Going From a Mega-Planner to Laid Back - Is It Possible?

[bizeemom4]

I guess my question is, has anyone else been a mega-planner like me and done a trip where it was a more laid back, hang by the pool type vacation? How was the experience for you? Crazy as it sounds, I'm a little nervous. We will still make a reservation or two, and maybe grab some fast passes, but is it possible to go from one extreme to the other? Would love to hear others who might have had a similar experience.

Yes. It took about 20 trips but yes, now I do a loose plan based on crowds but I do what I want. I was just there for 21 nights and I didn't see Illuminations, Fantasmic or ROL. I went really slowly and did a few hours a day and rested and goofed off the rest of the day. And it felt so good!

 

[hamilkm]

Yes! I was able to stop doing this when we started getting AP’s and now we are DVC. My trip next week I actually have no rope drops planned. I do still plan ADR’s because some of our favorites require them. I also make our 3 fast passes, but those may be our only rides. This trip is focused on the Holiday shows and decorations.
Our last trip back in March we went to the parks in the morning and spent the rest of the day at the pool. We usually don’t make rope drop anymore because we are content with what fast passes we can get and doing short line attractions. We also go about 3 times per year now, so we will catch whatever we missed next time! I do find myself going back to my old ways when other people come with us. I feel like I need to get them their money’s worth, lol!

 

[alex9179]

Well, I thought I was a mega-planner until I read what you did. I have to agree with others. Being so close to two parks and not being able to pop over would drive me mad. Look at the cost difference between the tickets and judge where to go from there.

I'm coming up on my 5th trip since 2012. Not a seasoned park go-er, by any stretch. Having a plan for low waits and ready food was paramount for my kids. Even then, my youngest melted down every 20-30 minutes the first couple of trips. I know it would have been worse if I didn't have an outline. A trip with my mother put it all in perspective. She has terrible motion sickness, so a lot of the rides were/would have been too much for her. You can have a ton of fun without focusing on them. There's SO MUCH going on around the parks and it's a shame they're often bypassed because of a schedule.

I'm going with my cousin for my January trip and it will be her first time. I have an AP/TiW (food/drink discounts!) and she has 7 day tickets. Most days we'll visit two parks with FP and serious touring in the AM, while PM will be whatever ride is available/lounges/evening spectaculars. I have ZERO dinner ADRs for the 7 nights. Only CG brunch and VN for lunch. I think it will be wonderful! Sure, I have an outline in my head. It's my Plan B in case impromptu fun doesn't materialize...but I haven't had a trip where I didn't wish we could linger and enjoy the entertainment that showed up unexpectedly.

 

[PrincessWithABlaster]

I don’t consider myself a mega planner (although if having spreadsheets makes you one, I guess I’m guilty). I get more laid back each year but I think to be truly laid back I’d need to have an AP. It’s hard for me not to try to be maximizing what we can do when we have limited time in the World and it’s not exactly cheap. We had annual passes for the zoo and that totally changed how we went there (a couple hours here, a couple there). I could see doing that at Disney with APs. Not so much without.

 

[Bullseye]

Love this thread! It's good to hear the opinions of those who have made many trips who feel the same as me. I'm always going to plan ADR's because dining is probably my favorite thing to do on vacation and FP's just because who likes to wait in lines . But park time is geared more towards quality than quantity. After many trips I don't need as much park time as I used to. Even more so once we joined DVC. I have no problem hanging back to watch a hockey game or read a book or just enjoy the resort. I don't like being on the go every day all day.

 

[DisneyMom93]

Yep, exactly this. I could never do just 2 park days if I'm in WDW for 5 days. But from the planning perspective, yes, you absolutely can do that. We were never planners to the extent OP is. Never did a spreadsheet, etc... But we did rope drops, had clear plans and agendas, etc...for our first trip. We quickly realized it definitely wasn't for us. The trip we just completed for Thanksgiving...I kid you not...we sketched out our plans on the back of a Dunkin' Donuts napkin. Simply wrote what park we wanted to "try" to be in on which day so that I could make FP+ at 30 days (we stay offsite and bring our own food in) and that was it. We slept in as long as we wanted, changed plans pretty much daily...well, to be fair we did stick to the parks that were on the napkin but changed rides, did impromptu things after finishing our first 3 FP+, etc...

We wouldn't have it any other way. I could never do a vacation that required a spreadsheet.

Some people create a layout of their plan in a computer (spreadsheet). Others do a layout of their plan on a piece of paper, or a napkin. It's really the same thing. I don't see how having a "spreadsheet" is considered different than having "clear plans and agendas" written out on a napkin.

If anyone wants to plan their FPs they need some kind of spreadsheet or calendar, etc because you will have to plan which park you want to do on a certain day. I create a spreadsheet in Excel because it's neater, and if we decide to switch something around (mostly due to availability) we don't have to scribble and cross out. I also don't have to worry about someone wiping their mouth with my plan. LOL.

Whether you stick to that plan so that you can be spontaneous on vacation is a different story.

I agree that I would never do just 2 park days if we are there for 5 days. We do 10 days at the parks and 5 days relaxing. We don't do the parks on weekends (3 weekends) so that's when we relax full out. During the week we have our FPs and a few ADRs and just worked around them.

We also don't park hop so that we aren't in a rush to finish at the first park and then travel over to the next. We find it more relaxing to know that we will be spending the entire day at one park so we can just enjoy that park. It does help though that we spend ten days at the parks so we know we have time for everything.

My one piece of advice for anyone who wants to relax while at the park is don't keep checking the app for wait times for rides when you are dining or taking a break for a snack. The two extra minutes you spend just relaxing and enjoying that snack can make a wait time go up from ten minutes to 40 minutes and then that's just frustrating. Especially if you're done with your snack and the others aren't. Just relax and enjoy the down time.

 

[DisneyMom93]

I have to chuckle because after dark is our favorite time to be in the parks!

While part of me would prefer a later start, I also appreciate mornings in the parks. It isn't even lower crowds per say, as much as the parks are pretty/refreshed in the morning that makes the mornings enjoyable for us.

That's our dilemma. That's why we stay from opening to closing. LOL. But we go in November so the parks aren't open until 11pm. MK was for one day this past trip and my husband and I kept telling our kids (and ourselves) we can't stay until 11pm because we are going to a park tomorrow too. We stayed until 10:50pm. We just couldn't leave. It was so relaxing having all that time and we love it after dark.

 

[DisneyMom93]

I don’t consider myself a mega planner (although if having spreadsheets makes you one, I guess I’m guilty). I get more laid back each year but I think to be truly laid back I’d need to have an AP. It’s hard for me not to try to be maximizing what we can do when we have limited time in the World and it’s not exactly cheap. We had annual passes for the zoo and that totally changed how we went there (a couple hours here, a couple there). I could see doing that at Disney with APs. Not so much without.

For sure! If you have APs and go often you don't have to try to get as much done as when you go only once a year.

 

[dlavender]

For sure! If you have APs and go often you don't have to try to get as much done as when you go only once a year.

This is the only way I've been able to plan less.

Our trip last week, I threw out all plans on a day as we decided sporadically to hit all 4 parks in one day, just to do it.

But I still had FP's for a park later that afternoon, so it was still planned in a way.

But if I'm only there for a week, I have to plan it out. It's all about getting my monies worth, at least to me.

With AP's, I know we'll be back, and we'll be back many times. So there's no worry with getting my monies worth.

 

[Dr Gunnie]

Lot's of great replies - thanks everyone!

Like someone said earlier... trying to get everything done on our last few trips really made me have to have everything planned out, but now that we've done everything, I think we can relax and only hit the things that we really enjoy.

In all of our previous trips, we've never stepped foot in a pool or even had a non-park day. We were thinking of vacationing to Orange Beach, Al at a place that has a great pool/lazy river, but the Beach Club pools are just as nice (if not better), and there is just something about be on site at Disney that oozes happiness that other places just can't replicate. That's really how I sold this trip to the rest of the family!

Valid points about the number of park days - maybe I might want to bump it up to 3 instead of 2... we've stayed at the Beach Club before and I loved just walking over to Epcot. We might want to do that more than just twice! Plus my wife did say she wanted to hit MK one night... 3 nights of park hoppers is probably the way to go.

I'll still make some ADR's and FP's - have to get my Via Napoli pizza and my Soarin' rides in!!!!

 

[Karen46]

I think you have to have some plan. I am the planner the spreadsheet and FPs and Adrs. I also think there can and has to be some down time. After hearing stories of family members that booked nothing and went on one ride in three hours at MK and now the kids feel Disney is terrible made my kids cringe. I did get a few thank yous and Mom you would never let that happen. For first timers planning is a must for us now we look for fun and different ways to enjoy Disney. There is something to be said that you sometimes need a vacation after your Disney vacation.
You will have an amazing time you are at Disney after all.

 

[neverlandsky]

We discovered during our first trip an early dinner and hitting YC/BC pool from 6-9 pm was paradise. Kids loved the Beaches and Cream to-go afterwards. We RD almost every day. Almost commando like itinerary. We were exhausted and even cancelled a few ADRs during our trip.

Next time, we plan to sleep in, hit whatever we have planned and then retreat back to the resort because going to the pool from 6-9 pm was so awesome and our favorite part of the trip. We definitely enjoyed the laid back times.

 

[Cynthiab]

We have been four or five times. I am a project manager by trade and I don’t overplan — this is a vacation, not my job. Yes, I do a few ADR and plan Fastpasses for every day. We generally do four days (one in each park), a day not in the parks (though I usually book FP just in case), and our last day we do whatever park we decide the day a before (though I usually assume it will be MK and get FP for the park).

I’ve never done rope drop. I schedule our first fastpasses for 10 am. And if people change their minds, we reschedule fast passes and cancel ADRs. I’ve never waited more than 30 min for a ride and we’ve done everything everyone has ever wanted to do (except eat at Dinosaur - that’s the only reservation I’ve not been able to get!)

At the end of the day, I want my kids to remember how much fun they had, not that they were rushed around and forced to have the kind of fun we had planned. And I don’t want to have to beg people to get out of bed or push people to go somewhere they don’t want to go - it’s my vacation too!

 

[Micca]

Yes! I was able to stop doing this when we started getting AP’s and now we are DVC.

This is the best way I've found to go "non-commando" at WDW. Knowing that you'll be back--sooner rather than later--makes a huge difference. We still do parks most days (sometimes skipping arrival/departure days) but we blow through the FP and ad lib from there. My only issue with @Dr Gunnie would be staying so close to the parks and have full days where we didn't go in.

 

[1st*toright]

For me, planning the trip is entertainmentin the weeks/months before we go. I get to enjoy thinking of things we can do and working to get perfect times for ADRs, then working out our plans based on what we actually get (then reworking because I find out about something new or cool that I think we should add in). I get to think about how much so-and-so will enjoy a particular thing I've planned. Its kind of a hobby.

BUT - those plans are very different depending on the kind of trip we are doing. Our first trip with my kids I planned to the nth degree- wanted to be sure there was something for everyone and that we hit all the big rides and highlights. Character meals, fast passes, detailed plans about pretty much everything. It was fun, and packed full, and we did deviate from some of the plans as we went along, but I had contingencies in mind, so things went pretty smoothly. I had gauged our energy level pretty well, so we were tired by the end of the trip, but not exhausted.

I was in town for work and came in a little early - I had 2 days in the park by myself (I highly recommend this - it turned out that we had some tough news to deal with in the couple of weeks prior, and it was awesome to have time to process as well as some time to be unencumbered by responsibility and entertained.) I had FPs and a couple of ADRs (no problem enjoying a meal solo for me), but loved being able to change plans on the fly and run all over the place. I used SO MANY FPs- easy to get them for just 1 person.

DH and I also spent a weekend at F&W - I had some ADRs and FPs in place, but knew we would want to be more spontaneous and less tied to a schedule. I had lots of ideas about what we could do, but it was a constant conversation about what we should do next. We even (sacrilege) cancelled a FOP fastpass in favor of sleeping in one morning (to be fair, we had already ridden the ride a couple days earlier. Don't worry, we cancelled it well ahead - I enjoyed thinking about whoever magically had 2 FOP fastpasses pop up for them )

So my uber planning still happens, how carefully I expect to stick to the plan just varies depending on the kind of trip.

 

[elaine amj]

We did a laidback trip in August. Very rarely hit rope drop, often skipped FPs and all that. It worked for that trip since we had 2 families including a toddler and were there for 2 weeks. There were some drawbacks though:

- There were many times I had my head buried in my phone scrambling to get FPs. Piecing together FPs for a group of 8 is no joke when I often had to book them one at a time and use the refresh trick constantly. It is MUCH less work for me when I get to do this at home and have everything pre-planned. But flexibility was important to my group so I did what I had to do. Sometimes they would complain that I was stuck to my phone a lot. So there were times we would just skip a ride we wanted or else only a few of us would ride it and the rest would sit out. One time it was just my DD and I at DHS in the morning and she wanted to ride RnRC one more time. I tried for a while but could only get FPs for one of us so we ended up skipping the reride (she hated me being on the phone)

- We waited in far more lines than I ever have. Plenty of 20-30 min lines that normally I would never enter or would have a Fastpass for.

- Definitely less "efficient" trip

- a lot more brain time for me to scribble out last minute plans on the back of a napkin (Normally I would spend this brain time before the trip).

Overall though, it worked out. We had fun, rode many, many attractions, and were able to be flexible. It was more work for me (as you can see above) but other than that, it was fine. I like detailed, efficient plans better but it was all good. I have to say I was a bit sad when I had to cancel a few hard to get ADRs and FPs when timing didn't work out for our group, but I survived lol.

My SIL did complain a bit that I had us running around in different directions based on various interests and commented we should just eat wherever we were. But then she didn't object when I complicated our plans and split the group up so she and my DH could eat in the restaurant they preferred and then rejoin us later. I think it was more a case of her ideal scenario vs her actual wants haha.

 

[elaine amj]

Some people create a layout of their plan in a computer (spreadsheet). Others do a layout of their plan on a piece of paper, or a napkin. It's really the same thing. I don't see how having a "spreadsheet" is considered different than having "clear plans and agendas" written out on a napkin.

I totally agree. A spreadsheet is so much less work for me than plans scribbled out on the back of a napkin too.

 

[mickeyluv'r]

This is the best way I've found to go "non-commando" at WDW. Knowing that you'll be back--sooner rather than later--makes a huge difference. We still do parks most days (sometimes skipping arrival/departure days) but we blow through the FP and ad lib from there. My only issue with @Dr Gunnie would be staying so close to the parks and have full days where we didn't go in.

With AP and the current version of FP+, partial days can be very valuable way to utilize one's assets. I miss the days when we could get two MK Mountain FP on the SAME DAY. In my experience, the only way to get any MK Mtn FP (and most e-rides) is to pre-book them. Maybe others have been able to book same-day Mtn FP, but we haven't.


One trip, it was kind of funny...a while back, we stayed at BC for a night with no pans to enter Epcot that trip. Still, I had to go to guest services for some reason. I think I was checking some old tickets for entitlements, and to have them converted to the newer format.

Oh, it was a very bad plan!

Turns out, we couldn't do it.

It also turned out that fortune was on our side! My old tickets had plenty of non-expiring entitlements left!

The naughty-helpful CM at GS amplified the situation by offering to sprinkle a little Fastpass-pixie-dust our way!

 

[wookiebeck]

Answer #1 - We became more laid back by taking a two-week, off-site trip with 10-day tix.

Answer #2 - We REALLY became laid back on our first trip of 4-days to Universal with on-site stay and express passes. Been doing that since...

 

[enchantingodin]

I'm a laid back mega-planner...

I have a main plan, then a back up plan, then a back up to my back up plan. So if option A doesn't work out, there's still option B and C. Meaning intentions are great, but sometimes things don't work out. I'm not gonna let that ruin my trip or even my day. We go once a year. I ask the hubs/kiddos what their "must do" ride and restaurant is for each trip. They each pick one of each. And I do my best to make that happen. But if I can't get an ADR or FP+ I'll let them know and we can pick option 2 and better luck next year.