Minimal Planning!

[DisArmyWife215]

We are more go with the flow too, but I do book some dining we are interested in. As it gets closer to our trip or even while there a few days out we have a little convo if we are still wanting to go there or just eat when and where we feel like and will cancel dining during the trip. It's so nice not to feel tied down to a schedule. Have a great trip!

 

[kiford]

I am a planner by nature. But these days our planning for WDW (after flights & hotel), is 3-4 ADRs (which we may or may not keep), plans to graze in whatever festival there is at Epcot, 2-3 FPs per day of which we may or may not use, an expectation of some pool time and/or relaxing in our air-conditioned room, and a basic idea of where we will spend our time (this frequently gets thrown out the window nearly immediately if one of us decides we want to do something else, our friends meet up with us or we just feel like taking whatever bus happens to be there when we get to the stop). We do, of course, accept that we may not get on more than 1-2 attractions throughout the day. We've been a considerable number of times so we don't feel like we're missing out on anything if we don't get on many rides and we like to spend time really enjoying the details and just watching what's going on whether it's parades, performers in the street or other people. We have also been doing some tours and special events/dining - which you do have to plan well in advance as they can be quite popular and hard to get the time you want but it becomes the main attraction so the rest of our park time can be nothing more than wandering around and maybe doing a lesser attraction if we feel like it.

 

[richmo]

Sounds like fun to me!

I would go ahead and get FastPasses as soon as you can. You could always change/delete/not use them if you pick a different park.

Since you're doing quick service, you might be able to save a little time by pre-ordering from your phone once you pick where you'd like to eat.

Have fun! Not over-thinking things can lead to fun times...

 

[YawningDodo]

Sorry, I disagree but I respect your choice to do your trip anyway you want to do it.

For us it's just too expensive of a trip not to get the most out of it. So, this means having a plan like not to backtrack through the park which wastes too much time. Using fastpass is a must. Even if you don't get all your choices then you know what ride to head for at rope drop. Getting fastpasses early gets you more fastpasses through the day. Fastpasses allow you to do more of your favorites in less time. I'm not a fan of waiting in long lines and fastpass helps to cut back on that for at least some attractions. I can always skip a fastpass if I want to go off fancy free.

We like certain table service and making our reservations helps us get our favorite ones. It provides a nice rest for us, too.

Most importantly I'm not on my smartphone trying to figure it all out all day on the spot. That's a waste of time, too.

My problem with prebooking fastpasses is that it makes me crisscross and backtrack more, not less. When I went with my mother in 2015, which was our first trip after they started the FP+ system, our prebooked fastpasses took us hither and yon all over the Magic Kingdom with no rhyme or reason beyond those just being the time slots we were able to get for those rides. I know that can be planned more cleanly with a little more forethought about walking distances, but...look at any of the WDW parks. The headliners are (almost) always spread out over multiple lands. In Magic Kingdom, if you prebook Space, 7DMT, and BTMRR, you'll at least go in one direction that morning, but you're still covering half the park to get to those FP+ reservations. It's even more walking if you head straight to Peter Pan at rope drop since you didn't get it as a FP+.

When I went in 2018, I booked only one FP+ for relatively early in the morning, ropedropped a headliner ride next to the one for which I had FP+, and then just wandered where I wanted to wander, picking up new FP+ wherever I could along the way. My plan for 2020 is to do pretty much the same, but even more low-key. My goal is to take the parks land by land absolutely as much as possible, which may mean booking FP+ spread out wider through the day...but I think it's a better bet to just book my first FP+ for an hour or two after park opening and refresh to get the other FP+ I want along the way, since that way I don't have three FP+ slots tied up that have to be used before I can start doing things on the fly.

 

[NikkiDP]

I love to plan but we go in with very little structure. Only 1-2 ADR but we always book all our FP selections. We go for the rides we really want and make sure they are fairly early and close together so that once we are done with our initial three we can see what is available. We love touring this way especially since Disney can make you so tired or rides can be down so it never feels like a wrench has been thrown in our plans.

 

[Klayfish]

My problem with prebooking fastpasses is that it makes me crisscross and backtrack more, not less. When I went with my mother in 2015, which was our first trip after they started the FP+ system, our prebooked fastpasses took us hither and yon all over the Magic Kingdom with no rhyme or reason beyond those just being the time slots we were able to get for those rides.

That is easily avoided by making sure you aren't booking FP+ in different locations. If you're booking 60 day out, it shouldn't be an issue. Even if it is, you can usually modify them day of.

 

[TheSouthernBelle]

The organizer/planner in me shutters to read this but I just love planning our vacations no matter where we go. Everyone vacations differently.

My family knows I enjoy it so they let me be. But I do schedule down time and build in flexibility so we can change our plans on the fly. We don't do a ton of ADRs but we do schedule our FP+. There's no harm in doing that since we can always adjust most of them the day of or around the time of our trip. Hard to get FP+ I won't mess with. But you have 9 days so if you miss a hard to get ride on day 2 you can always come back which is really nice. We only do 1-5 day max trips so heading back isn't always feasible that time around. Enjoy, sounds like a nice long visit!!

 

[Disneylvr1971]

We no longer plan out our vacation. If everyone wants to sleep in, we sleep in. Whenever someone is hungry we stop to eat. You CAN get FP's for some of the major attractions day before or day of. I never do them at 60 days out, and we have gotten all of them at one time or another. If there is a main attraction we want to do with no FP, we do it before park close.
Have a fun, relaxing trip!!

 

[Ghostofkrystenpast]

We've also decided to leave our next trip more "open." Thinking we will maybe book a character meal and grab FP for FOP and the new star Wars attractions if they're available (we don't go until fall 2020).

I love to plan, but I'm looking forward to a trip where we can just wake up and do whatever we feel like that day.

 

[michsig]

Almost every trip we've gone on has been more of a "freestyle". It just works for us, and whatever we don't get to this trip, we can likely get to on the next!

We're bringing my son for his 2nd birthday in October, and it will be ULTRA freestyle! We've made a few ADRs but nothing crazy. I don't want to overwhelm him and pack out our days! Just isn't our style.

 

[snoopboop]

There are also plenty of recent reports that say FP+ are still pretty easy to get same day. I don't think it's a matter of tides changing. Refresh has been around for several years now, and it's not something the "average" WDW visitor will know about.

All I can speak to is my personal experience. In the past, I've had great luck snagging same-day FPs. In June, either I had absolutely abysmal luck or else there's something in the water.

I did say "YMMV" in my post - my experience is just that, my own anecdotal experience. But it's what happened to me, a seasoned WDW veteran who went in to my vacation assuming that I'd be able to get us lots of same-day FPs and left really, really disappointed.

On a more general note, as a few other posters have mentioned, a WDW vacation isn't cheap, and my time on vacation is MUCH too valuable to me to be OK with waiting in long lines. I think Universal Orlando has it 100% right with their Express Pass system and I wish Disney would do something similar.

 

[Happyinwonerland]

We do very little planning, but we have been so many times that we no longer have that urge to do it all and see it all.

 

[YawningDodo]

That is easily avoided by making sure you aren't booking FP+ in different locations. If you're booking 60 day out, it shouldn't be an issue. Even if it is, you can usually modify them day of.

I'm aware of that, but in many cases there aren't three FP+ I actually care about in the same area of the park. Or when there are three near each other, the tiering system gets in my way (example: at AK it would make sense to me to reserve FoP, NRJ, and Kilimanjaro since that's two in one land and a third in a neighboring land--but you can't do that because NRJ and FoP are both tier 1). I'm aware there are counter-examples and ways to do it, but I agree with your point that I can modify them day-of...which also means I can just book them on the fly day-of.

In all likelihood I probably will book all three on at least some days, since I recognize that there's a benefit to having them even if I decide to cancel them that morning. The problem is, I know myself--sometimes I have an easy time changing plans on the fly, but sometimes I feel obligated to do something just because I planned it in advance. I messed myself up in Disneyland Paris once that way; rather than spontaneously view the parade when I happened to come across it, I rushed off to use a FP I'd already grabbed. I could have ridden the attraction any time (and rode it multiple times throughout my trip anyway), but skipping that opportunity to see the parade meant that I had to schedule the entire afternoon of the following day around catching the parade since I did still want to see it. Didn't ruin my trip, but I did have a significantly less fun time that second afternoon because I was stressing about sticking to my schedule and ended up cutting my afternoon break short to make sure I'd be there on time.

 

[YawningDodo]

We do very little planning, but we have been so many times that we no longer have that urge to do it all and see it all.

I think that's one of the big reasons I'm really looking forward to slowing down on this upcoming trip and de-optimizing my approach in general. There are a few new things since I was last there and I will prioritize those, but I've ridden everything that was open in January 2018 or earlier, and I've ridden it all multiple times. I'm okay if I don't get to do absolutely everything, let alone do it multiple times.

 

[hawkeyesparks]

Go for it! I think this might be the best idea for those of us that do WDW on a regular basis. I like the idea of just taking what comes. It sounds like a vacation to me, and for so many of us, we plan so much, it doesn't feel like a vacation sometimes.

 

[epcotobsessed]

We are two parents, a teen, and a tween - I plan a lot beforehand but I think the biggest reason why we always have a great time is that we are always willing to change the plan. I think Disney can be miserable for some who insist on sticking to a plan or don't know how to cope when the plan goes awry because of weather, ride breakdowns, general fatigue in the group, etc. I like having a plan in case we want it and it works for us that day but being willing to change it completely and go with the flow is key.

 

[BreezysMom]

We are very minimal planners. FP+ has made us do a bit skeleton planning but we like to wake up and just go with whatever our mood is. I will say that our lack of planning actually was awesome last summer. We would get up and go do our FP at whatever park that day. Then we would head back to the resort and chill, nap, hang by pool and then typically an afternoon storm would blow through and we would head back out to the parks in the evening and just walk on a lot of stuff. We head back in 3 weeks and I am hoping for a similar experience.

 

[DisLiss]

Our planning is somewhere in the middle of No Planning at All and Planning Every Moment. We have a basic plan of what days we'll hit what parks already, and will only change it if extra park hours make it seem a better idea.

We will likely make a few fastpasses ahead of time and maybe 1 or 2 ADRs. Otherwise we'll make FPs while we are there and we'll eat QS meals. Mind you, we go during a less busy time of year, which makes this easier.

 

[SillySallySews]

I think if your kids are older (aka, ok with waiting in lines) and you know what to expect, this style of touring works very well. I think the go-with-the-flow plan is only disastrous for people who feel like they need to “do it all” and get their money’s worth out of every second of their vacation. That does not sound like you, OP, so I think you’ll be fine.

 

[Momto2minniemice]

We have been many times before. With work being SO schedule I really do not like being scheduled on vacation.

Many people have talked about the cost of the trip. But I also find value in the happiness of the family. If we are stressed getting from A to B then what fun is it?

I will make sure to post and let everyone know how it goes!