Go with the flow or plan plan plan?!

[Pmlocke]

If you are traveling with children you may need to do a lot of planning to make sure you hit all the right marks to make for a pleasant unforgettable trip. My wife and I are in our 60's and we travel every year and the only planning we do is our dining reservations. Other than that, we wake up, have breakfast, walk out to the bus line area and wait for the first bus to arrive. That determines usually where we are going for the morning. Our dining reservation determines where we will be for the evening. That's it. No fast passes, nothing. Talk about a stress free, relaxing vacation.

 

[richmo]

I'm kind of a hybrid planner, I guess. I'll plan to the extent to what parks I want to go to on which day, and of course that dictates setting up FP+'s at either the 30 or 60 day mark, depending on whether I'm/we're staying onsite or not. Of course, any ADR's can influence planning also.

But, my planning doesn't go much further than that, other than using some knowledge from past experience. For example, early in the morning is a good time to catch Big Thunder without a Fastpass (sometimes more than once). Beyond that, I certainly don't plan anywhere near being in a certain spot at a certain time...I just like to go with the flow. Maximizing a number of rides in a certain time frame isn't that important to me. I'm on vacation and don't want to feel rushed all the time. If I miss something, there's always another day or another trip.

 

[miamimi]

We had a great plan in place each day thanks to Touring Plans, but then upon arrival and after requesting our SDFP through the kiosks (which worked perfectly) we had to make some accommodations on the fly. That being said, SDFP meant that for the rides you really wanted to go on, like Space Mountain or EE for example, you could rope drop in the morning, have your original FP tied to your vacation account already in place, and the grab a later SDFP towards closing, giving you 3 rides if not more. A true godsend.

I had the same experience with legacy FP, but with legacy it was much easier : ride at RD and then 2-3 additional FP's for the same ride throughout the day, if we wanted.

 

[Koz]

I had the same experience with legacy FP, but with legacy it was much easier : ride at RD and then 2-3 additional FP's for the same ride throughout the day, if we wanted.

Legacy FP was great, but you tended to run the parks a bit, "banking" fast passes to use later in the day. It was almost like "OK, you guys go to Splash at Rope Drop, wait for me there, I'm going to run ahead to Space Mountain to grab FP's for 9AM that we'll use later in the day."

 

[miamimi]

Legacy FP was great, but you tended to run the parks a bit, "banking" fast passes to use later in the day. It was almost like "OK, you guys go to Splash at Rope Drop, wait for me there, I'm going to run ahead to Space Mountain to grab FP's for 9AM that we'll use later in the day."

Maybe that's true for your family, but it wasn't true for my family. No running involved for us.

The nicest thing was that I never received a notification from Disney telling me that the FP+ reservation I made for BTMRR 2 weeks ago, had been switched to Buzz.

 

[GillianP1301]

I plan a ton, mostly because I really enjoy it. I find the more I plan, the more I can go with the flow once I'm there. To me it's not about having a touring plan and following it down to the minute, it's about having a deep enough knowledge about all that is offered so when my touring plan falls off the rails, I can quickly adjust and not waste time staring at a map while I'm lost in the middle of a park.

 

[mom2rtk]

Legacy FP was great, but you tended to run the parks a bit, "banking" fast passes to use later in the day. It was almost like "OK, you guys go to Splash at Rope Drop, wait for me there, I'm going to run ahead to Space Mountain to grab FP's for 9AM that we'll use later in the day."

We never had that problem. We would pull a FP, do other things in that land, then use our FP before leaving. Sometimes it didn't work out, but most of the time it did.

And I think you have to be careful saying how great the system is if you are also using SDFP's. That's not really how the system was designed and many people are not even aware of that loophole.

 

[thingwithwings]

I try not to plan TOO too much. We've got our ADRs and our FP+, but I think it helps that DH and I aren't really big ride people, our son is too small to go on big rides, and that leaves my BFF to run through the single-rider lines by herself.

Our lists of must-dos are pretty short, too, which helps. At this point, I'm mostly just excited to take BFF to the Yachtsman for the first time and for DS to meet Mickey and Star Wars characters. I think that helps with the planning--there aren't a lot of things that, for us, would ruin the trip if we didn't get to do them. And, in the end, it's more about (a) DS getting to see the magic for the first time and (b) spending time together as a family.

Which is, I suppose, all to say that we do minimal planning.

 

[Klayfish]

If you are traveling with children you may need to do a lot of planning to make sure you hit all the right marks to make for a pleasant unforgettable trip. My wife and I are in our 60's and we travel every year and the only planning we do is our dining reservations. Other than that, we wake up, have breakfast, walk out to the bus line area and wait for the first bus to arrive. That determines usually where we are going for the morning. Our dining reservation determines where we will be for the evening. That's it. No fast passes, nothing. Talk about a stress free, relaxing vacation.

Do you really just hop on the first bus that shows up and go wherever it's going? That's so cool.

Traveling with kids will depend a lot, at least in my opinion, on how often you've been there. If you're a first or second time visitor, I'd agree you may want to have a more structured plan to try to hit all the big things. If you're lucky enough to visit somewhat often, it's less important. The more we go, the less the kids care specifically what we do (except for a few things). That doesn't mean they don't care about going, quite the opposite is true, they're falling more and more in love with it. It's just that they're less concerned with hitting specific things.

 

[PrincessWithABlaster]

I'm not a vacation planner by nature. Disney is the only one I go overboard on. But yes I plan days in park because we don't do park hoppers. I get FPs and ADRs so we can go on the rides and restaurants we want without excess waits. I do use TP but have come to the compromise that I will only enforce the morning. I really just want to know what we need to do early to avoid long lines. And if the family calls an audible I will roll with it (it about killed me though when Hubby wanted to do a ride on the people mover before a second ride on TLSW). But once we've done must do morning rides I don't plan any rides beyond what we have a fast pass for. Gotta leave room for some spontaneity.

 

[sharadoc]

With a family, I plan everything. When it was just Dh and I, we went with the flow.

Now I plan parks, FP+, meals and transportation. My day is outlined. However, if we don't follow it, that's okay. But I like to start with a plan and fix it on the fly.

 

[Hikergirl]

I prepare more than I plan if that make sense. I read up on anything new and exciting happening, refurbs, park hour changes, restaurant reviews, etc. There will be things I want to do and see but no rigid plan in place.
This past trip was my first using FP+ and since it was only one park for the days we were there it was easy. Not sure I will like the idea of picking rides and parks 2 months in advance when it is time for the next trip. I like to go with the flow, but in a controlled way

I did do alot more preparing for this last trip since it was just dh and I. I wasn't really sure how to do WDW without the kids so I came here for guidance.

 

[kelmac284]

For DW I HAVE to plan. Esp this trip as we are going at Xmas but even if I went at a time that I would consider down time I would still make a basic plan. To be honest I wish it wasn't that way. It would be nice to go with the flow but sadly that is not how it works.

 

[tlmadden73]

What others have said: both.

Plan on Fast Passes for the morning and loosely plan a general "flow" around the park (Start in Tomorrowland .. go to Fantasyland ..etc.) ..

That leaves the afternoon flexible and open for spontaneous things like shows or shopping .. for a rest for tired and cranky people .. or a snack or early dinner.