I have a sense of impending doom.

[DisDayz]

Give them any tips you think would be beneficial at this point and encourage them to have fun. Things like "You should have booked breakfast at the Castle 6 months ago" aren't going to add to any enjoyment but things like "Make sure to grab a Dole Whip" or "Hit rope drop when you can" will help a ton.

FWIW, I've made reservations while driving home to tell my wife to get packed because we are leaving in a couple of hours and we had a great time. The CM at Disney thought I was a bit off for booking a reservation on less than 24 hours notice but whatever it takes, right.

 

[1stvisit0909]

I know quite a few people who didn't plan last minute WDW trips and came back reporting that they had a great time and did everything they wanted to. Just because we're uber planners doesn't mean you have to be to have fun. Different people have different ways of approaching things.

One friend even got BOG dinner reservations while they were there. So you just never know how it's going to go down.

Exactly. Pixie dust flies, sometimes, even with no planning.

Sometimes, pixie dust shows up when you have a plan and take a wrong turn (us, Mickey, Minnie and Pluto at once, with a kodak arms wide open running moment with my DD and Minnie)

 

[redsbe]

It is really is about expectations, and we often forget that for many people simply going to the WDW parks is what they are looking to do and expect, and really without dinner reservations and even FP+, you can in fact have a great time at WDW even with crowds - but advising new non planning types to get to park early to avoid huge lines is always best advice to pass on.

 

[kay1864]

things like "Make sure to grab a Dole Whip" or "Hit rope drop when you can" will help a ton.

Or even if you can't

Seriously, get your lazy self out of bed and get the kids to RD. You'll thank me later

And OP, *do* have your friends get a lunchtime Fantasmic package. Mama Melrose has tables available this weekend.

 

[Turn the Page]

Unfortunately she has been once before, back in the legacy fast pass days, so she does have expectations I'm sure. Also unfortunately, her kids range in age from about 5 to 3 months I think so they will probably want to spend most of their time in Fantasyland which is a mob scene right now with SDMT and A & E.

I told her about scheduling her fastpasses which she is doing now and I did tell her about the waits for both STMT and A & E and said if she can't get FP's for them she may want to just avoid those areas.

We'll see how it goes.

 

[Kristian]

While I understand the need/want to plan all the details of a Disney trip, I don't necessarily think that your friend is exactly doomed As long as she approaches the trip with realistic expectations of crowds, limited ADR availability, etc. then, in my opinion, they will be fine. Don't get me wrong, I love planning our Disney trips, but I am very open to making changes to our plans as we go if the mood strikes. We don't particularly travel during high crowd times, but I have been in July before and would know what to expect if we did. I know that I can't do a trip in July the same as I could in September (which is when we go), but I know that we would still have a good time because we were simply at Disney. I love planning, but the waiting for a trip sometimes kills me and I think it would be a nice change of pace to just book a package and head out a few days later. Tell your friend to utilize FP+ to the best of her ability and to be open about trying some of the less popular ADR options that are available.....I honestly wouldn't stress about the ADR's if it were me though. I love Disney food and I think that the food is half the experience; however I would not let food dictate whether I had good trip or not

 

[prudence64]

If she can get fp+ booked! that's most of the battle. Lots of people just eat quick service.

 

[mslhb]

Eh to each their own. I love to plan... Others do not. With such young kids they probably won't be as concerned about hitting some of the headliners. I know this morning we were at EPCOT at park opening and were probably the only people headed directly to the figment ride. Were the only ones on our entire train. It was my DD(6)'s top priority!!

 

[lauradis]

Im an obsive planner

Currently in the begining stages of planning a trip for dec 2015 yes thats 18 months out.

Even given my love of planning if someone asked me tommrow to go with no plan, no ADRs, no FP+, just some cloths and my current knowlege of disney
Im going.

I enjoy planning trips not just disney. I love the research. The dreaming. The number crunching. The thrill of getting hard adrs.

But when we get to where ever, I go with the flow, if my detail plans are shot to hello its not the end of the world. I enjoyed planning them.

Now if it was just me and my sister going we would have obber plans to the hour comando style baby

 

[DOOM1001]

Did someone call for me?

 

[DisReno]

Who cares? So what? Maybe they will have fun just being with each other and enjoying the moment. Who cares if they don't have every moment planned. No need for the overly dramatic post.

 

[wendybeth75]

That's tough. Do you warn, do you not? I hope they have fun, and maybe the next trip will be a bit better planned! I always love the question "How much many do I need to take a trip". So many variables there!

 

[Bluegrrl]

OMG - this reminds me of the WORST trip I ever took with my two former bffs. It was during the legacy fp days, and we were staying at the Contemporary. They thought that getting FPs was a form of line cutting, and it was like I was torturing them to get any form of FP. Plus they were super-cheap (not frugal, but actually knock-down-drag-out CHEAP!), and all they wanted to do was stay in the hotel room or at the pool. So, no planning, and they wouldn't let me any make any ADRS for them either. Forget getting to rd or getting on any rides! UGH. Never again.

So, in total - you can't help everyone. Wish them well and they will do what they want. To this day, when I hear that they are planning a vacation, I just keep my mouth shut because they won't use my advice anyway.
(Now, living in Florida with an AP and Disney down the street - yes, I DO take unplanned visits. But that's different, ya know?)
Love the quote: Not my circus, not my monkeys!!

 

[alicia080979]

Since DH & I visit so often, I am constantly being asked for tips. I would say over half but probably closer to 75% of the time people don't listen to anything I say such as, "try to plan a few ADRs early that you really want, hit RD, etc". Now I just say, "go early if you can and don't forget to try the Pineapple Dole Whip Float in Adventureland". Usually they come back and say they had fun even though IMO they missed so many things they could have easily done that would have made their trip better but like someone else said, ignorance is bliss and as long as they have fun, that is all that matters.

All that said, I am typically an uber planner but for our last minute trip that is coming up Friday (i.e. I booked it around 60 days out)...I changed almost all of our plans tonight. I made all new ADRs, cancelled all my old ones and made all new FP+ reservations except for SDMT, Anna & Elsa and Mark Hamill so it can be done minus a few very popular things. Hopefully your friends will have a great trip even on such short notice!

 

[Sevey13]

Tell your friend to get to the parks early and have a great trip. That's it. Any more at this point will just stress her out. Sometimes ignorance is bliss. Tons of people have a wonderful time at Disney without knowing a thing about it.

I love this tip. In all my obsession over the minutia of a trip...making sure that I get that reservation at Le Cellier for that soup or that we get as early a FP+ as possible for the Safari, I suppose I forget sometimes that probably 90% of the other folks around me are just taking it in stride.

That said, they'll never hear about the Cheddar Beer Soup :-D. So their ignorance is MY bliss!

 

[ChloeH]

I love to plan my Disney vacations - all year long. I like to plan every little thing from where were are staying, to a complete schedule of the day with all the rides/activities nicely ordered out. However, half of my trips to Disney World have been spur of the moment going within a week or so.

My absolute favorite trip to Disney World, and the one the kids loved the most, was a spur of the moment trip in December. It worked great. We had a blast. Each vacation is different. No way would I say that since I couldn't plan it out, I don't want to go!

 

[agavegirl1]

My niece posted daily during her recent WDW vacation with two kids (4 and 2) and her sister and brother in law. After one of her posts lamenting that there was "no way to see A&E" and here DD age four was dressed as Elsa in the photos, I suggested she try RD or during a parade. Here response: "might try that on Thursday and leave the kids with (her husband). Apparently, it was the two adult women that wanted to do the M&G.

Anyway, when I posted that you really needed a FP+ and waits could be over 2 hours, she responded with "how did you know?" Well, DIS of course. She will never do WDW without consulting this site again.

 

[Turn the Page]

The thing is she asked for tips. She said she was planning a trip for this weekend and was overwhelmed and asked for tips.

At this point I just said to make sure and schedule FP's as soon as possible and left it at that. There wasn't really time for much else.

 

[Fantaluminishes]

Who cares? So what? Maybe they will have fun just being with each other and enjoying the moment. Who cares if they don't have every moment planned. No need for the overly dramatic post.

AMEN!!!! Thanks for reading my mind.

 

[MommaBerd]

I recently helped a good friend of mine plan a trip on Saturday to leave on Sunday/arrive Monday! I was really scared for her and tried to seriously manage her expectations. Then, I gave her my UG and told her to read it (not the whole thing of course!), explained what FP+ is, and got her a subscription to TP and I showed her the crowd calendars. But my #1 tip - as stated many times - was BE AT ROPE DROP! The only hiccup we had was that she could not buy her tix online because it was so close to her arrival date (which seemed strange to me?) So, she ran to a Disney Store got her tickets and started making her FP+ choices on her own.

But the bottom line is that they had an absolute blast!!! And it made me feel good to have helped her create some magic for her family.

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