Does anyone else plan like this or am I crazy?

[HopperFan]

My sheets used to look like that back in the day, excel color coded by activity, times, confirmation numbers etc. It really was important when on the DDP so we could make sure we planned around our meals.

We don't get DDP anymore, we eat what we want when we want. We can't open and close so each day we have to adjust our expectations. Ride times dictate how much we can do, the spreadsheet would just make that too stressful.

I've kept a few of those spreadsheets as a reminder of the past. Now we still try to get as much as we can done but with less pressure of the moment. I miss them and I don't.

 

[Jasper&Bowie]

I do but then I don’t follow it when we get there lol

This is so me.

 

[We’reAllMadHere]

I think the planning is fun, so it doesn’t seem like work at all to me. I also don’t expect to follow my plan to the letter, especially with a kid, weather, unexpected snack breaks/entertainment/need for a nap/characters to see. It’s more like guidelines than actual rules.

Planning builds anticipation for the trip, but the trip itself is more flexible than my spreadsheet might seem.

I totally get the appeal of rolling out of bed, going to whatever park, riding whatever, and being content with that - that’s why I go on beach vacations or cruises. For Disney, my family has decision paralysis without some kind of guidance for the day. Maybe by our 40th trip we’ll feel differently. Or if we lived closer.

 

[tom1944]

I do it twice.

My initial spread sheet is what I want to do. I have done that already even though we will not travel until August. I have a sit down with my daughter and granddaughter to go over that plan and adjust per their requests.

I then book all reservations at 60 days and LLMP and LLSPs at 7 days. Make a new spreadsheet and share that with them. I will make adjustments if they request and I can.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

I think the planning is fun, so it doesn’t seem like work at all to me. I also don’t expect to follow my plan to the letter, especially with a kid, weather, unexpected snack breaks/entertainment/need for a nap/characters to see. It’s more like guidelines than actual rules.

Planning builds anticipation for the trip, but the trip itself is more flexible than my spreadsheet might seem.

I totally get the appeal of rolling out of bed, going to whatever park, riding whatever, and being content with that - that’s why I go on beach vacations or cruises. For Disney, my family has decision paralysis without some kind of guidance for the day. Maybe by our 40th trip we’ll feel differently. Or if we lived closer.

Decision paralysis is a real thing. That’s why I plan out even our QS meals. When we go as a family I don’t even have options for meals since it becomes a whole thing. But when I go with only my daughter I put a few options and we can decide fairly quickly. She’s usually good about my picks since I’ve done my research. It saves so much time saying “hey we’re eating here” instead of “what are you in the mood for” and getting four different replies.

 

[HannaBelle]

I do too!

 

[HannaBelle]

We typically travel with a group of 10+ people, I hate having to discuss where we want to eat while we are "on the ground". I prepare a spreadsheet for all of our trips with dates, times, addresses, confirmation numbers and anything else I can think of!

Our April trip is just the hubby and me, with a Muppets focus. I am so sad to see the old Muppets area go, but I am excited to see the new rides coming in.

 

[beccasmom]

We’ve been visiting WDW yearly (and often twice or three times yearly since we became DVC members) since 1981. I don’t plan to that level of detail, but I do prepare a basic spreadsheet with all of our travel info listed - hotel confirmation numbers, flight numbers, details regarding our airport pickup, etc. I also list where we plan to be every day for purposes of making our ADRs. I dislike traveling from one end of the property to the other for a meal (unless we have a car) because it can involve transfers and can take a lot of extra time. So I try to book our reservations based on where we will be on that day. We normally follow a theme park day with a relaxing off day. Nothing is written in stone, but it makes me feel more “in control” (well, as much as anyone can be in control of anything! ).

 

[madamszam]

I do too!

I love the Wacka Wacka Weekend alliteration

 

[MommaKetch]

I have a section in my notes app with our dates, ADRs/QS ideas, if we’re getting LLMP/LLSP with which ones we’d like and a loose park plan for first 1-2 hours.

I do this too. Much easier for my brain to process a simple list than get lost in the MDE app. Too much going on there for me to digest as I do eventually get in an overstimulated fog while in a park. The lists and spreadsheets help bring our day back in focus.

While we still do *a lot* on our Disney trips, we've realized how much more relaxing the trips can be if we don't schedule ourselves for every minute of the day. That was just setting us up for failure.

Yes! I was looking at spreadsheets from a few years back and I had 3 ADRs in one day. It made me cringe. That was so stressful. For our upcoming trip we have 3 ADRs spread across 6 days, and likely will cancel one of them.

It’s more like guidelines than actual rules.

I agree! Great point. Same for us.

I liken a WDW trip to a full on city/country tour. There is so much to do each day, and I want to stay organized so we do the things at the top of our list.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

I believe what’s better than a plan is to know the park and how things flow.

If your plan is to RD 7DMT and it’s down you know Peter Pan may be your next best bet. Instead of panicking and going to CoP and wasting prime low crowd time. It’s knowing to do filler attractions and shows midday when other wait times are high. It’s knowing which lands/rides are down for EE.

To me, that knowledge is more important than a plan.

 

[Headless]

I have a google doc I've been perfecting over the past 3 years and I feel like I make it better after every trip. I have a header page with the general info when We fly, where we are staying, checklists to remind me to About various bigger things for the trip.

next page is a day by day break down with maybe 6-8 cells that I color code for which park we will be at, which resort and then spots to track dining plans and if there is an after hour event that night. biggest thing is to make sure my park reservations (we are AP) line up with dining and making sure I know which day is the after hours party we want. We do alot of Halloween/Christmas travel so don't want to over do a day.

last two pages is a wish list for dining reservations so I can talk it through with who I'm going with and then have that open while I'm making those and then the last being a work in progress grocery list for an amazon delivery.

 

[We’reAllMadHere]

Just back from a week at the World and I can say that days when I had a pretty solid plan going into the day were much more enjoyable for all, especially if we started early-ish in the morning. We didn’t crisscross the park, and ours longest wait times were for the bus.

We also did AH at MK and HS and on those nights I let my kid lead, deciding where to go and what to do. That was fun but lines were exceptionally short and we considered it “bonus time” rather than trying to get everything done.

 

[Grumpy by Birth]

Does anyone else plan like this or am I crazy?​

Crazy like a fox!

 

[kylenne]

I plan like this as well, especially to get my head wrapped around the various park hours/AH/EEH etc, and then whittle it down from there. Here is Spring Break 2024. Looking back, this is not how the day actually went. We were up early and went to bed early. Definitely did not go back in for EEH at Epcot.

For our upcoming trip, days are less structured. I have the week view locked down, and LL times/reservations noted, but other than that we will go with the flow.

This is basically how mine look too. The only things that get set times put down are flights on arrival/departure day, ADRs and experiences once we book them, and then any LLs we purchased. Granted I do also use TripIt Pro but working with spreadsheets all day long at my job makes me not want to let go of them with Disney planning.

OP's spreadsheet really is not planned to the minute at all either if you actually look at it. They just have information about park hours and LL prices put down by the day. For me, with a neurospicy brain, it really helps me to do that too. But I've never been one to put down exactly what I'm doing to the last second beyond that--our rope mornings are very structured in the sense that I have a well oiled plan of attack for each park and I know exactly what time I want to be at security. But I'm not silly enough to put that on a spreadsheet or try to assign times to anything beyond what time I want to be at the park. I know things could happen--maybe we don't get out the door quite on time, maybe we get stuck behind Ma and Pa Kettle trying to tap in for 42 people with their phones, etc. But also shackling yourself to a fixed schedule not only sets you up for pressure and failure when things inevitably don't go according to the rigid plan, it also prevents you from taking advantage of spontaneous opportunities as they arise; eg shockingly low waits on a ride at a time it normally doesn't have them, or characters being out early, or...etc. This is why I find the actual plans feature on Touring Plans to be so freaking useless btw.

My "touring plans" are largely in my head because I've been doing this a long time and I'm really good at it. Even doing those super structured rope drop mornings I have a plan B and C and D for when things don't go perfectly and I'm able to pivot on a dime. That's really the key to success in the parks, I find. But once we're done with rope drop the rest of our days are very loosey goosey, by design. We just kinda do whatever strikes us after that. Evenings even more so. Sometimes we don't even go back into a park after our midday resort siesta, or we hop to a different one. That's the balance that makes it the most fun for us. Ironically it's easier for me to be spontaneous precisely because I know the parks so well, I have a good sense of general crowd flow patterns and am able to successfully guesstimate how long a wait is going to be by looking at it.

 

[Pinnochio]

There's a lot of shorthand but I'm curious what others do to layout their trips. Shaded columns are the sleep-in days

View attachment 949071

My daughter sends me one of these before every trip....Wait, is this you Sophia??

 

[zdad59]

I sure do. It really helps me think about everything. Also, I love doing detailed research and planning pre trip so that when I'm on the trip, I can put my brain in the safe and just enjoy myself. The detailed plan in the end becomes a guide, not an absolute, but it provides a framework that saves me from having to think much.

Below is my draft itinerary for our upcoming trip in September.