How do you NOT let a Disney Vacation stress you out?

[DisneyMama811]

our trip won't be til next year, I can't nail down a date because we are Canadians and the border is closed so Disney isn't even an option at this point, it's a wait and see game.

but I'm a highly anxious person and I like to plan. From all my research it does not seem like A Disney Vacation leaves much room for spontaneity, which is ok with me I like a plan, but how do you go about choosing which parks for which days? how do you fit in dining reservations? once you choose your park pass for a certain day can it be changed? can you make dining reservations before you get a park pass? for example say you get a park pass for a Wednesday at Magic Kingdom, and Thursday at Hollywood Studios, then you go to book dinner, you want to have a character meal at Hollywood and Vine but the only free slot is on the Wednesday, can you change your park pass days around OR can you make your dining reservations first and THEN decide your park days based on those? choosing Fastpasses is a whole other thing but since they might not come back I'm choosing not to worry about them yet... I just don't want to be that mom on the trip harassing everyone to stick to the schedule and getting upset when plans change (I hate when plans change) and suck all the fun out of the trip for everyone

* I know I sound neurotic, I have a genuine anxiety disorder and worry about inconsequential things incessantly, please try to be nice!

 

[LeeLee'sMom]

Sometimes when we overthink plans it makes for the worse time, I had my moments believe me. Yes you can switch park days as long as there is availability at the new park. Depending when you visit and if park reservations are still a thing (which they probably will be) also depends if hopping hours will be any time during the day or after 2pm also will play into factor.

Currently park hopping is available after 2pm and from what I have read here, pretty much has been running smoothly, I do not believe any one park was too filled to prohibit park hopping after 2pm, but I do not read every single thread. Book your park reservations first as those you can book much further out than your dining. Once the dining window opens up, currently it's 60 days, then book your dining. If you see you need a different park according to where you want to dine, then make sure the park is available and change your day.

Like I said, depending when you can visit Disney this may all change and may not be a big deal but I have a feeling park reservations will be around for a bit. Sometimes less TS meals are easier because it's much less planning. Also, many times the day before you want a reservation that is hard to get, they open up. If I can't get a reservation that I want, I check often to see if things open up, as many times they do, people cancel etc. I must say, many, many times when plans didn't work or we opted not to stick with them were the best vacations. Enjoy...

 

[Akck]

ADRs are completely separate from park passes, so you can make them at 60 days. In any case, park passes can be changed subject to availability. With park hopping as an option, you can make a dinner reservation in another park and hop over to it, subject to park availability which has been open. I found that ADRs control your schedule, so having fewer of them will make your plans more flexible. This was true before Covid.

 

[VandVsmama]

our trip won't be til next year, I can't nail down a date because we are Canadians and the border is closed so Disney isn't even an option at this point, it's a wait and see game.

but I'm a highly anxious person and I like to plan. From all my research it does not seem like A Disney Vacation leaves much room for spontaneity, which is ok with me I like a plan, but how do you go about choosing which parks for which days? how do you fit in dining reservations? once you choose your park pass for a certain day can it be changed? can you make dining reservations before you get a park pass? for example say you get a park pass for a Wednesday at Magic Kingdom, and Thursday at Hollywood Studios, then you go to book dinner, you want to have a character meal at Hollywood and Vine but the only free slot is on the Wednesday, can you change your park pass days around OR can you make your dining reservations first and THEN decide your park days based on those? choosing Fastpasses is a whole other thing but since they might not come back I'm choosing not to worry about them yet... I just don't want to be that mom on the trip harassing everyone to stick to the schedule and getting upset when plans change (I hate when plans change) and suck all the fun out of the trip for everyone

A WDW definitely still leaves plenty of room for spontaneity if you allow yourself to be spontaneous. Here's my thoughts on your questions:

How do you go about choosing which parks for which days?
I personally have a couple of factors that come into play:

• Will we be going to a park on our arrival day? If so, I'd pick the park that is likely to be open the latest (which, right now, tends to be Epcot).
• Will we be going to a park on our departure day? If so, I like it to be MK.
• If we're not going to a park on our departure day, then the day BEFORE we leave to go home, we'll be at MK.
• Everything else in between is flexible. I start by looking at crowd predictions on Touring Plans' website.

How do you fit in dining reservations?
I pick the "which park on which day" thing first, and THEN the ADRs get selected based on that. But which ADRs for which park? Depends on your preferences & all that. We don't care much for the TS options at MK, so on our next trip early this summer, our MK ADRs are going to be at nearby resorts (like Whispering Canyon at Wilderness Lodge for lunch or Chef Mickey's at CR or The Wave at CR).

Once you choose your park pass for a certain day can it be changed?
Yes. But remember that right now, HS is the more popular park because of ROTR so pick your HS day(s) first and then try to stick with those. It'll be easier to switch from HS to something else than something else to HS...especially if you're changing your mind close to your trip.

Say you get a park pass for a Wednesday at Magic Kingdom, and Thursday at Hollywood Studios, then you go to book dinner, you want to have a character meal at Hollywood and Vine but the only free slot is on the Wednesday, can you change your park pass days around OR can you make your dining reservations first and THEN decide your park days based on those?

What I would do in that situation is this:

• Pick my park pass for HS for a week day.
• Mark my calendar for exactly 60 days before day 1 of our on site hotel stay.
• Go online at 7:00 am Eastern time to book the Hollywood & Vine character meal on our HS day.
• Book all of the other ADRs after that.
• If Hollywood & Vine is booked for that HS day, then I'd pick that character meal for a different day.
• Then I'd make my other ADRs.
• And THEN I'd try to switch our HS park pass to match the character meal day.
• IF there are no more HS park passes to be had on the character meal day, then I'd check regularly online to see if Hollywood & Vine has any openings on our already-scheduled HS day.
• I'd tell my family that there aren't any guarantees so nobody gets their hearts set on it and has a melt down.
• And I'd probably book a different character meal elsewhere as a back up. Like Chef Mickey's at CR or Topolino's Terrace at the Riviera.

Can you make dining reservations before you get a park pass?
Yes. But having an ADR does not mean that you're guaranteed to get a park pass for that park.

 

[VandVsmama]

ADRs are completely separate from park passes, so you can make them at 60 days. In any case, park passes can be changed subject to availability. With park hopping as an option, you can make a dinner reservation in another park and hop over to it, subject to park availability which has been open. I found that ADRs control your schedule, so having fewer of them will make your plans more flexible. This was true before Covid.

I agree that ADRs control your schedule. We like doing 1 ADR per day so we can have the flexibility of changing our minds on what to do, where to go, where to eat for the rest of the day.

 

[DisneyMama811]

A WDW definitely still leaves plenty of room for spontaneity if you allow yourself to be spontaneous. Here's my thoughts on your questions:

How do you go about choosing which parks for which days?
I personally have a couple of factors that come into play:

• Will we be going to a park on our arrival day? If so, I'd pick the park that is likely to be open the latest (which, right now, tends to be Epcot).
• Will we be going to a park on our departure day? If so, I like it to be MK.
• If we're not going to a park on our departure day, then the day BEFORE we leave to go home, we'll be at MK.
• Everything else in between is flexible. I start by looking at crowd predictions on Touring Plans' website.

How do you fit in dining reservations?
I pick the "which park on which day" thing first, and THEN the ADRs get selected based on that. But which ADRs for which park? Depends on your preferences & all that. We don't care much for the TS options at MK, so on our next trip early this summer, our MK ADRs are going to be at nearby resorts (like Whispering Canyon at Wilderness Lodge for lunch or Chef Mickey's at CR or The Wave at CR).

Once you choose your park pass for a certain day can it be changed?
Yes. But remember that right now, HS is the more popular park because of ROTR so pick your HS day(s) first and then try to stick with those. It'll be easier to switch from HS to something else than something else to HS...especially if you're changing your mind close to your trip.

Say you get a park pass for a Wednesday at Magic Kingdom, and Thursday at Hollywood Studios, then you go to book dinner, you want to have a character meal at Hollywood and Vine but the only free slot is on the Wednesday, can you change your park pass days around OR can you make your dining reservations first and THEN decide your park days based on those?

What I would do in that situation is this:

• Pick my park pass for HS for a week day.
• Mark my calendar for exactly 60 days before day 1 of our on site hotel stay.
• Go online at 7:00 am Eastern time to book the Hollywood & Vine character meal on our HS day.
• Book all of the other ADRs after that.
• If Hollywood & Vine is booked for that HS day, then I'd pick that character meal for a different day.
• Then I'd make my other ADRs.
• And THEN I'd try to switch our HS park pass to match the character meal day.
• IF there are no more HS park passes to be had on the character meal day, then I'd check regularly online to see if Hollywood & Vine has any openings on our already-scheduled HS day.
• I'd tell my family that there aren't any guarantees so nobody gets their hearts set on it and has a melt down.
• And I'd probably book a different character meal elsewhere as a back up. Like Chef Mickey's at CR or Topolino's Terrace at the Riviera.

Can you make dining reservations before you get a park pass?
Yes. But having an ADR does not mean that you're guaranteed to get a park pass for that park.

thank you so much for taking the time to go through this step by step, it genuinely means a lot to me

 

[VandVsmama]

When making an ADR and factoring in which park you'll be at on that day, here's the sort of stuff that goes through my head when I'm deciding WHICH restaurant and what time of day:

• Do I want a lunch or dinner ADR? Most of the time, we've been leaning toward lunch or dinner and do QS for breakfast.
• Usually by noon, my DH is starting to get burned out, his Theme Park Fatigue symptoms are starting to emerge, and we need a break.
• Let's say that I pick lunch for the ADR (that's what we did most of the time on our trip in January this year)...
• If it's a MK day, then Skipper Canteen is an option that we like. But we don't care for really any of the other ones either because of food options or cost is too high (Be Our Guest, Cinderella's Royal Table).
• So on a MK day for lunch and we want TS or a TS-like experience, I look at the monorail resorts + Wilderness Lodge. At Wilderness Lodge, I'd pick Whispering Canyon or Geyser Point. Geyser Point isn't TS and you can't do ADRs there, but they have servers and it's 1st come, 1st served, so you have to put your name in and wait. It's worth the wait there...the spot is relaxing, so enjoyable, the food is good, it's a peaceful spot.
• On a MK day if we want a break away from the park, I'd also be thinking of The Wave for lunch at CR. Easy hop over on the monorail. Then if you want to park hop after that to Epcot, HS, or AK, you'd get on a bus to either of those 3 parks from CR (no need to go back to the TTC and then bus from there).
• For a HS day, we'd probably do QS lunch and/or dinner but have our ADR be at Oga's Cantina at any time of day (since an Oga's ADR is hard to get). Otherwise, I'd probably pick Sci Fi or Brown Derby for lunch. Dinner on a HS day would probably be QS at Primo Piatto at the Riviera (take Skyliner there).
• For an Epcot day, we really loved Biergarten when we went in January. Since Epcot opens later than the other parks, I'd probably sleep in on an Epcot park pass day and pick an ADR for about 1-1:30 pm at Biergarten. Next time, we might try Chefs de France if they're open (I can't remember if they've open now or not).
• At AK, I'd be inclined to not do any ADR here, but have QS at Flame Tree BBQ and do a dinner ADR either at another park or at a resort near the park we'd be at later in the evening. OR if more restaurants were open at AKL, I'd make an ADR over there for lunch, then take the AKL bus back to AK and then hop to another park for the rest of the day.

For our January trip, for the most part our ADRs were all lunch time ADRs because DH wanted to be able to change his mind on the fly as to where we'd spend the late afternoon and evening. He didn't want to feel tied down to "we HAVE to go to park X because we have a dinner ADR there, but I no longer want to go back to that park today and if we cancel the ADR, we're out $10/person, and I don't want to fork over that $$ for the no-show fee."

 

[VandVsmama]

So on our upcoming family trip to WDW in early June, we're going to have 2 HS days. On each of those days, we'll have an "experience" reservation. On one day, it'll be a light saber build. On the other day, it'll be a droid build appointment.

However, on both of those days, for my DH's sake, we also need an ADR.

Plus, on this trip, we're not doing park hopper tickets. We only have 1-park-per-day tickets. So what to do?

HS day #1:
I'm going for the light saber build on this day. Since these are harder to get than regular ADRs, I'm going to make this reservation first. But before that, I've already made the park reservation. If I can't get the light saber build on this day, then I'll schedule it for HS day #2.

I think we'll have lunch at Docking Bay 7 (QS). And an ADR at Oga's Cantina...maybe for some time in the evening? Not sure yet. I've also thought about also having dinner at a QS place but having dessert at Beaches & Cream at the Boardwalk (would probably walk there, but I'm not sure about this since we also want to ride ROTR so this would be 3 reservations in 1 day on a ROTR day, which is pushing it I think).

I might try instead for Beaches & Cream for dessert on our Epcot day. I don't know yet.

HS day #2:
ADR for lunch would be at Sci Fi or 50's Prime Time Cafe. Plus a droid appointment on this day. Plus try for ROTR boarding group. Dinner at Primo Piatto (at Riviera, via Skyliner). We're staying at Pop Century, so this will probably end up being an early-ish dinner (~ 5:30) after a hotel break, then get on Skyliner back to HS.

Epcot day:
On our Epcot day, we're not going to Epcot until late afternoon. In the morning, I'm going to surprise YDD with horseback riding at Fort Wilderness. So we'll probably have QS lunch at P&J's Southern Take Out. Then an ADR for dinner at Biergarten.

last MK day:
For our early June trip, our last park day is the day before departure day. So I'm thinking of splurging with 2 ADRs on this day...an early breakfast at Chef Mickey's, lunch (QS) at Roaring Fork at Wilderness Lodge (this means relaxing boat ride from TTC to WL, which will make DH happy, then relaxing boat ride back to TTC, then bus to Pop Century for hotel break in hottest part of day), then dinner at The Wave or CA Grill after MK park closes. We'd either take bus from CR to Disney Springs then DS bus back to Pop Century or just take a Lyft directly from CR to Pop Century.

My DH is NOT a Disney person. So giving him a variety of things to try at different restaurants makes him happy. Especially when not every meal is eaten IN a park. And when we don't have to eat lunch or dinner at the Pop Century food court.

 

[Twitterpaited]

our trip won't be til next year, I can't nail down a date because we are Canadians and the border is closed so Disney isn't even an option at this point, it's a wait and see game.

but I'm a highly anxious person and I like to plan. From all my research it does not seem like A Disney Vacation leaves much room for spontaneity, which is ok with me I like a plan, but how do you go about choosing which parks for which days? how do you fit in dining reservations? once you choose your park pass for a certain day can it be changed? can you make dining reservations before you get a park pass? for example say you get a park pass for a Wednesday at Magic Kingdom, and Thursday at Hollywood Studios, then you go to book dinner, you want to have a character meal at Hollywood and Vine but the only free slot is on the Wednesday, can you change your park pass days around OR can you make your dining reservations first and THEN decide your park days based on those? choosing Fastpasses is a whole other thing but since they might not come back I'm choosing not to worry about them yet... I just don't want to be that mom on the trip harassing everyone to stick to the schedule and getting upset when plans change (I hate when plans change) and suck all the fun out of the trip for everyone

* I know I sound neurotic, I have a genuine anxiety disorder and worry about inconsequential things incessantly, please try to be nice!

One thing that might help is to get a subscription to touring plans and make touring plans for your park days. They are pretty accurate and will give you a good idea of what to expect.

 

[kylenne]

You got a lot of really good advice already so I will just add some things that are useful for me as someone who also has anxiety as well as ADHD and travels with someone who has the same brain stuff going on:

Take frequent breaks! Cannot emphasize this enough. The parks are incredibly overstimulating at times and trying to commando tour from rope drop to close is a recipe for disaster for folks with anxiety or brain stuff. There are quiet places in all 4 parks to take a breather if you can’t or don’t want to leave. In a pinch, First Aid will also do. But I really suggest getting out of the park to a nearby resort if not your own. Treat this as preventative medicine. Midday breaks are the 1 thing I absolutely won’t budge on and facilitating those with ease are why I always pay the premium to stay within earshot of a park. But if it’s not in the budget, walking to a resort close by and chilling in the A/C and quiet is good too, even the busiest resorts have spaces for that. Some people like lunch ADRs for this reason also.

Stay hydrated!

Make sure you drink water. More than you think you need. Hydration has a direct impact on your mood and ability to handle things, I find.

Take it slow! Ties into the first thing but even when you’re actively running around, don’t try to do everything ever. Go for more days if you can, so you feel less pressure to “do it all”—short trips can be ridiculously stressful for first timers because you can constantly feel like you’re running out of time. But even if you stay for a month you can’t see or do everything on property. Before I had an AP I found it helpful to come up with a small handful of must do’s and then anything else was gravy if I could get to it. Relatedly, accept that something will go sideways at some point no matter how meticulously you plan. Coming to terms with this ahead of time is helpful in the moment, I find. And if you go for as many days as you can comfortably manage, you have more time to work it out or get a do over.

 

[3gr8boys]

I can offer a little empathy and some thoughts on a Disney vacation not leaving much room for spontaneity. I am a CONTROL FREAK and a PLANNER. (At this very moment I am looking at my lists of hoped-for ADRs and ride priorities for April 2022!) Last trip I made detailed touring plans (thoroughly enjoyed that process)....and we didn't use a single one of them. My family can appreciate the benefit of planning TS meals together and scheduling fast passes, but are much more interested in doing whatever strikes their fancy in the moment than trying to get the most rides out of their park time. Over lunch in MK one son might say "I want to go ride Expedition Everest." So, after lunch, off to AK we (or a subset of the family) would go. You didn't mention the size or ages of your group, but the keys for us are the ability to park hop and the willingness to split up so each kid can follow their own desires.

A family that happily follows a well developed touring plan can get sooooo much done and have a great time (keeping post from @kylenne in mind ) . In my case, I have to let go of the plans...letting spontaneity take over between ADRs, fast passes (last trip was 2018) and reserved experiences. However your family operates, it will be magical

 

[Blondie58]

We spend time putting together a spreadsheet that is organized with all our WDW travel information and park plans etc. We may stress in the planning phase over this or that but once we hit the plane we are go to go and the stress melts away as we have direction. (Right now I am stressed about no fastpasses and that might not be settled???)

 

[Dug720]

On the contrary...I find plenty of ability to be spontaneous! Yes, I make a general plan of what park on what day, and I'll decide on one "big" meal per day (any more than one "big" one, one QS, and a snack or two and I'm overstuffed and miserable) and rides that are "must dos" for me and then just go with the flow. Even with Fast Passes in any form. For a while I worked at a Disney Store, and initially we could not pre-book FP+ so had to just grab what we could when we got in the parks. Still had an amazing time!!

Yes, I'm now solo, but even when I was growing up we had a basic plan but never these "OMG WE'RE 30 SECONDS BEHIND SCHEDULE AND WHY DID YOU NOT PEE WHEN THE BATHROOM WAS ON THE SCHEDULE?????" meltdowns I've observed.

Not being overly scheduled, I can take time to actually enjoy the parks and do things because I WANT to do them, not because "THE ALMIGHTY SCHEDULE SAYS WE MUST DO THIS NOW". Being overly scheduled stresses me out and decreases my enjoyment. I'd rather be able to take time and notice the little things than have my nose buried in a schedule and/or be herded around, unable to deviate from the schedule even a little.

I tried making a touring plan several visits ago and dumped that paper in the closest recycle bin within about an hour. It's not for me. I value spontaniety much more than "OMG MUST GET EVERYTHING DONE." The ONLY thing that prevents the total spontaniety I loved (If I didn't have any ADRs, I'd often play "Bus Roulette" and just hop the first park bus that came - usually skipping a Studios bus because I can't justify wasting a ticket for like 4 things I'd do there - and that's where I'd go) is the park reservations system. But I've adjusted to that and only occasionally flip those around.

 

[lovethattink]

We mostly just go with the flow and wing it. But we are local and have the luxury of an annual pass. We mostly eat counter service at off times, so there’s no ADR to worry about. We usually take our time and enjoy the attention to details.

 

[MillauFr]

I solve this issue by going to Disneyland instead. Very little planning needed

 

[Meglen]

We spend time putting together a spreadsheet that is organized with all our WDW travel information and park plans etc. We may stress in the planning phase over this or that but once we hit the plane we are go to go and the stress melts away as we have direction. (Right now I am stressed about no fastpasses and that might not be settled???)

Im the opposite I LOVE planning everything its when the time comes and things go a bit sideways that fluster me. But my way to try and relax would be to just buy a cookie.. who can be upset when eating a cookie... NO ONE!

 

[loves to dive]

I think as long as you keep your plans loose and don't fret if they have to be adjusted you are fine. We don't plan, we are just go with the flow kind of people. Having to book a park in advance is so against our style that was what stopped me from going after the parks first opened back up. Since it seems that is going to be the norm for a while now, I bit the bullet and booked a trip for mid-April last week. Yep, just a month out.

It is a solo trip (I think, I haven't asked my son if he wants to go yet but he hates having to wear a mask all the time so I'm thinking he isn't going) so it's a little easier. Pre-Covid we didn't book FPs in advance or ADRs, it was all done on the fly while in the parks. We would only book a FP while in line for a ride and only if it was something that was available for no later than 1/2 hour from when we thought we would get off the current ride. We just don't like being tied down. ADRs we would book afternoon of while walking around the parks. We always had park hoppers and I have them for my upcoming trip. I did book park reservations but I'm thinking even those might change the day before. I'm going during F&G so most of my meals will come from booths at Epcot if the park is open to hop to, since I'm going during the week that should be o.k. If not, I'll figure something out on the day I can't hop. I reserved Epcot for my arrival day since I should get there between 2 and 3 and am staying at the Dolphin so can walk. Day 2 is AK just because it closes the earliest and is one of my favorite parks. Day 3 is HS just to see if I can get ROTR, no big deal if I don't and easy walk between that and Epcot. Day 4 (last full day) is at MK, my least favorite park and hopefully I'll be able to hop to Epcot. The day I leave I actually booked HS again just in case I didn't get ROTR earlier and because Epcot won't be open until 11. I try to leave by the latest noon when I'm driving home. All those are fluid and subject to change depending on my moods.

The trick is to know you most likely will have to change your plans and be open to something else. We like to try new places to eat and really enjoy just finding what is available and going with it. We also enjoy just taking in the experience, it's a little harder now since sitting on a bench and sipping a drink is a little more restrictive but you can still sit on a bench and just look at the details and soak it all in.

 

[Blondie58]

If I am traveling to WDW alone my "planning time" is very limited. As a couple mainly our three fast passes, dining, tours and spa day. But if we are going with another couple and/or family we find that planning is paramount and allows all for input and the fun of the "journey" when we arrive at the destination. We do not alwasy do all things in lockstep either. We do divide up.

 

[Dug720]

Also I think the biggest stressor for people is "we have to do it ALL". There is simply no way to do it ALL. The sooner you realize that, the less stressful it becomes.

 

[fla4fun]

If it really stresses you out when plans change, I would head that off by having a plan B and even plan C already figured out. Keep the schedule a little loose, to allow for a spontaneous moment here and there, while still making sure you get to do what you want to. I feel like the magic often comes from those spontaneous moments we didn’t see coming.

I do park reservations first, always. I do change them on the fly during the trip, but I like to make sure I have an even number of days at each park, at least to start with. As a woman of a certain age who sometimes gets a little warm, I wait until I actually get through temp check at the park to make any ADRs so I don’t get hit with a no show fee. Since you can make park reservations much farther out than ADRs, I would not wait to make park reservations, but do them as soon as you make your hotel reservation.