How much do you plan your trip?

[Steph9072]

How much do you all plan out your days at WDW? I have it narrowed down to what parks we are doing on what days. Also, our TS meals are planned. I have ideas of where I would like to eat as far as CS in each park. We have all picked out our must do’s for each park. But that is about it. I thought I had done pretty well until I talked to my friend.

My friend told me she plans what section of the park(s) they are going what time of day. She plans also what rides they will ride when and what FP she needs to get when. Basically she plans everything even potty breaks. I think this is a bit much. But I just wanted to know how much others plan.

Thanks for sharing,
~Steph

 

[MariDisney]

We plan what parks we'll go to based on Tour Guide Mike's least crowded park charts. We then plan our TS meals around those parks. We do have a good idea of the order of rides we will do as well as when we will get Fastpasses and when we will use them. I've never been disappointed in the system we've worked out using TGM. We never wait more than 20 minutes for a ride, and even that wait is rare.

 

[tjbaggott]

I've planned as much as you so far. I've taken a look at the touring plans in the book I have and was starting to make one up for my family but it gave me such a huge headache, I said "forget it". We are there off season, the crowds are supposed to be smaller. We will make use of fast passes. I have not planned what restaurants for our CS meals. For those ones, we will go to whatever catches our eye in the area we are at that meal time. TS ADR's are all made though.
Right now, I'm planning more of what parts of my house I need to clean/organize next (my mother is staying at our home, while we are gone, to look after our animals and my daycare children), and I really like coming home from vacation to a much cleaner/tidier house than what our place is normally like. I'm late for my spring cleaning, but got my whole garage cleaned out and organized yesterday! The packing list is what is currently being worked on.

 

[Steph9072]

We plan what parks we'll go to based on Tour Guide Mike's least crowded park charts. We then plan our TS meals around those parks. We do have a good idea of the order of rides we will do as well as when we will get Fastpasses and when we will use them. I've never been disappointed in the system we've worked out using TGM. We never wait more than 20 minutes for a ride, and even that wait is rare.

Is this a book or a Web site?

 

[MariDisney]

Is this a book or a Wed site?

It's a website. He sponsor's the Theme Park board, so if you go there and click the link you get a few dollars off the price of the subscription. I think it's about $18 or so. Honestly, even though we've been many many times I won't plan a trip without his least crowded park charts.

 

[daisy2jae]

we've taken trips where we didn't plan much (it was nice and calm but felt like we missed out on things since we didn't plan)
we've taken trips totally planned out to hr by hr per day (nice but sometimes it's a little stressful since we don't leave much down time)

We also tried using Ride Max. It seemed nice but I didn't get a chance to really use it like I would have liked. The reviews I read about it were great. I didn't think the cost was too bad. We paid $14.95 for 3 months. It helps to get the most out of your trip.

 

[Kim1964]

I plan our park days in advance and I call to make ADRs the very first day that I can. We've done 2 trips using TourGuideMike park charts and they were very good. This year I didn't subscribe but I still had last year's stuff and the park hours were the same so I planned our days based on the old charts and everything went well. We hit all the major attractions in the TGM recommended order, but after that we take it as it comes.

 

[miprender]

I plan just like you OP. I know what parks we are going to that day and all my TS meals are booked the day that I can make them.

Otherwise it would be hard to follow such a regimented plan. We have 3 little ones 6 and under so we just go to have fun.

The thing that we do is go to the parks at the AM EMH. That way we can hopefully get on some of the major rides quickly (like Dumbo)

But I still have yet to get on Soarin and Toy Story Mania. Oh well maybe next time.

 

[PollyannaMom]

My motto is "A lot of research, a little planning."

We tend to go as day trips while visiting relatives near Orlando, so I do plan which days based on the crowd calendar, and make ADR's if we we are doing a character meal.

Beyond that, I make sure to find out each person's "must-do" things are, and that I know what "extras" are available that day (parade schedules, etc.)

We also follow the general advice of going to the busiest things on our list first, or using FastPass, and not criss-crossing too much.

But beyond that, I actually think it's possible to over-plan. I like some room to just follow the magic, do what we're in the mood for, and not feel like I have to stop someone from having fun to get the next thing we "have" to do.

 

[MarkinNM]

Basically she plans everything even potty breaks. I think this is a bit much.

Thanks for sharing,
~Steph

How in the world can you plan a potty break???

I think that is WAY too much planning!!!!

With all that planning I can see that being on a continual rush to make that plan and stay on schedule!!!
OH THE STRESS.................


When planning our vaction, I looked at the park hours planned that THEN planned where to make our ADR's for that day. We are going to take it a nice relaxed pace, see what we can and enjoy ourselfs..........

 

[Chip's My Hero]

We plan our TS meals the second we can and hope the EMH hours are out to match. IE: The Wave for MK EMH night, etc. We have a list of which nights are EMH (love the AK at night) And we have a list of everyone's top 3 "rides" for each park. Last year my top three for MK were: Swiss family tree house at night, sitting and enjoying the castle color changing at night and haunted mansion. LOL

We go in very casual and with the flow. We've yet to be disappointed, or feel like we're missing something.

 

[LPNmom]

Planned C/S ideas each park, made T/S reservations, that is as much as I can handle. Last trip we did the same thing..never felt stressed..but we were there for 10 nights. This trip we are planning 12 nights..so no rush to see everything!

 

[NateNLogansDad]

Is it over planning if we aren't going till November next year and I started on what ADR's we will be making ?

Here's what we did and it worked out pretty well.

Made ADR's and set them in stone on our 90 day mark at 7am.

Made a list of every parks hrs for each day we are there.

Got reviews for Counter Service and noted what foods they serve.

Noted "must do's" for everyone.

When we got there, every morning we asked the boys (3&5) what park they wanted to go to and went from there.

Granted if we went to the park we had dinner reservations for every day it would have been a little easier so we didn't need to hop on a bus, BUT every day we went with how we were feeling.

I love repeating this...... Remember, when you stop TRYING to have fun, you WILL have fun!

 

[kpgriswold]

In the off season, I plan like the OP: which parks on which days, paired with a TS for each one, and play the rest by ear.

However, when we have visited during the summer, we've found that we needed a better plan or else we spent WAY too much time in line. We used an "unofficial" guide that had some detailed plans re: what order to ride the attractions, and saved a ton of time.

I guess that makes me a Summer Commando-Winter Type A?

 

[LWatson]

I just usually plan around where our ADRs are and when the extra things are (like Fantasmic, Wishes, Spectromagic..etc).

 

[sksjasams]

We had our first trip last Thanksgiving Thurs - Wed. I planned and researched for months, and yes, we followed a touring plan for each day. It went great! Now keep in mind, we only had 1 ADR to worry about, and only 1 day to spend in each park, plus only one child (DS10). If our trip had been longer, I may have felt like I didn't need touring plans, but I really wanted to make sure we saw as much as we could. I created the touring plans following UG and TGM advice and adapted them to the things my DS wanted to see and do. We didn't need to stop and discuss after every attraction where we were going next. For us it worked great and I would definitely do it again.

 

[Schmoodle]

I plan plan plan plan plan. Then I plan to be flexible. The first couple of times I went with my two youngest, I had micro-detailed touring plans, which I tossed within an hour of being in the park. It just doesn't work for us. So now I plan which days which parks (mostly so I can make ADRs). And I have a rough list of must-dos for each park, and have some idea of which rides should be done first, if the parks are crowded. That's it. I find the rest of the family gets grumpy if I am driving them to stick to a schedule. And after all, we are there to have fun!

I do love Tour Guide Mike's "cheat sheets" of rides and best times to see them. They are little charts - so I shrunk them down and plan to carry them. That way, if it's 11AM and we aren't sure where to go next, I can check which rides are generally less busy at that time.

 

[Chelley00]

We plan what parks we'll go to based on Tour Guide Mike's least crowded park charts. We then plan our TS meals around those parks. .

We do this too. Then I make a generic list of rides we want to do that day, but not specific times of day. But, we also go during quieter times. If we were going summer/Christmas etc I'd use a touring plan from Unofficial Guide or Tour Guide Mike. We've just never needed it

 

[Steph9072]

Thanks for all the responses! I already know our ADR's and the parks we have planned to go along with that. Then I am going to let everyone pick a few must do items and go from there. As for Qs places I will probably have an idea of a few places that is just because dd & ds are very picky eaters.

 

[Twoboysnmygirl]

I plan plan plan plan plan. Then I plan to be flexible. The first couple of times I went with my two youngest, I had micro-detailed touring plans, which I tossed within an hour of being in the park. It just doesn't work for us. So now I plan which days which parks (mostly so I can make ADRs). And I have a rough list of must-dos for each park, and have some idea of which rides should be done first, if the parks are crowded. That's it. I find the rest of the family gets grumpy if I am driving them to stick to a schedule. And after all, we are there to have fun!

I do love Tour Guide Mike's "cheat sheets" of rides and best times to see them. They are little charts - so I shrunk them down and plan to carry them. That way, if it's 11AM and we aren't sure where to go next, I can check which rides are generally less busy at that time.

Where on TGM site did you find this? It can be a difficult site to navigate and I can't find any cheat sheets anywhere in my itinerary section or when I do a search???