How much do you plan?

[PIRATEGIRL007]

Another thread got me thinking about this. How much do you plan ahead for your WDW trip? not ressies, ADR's and things like that but detailed day by day iteneries and touring strategies. It just seems like some iteneraries are taken very seriously. How do you do this? Not wanting to cause trouble or get flammed, but I am just curious.

The first year I went to WDW I planned for months (9 to be exact), I knew which park I wanted to go to which day and at what time. I had hours memorized, I knew what order I wanted to ride the rides, where I wanted to eat, etc. Although I drove my DBF crazy he went along with it. Within the first 30 min in the MK on the first day I had thrown my plans out the window and just "flew by the seat of my pants" and had a great time. So we have just continued doing this. We have never had to wait an extremely long time in lines, or to eat, etc and its been just fine. Am I alone with my spontanity at WDW?

 

[bevemjake]

I really enjoy planning but I can't see getting into the touring plans either. I just do the ADRs, what parks and specific shows, parades, etc. I can't see planning in each ride.

 

[HaleyB]

Most of the touring plans are common sense if you know the parks. I think they work well for people who do not do much planning at all. So they have no idea where things are in relation to each other, what kind of ride each one is, where to expect crowds and so on, or what the food offerings are like. I did a WDW trip this way about 11 years ago and the Unofficial Guides tour plans saved our lives. We were without a clue. And we loved our trip, we had no idea that we were clueless .

Those of us that do a ton of planning have internalized most of that basic information. I don't 'follow' tour plans, I gleen what tid bits of info I can from them and then go into the parks armed with knowledge.

New rides that I think will have a big impact on how to tour a park do get me reading. I have read up on what everyone says about Soarin... and Stitch. But touring is pretty personal and an out of the box tour would not fit my family as well as 'winging it' does(even if I had 102 to pick from). We have been to Disney parks a lot and sometimes we feel like a nut, sometimes we don't. That is why I am such a huge fan of Tourguidemike.com because he gives you information about how crowds act and where lines build and why instead of step 1; step 2; step 3 touring plans. (he has those too if the float your boat )

 

[HappyGramma]

Usually just to general planning, what park what day and a few ps's. Took my oldest DGD last Dec and did a lot of planning for that trip as well as ps's for most of our dinners. I wanted to get the most out of our time and yet be sure to have plenty of down time so that she would not get parked out. I will be taking her sister in Oct 06 and will probably do just about as much planning ahead though I won't be doing as many ps's because this DGD is a very picky eater and will probably be happier with chicken nuggets at a counter service than a nice sit down meal. Also I have finially taked DH into going to WDW in Jan 07 and will be with friends who have only been there once before. I plan on doing quite a bit of planning for that trip. Though I never use tour plans. I like to do enough planning so that we can make the most of our time there and still have time to relax. I actually enjoy the planniing. It helps me get the magic in me. It's like an appetizer for my trip.

 

[pooh2001]

Am I a compulsive WDW planner ?

2 year before - pick dates and ADR HDD

1 year before narrow down dates and start to pick 2 resorts to stay - start to look for deals. So far AA rate at WL and teacher rate at Dolphin.

10 months before - reserve Mickey Mileston Tour and Spirit of Aloha (I would have done it earlier - but DH requested it late)
Also buy our AP vouchers before prices go up.

From the 10 month mark onward till our Magical Adventure - I look for resort discounts, great airfares prices, and start to find Disney related items to bring with us (adds a touch of Disney, if we end up at the Dolphin), such as the Mc Donald kid meal toys.

9 months before - look at historical time for early and late entries into the Parks - start to plan our sit-down ADR's and which Park(s) to visit that day. Start the family discussions - can take a few months to decide must do sit-downs and which we can skip. Let the games begin


120 day mark - check AP holder web-site for best rates at WDW resorts. Check the Dolphin for a better rate.

100 day mark or 90 day mark (not sure which anymore) - make all our ADR's we can - including an attempt to get Cindy's for breakfast, a Wished cruise(MK resort) or Illumination cruise(EPCOT resort) and Horseback riding (if we stay at WL - then it will be easy to get to at 8:30 AM).
Also contact FL Tours for roundtrip transportation from the airport & resort.
Reserve at our local kennel for aw: aw:

at the 60 day mark - CONFIRM all reservations

at the 30 day mark - start to pack

 

[NewEnglandDisney]

For day-to-day scheduling, I usually block out periods of time and have a list of attractions I want to accomplish during that block. Say, from 9am-1pm, or 6pm-10pm. I put them in a rough order, but that's about as far as I go. I don't stick to it all the time, but use it as a general guideline.

At the end of the day, I check off everything we did, and put the remainder of things we may have missed on a list for another day we will be at that same park.

Not too commando, but enough so that I usually "hide" my agenda from the rest of the party and just keep track of it all myself. All they end up knowing is that they saw everything they wanted to.

aw:
N.E.D.

 

[palmetto]

I'm pretty much the same way. I plan and plan and research and get ideas ( ) and yeah, we pretty much do the days as I've planned and do start out going left instead of right, but--well.

I end up wandering aimlessly with my friends, and we have an absolute blast. I think I'd end up sticking more to the plans to see fireworks and parades if I were going with children rather than other people my age and my boyfriend.

 

[Danauk]

For this trip we started to plan about a year out and then at the 11 month window as we are staying DVC.

We planned out itinerary almost straight away as we are going for 12 nights which includes Christmas and new year so we know it will be busy. I looked at Christmas info from last year and advice on what parks to visit and when. Then we decided which days we wanted to take tours (segway and backstage magic) and booked these at 10 months before so we would get what we wanted. At that time we also decided which parks we would visit each day and where we would make ADR's.

Once that was decided I looked up info on rides we knew we liked and what were must do's (I know we will only get must do'd done this trip due to crowds.) Then I found out what times are best to go to these rides and will use that info when in the parks. We won't have a set order, but will have a rough idea of where to go and when.

Then once ADR's are booked and the hours are out we will decide what time we will leave the park for our break and what we will do after dinner.

I do spend a lot of time reading and planning but don't set too much down in stone. That way we are not tied down too much when we are there but have enough knowledge to make the best decisions.

 

[Paul_Pearce]

Usually travel in low season, so I dont plan the order of rides very much. At most will do two of the park's busiest rides first up if they are adjacent to each other e.g. Space Mtn and Buzz, or RR Rollercoaster and Tower of Terror, Kilamanjaro and Tough to be a bug, this year it will be Test track and Mission Space. This is just to give us more time to enjoy everything else, compared to if we went to those rides later in the day.

These are the rides our party all want to do first anyway, so its not like we're doing something abnormal by doing this, but it does usually save some time.

One thing I always try to do though is arrive at park opening time, unless we have scheduled in a "sleep-in" day to recover from 3-4 full days at parks in the days before. The above strategy wouldn't work if we arrived at say 11 a.m.

 

[pearljim]

We plan and replan the logistics of getting there and back - air, car, hotel - but once there, it's vacation & we wing it!!

 

[tndisneyfan]

We don't do a lot of planning. We made our ADR's and planned our park days around them. We also scheduled a down day about mid-week. That's about the extent of our planning.

 

[PatsGirl]

My planning is on the same line as N.E.D. I make the ADRs 90 days before (so I've already decided on what park, what day). I make out an index card for each day that lists ADR# and time, park hours, best transportation options from resort to park (and to dinner if out of park), and then break it down into before lunch and after lunch, listing the "must-dos" and other things I might forget. For an example my Epcot card reads something like this: FP for Soarin, Innovations (make robot), Crush, lunch at UK, kidcot masks, Japan (see candy lady), Maze at UK, dinner at San Angel, 7 p.m. #XXXXXX, Illuminations 9:30.
Disney Visa meet/greet??
I know we'll attempt the first part of Epcot before lunch (say 1), then move
into World Showcase for the afternoon and early evening.

Hope this helps. Brenda

 

[nluvwithmickey]

I used to plan my days out ride by ride....That didn't work very well so tis summer I came up wit another plan.

We tour by sections ie: Tommorrowland, dinoland etc. We ride the busy rides or get FP is the wait is too long then we do the less busy ones while we are waiting for our FP window to arrive. We also get there for the park openings....we get so much done in the first few hours we are amazed.

We also have a FP runner(me) and we always make sure we have at least one FP in our hands. That way, we could tour liberty square while I make a run for Splash Mountain FP.Once we are done Liberty Square, we head to frontierland and by that time I can probably grab another FP.

We have been visiting during the busy summer months so to us, it is necessary to tour this way. I want to keep the family's energy level high so I don't make them back track from one land to another constantly.

 

[nliedel]

I am a classic overplanner. I obsess about it. Every single detail. It's awful cause when I finally get there I tend to go with the flow. I can still tell you every detail about every little thing tho and that has been a big help. I am uptight about the ADR's and will schedule and re-schedule them to get them right. It has always been a good thing tho. I seem to have a knack for making them exactly when the family wants to eat.

 

[justplaingoofy]

Planning is half the fun!!

I usually plan what park we are going to on which day. Getting there at opening time, and getting the "headliners" done first.

Plan priority seating

Write down before we leave park hours and parade/fireworks schedule.

 

[henrylovespooh]

I like to do a lot of planning in the months before our trip (reading the DIS, guides, etc.) so that I have an idea of what we want to do and where we want to go. I usually work out an itinerary based on EMH mornings, historical crowds, and places we want to eat. I then make my ADRs to fit into that itinerary.

I know at the start that the itinerary is not written in stone and that there is always something that can come up to make us change things around. We almost always make at least one ADR change while we are there, and some of our best days have been days we called an audible in the morning when the line for the bus for the park we planned to go to is long so we pick the park where the bus is just pulling up and the line is short.

What I like about advance planning is that we get the important things taken care of early and then we usually spend the last couple days redoing the things we really like. We rarely miss something high on our priority list and we always have a good time.

I also second this:

 

[NCombs]

I'm a big planner. That's my personality-very logical, analytical and step by step. I think personality has a lot to do with the way people plan their vacations. For instance, I handle the DW planning part of our trip, my DH handles the 3 days at the ocean part of the trip. I spend lots of time planning things, he spends a lot of time finding the "right" place but after that there is no plan. Each way works for us.

I know which day we will be in which park and when we will be doing special activities like Cirque and a Wishes Cruise. Part of that is a necessity because of the time frame of when you need to make your reservations. I will have a touring plan for each park but I don't know if we will stick to it. If we do, great, if not, it means we have stumbled across some other great thing to do (hopefully!). No big deal. We have 3 kids so it is important to me to know for sure I have some relaxation time planned and some time for them to just hang out at the pool.

One thing I don't spend a lot of time on is worrying about ADR's being perfect and having every meal scheduled. I make ADR's for those restaurants we really want to try and I will try to have something scheduled in the evening but if we don't make it or don't feel like going, I don't care. It's more of a backup.

Really, the planning is more of a hobby for me because I enjoy it. I like reading guide books and coming up with different schedules and plans. Do I need to do as much as I do? No. Do I like doing it? Yes.

 

[disgram]

I started planning our trip for next August back in May!! I have read all the guidebooks I could get my hands on and am buying the new ones as they come out. We made the reservations for the POFQ in July for the end of August next year. At the present I am checking and rechecking the dining selections. We plan our days at the parks around where we have ADRs'. Once we arrive, things sort of go the way they will and we have a great time!! This year there are four going with us that have never been to the would and so it is going to be a little different but I know it will be a great trip!!!

 

[jann1033]

i plan for "fun"...adrs, what day what park what to see first...we go off season so ride by ride touring plans really aren't needed much. i just like to 'browse " kind of like window shopping

 

[danny1649]

Where and time I want to eat,what parks I am planning on going to on what days and what special events we want to experience.We are going early December so I have got my MVMCP tickets and Candlelight Processional Dinner Package.Planned when we will see Osborne Lights and a day to resort hop to see all the holiday decorations.We have a basic plan in place for park touring.With this said we still remain flexible with our plan as not to get stressed out if we miss a thing or two and fall behind our schedule some.Hey we will catch it on next trip is the way we look at it.We think it is a much better experience at WDW to enjoy the small treasures at WDW that you miss some time on run to Space Mountain,TOT,Soarin and many others.Bottom line have a plan that you and family are happy with and works for you,be flexible and have a great time at WDW.