Does anyone go and just wing it??

[Mickfarland4]

I'm curious. Does anyone go to WDW without worrying about touring plans, FP, ADR's, which parks which days? Does anyone just decide we are going to go to Disney, book it, and let that be the end until they check the weather a week before their trip? I realize crowd levels may make this hard to do but, if anyone does do this I'd love to hear from you about your experiences! It seems all this planning is zapping the fun out of it for some.

 

[morethananyonex]

I'm curious. Does anyone go to WDW without worrying about touring plans, FP, ADR's, which parks which days? Does anyone just decide we are going to go to Disney, book it, and let that be the end until they check the weather a week before their trip? I realize crowd levels may make this hard to do but, if anyone does do this I'd love to hear from you about your experiences! It seems all this planning is zapping the fun out of it for some.

It all depends on people's expectations.

If you want to maximize your rides, have a FP for certain rides at certain times, eat at certain restaurants at certain times, and minimize the impact of crowd levels on your trip, you need to plan. If you are more about the atmosphere, missing a ride won't make you sad, and you don't have your heart set on more popular restaurants, you can go without any solid plans.

I wouldn't say planning is zapping the fun out for some, I would say planning is necessary for the way some people want to vacation, and sometimes planning a Disney trip isn't full of pixie dust.

 

[JillyBean1899]

I'm curious. Does anyone go to WDW without worrying about touring plans, FP, ADR's, which parks which days? Does anyone just decide we are going to go to Disney, book it, and let that be the end until they check the weather a week before their trip? I realize crowd levels may make this hard to do but, if anyone does do this I'd love to hear from you about your experiences! It seems all this planning is zapping the fun out of it for some.

When I lived down there and had an annual pass, I did absolutely no planning. If I felt like going, I went. I only had a few "must do" attractions in each park, otherwise I just went with the flow, and if one park was packed I headed to another.

Now that I'm traveling with friends that haven't been in 20 years, I'm actually doing a little planning. I'm checking which parks are supposed to be crowded, even though I know it's not completely accurate, so I'm also taking general operating and Extra Magic hours into account. I'll figure out which rides we need FP+ for, and will have a general idea of where we'd like to eat (no ADRs ... we are poor college students, after all ), and where the service animal stations are. The only other planning I'll be doing is once we're in the park and see what the show times are for various shows, so we can hit the attractions near them before they start, or while they're running if we don't want to see that show.

So I do a little general planning, but I don't have the down to the minute, 3 ring binder full of planning notes type planning going on.

 

[abner1776]

Thats how I use to tour WDW...I would decide the night before what park to go to tomorrow and the weather would have a big impact on that decision.

FP+ has put a cramp in my no-plan plans so now I at least have to plan out what parks to go to and what rides to setup with FP+. It's not what I had in mind, but I'm not sure I have a choice.

 

[jade1]

Every single time. But until now, what was the point of planning in regards to parks? There really were no options to allow planning. Now we will reserve FP+, but's that's easy and a huge improvement for us.

We travel peak weeks so weather etc is irrelevant.

We decide when we are there, what mornings to fish and golf.

Always seem to have plenty of days for early afternoon pool time out of the winter.

We open AK one day and kill that by noon.

Also do one morning at IOA by cab and back mid afternoon.

Otherwise we hit the parks every day late afternoon until late.

We do a night show every night, and often do Fantasmic then Illuminations.

FP- were basically all gone by the time we enter parks.

With FP+ we will for sure nail down 3 late afternoon/early evening, the days are really irrelevant, as this will really make our park choice simple for each day.

If we ever do decide to RD (or on our AK day) we will open one park, take a break at SAB, then FP+ an evening park.

That way the RD park can be spur of the moment if so desired.

Arrival day will also be vastly improved as we arrive at around noon, hit the pool, then head to a park for FP+.

We fly home evenings so we will do early afternoon FP+ for departure day after taking our time checking out-another vast improvement.

 

[celtick8]

We Do! Leaving this Saturday and have only one ADR for my DD 10th bday. No FP's. We don't run around, if we can do it, we do it. I'm so excited to just walk through at a leisurely pace and see the changes (been 6yrs) and soak up all the Disney I can ;0)

 

[JeremyGNJ]

I always "wing it". But first I read up a lot to know what my options are. I study lists of rides and restaurants..... tips and recommendations... until it's mostly committed to memory.

Then on the day of...we do what we feel like doing, but in an informed manner. So if my family wants to Ride something I'll say "yea that's fine, but lets do it right after lunch cause it will be less busy".

In this way, I'm not AT ALL a drill sgt., but the knowledge saves us time and money.

 

[winthropf]

I think most park visitors wing it. The general public does not visit DisBoards or educate themselves about park touring. That is why the touring strategies many have used actually worked. Most people making a first trip think visiting WDW is like going to the local amusement park.

 

[Mad Hattered]

I did for the last 30 years with the exception of an ADR or two per trip. Oh,well...good luck with that whole "target audience" basket they are putting their eggs in.

 

[Anna114]

LOL the thought of it gives me the heebie geebies. I'm a planner to the next level. I envy those that can fly by the seat of their pants. I want to be that person but I can't.

 

[yankeepenny]

with no kids, and lots of solo trips, I plan almost nothing. a few dinners maybe, but in the last couple of years I canceled them. I am so tightly wound that for whatever pixie dust I inhale while there, I can actually relax and not be bothered. I know, scary. something about the whole zillion space down there lest me unwind. I am NOT planning on the new fast pass next trip in Sept. I like the idea that I have yet to stand in any line for TSM. (never done it) but, had a cup of Joe in loads of places in Epcot.
I like to browse in shops, and such. I take my sweet time in MK, and I tackle it in sections. It takes me 3 half days to see most things. I don't do everything, but I see loads. I always sing great big beautiful tomorrow after doing that TWICE every trip. I have tried many snacks. Just strolling thru AK and Epcot is wondrous to me. Many times I have stumbled upon older couples taking in the sights. We talk, and visit. I get that if you have kids you might have to plan days and meals. I encourage anyone who can do a wicked laid back version of stop and smell the roses to do so, at least once.
and, eat a Mickey Krispy treat for late morning as breakfast with a cup of coffee. (has cereal in it, right? _)

and, just spending time resort hopping, that is nice too.

on second thought, maybe I AM inhaling Magic down there................

 

[Lorrained]

We (my hubby) plans what parks we will visit on what days, he looks at guidelines for busy/quietest days at parks, figures on us being up crack of dawn first few days so hitting parks that are going to need an early start and then throws in some rest/pool/water park days. When we go to the park we don't actually plan a route or anything we just know the rides we want to do and so pretty much aim for them and then we may say well we will FP tower of terror and go on RnR. But aside of that we just wander around and look at wait times and show times and then just gooooooo with the flooooow.
I'm really not liking the idea of having to decide before visiting the parks though, it's really thrown a spanner in the works.
As for eating, my husband has started to throw in a little planning around eating as he has discovered the ESPN bar in the boardwalk and it's funny how all roads seem to lead there (though I have to say with the dinger burger I'm not arguing) but ill be honest and maybe a little controversial on a disney board one year we did it where I prebooked meal reservations at the disney parks - the big glass restaurant at Disney, the rose and crown at Epcot, rainforest cafe at animal kingdom and 50s prime time diner at Hollywood studios and we didn't rate any of them. Found they were expensive and apart from rainforest cafe the food wasn't that good. The only one we still eat at is rainforest, but the others just did not rate them. Have eaten at rose and crown once since and again didn't rate it at all. So we always tend to eat some kind of snack dinner - hot dog, burger or salad or something at one of the fast food places, and then head back to our hotel for a proper meal at one of the local restaurants, a lot cheaper and far better food.

 

[MelanieRI]

I'm curious. Does anyone go to WDW without worrying about touring plans, FP, ADR's, which parks which days? Does anyone just decide we are going to go to Disney, book it, and let that be the end until they check the weather a week before their trip? I realize crowd levels may make this hard to do but, if anyone does do this I'd love to hear from you about your experiences! It seems all this planning is zapping the fun out of it for some.

Disney has gradually taken all my "winging it". I remember when I used to base what parks we'd do on the weather and the park hours. Then came the DDP, which made me have to pick which park what day for what meal. Now with the FP+....I definitely feel trapped into having a plan. I do feel like some of the fun is planning your trip but you really feel trapped into to doing it now.

I also feel like there is another type of visitor who is really "winging it" b/c they know nothing about WDW! I'm always behind these people. It starts out at DME, where they start complaining about how long the wait is and if this is what's Disney's going to be like forget it. At Christmas I stood behind someone at DME who literally had no idea what the magic bands were and wondered why the lines were so long at the airport DME (it was 12/26...seriously, you have no idea why the lines are so long? Wrong time of year for you to visit!) Then, I'm always standing in line behind the person at the TS check-ins that have no idea you have to have ADRs and have to listen to them argue with the people before stomping out. And since I fly southwest, my vacation usually ends with all of us on the plane listening to the flight attendants ask for someone to please give up their seats so a family can sit together and who then ends up near me swearing up and down how they'll never fly southwest again b/c they didn't know enough to get EB check-in or check-in themselves exactly 24 hrs in advance. So, I definitely feel that for some people planning would've put a little more magic and happiness in their vacation.

 

[alc571]

Always! The only planning we do is pick a park each day based on Touring Plans. And we usually don't follow it to a tee either. If it's raining, we may not do a park and so our schedule will change for the rest of the week. We aren't table-service people, so no ADRs for us. Our last trip, we picked FP+ the night before we went to the park. We've been a number of times, so we don't feel compelled to hit all the rides. We have 3-4 must-dos, and after that we just do what we can and enjoy ourselves. Our son is young, so our must-dos aren't busy rides either...no roller coasters or fast rides.

 

[anniemck]

We stay off property, wake up in the morning when we want, have breakfast where we want and then drive over to the parks, on the way we decide where we feel like going based on what rides we feel like riding or what we want to eat for lunch. Never have had a problem with that, and we have been at least three times a year for the past 5 years as a couple and even longer than that for me with my kids.
We do not stress about what we are going to do or whether we get to eat at Crystal Palace or Liberty Tree, heck on Mothers Day we walked up and got reservations at 50's Prime Time with no problem, for 5 of us, only had to wait 30 minutes which was enough time to get something from the bar next door.
Now we have not been since NFL opened, but will be there mid December, menu doesn't look great so not stressing about not making a reservation. Going to MK for MVMCP then hitting up USF and IOA for Grinchmas and fun.

 

[MaggieMouse]

I'm curious. Does anyone go to WDW without worrying about touring plans, FP, ADR's, which parks which days? Does anyone just decide we are going to go to Disney, book it, and let that be the end until they check the weather a week before their trip? I realize crowd levels may make this hard to do but, if anyone does do this I'd love to hear from you about your experiences! It seems all this planning is zapping the fun out of it for some.

Planning is part of the fun for me! I love having things mapped out and knowing where to go. But I schedule time in for spontaneity too! ;-)

 

[glassslippergirl]

We're not big planners. We have woken up in the morning and decided to go to WDW that day. On one trip, my husband me told me about a restaurant that sounded interesting on the drive up, so we called for an ADR from the road. In our most recent trip, we decided between Epcot and MK in the car when we got to the fork in the road where we had to choose-- DH just said, "Magic Kingdom," and that's where we went. We live 2.5 hours away and go at least once a year (once a month when we had AP's). I guess that makes a big difference; we don't worry about missing something that will be there next time, and, honestly, we aren't spending thousands if dollars to go. If we were, I'd probably plan more. I am interested to see how FP+ affects our touring style.

 

[shadeauxe]

I plan the meals because I like to eat and I hate the quick service food.

The rides I don't care about as much. If we ride something great, if not we'll be back soon.

Also, I actually enjoy the planning.

 

[cjnix29]

I agree with the PP that said Disney has taken away our ability to wing it. I hate planning ADR's. We don't do the dining plan because I hate having to make sure we get our money's worth by planning out each day. The FP+ thing is really going to drive us crazy this upcoming trip. We do read the DIS daily, and we have been many times, so for us, if we see it, great, if not, there's always next time. We are educated "wingers". We get there are rope drop, hit the headliners in the morning. But we book deluxe hotels because we like spending time there too. That's what is great about Disney...everyone can do it their own way. What really makes me sad though, is when first timers go without a plan and come home hating it because they didn't get to do anything and spent so much money to see nothing. When just a little planning could have made their trip so much better!

 

[Princess Disney Mom]

Yes. I don't do ADR in the park anymore. I'll do 1 or 2 total for the trip at our resort on non park days. I don't wait in long lines. I just want to relax. I will probably schedule the FP+ for our next trip but even so will only go to the parks 2 days out of a 12 day trip.