Go with the flow or plan plan plan?!

[North of Mouse]

I am an over planner by nature. I love planning Disney trips.

That said, how much planning do you do?

Do you plan which parks you'll visit which day?

Do you plan which rides you'll do, in which order?

You you plan out where and when you'll eat?

Or... do you go with the flow?!

Other than a few ADR's and some FP's we just go with the flow, sometimes just disregarding FP's that don't mean that much to us to 'hop' to another park - much more relaxing to us (just dh & I).

 

[mel&me]

Plan which park on which day only because of fast passes.
Will plan on a restaurant only if there is a place we really want,
Will plan for an event or tour if there is something specific we want to do on our trip
That's about it. total time planning about one day

 

[Toon crazy]

I love to plan. Meals fast passes everything.

 

[wsssup]

I think they go hand in hand. Plan away with your dinning choices and fastpasses however be prepared to adapt and go with the flow sometimes as no one can predict crowds, ride breakdowns etc.

Being prepared both ways will give you a stress free holiday.

 

[Disneylover99]

I like to plan in advance. But sometimes we wake up in the morning on our trip and decide to go to a different park, maybe decide to go in the evening instead of the morning, so we change our fp's, maybe make an ADR, etc....

The real key to planning is your back-up plan. Keep it flexible, but still know what you want to accomplish if you suddenly decide to change parks.

 

[Nancyg56]

I am a haphazard planner. I will plan the parks days, and our ADR's to coincide with them. I add the FP based on the time frame we think we will be in the park, and that is about it. By now, for us, every trip has a little focus. One time may be to concentrate on Holiday shows and decorations, another on specific attractions that we tend to miss. Every trip tends to be resort centric, and we make sure we explore and enjoy whatever resort we choose.

I think that those of us who are familiar with Disney plan more than we realize, simply because we know what is there, where it is and what we like to do. I know that when we arrive at any given park there are attractions my family likes and things we enjoy doing or seeing in that park, so we tend to gravitate towards that area. We know that after dinner on our Epcot night I will manage to find my way to a nice viewing spot for Illuminations, and that when we hit the MK in the morning, we are going to circle FantasyLand first, because those queues get pretty long if we wait, end up with Philharmagic because we can always get in, and then have lunch.

 

[FePena]

There are two types of plans for every guest at WDW: Plan #1 includes at least a skeletal schedule of best park days/FP+/and ADRs. Plan #2 is for guests who
plan to stand in long lines and enjoy fewer attractions, late meals, and missed opportunities.

100% agree

 

[TiggerBouncy]

We have changed over the years. When we were younger, we would plan everything. We knew every ride we were going to go on, in what order, where we would eat - practically every step we would take.

Since we joined DVC and go on a regular basis, we have changed our style. We now generally know:
* Which park we are LIKELY to hit. We have to know this because:
* we will decide if there are any new fireworks shows or even old ones that we just really want to see.
* Next We will plan a few ADR's. For example, we always do one meal at Via Nappoli. So we make that ADR. We usually want to try 2 or so new restaurants. So we plan those. Generally don't have more then 3-4 ADR"s in a week trip.
By this time, we have a park schedule (or at least a few days have locked parks).
* So we will usually put on some FP+'s. These are only the must do's, and are usually the insurance policy that we get to do those things.

That's about the extent of our plans.

How often we follow them also changes. We usually plan the FP+'s in the afternoon. We usually get to the parks in the morning. If we hit the rides we care about in the morning, we may dump the FP+'s and go wonder or do something else or even go back to the hotel and chill at the pool. However, we also know that if we don't feel like getting to the park in the morning or if we get distracted, we will still be able to hit the things we care about most.

 

[Klayfish]

I'm going to go against the grain here, which I know many don't agree with. Minimal planning. We do plan what park we want to go to on a given day, because we need to do that in order to get FP+. However, it's not done because of crowd calendar, day of the week, or anything else. It's purely random and done for variety. Other than that, no planning. We don't eat in restaurants, we pack our own food, so we eat when we're hungry. Once our FP+ are done, we "freestyle" and do whatever we feel like doing. Sometimes we even change our originally planned park and FP+. We're on vacation, we don't want to be bound by plans, times, etc...our normal life has too much of that.

 

[OB1]

I think the planning can be determined by experience level. Early on, we planned out much more than we do now. We do plan
Park of the day and probable hop
FP
and especially what we do on arrival
Our only rush of the day will be the 1st and maybe 2nd attraction, then we just cruise

Its nice to not be totally locked in, but the FP will determine certain directions

We have given up on table service as the pricing has gotten too high. We do plan when to leave the parks for lunch since we have discovered some great places off property.

 

[AnnaS]

Very minimal planning. Most trips are usually a 7 night stay. We will make 3 maybe 4 ADRs. We will make FPs for 3/4 days. We have changed it up a bit here and there. There are trips where we might meet up with some DVC friends. We love to spend time by the pool, dinner at resorts, strolling the BW area, Disney Springs and a drink once or twice at TOWL. We know we will be back and when with our DVC - so we don't feel we have to do it all in any trip. Now if my oldest son is with us with his family - we follow an itinerary

 

[cmarsh31]

Planning. Disney is my happy place. It involves color-coded spreadsheets. Universal made me panic - we got there and I DIDN'T KNOW WHAT TO DO! *panic* That said, if we need to change plans/parks on the fly (usually due to weather), we're happy to drop a half-day somewhere and hop to another park, etc.

Looking forward to analyzing the cost of the dining plan vs. upgrading to an AP and getting the AP discounts at some restaurants...

 

[piglet1979]

Cool! Do you know where you got the spreadsheet? I'd like to do that.

My husband made it. Here are the headers we used. The location we used what land/area it was in. The Y/N/M stands for Yes/No/maybe on if we wanted to do the ride. We also added shows and parades to the list.

Location Name Indoor/Outdoor Y/N/M Attract Time FP Wait Tips

 

[buzznina]

I am an over planner by nature. I love planning Disney trips.

That said, how much planning do you do?

Do you plan which parks you'll visit which day?

Do you plan which rides you'll do, in which order?

You you plan out where and when you'll eat?

Or... do you go with the flow?!

We use to to do the plan, plan plan way, that included RD, park touring plans of ride order etc. and we are soooo glad that we stopped We would get everything done but truthfully when it was over, a lot of times we felt like we needed a vacation from the vacation. Now we just plan the park/days and our FP's and once in awhile an ADR or two, rarely do RD and we will go to MK with PM EMH(yep, totally against tour plans. LOL) and for us it has been so much better and definitely a lot more relaxing. We learned that there is so much more to the parks then just rushing between rides etc. I agree you should do at least the very basic planning of park/days and FPs, to at least guarantee having 3 good rides.

 

[piglet1979]

Planning. Disney is my happy place. It involves color-coded spreadsheets. Universal made me panic - we got there and I DIDN'T KNOW WHAT TO DO! *panic* That said, if we need to change plans/parks on the fly (usually due to weather), we're happy to drop a half-day somewhere and hop to another park, etc.

Looking forward to analyzing the cost of the dining plan vs. upgrading to an AP and getting the AP discounts at some restaurants...

This is what we do. Had to make changes on the fly on our last trip because of a Tropical Storm. We were able to switch ADR's around. We did get lucky that the storm hit more at night so we just kept our FP's and parks the same. We were able to to stay in the park (EPCOT) until about 2 before the rain started. It did throw plans off though. I wanted to meet Joy and Sadness first because of lines but we decided to do Test Track first since it would close for rain. We had to stand in a longer line at the meet and greet but we got to do everything we wanted. We love to plan but we also know that things can change and can go with the flow if need be.

 

[bluezy]

I have a general plan but there's a lot of flexibility in it. We usually go for 7 days so I plan which parks we're going to on each day. We usually do rope drop once at each park with FPs scheduled in that park for late morning/early afternoon. After the FPs are used, we play it by ear either staying in that park and getting additional FPs or we might hop to another park or just go back to the resort for a break and return to a park in the evening. We have a few "must do" rides/shows in each park and do our best to accomplish each of those; everything else is icing on the cake. We try to plan a few late nights (especially enjoy the evening emh at MK and/or a fireworks cruise at Epcot) followed by a sleep-in day with a more relaxed schedule (usually scheduling FPs for late afternoon that day). We make very few -- if any -- ADRs. At some point in the afternoon we'll check the app to see what ADRs are available for when we think we want to eat dinner. If there's something that appeals to us, we book it. If not, we just eat at a QS location. We're not food focused when we're at Disney so that helps us to have a more relaxed schedule.

We only get to Disney World once every year or two. If we visited more frequently, I would plan even less. I like to have a game plan so we don't have 8 people wasting hours trying to figure out where to go and what to do, but nothing is set in stone for us.

 

[Nancyg56]

We use to to do the plan, plan plan way, that included RD, park touring plans of ride order etc. and we are soooo glad that we stopped We would get everything done but truthfully when it was over, a lot of times we felt like we needed a vacation from the vacation. Now we just plan the park/days and our FP's and once in awhile an ADR or two, rarely do RD and we will go to MK with PM EMH(yep, totally against tour plans. LOL) and for us it has been so much better and definitely a lot more relaxing. We learned that there is so much more to the parks then just rushing between rides etc. I agree you should do at least the very basic planning of park/days and FPs, to at least guarantee having 3 good rides.

This is us now. WE never were good at getting it all in, but somehow managed to accomplish all we wanted by the end of the trip. On our first trip back since my own kids were young we would have been considered "that" family that is teased about on the DIS. Our first day in the MK included one attraction and that was the carousel. We had our lunch in CRT planned, and wanted the afternoon parade, but other than that did not care about a thing, and it was the best day ever!!! Our trips are always like this, meals and parks planned, a few must do attractions and anything else is a bonus.

 

[North of Mouse]

There are two types of plans for every guest at WDW: Plan #1 includes at least a skeletal schedule of best park days/FP+/and ADRs. Plan #2 is for guests who
plan to stand in long lines and enjoy fewer attractions, late meals, and missed opportunities.

Guess we don't fit in neither! Never plan best park, minimum FP's only because you have to choose three - mostly only use the mainliner and only three ADR's for our 10 day trip. Totally relax and never stand in long lines. So, nothing missed with us.

 

[TXHauntedMansionFan]

How about a little bit of both?

I DO plan which park on which day, seems the only way to get ADR's.

I DO plan my 3 FP+ rides, and try to arrange them so that we wind up where we want to be for our lunch.

I DO plan table service meals. Counter service, we may have an idea of where we want to eat each day, but nothing set in stone as far as that goes.

Even with all of that planning, I am perfectly fine changing things up. Generally we don't mess with the ADR's but rides can and sometimes do get changed on the fly, counter service is often changed as we go. Being flexible is the key to having a really enjoyable trip I think.

This would be us almost to a T as well. We plan TS meals and FPs which give us the certainty of which park we'll be at during the day at some point. We buy park hoppers so we are typically at more than one park per day. The park (other than the one we've got FP for that day) is always up for grabs.

 

[JustinD]

Both. You have to do some pre-planning in order to go with the flow. If you don't pre-plan, then you end up planning on the spot. That can be ok if you are a veteran, not so much for a first time visitor.

In addition, because you can now book fastpasses ahead of time, you need to do some sort of planning to accomplish that. I sort of wish it did not work this way. We used to just pre-plan the first 4 days, one day for each park, and then go with the flow. However, since you pretty much need to pre-book fastpasses now, that does not work as well as it used to.

Like most people here, I setup a spreadsheet that includes the hours and extra magic hours for each park each day. Then I add in the busy scores from a couple of sites for each day. I combine that with experience and decide which parks to visit on each day. Then I get my fastpasses and add that in. And then any meal reservations.

I use that as a framework. I also like to make sure that we know what attraction we will go to first thing in the morning, but you can plan that on the way to the park. Never stand in the middle of MainStreet USA trying to figure out what to do first. Instead, put a smile on your face, hold hands, and walk to your first fun.