How do you keep from going insane? Im Ovewhelmed!

[seadd67]

OMG!!! there Is a world outside of Disney!! nope,nope I am not going to belive that.

Yes Disney(and yes Disney wants you to stay) can take up your whole vacation. For the frist trip,if you do want to leave(that would be our personal choice) take a day and go to a water park,or put put golf. Its leaveing Disney with out leaveing.

 

[leebee]

Our first trip to Florida was in 1999, and these boards were nothing like they are now. Here's how I planned:

Hotel first- DH was going to a conference, so he, DD and I, and my DSis, BIL, and DNiece traveled together. We decided we needed a two bedroom place with kitchen, so I looked offsite (kids were 1 and 5) and we settled on Residence Inn.

Made ADR's... this was easy as we were staying offsite and didn't know anything about the restaurants. We decided we'd do several character meals so the kids could meet the characters without having to spend hours in lines. Breakfast was the meal of choice as we didn't do evening events in the parks (now I can't imagine not going to the fireworks!) I think about all we did that first trip was Crystal Palace and Chef Mickeys... maybe CRT (it was SO much cheaper in those days).

I bought the Unofficial Guide to Disney World. I poured over the attractions sections to decide what would be appropriate for us, then really thought long and hard about touring plans. We didn't do rope drop most days, but were there by 9:30 at the latest, and followed the plans mostly.

I bought airfare when I found a price I could live with.

I booked rental cars when I found a price I could live with. I went to Mousesavers.com for the BEST advice for finding and getting discounts on rental cars. I kept checking the rates (weekly or more frequently) and when a better price popped up, I booked it and canceled previous bookings. DON"T HESITATE if you find a good price on a rental car... it could/will disappear in a blink!

REMEMBER: A bad day in Disney is better than the best day anywhere else. You cannot do everything in one trip (and there will be more... honest...). Don't feel that you HAVE to do anything that doesn't work for your family (we never ever take the mid-afternoon break, for example). You need to have non-park days, or only go into a park for the fireworks or parade; spend some time relaxing at your resort, swimming, shopping.

Sometimes I think it's easier to plan that first trip when you have less info, so it doesn't get so overwhelming. Try the Unofficial Guide and see if that's an easier way to plan than just using the boards.

 

[quagmire0]

Everybody's gotta start somewhere. This is my first time planning as well. So far, my main sources of information have been Mousesavers, these forums, the Unofficial Guide, and Tour Guide Mike. It's a complete overload of information. What I can tell you is that what I started with was a blank spreadsheet. As I began reading and learning things, I put them into the spreadsheet. I'd have a tab for hotel/resort info, one for tickets, one for dining, one with a general agenda, and even one just for random tips I would read. I saved links to even more info, etc. etc. Gradually over the last few months I've fine tuned it and organized it even more. It's still a bit random, but I pretty much have all the info I need to pull off this vacation.

The key is to keep in mind that you CAN over-plan things. There's a big difference between being informed and being overinformed. You don't have to be a Disneyophile, you just want to pick up enough knowledge to make more right decisions than wrong ones. Keep gathering information in whatever format works for you, then take time to sit down and digest the info - discarding what you don't need. I have our flight, our condo, our rental car, our tickets, our ADRs, and what parks we'll be going to on which days planned already, and I feel pretty good about it. Some people would still be freaking out about what exactly they will be doing at the parks etc. etc. To each their own. I have two kids that will undoubtedly alter and minute-by-minute plans I could possibly conceive, so it doesn't make sense for me to worry that much about it.

 

[loveysbydesign]

I do it the opposite of most people. We decide flexible dates of when we really want to go...then I price out airfare and buy what is cheapest!
Then we book our lodging and then later on I buy our tix. thorugh the undercovertourist link from the mousesaveers newsletter.
Cheap airfare is the hardest to find out of those 3 things so we works our dates out around whatever is cheapest!

 

[jsthomps]

The "Unofficial Guide to Disney World" help us a great deal