Is it possible over plan?

[KenHutch]

For one thing there is no such thing as over planning. We drive and I even have all of our refuel stops marked on maps. The closest that I can say I that did that you might call over planning was during our 2008 trip. I had planned everything carefully but a copy of my plans fell into enemy hands (daughters mother) and she took exception to notes during the days where I listed "allow 20 minutes every 2 hours for stupid shopping). Turns out I annoyed all the women with that one.

 

[Bete]

Disney with their FP+ system has really forced all of us to be planners.

I can remember when you could be free and lose and just go. Disney has changed it with FP.

Now, add bigger crowds and you need to plan even more.

Add that the Disney Springs resorts get all the same privileges as onsite and you add to the planning again. Now, extra magic hours are more crowded and you have less FP to choose from.

 

[disneyinthespringtime]

"It will be DD 4 first trip -- after I had made our spreadsheet, made our ADRs I took a step back and realized I was trying to pack too much into our day and poor DD would never be able to keep up the pace. "

This is a really good point. I feel like the planning out using Touring Plan's models helped me realize what was realistic and what would not be. Before I started planning the day out we had a SUPER long list of stuff that we might want to do since we haven't been so of course wanted to try almost all of it! Plotting the days out and then using a google calendar to also block out the prep/transit times visually helped me realize the need to scale some stuff back, add in more intentional breaks, schedule shows differently to give us some resting time, etc.

 

[RocketCityMama]

Yes and no, that's an easy answer right? I thought I had over planned in 2009 but it worked well overall. We took an unplanned break but that's ok. Fastpasses were not preplanned then, so in the grand scheme of things it didn't matter. We needed that rest day. This time we have 10 park days out of a 13 day trip, even those 10 days are not go go go. We have ADR's planned, my fp day is Friday, we'll aim for 2 park days per park and hope for the best in regard to fp's and rope drop what we can't get. That give us 2 days to be flexible on what park to go to that day. For now, I'll try to pull in fp's for those I can't get on scheduled park days due to adr's at the park.

I know it will change while we are there, it'll be ok. We are flexible!

 

[Donalyn]

Yes, you can overplan, or maybe over schedule yourself. Now, I'm one of the people who loves to plan their vacations and really loves to plan a WDW vacation. That said, I don't like to spend my entire vacation worried about rushing to the next thing and not enjoying where we are and what we are doing at that moment.

A few trips ago, I planned a lot of ADRs. We enjoyed them, but for some, it felt like the march of death to get us to go to them. After that trip, we reevaluated how we did WDW. We decided that the food wasn't that important to us. (I know a lot of people are probably falling over right now, but that is us.) This trip, I'm going without a single ADR. I may regret it, but we will also have a car, so if we want to go off property to eat a real meal, we can.

Instead, time for rides and non-food experiences are important to us. That is were I've focused my planning efforts.

And I totally agree - to have the best time, you need to be flexible. You may have the best, most awesome day planned, but if someone is cranky or sick, then that day is not going to happen as you planned. (And if you force it to, it will be even more miserable.) Or maybe you will get sidetracked with your DD's new love of XYZ, and spend a number of hours doing that. Go with it.

 

[mastermind307]

Thanks for all the replies. I have talked to DD about what attractions she wants do ride more than once (TT, EE, and BTMRR) and which ones are fine to do once, and which ones are ok to skip if we don't have time. So I was able to narrow down what our must do's are and that helps a lot. What's hard it there are things (like Tiki Room and Country Bears) that we've never done. I'd like to do them, but there are so many other attractions we like and want to do every trip, there never seems to be time to try new things. Although this time, I'm making (not forcing, just encouraging) DD to ride RRC and Splash Mountain with me. She's unsure of them, but I know she'll like them once she rides them once.

And even though I will have planned out where we need to be and at what time, once we get there, I never take those detailed plans into the park with me. I use personalized touring plans to get an idea of what we might be able to accomplish while in the parks. I think making personalized touring plans is fun,well mostly until I start over thinking everything!

 

[kagmypts]

Yes. We book our 3 FPs at 30 days out, and then we decide on which ride we are hitting at RD on the way to the park each morning. That's the extent of our planning. Trying to figure out meals times and locations in conjunction with FP would stress me out. Interesting fact - we haven't starved on any of our previous trips!

 

[cindernat]

Coming up to our first trip at WDW and I have a spreadsheet! Plus Touring Plans subscription. Have done all my ADRs (still waiting on a couple I need to change) and FP+.

To the person who mentioned bathroom breaks - no time for those! (joke)

We will have breaks each day around lunch time.

The only thing I am struggling with is the best way to get between parks (driving versus internal Disney buses or Uber) to both park hop and go between our resort to parks. From my perspective that's the hardest thing to plan for.

 

[JerseyJanice]

I love to plan our Disney trip. It’s almost as much fun as the actual trip.

TBH on my last couple trips, most of my carefully thought out plans went poof! Things like major injuries, weather and napping babies really mess with your plans.

I still plan, but my latest approach is to set some goals and work toward them. By goals, I mean seeing or doing specific things.

Last time, my goals included seeing Fantasmic (made it), HEA (check) and Rivers of Light (didn’t make it). Next trip in May, RoL is at the top of my list along with the Star Wars fireworks show. I also hope to spend more time at the pool, and I’m not going to waste a lot of time waiting for certain members of my party. They can manage to get to the park without my help, and we can meet up later.

 

[Dan Murphy]

I’m not going to waste a lot of time waiting for certain members of my party. They can manage to get to the park without my help, and we can meet up later.

 

[NickC]

We usually change our plans a few times before we go. For our upcoming trip, we were going to skip HDDR, but last week, we decided to add it in. We also have tentative dining reservations at DS on our off day that we are not 100% on. I think that booking reservations as far out is important, and they can always be changed. At least we have them.
Generally, we plan our mornings until an early lunch, and we plan dinners. This leaves our afternoons and late evenings open for whatever comes.

 

[NickC]

I should add that, for me, I get so excited about the trip that it’s hard not to constantly think about touring plans. So, in a sense, I’m always ‘planning’. But, I know that I will have a great time no matter what.

 

[BandtheBoys]

I love planning!! But every one of our "plans" has to have a little wiggle room (can't control the weather, crowds or need for bathroom breaks!!) so we don't follow a strict plan. We plan our TS 180+ days out, we plan what parks, we plan fast passes, we roughly plan which rides first but if say Buzz has walk on times and we were going to head over to the other side of the park, we'll ditch the plan and walk on Buzz a few times.

 

[mastermind307]

Well, Fast Passes are made, and I'm happy to say I got almost everything I wanted within 10 minutes of the time I wanted, including FOP on 2 of my days. The only thing I didn't get was 7DMT at the time I wanted, I wanted morning, but all that was left was late afternoon/evening. I went ahead and booked a later time, we'll be at MK during that time, I was just hoping to get an earlier one so that we could maybe get more after using the first three. So I haven't decided whether or not I'm going to keep it. I was able to get 7DMT on another day at the time I wanted.

Since the fast passes are done, everything else is falling into place. Before, I was just guessing (hoping) my plans would work, and now I'm fairly confident they will.

 

[bluejasmine]

I kinda think so, now dont get me wrong, I am an uber planner, Im never going to be able to change that but sometimes I wonder if I give myself and my family way to high expectations over planning? You know what I mean?

I really enjoy the planning tho, I booked our trip in Oct and I have changed our plans a hundred times since, and Im sure Ill change it some more...