How much planning do we need?

[boys]

I think we have finally made our decision on our hotel(YC concierge) and now am starting the planning stage. I have some friends who plan what time to do certain rides and most everything else and then have friends who just go with the flow. I plan on falling somewhere in between but this being our first trip, I do want to do it right. Is it really important to plan every minute? Please advise. Thanks.

 

[Disney Debbie]

We pretty much plan which park(s) we're going to the next day and from then decide where to eat and make PS's either the day before or that morning. The only exception is if we wanted to go to something like Cindy's Breakfast. I can't imagine planning specifically each ride. Our plans in the park kind of go around when we have fast passes and what the crowds look like. I really don't see how you can plan every minute and stick with it without missing a lot of the fun! You'd be too worried about meeting your schedule to enjoy what you're doing!

 

[ValerieK]

Our family does what Disney Debbie does. My Dh is not a planner so we just kind of do whatever we feel like.

We always called down to the Concierges desk in the AM and asked them to book our PS's for the day. We use to always go end June/beginning July period and didn't have too many problems with getting PS's. I think one year we wanted to go to Chef Mickeys and couldn't get in.

Have fun

 

[don8life]

This really depends on if it your first time or not. If it is your first time and you are not familiar with the park layout you could lose valuable time walking around trying to figure things out. My advice is to take a look at a map layout notice the different sections. Plan on doing a section at a time. For example plan on doing everything in tomorrowland before moving on to fantasyland. Don't do one thing in tomorrowland say ok lets run over to fantasy to ride this and than run back to tomorrowland.
Do plan on getting a fast pass for the ride with the longest line when you enter that land and than do other things in that land while you are waiting for your fast pass return.
Have Fun!

 

[boys]

This is how new I am. What are ps's? Also, could someone explain fast passes to me.

 

[McCall]

PS is Priority Seating. You call and book Priority seating at almost all Disney restaurants. it is not exactly a reservation but will get you seated faster than just walk up customers.
There are fastpass machines at the more popular attractions, you put your ticket through the machine and recieve a slip of paper with a time to come back and use the fast pass line to get on quickly instead of standing in the regular line, you must have the tickets of each person to get them a pass and they must be in the park at the time. and you can only get one fast pass for one attraction at a time, when you have used that one you can get another one for another attraction, or the same one if you so desire.
Another tip is to head straight for the back of the park when you first get there and work your way back to the front.

 

[Disney Debbie]

boys - You need to get an Unofficial Guide. That will answer a lot of your questions in detail.

 

[AppleSister1]

go to allearsnet.com. It's a great site with more info than you could possibly ever need...

As far as planning...it depends what time of year you're going. We go the week between Christmas and New Year's, when the place is mobbed. So usually we figure out which park we'll go to on which day (depending on the Extra Magic Hour schedule) and then make our PS's accordingly as early as we can. You can always change them later. This way, we know we at least have one meal a day taken care of ....and then, we go with the flow. That's part of the fun...seeing where the day takes you.

- Amy

I just realized you might not know what Extra Magic Hour is. Resort guests can enter one park one hour early each day.

 

[kirkharrod]

you can never plan enough. i even plan where to eat ahead of time. that means more time to do other things!

 

[missypie]

If you want to eat at certain restaurants, character meals, etc., you will need to make PS (reservations) and it would make sense to plan to be at the same park on the day you eat there.

IMO, the less you plan, the more you wait in line, the more you wander around looking for something to eat, etc.

I like to super-plan the first couple of days, then later days can be more relaxed.