First time doing a plan HELP !

[Shocking Hocking]

Hi , not sure if this will have already been asked but we go in October and I kind of have a plan . I have booked Mickeys Halloween party , meals and a few other things but just not sure how to actual put this all down in a proper plan . How do you all do it ? Do you have an exact timetable ? It would be great if you could share your thoughts with me how best for me to do this as I'm wanting to get this all done ASAP . Thank you

 

[General Panic]

I've seen a few prebuilt planners on-line on various Disney fan sites in the past. I've made one or two using a baisc excel spreadsheet myself but usualy find apart from ADR's and as you have booked MNSSHP anything else i plan go's out the window on day one

I try and plan for Early opening or late closing but never seems to work on the day , i think i've just not got the right mindset for too detailed planning.

 

[anniedream]

It is also my first time doing a plan. I have done a table on Microsoft word. Got two tables which I will print out back to back. One has all the EMH's, opening times of parks, firework dates, universal horror nights etc. The other has all our ADR's on and a personal plan which I have tried to work out in relation to the other plan. We might not stick to it but its great to have a guide. Last year we were waking up and deciding what to do on each day and we came back wishing we had some kind of plan.

 

[joolz1910]

I colour-coded a spread sheet. I had all of my ADR's, parks we intended to visit, times of parades, fireworks etc. I wanted to be able to look quickly each day and not have a rigid plan. Once we got to the parks, the kids set the pace and decided on which rides to do.

 

[Aliceacc]

Here's what I do:

1. I figure out my ADRs. Any that I suspect will be difficult to get I push back towards the end of my trip, figuring that fewer people will have had access to those dates. Most of our ADRs tend to be for dinners.

2. When the crowd calendars come out, I try to reconcile my ADRs to the crowd levels. (But we always get park hoppers, so that's not a huge deal.)

3. We're rope drop people. I love being in the parks when they open, and I find we get so much done! I'm also our Fastpass runner. When we get to the park, we separate. My husband and the kids hang back, and I move close to the front. When the parks open, I get our first set of fastpasses, and meet them all at an agreed upon place.

For example, in the MK, I'll get us FPs for Peter Pan (silly, but we all love that ride!) and meet everyone else at Big Thunder. We'll do Big Thunder, Splash Mountain, then use those Peter Pan Fastpasses. (We're not huge roller coaster people, so some years we do Space Mountain, some years not.)

In Epcot, I'll get us FPs for Soarin', then we'll all do Soarin' together before heading over for Test Track.

In AK, we tend to stay together. We all head to the Safari, then head over to Kali River Rapids.

In DHS, we head over to Toy Story Mania, fastpass it and ride it.

Beyond that, we have a good idea of which rides tend to get very crowded, so we knock them off early in the day.

It's not a strict plan, but it allows us to see what we want without feeling like we've lost spontenaity.

 

[rex008]

Last year I did mine in Google Drive, so I also could get to an easy copy on my phone (if you've got android, don't know about iOS).

Think this should work - shared read-only:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AjN3-oN77itjdEZMMFVqVE5uVmZkRVBibVIzUUxIS3c&usp=sharing

Date down the left, then 2 columns for each park, with the park hours and an indication if they had EMH that day (AM or EVE); second column was the tourinplans crowd estimate. Green highlight for recommended park(s). This helped in the second week where we were much more ad-hoc about where we went. Then columns for AM, PM, Eve with a planned location. Then Dinner location, booked time, and confirm number. Then any second reservation (Nouba, fireworks, MNSSHP) with confirm number.

I've seen way more elaborate ones since, but this was nice and compact and didn't feel like we had to stick to a minute-by-minute plan.

 

[queendisney]

I've made one or two using a baisc excel spreadsheet myself but usualy find apart from ADR's and as you have booked MNSSHP anything else i plan go's out the window on day one

I try and plan for Early opening or late closing but never seems to work on the day , i think i've just not got the right mindset for too detailed planning.

That is exactly me to the tee also

I just don't bother anymore. We often just wait to see what bus turns up first and just go to that park and then park hop to another maybe a couple of hours later via a hotel for lunch..

 

[Kilted_Yank]

If you plan too rigidly, you'll do everything you want, but, you'll miss all of the fun!

 

[ninamouse]

If you plan too rigidly, you'll do everything you want, but, you'll miss all of the fun!

I agree!

I booked my ADRs etc and have a plan of what parks we will visit on each day bt that's as far as it goes.

We are planning around my Mum's wedding which is taking place there, so we need some kind of basic plan but I would never go as far as planning the days themselves and what rides we need to be at and when etc - it will take the magic out of it all and ends up putting pressure on what should be a happy time!

Plan your park days, plan your ADRs and leave the rest to Mickey and the crew because you never know when you might get sprinkled with pixie dust! goodvibes:

 

[LiquidSunshine]

Hi,

I am planning my first WDW trip, and have created a simple plan I am intending to use. Hopefully the link will work!

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B1yDsjO5yEbMNkJkSHVPbFUtMEE/edit?usp=sharing

I also found some good sites while I was looking around online, this one seems to be really good, and has lots of info.

http://wdwprepschool.com/how-to-plan-a-trip-to-disney-world/

Hope this helps!

 

[2Tiggies]

If you plan too rigidly, you'll do everything you want, but, you'll miss all of the fun!

I wholeheartedly agree!

Also, if one thing goes wrong early on in the plan, everything else does pear shaped for the rest of the day

I am a 'planner' but have spent less time planning each year we go. Part of the reason is having formed our own park touring style and also because we don't tend to do many TS restaurants so we aren't planning around ADRs to the extent that we used to. It also helps that we are EMH folk. I say 'helps' because we know that we will go to whatever park has morning EMH is our first park for the day and whichever has evening EMH is our hop-to park.

I also use an excel spreadsheet which seems to become less and less elaborate every year and is really just a reference which we have placed somewhere in the room to refer to.