How do YOU do Disney?

[Shrfleen]

Who are the travelers? Adults. We will be taking our cousins 9 and almost 2 on our next trip.
When do you go? When crowds are light. Late Fall or Winter
How many days? Usually 5 park days and 2 travel days.
Onsite/offsite? Resort Level? Onsite. Deluxe.
Car or Disney transportation? Disney transportation.
Dining plan (type) or OOP: Disney Dining Plan
Daily schedule:

• RD or sleep in? Rope Drop
  
• mid day breaks? Yes
  
• pool days? No but thinking about adding at least 1.
  
• touring plan or go with the flow? A plan.
  
• park hop? Yes.
  
• meals? We try to get pre park breakfast reservations, lunch usually at the resort, dinner in the parks or no dinner at all, just small meals.
  
• evening plans? We try to stay out until closing or until we finish what we wanted to do.

 

[Deirdres]

Who are the travelers? Myself, DH, DS(23), DS(20), DD(13)
When do you go? Usually Nov - March, every year or two, but since moving to Arizona 8 years ago, we've added DLR to the rotation. WDW is about every 3 to 4 years, and DLR on the other years.
How many days? About a week
Onsite/offsite? Resort Level? Onsite, DVC members since 1997, stayed in all DVC, except monorail resorts
Car or Disney transportation? Disney
Dining: plan (type) or OOP OOP, with DVC discount or TIW, it works for us
Daily schedule:
RD or sleep in? When we were living in eastern timezone, we would go early but not RD. Now that we are on the west coast, we stay on west coast time and go late, and stay late. This helps with Dining too, since its easier to book 3pm lunches and 8:30 dinners.
mid day breaks? Very rarely
pool days? When the kids were small, and we needed a park break. Very rarely now.
touring plan or go with the flow? Since FP+ we create a plan and try to follow it, but usually changes at least once per day. I like that we have to preselect the park now, before I would make ADR's in advance and then the family would vote to do a different park on the day of, and it sent me scrambling
park hop? Never, didn't make sense for us. But am considering it with the new express transportation.
meals? At least one ADR per day, QS and our must have Disney treats, we also bring drinks and small snacks for long wait times or to hold us until the ADR.
evening plans? Usually fireworks, or DS, but mostly we are still in the Parks on rides.

 

[SaintsManiac]

Who are the travelers? Me, DH and DD (soon to be 7)
When do you go? No certain time. December last trip, Thanksgiving this year, Halloween next year, etc
How many days? No less than a week
Onsite/offsite? Resort Level? Onsite --have done value, mod and deluxe. Obviously prefer deluxe!
Car or Disney transportation? Disney transport in the past, but this year we are driving and plan to mix it up
Dining: plan (type) or OOP have done both and prefer OOP
Daily schedule: a mix between RD and sleeping in. We like to hop. We like to have a few ADRs and we love fireworks

 

[mindeola]

Who are the travelers? My trips really vary. My DH and kids do not love Disney so I can only get them there every four years or so. I go on trips in between with my friends or my sister and nieces. We have also done several big family trips with my parents and siblings and their families. Trips this year : Anniversary with hubby ( he loves me) and girlfriend trip with three friends and my sister.
When do you go? Usually May. This year, may and November.
How many days? generally 4-5 park days per trip. We have done up to ten days and I have done as little as one day.
Onsite/offsite? Resort Level? Onsite! Done everything from value to Deluxe and Shades of Green. Doing deluxe both trips this year.
Car or Disney transportation? Both. usually drive, sometimes fly. If we have our car we use it more than Disney transport, but if we fly we never rent a car.
Dining: plan (type) or OOP Never do dining plan anymore. I save big time by not using it!
Daily schedule: RD or sleep in? mid day breaks? pool days? touring plan or go with the flow? park hop? meals? evening plans? RD, mid day break, close out a park kind of people. PLan for the morning, wing it for the evening. usually have one TS a day. Breakfast on the run usually.

 

[Pmlocke]

We go every year, seven day trips are the norm. My wife and I are in our 60's so of course it is just the two of us. The only reservations we make are for our evening meals. We do not do fast passes. We will not wait in lines that are more than 30 minute waits. After all the visits, been there, done that. We wake up when we wake up, get showered and dressed and go for breakfast at our hotel. When we walk out to the bus waiting area we get on what ever bus is there. Again-no plans, nothing demanding we have to go somewhere because at 10 am we have to be on a ride. After a nice lunch we head back to the resort to laze around the pool for about 4 hours. We then go out and take a bus to a differant park than we went to in the morning. We usually go to where we have dining reservations, if those reservations are in a dining spot in a park. We will stay until fireworks, if offered, and then head back home. Sleep comes easily after all that walking and when we wake up again, we start it all over.

 

[mymommom]

Who are the travelers? Family of 15 - MomMom & PopPop, 3 adult married kids & 8 grandchildren
When do you go? October, November, December, January
How many days? 7-9 days
Onsite/offsite? Resort Level? Always onsite - POFQ - Love that Disney bubble
Car or Disney transportation? Riding the Disney busses, monorail & boats is half the fun!!!
Dining: plan (type) or OOP - Always the dining plan. It's less to think about
Daily schedule: Rope Drop Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios, arrive a little after rope drop at Animal Kingdom and Epcot. We usually go to Epcot on arrival day for dinner (and to FP+ a headliner), then use a FP+ for the second headliner on our regular day there. Hollywood and Animal have been 1 day parks for use, but we visit Magic Kingdom 3 days!! We have dinner at 5:30 and we're done for the day. The evening is enjoying the pool etc. The kids also looove swimming so we squeeze it in whenever we can. Can't wait to go back in 2 years