For those who tour with a plan: how do you make your itineraries?

[avalon451]

Hi, on another thread a poster was worried about how to go about writing her itinerary. She'd read all the tips threads but just wasn't sure how to put it together, with or without Ridemax, etc.

I'm not going to debate the "commando" vs. "go with the flow" thing here; it's kind of apples and oranges, depending on if you go often, like an AP'er, or if this is a once a year or once-in-a-lifetime thing. Also it's just what works for you individually. Some people just do better if they have an idea of what they'd like to do.

So, if you follow a touring plan, how do YOU create that plan?

I thought I would detail how I did it this time. I had only been once before, but I planned excessively, and this time I had a lot of ideas about what I wanted to do that we'd missed last time. I have read the Unofficial Guide and studied their pre-made plans. I've used Ridemax and worked out innumerable schedules with that, and found a few things I didn't like about it. I'd read Hydroguy's touring tips, which were probably the most practical and helpful of all. All three of these, combined with a set of park maps sitting open in front of me, so I could check and see where things were, helped me to come up with our own itinerary that worked.

First, I listed the shows and events that we missed last time, due to my DD13 being sick the whole time. This included the Parade of Dreams, the Pixar parade, Billy Hill, and the fireworks.

Then I looked at the park maps for each park, one "land" at a time, and put each ride into a category: "Do it once," "maybe repeats," "experience it every day," and "don't really want to do this." Examples: I wanted to try Roger Rabbit but knew it wouldn't be a priority, so it was "Do it once." Winnie was a "maybe repeat." Space, Pirates and HMH were definitely "every day" and Autopia was "Don't really wanna."

Then I labeled a sheet of paper with the 5 days we'd be there, Sun-Thurs, and started dividing up the events. I decided what days to see the shows, when they were available-- Fireworks would be Sunday and Monday, the only days they would be scheduled. Then I put the rides we'd want to do daily down. Then I divided up the rest, according to how close they were to each other. While we parkhopped almost every day, I dedicated one day to concentrating more on CA. So then I had a list of rides for every day, and i just had to arrange them in an order of convenience, proximity to each other, and how to get FPs most efficiently. We worked around our PS dining schedule, too, and planned to break back at the hotel for a couple of hours every day, in the afternoon.

For example: Tuesday was MM, and we had a character breakfast with Minnie at the Plaza at 10:30. So I planned Fantasyland and our favorites before breakfast, getting two FPs before we went to the Plaza, and then hopping over to DCA afterward.

Clear as mud?

So how do YOU do it? Help out some fellow DIS'ers with your tips on writing your itineraries!

 

[ellmnop]

Thanks so much for laying that out. We are a few weeks out from our trip and I would like to have a better idea about what we are going to do each day so we aren't wandering around wasting time.
I like your idea of putting things into categories. Even though I have never been to DL as an adult, I have researched things enough to have a pretty good idea about the things we are going to want to do and certain things to skip.

 

[evilprncess96]

This is a great way to make a plan. I too have been worried about how to put it all together. My biggest concern is that although I have been to DL MANY MANY times growing up. This is a first time for DH & DS. I want to make sure that they get to experience a lot without going back and forth all of the time. I want a balance of packing a lot in and not going comando!

 

[Vacation Dad]

My kids are all older so they pretty much tell me what the order of rides is going to be. I don’t know that I have a lot of ideas to help you out with this, but I do have one. Since you are familiar with parkhopping and will be going back to your hotel in the afternoon (something we do too), it works out great to go on one of the “get wet” rides such as Splash Mt or GRR right before you take your break. That way you can change clothes almost immediately after you get wet. It let us enjoy GRR more knowing we could change soon rather than being worried the entire ride about the geyser getting us.

 

[jlparedes]

Ok so I think I planned kind of in between those two styles (commando v. go with the flow). I'm a natural born planner, but I have a toddler so I didn't want to plan for things that we might not have been ablet o get to. I started by reading the boards and websites and deciding the things we definitely wanted to see/do (ie; jedi training, MTOT, princess fantasy faire, etc). Then I mapped out our days we'd be there and wrote down the park hours. I then just kind of plugged in the major things we wanted to see/do in the time slots until it all went together. For example, we are going to MTOT next Wednesday so that entire day we'll spend in DCA and do shows/rides there. Also, I knew we'd need to head back to the hotel for naps and lunch daily, so I made sure that was in my plan so we could do things aorund those times. It all just started to fall into place. So I downloaded a Disney font onto my PC and typed up itineraries for my party so they have an idea of what's going on, and we can pencil things in we might have missed! GL!

 

[Tasscrapper]

Great topic Avalon. Can't wait to hear more ideas since I need more of a plan for our December trip.

 

[jenpok]

Thank you Gail!!! This will be great to see how everyone does it. Your ideas are great. I'm going to look at those maps and put my WDW touring to work! Thanks for the thread.

 

[Jennifer03]

I created a spreadsheet on Excel that is divided up by land and includes two sections: rides and attractions, and food. I looked through my old park maps and decided what I wanted to go on in each land. I also looked through all of the menus online and decided what I would want to eat at each restaurant. So when it's time for lunch or a snack, I just consult my spreadsheet and see what I'm in the mood for. The rides that are open during Magic Morning I typed in green, and the restaurants that offer an AP discount were typed in red. Here's a screenshot of my spreadsheet:

I also made one for California Adventure, Downtown Disney, and Disneyland resort restaurants.

 

[Jenn1116]

And I thought I was bad!

 

[Jenn1116]

Well since I'm pretty familiar with Hydroguy's tips I can't really be specific about how I know what I know -you know, the good stuff that helps make trip planning easy.

I started collecting specific info regarding the season we are going in by asking questions and reading other's posts. This will be out Holiday trip, next year I'll ask more about October... ok I've already started asking about October! Anywho....

I've managed to compile about 33 pages regarding ride tips and info as well as current events such as the new Free Birthday Admission, and Year of a Million Dreams info. My list is alphabetized for easy findings. Need to know what City Hall can do for you? Look up the list under "c." Need some DL ghost stories, yep, they're under "g." Easy right?

When the DL website FINALLY comes out with the entertaiment schedule I plot my days and list the schedules. I decide what day to do MM - I happen to prefer weekdays, then I decide whether to attempt Tomorrowland or Fantasyland during that time.

I also decide on which retaraunts I want to go to and when they make sense. For this trip, I wanted to try Lilo and Stitch. It made sense to do this on out DCA day so we can still make it to opening. We'll do Rainforest after DL closing on our first night to make the best use of our afternoon in DL

I also made sure to plan to catch the parade and fireworks during the week early in the trip as it will be more crowded toward weekends. Unfortunately this doesn't always work since they are only scheduled weekends during off-peak.

After 8 months of patient waiting, and information collecting, these are the results!


Wednesday
Best time to see fireworks and parade since it is mid-week and will be less crowded.
Lunch: Carnation Café PS: 2:00pm
City Hall regarding Lilly Belle
Silhouettes on Main Street
Fantasyland
PFF ends at 6:00
Christmas Parade: 6:30
Fireworks: 745
Dinner: Rainforest Café PS: 8:15pm confirmation: 085

Thursday
Breakfast: fruit, oatmeal, and coffee
This is the best day to use our Magic Morning (early entry). If we get in a lot of Fantasyland on Wednesday then we can hit Space Mountain, Finding Nemo and Buzz's Astro Blasters. The park opens at 9am so early entry is 8am.
PFF 9:30am
Toontown 10am – Meet n Greet Fab 5 (Hit IASW on the way)
Ranch to see Santa and decorate cookies
Upgrade to AP for Kayla and me (Yay! Discounts!)
Lunch: Billy Hill and Hillbillies
Adventureland, New Orleans and Critter Country (Must get a Tigger Tail)
Christmas Parade 6:30pm
Dinner: French Market if it’s not too cold (AP Discount?)
Fireworks: 7:45pm
DL closes at 8 pm.

Friday
Breakfast: Lilo and Stitch 8am (AAA or AP Discount)
The schedule says the park opens at 10am but they let people in at 9:30 and only Soarin' is open. They block off the rest of the park and a line forms for the new Toy Story Mania. A cast member then walks the line to the ride at 10am.
Lunch: ? (Must get a corn dog)
Playhouse Disney: 10:30 11:30 12:30 2:15 3:15 4:15
The Pixar Play Parade: 5:15
Dinner: ? DCA closes at 9pm. DL closes at 12am
Fantasmic: 10:30pm. (possibly ride Jungle Cruise on the way, POTC and HM after)

Saturday
DL is open 8am - 12am. *Big Thunder Mountain Railroad (BTMRR) is now Open*
Breakfast: Blue Ribbon Bakery
Adventureland – FP and ride BTMRR, FP and ride Indy, Mark Twain, Tom Sawyer Island
Lunch: ?
Snack: Blue Bayou 3pm
Christmas Parade: 1:15 3:15
Jedi Training Academy: 10:30 11:35 12:40 2:25 3:30 4:35
Dinner: ?
Fantasmic: 9:00 10:30 Fireworks: 9:25

Sunday – DL opens at 8am –Minnie and Friend’s Breakfast at 8am (AAA or AP discount)




I try to leave it as flexible as possible yet still know which direction to go in.

 

[Katiebell]

We do DL at least once a year, and have only done WDW twice. I found that planning WDW was overwhelming -- had to plan what park we'd be at each day based on EMH and shows, parades etc, make dinner ADR's 6 months in advance at or near that park, figure out which rides are the hardest to get on (like TSM, I am so glad we grabbed a FP for that first thing, then rode it stand by with a 20 min wait, then came back later with our FP -- otherwise, we never would have got a chance to ride it that day). *whew* Lot of work, but we had a great vacation

DL on the other hand...we've been so many times, it's like our home town. We know all the nooks and crannies, the best least-crowded bathrooms , the little hideaways. Sometimes we commando it, ropedrop until they kick us out, and other times our trip is totally relaxed. About the only thing I do is figure out what restaurants I think we'd like to try (we usually do one sit down meal a day, and try to go back to old favorites as well as try new places). This December, on a day that we plan to spend mostly at DCA, we are going to have dinner with the princesses (Brrt will indulge me and do this). We love Goofy's for brunch, may go back to the BB although the prices are insane now, and might go back to Ralph Brennan's -- the banana's foster is fabulous. We will take advantage of our MM to hit Fantasyland and hopefully get in PP, Matterhorn, and Nemo before the lines are too long. We are meeting a DIS friend on Saturday, and a friend of mine from work and her mom on Sun or Mon...that's about the extent of our plan!

 

[Sleepless Knight]

My plans may be somewhat unique. I'm an AP commando, probably since I live 5 1/2 hours away so I have to plan to go down. My first order of business is to usually see if there's a brand new attraction that I need to say because it hadn't opened on my prior visit since the DLR has opened 2 new attractions in the past 2 years.

I love getting to the parks early. On my last visit, I decided to have a couple of sleep in days since I was so exhausted and since I've been so often, but on my non sleep in day I got a lot more done because early morning touring is crucial to minimizing lines.

I also try to plan out certain activities like shopping or shows for the afternoon when the temperature is the hottest and crowds are the biggest. That way I'm out of the heat and away from the crowds.

 

[kkmcan]

I usually start with park hours and what our dining PS plans are. Then I take into account what days the Magical morning are. We have APs so we don't get that perk. I makes a difference on what side of the park we start on whether its MM or regular hours. So for instance on our last trip I had:

Mon night -Arrive, checkin, Whitewater Snacks for dinner, head into DCA for a few rides.

Tues- MM so we started at regular park opening at Adventureland - Indiana Jones, Pirates, HM, Pooh and Big Thunder Mtn. Lunch at Blue Bayou. Back to room to rest. Evening at DL.

Wed- No MM so Fantasyland first thing upon opening. Do those rides, then hop to DCA for rides and Trattoria for lunch. Back to room to rest. Evening at DL.

Thurs- Rest day for TOT party. Wandered thru downtown disney. Rode the monorail. Ate at Whitewater snacks for lunch. Back to room for rest. Dinner at Subway. ToT party 6:30

Friday- Went into park for a few rides, rode monorail to downtown disney. Goofy's kitchen brunch 11:20. Rode a few rides in DCA. Back to room for rest.
Fri. night DL for fireworks.

Sat-home

Plans usually fall together once I have made my PS's and figure out which days for which park based on MM or non MM day and where our PS's are. I don't plan which rides at which times. Just a general where will we be when.

 

[cedarparkgirl]

Great thread! We were in DL in 2007 and I was definitely in Commando/Nazi mode trying to pretend (only to myself but obviously not to everyone else) I was going with the flow. The problem with being militant with sticking to a schedule is burning out and making everyone else in the group unhappy. The only one unhappy in our group was Dh. I made him run around pushing the double stroller and hopping parks to get FP's. I shamelessly admit it. Our kids had a wonderful time though. Its hard.. so many people here put many many many MANY hours planning a preparing. And if you are like me.. you may even feel a sense of reward when the plan is followed through and the results show.

I will say though.. IMO Commando is not the way to go with small kids. When we breaked at midday back to the hotel to swim and have dinner we never made it back into the park for the evening. We were all too tired, and as for me.. well my feet hurt so stinkin' bad.

We are going back at the end of March. I have planned just about everything except our touring plan. But I know it must get done.. I am just not mentally ready yet to take this on. I know its not rocket science but in some ways it kind of is. I know there are some new things since our last visit so I will have to account for that too. I am not sure why I am writing all of this except to feel somewhat Validated from fellow DisBoarders that this is worth it.. to spend hours here planning the best magical trip I can for my family and for me. I have bookmarked this thread to start planning our trip.. perhaps after the holidays. Thanks again for all the wonderful info here.

I also made one for California Adventure, Downtown Disney, and Disneyland resort restaurants.

Jennifer out of curiosity what does your DTD itinerary look like?

 

[kkmcan]

I will say this- we loosely planned what park we would be in when and where we would start every morning this last trip and we felt like we didn't do as much this time around. Only once on Space, once on Muholland, once on Splash, once on each of the fantasyland rides. We usually do everything twice and our favorites 3 times. We never made it on TOT, Monsters, Tiki Room, and bugs land. After thinking about what went wrong we came up with the fact that we did a lot of sit down restaurants and that took up quite a bit of time. We also did a rest every afternoon which we usually do but somehow it seemed to take up more time this time.

Next trip we are only doing 1 or 2 sit down restaurants and maybe a shorter break or no break at all- or maybe the restaurant will be our break.

I will still plan out where we go when because I think you need a plan of where the crowds will be so you can avoid them but we probably will use our time better.

 

[RuthieT]

We really dont have a plan for our up and coming trip, except our PS reservations and what day we are at what park... Do plans normally work out?? I mean you never know what the lines will be like.

 

[avalon451]

Whenever I've had a plan, we always deviate from it, but I expect that, so it's ok. I just like to make the plans so that we know we'll be doing, for example, Magic Morning in Fantasyland... couple of favorites... character breakfast... hop to DCA for favorites... I will always have a specific ride order, but if we don't feel like it, or it's closed or whatever, we just roll with it. This way, we are never saying, "Whaddayawanna do?" "I dunno, whadda YOU wanna do?" There's always the next thing on the list.

If you have the plan but go with the expectation that it's not going to be perfect, and you don't have to flog your family into following it, you'll be fine.

 

[bumbershoot]

Each time I've gone my planning has been different. And we've been extremely lucky, in that we haven't yet hit a truly busy time, let alone a super-busy time. My time for that is coming, I'm quite sure, but it hasn't shown up yet.


The first two times we went it was just a day trip. I did have quite a schedule! And my brother and SIL made fun of me for it. Soon after I pretended to abandon it, but really the program showed back up when THEY would say "so what do you wannado next?" I *always* had an answer for them, no map-looking needed. Well they would pull out the map, and I would pretend to look, but not only did I know what to "suggest", but I knew where it was, too.

Then our "year of Disneyland", which has been extended another year *just like Disney does!!!*, started, and each trip has been different from those day trips. If you have 3, 4, 5 days, you don't have to blast through.

Trips with DS, I tend to hit that first day harder than I would alone, b/c I want to make sure HIS must-dos are done. If something he wants to ride is open, I want to get on it, just in case it goes down later in the trip. It also helps so we know what he loves on that trip, so the ride can be "filler" later, when hubby and I split off so that one can do "big" rides while the other plays with DS.


On this solo trip I just took, I didn't have much of a chance to think about what I would do, not like my solo in January. I found myself at the gates ridiculously early b/c I got on the first train up from San Diego (had a ticket for the second train). After helping a family figure out MTTMM and after chatting with the family in front of me who, while I was helping the other family, was chosen to open the parks, I found myself at the front of the line (after the chosen family was whisked inside). The kind CM at my gate started handing out maps and Entertainment Times Guides, so I went through and crossed out what I did NOT want to see or go on, and circled what I DID want to go on or see.

That's the extent of my planning this time.

 

[MickeyNikiNaka]

WOW!

I thought I had things under control but you guys all blow me out of the water.

The only thing I can really say that I have done is looked at this forum. I have planned pretty much everything from this one site, my friends all think that I'm crazy but it's the honest to goodness truth. I still have a few months left and thanks to avalon I will have maps in my possession very soon to actually plot out my route.

Having never been to DL before I've just tried to troubleshoot everything I possibly could from this site or asking people who have already been. I have also complied a list of things that I considered "Useful information" that I plan on printing out and reading to refresh my brian on the flight down.

Next month is when I plan on really bunkering down and planning out my enitre trip. Until then I'm really just looking on this website to find all the information I think will help me make this probably one and only trip the most memorable trip it could be!

 

[Sherry E]

What a great thread. Ahhh...so nice to know I am not the only one who labors intensively over details of a DLR plan, no matter how short the trip or how lengthy. It's funny - in past DL trips (let's say, maybe, circa 1986 - 1995), I sort of evolved and grew to become the designated planner of these little jaunts to see Mickey. I didn't ask for that title, nor did I even necessarily want it - planning can be a lot of work AND it can be a pain in the booty - but I could see that other folks who were going along on the trips were not interested in figuring anything out, whereas I was always keeping my eye on anything new we might need to do while there. People would sort of chuckle derisively when referring to "Sherry the Planner" and it annoyed me at first, because I thought that if anyone else bothered to put as much thought into these trips as I did, I wouldn't have to be The Planner. Over several years we tried the old 'winging it' routine. We had many moments where someone would pose the inevitable question, "So..what you do wanna do now?" Somehow, nobody ever had a good answer. It was like nobody wanted to actually make a choice for everyone else in the group, so we stood or wandered around, wasting time, staring at each other, getting cranky, until finally someone uttered the fateful sentence, "Well, I don't know about you, but I am ready to leave." LEAVE? Noooooooooooo! It can't be! There is so much left to see...so much uncharted territory. We can't...go....h-h-h-...home... So after one too many times of this sort of needless scenario transpiring, I decided to just accept and embrace my identity - Sherry the Planner it shall be! I knew I needed to take the reins and guide all future trips to ensure that we had very few of those moments where we thought we had nothing to do.

That said, I am impatient. When a DLR trip is in the works, I really have to be in the mood to sit down, focus, and get into the frame of mind where I can create a cohesive plan. It doesn't have to be an inflexible plan. It can just be something to work with so if one of those dreaded What-do-you-wanna-do moments comes up, I will armed with The Plan. So to get myself in the mood for writing up my plan, I sometimes will watch some of the DLR or WDW specials that air on the Travel Channel or the Food Network. There are bunches of them. Those are great to watch in between trips to reignite one's eagerness to visit a Disney park or to just get in an overall Disney kind of mood. After that, I am usually rarin' to go. I first assess whether or not there are any new attractions we need to see, or anything new that we missed on the previous trip. Those are always a priority. Then I work in our perennial favorites and can't-miss'. As for dining, I write down any name of any restaurant that I know we already love, as well as anything else new I think we may like. Sometimes I hit a roadblock when I am trying to squeeze in a bunch of restaurants and coordinate them around WHEN I think we may be hungry (based on past experiences), HOW hungry we may be (depending on where we ate breakfast), and who else will be joining us at what time of the day. If that person (or people) joining us decides not to go into the parks, then I have to make sure I choose a restaurant ouside of the two parks (but in DLR) so that we can eat and visit with the friends in case they don't want to park hop. It can be stressful and confusing after a while, trying to coordinate all our meals within those guidelines. If my mind just locks up, which it usually does, then I just put the itinerary down for a day or two and then come back to it. I like to try to incorporate one new restaurant into each trip, work in all of our tried and true favorites (which includes Goofy's Kitchen every time!) and then make my PS's. I have to usually leave some of our preferred restaurants off the agenda, but in October, I was pretty successful in getting in most of the ones we would like to eat in.

We don't do as many rides as we used to in the old days. That is not my choice. I would like to go on more things, but we just never seem to have as much time or my companions are not interested. So we ride the things we REALLY love over and over again, and maybe jump into a line or two that looks short. One of my friends always needs to sit down and rest a lot - even aside from our scheduled mid-day hotel rest breaks - and frankly, that takes up time and discourages me from pushing for more rides. So I just try to do what I know she can handle, but we still end up missing a lot. I also LOVE to browse the shops - even if I cannot buy anything - just to see if those adorable tchotchkes can tempt me. It is like I am daring Mickey (in an Old West, 'This town ain't big enough for the both of us' showdown), "Go ahead, Mouse... show me what you got... I've bought plenty of cute knick-knacks from you in the past...I bet you can't tempt me to buy any MORE..." My friend sometimes has patience for shops, sometimes she does not. So if she is outside waiting for me, I feel like I cannot leisurely examine all the goods in the DLR stores (she is probably doing me a favor by making me feel like I have to rush, and saving me hundreds of dollars!).

No matter how good the itinerary, it never goes exactly the way it was written, but last trip to DLR was pretty successful in the ways it NEEDED to be - which were saving us time in lines, taking lots of pictures and eating lots of good meals and getting rest. I did miss out on some things I wanted to do, but we still had a good balance of everything overall...just not enough time, I suppose! Another excuse to go back...