ever go on WDW (or other) vacation and just "wing it"?

[newholidayx2]

OMG! Me? I cannot believe I am asking this (and I bet many of you cant either - lol) but have you ever gone on a WDW vacation (or other destination) and just "winged it"?
Im thinking of doing this with our 6days/5nights in the White Mtns. Sure I have ideas of what I want to do but when was the last time YOU went on any vacation with no plans? (except having the hotel reserved)

 

[powellrj]

when we do universal, we just wing it. We make a reservation at an on-site hotel and just go from there. We have no idea what park, where we are eating or even what we are doing for the day. We just take the day as it comes!!

 

[FloridaTeacher]

Everytime we go to Disney. We go at least once a year and all we plan to do is get there and do what we want to do. I don't want deadlines and meetings on vacation.

Now, our second trip for this year is comiing up in May and it is a bit more planned cause we're going for Star Wars Weekend, so we know that we'll be at MGM mostly.

43 days 5 hours and 1 minute til we're back at Fort Wilderness and Star Wars Weekend!!

 

[MJC]

Totally enjoy winging it once you've arrived at your final destination. I don't want any schedules while on vacation.

 

[sewer]

Same here, I realy don't wish to have a schedule while on vacation. Isn't that what vacations are all about?

 

[mickeyfan2]

I tend to wing all of our Disney and non Disney vacations. I might have ideas of things to see and to and and ADR every 3-4 days, but that is it.

 

[klynn]

I usually don't plan anything in advance for WDW and we go about 2X/year. Last time we were there 3 weeks and never planned one thing in advance!

 

[gris gris]

I wing everything. No pressure on vacation. Actually it makes me feel good inside when I read posts here about people stressing over what to do at what hour each day at WDW. I feel good because I know I'm not stressed about it at all. We'll get there and decide what to do whenever we feel like making that decision. The other vacations we take are usually to race tracks, so we know when we'll be going to the race because we have to buy tickets. We might do a little research on line to see what there is to do in the area, but don't really make plans until we get there.

 

[Kimmumum]

The best adventures happen when you weren't even looking for one. We don't plan much. We hardly ever have ADR's, know what parks we are going to on which days or any other silliness. We go and enjoy

 

[runwad]

How's this for winging it, won a skyauction on a Thurs, packed up the van and the kids and headed down to Disney for 7 days on Fri. Although I did make a last minute call to a friend who had an unofficial guide book so I could take it w/me and kinda have an idea of when to go where. But I gotta say this was our best vacation ever and we are the planning types never do anything on the fly. I had no trouble calling and making adr's the night before each park. This was 3/31 - 4/7 and I was nervous about spring break crowds but we had no problem at all with crowds.

 

[eeyoregon]

I guess I am a bonified "wingnut"! Aside from knowing the dates of travel and where we are staying, our WDW vacations are almost always "winged". To me, part of being on vacation is being in the chill out mode. If we sleep in and miss early morning entry, who cares?? We just go with the flow and do whatever tickles our fancy. It's nice not being on a rigid schedule. If you don't have something set in stone, then you can't be sad when you accidently miss it!

 

[sara74]

We wing it sometimes. We have rented a beach house twice over the internet in places we have never been (and with another family!) So it was, drive there, grab some brochures and hang on the beach. We haven't had a bad trip that way! We are headed to the White Mountains this summer for a week with the same family and winging it but sort of cheating. The other mom and I grew up in southern NH so we kind of know what there is to do. I'm willing to bet it has changed some in 25 years, but then again, maybe not!

As far a Disney goes, it is our first trip so I have a binder, index cards, copies of the maps - too much planning! Luckily I know I'll just have to throw some of it out the window when we get there!

 

[crisi]

I winged six weeks worth of backpacking through Europe in college.

I take a lot of winging it trips. I don't wing Disney - we at least know going down where we are eating each night and have some expectation for what we want to do. I roughly sketch park days, but we don't necessarily adhere to the plan.

 

[pezpam]

I tend to wing it on vacations. Back in college, I headed to Europe with a backpack and no reservations anywhere and had a ball! I did the same thing a few years ago in Australia. DD(5 at the time) and I totally winged our first DW trip and loved every minute of it. We do visit the White Mountains and wing it except for reserving the campsite.

Now, I do look into what's up sometimes, but the only things I plan out are the absolutely-can't-be-missed things and those are few and far between, really. I've had the best times and met the best people when I was just going with the flow. You do have to be the type to roll with the punches (is that cool museum closed after you drove out there or is the first-choice restaurant too crowded? Eh, so what? What else looks cool?) but if you can, it's sooooooo non-stressful. Love it.

 

[LibertyLover]

Yes, we do both. Our DD is 3 and at WDW, except for making some ADRs for dinner, we find winging it works best. We have some vague goals, like going to AK or riding teacups at MK, but we don't make specific plans. Last year we took DD to Colorado for a family wedding and we did plan things and have an itinery. It worked fine the first day or so, then DD got tired andd didn't want to do things we had planned - which was very frustrating, although understandable. This coming December we are going to England and Scotland at the holidays. We are taking DSD25 and DD for their first trip to Europe. We have told DSD that she has to plan 3 of the 5 days we are in London and 2 of the 5 days we are in Edinburgh (one day we are going to Portsmith and the other we will take the train up to York, while on our way to Edinburgh). This trip will be heavily planned, but again because of our younger daughter, I'll have to wing it and may not get to everything that DSD wants to do - that's fine, I've been to the Tower 7 or 8 times and can live without seeing it again, so I may take DD and go for a walk or something. Even with planning, we'll be winging it somewhat. Winging can be as fun as planning.

 

[Mickey'snewestfan]

I had to laugh when I read this question.

I used to wing everything vacation wise. I might read up on a destination in advance but it was more for the fun of it than because I got information -- I'd be more likely to read a piece of fiction set in the place I was going to visit than a guide book.

However, last year before our Disney trip my neighbors lent me a guide book which then led me to the internet and then to this site. I became obsessed with planning the trip, and when I got there I was really glad I did. Knowing which parks to avoid on certain days and which attractions to head to at opening really helped. I could see winging a trip later, but only because I'd already learned a lot in planning our first trip.

So since then I've tried to apply Dis-style planning to other vacations. For example, we went to Mexico at Christmas and I paid for long distance phone calls to make reservations for restaurants and activities. When I got there I found out that everything I selected was still available! This spring we went skiing in Vermont. The website for the place we went said to make reservations "in advance" for the restaurant there. I called and asked about it and they laughingly told me that "in advance" means "call before you leave your condo, not 180 days before your trip.

So, I'm back to winging it for everything except Disney.

 

[Rella Bella]

We like to wing! At WDW (other than our tradition of Day 1 being OHanna breakfast followed by MK) I usually make a few ADRs that may dictate our park for the day... and we each have one or two must dos but then we just go with the flow.

But one of our best vacations was when we went to Glacier Natl Park and got evacuated because of forest fires. The evacuate part was a major bummer but then we had a week in NW Montana with no schedule and we had a great time.