How much planning it TOO much??

[SillyOleBear]

I have a grand gathering booked for Christmas week 2004. We have 14 people and I'm preparing a general itinerary listing what park we'll visit each day and noting any priority seating reservations. Is this a good idea? Of course, I've left it flexible so if we feel like leaving one park mid-day to hit a different park, we can certainly do that. Some family members in the past go without any sort of plan and I wasn't sure if that's a better route. I don't want to spoil the trip by over-planning, but I'm concerned that with 14 people and the huge holiday crowds, we'll have a miserable time without some sort of plan.

 

[Disney Debbie]

Are you planning on all 14 people going every day together to the same park and eating together? Because that would be overplanning IMO! I'd plan on maybe one meal per day together and then letting folks know what you're doing and they can either come along or not! I just can't imagine 14 people all wanting to go to the same place at the same time every day for a week! When we went with my brother for a day and his 2 girls we split up after lunch because his girls were so much younger then mine that we didn't want to do the same thing for a whole day!

 

[SillyOleBear]

Thanks for the quick reply. We all want to visit the same park together, but we plan on splitting up at the park - those who enjoy coasters, fast rides, etc. will head one way and those who prefer the shows and tamer rides will go the other.

Most of the group doesn't want to do "sit-down" meals so we're only planning on a handful during the trip such as Hoop-De-Doo and Cape May Cafe. We're all bringing our own breakfast foods (cereal, pop-tarts) and will eat while getting ready in the morning. Lunch will likely be counter service - whatever each person feels like at the time. My hubby and I (no kids yet) prefer eating at the restaurants rather than counter service so I'm certain we'll all part ways around dinner time.

We talked about possibly splitting up and going to different parks during the trip, but the group consensus was that we all want to go together (very close family). Granted - after two days of that, we may be sick of each other and decide to throw the "plans" away.

Just some background - we have a 6 year old, a 12 year old, a 16 year old, a 17 year old, a 20 year old, a 25 year old, a 28 year old, a 30 year old, and then 6 people ages 46-56. We're all from a very close family - aunts, uncles, cousins, brothers/sisters, parents, etc.

Thanks!

 

[dcmbshafe]

This is especially tough because of the number of people you are dealing with. Planning is so vitally important at the time you're going because it will be at the most crowded time of the year. Even without that, I absolutely hate the "what do you want to do...I don't know, what do you want to do" syndrome. On the one hand, I think you'll be doing people a huge favor by putting together a tentative itinerary. On the other hand, at least a couple of people might think you're being too controlling. So, you're in a bit of a tought spot. If you can let this minority view roll off your back, I would suggest going ahead and planning your back-side off.

Given the size of your group, I would make the following suggestions:

1. Split up each day into Morning, Afternoon & Evening - for each slot, have 2 itinerary options - for the morning slot, one of the options is "sleep in" and the other is "get to the park before opening - for the afternoon slot, one of the options is "down time back at the room/pool" - you get the idea.

2. Minimize the number of PS reservations you intend to make for the entire group. If you can keep this to a couple, you will increase your flexibility.

3. Communicate a lot with all of your members in advance so that they get more and more familiar with the plan as the trip approaches.

4. Assign some focused planning responsibility to another member in your party - the more people involved with the planning, the more buy-in you'll get on the plan (but make sure it is "focused" or else you might get into a "too many chefs..." situation).

5. Recruit another "itinerary leader" - this might be challenging, but if you end up scheduling two itineraries for each slot, you'll really want someone to be responsible for leading whichever itinerary you are not.

6. Pay extra attention to planning meeting places. You'll want the entire group to feel comfortable splitting up within parks and doing their own thing. This will be easier if you've thought about where and when the whole group will try to get back together.

7. Try not to get disillusioned if some people don't buy into your plans or if things don't go as planned - at the end of the day, it is inevitable that parts of the group will be going in different directions. Try to pick and choose the times where it is most important that everyone be together and, if you get resistance from some of the people just back off and tell them that they can do their own thing except for these times.

Best of luck to you...I think it is great that you are trying to do this - it is clear that you just want everyone to have a good time. You have a big job - planning for a WDW trip is a challenge, planning for a WDW trip for 14 people is really difficult, but trying to do the planning for a WDW trip for 14 people during CHRISTMAS WEEK is virtually impossible.

 

[GoneFishing]

I don't think that it's over planning to have all of the people at the same park at the same time -- especially during Christmas. Parks have been known to close the gates during busy times, you all wouldn't want to miss a PS because not everyone is there. Or people not being able to get to all the others during a busy time. The parks are big enough where people can go on the rides they want to go on and split from the group. I think it's great that everyone wants to be around each other; I would rather wait in line with a dozen people than with two

Enjoy your planning...make sure you plan some downtime as well!

 

[SillyOleBear]

Wow - you've all had some constructive advice. I forgot to mention in my original post that I'm not the sole person making the decisions for the group - I'm just the person typing up the itinerary. I'm actually talking with my mom and two aunts (the "head" for each family) for input on what their family would like to do on what day. One aunt goes to Disney World with her family every year so she has a lot of great tips and ideas. My other aunt and my mom haven't been since before Epcot was completed so they're looking to me and my aunt for guidance.

I'll be keeping all your suggestions in mind as I count down the days to our trip! Looking forward to advice from others too.

 

[MagEpcDisAni Voyager]

The Death of Spontaneity is a chapter in the Unofficial Guide to Disney World talking about how much people plan out trips.

In my opinion some things need to be planned such as priority seating restaurants. That is key, as is a day you may venture outside Disney (If you go to Universal for instance).

I am going to be planning a trip enxt year with all my friends to Walt Disney World. One thing we have all agreed oin is we will eb spontaneous on deciding what to do on certain days. We're not gonna plan in advance what parks we wanna go to.

Anyway, some planning is great if it is neccessary (like restaurants). Over planning can ruin a trip because you feel like you must stick to a tight schedule.

 

[SillyOleBear]

Now I'm so confused Some of the other posts on the DIS recommend that I should definitely do some planning, but the feedback I'm receiving here is that I shouldn't (other than priority seating). Guess I need to have a group meeting with the family to decide what we all prefer.

Thanks again to all who replied!

 

[RamseyTrio]

There's no such thing as too much planning - it's getting there and not being flexible w/your planning that'll ruin the trip.

I plan and plan and plan when I'm at home I read everybook I own and look at the maps for hours on end. I think it organizes my brain and allows me to feel overwhelmed before I get to WDW.

What I end up doing is making a list of what we want to do, where we want to eat and what parks we'll go to on what day. That way when we're at WDW I have all the PS's ready and a general idea of where we'll be on each day. I don't plan each and every second of each and every day and I don't go into the park with a set game plan. It allows me to be flexible and enjoy the little things (just don't ask me to skip a meal!) We always see everything that we want to see.

We're travelling with friends who are going to WDW for the 1st time. They are overwhelmed and told me that I should plan it all for them. I'm fine with doing that but I do need them to tell me certain things they want to do and I'm insisiting that they look at the maps so they have a general idea what they are in for.

Good luck with your planning

 

[spagheddie]

I think you can plan too much. It may look fine on paper, but once you get there, it might turn out much different. If someone's having a good time at the MK and then are pulled away to do something else, only to find that they'd rather be at the MK, that person is not going to be happy. It is their vacation too.

 

[JKanownik]

The point of planning is to make sure that you don't miss out on anything you really want to do when you're down there and you want the trip to be as fun, easy and convenient as possible. Beyond that, the amount of planning you do depends on the size/demographics/personalities of the group you are going with and the time you are travelling.

With your group, I would recommend:

1) Plan each park once in the first four days and leave the rest open.

2) Within those four days I would highlight major events like parades and fireworks. I would also point out the major attractions and recommend that they visit them early in the day or grab a fast pass if they don't want to wait in line.

3) Make sure that everyone is aware that priority seating must be done 90 days ahead of time and that they will be limited to counter service if meals aren't planned. Along with this be sure to point out that it can take over 2 hours of travel time to get to a PS if you aren't in the right place.

4) Any PS you want for the group put in those first 4 days so that you can plan the travel everyone and don't have to worry about a family that is going to AK for the day (while you are at Epcot) making it to CMC for a PS.

5) For the remaining days just highlight the major events at all parks and recommend a latest time to arrive at the park for each event.

That's all I would do for the group. Beyond that after you get down there you can plan the additional days together if you want to.

Now, along with the group plan I would suggest you draw up a detailed plan for yourself. In the detailed plan keep in mind the following things:

1) If you want to plan PS's for dinners you need to have at least every evening planned out. You have to make the PS's ahead of time and will waste hours getting from place to place if you don't line up your PS's with your other plans. Given the time of year you are travelling, you need to have this done 90 days ahead of time and you will have very little ability to change it around. I don't see any way of getting around PS's if you want to sit down to eat.

2) Make a list of rides/attractions/events that you want to see and prioritize them. Start working your plan around the highest priority items and work everything else in. Make sure that you have 2 chances at viewing high priority item (such as wishes) if the weather or other things don't cooperate.

3) Make the plan as flexible as possible.

Keeping in mind what I've said, I don't think it is possible to plan too much.