How do you set out your daily plans?

[gems_smiling]

I keep changing how I'm going to set out my daily plans and how and what to include. At first i had a table showing the whole vacations daily food and park plans but then decided that i needed to plan more and include more information. Now i want to include touring plans, clothes, show times, when i need to wake up and get dressed etc, opening/closing times and menus. So my question is how does everyone set out their daily plans/itinerary? Thanks in advance.

 

[Amps]

I go by what the best days to visit based on crowds are, with a little bit of modification to add extra days at the parks I know we love. ADRs will go around those days making sure not to book a buffet dinner followed by a buffet breakfast do avoid having to rent ECVs that day. After that we follow a common rule, wake up 1.5hrs before our daily park opens, eat and clambor on the bus.

Edit: Thats what I get for not actually reading a post. My update is 3 posts down.

 

[gems_smiling]

I go by what the best days to visit based on crowds are, with a little bit of modification to add extra days at the parks I know we love. ADRs will go around those days making sure not to book a buffet dinner followed by a buffet breakfast do avoid having to rent ECVs that day. After that we follow a common rule, wake up 1.5hrs before our daily park opens, eat and clambor on the bus.

I meant how do you record them? Like in a table, on small cards etc

 

[Dan Murphy]

I put my schedule (mostly which park, which day, and if, where and when I am meeting up with folks from the DIS....most my trips are solo) in a Passporter, which I leave in the room, as well as in my PDA, which I take with me, same as any other day.

 

[slp87]

I create an excel spreadsheet with breakfast, morning activity, lunch, afternoon activity, supper, evening activity, EE days, parade/fireworks times, and park hours listed for each day. It's color coded with my ADR numbers and other important info. That's what I take with me to the parks each day. I also print a couple of extras, just in case.

 

[Amps]

Gotcha! I had a calender excel sheet I kept on my laptop to check when needed but for the parks I made up a card for each day that had the park hours, best/worst parks, showtimes for the fireworks etc.., our dining reservations and a notes sections. Each was printed on a 4-6" card, kept together on a keyring with the front and back pages laminated to keep them from all creasing. Worked out really well and we found ourselves digging into our backpack dozens of times each day to decide on where to hop to next and when to get in line for fantasmic.

Here's some examples:

I'm not sure if I would bother putting stuff like clothes and whatnot on it as it wouldn't leave a lot to the imagination. Good luck with your plans either way though, it helps a ton!

 

[Fran98765]

I have a 3x5 flexible card box that I have filled with index cards which are sorted by park and land in each park. On these cards I have put things to look out for such as hidden Mickeys, little known facts about an area and other items of interest that I would probably not remember on my own.

Also in my card box, I put each day's schedule including dining reservations, parks to go to and what time we plan to arrive at each park, with park hours, EMH hours and parade times. We've already discussed which attractions are important to us on the trip, so we know which attractions we will hit on our priority. We do also include what land(s) or areas we will visit on that day, ie day 1 on the next trip we have half a day at Epcot and plan to stay in Future World, eat at XX at 5pm conf # 123456789. If we plan to do something special or out of the ordinary, I also mark it on the card, ie Fantasmic dinner package and make sure to go to the show that night or even just days to stop and do VMK stuff.

The little card box is quite handy, we keep it in an outside pocket of our backpack. It also is a great place to put small souvenir type things like Mickey confetti when we got it at a birthday meal, the VMK cards and drink stirrers.

 

[gems_smiling]

Gotcha! I had a calender excel sheet I kept on my laptop to check when needed but for the parks I made up a card for each day that had the park hours, best/worst parks, showtimes for the fireworks etc.., our dining reservations and a notes sections. Each was printed on a 4-6" card, kept together on a keyring with the front and back pages laminated to keep them from all creasing. Worked out really well and we found ourselves digging into our backpack dozens of times each day to decide on where to hop to next and when to get in line for fantasmic.

Here's some examples:

I'm not sure if I would bother putting stuff like clothes and whatnot on it as it wouldn't leave a lot to the imagination. Good luck with your plans either way though, it helps a ton!

These look great. Where do you get your disney clip art from?

 

[gems_smiling]

I create an excel spreadsheet with breakfast, morning activity, lunch, afternoon activity, supper, evening activity, EE days, parade/fireworks times, and park hours listed for each day. It's color coded with my ADR numbers and other important info. That's what I take with me to the parks each day. I also print a couple of extras, just in case.

How do you set this out in the spreadsheet? I find myself running out of room or the layout become confusing.

 

[GrandFloridian4]

I create an excel spreadsheet ...... It's color coded .....

I'm so glad to hear that I'm not the only one who goes to these lengths. When I lived up your way & showed my spreadsheet to my co-worker she told me I was "a loon" & mocked me constantly about being "so anal". I always thought it was a great idea & very helpful.

I had included a sheet for everyone of every ride & attraction at each park with columns to check off stating to what extent - or not - they wanted to include that ride/attr. {Very much, Somewhat, Not at all} Then, when they gave them back to me I did a master with a gameplan & route. It worked great, actually. It even helped us to break off in pairs to visit things that the others didn't want to at the same times & we met up for the next mutual thing afterward. A lot of work? Nah, I loved working on it - especially because it kept me engrossed in Disney.

 

[danny1649]

It has daily organizer envelope's that you can plan out your day and store maps,recepts,ect.Plus you can refer to it for touring tips,maps,etc.

 

[El Tel]

I create an excel spreadsheet with breakfast, morning activity, lunch, afternoon activity, supper, evening activity, EE days, parade/fireworks times, and park hours listed for each day. It's color coded with my ADR numbers and other important info. That's what I take with me to the parks each day. I also print a couple of extras, just in case.

Looks like I'm not the only planning obsessive.

Your method virtually identical to mine. I hope you don't intend to patent it as I find it works really well for me. The colour coding on mine relates to the park - pink for MK, green for AK, etc.

I get a real buzz out of researching and preparing my chart. It helps distract me from the looooong wait until the day we fly out.

This year I've discovered the DDP, so I've been busy putting in the various meals and getting Excel to keep a running total.

 

[slp87]

I always come back and revise a copy so I'll know what we actually did, then I create a new one to start planning our next trip. We only go every other year, but usually stay 10 - 12 days. I love all of the organizing...when friends tell me they're going I try hard not to plan their entire trip.

 

[3princesses4us]

I found the coolest thing on the web after reading a book written about Disney World. Go to arondaparks.com. It's a 4 1/2" by 5 1/2" spiral bound dayplanner called a "Prep pad". I don't remember how much they are but it's not much (maybe $5?).
Anyway, it has color coded pages, pull out list pages of must-do things, expense registers for every day, blank pages for notes and even pouches to keep receipts. It's got an index of every WDW phone number you could want and plenty of room to keep all your ADR confirmation numbers.
It fits perfectly in my fanny pack and it is all I use all week to remember where to go, when and what my confim. numbers are. I ususally order 2 at a time to start planning my next trip. These are invaluable!

Update: They are only $3.95 and you can pay with Paypal. To see them in color (my copying & pasting skills aren't so good), go to arondaparks.com/ArondaParksspecialoffer2005.

 

[disneyfreakjackie]

I create an excel spreadsheet with breakfast, morning activity, lunch, afternoon activity, supper, evening activity, EE days, parade/fireworks times, and park hours listed for each day. It's color coded with my ADR numbers and other important info. That's what I take with me to the parks each day. I also print a couple of extras, just in case.

Me too!!! Everyone, except my girls and you guys think I'm NUTS!!!

It has daily organizer envelope's that you can plan out your day and store maps,recepts,ect.Plus you can refer to it for touring tips,maps,etc.

I have the passporter, too!!!

 

[Disney Doll]

We go a lot, so we pretty much wing it now. If we can't do one thing, we do another, and the first thing we couldn't do, we'll do next time. We may make a couple of ADRs if it's a place we really want to eat, but there are a lot of good restaurants, so we don't sweat that too much either.

We are generally there at non-busy times of the year, so that helps in our more "casual" attitude.

 

[lgruender]

I have a calendar that I make on Publisher. I have all the parks with hours and EMH and I color which park we are at that day. I have my ADR's listed for each day including time and comf number. I also have the menu's printed for where we have ADR's. That way we are prepared before leaving our room each day.

 

[Amps]

These look great. Where do you get your disney clip art from?

I just did a google image search for the characters I wanted and put it together in Photoshop.

But boy, my family thought I was loco when I started making a spreadsheet just to keep track of park hours and when our ADRs were but now I'm beginning to think that I'm on the mild side of the scale. You guys are crazy with your planning, I love it!

 

[klmall]

I use 3 x 5 cards similar to ones posted by Amps. I turn mine the other direction and don't use clip art.

Having the park, parade and fireworks hours are invaluable even for parks you don't originally plan to visit that day since you might need to quickly change your schedule.

I include ADR information and our hotel phone # as well (if not elsewhere).

We have used these cards for at least 10 years and I save them for trip records.

My DH originally said I was a bit obsessive but he ended up being the one constantly asking me some question that required the card.

 

[Leota]

I make a very simple Word calander with ADRs, EMHs, Park hours & showtimes. I cut one copy up into daily pieces about the size of a credit card. I keep one whole in my folder on the bureau in my room. I don't carry a backpack or anything. Whatever I bring has to fit in my small Park wallet.

I only do this to pass the time til a trip. I have never yet needed a ressie number, I have the Park Hours / showtimes pretty much memorized before I go. The only thing I really need my calander for is EMHs. I still haven't gotten the schedule down since the moved from set EE's to the more flexible EMHs.