How do you tour?

[goofydad99]

Since we are DVC members, we tend to tour the parks at our leisure. I don't overplan and try to take a relaxed mindset of how we are going to spend our vacation.

We have friends who will be there at the same time as us that have spreadsheets and everything planned to what day they will be where etc. This is considered their relaxed touring plan.

How do you do it?

 

[photobob]

totally depends on who is with us. If it is just DW and me, very relaxed pace. If my DD, DS and DSIL are with us, a little more planning and faster paced. If we have newbies, very planned and more commando.

 

[JWG]

Moderate.
I plan 1 TS meal a day and make advanced reservations since dining is impossible without them now a days. I hate making reservations 180 days out for meals, but do it to make sure we get what we want at normal times.

I do have a spreadsheet that has all park hours, EMH, parades, fireworks, and reservations by day. But we don't actually plan what park what day or anything like that unless doing a separate ticketed event.

That being said, we kinda plan around touringplans.com crowd indicators. They're fairly accurate and I prefer less crowds.

 

[Deb & Bill]

We're long time DVC members. We've always planned our trips on paper, including what days have EMH, where we are dining, but we'll change it on a whim. We just want to make sure we take advantage of special events, dining reservations, etc. and not miss out. But we'll also spend a lot of time at the pool, maybe at the water park, just relaxing.

This upcoming trip will be a little different because our son is taking a bunch of his friends with him and a few have never been, most haven't been in years. So they are going to be blowing and going. They've planned a tentative schedule to make sure they hit the high points. The two of us may go to a park to do our favorites and then hit the pool. We have a few dining reservations for just the two of us and one for all 11 of us.

We're not ones to wake up and say "What are we going to do today?" and discuss it for an hour or two. We'll have an idea so we can get there before the masses go and we can do our favorites.

 

[leane]

my mindset is that even though we are DVC memebers we don't want to deal with huge crowds so we use tour guide mike to plan our days.

I am a bit more laid back in the DVC sense that I don't plan back to back park days ususally though. We will be back and have the leisure of planning a park day/ rest day/ park day.

But... I still have a spreadsheet that has nothing to do with DVC ownership it has with OCD planning

 

[KerTggr]

We have a general idea of what we want to start the day with (e.g. TSM at Studios since the line gets crazy). And book about a table service per day (usually for dinner).

This next trip we are going for 2 weeks. So we won't be going back again for > a year. Not going commando, but definate have certain things we want to hit.

 

[Buckeye Fan]

...We're not ones to wake up and say "What are we going to do today?" and discuss it for an hour or two. We'll have an idea so we can get there before the masses go and we can do our favorites.

Ditto. Complete planner here. We look at the same type of things that Deb & Bill mentioned. I know what parks we're hitting on what days, and since we rarely rent a car, I always make ADRs. A lady that lives down the street is a huge Disney fan. She gave me her itenerary one time, and I kid you not, it had "potty breaks" built in it! We're not THAT detailed, but I like to think ahead. Plus, I enjoy the planning almost as much as the going!

One thing I can say for sure is that planning has saved us a ton of time over the years. It saves us from waiting in line, waiting to eat, waiting for buses, etc. It allows us to see and do things we want to, but, if things don't fall into place (and they don't always) it's no big deal. We k now we'll be back!

 

[FreeTime]

It depends on who we are traveling with. If it is our immediate family the only planning we do in advance is what character breakfast to have an ADR for. Other than that, we don't even look at EMH or park hours until we get the brouchure when we check in. Then we plan our trip based on what park has EMH in the mornings, we hit that park for our personal headliners, then decide where to go next.

If we go with extended family, we plan which park to hit then drag them to the main attractions, in the morning, have lunch together this break a part for individual family time until the next day (or dinner that night).

Next year I am taking 8 girls and 3 moms with me. None of the others have ever been. I am already planning every step of the day. Probably a little too much! I already know that on the first morning everyone will stop in my villa 1st for muffins (using QSP snack credits) and egg souffle that I will prepare the night before and bake that morning. Then I have every park and meal tenatively planned after that. I am overplanning for this trip! I can't believe that I know what I will be eating 375 days from now on a Monday morning!

 

[CarolMN]

I plan 2 or 3 evening ADRs for our typical 6-7 night trip and figure out ahead of time which park we'll visit each morning. For the other meals, we'll do walk up, CS or eat in the room.

But no detailed plans for touring - we just hit our favorites and if the line for a particular attraction is more than 15 minutes or so, we skip it. I won't wait for something I know will be a walk on later in the day or on another day.

We almost always take a break in the afternoons and I usually have a back up plan for the morning or evening in mind if our initial plan doesn't seem appealing when the moment arrives.

We only go commando if we are traveling with others who haven't been to the parks in several years, and even then, the two of us usually beg off in the afternoons or if our guests insist on standing in long lines, LOL.

 

[saturndb]

we plan the basics ahead of time. what park to goto, make some dining reservations and that is about it.

 

[jordanterri]

We plan ahead what parks we'll do on what days. On the days we go to a park, we always try to be there at opening to beat the crowds. Once in a park, we always have our own "Touring Plans" we follow to make sure we see and do what we want to do. We can get the "musts" in at most of the parks by lunchtime. That means typically the only thing we will plan in advance for the afternoon and evening, is dining reservations. This keeps us from feeling "rushed" or "over-planned", as we use our afternoon and evenings to do whatever we please.

 

[TisBit]

As others on here have said, I plan and do a spreadsheet for our trip. I even give a projected park day on each day...but I am not beholden to the plan. If we modify something for whatever reason or feel we need to change it....than I can look at my spreadsheet get the park hours or see if we are going ot miss something because of it (like if it is the only day at AK...I will try to figure out a substitute day that works).

I know my audience too, if it is my wife and I, we are not all about the rides...because we know we will be back, etc. If we have ADR's, but decide to skip I don't stress about it....we just know that we won't hit that restaurant. If we are going with friends, we do more of a "highlights of disney" tour plan. We hit the parks hard and heavy commando style the first couple of days to make sure we get the big rides done....then we slow the pace down while enjoying the other rides or going back for seconds on the crowd favorites. Usually, by the end of the week everyone is spending time at the hotel pool and relaxing!

 

[Rora]

DH and I are very commando. We don't create any spreadsheets or anything similar but we do discuss (on our way to the World) what we want to do each day. We have a mental lists of must dos, could dos, and don't cares. We try to stick to that. We do go with the flow but we like to think that we go with a very fast flow.

Once we're in the parks, we like to go go go. We've both been to the parks plenty of times (FL residents, DH's parents used to work for Disney, etc) but still like to turbo butt around the World.

 

[lesabrowning]

I am a planner by nature, the trip planning for me is half the fun. I also am not a big fan of crowds and learned to avoid them years ago the Tour Guide Mike way. (which I can now do in my sleep) We are also long time DL pass holders and I am an ex employee of DL from my college days. So we get a lot of Disney opportunities. I plan what parks we will be in every day and I book a lot of ADRs because we very much enjoy dining at WDW. (I never cook in our villas, which is a waste I know..) With all that said, we then take it easy. If we miss a favorite ride, no worries, we will hit it next time. For example we have never ridden TSM in Florida because we hate rope drop at the studios and fast passes are often gone so early. Some day will will ride it at the studios, but in the meantime we have ridden it dozens of times in California.

We struggle with getting to parks at rope drop as we are not morning people naturally, but we make it about the half the time. We "waste" a lot of time at sit down meals and enjoy them tremendously. We spend many afternoons around the resort pool and nights more often than not are spent wandering Epcot. So we plan like crazy fools but then have plenty of down time to enjoy the beauty of DVC.

 

[seelyt2]

Since our kids are still in school, we tend to go in mid-to-late August when other like-minded people from the north with middle school aged kids go. Crowds are manageable, yet still there. Because of this (and the fact that I don't do well with large crowds....well, I don't prefer large crowds ) we still do drop rope and get the main rides of the park-of-the-day out of the way. Whatever comes after we reach our goals is just icing on the cake. We do head back to the resort for lunch, swim, and early dinner (I "cook"), then its back to the parks for more fun. It's definitely more laid back knowing that we'll be back soon. DVC has taken the pressure of the mentality of "MUST FIT IT IN NOW". Life is good

 

[MissLiz]

I tend to be a planner. I'm only happy when I'm planning a vacation.



But I wouldn't say I'm commando. We plan our our meals since we enjoy the restaurants at WDW and know which parks we are going to on each day. I try to make a tentative "schedule" of where we are going to go, but it always changes.

I start with my list of things we want to do. If we get done quickly, then we just go with the flow. If the lines are too long, then we move on to something else.

Since we are able to go multiple times a year and have purchased DVC now, we have lost the feeling of having to see it all and do it all on every trip. It makes it a lot easier to tour with a DD8 and a DD2.

 

[BEASLYBOO]

I only plan for our family reunions (every 3 years+/-), there's generally 9-11 of us so a little planning is required to ensure that everyone gets to do or eat somewhere they want! When it's just us, we eat breakfast in the villa, have a few adr's for dinner and the rest is off property! As far as the theme parks, we only do what we like, and whatever we don't or can't do will fall to the next visit! Since DVC, I don't wait in lines that are more than 15 minutes, unless we have newbies with us and then we have to bite the bullet!

 

[com_op_2000]

DW and I it is usually going to be a relaxed pace.
With family members/friends who have been before, faster pace.
With family members/friends who have never been before, fastest pace.
We do what we want based on the situtation DW and I can go at any pace; lead(usually me), follow, or mixed.

 

[bobbiwoz]

DH likes to have a TS meal nearly every day, so I do plan those 5-6 months out. We have APs, and I'm more likely to say "During this vacation, I want to do x, y and z." If one of them is TSM, that does mean we get to DHS at rope drop, but that's the only ride that I feel we have to be there early for! One of the "must dos" may be to get over to VWL, maybe for a bike ride, or just to see the resort, or it could be to visit AKV for one of the Cultural safaris in the evening.

Now for our next vacation, I got a call from a DGF, a Floridian, who wants to see us during the vacation in less than 2 weeks. Of the 3 ADRs that we had, only Le Cellier and Cali Grill appealed to them, but luck was with us, we were able to adapt the ADR to include them. It's an early meal, 5:35, but that's only 5 minutes away from what we originally had!

I can do 50% of the things I used to do and I walk slowly now. Some of my DGF's still do things in a commando sort of way, but I'm happy to go back to the resort and rest or swim. I enjoy the pool more than any of my DFs or even DH. It's when we're with the DGC that I really try to do more, but someone on these boards has a statement in their signature about holding hands with a young one while walking down Mainstreet. That's one of life's best moments!

Bobbi

 

[mdsd8700]

I tend to be a planner. I'm only happy when I'm planning a vacation.



But I wouldn't say I'm commando.

This is me as well. No matter what vacation we take, I plan. Now for Disney it isn't a "must see all/do all" thought process. We make a list of what we would like to each see each time around at the parks and then plan according to that. We do make most of ADR's 180 days out but leave a few open as well. We always do RD, take an afternoon break and then a leisurely evening in whatever park we decided prior to the trip. We always park hop so we are at one park in the am and another in the pm. We never do RD more than two days in a row and always leave somedown time days.