Have Your Trips Gone Well With Last Minute Changes??

[Jennytoon]

I can understand your point. I sort of second guess myself and worry more about the plans because it isn't just me that I'm planning for. I travel with a friend and she doesn't really give me any input. I feel like I'm responsible for her having a good time and I worry. The first time we went, I really catered the vacation and made it all about her, because it was pretty much her first trip. She had been only to MK when it first opened. Last year, I made it a little more of a compromise between what we both wanted. It would be way less stressful if I only had to worry about planning for only me. She doesn't realize how much work goes into this. I wish I could just go along for the ride with everything planned for me! Lol.

It's funny, I was discussing this with a friend recently. She and her partner often travel with another couple. She and her partner are major planners, and they experience exactly this frustration -- can't get the friends to offer opinions, friends don't seem to want to give input, stressful for them because they want everyone to have a good time. She said last year for the first time they just planned based on what they knew about their friends' tastes, didn't sweat the lack of input, and did what they wanted. And she said what she realized when they went on that trip was that their friends had a blast -- for their co-travelers, part of the experience of the trip was to be surprised, to not know every detail beforehand, and to enjoy whatever it was they were doing rather than having a list of things to check off.

It really struck a chord with me because even though I am a planner, when we go to Disney or even anywhere we are really this is what I care about too. I make a plan so that we won't just stand around looking stupid, but what we care about in the end is how much fun we had, not what we got done in comparison to what we didn't get done. So maybe it's really the case that your friend is like this too, and if you can relax about having to carry the planning load it will turn out that she is happy with almost any choices you make. It certainly might be worth asking about.

 

[MataHari22]

It really struck a chord with me because even though I am a planner, when we go to Disney or even anywhere we are really this is what I care about too. I make a plan so that we won't just stand around looking stupid, but what we care about in the end is how much fun we had, not what we got done in comparison to what we didn't get done. So maybe it's really the case that your friend is like this too, and if you can relax about having to carry the planning load it will turn out that she is happy with almost any choices you make. It certainly might be worth asking about.

Yes, this is the way we are, too, a little more relaxed with our touring, not trying to get in every single attraction and just have fun experiencing whatever we get done. I did talk to her and she says that she's happy doing anything, and I do think she does mean it. I put the pressure on myself. (I really need to learn not to do that.). I am the planning type and she is more go with the flow. So, I have learned not to talk to her about it, really. I just emailed her the ADRs after they were already done and said this is where we are eating, if you'd like to check out any of the restaurants and menus beforehand. Lol. I just ask her what her favorite attractions are, and make sure I work them in for her, etc. When we get there, she just follows my lead. Lol. I still say I would still love a trip when I got to be the one who just shows up.

 

[kiford]

DH never listens to anything I say about our Disney vacations. I keep him in the loop but it goes in one ear and out the other. Until about 2 weeks before when he starts telling me about all these things he heard or read about (that I told him about weeks before) that he wants to do - parades, fireworks, etc. so that he can take photos or whatever. So I always have to make last minute changes. But if I'm not able to make those changes neither of us stresses about it.

I actually like MDE and FP+. I can create a basic structure by knowing where I'm going to eat, more or less what parks I'm going to visit on any particular day, know that I can get into certain attractions, and when and where the parades and fireworks are going to be. Then we just play it by ear within that structure. Not too terribly different from what we used to do just slightly more firmed up plans. We had the best trip ever in Dec 2013 using that philosophy. We felt so relaxed because we knew when and where we were going to eat, knew that we'd hit our favourite attractions and when, and then the rest of the time was totally open for us so we were able to focus more on each other than on worrying about racing to a park or attraction without knowing if we'd have to wait in long lines. I think we actually felt like we experienced more because we took the time to look around, stop and watch street performances, went into things we'd never thought of before. We're using the same strategy this December.

 

[Jennytoon]

Yes, this is the way we are, too, a little more relaxed with our touring, not trying to get in every single attraction and just have fun experiencing whatever we get done. I did talk to her and she says that she's happy doing anything, and I do think she does mean it. I put the pressure on myself. (I really need to learn not to do that.). I am the planning type and she is more go with the flow. So, I have learned not to talk to her about it, really. I just emailed her the ADRs after they were already done and said this is where we are eating, if you'd like to check out any of the restaurants and menus beforehand. Lol. I just ask her what her favorite attractions are, and make sure I work them in for her, etc. When we get there, she just follows my lead. Lol. I still say I would still love a trip when I got to be the one who just shows up.

Slightly off-topic, but I tried that recently. I went to Italy over spring vacation with my daughter's HS orchestra on their tour. Since it was a tour, I decided to just be the one who went along. I still had a great time, but I turned out to be lousy at it.

 

[MataHari22]

Slightly off-topic, but I tried that recently. I went to Italy over spring vacation with my daughter's HS orchestra on their tour. Since it was a tour, I decided to just be the one who went along. I still had a great time, but I turned out to be lousy at it.

If I were to be completely honest, I can see how I might turn out to be lousy at it too!

 

[DisneyLandMan]

My advice has always been this. Make a simple plan. Plan certain rides that you definitely want to ride, and then just roll with it the rest of the day. Learning the geography of the parks is key. Know where you are and where you want to end up and know good routes to get between the points. Other than that, just enjoy the hell out of the time there. Over planning can take the magic away from YOU.

I will say this though, one of the best trips I ever had was in 2011 when it was just myself and my 2 younger brothers (18 and 13 at the time.) We all planned everything to a "T" just to maximize our trip. We actually had a blast running from one ride to the next and trying to get across the park to our soon-to-expire fast passes. Would I ever do that again? No way. But it was awesome.