My trip is coming up in April 2015. I've made my dining reservations and fastpass+ reservations will be coming up before I know it.
Right now, I have a simple spreadsheet in Excel that I'm using and I also write down some notes on paper.
I was wondering, especially for those of you who are planners, how do you keep all your information organized? Do you have a spreadsheet, use my Disney experience, something else I'm not thinking of?
I feel like my information is sort of all over the place (probably how my brain is as well!)
Thanks!
I utilize two [2] spreadsheets:
1.) The first one shows (in landscape view) Dates, Best & Worst Parks (using easywdw.com; I used to use Touring Plans), along with a column for AM Activity / PM Activity / ADR. I also include columns with MK Fireworks & Fantasmic times. And at the bottom of the sheet, there is typically room for Entertainment schedules (i.e., Lion King, Nemo, etc.) for those things we might want to include in our plans.
This is the planning sheet. No need for FP+ details or even ADR times, just that you're going to XYZ Restaurant or Park on a particular AM or PM.
'Wrapping Text' inside your cell is your friend.
2.) Second Spreadsheet charts the daily selected Parks & ADR's on a time schedule. In other words, I chart the time on left-side column for meals and the FP+. Mine looks like what you'd get if you 'google' and view cube-like 'Festival Schedule'.
EDITED: LIKE THE ONE ABOVE ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
This helps with selecting FP+ in the first place. Put in the ADR (180 days in advance), and then figure out how you might see your day unfold by allotting time on the 'Cubes' for things like travel that might take a chunk of time and has to be done; Disney suggests 1-hour between most transportation services. Finally, select and enter FP+ (at 60 days, if you can) onto spreadsheet.
We do not get the data down to the minute or with a long list of attractions; we do not show bathroom/snack breaks. Rather, we just post the FP+ window, ADR's, and Must-Do's (i.e., characters, lunch with in-laws, pool time, Disney Quest, etc.). The rest is filled by experience and the collective hunch of a family dynamic. In other words, fill in the blank-times as your family sees fit.
I use color-coding and to some success - even my 5 y.o. can comprehend it.
Maybe I've been doing this stuff for too many years (and before Disney), but we never feel hurried trying to accomplish our plan. The planning is the 'hard stuff', the vacation then comes easy.....until your plane is delayed.
