Help! I'm second guessing everything....

[cuppycake]

So, I'm a planner. Always have been. I really used to ENJOY planning Disney. Last we were there was 4 years ago, so all the Fastpass+ stuff is quite new to me. I'm stressing because my window opens tomorrow and I feel like I have it all wrong! LOL. It used to be easier to fly by the seat of your pants. Now, I feel like I need to have it nailed down a bit more.

Deatails that (might) matter: 6 adults. 2 kids ages 10 and 12. We aren't doing the dining plan this time, but do have a few sit down lunches planned (only one, at BOG, that really most likely can't be changed, there are 8 of us). We hvae 8 day PH and more tickets and I really am being quite silly and paranoid I know it will all work out just fine.

However....what do you find to work best when planning which days at which parks. I used to use TGM, and decided to try touring plans this time, since TGM hasn't been updated much lately. Now that I'm looking at other sites (Easy WDW and Undercover Tourist), I feel like maybe I'm way off, since they don't seem to agree.....

Tell me which you like best and why.

If I change everything again, my husband and parents are going to laugh

 

[mesaboy2]

EasyWDW and Touring Plans are the two most-recommended sites here. They won't always agree because they are attempting to predict the future. My advice is to pick one and don't look back.

 

[BrianL]

Yes, the key is realizing that you really can't do it wrong (well, you CAN, but only by putting really zero effort into the planning). You will have a great time. Maybe you could have planned with slightly better efficiency, but you won't notice once you're there. I wrestled with this planning my most recent trip, but once I realized that it was going to be great no matter which day I hit the water-park, it all eased off my mind.

 

[Tippytoes1111]

I went this past Thanksgiving. I am a planner but wasn't a DISer then. Picked my FPs 4 days after they opened, dining too, planned ahead but wasn't fanatical. I didn't know I was supposed to be.

Our party of 9 still had a really great week together with good FPs and ADRs, like CRT for 9 people.

No matter what happens, you're going to have a huge jump on most people and will have a great vacation with your family. Don't stress if it doesn't go 100%. It'll make things more adventurous.

 

[marchingstar]

I would stick with what you've got right now--our plan tends to agree sometimes with touring plans, and others with easywdw. Their logic, as I understand it, is almost exactly the opposite: touring plans tends to encourage visitors to use magic hours, while easywdw encourages people to avoid them. As an onsite guest, I like to take advantage of EMH at least some days.

Even sites like touring plans will tell you that what's most important is getting to a park for rope drop--regardless of how busy it gets through the day, the early morning is generally going to be the time you can fit the most attractions in. Also speaking generally, the busiest time will be late afternoon to early evening, with crowds dropping again in the evening. Try to maximize those times, and you'll get lots in!

 

[McFlea]

So, I'm a planner. Always have been. I really used to ENJOY planning Disney. Last we were there was 4 years ago, so all the Fastpass+ stuff is quite new to me.

Your title caught my eye because I'm doing the same thing. And then I read this, and it is me exactly! I'm at 21 days and still second guessing everything. Probably more because it's fun, though, rather than because I'm not sure of my plans. I'm enjoying looking at the maps, arranging FP's to make sense, planning how I think the days will go. But once I get there, I'll adjust as we go if necessary. Have a blast!

ETA: When planning which days/which parks, I always start with what we'd like to do, then check easyWDW to see how it lines up. For instance, this time we have 6 park days. I wanted MK,EP,HS,AK,EP,MK and I got lucky that all but one were the most recommended days. If that wasn't the case, I would adjust the middle days, but always begin and end at MK no matter what (no park hoppers).

 

[ShayBells]

I always second guess myself than change it fifty million times. I agree with others. Go with what you have. It's easier to do that and forget the stress. My plans are usually foiled anyways by the cutest little boy that I can't say no to cause hell were in disney lol.

 

[slo]

I'm a crazy planner, and I never used any of these sites.
I go on the WDW website to find park hours, EMH, what night Spectromagic will happen and etc and go from there.
Basically this is how I do things.....
Arrive Sunday(early) - do DTD
Monday - MK (no matter what)
Tuesday - Epcot
Wednesday - Easy Day (cause we were late at Epcot) We rent a boat (we normally stay at The Poly), hang out by the pool, do a dinner show, just relax a little
Thursday - Do HS
Friday - Go back to MK (later cause we stayed for Fantasmic)
Saturday - Maybe go to AK (I can't stand it there, but I will go if everyone else wants to). If not AK than back to Epcot
Sunday - come home.

Now, parks on certain days do change (except the Monday)(this is just a quickie example).
I then base all my reservations and everything else from there.
Don't make things to hard - this is supposed to be fun

 

[tink20]

OP, you will do fine. I was kind of stressing myself before making our FPs (today was my day) and everything went well. It was helpful to me, to have everything wrote down in front of me when I was making my FPs. You may already know this, but they will give you 3 times for the attractions you pick, just accept them, then you can go back in and modify the times. I got exactly what we wanted.

I am just going to go with what we have planned, and if something happens to throw off the plans, we will just go with it. (guess we will be there the same time as you guys). Hope you all have an awesome time!!!!

 

[capegirl]

I'm a crazy planner, and I never used any of these sites.
I go on the WDW website to find park hours, EMH, what night Spectromagic will happen and etc and go from there.
Basically this is how I do things.....
Arrive Sunday(early) - do DTD
Monday - MK (no matter what)
Tuesday - Epcot
Wednesday - Easy Day (cause we were late at Epcot) We rent a boat (we normally stay at The Poly), hang out by the pool, do a dinner show, just relax a little
Thursday - Do HS
Friday - Go back to MK (later cause we stayed for Fantasmic)
Saturday - Maybe go to AK (I can't stand it there, but I will go if everyone else wants to). If not AK than back to Epcot
Sunday - come home.

Now, parks on certain days do change (except the Monday)(this is just a quickie example).
I then base all my reservations and everything else from there.
Don't make things to hard - this is supposed to be fun

I'm the same way; we have our own touring plan. MK is always our first park no matter what day we arrive.
We also take advantage of EMH park days even though the touring plans don't reccomended them. It works for us.

 

[poohfriend77]

So, I'm a planner. Always have been. I really used to ENJOY planning Disney. Last we were there was 4 years ago, so all the Fastpass+ stuff is quite new to me. I'm stressing because my window opens tomorrow and I feel like I have it all wrong! LOL. It used to be easier to fly by the seat of your pants. Now, I feel like I need to have it nailed down a bit more.

Deatails that (might) matter: 6 adults. 2 kids ages 10 and 12. We aren't doing the dining plan this time, but do have a few sit down lunches planned (only one, at BOG, that really most likely can't be changed, there are 8 of us). We hvae 8 day PH and more tickets and I really am being quite silly and paranoid I know it will all work out just fine.

However....what do you find to work best when planning which days at which parks. I used to use TGM, and decided to try touring plans this time, since TGM hasn't been updated much lately. Now that I'm looking at other sites (Easy WDW and Undercover Tourist), I feel like maybe I'm way off, since they don't seem to agree.....

Tell me which you like best and why.

If I change everything again, my husband and parents are going to laugh

It sounds like you'll be getting there the day after me. I also have 12- and 10-year old girls, but it will just be the four of us on this trip. Want to share your schedule?

I looked at easywdw, but we did go against recommendation to do a couple EMHs. Other than that, I just try to balance our days (not Epcot twice in a row, etc.), PLUS, I look at our schedule overall, to balance late nights and early mornings. I usually stick AK right in the middle of our week, because I know that will be an early evening so we can recharge a bit!

 

[cuppycake]

And, now that I've finished that, I can say that I really really really wish that Disney would reconsider all this nonsense. I am a planner by nature, but this is ridiculous! They have taken a lot of the fun and spontaneity out of it.

It was a pain enough to try to figure out which park which days and then book ADRs in the past (but we did, esp since we did a lot of "free dining" in Sept, and I even enjoyed it a bit). This is the first time that we've gone (and we've been lucky enough to do Disney many times before kids, and as our girls have grown) with the new Fasspass + system. Add that to the stress of going in June and knowing that the crowds will be higher than we've done in the past, and this has not been fun. In fact, I can honestly say that we most likely will not do Disney in the near future.

I feel for the folks who are heading to Disney expecting a fun family vacation, not realizing that to be able to do the "important to us" things on their list they may have had to made those decisions 60 days before they even arrive, or miss their chance (or do some sort of crazy dance, or wait in line for a couple of hours) to do them a little more easily.

Yep. Call me a bitter old lady. Right now, I'm sour on all this stuff.

Happy to have that over, now pass me a Grand Marnier Slushie.

 

[itchin2go]

I used to use TGM and Touring Plans too. Lately, I've been using easywdw. Here's one reason. I *think* one of the things touringplans does is counter-intuitive to our general plans. Correct me if they aren't still doing this: If one park (say MK) wouldn't be recommended within a certain period (for whatever reason), they'll go ahead and recommend it anyway - meaning some of the parks they recommend aren't actually the best park to go to that day. I didn't explain that well, but regardless, I don't like that one aspect. Also, Easywdw explains its rationale in detail, much the way TGM used to do. That helps me understand WHY a park is recommended and why that may not be relevant to me.

I don't go by it religiously. If we want to end the trip at Epcot, that's what we do - even if it's the least recommended. However, I go into it with my eyes wide open, knowing that it may be busier than normal.

 

[Elmo888]

I was in a similar place...we hadn't been in five years and the fastpass + was stressing me out. I use touring plans web site. If you use a touring plan and follow it (including being at the park at rope drop), you can still have a great day at the "least recommended park". I have heard the touring plans author explain things on podcasts. I would email him and ask him that specific question.

In my experience, following a touring plan is more important than the recommended park.

We had an ADR at BOG on Thanksgiving because if you want BOG, you don't care that it is on the least recommended day ( no park hoppers)! So we were up early, followed the touring plan on what I thought would be a frustrating day, and it was great. I had a difficult time picking days because of Thanksgiving - I tried to pick the park with the lowest crowds from the days that we were there. And then my plans became even more messed up when park hours changed after I made our FP+. MK had morning EMH that I didn't want to deal with. ..7 AM! We still had a great day because of the touring plan.

I think that they just give crowd levels now and don't recommend specific parks in a time period . You can look at the levels in the time period that you are there and pick what works for you - which park on which day. I just double checked and don't see a "recommended park".

The touring plans website has kept up with the changing times. If you have used it before and liked it,check it out. I liked using the app in the parks.

 

[ArwenMarie]

I agree with the folks saying that it's best to just pick a crowd calendar and just go with it. When you start looking at multiple ones you can start going nuts. We also overlay what park we want to do on a certain day regardless of the calendars sometimes.

OP, I'm sure you will have a great trip! With 8 days of tickets, you will have so much time to see and do everything at a nice pace

 

[Jing]

I love TP, particularly for the app because of the in-park changes to the plan we tend to do. That said, we are going with a toddler for the first time in October. I am not inclined to get a hopper this time since we will likely not do rope drop or be out past 8pm. We will either do in-stroller naps at the park or go back to the resort and spend the rest of the day there. That makes easy wdw a bit more appealing for choosing park days, but I will still use TP to help plan out the strategy.

 

[mullysisters]

And, now that I've finished that, I can say that I really really really wish that Disney would reconsider all this nonsense. I am a planner by nature, but this is ridiculous! They have taken a lot of the fun and spontaneity out of it.

It was a pain enough to try to figure out which park which days and then book ADRs in the past (but we did, esp since we did a lot of "free dining" in Sept, and I even enjoyed it a bit). This is the first time that we've gone (and we've been lucky enough to do Disney many times before kids, and as our girls have grown) with the new Fasspass + system. Add that to the stress of going in June and knowing that the crowds will be higher than we've done in the past, and this has not been fun. In fact, I can honestly say that we most likely will not do Disney in the near future.

I feel for the folks who are heading to Disney expecting a fun family vacation, not realizing that to be able to do the "important to us" things on their list they may have had to made those decisions 60 days before they even arrive, or miss their chance (or do some sort of crazy dance, or wait in line for a couple of hours) to do them a little more easily.

Yep. Call me a bitter old lady. Right now, I'm sour on all this stuff.

Happy to have that over, now pass me a Grand Marnier Slushie.

If Disney "did away" with the 180 day ADRs and 60 day FP+ we would all be lining up for rides and trying unsuccessfully to get into TS restaurants. The lines would be 2-3 hours long and you would be happy to get on two rides a day. I don't understand that logic. The number of people now going to Disneyworld is crazy but we all want to go....so Disney has come out with FP+ and ADRs. I wish I could go with my large family but I take solo trips. The ADR and FP+ system works for me. I can't speak to large groups, must be hard to plan and keep everyone happy, but, it's not Disney's fault. The fact that I can ride the headliners two-three times each trip plus all of the other rides, and eat at restaurants without a long wait is because these systems are in place.
You can still just show up and take your chances with rides and restaurants if you want spontaneity.
I plan this way 1. airline ticket cost 2.crowd calenders 3. the park hours including EMH (love 'em) when available.
I make a seven day calender. I fill in the parks I want to visit. I make a few ADRs. I get my FP+ when I can.I tweak until I leave. Save as a file on my phone and make a paper copy for my luggage. Sometime I cancel ADR's and change park days when I'm there. Easy-peasy (for a solo)

 

[DisneySOS]

As you can see you aren't alone. I second guess every thing. I've booked and cancelled the QS dining plan twice now! Then after cancelling the last time I got all excited because there was an 8:15 CP ADR available - then thought about it and realized it wasn't enough time to get a good head start so I cancelled it less than 24 hours after I made it. I can't make my FP selections till the end of May and I've already done 2/3 of my TP. That said I'm using TP for the first time - seems to good to be true but it can't be any worse than what we've done in the past. AND this trip was a last minute (for me anyway) addition to our Florida beach vacation so we will only have 3 park days. I'm kinda glad because I'm really stressing over the whole FP thing & I don't even have any Anna/Elsa in our plans as my kids are older.

I'm going with the notion that a bad day at Disney beats a good day at work any day of the week!