How much touring planning to do?

[lily2521]

I go back and fourth on what to do here.

Part of me wants to look at touring plans and map out our days and touring strategy point to point to get the most out of the time we're there and avoid waiting in lines all day as much as possible.

The other part, just wants to plan our RD strategy for the first hour or two, and have our FP's scheduled, and let the rest of the day be, and end up wherever we went up at any given time.

We'll be traveling with 6yo DD, so I know no matter how much planning we do I need to be flexible.

How to most typically plan, what's the best strategy?

 

[rwdavis2]

"The other part, just wants to plan our RD strategy for the first hour or two, and have our FP's scheduled, and let the rest of the day be, and end up wherever we went up at any given time."

IMHO, this is your best bet. It cuts down on stress.

We plan which parks to do on specific days (easywdw.com). And get there before the park opens. And then decide what rides we want to do most and then are flexible after that. We don't do all the rides in a specific order. We have not used FP+ yet.

Since you have a 6 y.o. you should find out anything they would like to do and prioritize those. When are kids were that age we did Magic Kingdom 2 day and then pretty much played it by ear in the other parks with no real plan.

 

[lily2521]

"The other part, just wants to plan our RD strategy for the first hour or two, and have our FP's scheduled, and let the rest of the day be, and end up wherever we went up at any given time."

IMHO, this is your best bet. It cuts down on stress.

We plan which parks to do on specific days (easywdw.com). And get there before the park opens. And then decide what rides we want to do most and then are flexible after that. We don't do all the rides in a specific order. We have not used FP+ yet.

Since you have a 6 y.o. you should find out anything they would like to do and prioritize those. When are kids were that age we did Magic Kingdom 2 day and then pretty much played it by ear in the other parks with no real plan.

We do know where we'll be on what day. We also have our ADR's figured out, as well as some CS places we'd like to try. I have a list of our must do's. And I have a general idea of what FP's we want once our 60 day window opens. We do plan to RD most days. We also have a AK day with morning EMH's and a MK day with morning EMH's, and we'll take advantage of those

I think that's the biggest piece I'm trying to figure out now. Now that I have my list of what we want to do, and what we know are must do's with DD, do we plan further, or just leave it at that? I have a general idea of our RD plan too, just to hit up those rides we won't have FP's for, but can have longer lines in general.

 

[DexLabDeeDee]

I agree. I like to have a plan for the morning and get our must-dos done for sure. I'm a planner so I do a rough sketch of the afternoon but only use it if we are searching for something to do next.I also like having a plan just in case the park is really crowded and I need it in order to keep enjoying the attractions. Otherwise, I let things just happen and enjoy all the little things the parks have to offer.

 

[lily2521]

Thanks for the replies. I too am a planner so this decision on what/if/how much to plan is stressing me out a bit! Especially as we approach our 60 day FP window.

I signed up for a touring plans subscription, and I've viewed their touring plan suggestions, as well as others I've seen online, and they seem so precise and to the minute!

I don't know that I want to have it planned out so meticulously as go here, then here, then here in this particular order. But then again, part of the planner in me does like that. Especially if it will save us time in the lines

 

[chelseabun76]

I had our touring schedule planned out step by step, ride by ride printed out with maps with our breaks for food, etc., and my dd had it all gone to hell in a handbasket within our first 30 minutes in the park. LOL!!!! I just had to laugh, I knew going in I wasn't stuck on the plan, it was just fun to do and try to get worked out so that we could fit everything in. But as we went, she decided what she wanted to do and didn't want to do. I didn't plan on riding BTMR 4 times in a row first thing in the morning after breakfast, but that's what she wanted so we did. So next trip, I would probably still do the planning, but know going in that plans are sometimes meant to be thrown out the window. We kept our fp+ and our adr's and went on other rides that were in the area we happened to be in at the time and if we wanted to wait in line for them. It was very very relaxed, but we still got a LOT done!!!!!

 

[lily2521]

I had our touring schedule planned out step by step, ride by ride printed out with maps with our breaks for food, etc., and my dd had it all gone to hell in a handbasket within our first 30 minutes in the park. LOL!!!! I just had to laugh, I knew going in I wasn't stuck on the plan, it was just fun to do and try to get worked out so that we could fit everything in. But as we went, she decided what she wanted to do and didn't want to do. I didn't plan on riding BTMR 4 times in a row first thing in the morning after breakfast, but that's what she wanted so we did. So next trip, I would probably still do the planning, but know going in that plans are sometimes meant to be thrown out the window. We kept our fp+ and our adr's and went on other rides that were in the area we happened to be in at the time and if we wanted to wait in line for them. It was very very relaxed, but we still got a LOT done!!!!!

I have a feeling this will sum up my plan/the way it ends up going for us exactly! I do enjoy the planning process, and I like looking online and trying to figure out what we'd like to do, what's on our must do list, etc.

We are telling DD about 5 weeks before we go, so things may change then as well, as we start showing her all of the attractions, etc. but even now I feel like I have a good idea of what she will and won't do.

 

[mshanson3121]

For us, we will plan which parks on which days, we will schedule our Fast Passes, and then that's really it. We know that we're going to have 2 days at MK, so we'll do one side of the park, each day. Less wandering all over the place.

 

[DexLabDeeDee]

I do use TouringPlans but I mainly use it as a list: 1. Expedition Everest 2. Kilimanjaro Safaris, etc. and not for the exact times. It's worked well for us, especially in the mornings like I mentioned before. But then, we don't have a 6yo to derail us!

 

[DexLabDeeDee]

I have a feeling this will sum up my plan/the way it ends up going for us exactly! I do enjoy the planning process, and I like looking online and trying to figure out what we'd like to do, what's on our must do list, etc.

We are telling DD about 5 weeks before we go, so things may change then as well, as we start showing her all of the attractions, etc. but even now I feel like I have a good idea of what she will and won't do.

I would say that you should do the planning for the experience and the fun while knowning that it might all go out the window. For me, the minutae of planning is part of the fun!

 

[Mousefanmike]

We have done the the 'planning ever aspect of our day' thing. It was just too stressful for the parents, and everyone felt rushed. Now we like to plan our ADR and our FP with a lot of time in between to do what ever we want and go at our own paces.

 

[jtowntoflorida]

We generally plan out the mornings and then after that pretty much go wherever we feel like. I do like to keep a To-Do list for each day because there is so much to do that it can get overwhelming.

 

[lily2521]

I do use TouringPlans but I mainly use it as a list: 1. Expedition Everest 2. Kilimanjaro Safaris, etc. and not for the exact times. It's worked well for us, especially in the mornings like I mentioned before. But then, we don't have a 6yo to derail us!

I like this idea too, having a list, even if we don't do it in order, or at certain times. At least that way we can cross things off of our list to make sure we hit all of our must-do's.

 

[loves to dive]

I will normally pick my FPs the night before and tend to change them on the fly when I'm in the park. We make our ADRs when we get there, we've always gone to CS in Epcot and had them look things up for us then we plan which park we are going to be in on which day based on when we could get our ADRs for. In all fairness we've been at least 15 times and my son is now an adult so it's a little easier to just go with the flow. We know which restaurants we like to eat at and try for ADRs for those but even if we don't get those, we will go for lunch. The only thing I book in advance is my afternoon tea at the GF, those book up fast and I've missed it a few times by waiting until I got there. We don't even book tours in advance. We have never done rope drop but have done the late night EMH's, which works for us since the "kids" grown son and DIL, like to sleep in and most rides are pretty easy to get on later in the day.

 

[tlmadden73]

Planning the first few hours and then letting the rest of the day happen is the best idea.

Less stress and you'll find yourself in some real magical moments that will be more memorable then going on every ride you possibly can.

 

[lroger01]

I like the idea of creating custom touring plans. It really helps you understand what might be possible on a given day at a given crowd level. Since you already have the subscription go for it. If at anytime you get off track and then wonder what to do next, just see what the plan has for that time of the day.

 

[lily2521]

I like the idea of creating custom touring plans. It really helps you understand what might be possible on a given day at a given crowd level. Since you already have the subscription go for it. If at anytime you get off track and then wonder what to do next, just see what the plan has for that time of the day.

I think this is what I'm going to do. I do like the touring plans feature of being able to re-order your itinerary and see where your activities fall on the map too, to help with less walking to and from. And it helps to get a good idea of what is do-able in a day.

For the plans I have set up now, both of them have some pretty big time-gaps (2+ hours) but I like that, so that I know I'm not over-planning too much in one day

 

[gtpoohbear]

I always make a custom touring plan, but know that we won't follow it to the letter. I just feel like it helps me get a reasonable idea of how much we can expect to do in a day.

I'm usually pretty set on the first hour or so, making sure we get the important/ long-line stuff in right away. After that, the rest of the day just kind of falls into place, between FPs and ADRs. Since we try to minimize going back-and-forth a lot, we tend to just do everything in an area, and move on.

So I'll have a plan that should generally keep us in Fantasyland until lunch time, if we are planning lunch at BoG, for example. Then work our way towards where dinner will be by the evening. The exact order of rides will shift a bit though, and that's fine.

But I always find that it's less stressful to have a plan and change it as you go, than to go in totally blind and be floundering.

 

[soniam]

I love TP and use the personalized plans for every trip. I usually have a pretty detailed plan, excluding bathrooms breaks, snacks. I find it less stressful to have a plan. I do all the planning upfront, so once we are in the park, it's like OK lets do step #1. I think it's helpful to have a plan when things don't go according to plan; it cuts down on the deer in the headlights syndrome and on indecisiveness. I also don't stress out about the times in TP anymore, partly because we are usually ahead of or very close to schedule. In fact, we usually have time in the afternoon/evening to do whatever we want (lolligag, shop, snack, repeat rides, do rides that we had planned to skip), because TP is so efficient.

It's always just DH, DS9, and myself though. However, TP worked well when DS was 6. I could show him when we were going to do something that it seemed like we were passing over. I also explained upfront about the plan, so he understood how things would work. He even helped me do the plans for WDW and USO for our upcoming trip in March.

 

[Rose77]

I really enjoy the planning part of the trip. To me, it's a part of the fun of going on vacation! I love thinking about all of the things we can do. However, if you are too committed to your plan, it can lead to stress and ruin all the fun! What I have decided to do is assign each of our scheduled activities a "tier." Tier 1 activities are the must dos. Tier 2 activities are things I would like to do, but if something else comes up or alters those plans, it's no biggie. Tier 3 are time fillers. We will do them if we have some extra time we need to fill. (I hate the idea of "wasting" time deciding what we should do next!)

Hopefully, this will allow us to get the most out of our trip while still allowing it to be fun and enjoyable for everyone.