Having trouble planning a laid back trip to WDW

[Moushe]

For our past trips I've done extensive planning. DH and I felt that since our kids are so small (1 & 3) its easier when we know what to expect especially when it comes to waking up early, meal times, FPs, etc.

For our trip in August DH has suggested that we just take it easy and try to make this trip more relaxing. We booked a week at Bonnet Creek so he wants to do a combo of resort time and park time. But he wants to just do whatever we decide THAT day, meaning not pre plan which park to attend & no ADRs so if we wake up and are in the mood to hang out in the pool we could do that then later if we decide to head in to a park after lunch, or maybe even see what ADRs are available we can just do it on the fly.

That sounds great to me, however there is still the pesky matter of FPs to attend to. We are going the 3rd week of August so it will be pretty crowded. I would like to at least get FPs for the popular rides.

I am thinking of at least taking at look at the most recommended park on each day and getting FPs in that park. but then I still have to pick a time.... arggghhhhh this is so complicated!!

Has anyone else ever tried to do a laid back trip with minimal planning? How did it turn out?

 

[PeasandCarrots]

All we do is make FP+ for the most recommended park for fairly early in the day. That gives us the rest of the day to do whatever. Also, if we change what we do that day I've had good luck getting things "day of" - not SDMT of course, but other fun attractions. We only make 0-2 ADRs per trip and sometimes cancel all or some of them w/in the 24 hour window. It's made our trips a lot more enjoyable since we started taking this laid back approach.

 

[PSUGuy]

Since 2005 we slowed down, avoided the EMH park but we do hit a non-EMH park at RD. I follow easywdw's crowd calendar to avoid crowds, a plus if you're looking for 'Laid Back' and we make FP+ choices for the same reason. Laidback is a state of mind, we just don't rush anymore and during Food&Wine we make Sat a pool day since WS is crazy crowded that day, Raglan Road Sat evening. Take a deep breath!

Bill From PA

 

[Lucius Best]

"planning a laid back trip" to Disney is not easy. With WDW's popularity, and ADRs and FP+ being reserved months in advance, if you just wing it depending on what you want to do that day, you're not going to be able to get all the ADRs/FPs that you might want, and you're going to be waiting in longer lines. I firmly believe there needs to be some amount of planning to avoid the crowds. You don't say "we're thinking of going to Disney World this summer, maybe July or August, we'll wait and see if we wake up one morning and we're in the mood to go to WDW, we'll hop on a plane". You need to book flights, hotel, rental car. Likewise with WDW you need to book ADRs and FP+ if you're interested in anything beyond "whatever is left last minute". We used to have "wing it" days before FP+, but not anymore.

My trips to WDW since the institution of FP+ have been an exercise in "planned flexibility". Mornings heavily planned, afternoons wide open. On our FP+ trips, we planned what days we were going to what park, and had our FP+ all booked for before noon. We were at the parks at rope drop (imperative with summer heat and crowds), do rides and use 3 FP in the morning. Then we would have lunch wherever we happened to be, and plan the rest of our day: stay in the same park and get a 4th FP+? Hop to a different park? Go back to hotel and swim in the pool? Go to a movie? Mini-golf? Water park? Back to the park after dinner? Dinner at a resort? There are a number of decent restaurants at Disney resorts where we have been able to reliably get last-minute ADRs (Grand Floridian Cafe, Trail's End, Kona Cafe to name a few).

 

[Disney Khaleesi]

Not having a plan would stress me out beyond belief! I'm not even an overplanner, I pick a park, decide if I want a TS, and make the Fastpasses. Otherwise I don't care what happens or what we do. I think you can be laid back by just going with the flow, but also still keeping a schedule. Maybe schedule all of them around the same time so you have your mornings or afternoons open to do as you please?

 

[Oswin]

When my whole family (party of 8+) goes together, this is how we do our trips. It's too hard to make plans that everyone agrees on so we just don't plan anything when we all go together. We don't make ADRs or FP+ reservations and decide where to go after we roll out of bed on any given day. Yeah, when we all go together, we don't hit rope drop either. We generally get to the parks at about 10:30-12:00 each day. I can say that we've always been able to grab a same day ADR somewhere, and have even managed to get places like CRT, BOG, and 'Ohana a couple of hours before we wanted to eat. Same day FP+ are hit or miss. If you want to guarantee the headliners at each park, I would pre-make those FP+ but be willing to cancel/switch them around as your spur of the moment plans desire. We've never had a bad or stressful trip when we do things this way, but I will say that there are some attractions we miss when we go on the no planning trip just because the standby waits were too long and we couldn't get a FP for them, like Test Track and TSMM.

 

[poppinspenguins]

Embrace the spontaneity! I just talked about this on another post. You may never go back to the dark side haha.

We do a lot of day trips since we have family in tampa. We bought 2 non expiring ten packs we are still working on...and when we do go to the resort for the week we usually only do 2 or 3 park days and 2 adrs.

So we go to tampa...we know we are going to Orlando for one day...so we usually pick the best weather day and go. Last time was ak...had a great time. Wasn't even busy enough that day in early March to even care about fp. We just went where the wind blew us. Saw the bird show which we had never done and hit everything else we were interested. (At least my hubby did...I was pregnant at the timei)

I always have a hard time understanding people that have been a million times overly worriying about fast pass. (Diff if you dont go as often, totally understand...or have a child who is intent on meeting a charachter etc) You have seen it before, probably ridden the ride a lot of times...so if you don't get one go to the next thing and forget it. Ride the train, ham it up on dumbo, get on the liberty boat, do a walk in at the barber shop, take a cheesy pic on the merry go round. Get desserts you have never tried. Do attractions you usually skip.

And most of all...just enjoy it.

 

[Nexluck]

It's easy. We will be at Universal that week. No pre planning at all. Express pass, can do either park, stay at the hotel, go back and forth between parks. Ride the same rides over and over again. We will be in Disney the next week and already had to make dining reservations, will need fast passes by June for only 3 rides instead of as many as we want at universal. Really not sure why we even still do Disney. This may be the last year

 

[Moushe]

Since 2005 we slowed down, avoided the EMH park but we do hit a non-EMH park at RD. I follow easywdw's crowd calendar to avoid crowds, a plus if you're looking for 'Laid Back' and we make FP+ choices for the same reason. Laidback is a state of mind, we just don't rush anymore and during Food&Wine we make Sat a pool day since WS is crazy crowded that day, Raglan Road Sat evening. Take a deep breath!

Bill From PA

"Laid back is a state of mind" I like that! I will definitely try to remind myself of this often come August.

 

[rajak73]

We stayed at Ft Wilderness in 2014, got to talking to the people across from us one day, know how they decided what park to go to? Go to the bus stop and whichever bus to whatever park showed up first, that was the one they went to. They rode everything they wanted and some more than once.

 

[Lucius Best]

When my whole family (party of 8+) goes together, this is how we do our trips. It's too hard to make plans that everyone agrees on so we just don't plan anything when we all go together. We don't make ADRs or FP+ reservations and decide where to go after we roll out of bed on any given day. Yeah, when we all go together, we don't hit rope drop either. We generally get to the parks at about 10:30-12:00 each day.

My last two trips to WDW have been big family trips, and it was indeed difficult to come up with a plan that everyone agreed on, especially when there were first-timers who didn't understand the frankly ridiculous WDW concept of booking meals and ride times months in advance. But I've always been curious, isn't it even more difficult to figure out what to do that day when you all get up in the morning and you have a large group? I don't mean any offense, to each his/her own, I know rope drop and pre-planning is not for everybody, and that's fine. We used to sometimes do "hop on the first bus" days before FP+. But it would drive me bonkers to get up in the morning, wait for everyone to trickle down to breakfast, and then discuss what park we're going to that day.

Personally I'd rather have a plan agreed to beforehand, then everyone knows what we are doing, and everyone knows that there is time on the schedule guaranteed for their favorite rides and the pool and their favorite restaurant. And the plan can always change. On one big family trip, at dinner mid-week, we ripped up the plan for the remainder of the week. Based on the children's favorite parks/rides, we came up with a new plan for the second half of our trip.

 

[loves to dive]

I agree with others, laid back is easy and once you've done it you may never go back. I'd make the one or two must do FPs about mid-morning that way you are in no hurry, then go with whatever you want to do with the rest of the day. If you want to make others on the fly, try it, you might be surprised what is available and might actually find some new favorites. I've never had any problems making ADRs day of, I don't have little ones my son is an adult now so time isn't an issue for us.

 

[Minnesota!]

We have, week prior to Easter, 2015. Worked just fine. We would wake up, decide what we wanted to do, and head out. If we didn't get to ride/see something specific, oh well.

 

[snowwhite84]

As a pp said, it really is about state of mind. I have been to WDW many times in my lifetime, growing up is S Florida. I'd say I average three trips a year for 20+ years, and over that time I've notice my mindset about it has shifted into much more stress free. I think the main thing is being open and flexible, it doesn't really work if you have things you HAVE to do.

For example, DH and I may arrive at a park at 11am, ride two or three rides with a FP, stop for a cocktail, go to our hotel to swim, then head somewhere else for a nice dinner followed by fireworks. We shop, we stroll, we visit different resorts. I really do find it more gratifying than the times in years past when I made us run around like I was an army general. You can even get TS reservations day of, just be open to trying some new places.

I think this would be harder for newcomers to the parks who want to see and do as much as possible. And of course, at this point it is just DH and me. I can imagine this style would be harder with little ones

Also, I want to add that this style doesn't mean there isn't a planning component. Half the fun of a Disney trip for me is the planning. But that just means I visit Disney blogs to see what new snacks there are, I read restaurant reviews, I get a feel for times of shows we might want to see. Then you have this info in your back pocket, which makes it easy to navigate your day on the fly.

 

[hedberg1661]

Since 2005 we slowed down, avoided the EMH park but we do hit a non-EMH park at RD. I follow easywdw's crowd calendar to avoid crowds, a plus if you're looking for 'Laid Back' and we make FP+ choices for the same reason. Laidback is a state of mind, we just don't rush anymore and during Food&Wine we make Sat a pool day since WS is crazy crowded that day, Raglan Road Sat evening. Take a deep breath!

Bill From PA

I absolutely agree, if you RD a non EMH park you are going to have a much better go of it.

Also agree with the F&W suggestion as well. It becomes a locals spot Friday afternoon through Saturday.

 

[ChloesDaddy]

Without the benefit of thinking this through in detail, here are some things I would consider to maximize flexibility:

1. Schedule a few lunch and dinner ADRs at or near your resort. That way you're not tied to a park and you're not tied to the resort in the middle of the day. If you get an idea to do something in the park, just check around and see what's available. There will probably be some cancellations the day or so before if you have a thought then about where you'd like to go.

2. Set some FPs for each day in the early afternoon in the parks where this matters most. To me this is MK and DHS. Maybe just alternate days between those two. It just depends on what you like to do. Scheduling them in the afternoon works if you show up early or later. If you want to do one of the other parks check FP availability the day before or day of if avoiding lines is a priority. Anyway, the idea is to have something set up in case you need it at a time that you are most likely to be able to use it.

3. Don't tell HIM that you've booked all this stuff and don't get you're heart set on what you've booked. Just get something out there and see how it works for you while there.

4. Let yourself enjoy the "road less traveled" while you're there. Do the things that don't get crowded or build long waits. Spend more time in the World Showcase pavilions, see the shows, watch a parade if you're in the vicinity when it comes by, watch fireworks from wherever you are when they start (or get outside the park to watch them from nearby).

The more I type, the more enticing this sounds to me. I go to great lengths to plan out trips and maintain flexibility. One of my goals is for my family to realize as little as possible that there even is a plan. They'll know when and where ADRs are. They may or may not know whether or when we have FPs, and they'll sense me directing things gently during the first hour after rope drop -- giving a few choices that make smart use of shorter waits during that time.

Whatever you decide to do, I hope you have a great time.

 

[FantasiaMagic]

You could always make some FPs for a couple of days just in case. If you don't end up using them, no big deal, but they would be there if you want.

Laid back trips are great. I love swimming, resort hopping, mini golfing, and of course going to DTDSprings.

 

[Oswin]

My last two trips to WDW have been big family trips, and it was indeed difficult to come up with a plan that everyone agreed on, especially when there were first-timers who didn't understand the frankly ridiculous WDW concept of booking meals and ride times months in advance. But I've always been curious, isn't it even more difficult to figure out what to do that day when you all get up in the morning and you have a large group? I don't mean any offense, to each his/her own, I know rope drop and pre-planning is not for everybody, and that's fine.

We surprisingly have never had an issue with it! Whenever me and my sisters wake up (we're teenagers) we generally hit the nearest trails and go on a jog, and my dad likes to play morning golf, and my mom loves sitting out on the balcony or patio of our room reading and drinking coffee so we're all pretty mellow and relaxed when we get together at about 9:30 or 10:00 and decide what we want to do that day. It helps that my family is insanely predictable and we generally always hit the parks in the same order each trip, and we are always back at MK every night to close the park. I think the only issue/argument my family has ever had traveling this way is my mom feeling that we all have to be together 24/7 apart from the early morning!

 

[buzznina]

Since our first trip with our 1st DD, our planning has went from having the whole day completely planned, i.e. park touring plans, to just planning the park days, so we can do our 3 FPs and maybe 1 or 2 ADRs during our trip. We rarely do RD and love night EMHs, and we have enjoyed our trips so much more then when we did plan everything. We no longer come back feeling like we need a vacation from our vacation.

 

[Lucius Best]

We surprisingly have never had an issue with it! Whenever me and my sisters wake up (we're teenagers) we generally hit the nearest trails and go on a jog, and my dad likes to play morning golf, and my mom loves sitting out on the balcony or patio of our room reading and drinking coffee so we're all pretty mellow and relaxed when we get together at about 9:30 or 10:00 and decide what we want to do that day. It helps that my family is insanely predictable and we generally always hit the parks in the same order each trip, and we are always back at MK every night to close the park. I think the only issue/argument my family has ever had traveling this way is my mom feeling that we all have to be together 24/7 apart from the early morning!

That's interesting, your family sounds like the opposite of mine. We are all rope drop commandos (some because we like it, others because they see it as a necessity), we plan the parks we are going to, and then try to ride as many rides as possible in the morning. Then in the afternoon we will split up, some stay in the parks, some go to the pool or nap. We'll meet up again for dinner, where we will discuss heading back to MK to close the park, but most of the time everyone is too tired.