bajanswife
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Mar 8, 2004
- Messages
- 1,084
I love to plan, but I think I'm overdoing it a little - at least, that's DH's opinion! He's not going on this trip in October, but he's worried I'll have marvelous plans and then the other 3 women I'm going with will decide they don't want to follow them and I'll be disappointed.
Anyway, we're getting together in the next couple of weeks to start planning the trip. I think it's too early to get into touring plans etc., but I thought, since a couple of them don't really know WDW at all and therefore can't really say what attractions are "must-sees" for them, I'd start by getting everyone's feelings on some broader issues: e.g. thrill rides or not?, parades?, which shows?, MNSSHP? etc. I also want to see how long they think they can go each day (we're staying 40 mins drive away, so no going back to the apt. at midday), and if they'd like to spread the parks out a little bit over 4 days, or concentrated in 3 days (it's a short trip, and there are other things we need to do too). I also want to get a feeling for their crowd tolerance.
Is this a good place to start? I've been once, and I'm doing tons of reserach, so I can guide them well if I know what they like and want. But it's hard for them to know what to tell me, since they haven't much time to read the guidebooks in detail. I just know that in 3 or 4 days we cannot see everything, so I'd rather see all the things we all think are "the best" for us than wander around the parks and risk spending time doing "so-so" stuff and missing some great stuff! You see, I doubt that 2 of these friends will ever make it back, or if they do WDW will be a lot different. They can't really say "oh well, we'll do it next time we're at WDW"!
So, crazy planner that I am, I have made a list of some things for them to rate 1 - 5: not specific attractions (which are harder to judge for first-timers), but more like genres. I'll then make a plan that targets the higher-rated areas as a priority, and anything else we do will be gravy. Epcot and AK are musts already, based on preliminary conversations we've had - so now we just need to figure out what to do when AK closes, and what to do with our other 2 days (including the shopping and resting we'll need!).
Any other ideas about how to gather everyone's thoughts and desires? Have any of you planned a trip for a group of very different individuals? Did you split up a lot, or did you try to accomodate everyone all the time?
Anyway, we're getting together in the next couple of weeks to start planning the trip. I think it's too early to get into touring plans etc., but I thought, since a couple of them don't really know WDW at all and therefore can't really say what attractions are "must-sees" for them, I'd start by getting everyone's feelings on some broader issues: e.g. thrill rides or not?, parades?, which shows?, MNSSHP? etc. I also want to see how long they think they can go each day (we're staying 40 mins drive away, so no going back to the apt. at midday), and if they'd like to spread the parks out a little bit over 4 days, or concentrated in 3 days (it's a short trip, and there are other things we need to do too). I also want to get a feeling for their crowd tolerance.
Is this a good place to start? I've been once, and I'm doing tons of reserach, so I can guide them well if I know what they like and want. But it's hard for them to know what to tell me, since they haven't much time to read the guidebooks in detail. I just know that in 3 or 4 days we cannot see everything, so I'd rather see all the things we all think are "the best" for us than wander around the parks and risk spending time doing "so-so" stuff and missing some great stuff! You see, I doubt that 2 of these friends will ever make it back, or if they do WDW will be a lot different. They can't really say "oh well, we'll do it next time we're at WDW"!
So, crazy planner that I am, I have made a list of some things for them to rate 1 - 5: not specific attractions (which are harder to judge for first-timers), but more like genres. I'll then make a plan that targets the higher-rated areas as a priority, and anything else we do will be gravy. Epcot and AK are musts already, based on preliminary conversations we've had - so now we just need to figure out what to do when AK closes, and what to do with our other 2 days (including the shopping and resting we'll need!).
Any other ideas about how to gather everyone's thoughts and desires? Have any of you planned a trip for a group of very different individuals? Did you split up a lot, or did you try to accomodate everyone all the time?