Need Help Planning Our Days!

[SIDEWALK]

Has anyone planned their itinerary for each day? What is your strategy for attacking the parks - I was going to start a spreadsheet with time periods mapped out. Any ideas?

 

[pennylynn]

The most planning I ever do is to decide which park to visit which day. Based on things like Spectro Magic and early entry. There's not much chance for planning things down to a certain time because you never know how long you might have to wait for rides and eating. I usually just go from the first thing to the next in line and so on. If the line is to long then I'll either get a fast pass or just skip it and come back later if there's time.

 

[Pat_Elliott]

There's an enormous amount of printed and online information out there. When I plan my vacation, I do the following:

First figure travel mode. If I'm flying, I won't get a hotel until I have a date and a way to get there and back. Air tends to fluctuate the most.

Get a hotel, once you know when you're going to be there.

Then, I plan my 'strategy.' I find when EE is taking place and avoid those parks. I also use my previous experience and any online information available to avoid "known trouble spots," which generally means MK on Saturday night, but also includes things like CM nights at PI. I'd say books aren't the best source for this information, because it changes so much these days. So choose your parks according to what you want to accomplish vs how many people are trying to accomplish the same thing the same day. If we're eligible for EE, I use it, but then get out of dodge to another park by around 10 AM.

Also allow flexibility, to leave a park if it's getting beyond your comfort with the crowds. Two givens: children will always want to spend a lot of time in MK, so keep that in mind, but also keep in mind that when all heck is breaking loose across the entire Disney nation (crowd-wise), Epcot is always managable, due to it's size; the enormous amount of attractions (I consider the countries attractions, some don't); and the fact that being the restaurant capital of Disney, a lot of people are in restaurants at any one time.

Once we've chosen our parks, we choose priority seatings. Note that with stuff like Hoop Dee Doo, you need to make that soon, like right now. They actually take your CC for this, and if you change your mind, you have to cancel within 48 hours. But line yourself up some places to eat. We start doing this shortly after we're inside two months (but I book Hoop Dee Doo ASAP, I think they takes ressies up to two years in advance).

Now your format is planned. From there, it's a good debate how much planning needs done. I'd gets some books (try Amazon, get them cheap, or even last years used). The books we always have: The Passporter, which is not only a touring and information guide, but a planner (we keep all our PS and agenda info in there); The Hassle Free Disney; and the Unofficial Guide to Disney. The latter two have touring plans according to what you want to accomplish and who you're taking (young kids? old kids? no kids?). Also, the act of reading these books will familiarize you with "how Disney works," per se. It also gets you hopped up for the trip! Birnbaums, the "official" guide to Disney, is an excellent resource book, but know it's put out in conjunction with Disney. They're a little biased.

Spend a lot of time here checking the forums (info coming and going all the time), and visit a variety of sites, including www.mouseplanet.com and Deb's Unofficial Guide to Disney (http://wdwig.com/). These are great sites for both solid information (when to go, what to do, where to stay, hotel and restaurant reviews, etc), plus breaking news. In particular, find trip reports on Mouseplanet and look at old reports from the time frame of your visit to learn what people did and saw during similar time frames. Also, go to www.mousesavers.com, an incredible resource for finding discount information, e.g. how to get the best deal on cars, motels, etc. I'd join the Mousesaver's newsletter, which comes on the fifteenth of every month and often has info on inexpensive park tickets, etc.

That's how we've planned trips in the past, you'll get a hundred different views, but most will contain some similar components. I find a great way to save money leading up to the trip is to give up leisure time activity for a couple of months. Planning Disney is my leisure time activity. A well-planned trip is a successful trip, and the planning wets the appetite.

Hope all this helps!

Pat

 

[mommystieg]

I use a very basic spreadsheet and pick the park for the day based on information I have gathered about attendance levels and such. I then plan our PS' around that. Since we are staying 9 days I divide Epcot into 2 days and MK into 3 days. For our MK days I focus on two or three sections of the park for that day. I then make a "must do/see" list for each day of our visit and I kinda rank things in order of importance. We checked each item off the list--that way we were sure we didn't miss anything that we really wanted to see. We did not actually get to do everything on the list so those things we missed move to the top of this year's list. I didn't plan it down to the minute but more by time frames. If we had a PS at Coral Reef at 12:30 then we toured that side of FW in the morning hours and the other side after lunch.

 

[cdpa4d]

Here is my itinerary for each day. I made some adjustments today based on MK adding Spectro and Fireworks. We are taking our daughter who is 3 years old. We have a timeshare at Vistana Resort. I love it there!

Saturday April 26th -
Arrive, Check in, and unpack
Shop for Groceries at Wal-Mart
Eat dinner at the resort (maybe)

Sunday April 27th -
Donald's Breakfast at AK
AK
Dinner at Rain Forest Cafe

Monday April 28th -
EPCOT
Illuminations

Tuesday April 29th -
Magic Kingdom
Lunch at Crystal Palace

Wednesday April 30th
Day Off from parks
Swim at pool
Visit Boardwalk
Lucn at ESPN
Downtown Disney for souveniers
Late Dinner at Planet Hollywood

Thursday May 1st -
Disney Studios
Magic Kingdom at night for Spectro and fireworks

Friday May 2nd -
Universal Studios and IOA
Lunch at Mythos
Dinner at Jimmy Buffet's

Saturday May 3rd -
Pack and check out
Last minute shopping
Depart dream of moving to Orlando

ADP

 

[puffkin]

This is my strategy, and I think it works really well...

1. Decide what dates you will be going. Determine if you will be flying or driving, and a rough estimate of your arrival and departure times.
2. Decide on your park tickets. If you are buying park hoppers decide if you will be going into the parks on your first and last day (travel days). If you have AP's or Ulitimate Park Hoppers, you don't need to worry.
3. Once you have decided how many days you will use for park touring and/or rest, I usually mark down the historical early entry mornings for each park as well as parade and evening show times.
4. I then write down each park and how much time I would like to devote to each one. For example, we usually do this with 6 day hoppers:
Magic Kingdom- 1 1/2 days + 1 E-ride night
Epcot- 2 days
MGM- 1 1/2 days
Animal Kingdom- 2 mornings
5. Now, based on historical attendance patterns, and if we want to take advantage of any early entries, I plot my days in a grid. I usually end up having to shuffle a few things around because of Spectromagic and parades.
6. With my days set, I then take my priority seating list and start filling in my desired restaurants. Sometimes I have to switch the order of the parks, but usually everything fits in nicely.
7. Finally, I make my PS arrangements and tweak the schedule if park hours or show times change.

This strategy works really well for me. However, it might be more difficult if you are going during the off season. We usually go in the summer, so we will do one park in the morning, take a rest at the hotel, and do another park at night. With shorter park hours, you may want to spend an entire day in one park so that you don't waste precious park time by travelling. Hope this helps and happy planning

 

[puffkin]

One more thing I forgot in my previous post...

Except for parades and shows, we don't plan exactly what we will do in each park. We tried this once, and it tired us out. Instead, we decide on 2 or 3 attractions that are a must for that day. Then, we try to get them done first. After that, we slow down and do what we feel like. This works really well for us.

 

[Pat_Elliott]

cdpa4d,

Fantastic Itinerary. I'm green with envy. I won't bet getting to Jimmy Buffett's until June 11. You lucky dog!

For sidewalk, maybe a couple current plans would help? Ours goes as follows (note, this is with a pregnant woman, your actual milage may vary).

Friday June 6: Drive from Savannah in the AM, DisneyQuest afternoon and evening, split up by checkin to the Marriott. Dinner at Wolfgang Pucks. PI from about 8 until 10 (when we'll duck out to avoid the Gay Day masses).

Saturday June 7: Pool day, alternate DisneyQuest day if we're burnt from travel. Hoop Dee Do Review at 5:15, Fireworks view at the Beach at the Poly.

Sunday June 8: Epcot. 12:30 PS at Le Cellier, 4 PM PS for the "Behind the Seeds Tour," 7:30 PS at the R&C for dinner and Illuminations. Drop wife off at hotel, close the Adventurer's Club!

Monday June 9, MGM. 12:30 PS at 50's Primetime Café, 4:30 PS at Sci Fi for milkshakes, Dinner at ESPN Club, back to Epcot until 9 (leave at nine to beat the crowds!). Back to the AC!

Tuesday June 10, Typhoon Lagoon. Pizza by the pool at Marriott, back to the AC!

Wednesday June 11, MK, no PS (counter service), Dinner at Jimmy Buffett's, after dinner cocktails at Pat O'Brien's.

Although we don't do "spreadsheets," we'll have our Passporter with all our PS #'s and a list of what we want to accomplish. E Tickets first thing in the AM. This will be greatly affected by DW's pregnancy, but on a normal trip we'd head immediately down and get a FP for Test Track, then ride Spaceship Earth. Similar plan in MGM, we'd get an FP for Tower of Terror, then stand in line for R&RC. So I guess we do map out time frames. The E-Tickets in the morning, then again during the dinner hour (always advantageous to eat off hours, then take advantage of the lower lines). In between, pick off certain areas and take what you want that the park gives to you, always hitting a FP somewhere. And if the park chooses to give you Big Thunder with a 10 minute standby, take it.....

 

[Dallas_Lady]

This makes me laugh, cause the average person who goes to Disney just goes and does whatever, with little planning.

But not us Disers! I made little laminated "schedule cards" for each day of our trip with parade times, PS numbers and hourly breakdowns of the days activities. That was after a year of intricate planning and detail finding. LOL. We are so obsessive.

At the end of the trip, my DH said to me, "That was the most well organized vacation I have ever taken!"

 

[Pat_Elliott]

Originally posted by Dallas_Lady
This makes me laugh, cause the average person who goes to Disney just goes and does whatever, with little planning.

My wife proudly tell's people: "This is my husband. Disneyholic by fate, anal by choice."