So I (Dad) am surprising with a Disney trip in July of this year. It's a last min thing. We have never done the parks. We have done Disney Cruises. I am so lost its not funny! I am about to book (beginning of the week) for early July. I really do not even know what I need to do. My plan was to do a park a day (staying 2nd-6th) and maybe visit Disney Springs. My plan was to maybe read on some good places to have dinner and just fly off the cuff for EVERYTHING else. I have no clue what "fast passes" are or if I need them. Almost a little overwhelming. We are going to stay on site and have the 2nd dinner plan thing. We are driving there and i am going to leave a day ahead of schedule so we can use our first day as a park day. The main thing I am concerned about is I want to eat dinner at somewhat nice places. But I literately have no clue what ones we would like? Or whats good and bad? I think we are going to stay at All Star Movies or Music.
Am i going to crash and burn on this surprise vacation? Can I just wing it and get away with a good time?
Whew, ok, so here we go...my first post on here...eep.
Please listen to the posters above about touring plans and the unofficial guide as a starting point, so you have kind of a guided "winging it".
If someone were to surprise me with a last minute trip, here's what I would do, and still have a great time.
Hopefully some of this will help you, but since it is early July right now, maybe this comes too late?
I'd grab a waterproof day bag, comfy shoes, breathable workout style clothing,a camera in a ziplock bag, an umbrella, sunscreen, sunglasses, and insect repellent.
I'd buy the unofficial guide to walt disney world.
I'd make sure that I had installed and set up the my disney experience and touringplans.com lines app.
I'd make some quick custom plans on touringplans.com including the things I really wanted to see, or just pick one of their good "sampler" or "ultimate" plans.
I'd put the pdf's of those plans out on google drive so i could refer to them quickly from my smartphone.
These plans will want you to be at the gates of the park at park opening time to get on the more popular attractions without a fast pass, taking advantage of the parks being MUCH less crowded at rope drop.
I'd also see if I could get lucky and find some FP+ for some of those attractions.
I'd take note of when the "down time" portions of my day were in the touring plans, and pay a visit to the concierge desk at the resort where I was staying, right after checking in and say "hey, I'm kind of winging it here, and I have a dining plan. I will be in these parks on these days, which ADRs are still available to me?" Odds are, you'll find something you like that is still open. (This sort of happened to me. A relative planned my most recent trip there, it was a family reunion trip, and added a dining plan for everyone. They said it was a counter service plan, but it turned out to be a standard dining plan and we had to scramble to use our credits wisely. It still turned out great and I tried some restaurants I never would have thought to try, which are now some of my favorites.)
It would be magical. Maybe not perfect, but magical, and I'd still be sad when it was time to return home.
If it were a LONG "wing it" trip (like 10 days or so), I'd schedule 1pm-3pm every day for a siesta or pool time at the resort, and maybe take one or two days split between a water park and Disney Springs (and wish the whole time that Adventurer's Club would come back some day)
If I REALLY had to wing it...like some sort of crazy challenge where I couldn't use touringplans or unofficial guide or my disney experience app? I'd see the concierge about the restaurant and fastpasses, look at the park guides at the hotel lobby, make a list of what I REALLY wanted to do...and then try to be at the park at the rope drop, and do those right away.
(Maybe not, I'm a Mom.... so!!)
