Does anyone wing their Disney Vacation?

[FBandA]

This may sound nuts but I am feeling guilty for not having a plan for each day. I only have one Reservation at the Hoop-Dee-Doo for our first night. We will be staying for 8 days we have the dining plan and a 5 day Hopper. We also will be going to Sea World 2 days not sure what days. Can we just wing our plans? Does anyone do this? Will we be able to get into Resturants if I wait till that day to decide? It sounds like everyone has a plan, but not me. Only a short time left to decide and I am starting to get nervous. DH and DS9 could care less about our planning, they want to wing it.

 

[GoofyGirlnPrincessV]

When I met up with my SIL & BIL in March she had an itinary of each day and was stuck on her schedule. About 2 hours into the day she decided to drop her schedule for the day and just wing it and we had a great time.

My next trip I do have ressies for breakfast at Crystal Palace and Lunch with Cinderella that is the only thing I have to stick with. The rest of the time I am meeting up with some friends and aren't having a set plan. It seems much more relaxed that way...JMO

Good luck!

 

[ThreeMusketeers]

We reserve dining and we know what parks we are doing on which day..but we don't have the entire day planned out. We just know where we will be eating and what park we will be touring..

 

[Laurajean1014]

DH, DS and I have been to WDW over 2 dozen times. We never plan and have a wonderful time.

 

[mookie]

I can tell you, DH and I have done it both ways. (We haven't taken our dd yet, so I don't know how it is with kids!) I can say, the first time I planned.

And planned.

And planned.

And planned some more.

And when I was done planning, I went through everything to make sure I had planned it all right.

I was neurotic! But, when we got to wdw, about 1/4 of our plans went out the window, because we were doing other things. However, I can say that in most cases, it helped us a lot in just making things easier. We didn't wait in line as much and we saw everything we wanted to see and do. DH made fun of me for my planning, but in the end, we both agreed, it was helpful, and we didn't feel the least bad about ditching some of our plans - that's why we planned in the first place!

The second time around was a bit different. We were there on a trip with DH work, and I was so busy before we left that we just decided to see what would happen if we "wing it." No ps's. No park itinararies. We didn't even know the hours of the park before we got down there!

That second trip wasn't as fun. We waited in lines more, and we didn't get to everything that we had in our last trip, and we were there for the same amount of time - and staying on property instead of off like the first time!!! We felt a bit more stressed and kind of lost. Was it the lack of planning? DH likes to think so!

Can you wing it? Absolutely. Will it work? It depends. If you are okay with being flexible, and not worried about leaving wdw without seeing everything you set your sights on, then it's fine. Would I do it again? Probably not...especially since the next time we go, there will be kids in tow!!

Good luck in whatever you decide - I'm sure you'll have a great time!!

 

[It's A Happy Day]

My first trip as an adult was our honeymoon and was unplanned! We had a blast and did what we wanted, when we wanted, where we wanted, and stopped to eat wherever on the way. If a restaurant was busy we went elsewhere instead of waiting. We woke up in the morning and said what park do you want to go to. Now I am planning our 1st trip with kids and my major priority is making sure that I don't have 2 toddlers screaming at us I have planned what park on what day, but not what we are doing in each park - and other than last 2 days as they will be hit again whatever we need to see before leaving I have made reservations for TS meals as I don't want to approach a restaurant with hungry kids only to be told sorry no seats available and have to trek now cranky kids to another restaurant, etc. I wouldn't say you have to over plan but at least have the basics down if going with kids. If we were going solo just me & dh I wouldn't be as detailed as I am with this trip.

 

[famofour]

This is our first trip to Orlando and I guess you could say we are going to "wing" it! I've got our airline tix and booked our place - that's it!

During the week of our trip, we are going to have to drive down to Port St. Lucie twice to visit family (main purpose of the trip), so we will have two or three days total for parks. I'll probably buy tickets ahead of time, but no plans on where we will eat and which days we'll go to the parks.

 

[DZNYMGCFAM]

The most that I do is plan on which days we will be in what parks, make appropraite ADR, make a tentative schedule for what time we would like to arrive at the park, when we will take our break and when we will head back to the park, etc. I included times for parades and fireworks, etc that we would like to catch. Our plan is always subject to change on how we feel that day....I just like to have something to remind me what park what day and times of my ADR and what parades and shows we wanted to see. I do think that first-timers need a plan...what shows, rides they would like to try and ride, include breaks if with young children, etc.

Hope that helps you!

 

[powellrj]

we use to plan our trips down to me carry index cards with our plan of attack! Not anymore, we just pretty much wing our trips. Our last trip the only PS I made was fantasmic dinner package. Other than that we just decided the night before where we were going and what we were doing. The kids loved it. They said they didn't feel pressured and rushed.

If this is your first trip or you don't plan on returning anytime soon, I would make detailed plans, but if you go often or plan on returning soon, I would just wing it!!

 

[susykt4]

Our last trip was with DD4 and DS2 so we did some general planning. DH and I decided in advance what attractions at each park were "can't miss" for each of us so even if we did nothing else, we would at least get to do our favorites. We also arranged our main park days around the EMH (avoided them other than early MK on our last day.) It worked well for us to have mornings planned and then plan our evenings according to how the kids were doing. We only had one table service character meal and ate every other meal counter service or in our room so almost none of our meals were planned.

We took our first family trip when DD was 18 months and did absolutely no planning or research. We felt we totally wasted a day at Epcot and accomplished almost nothing. This trip I really researched Epcot and we had a blast! It was my (little) kids' 2nd favorite park after MK. We all LOVED it this time just because I had a clue where to go and what to do. I think the first time we went we were so overwhelmed by how huge it was that we just kind of wandered around.

 

[lynetteSC]

we usually make dining ressies IF we have special event or know we HAVE to eat at a particular place. Other that a few, we wing it ... so far, we have been VERY lucky! We usually go in off peak times however, the last two times we went were over major events (Thanksgiving and 5/5/05 and had no problems getting what we wanted as far as eating. We usually called the day ahead or may even try once we hit that park in the morning.

 

[FBandA]

Thank you everyone for the idea's. I feel so much better now. This is our 2nd trip with DS9, our first just about every day was planned, we went with 2 other family's. This one is by ourselves and I don't want to feel tied to a plan. We do know park hours and what rides we must do. I guess my big concern was the eating. And at this point I think we will try to make ADR the night before or that morning except for the Hoop-Dee-Doo. Got to plan that one. LOL

 

[DawnaJean]

My big concern would only be ADR - I think you could "wing" it for everything if you are not concerned whether you have TS meals at certain places. With kids, I have found it much more relaxing to plan ADR and know we have a shot to get into a restaurant within a very reasonable time frame. For me, there is nothing worse than waiting for 1 hr + for an open table or to be turned away from the sit-down air-conditioned places because we have no PS/ADR. It really depends on your flexibility and your 9 yo's flexibility around the dining issue.

Winging it can be very relaxing if eating at specific places is not important to you. With the dining plan special this season, I would imagine it being even harder to get into some of the restaurants at the normal eating hours without ADR.

good luck!
Dawna

 

[DreadpiratK]

WOW, I feel much better reading this! We are definately 'wing it' type travelers, we don't even make hotel reservations for the trip down, just take off and see what happens. Reading this board i started to feel like I was doing something wrong somewhere, not knowing exactly where we were going to eat each meal each day!

We of course reserve the timeshare, and buy tickets ahead of time, but beyond that, it's 'what park do you feel like doing today?"

Although this year we did print out a park schedule, so we are working around that a little anyway, trying to avoid emh ect., and hit when the parades are happening.

We go in September, so planning is probably not as important, as the parks are not as crazy as they are other times, you can wing it and still see everything.

I think if you go in July or August, or heaven forbid, Christmas, you definately need to plan to get the most out of your trip- probably why we don't go then!

 

[crisi]

I think there is a balance. I wouldn't be good with a spreadsheet (i.e. 9:00 walk through park gates, 9:05 ride Dumbo, 9:17 ride Peter Pan's Flight). But I don't think its wise to show up without knowing that Saturday is busy at the MK or that you don't want to wait until 11:00 am to arrive in Fantasyland.

I have a spreadsheet. It tells me where we are eating dinner and what parks are busy which days, and has a general idea of where we will spend the morning and afternoon.

 

[hokiefan33]

This may sound nuts but I am feeling guilty for not having a plan for each day. I only have one Reservation at the Hoop-Dee-Doo for our first night. We will be staying for 8 days we have the dining plan and a 5 day Hopper. We also will be going to Sea World 2 days not sure what days. Can we just wing our plans? Does anyone do this? Will we be able to get into Resturants if I wait till that day to decide? It sounds like everyone has a plan, but not me. Only a short time left to decide and I am starting to get nervous. DH and DS9 could care less about our planning, they want to wing it.

We have went the last 2 years, after July 4th weekend, and have winged it both times for a week, and had a great time! We had no PS for when we arrived either time, and no real plan on which parks to visit. We would just the schedules when we got down there, b/c we always go to MK first, b/c that's where the kids want to go most. We have still managed to eat everywhere we wanted the last 2 years - CP, LTT, Sci-Fi, 50's, Cindy's and even the PSB in Norway - all by just calling for PS once we get down there or just stopping by the restaurant to see what's available. Had no problems, even with all the summer crowds.

As long as you know how to best use FastPass, and are willing to be flexible, you will have no problems. If you are the type of person who just HAS to plan or you don't feel comfortable, you might want to do some planning anyway, just so you don't freak out when you get there!

 

[twoeeyy]

we are checking on on oct 4 for 9 nights. We have 4 PS made and that is only because of the free dinning, other than that we have no plans ( except of course our hotel because we are flying )

When we used to drive down we never even made hotel reservations, we would always find a hotel when we got there, we usually would end up getting a better hotel because the ' cheaper ' hotels would be booked but they would offer us a room at their ' sister ' hotel for the same rate

I am still not sure if we will use ME or rent a car.

 

[gr8ful4Him]

We went down in July and didn't have any "set in stone" plans. We had friends that we were visiting 2 different days and that was set. We knew we wouldn't be at the parks those days. Someone had blessed us with tickets to universal/IOA and I already had 2 day hoppers for Disney. My plan was to get up early each day and hit the parks ASAP...but I'm a morning person....the rest of the family...NOT! I didn't let them sleep too long though The vacation was nice and we knew we wouldn't get to see "everything", but we completely enjoyed what we did get to see

 

[TNKBELL]

It all depends on your family and ages of the Dks. For our family we went to DL and my Dh says " Let's just be spontaneous" So I didn't plan a thing and we wandered around aimlessly overwhelmed. My Dh just wanted to go "chill out" at our hotel most of the time. I was furious because he wanted to be spontaneous and then he couldn't think of anything he wanted to do. So from then on, I plan a few events and suggestions for day to day, nothing to strict and can definatley be changed but just a basic plan of action, so if we can't think of something, we have a plan. Flexibility is an important factor of a plan!! I'm sure you'll have a great time whatever you decide!!

 

[Redbudlover]

I planned down to each hour the first we went and we ended up throwing out about a quarter of the plan as we changed things, but we had a magical time - mainly due to the planning! We watched Tinkerbell from the window of the CR as we had dinner at "just the right time". We had a great place for fireworks - and wonderful transportation back to our resort - because we were in the right place at the right time.

The second trip was less planned - and worked for us. but this next time I am planning down to the wire again - because last time I got really tired trying to get everything in and I want to plan for relaxation and quiet time. I think if I were younger and had no kids with me a spontaneous trip would be great if I had been to the parks before and knew what I wanted to see and do.

Whatever you decide though, you will have a great time - after all it is Disney!
Redbudlover