He thinks I'm over-doing the planning - am I?

[prink022]

Alright so, I am planning my first trip with the love of my life and his first trip altogether. I *used* to know the parks like the back of my hand, but honestly, that's probably changed with the additions and closures. My last time as a Cast Member was around a year so after the new Fantasyland expansion opened, so that's a decent time ago... And I know NOTHING about Pandora.

Paul, has never been much of a planner and he's obviously never been on a vacation this big, so I was hoping I could post our basic plan and you could tell me if I'm being too picky about planning? He's saying we should just get there and go with the flow/do whatever we want, and I'm saying that's not at all possible - but we won't be able to do everything we wish if we don't plan. Plus, I enjoy planning and I'm pretty sure he might be asking a very important question this trip so I want everything to be good!

But here's my plan so far, please keep in mind it is only the two of us - mid 20s, and we decided to do pretty much all character meals so that we can take advantage of them to meet characters and because we're on the dining plan so why not! Tell me your thoughts?

September 6th:
Check in to hotel All Star Sports- we're coming from 4 days at Universal Orlando that *he* is completely "planning" (he planned nothing I'm doing it all now).

September 7th:
Tusker House 8:15
Wild Africa Trek 11:45
Space Mountain 3:15
7 Dwarfs Mine Train 4:15
Big Thunder Mountain 5:20
Halloween party/activities - can't find a schedule of events

September 8th:
Toy Story Mania! 10:05
Star Tours 11:10a
Tower of Terror 12:30
Be Our Guest 7:45

September 9th:
'Ohana 7:30a
River Journey 10:10
Dinosaur 11:50
Everest 1:10
Rivers of Light

September 10th:
Bon Voyage Breakfast 7:45a
Seas with Nemo and friends 10:05
Frozen Ever After 11:20
Character spot 12:50
Fantasmic

September 11th:
Cinderella's Royal Table 8:30
Buzz Lightyear 10:35
Peter Pan's Flight 11:40
Haunted Mansion 12:50

September 12th:
Akershus 8:30
Test Track 10:45
Figment 11:55
Spaceship Earth 1:20
Illuminations

September 13th:
1900 Park Fare 8:00
Flight of Passage 10:00
Safari 11:05
Kali 1:10
Star Wars Fireworks at DHS

September 14th:
Rock 'n' Roller Coaster 10:20
Indiana Jones 11:30
Tower of Terror 1:00
Garden Grill 7:15

September 15th:
Crystal Palace 8:30
Under the Sea 10:30
Jungle Cruise 11:55
Be Our Guest QSR 1:00
Pirates of the Caribbean 2:30

September 16th:
Chef Mickey's 7:45
Soarin' 10:25
Mission: Space 11:30 (tacked on last minute when available)
Park hop the rest of the day and see anything we want, and plan to end the day with MK fireworks.

I know I haven't finished planning by any means - but I also don't think what I have done is totally ridiculous or over the top at all :|

Also, we are considering doing the express transportation to make park hopping quicker!

 

[iujen94]

I don't have any specific comments on your plan, but just wanted to say that DH totally mocked how much time I spent planning our first WDW trip ... until we got there. Then he said "thank goodness you spent so much time planning this trip!!" Planning really does make all the difference, so ignore your love and plan away! He will be thankful come trip time!

 

[Farro]

If you look at it, all you really planned was one meal a day and your fast passes. If you are over planning, then you are in good company - all of us on this board! We hop parks too.

 

[prink022]

I don't have any specific comments on your plan, but just wanted to say that DH totally mocked how much time I spent planning our first WDW trip ... until we got there. Then he said "thank goodness you spent so much time planning this trip!!" Planning really does make all the difference, so ignore your love and plan away! He will be thankful come trip time!

This is so refreshing to hear from someone who has planned a trip before! Thank you!

 

[prink022]

If you look at it, all you really planned was one meal a day and your fast passes. If you are over planning, then you are in good company - all of us on this board! We hop parks too.

I'm really happy to hear I'm not alone on this! He is under the impression that we can not make any reservations and just walk up and get in wherever. He freaked out a bit when I got up super early to plan for dining reservations and get ready for them to open!

 

[Hopefully]

I noticed that most of your ADRs are breakfast. We would way rather get going early in the morning park touring and have dinner ADRs.

 

[mousehockey37]

As long as potty breaks aren't listed down to the second, you're doing well, lol.

As someone else said, it's a meal or 2 and FP's... You have a lot of leeway to do other things dependent on what happens with the weather, etc, etc, etc....

This isn't over-planned at all... yet.

Go too much further and yes, you'll be getting borderline, but as this draft stands now... It's a pretty good basic plan that allows for going with the flow.

 

[Lesley Wake]

For OP, I don't think overplanning at all. It even looks sort of lean ! For the MK fireworks, have you considered a dessert party? It gets a better view and you don't have to show up early to stake out a place!

I don't have any specific comments on your plan, but just wanted to say that DH totally mocked how much time I spent planning our first WDW trip ... until we got there. Then he said "thank goodness you spent so much time planning this trip!!" Planning really does make all the difference, so ignore your love and plan away! He will be thankful come trip time!

Yeah, my sister rolls her eyes every time I bring up the plans. But I know once we are there, and she is able to ride all of the e-ticket rides multiple times, she'll appreciate it!

 

[prink022]

As long as potty breaks aren't listed down to the second, you're doing well, lol.

As someone else said, it's a meal or 2 and FP's... You have a lot of leeway to do other things dependent on what happens with the weather, etc, etc, etc....

This isn't over-planned at all... yet.

Go too much further and yes, you'll be getting borderline, but as this draft stands now... It's a pretty good basic plan that allows for going with the flow.

If you've seen the episode of The Middle where they went to Disney.... I'm trying very hard to not be Sue here. Lol.

 

[mousehockey37]

If you've seen the episode of The Middle where they went to Disney.... I'm trying very hard to not be Sue here. Lol.

The way Disney has become with planning, and with these forums, it's very easy to feel greatly overwhelmed and feel that you're not getting anything done, when in fact, you've ultimately gone way over the top.

There was actually a thread last week about this... It was something about.. has planning gotten to complex or something, and a good portion of answers were like what I stated there... It is what you make of it.

There are people that do Disney with no FP's or ADRs. There are people that will hoard ADR's up til the day before because they have no idea what they'll be wanting to eat, but still want the ressie, just to have it... just in case they need it. Most people tend to do something like you've done. Set up a basic schedule, tweak it some, and add things on the fly. My favorite, and this is best saved for the parks... are the people that have their days timed down to the second.

If you've been to Disney, you've seen that 1 family that has the crazy parent with the clipboard upfront, charging through the park barking out "We've got 15 minutes and 33 seconds until our Splash Mountain Pass. I've allotted 2 minutes and 6 seconds for everyone to pee. We must hurry!"

 

[anomamatt]

First, your plans don't look crazy at all. You should see mine, haha.

But here's my plan so far, please keep in mind it is only the two of us - mid 20s, and we decided to do pretty much all character meals so that we can take advantage of them to meet characters and because we're on the dining plan so why not! Tell me your thoughts?

One thing about character meals... the food is usually not very good. Keep that in mind. Disney doesn't feel the need to provide good food (in most cases) because people will come for the characters. Character meals also take a loooooong time if you wait to see all the characters. Like 90-120 minutes easy for some places. That said, if you are OK with mediocre food and long meals, you do get a good "value" for the meal plan by loading up on character meals.

 

[wedowdw17]

Last spring when we went to Disney, my husband could NOT understand why I was up at 5 am making dining reservations 6 months before our trip or why I stayed up until midnight to make FP at our 60 day mark. He's definitely a go-with-the-flow kind of guy, and I got several strange looks during the whole process, but he never outright called me nuts (he knows better than that ). It only took our first afternoon in the parks for him to understand why FP and planning mattered and why I spent time making sure I had a plan to know where we were going and a general timeline of when. It made our park experience with two young kids much more enjoyable and he acknowledged that too. Planning doesn't have to mean militant-style park touring. Plans should (in my opinion) be flexible and incorporate everyone's interests. Happy touring!

 

[BraveLittleToaster2]

On your first day:
The wild Africa trek is 3 hours long. You have a fast pass at space mountain 30 minutes after your trek ends. That is nowhere near enough time to leave animal kingdom and get to magic kingdom. I think you will need to push all of those FP back by quite a bit.

 

[Roxyfire]

No, I think you've done what a normal, not over the top person might have done. The only thing I might suggest that you change there is your 8:30 am Crystal Palace. With the new opening procedures in the Magic Kingdom, you won't get too much of a benefit of a pre-park opening breakfast. If you're cool with that, then by all means keep it. I've found that it is really nice to get a 10:15 ADR there and then schedule the 3 FP as 10:30 (something close like Pirates), 11:30, and 12:30. Then you could likely do the first two back to back. Plus it's way less hectic in there at 10:15 vs 8:30.

edit: or you could schedule one for 10, 11, and 12 but I think with a 10:15 adr that's kinda cutting it close. We did that last time with space mountain and were late by about 10 minutes. The nice lady at check in was totally fine with it and said it happens all the time. But I know some here would not recommend taking that chance.

 

[joyjoy]

It only took our first afternoon in the parks for him to understand why FP and planning mattered and why I spent time making sure I had a plan to know where we were going and a general timeline of when.

This. Just wait. It may happen sooner, but FOR SURE by day two Paul will walk out of <insert attraction here>, look at you and say "Where are we going now?".

 

[panfan]

Just MY opinion... I think in general , you are on the right track. My family and I all enjoy Character meals, however I do think that maybe you are overdoing it with them , especially for a young couple in their 20's. Again, just my opinion on what I would do. Disney has so many great places to eat. I would make some reservations for some nicer places, more " adult" etc. I see you are doing Cinderellas Castle. For two credits, the California Grill is fabulous ! Especially for a couple ! Plan some romantic spots too

Adding that we are leaving in two days and I am still " tweaking " my ADRs , it is possible.

 

[abnihon]

Definitely not overplanning but I will say it seems like a lot of park hopping for meals and maybe with a newbie you would want to minimize that and that first day starting with a PPO Tusker House and ending with the Halloween party sounds exhausting...

 

[Nstigator]

On the idea that you are overplanning, I agree with most here. Some people like to plan. I'm one of them. Others don't. That's fine. We should each just let each other do what works best. For the most part, he'll probably appreciate the effort you put in after he sees the crowds and the scope of things for himself. Just try to have a little grace with him if he wants to change a little thing here or there.

Personally I think your plans have you jumping parks too much. Even with express transportation. It's just too much, even for a good planner. My recommendation is to try to simplify things in that regard.

 

[minniegirl19]

I don't think you're overplanning at all but I agree with abnihon on that exhausting day. Also I would make your adrs around the parks you'll be in. For example you have 1900 park fare then over to animal kingdom. Your resort is in the animal kingdom area so that's just a lot of back and forth especially so early. I also am a vote for not all character meals and some more "adult" ones. Example would be garden grill. In the past I was not impressed with the food at all. Eating in the countries for dinner would be a lot better in my opinion! Oh and you aren't over planning especially for how long your trip is

 

[10CJ]

The thing that jumps out to me is the character meals. That seems like way too many. There are is definitely going to be overlap in characters given how many you have. The food varies from place to place but I think you can get more for your money with some other options thrown in. I would not drop all character meals, but drop some. I would try to work in some better restaurants. Tiffins, Sanaa, Skippers Canteen, maybe something in World Showcase for dinner.