New attitude...if we miss it, so what??

[travelbuffnj]

Life goes on!! Planning a surprise Memorial Day visit for my DD10. It will be a mother/daughter trip. We were here during Jersey Week this past November and I got sucked into an AP, essentially so I could buy the TIW card. (Brief pause here to apologize to the poster who wants to cut back on acronyms. Oops!)
Hence, the quick return trip to justify the AP. Saving $$?? I think not.

Anyhoo, all of this backstory to say that I am taking it easy this time. I do have FP's and a few choice ADR's but I want to stroll and take advantage of the F&G booths at Epcot, spend some time in the hotel pool, sit on a bench at MK and eat a Mickey Bar, etc. I don't want to be the first family at the rope every day for EMH's 5 days in a row like last trip. I almost killed my family and it wasn't pretty.

We are going to take our time and smell the roses (pun intended w/ F&G) this trip!!

I am a natural planner so this goes against every fiber of my being. I want to actually share some special moments with my DD this trip, and feel the magic, not be dragging her behind me in a mad dash not to miss our FP window or ADR.

Just thought I would share my game plan (or lack thereof!)

 

[Mikie]

It's a hard balance to strike - there's just SO MUCH to do, it's easy to suffer from "fear of missing out" (FOMO) good luck battling this debilitating syndrome - your trip (non)plan sounds great and I hope you have an awesome time!

 

[BethR9]

I'm going to try very hard to do this on our next trip. I want it to feel more like vacation than a marathon!

 

[gypsicat]

I have never really been, so I guess I have no idea of what I am missing!

When I first started planning, I had multiple ADR's every day, RD to close (maybe with a break), etc. Then I realized that my family might hate me after day 3, lol.

So now the plan is, relax on arrival day.
RD each park the first 4 days and quit whenever we are tired. We have hoppers, so anyone who still feels like trekking on in the evening can go do what they please and let us old folk relax somewhere quiet with a drink!
Full Resort day in the middle.
4 late start park days with night time activities and sleeping in the next morning
Departure day, no park, Boma breakfast, pool time, leave.

We have 7 ADR's for 11 days. Phew, even fitting those in was a chore, lol.

So if we miss something, so be it. We will hit our must haves and anything else we will consider a bonus!

 

[Hikergirl]

If you've been before and plan to go again, its a great attitude to have. There will be a lot less stress, enjoy!!

 

[mom2rtk]

Some of those laid back unstructured times are my favorites at Disney. The problem of course is that I'm not happy having those laid back times until I've done all the other things I dreamed about and planned to do on our trip first.

 

[TiggerBouncy]

We are Disney vacation Club and it took us about 4 or 5 trips to get it down right. Our last trip was really the first time though where I think we completely got it into our system. We figured out our absolute MUST DO's. Those were about 3-4 rides per park. We put those on fast pass.

There were loads of rides we didn't do. Heck, I sat down with my book for 2 hours while my DW shopped. I people watched too (that's a load of fun). It's an entirely different way to see the parks, and it's SO MUCH MORE RELAXING. First time I came back from Disney and didn't need a vacation from my vacation.

Yeah - DS was there. He was old enough that I was able to send him off on his own with a couple of dollars for water and snacks and see him later. Pretty sure he walked his feet off. I didn't care. It wasn't my feet!

So I say go for it!

 

[Yensid67]

I completely understand why many people put so much planning into their Disney vacations. After all, if you're only going to be there once, you want to experience everything. But I just returned from my 33rd trip to the World since 2005, and for the past several years I've visited WDW with no set-in-stone plans (other than occasionally buying a ticket for a special event). I've gotten to the point where I just take what the parks give me. For example, I've never ridden any of the vehicles that drive up and down Main Street at the MK. But last Sunday I was in the park, I saw the double-decker bus coming and decided to take a ride. It was awesome. I rode from one end of Main Street to the other, then got back in line (there was no line) and rode it back down. Seeing Main Street from the upper deck of the bus was great experience and totally unexpected. I can't wait to see what the parks offer me in the future!!

 

[travelbuffnj]

That sounds like a terrific plan, gypsicat!! That's like a dream come true for me. My problem is that we are teachers so are always planning extended weekend trips. There is so much to squeeze into 4-5 days!! Dream of the day we can come for 7-10 days and have a resort gravity day. Sigh.

 

[lucky978]

Enjoy! I just recently took a mother daughter trip and we did things similarly. We had a list of things we knew we really wanted to do. Besides that we just let the day take us wherever! We spent a few afternoons by the pool with friends and then went back out for dinner in the evening. Like a previous poster said - if you've been before and plan on going back, there is no need to see everything every trip. For the most part, everything will still be there when you return.

 

[Eastern]

This is how we always do Disney (IWMISW?) You will have a much better time this way.

 

[Lynzer4]

I to got an AP in September knowing I had a second trip (Princes Run) planned.... but it sure didn't save me money LOL! I am booked for a June trip (8-12) and Aug (27-29) to get as much AP time in as possible before it expires!

I will stay having an AP for the year has made my visits a little more relaxing. Since I know I will be back (hints the two booked trips).

I thought I took it easy in September (spent time at the pool and in the room) but I learned in February that I didn't.... lol. My aunt, her two daughters and their 4 kids came while I was down for work/Princess Run. I had planned their trip and while they used all the FP+ and ADR's they were much slower moving then I planned for. On the first MK day we left our room later then planned and made it to MK gates at 9am. By the time we walked into the park, got a stroller and make it to the first ride we had already "wasted" 35 minutes. The wait was longer then I planned for and by the time we were done it was already 10am and the kids wanted food. On a normal tour day for me by 10 I would have rode 3-4 rides.... I learned quickly this wasn't going to be like my normal trips but by the end it was great. I took time to see and experience things I hadn't before!

This June while I have a plan I also have downtime at the hotel and in August I'm staying at AK so I will for sure have downtime at the hotel.

 

[rg35]

This is an easy (and correct) mindset to adopt if you're able to visit regularly. For many, they really do have to see as much as they can in one visit.

 

[Mikie]

This is how we always do Disney (IWMISW?) You will have a much better time this way.

What is happening lately?? There are a few threads about acronyms/initialisms and suddenly I keep seeing new ones I'm not familiar with. What an education. . . What's this one?

 

[bumbershoot]

What is happening lately?? There are a few threads about acronyms/initialisms and suddenly I keep seeing new ones I'm not familiar with. What an education. . . What's this one?

The subject line.

If We Miss It So What.


One hopes Disney's marketing people are hanging their heads in shame, that so many people are adopting this philosophy. There's just nothing good enough at Disney to care about if it gets missed. Ah yes, that's the Disney way. To just make it all mediocre.


And yes I get that most here are doing this because they'll be back. But "we'll see it next time" or "we've seen it before" are different than "so what".

 

[Mikie]

The subject line.

If We Miss It So What.

Thanks! Perhaps I need more coffee

 

[loves to dive]

Good for you and welcome to the club. Like others, I've been a number of times and now go twice a year so we are very laid back. We make a FP or two the day before, never make ADRs until day of since we rarely know where we will be. There are still a number of things I've yet to do and I've been going since 1982.

 

[IrishNYC]

I absolutely agree with your attitude! The last time we went I planned with a mindset of "OMGWEHAVETOSEEEVERYTHINGWECAN'TPOSSIBLYMISSATHING!!!!!" because it was our "This is our only trip ever" according to DH. Then I got there and realized if we just rush from Thing to Thing there were so many little things we'd miss, and so what if we missed a Thing, we had fun doing little things. And then DH was hooked and we're planning our next trip.

But if you have APs and you've been before, and you know you'll go again, there is absolutely no reason to fret about missing something. You'll see it next time.

 

[china mom]

If We Miss It, So What

 

[Celesdragon]

This! Our last trip, we made it a point of "So what if we can't get into Soarin or can't get that must-do ADR'", etc. We just meandered and did whatever we felt like and actually did a lot of things that we hadn't done in the previous trips because we weren't sticking to a schedule/plan.