Does anyone ever just wing it?

[tomato]

We're leaving in less than ten hours. I've only done minimal pre-planning and the more I read here, the more I panic. So many people here have things planned so well ahead. We are first-timers and at this point there's no way for us to make plans ahead. Does anyone ever just wing it and still have fun? Or am I really going to mess up this once-in-a-lifetime vacation?

 

[BigGreen73]

Different people do different things. You ask different people how they prepare for their WDW vacation I doubt you'll get the same answer.

Don't panic. There are definitely some on here that go with really no plan, and some OVER plan way too much due to ADR's and other reservations.

I do agree that if you have kids, it is a good idea to plan a bit to at least have a knowledge of what attractions will be good for them, what they want to ride and so forth.

When my wife and I go to WDW, the extent of our planning is knowing what park to visit on what day, which ones have which EMH's, etc and we change that on how we feel each day. We have never had a problem, we have always been able to see and do everything that we wanted to many times over.

You will not mess up your vacation. My only suggestions are:

1. get to a park before open, have an idea of your "must sees" and do those at park open.
2. use fast pass to avoid those long lines
3. If staying on property, know which parks have EMH's. For example, morning EMH's at MK is a great way to take in everything in Fantasyland w/ little to no wait.

Hope this helps. Enjoy your vacation!!!

 

[TIGGER1981]

We went with an idea of what we wanted to do. If we missed it, we missed it. No biggie.
I think you really ruin your trip if you're too worried about getting everything accomplished. All the more reason to plan another trip! Remember its a vacation. HAVE FUN!
I remember feeling bad for the frustrated adults in lines, or people freaking out over reservations not being met. There are hundreds of other restaurants, just find another place to eat....
and when you get upset, your kids get upset.
Its Disney, The happiest place on earth. Don't waste your time worrying.
Have fun!!!

 

[Bobo912]

I pretty much winged it on our first trip. I was taking a 3-year-old and my plan was to let him do whatever he wanted. I stuck to my "plan" and we had a blast. We missed a few things, but it was a good excuse to go back. We've gone back at least once a year since, sometimes twice (maybe 3 times this year ) I try to figure out ahead of time which parks we're going to go to on certain days, but it doesn't always work out the way I plan. I try to limit our ADRs so that we don't have to be anywhere at a specific time. I still generally let him do what he wants (he's 7 now) and we both have a great time.

 

[Unregistered]

Disney is very expensive. If I knew I was only going to be there one time I would not wing it.

There is still time. Do not panic. Go pick up the Unofficial Guidebook to Disney. No excuses here. You can get it for free at the library. And yes you do too have time to read. You go to the bathroom every day. Read it in there.

No, you do not to have your plans down to the minute. You do not have to have lunch and dinner reservations every single day. Nor do you need to carry a backpack that weighs 30 pounds to be prepared. You do not have to do any extra magic hours to have fun.

Yes you do want to be aware of what is available at each park. Yes you will stumble across street performers in all the parks without planning and it will be delightful. Yes you will have a good time even if you do not plan a thing. Yes you should be there at rope drop.

First on your list is to decide which park you will be at which day. How do you do this? Either with TourGuide Mike (yes it's worth the cost) or through the Unofficial Guide site.

Call for lunch/dinner reservations. (Phone number in the guidebook.) If you will be at Magic Kingdom on a Tuesday ask what restaurants still have lunch openings. Book something. You want to eat at the park you will be at that day. Book dinner options the same way, or eat dinner at the resort you are staying at. You could also order pizza at the resort, eat at one of their walk up restaurants, or go off site.

You do not need lunch reservations, but it sure is nice to sit down, cool off, and rest for a bit away from the commotion.

Pick your top 3 attractions for each park. You will know this from reading the guide. Go to these first thing when you arrive.

The more you read the more knowledge you have. Do you want to skip a great ride because you didn't take the time to read? Are you willing to chance that? If so, skip the homework and wing it. My girlfriend came back from Disney. She had a fantastic time. She missed a ton of fantastic attractions. She felt very bad.

 

[vanillarum]

We wing it every time we go !! Sure, we make ADRs, but that's about it for concrete plans. Everything else we just play by ear ! Works out great. We looked at TGM- too regimented for us. We (I) read Disney's Unofficial Guide before we go, and then we jut go !! Have a great time !!

 

[CleveRocks]

We wing it.

Before our first trip, I read all the guide books and practically lived here on the DIS. I researched everything I could. As a result, I knew all I could know, without actually living it.

No matter what situation I found myself in, I was confident that I could instantly figure out the most efficient and fun way to go do stuff.

We absolutely hate ADRs. We make one or two for each trip. We both work in professional, high-stress, very scheduled full-time jobs, and we have 2 small kids. Life is already highly planned for us. To us, vacation isn't relaxing if we have to live by a plan. Seriously, on a day wen we actually have an ADR, we really dislike having to look at our watches and pay attention to where we have to be at a certain time.

I'm 100% sure we wouldn't have any better a time if we had everything planned. The night before or the morning of, we ask the kids what park we're going to, and we go there. And if we're feeling particularly randy we just go to the bus stop and get on the first bus that rolls up.

Life is good.

We do everything we want to do. We relax and have a great time. No regrets from either trip over the past 3 years.

 

[Steakgoddess]

We are going on our first trip in May and we are winging it. ALthough, I must admit, I am already "planning" our second trip.

 

[mericletwins]

We are also "wingers". The past two trips have been the most scheduled because we did the dining plan, so we had ADR's. That still allows us a lot of room and flexibility. We decide what park we want to go to the night before or the morning of. Sometimes, we even wait at the bus stop and see what bus gets there first and we hop on.

If we want to go to a park and it isn't where our ADR is, we just leave and go to where the ADR is, no biggie. It gives us downtime and as a result, we never come back from Disney feeling exhausted or as if we need a vaction from our vacation. We also make sure we hit our resort pool every day. the kids love it and frankly, so do we. As a result, we are usually leaving for a dinner ADR from our hotel and not a park. It's vacation...we want to relax and have fun, no stress. Yes, Disney can be a relaxing vacation.

Park hoppers are key to our winging plans. Also, attitude is important. We always have a couple of must sees and the rest is...what we see, we see. what we don't, well.....we'll have to come back.

 

[momofpirates]

Whether you wing it or not, you will still have a great time if you just focus on what you are doing and not worry about trying to get everything in. That's the biggest mistake I made when I planned our first family trip 8 years ago. I tried to cram everything in and felt dissappointed that we didn't see everything I read about. My kids and husband, who didn't have all of this knowledge of my pre-planning, enjoyed every minute of the trip.

This last January, I planned a surprise 5th birthday trip for DS. I booked the trip on a Thursday and we left the following Sunday. I went at his pace, we didn't ride everything that a 5 yo would, but I had the best memories from this special trip with him. His favorite part of the trip was the arcade at the hotel and swimming in the bathtub each night for an hour!

Just relax and have a great time with your family, even it they want to stop and feed the ducks when you think you should be getting fastpasses for a ride. Vacation is what you make of it!

 

[SavannahBetsy]

we are going in 2 weeks it was kinda last minute, we only live 4 hrs away so we are driving and now im panicing too so i know how u feel!

 

[tomato]

Well, we winged it! (Wung it? LOL) And it was GREAT!!!

We learned a lot as we went along -- some of it too late. But with the exception of a couple of things, I wouldn't do anything different if I went back again.

The couple of things I'd change? Well, it took us until the fourth day to "find" the train that runs around the outside of the park and stops at each quadrant. Yeah, we put a lot of miles on our shoes before that!!!

Next time we'll stay during the week and avoid a Friday. The one thing I had been told ahead of time was to try to stay on a Friday because certain things only happen on Fridays, but that wasn't the case for this past week, that's for sure. Friday was a zoo. The rest of the week was unbelievably quiet! (I was so prepared for it to be wall-to-wall people!) Even Saturday was better than Friday.

The other thing I would change would be to take a break mid-day each day. By the end of the fourth day I was POOPED and had to take the whole afternoon/evening off and just stay at the hotel. But the next morning I was fresh and raring to go again! So if I had taken some downtime every day, I probably wouldn't have petered out.

And the last thing? I'd bring in my own Diet PEPSI! I had no idea the entire resort was Coke only! LOL!

 

[Magical Moments]

I am so glad you had a great time!! All the walking sure catches up with you!!! We usually take some sort of break in the afternoons, and it helps!! We too don't really plan too much, a couple ADR's and that is about it...so are you going to do a TR??

 

[Kathi OD]

We wing it a lot. Not all the time, but more often than not. We always have a great time and don't worry about what we missed, because as PP said it gives you an excuse to go back again.

Also, I disagree w/ the PP who said you have to be at the park at rope drop. We have never, ever done that and have always had a wonderful time.

It's your first time. Take it slow and drink in all the magic! I really believe that those who plan too much miss a good part of the magic.

Have a good time and when you get back start saving for the next trip so you can see what you missed this time around.

Whoops......just saw that you were back. That's what I get for not reading the entire thread Glad you had a good time!

 

[dvczerfs]

we make our adrs and go to the park that opens 1 hour early in the am.

 

[DLBDS]

Wing it?! Are you crazy?! Never. I would go insane if I couldn't/didn't plan my WDW vacation out to the nth degree. TGM is my best WDW vacation planning friend.

 

[murphnjamie]

Don't plan much here either. Our last trip in January 07, I had planned two things, a character breakfast and the Alice in Wonderland Tea Party for my dd. It was great!!! The place was dead, though, so we didn't need a plan.

This time I am planning just a little bit more because we are going in late October and I am figuring it is going to be more crowded than the last time. But my planning will be which park on which day, a ADR and Reglan Road, since I want to try it, and an ADR at Chef Mickey since that is my kids choice for a character breakfast.

My advice: maybe check out the UG website to make a schedule of which days at which parks, make a couple of ADRs for the places that you absolutely want to go to, and don't stress about. You're not going to see everything whether you go commando or not. You might as well enjoy what to get to see rather than worrying about what you're going to miss.

Have fun!!!

 

[PrincessBelle39]

We made a few ADR's for the time we were there...9 in total but over a 4 week period. We also booked MVMCP, BBB and the Family Magic Tour. Other than that we winged it. Yes we went to the park that we were eating in that done but had enough time to take the rest as it came. I think if I was going for a much shorter time though, I would be more thorough in my planning.

 

[kaylajr]

We always wing it

 

[BigGreen73]

Well, we winged it! (Wung it? LOL) And it was GREAT!!!

We learned a lot as we went along -- some of it too late. But with the exception of a couple of things, I wouldn't do anything different if I went back again.

The couple of things I'd change? Well, it took us until the fourth day to "find" the train that runs around the outside of the park and stops at each quadrant. Yeah, we put a lot of miles on our shoes before that!!!

Next time we'll stay during the week and avoid a Friday. The one thing I had been told ahead of time was to try to stay on a Friday because certain things only happen on Fridays, but that wasn't the case for this past week, that's for sure. Friday was a zoo. The rest of the week was unbelievably quiet! (I was so prepared for it to be wall-to-wall people!) Even Saturday was better than Friday.

The other thing I would change would be to take a break mid-day each day. By the end of the fourth day I was POOPED and had to take the whole afternoon/evening off and just stay at the hotel. But the next morning I was fresh and raring to go again! So if I had taken some downtime every day, I probably wouldn't have petered out.

And the last thing? I'd bring in my own Diet PEPSI! I had no idea the entire resort was Coke only! LOL!

I am glad that you had a good time, I had a feeling you would. WDW is all about fun and losing yourself in the experience. You had the right attitude and had a great time.

PS: GO PEPSI!!!!