Does anyone just "wing it" anymore?

[grinningghost]

I love to plan, but I also love to wing it a little. As the years go by, I notice more people have every meal and every day planned to the minute.

I like to leave a couple days open to do whatever comes up.

Anyone else wing it some?

 

[Tigger&Belle]

At the very least I like to leave a day or two open so we can repeat what we want. I don't like to plan every singe day.

I have a spur of the moment trip I'm planning now and I'm going to plan about 2/3 of it and leave the rest flexible, or at least that's my current thinking. It's for my 6yo and me and I don't know how he will hold up in the heat or exactly where we'll want to spend our time.

Even when we plan our days they are always planned with the understanding that the plans can be changed. We tend to start out in one park early in the day, but might decide to hop to a different park, depending on our mood.

 

[pepe of ohio]

Long ago, when our trips were infrequent, we used to plan the whole day as to parks and where we're going to eat, no ADR's back then. Now, we basically have been going at least twice a year and already know much of what we're doing. e have always been flexible in our stays, no hard reservations, no set parks. If we feel like blowing off the day and do water parks, we do. We feel its a vacation and that means to relax. Florida heat can be brutal and we enjoy the resort pool as much as a park.

We now pick where we want to eat, chose a park close by and go with that. Still no ADR's, don't want to be tied down, scrambling from some park or fun just to eat. There's so much to see, do and eat we just go with the flow. Plus we throw a down day every 2 or 3 days in and there after. We like how we do it and after 33 some visits, we're happy.

 

[paladin]

We always go early-mid December when the parks aren't too busy, so winging it works well for us. We do plan a few things in advance that we always do (i.e. fishing excursion, Candlelight Dinner Packages) and then play the rest of it pretty much by ear.

 

[disneygal58]

I once had a professor that taught "flexibility is the key to good health". Although we do have ADRs and are aware of Early Morning Hours, I have retired my position of Kamakaze Leader and go with the flow. It takes the presssure off me and we enjoy smelling the roses along the way.

Dawn

 

[jonestavern]

I would say we have a structure, but little written in stone.
DH was wedded to 'the plan' just a couple of times, when he saw the wisdom of just taking advantage of great opportunities plopped right in front of you

We'll actually make ADR's only a few days before--always get the times we want--

We like enjoying the resort & resort hopping, we go off site for dining or other venues, mix it up
Of course, knowing we'll be back often, changes our attitudes 100%

Jean

 

[Sleepy]

We wing it everyday. No PSs because that would mean we would have to be at a certain location at a certain time. We wake up (late everyday) and say "WHich park do you feel like doing?" Makes for a wonderful vacation.

 

[smjj]

We mostly wing it. I read where some folks have every minute and meal planned and I wonder if they are spending so much time trying to stay on schedule, they are really enjoying themself. We loosely plan for a few things but sometimes get out of bed that day and while eating breakfast, ask each other well what do you want to do today. We are having a blast...smjj

 

[mamacatnv]

We did. We had a couple of dinners planned with the Candlelight Processional and Fantasmic packages as well as the CRT one morning and that was it for ADR's Even these few ADR's were a pain and I promised that with the next trip there will be no ADR's. I had a list of park hours, emh's and firework schedules for referencing. We winged it alot, which given the holiday crowds worked really well for us.

We are not commando vacationers. The only thing I wanted was to make sure we made it to each park and that on our last day we would do any of the must do's prior to leaving. By the time we got to the last day we had all completed our lists of must do's and we park hopped all day.

I like being informed and knowing what my options are. I don't like having an itinerary all spelled out before I even get there and know what everyone will be in the mood for.

 

[idofabric]

We mostly wing it... Never have done a lot of planning, but when I have tried to it didn't work so well. We tend to go with a large group, or just 2-3 of us.
And we have gone so often the last 3 years that we also know what we want to do and when.

I do think that the constance reading of info on the parks, reviewing others plans,and just knowing so much now has taken the place of planning...
We might do 1 or 2 ARD's but usually not very far in advance. And sometimes we just do them the day we want to eat someplace. Since we arn't really worried about getting in most places it doesn't matter to us. The only exceptin is that we almost allways do Crystal Palace and Trails End if we are on a trip lasting over 3 days... and if we have more then 3 of us.. no idea why!

I also have found that winging it is a lot more fun for us. I also have played "Tour Guide" the last few trips, and that is fun.

 

[Showe]

we also wing it.

I can spend months reading and searching up until the time we go...but do we use the info I absorb ? Usually not. We do get ADRs once in while prior to going on our trip, but often we call the day we want to get in somewhere...if they have ADRs for us then fine, if not then we try somewhere else. We usually do plan our MK day for a TUES though. Seems like TUE is the least croweded that we have found. Otherwise, we tend to go with the flow and see what happens. We tend to hang out by the resort pool more than the parks now anyway...

 

[DisneyFreq]

I'll admit...I'm an obsessive planner...but I swear, I wasn't always this way! It's an addiction...some people worry about when they're going to take their next drag...I wonder when I get to plan my next vacation. I've got two in the works right now!

This next trip, i plan to cool it some. I've got "which parks on which days" figured out and sort of a loose plan for the morning (I like to get the most popular rides done in the morning). I also have one ADR made. However, I have to stress that it REALLY helps that we just went for 6 nights last Dec. and we're also going back in Oct. So, I can relax some on this May trip...SO LONG as we're at the parks with the lowest projected attendance...I love to avoid crowds!

 

[grinningghost]

Glad to know there are lots of other "wingers".

I made ADR's for 4 meals and that's it. Although I do think I'll throw Ohana in too - that one fills up in the summer quickly.

But in between, I have no true plans. I spend the extra money for the hopper option so we can do whatever we want - I can't see spending the money on that, then having a concrete itinerary - it wouldn't make sense.

 

[puggymom]

Solo trips I tend to wing it, I might plan what park, what day, because of crowds, but other than that I go with the flow.

When I took my oldest nephew and niece a couple of years ago, I did plan meticoulsy as I wanted them to see as much as they could, since I knew they wouldn't be back.

 

[k5thbeatle]

I love to plan, but I also love to wing it a little. As the years go by, I notice more people have every meal and every day planned to the minute.

I like to leave a couple days open to do whatever comes up.

Anyone else wing it some?

We wing it every single trip! At most we have 2-3 dining reservations made prior to arrival. Of course it should be noted that we typically go in Sept.-Nov. and haven't been in Sept. since the free dining thing started (which is a horrible idea imho).

 

[SarahandPaul]

We love to wing it unless we have the dining plan. In that case we have to work things around the reservations.

 

[DVCkidsMOM]

I read a post a while back from someone claiming to suffer from Obsessive Disney Planning Disorder and that could also describe me. That being said, we don't stick to the plan when we encounter "unscheduled magic," we definitely take advantage of the opportunity. Case in point: we were at AK for the second time on our last trip and we were at the rope barrier at openning headed for Dinosaur (EE not yet open) when a CM asked us to step out of line so he could talk with us. We were asked if we wanted to be the "first family" on KSafaris. So, it "threw off" then entire day's "touring plan," but was the best memory of the trip - wouldn't change that magical experience for anything. (Well, unless we'd been offered a spot in Mickey's Jungle Jammin' Parade ) I am so ODPD that I "plan" time to admire details, revisit favorites and savor live entertainment...

 

[Lady SnowElla]

Wing it! We might have an ADR for something like CP. My 2 DD's & I often vacation with another Mom & her 2 DD's--they just enjoy spending time together. Last year we left New Orleans right before Hurricane Cindy & we were at Disney when Hurricane Dennis skirted the coast & caused quite a bit of rain & stormy weather. The little girls had a blast with their My Little Pony's playing in the room & the big girls danced to Radio Disney. Looking back I should have known that it was not going to be a good hurricane system. . .an understatement!!

 

[tomerin]

we mostly like to wing it. the only really planning that we do is to make sure we are in the park where we have our ADR's. actually almost every day we always visit 2 parks a day. we are a winging park hopping family

 

[DISUNC]

I love to plan, but I also love to wing it a little. As the years go by, I notice more people have every meal and every day planned to the minute.

I like to leave a couple days open to do whatever comes up.

Anyone else wing it some?

We do the same here...50/50! Some days COMMANDO STYLE, Some days are Whatever days!

About 2 years ago, we made Priority seatings for everyday, Lunch & Dinner...at the end of the trip we actually only made half of them. Thats when we stopped planning the WHOLE trip.