Family not in love with all my planning?!

[mobay2000]

So glad to know I'm not the only one with a color coded spreadsheet!

Definitely not the only one

 

[Mikie]

Were you able to book a lunch reservation for BOG?

No- it's quick service at lunch. We have dinner ADRs at Chef Mickey and the Castle our two MK days, so I want to do a BOG lunch. I plan to troll around for tips on how hard it is to get just walking up. If necessary, we'll FP+ it.

 

[AandJsMommy]

DH is supportive of my planning. In most other areas of life, he's actually a more OCD planner/organizer than I am. For Disney, he just wants to go and "do stuff," but he appreciates going in with a plan. He also said he's glad we can pre-book FPs now instead of just getting them in the park. DD7 is also a bit of a planner. She wants to know what we're going to do and in what order.

The problem is my parents. They're going to be with us for 3 out of 5 days. They refused to buy tickets in advance because they were afraid they'd get sick or something and not be able to go. I tried to convince them to buy tickets at DTD the first evening they got there so I could at least set up their FPs before we go to the park the next day. Mom objected that DTD is so big, and she doesn't know where to go. At least our first day is AK, so there aren't a ton of FPs to juggle. All they really want to do there is ride the safari. I'll have at least a little bit of time to get their MK and Epcot days figured out.

 

[Susan C]

This thread is sooo me!!

My DH and DS groan in a happy way when I say "Let's Talk about Disney".
It cracks me up when my DH, says "oh, that was nice, I liked having a table full of desserts to watch the fireworks over the castle" he said it like I left it to Chance!

I have been enjoying reading this thread.. I took my last trip with my brother and his daughter, and they were pleased to have all the planning done for them. We own DVC, so if you want a free room, you get the compulsive over planner that goes with it.

 

[Mikie]

Soooo. . . This post has been entertaining AND informative. . . Despite the advice to "keep it to myself and fellow DISers" I couldn't resist mentioning it to DH. "You wanna hear something funny?" He responds with a wary look. "On the discussion boards. . . " he cut me off with a good-natured eye roll and sigh. He DID let me tell about the many people in both MY boat and his and we got a good chuckle out of it. He may want to start a DIS-Anon group for spouses and family of a Disney planning addicts

 

[luvmy2babies]

This thread has been really entertaining. There’s no one rolling their eyes at me. It’s just my children and me. They are 11 and 4. We have always enjoyed traveling. We started regular week long vacations in the summer after my husband died. On our first they were 7 and 6 months old. We started going to Disney later that year when they were 7 and 10 months old. Out of our 3 trips, 2 (first one and the third one) were surprises. Our 2nd one, my daughter (then 9) and I planned from the beginning.

She has since let me know she prefers to be surprised and not just with the trip. She wants to be surprised with everything. Our last trip we went for 8 days. I kept it a surprise because it was planned with only 3 months and I didn’t want them to know in case I couldn’t pull it off in the end and had to cancel. Also we didn’t have the dining plan, but I decided to pay OOP for 3 character meals and to schedule BBB for my daughter. Since our meals weren’t prepaid even after I told them about the trip, I decided to keep the meals as surprises in case I had to cancel anything. Then later I decided to keep BBB a surprise too. She told me after the trip she wanted me to do that again. I had invitations I would pull out about 30 minutes before an ADR and they loved it. They were meals they had done before so they were excited.

And it has become pretty much the same with anywhere we go. She enjoys the planning okay. The waiting not so much. And being surprised with a trip Disney or otherwise means little to no waiting. I’m not a plan to the minute type although fast pass + required more of me this time. Our touring plan is always relaxed and set to avoid wearing anyone out. Not having another adult to consult I could really do things differently, but we go at my children’s pace. Judging by the way they are still able to run around the resort after 8 hours in a park, that’s going okay.

I want us to make it to the end and I don’t want to come home feeling like I need another vacation. So we miss some things and I force myself to put in plenty of pool time. I say force because there is always this voice in my head saying, “There are pools all around where you live. You’re at Disney World and spending 3 hours in a pool????” Yes, one day we were in the pool for 3 hours. But it’s working for us. Now, when asked anything, my daughter says “You plan it mom. I’ve been with you long enough to know we’ll have fun.”

Happy planning to all

 

[Meech Loves Mickey]

Wait.....what do you mean not everybody has a color coded spreadsheet?!

That's not normal?

 

[JanaDee]

For all of you that plan WDW like it is a war campaign, just remember, it isn't only your vacation. If your husband or teen wants to sleep in a few days, let them.

 

[bumbershoot]

He may want to start a DIS-Anon group for spouses and family of a Disney planning addicts

Here are the daily posts. "Poor me, my spouse tries to take my needs and wants, and everyone else in the family's as well, into consideration as best s/he can. We don't always help him/her out, but s/he tries as much as possible. And when we go to WDW we have an amazing time because of all the work s/he put into it. Poor me."

That was meant to be a silly thing (though kinda serious too, because that was my husband on our honeymoon...made fun of me for planning it so thoroughly...the wedding that he wanted, too...then had an amazing time and stopped complaining about my message board time, LOL). It reads a little flat as I re-re-re-read it, though. Meant to be basically lighthearted though.

For all of you that plan WDW like it is a war campaign, just remember, it isn't only your vacation. If your husband or teen wants to sleep in a few days, let them.

Why why why do people hear "plan" and think "no one gets to do anything they want to do, nothing spontaneous can happen, it's only about the planner and no one else has a say"? WHY?


If someone wants to sleep in, they had better understand that the other/s won't necessarily be doing so, and no one is to complain about what they missed while sleeping in.

 

[TreeSapp]

DH is supportive of my planning. In most other areas of life, he's actually a more OCD planner/organizer than I am. For Disney, he just wants to go and "do stuff," but he appreciates going in with a plan. He also said he's glad we can pre-book FPs now instead of just getting them in the park. DD7 is also a bit of a planner. She wants to know what we're going to do and in what order.

The problem is my parents. They're going to be with us for 3 out of 5 days. They refused to buy tickets in advance because they were afraid they'd get sick or something and not be able to go. I tried to convince them to buy tickets at DTD the first evening they got there so I could at least set up their FPs before we go to the park the next day. Mom objected that DTD is so big, and she doesn't know where to go. At least our first day is AK, so there aren't a ton of FPs to juggle. All they really want to do there is ride the safari. I'll have at least a little bit of time to get their MK and Epcot days figured out.

If they're not looking to buy FL-resident priced tickets they can buy tickets at any Disney hotel - pick a small one like POFQ and they won't get lost

 

[Mrs. Bradbury]

Wait.....what do you mean not everybody has a color coded spreadsheet?!

That's not normal?

Totally agree!

For all of you that plan WDW like it is a war campaign, just remember, it isn't only your vacation. If your husband or teen wants to sleep in a few days, let them.

At first I (incorrectly) read something in there about planning what to wear, and I had the same reaction as above - it's not normal to coordinate your clothing to your park of the day????

For all the teasing I get, my family LOVES that we have a very easy vacation because of the planning I do. It was all brought home to me the first time my older son went to the beach with a few of his friends - they didn't research how much the hotel was actually going to cost, or factor in the cost of food (they ended up pooling their money and buying a loaf of bread and sandwich meat!), or even bring sunscreen or beach towels - he called me from wherever they were and thanked me for all the times I took him and his siblings places and said he had no idea how much work I did to make things go smoothly.

 

[JanaDee]

Note this is coming from someone who truly believes that planning for Disney is half the fun....

But, speaking from some experience, here's what you don't want to happen:

1) You don't want your family to feel like they've been "tricked" or deceived
2) You don't want them to feel rushed going place to place on vacation if that's not their thing (it sounds like it's not)
3) You don't want to a revolt - which, I have learned can include sneaky-type revolts (as I will explain below)

So given that, I'll throw a few things in....

-I really love TALKING about Disney and upcoming trips. Now, thankfully, my husband doesn't usually mind this, but I know that at times I have probably taken advantage of that kindness. He loves Disney parks, but he doesn't care much about them if we aren't there - he'll never be a Diser. My mom and stepdad (who went with us last time) will happily listen to a point - they don't complain - but they will change the subject when they are over it. So I've just learned...it's okay to not talk about it all the time, for their sake. That's why I enjoy the boards, and I love talking to the few "in real life" friends I have that are also Disney geeks. I get to get all of that talking out with them! (Also, you have your Dad, so you talk focus on talking to him!)

-What you DO want is for them to get excited about the trip, not anxious about how you might be controlling their life for the whole thing. So this is where some finesse comes in. Find whatever their "thing" is and stick to mentioning those things. Is someone a foodie? You can mention a specific dessert that you heard has amazing reviews at a restaruant you'll be at. Is someone a golfer? Book 9 holes for them. Someone else love to relax by the pool? Mention the great drink someone recommended that is at your resort bar. Etc. Note, this only works if you haven't worn out your welcome in their ears already, so that's where maybe giving everyone a break on talking about it all the time comes in.

-Ask them questions, instead of just talking at them about the trip. What was the first Disney movie you remember seeing? What is the one ride you don't want to miss? What do you think will be your favorite park? What can I do to help you have a better vacation?

-Plan some "time off" for your non-commandos. Like, significant chunks of time to go off plan and be free. Maybe just do your FPs in the morning, have lunch together, split up and do your own thing, and meet up again at dinner. Plan whole evenings where couples can go have some alone time without the rest of the group.

-Have a back up plan for a revolt. My parents were sneaky about this, and we paid for it. We had several mornings when I'd ask if they were okay with leaving at 8am for the parks, and they'd say "Sure!" and then wouldn't even emerge from their rooms til 9. So we lost some critical morning time at the parks just waiting for them. Other times we needed to be places, and they would goof around and pretend like it wasn't a big deal. So finally, we just decided we'd let them do what they wanted. We left without them some mornings and told them we'd meet up later. It was a little discouraging, because we really wanted to spend more time with them in the parks than we ended up doing, but I also didn't want the friction of "YOU MUST DO WHAT I SAY!" to kill our family vacation. In the end, I realized the vacation was not really all about ME and how I prefer to "do" the parks.

Like others have said, your knowledge will of course come in handy when you are there, and they will likely be grateful for at least some of it. But definitely remember - it's their vacation too, and you want them to feel like they have vacated and that everyone still loves each other at the end of it.

This bears repeating.

 

[trvlgirlmq]

I've loved reading how everyone plans (or not) and how the family reacts. I am the big planner for all of our travels and we currently have 3 trips booked in the next year so a lot of Excel action going for me.

With all the changes at WDW since our last trip I am making more of an effort to plan out attraction order which is something I didn't previously do. I think I am going to go with small index cards for each day with a tentative plan, FP+ times, any ADR's, etc. This will probably be our last trip for a while and I want to make it really special and memorable.

 

[BlackMagicWoman]

I thought that the color coded spreadsheet was mandatory.

I confer with my family for where they want to go, things they want to do and then I do all of the planning and of course, produce a color coded spreadsheet with costs broken out by family.

 

[pigletgirl]

I like to plan as it gives me peace of mind while on vacation. I don't do a color coded spread sheet though. I need to be thinking about how I want our days to look with FP+, etc. That is coming up soon!

 

[sethschroeder]

There is a difference between knowledge which DIS gives you and planning every second of your trip.

There is a difference between planning RR at 9:10am after TSMM right before our 9:45am TT FP+..... AND I know we should do RR early in the day as we won't have a FP+ for it.

Getting knowledge of what there is to do and some issues people have come across is why I am here. I don't see the point in planning the day as I have the touring plans app for that and every day is different.

What happens when you have your 12 rides planned in order and after 20 mins and right before you get on Space Mountain it goes down and you can't ride? Your master list just got shredded and now you feel like you can never catch up the rest of the day to do everything.... I like the gather info and go with flow mentality. I will book my 2-3 ADRs for the 12 days and my 3FP+ but I know changes can be made and will have to be made.

Guess what I have flying fish scheduled tonight and now I want steak instead for instance....

 

[Meech Loves Mickey]

At first I (incorrectly) read something in there about planning what to wear, and I had the same reaction as above - it's not normal to coordinate your clothing to your park of the day????

I also coordinate my clothing to the park! Doesn't everybody?!

 

[luvthemouse71]

Spreadsheets are crazy???

Yes,lol. I'll be honest, I'd be rebelling if the person I was traveling with whipped out a spreadsheet. That would last exactly 5 seconds..

 

[luvthemouse71]

For all of you that plan WDW like it is a war campaign, just remember, it isn't only your vacation. If your husband or teen wants to sleep in a few days, let them.

We don't often agree, but I agree with this 100%.

 

[disneyshea]

So glad to know I'm not the only one with a color coded spreadsheet!

Yep, I've got a color coded, multi-tab spreadsheet with all of our plans. I Love it!