Is anyone else crazy and love it?

[dobtia]

I am like most of you. Once we decide on trip I start all kinds of stuff. I don't excel but I have a spiral notebook right beside me right now. I love to watch videos and think about what we had done before and might try this time....so you dance with 51 weeks of happiness because it is what most of us do.....COME ON JUNE.

 

[Shelbizzles]

I love love love planning. I've been planning this trip for over a year. And still have six months to go. We couldn't afford to go last year so I've been obsessing over our 2017 trip. I was mentally planning my outfits at work last night and my husband was making fun of me.
He loves going, he just doesn't get as excited as me until we get closer.
My brother is coming with us for the first time, so it's been fun planning for him is well. I'm just sooooooo excited

 

[Farro]

Am I crazy? I don't know, I'm buying Halloween costumes in March and I already know what I want to eat for dinner in 7 months....

 

[King of Naboombu]

I am right there with you. Crazy and love the planning! I have a spreadsheet with multi tabs as well. Tabs I have are for Main schedule, ADRs, FP+ priority, food budgets and savings tracking...lol. Main tab is schedule similar to yours. The only colorization I use is to shade in all non-park hours to make sure I am scheduling SOME down time. Craziest thing I will admit to is transcribing all ADR confirmation numbers in to my main schedule that I print out to bring with me. These have never been referenced or needed for any reason at all. And even if I did need them I could just look them up on my phone. I still copy it in for every ADR.

 

[Chrelaine]

I have a spreadsheet also. No colors other than the occasional highlight I love the craziness of planning. We travel in August and my plans will change 100 times before then. DH doesn't mind my crazy if it means he doesn't have to plan anything.

 

[lilly6]

Of course! We are planning on Feb. 2018 and I just finished making a paper chain "countdown" for the 300+ days until we leave! We have a blast in the months leading up a Disney trip planning, editing, replanning, discussing. We think planning is just part of the fun. Enjoy!

 

[KCBelle]

Color-coded excel spreadsheet? Absolutely!! I make one every trip, Disney or elsewhere. I also make binders for every trip with maps, menus, confirmations, budget stuff, schedules and more. My family thought I was nuts until they experienced the magic of my obsessive planning. My sister now brags to people how we went to Disney, did everything we wanted and never waited more than 15 minutes for anything. Ahhhhhhhh the reward of 8 months of planning! I love the planning process so it's not tedious or a burden to me. We tried one trip "just going with the flow" and when we got home we felt like we wasted so much time figuring what to do, where to go and where to eat.

 

[DisneyCAL]

Do you have a 180 day mark ADR list in the order of trying to obtain the ones you want as well as one for Fast passes? hehe.
I get a bit crazy too with my excel sheets but hey it makes things efficient and right and in the end it works! Not to mention it can save money.
There's something about it that get me pumped up. Plus I'm a natural planner/organizer at heart. There needs to be one in every family.

 

[SaintsManiac]

I love planning our trips. It keeps me occupied and happy until we go. I just started my spreadsheet for this year not too long ago.

I think planning is essential for budgeting, also. I know exactly what we need and we will be 100% paid before we go.

There will always be the judgmental people about it. Ignore them! We're (mostly) all mad here

 

[kniquy]

Yes crazy here also. So crazy that we bought a DVC resale just so we could afford to go at least every 2 years.

I have been thinking about our family trip in April 2018 since it was 2 1/2 years out! I too have a spread sheet and it is pretty detailed with being color coded with FP and ADR/QS. I find it so helpful to have it printed out in hand when we are at the parks. I know the app has that info too, but i feel the spreadsheet works much quicker to glance at.

This next trip will be an extended family trip so i have to try and keep 7 people happy. We are already researching our ADR (everyone needs to let me know by September in advance of our 180 day mark, we know we will be at AKV -kidani, but we might change out a couple days to Poly or WL.

Thankfully i have a work conference going on down there this April -- this is helping me to keep sane and will be helpful in planning for next years trip.

 

[jeff_h]

I looked at the OP's detailed spreadsheet and thought "OK so I'm only half crazy" since my spreadsheet has multiple tabs but only break down as far as AM and PM for each day.

 

[minoh]

I had a colour-coded table of our schedule and printed out a 50 page planning document. Oops, I guess that sounds pretty crazy, haha. But I was so overwhelmed with the whole planning process and was the only one in our party of 8 who took on the organizing role, so it felt useful to me. Our trip was last week and everyone was very thankful for all the planning I put in, even if we only used the plans as a general guide, they were still super helpful.

 

[act1980]

What is your question? Your color coded spreadsheet- no I have my own.
Planning our WDW vacations. Yes that is why we are all here.

Theres always one...

What is your question? Your color coded spreadsheet- no I have my own.
Planning our WDW vacations. Yes that is why we are all here.

Personally I love a good spreadsheet, for me the planning is all part of the excitement before the holiday. I'm going in November and I've started mine already! Hope you have an amazing time!

 

[MommaBerd]

If you want to take a break from planning, have some fun and gauge your "craziness" level, use the search tool above and search for "anonymous" and check the Thread Title box. You'll find some older threads that were pretty fun! And you never know - you might pick up some planning ideas!

For me, the planning is at least half the fun! It's what builds the excitement and anticipation of the trip! In fact, what's "crazy" is that once all the plans are made and as we get closer to the trip, part of me is sad that all the planning is over. I *totally* enjoy my trips, but once the trip starts - at that point, it's the beginning of the end! There's nothing to anticipate anymore.

 

[mickeyfanachey1999]

We are going on our trip in 51 weeks and I am already playing and planning. I LOVE excel, so I have a multi-tab spread sheet going. This includes budgets, QS locations/avoid, my gift card earning plan, everything.

I also have an awesome color-coded spread sheet going that is making me super happy.

View attachment 225482

I know things are going to change, especially with Avatar opening, but I love it! I am especially excited because this is going to be a more relaxed trip, without my in-laws or too many ADRs (They liked to sit-down almost every meal, I am limiting to a few faves).

So EXCITING!!!

I like the idea of color coding. I may have to update. My spreadsheet also includes sunrise, sunset and historical high and low temperatures. When we get closer I will add in the weather forecast. The tabs at the bottom of mine are from the last 6 trips so I can compare what actually happened to what was planned.

 

[Klayfish]

For those of you who do this level of planning, curiosity question because we do nearly no planning whatsoever. If you've got a spreadsheet that maps out that level of detail and what ride you're supposed to be on and when, what do you do when things go sideways? It rains, a ride breaks, the line at ride X is twice as long as you had anticipated, you get stuck on IASM and listen to the music for 45 minutes? I'm not asking it in a negative tone, just curious to know how you roll with the punches when unforeseen things happen.

 

[nat8199]

For those of you who do this level of planning, curiosity question because we do nearly no planning whatsoever. If you've got a spreadsheet that maps out that level of detail and what ride you're supposed to be on and when, what do you do when things go sideways? It rains, a ride breaks, the line at ride X is twice as long as you had anticipated, you get stuck on IASM and listen to the music for 45 minutes? I'm not asking it in a negative tone, just curious to know how you roll with the punches when unforeseen things happen.

In the past all I did was change the plans, skip something, etc. our first trip our kids liked AK so much we canecelled and entire day at MK so we could go back to AK. I am trying not to get so detailed about an order for rides, etc., but to take advantage of FP+ for the hot rides, I am planning out those three.

 

[AaronInWI]

Of course! We are planning on Feb. 2018 and I just finished making a paper chain "countdown" for the 300+ days until we leave! We have a blast in the months leading up a Disney trip planning, editing, replanning, discussing. We think planning is just part of the fun. Enjoy!

Wait, you put together a 300+ day paper chain countdown? Ok, THAT is crazy!

I have been thinking about our family trip in April 2018 since it was 2 1/2 years out!

I've got you beat. Our next trip is September 2018, and I'm already starting to plan!

We are going on our trip in 51 weeks and I am already playing and planning. I LOVE excel, so I have a multi-tab spread sheet going. This includes budgets, QS locations/avoid, my gift card earning plan, everything.

I also have an awesome color-coded spread sheet going that is making me super happy.

I know things are going to change, especially with Avatar opening, but I love it! I am especially excited because this is going to be a more relaxed trip, without my in-laws or too many ADRs (They liked to sit-down almost every meal, I am limiting to a few faves).

So EXCITING!!!

I'm right there with you! I have a spreadsheet (albeit not color coded) that I've been cultivating for the past decade. It has separate tabs for general daily plans, park hours, FP+, ADR's, a "to do list" for things leading up to the trip (book rooms, buy park tickets, service and clean the car [we drive down], lock doors and windows and water plants before leaving, etc.), a packing list for my wife, me, and our dog (she stays with my in-laws), plus a few other tabs that I'm forgetting. I use this same spreadsheet for every trip we take, Disney or otherwise. I just skinny it down for non-Disney trips. I also put together a list after every trip of what worked, what didn't, and any new stuff we want to try next time. I then take the best of the good/bad/new from each trip to create a master list, which I reference when I start to "really" plan when we get about 6-8 months out. So yeah, I'd say I'm a bit obsessed! (Don't worry about one negative-Nancy. You're among friends here!)

 

[mickeyfanachey1999]

For those of you who do this level of planning, curiosity question because we do nearly no planning whatsoever. If you've got a spreadsheet that maps out that level of detail and what ride you're supposed to be on and when, what do you do when things go sideways? It rains, a ride breaks, the line at ride X is twice as long as you had anticipated, you get stuck on IASM and listen to the music for 45 minutes? I'm not asking it in a negative tone, just curious to know how you roll with the punches when unforeseen things happen.

As a family we are (I should say DW, DS14 and DS6) are more fly by the seat of their pants type people. I would say that my spreadsheets are about 95% accurate with regards to which park we are visiting, and 95% accurate with fastpass+ usage. After that, the spreadsheet goes out the window and all bets are off. Its my job as the planner to make sure that everyone's favorite rides/foods/shows are included. That means we have to ride TOT, see SWAGS and ride EE. For DW we have to get fish and chips from Yorkshire County Fish Shoppe. For DS14 we have to ride EE, TT, COP, Splash and Space. For DS6 we have to ride BTMRR, Splash, TOT, Star Tours and eat lots of churros. I just make sure those things happen. The spreadsheet is really for my enjoyment

 

[DisneyWorldbuff]

I definitely don't take it to that level of precision. But I love the planning too! It gives me something to look forward to until my next Disney trip. My kids love to help me too. Keep on doing things the way that works for you. Have a great trip!