*Has Anyone Visited The World With NO PLANS?

[DisneyaHolic23]

My husband and I have visited Disney World more than 30 times in the past 15 years, and I am a huge planner, and so we have always had great dining reservations and, more recently, decent Fastpass reservations.

We have Premier Annual Passes, and my husband just decided that we should visit one more time in September before they expire (and then I am committed to not visiting for at least two years - this will be the longest I have ever gone without visiting, but I am finding myself a little disappointed in Disney of late).

His condition in going is that I let him "plan" (which means not really having any plans). It will be, most likely, free dining, and the beginning of the Food & Wine Festival.

Here is my question: Have any of you frequent visitors ever gone with no real plans? Any suggestions or advice?

 

[wuzzy6]

We never used to plan anything, and we always had a great time! Advice? Relax and enjoy yourselves!

 

[ZoZo]

I guess the only potential problem is that you say you'll be doing "free dining". If you truly want to go without making any plans, that would mean you won't be making any ADRs, right? You might really have trouble getting into many TS restaurants. Then what would you do? Unless you plan to get the Quick Service dining plan, that is.

Other than that, I say --- go for it!

 

[DisneyaHolic23]

Sorry - I meant that it was most likely a free dining period. We haven't decided yet if we will take advantage of the offer (we have Tables In Wonderland, so that might be as good, when figured with a room-only deal.)

I think I am wondering if anyone has been disappointed by showing up without plans, or if it was surprisingly pleasant...

 

[ljcrochet]

I kind of did Christmas week. We were supposed to drive down and at the last minute I flew down with my girls and DH met us a few days later. His plans was up in the air almost until he was in a car on the way to the airport.
I sat at breakfast with FIL, SIL & BIL December 23rd letting them make the fp+ reservation.
Very different kind of trip. DH was amazed when I told him everything we did that day.

 

[Anc96]

Except when we used to do the dining plan and made adrs... We never plan anything.
We always go to Epcot first since it's our favorite park. We try to check the crowd levels before we go to a park, but we aren't really too concerned. If we get to a park and it's packed, we hop.
We always have a wonderful relaxed time. But, we also stay around longer than most, a couple of weeks at least.

Of course the new fp+ will change our never planning routine

Go and have a wonderful time!

 

[momtosam]

Egads, this is NOT the place for that kind of question, OP! J/K!

 

[Love Tink]

I think people on here plan so much (myself included) because it is fun to plan - not because it is strictly necessary.

It is perfectly normal to go to WDW without much or any planning, and perfectly possible to have a great time without much or any planning.

Especially in September.

I don't know that the spreadsheets and extensive plans really add to much to anyone's enjoyment when actually in the parks - I think they mostly just add to the enjoyment while waiting for the trip.

 

[alicia080979]

We have always planned but with each subsequent trip I found that we were planning less and less just because we had been so many times and didn't "have to" see everything. Hopefully since you have been so many times that will be the case of just winging it and still enjoying it.

 

[kugelette]

Most of the time we haven't really planned, but it's resulted in seeing less than we wanted to and feeling like we didn't get the experience we wanted in the parks. I've also been a late riser in the past and by the time you get to the parks mid-day in peak season it's hot and the lines are super long. While I'm not a morning person, I think planning out the mornings and retreating to the resort mid-day will make for a much funner trip for us personally. But as someone said above, there's a lot of fun in the planning.

 

[Liberator]

yes, me and my parents, 2008.

we just had one day (Novemeber) - and we had no plan/strategy/experience.

the day was like this:

first
Epcot (year of a million dreams, a CM randomly chose us in the morning and he introduced himself as our tour-guide. We were allowed to enter TT, Soarin', MS through the exit)

second
Magic Kingdom. I remember there were barely no lines at Space Mountain, Splash Mountain and BTMRR

third
Hollywood Studios. Only rode ToT. RnR was down. We got something to eat there

fourth
Animal Kingdom. Rode EE and Kali River Rapids several times


we were done by about 6 pm, maybe earlier. Missed a lot of rides, but it was fun and magic, but: never again. We were lucky to be chosen at EPCOT by the CM at RopeDrop, otherwise we would have lost a lot of time. Additionally we randomly picked a really good low-crowd day. It was not empty, but I think the longest wait was 20 Min at ToT. Some rides were walk-on.

BUT: Ticket Prices - 1day hopper tickets are a lot of $$$$$$ !!

I can not recommend this "no-strategy"-strategy to anyone, especially when planning to do four parks in one day. We just had luck.

 

[ldnoggle]

I am a planner and usually have everything all planned out for our trips. However- I decided in late December to use my pass one time and went without plans for a short trip in early January. It actually turned out great! We made dining reservations each day of the trip if we wanted to- and just knew there would be certain ones we wouldn't get.

The only thing I did do in advance (other than resort) was make our Fastpass + reservations about a week in advance. We changed those as needed once we got there.

It was a great (and very different) trip!

 

[Sandy Fisher]

We did that for many years, and even when we did plan, it was pretty much each morning we'd decide based on weather which park we'd go to. We went often enough that we knew what attractions we enjoyed most. We always tried to take a break early enough for lunch that we missed the worst of the crowds.
We were flexible enough that if one park got crazy, we went to another one. We have never had any dining plan nor wanted one. We never stood in line for autographs. By the time that became a big deal, our "boys" were adults. And we have never made a reservation for a chosen place to watch fireworks or parades.
It was easier. Much easier. Even now, after 30 plus years of going to Disney, we only plan which park and that can be changed at the last minute. We've always tried to avoid the most crowded, most humid hot times of year.
It CAN be done. I don't think Disney wants you to do that any more.

 

[csmith041177]

Never!!!!!!!!

 

[alicat8]

I never used to plan. We'd get into the park-"What do you wanna do?" and then just go. I'm having anxiety about this upcoming trip because fp is forcing me to plan. I'm literally having nightmares about it

 

[FPminusCommando]

To the OP, maybe you can compromise by doing minimal planning. Make FP+ reservations in advance and use the Lines app throughout the day to checkout wait times.

Unfortunately FP+ really puts a hit on this type of spontaneous touring. Unless you want to wake up, let the Muse decide which park you go to, and book FP+ from your hotel room. But I've seen people complaining on this board about limited FP+ choices the day of their visit.


My first FP+ trip will be this November, 16th through 24th. I'm a big planner but I'm a little concerned. With 5 adults and 3 kids, our group has a history of partly touring together and partly splitting up. So in September when I start booking FP+ I need to take my best shot at predicting what everyone will want to do. Since it's such a slow time of the year I may just book FP+ each day for the headliners and trust that the lines will be small for everything else.

 

[Mickey's Best Girl]

I never plan my Disney vacations outside the dates we are going (and the very rare ADR for special occassions).

I plan and make schedules for a living, no way I'm doing that on vacation.

Many times we go to the parks depending on which bus shows up first. Last Oct we were FP+ testers so I gave that a try. We used exactly 2 of them from a 10 day vacation.

My opinion is it's a vacation. That to me means no schedules because following a schedule is stressful and that is not conduscive to a relaxing vacation. And yes, you can have a relaxing, chill vacation at Disney. We do it very time and we still manage do everything we want.

Just my .02

 

[glamdring269]

We did a few years ago. 2010 or 2011 I believe. Surprised when we arrived at the hotel to learn that we would be there during Star Wars weekend. Score! Saw a fast pass machine pretty early on in the first day and decided to take the time to pull one, read it, then ask a CM a question about it. Took us all of about an hour after entering MK to become experts of the old, extremely difficult, FP system. /sarcasm

With that said we're going back in October for the first time since FP+ has totally rolled out. So now we at least intend to loosely plan something based on easywdw crowds but adjust as needed. We hit RD and go during a '5' season so planning likely isn't as needed.

 

[DisneyRegulars]

Yes! For our anniversary trip two years ago we made very few plans. We leave next week for a 4 day trip. Over the weekend I went through and cancelled all our plans!!! So we have no plans and I think it will be wonderful. The only thing we might do is the Expedition Everest Challenge, and I say might because life has been crazy for us the last few months (in the middle of relocating) and we were unable to train for it properly. So with the exception of one thing we have no plans. I will let you know how it goes, but I can tell you from past trips that we had an absolute blast. We often walked into restaurants late afternoon, in that lull between lunch and dinner and always found seating. We are not fancy restaurant people so would not have been disappointed if the only thing available was counter service.

I guess I should add that at the 60 day mark I made all our FP+ reservations, and I didn't cancel those, but I don't even really know what I booked at this point. When we went in January and last September we had no problems at all changing FP+ reservations on the fly.

I'm very very excited about our no plan plan. We need some time to just relax and go at our own pace. And this is coming from the same couple that attempted to ride/see every single attraction in the Magic Kingdom in a single day last July (we ended up short by 5). For that we definitely had a plan. I know and love planning, but it's also great to not plan too. I would say go for it!

The link in my signature labelled "Plus our Anniversary Vacation" is the trip report for our very little planning trip.

 

[HM]

Yes, my DD and I drove with a friend of hers to WDW one summer. We got our reservations the day before. Went in with no plan whatsoever. Worked out fine. Would have been better if the friend had been more on board about trying everything (and hadn't gotten an infection in her leg that necessitated going to urgent care one night) though.