How Much Do You Plan?

[TheWog]

I like to research and become educated, but we have some must sees and make sure we do them. We don't have to necessarily do them immediately or abandon everything to get them done, but eventually we will get to them. We see what we feel like doing and do it and it has worked out well. We will do some things we missed on our first trip this time and not worry if we don't see everything again. i don't want to be too stressed out that we missed our projected bathroom break time and will wreck the rest of the day (I have seen itineraries with bathroom breaks planned into them).

 

[Villainess]

We plans ADR's, and keep in mind EMH hours both morning and evening. I take advantage of photography during evening EMH and we've never made it during morning EMH. Usually we never know what park we are going to until that morning and we have no problems park hopping for an ADR.

 

[Tomh]

I'm probably somewhere in between scheduled, and uberplanner. I don't know down to the minute, but I do plan things out pretty carefully. I know well in advance which parks on which days, where we will eat, and at about what times we will do so. I get my ADR's as soon as the window opens. I also have a plan for rides / attractions that we want to do. I try to set my touring plan up so that it won't run much past early afternoon. That way, in the morning when the crowds are lighter, we get a lot done, then after lunch when things are starting to get busy, we wander around more leisurely, and have time to see the little things, shop, revisit favorite rides, etc.

My plans aren't rigid though, if things seem destined to go astray, we remain flexible and go with the flow when necessary.

 

[cyberbox2]

I generally plan out what park/parks we will be at each day and base it around our ADRs but as far as what we will do in each park we just kind of wing it and get to our favorites first and either ride them right away or get fast passes. So I'm half planner/half wing it

Exactly the way we do it.

 

[golden6911]

When it was just my husband and I, I had a very rough plan for what parks to go on which day. I was not really concerned if I missed out on a ride and we wanted to just relax and enjoy it all at our own pace.

When I brought my kids on my last trip, I really wanted to make sure they saw everything so I planned it down to the last detail and I'm glad I did. Using tour plans and ADRs allowed us to sail through Fantasyland while seeing every ride. I obviously left in some flexibility because kids will be kids. On our next trip, we will be planning similarly to the last time, learning from our mistakes hopefully. (No Hoop-de-doo Revue on the evening we arrive - I was SO tired I barely ate anything and didn't enjoy the show.)

 

[homerjay316]

In the past, I've been an "on the whim," but this year we are going with another family. As a result, I'm doing the "must sees and meandering" so they can "audit" my itenerary and add their input.

I'm making a little seven page book (one page per day) with the park we are doing, the hours, rides open during EMH, TS ressies, preffered CS locations, a list of about 5 things my 2 year old niece will enjoy, and a list of about 5 things the adults will like.

We don't have to stick to it or do everything in order, but if my niece is afraid fish I want to know before we go see Nemo and Friends. I don't know what we'll do if she's afraid of mice!?!

 

[Nutty4Disney]

I like to have a plan and then not follow it. I make our ADRs and we usually go to that park if we have an ADR there, but may do one park in the morning and a different one in the afternoon. Plus we make several ADRs at the resorts so we will at least try to be in that direction in the afternoon. Like MK or Epcot if we are eating at a monorail resort. It is just two adults so we don't start too early. This is our vacation and we don't have to get up at 6 AM. We are usually at a park shortly after opening and go the opposite direction of the crowd. We have even been known to take the first bus that shows up at the resort and start our vacation there. We hit the high points and get to our ADRs in time and if we miss Wishes or Illuminations we will catch it later or next time. Lessons learned from past trips.

 

[lumpydj]

I usually plan which park and have a list of the must sees - but it depends on the number of days I'm there. My next trip is only 2 days so I am trying Ridemax for the first time. We'll see how that goes...

 

[monarchsfan16]

I plan what park I'm going to start at, and possibly what park I'm going to end at. The last 2 trips I didn't make any ADRs. This one I'll make one. I don't have an exact plan of attack for attractions, but I've been enough times that I sort of have a habit for hitting certain attractions in a certain order, and I just stick with that. I take breaks when I'm ready, I stop to shop if I want, and I do wing it to some extent. I've found that I get TONS accomplished, despite my lack of planning, so it works for me

 

[mickeystoontown]

We go to WDW every year. We start planning our next year's trip while still at WDW.

For instance, this past August, we stayed at the CBR for the third time. While there, we decided to check out WL and Pop to get a feel for the resorts and see if they were someplace we wanted to stay on future trips.

We drive (14 to 16 hours depending on the weather and traffic), so we have lots of time to talk about what we want to do the next year. We try to work in something new each trip.....Cirque de Soliel, Disney Quest, dinner show, etc. This coming May, our something new is staying at Pop Century and Star Wars Weekend.

Our trips at 10 days long so we are able to spend 2 days at Magic Kingdom, 2 days at Epcot, a full day at Hollywood Studios and a full day at Animal Kingdom. We have a sleep in day and a day at the water park. We know if we miss something in a particular park, we'll have enough time to go back.

We do know what park we will be in on a particular day. I don't plan our entire day but, every since we started purchasing the dining plan, I do like to make dinner reservations at a table service restaurant.

So, I guess I am a planner but I'm not an over planner.

 

[tndisneyfan]

I voted Must-Sees and Meandering but I feel like I'm in between that and Scheduled. We plan our ADR's and we plan around EMH.

 

[jc040404]

Must-Sees and Meandering.. I have a list of things I want to do, but with my kiddos, even that is a challenge! My plans are to hit the big stuff early and work the rest of the day around meals just following their lead.

 

[ctaci]

I have the 7 days planned out with two parks - the one that has the EMH from the previous night and the one that has the early morning EMH. I figure Ill go to the one that opens early and then jump on out to the other when that one gets too busy. I also have most of my dinners out of the parks and the ones that are in the parks just so happen to be in the same ones as the ones I was planning on going to. There might be a day that this is not true so I put it in there instead of the park that closed late the night before.

I also have a listing of the fireworks and parades in ase we want to see them.

I will also have a list of things I want to see in order and divided by the parks. I am also going to jot down three CS places per park so I am ready and flexible.

We will see if all this planning is for nothing

I did not plan naps -- its just DH and I and Im not sure if we will need them but Im not against taking them

 

[jenndla]

I have never done WDW on the dining plan before, so this could completely backfire on me, but for our trip in October (the fact that I am talking about October probably makes me look like more of a planner than I think I am) we are planning to make ADRs for either breakfast or dinner each day and do counter service every day for lunch (we have the deluxe dining plan). This way, if we decide we want to go to a different park than where our ADRs are, we have that flexibility.

Hopefully this will work for us - as for the rest - I like to do a ton of research and then make informed decisions once we get to the parks. My DH would never go with me again if I did anything more rigid than that!