I need help making an itinerary

[BeckWhy]

How do you make an Iternerary?

 

[Uncle Albert]

Hi

This is one of the best parts of a WDW vacation. You get to visualize all the fun you will be having.

Write the days you will be in WDW and the add the park or parks you want to visit that day. Then add the resaurants in the parks or near the parks you want to eat. Do your research and the Call and make PS seating. Write the Comfermation # on your itinerary. Then add other fun recreational activities like a fun afternoon at FW or golf or shopping. Before you know it you will have an itinerary.

Happy Planning

Uncle Albert

 

[angey77]

This is how I plan in a nutshell, but I'm a planning freak.....
I set up a calendar with each park on each day. First, I note which days are early entry. Since I've been there, done that, I'm not a big fan of parks for early entry, so whichever park it is, I cross it out (too crowded!). But you might want early entry, so that might end your trying to determine which park on which day right there!
From there, if available already, I note the hours on each park and try to hit each park on their longest day. If you don't know the hours yet, try to plan using last year's hours, but remember Disney is cutting hours like crazy if you're going soon. That might be a window of opportunity to plan a night or two in DTD.
I then research for food. We like to do at least one sit down meal a day, so I check through online menu databases and see which restaurants in each park look good and make PSs asap. I also check resort restaurants for breaks from the parks or to split up the day (like eating at BW or Y&BC on the boat ride from MGM to EPCOT).
Its a long complicated task, but that usually gets me going. Each person has their own way of planning, you just have to find your nook. I think planning is one of the best parts of going to WDW, I won't let anyone else do it in my party!

 

[BeckWhy]

So, all I do is say "on tuesday I'm going to... and we'll eat at ..." Well, what if the restuarant is on the other side of the park?

 

[kestral]

Well, Becky, you could plan your itinerary so that you do stuff (eating, attractions, rides) at one section of a park at a time. Say, you want to eat at the Brown Derby at MGM. Plan to do attractions near the Brown Derby at around the time you want to eat.

Why do you want to make an itinerary? It's a good idea, I just wondered how you want to use it. There's a couple of reasons to make one.

To avoid crowds? Planning can help you figure out when to go to the most popular attractions.

To make sure that when you get there you don't forget to do all the stuff you want to do? When I walk into a Disney park, I just stand there for a moment - wooow I'm really here! A plan helps me get moving, and helps me make sure I don't forget what I wanted to do.

Because, like Uncle Albert says, it's fun? Lets you really think and dream about what you're going to do in about 95 days

Kes

 

[BeckWhy]

I never said I was going to make an itinerary, but I think I read somewhere that its a good idea to do.
Basically, we will eat where ever we are. Based on the last trip we took over the summer, we were rarely hungry (the walking, heat, and chugging all that water took away the sensation). So it would be kind of hard when to say we'd eat or where for that matter.
Also, when are certain rides the least busiest. When I was there over Spring Break the only rides that appeared to me to be busy was Kali and Peter Pan (both with over a 90 min wait). All the other ones were less than an hour.
I think all I really need to do is determine what parks I'll go to on what days. Everyone says avoid the early entry days. I don't plan on using the extra hour because I do like my beauty sleep . So I guess basically, the question is, which days go with which park for early days.

 

[angey77]

Extra Magic days are as follows:
Sunday - Magic Kingdom
Monday - Disney's Animal Kingdom
Tuesday - Disney-MGM Studios
Wednesday - Epcot®
Thursday - Magic Kingdom
Friday - Disney's Animal Kingdom
Saturday - Disney-MGM Studios

Also, be sure to avoid MK on a Saturday if you can. Talk about crowds!

 

[ktglads]

What we usually do to plan is take a wipe board and pick the parks and the days that we will be going to them on. We then each get a choice of a ride that we "cannot possibly miss" such as the Maelstrom in Epcot and write those down as well. When we go to Disney, the board gets left at home. Its fun going back and seeing what we just DIDN'T do because of time, weather, etc. We do this after we already have our PS's, so it is much easier to plan!

 

[XStAnt]

BeckyWhy,

A little plan can go a long way to making things go smooth at Disney.

Some people plan at least a basic itinerary because they want to try a specific restaurant. Depending on when you go and what restaurant you may need to make a PS ahead of time. Disney has many great restaurants, especially at Epcot. I know you said you were rarely hungry last time, but you may want to try one of the nicer restaurants at Disney. If you know you have a PS for that evening you can adjust your plans, such as a very light lunch and no afternoon snacks, etc.

Also, while you felt the lines weren't long, I don't like to stand in line for 45-60 mins. Personally, I find that a long wait. This year my DW and I went over Xmas week. With a little planning, using the Unofficial Guide to determine which rides to go on first, using Fast Pass, and getting up early we rarely waited longer than 20 minutes. And this was during the busiest time of the year.

I don't mean this as a criticism of your way of doing Disney. Your method probably is more relaxing, especially since you seem to have the right attitude and realize that everyone has to wait in line, etc. This was only meant as an example of how planning a brief itinerary can help.

My plan probably doesn't work as well for you. I can certainly understand wanting to sleep in. But a little planning can still help cut down your time standing in line, and also let you experience different things (such as a good restaurant, seeing Cirque, etc).

Good luck to you on your trip.

 

[BeckWhy]

Xstant: Now, what I am about to say is not to critise you. I am only 20 years old (and I have the mindset of a 16 year old). I don't have money to go eat at a sit-down restuarant. And plus, the fact that I have the energy, waiting in line isn't a big deal (it was a bit funner when I went during spring break, because I was with a bunch of girls I didn't know and it gave us a chance to get to know each other; one of the girls now is one of my best friends, we are always talking). And I don't really sleep in. My internal clock wakes me up at 8:00 am (without sunshine). Doing much outside of the park (Which includes the waterparks) is out of the question. I do know that we will probably be in the parks from openng til close.

 

[mickeysaver]

I love making my daily plans. This coming December trip will really need more planning than my previous trips. We have so much to do and we need so much more carefully planned "down time" since this is our longest trip. I can't wait! I have a rough outline of what days we will do in what parks. I am having to wait on more concrete plans until the dates for MVMCP and the announcers for CP are revealed. I do still have my list of restaurants from last time and of course, I will have to run through all the menus again closer to time for our vacation. I travel with a very picky eater. So that we would always know where we could eat, I made up a sheet of approved restaurants and what part of each park they were in. This way, whenever we got hungry, we knew where to go for some grub. I also knew that some lunch menus varied from the dinner menus, so this narrowed the choices down a bit more sometimes. As far as what to see and do went, we just chose to attack the parks and do what we wanted vs trying to see and do it all. This approach worked for us. We love to shop, so even if all we did was spend a day shopping, we would still have a great time. That's the beauty of Disney, they have sometime to entertain just about anyone. Mickey