as we did on our previous trips.

I found the ADR's to be the most restrictive part of the planning. Our days basically revolved around our ADR's. We do have FD again on our September trip and we need to find a way to make it work! I do prefer having dinner ADR's, but I think I might need to make a few breakfast or lunch reservations instead to keep some of our days open for spontaneity.

 

[Ozzygirl]

Instead of ADRs eat at the lounges. They have full menus and usually you can always be seated. This may not be an option for large groups or really young kids but it will give you freedom from having to be tied to an ADR i

I have 4 ADRs for an 8 day stay and I may cancel some of those. I was never a fp user but would rather do rope drop , hit the biggies first thing then wander where we want the rest of the day and book a fp if we need one and can get one, no stress just fun

 

[Planogirl]

I'll be convinced that it's so easy to plan at the last minute when I see people getting good times for popular rides during busier periods. We have to travel at those times and that could make a big difference.

I feel that spending time at Disney is fun but is no vacation for us. We like to do things so we won't just hang out at the pool or do whatever. We save the real vacation (or chance to wind down in our case) for somewhere else.

 

[Mimarian]

I'll be convinced that it's so easy to plan at the last minute when I see people getting good times for popular rides during busier periods. We have to travel at those times and that could make a big difference.

I feel that spending time at Disney is fun but is no vacation for us. We like to do things so we won't just hang out at the pool or do whatever. We save the real vacation (or chance to wind down in our case) for somewhere else.

Yes, I completely agree. Its a very fun place to visit but needs to be coupled with a Disney Cruise on the back end.

 

[doctornick]

I think it's a difference between the planners and the non planners. Even before FP+ or FP- (not to date myself but I've been to disney many times BEFORE fast pass existed) we always chose our parks well in advance. My father would make a calendar and print it out for all of us so we would know. He would base it on hours each park was open and where we were eating.

Wait maybe I was trained to do it this way.

Yep, me too. I just enjoy planning a vacation by nature -- it's not just Disney, but I'm always very into planning out details of any trip. If I'm in Europe, for example, I like to have a guideline of what things I'm hoping to hit in a particular day. That doesn't mean that stuff is planned down to the minute or anything, but I find it useful to have a general itinerary. I hate the alternative of the group sitting around debating what to do next, which wastes time (that's what bothers me on vacation, when we just waste time getting nothing done).

Personally, I find it odd when regular visitors to WDW complain about the planning. If you have been there and know what to expect, what is the big deal about having some things scheduled? You probably already know what rides you want to ride, how many days you want to spend at each park and what you basic daily schedule (in terms of when you will get to the park/eat/leave) will be.

I don't really get the "we'll decide on the fly what park to go to" mentality -- if you know you are going to visit Epcot 2 days in the vacation, does it matter that you commit to it being on Mon and Thur of the week as opposed to "spontaneously" going on Tues and Fri? What exactly will cause you to want to go to MK today as opposed to DHS? But different strokes and all....

However, I get the planning can be daunting for someone unfamiliar with WDW, as it's a lot of information and one might not be able to anticipate what they want to do or how much time things require.

 

[FINFAN]

I know that a lot of people love to plan their vacations to WDW right down to the last detail. My DW is one of them. I just wish that we did not have to plan what park we were going to 6 months in advance. I do like the fact that we don't have to stand in lines for FP- anymore and God help you if you got stuck behind a tour trying to get a FP-. So that part I like. It just seems like its not as spontaneous as I would like. We have to decide where we want to eat ahead of time and what ride we are going to do and what park we are going to be at. I am not bashing the new system. I think its a great way to introduce better technology. I just wish there could be a mesh of technology and spontaneity.

I'm with you 1,000% Someof the best memories we have of vacations (WDW and elsewhere) happened when we decided to just wing it. The most stress occurred when we were determined to stick to the "plan". We are heading to Orlando to visit our DD in September and have 1 weekend to go to the parks. Since we will be off-site and don't plan on getting our tickets until we arrive (in case plans have to change)we literally CAN'T make FP arrangements until the day we go in,....magic bands? Fuhgheddaboudit, lol. Watch this be the best trip ever (or it could go by way of the Hecks from The Middle )

 

[wench]

I actually really enjoy the planning when I go to WDW. It helps me stay in the Disney zone for months when I'm not there. And I found FP+ made my last trip so much easier. We didn't get stuck backtracking back & forth 20 times across each park each day. My feet were incredibly thankful for that.

With all that being said, I also love the spontaneity of DL. You can make a few reservations a month or so out & then just cruise in & play the rest by ear. If your bi-coastal in your love of Disney, you can get the best of both worlds.