Planning is bananas

[TinkSassy]

I usually love the planning but the ADRs are the piece that are starting to drive me nuts. I like FP day. The 180 day mark I don't have park hours or EMH information - so I turn into one of those people that bug me (gasp - reservation hoarders!). My trip next week has newbies so we are doing a LOT of things that are hard to get (Be Our Guest, Rose & Crown (at Illuminations), etc). I've started shying away from those items when I travel myself so that I don't have to stress.

 

[SgtTibbs]

I'm doing a split trip, Universal then Disney.

Planning for Disney: Consult crowd calendars to pick which park on which day, weigh in special events, transportation, park hopping? For me ADR's fall on Easter Sunday, so get up extra early, FP's 60 days out, plan, change, plan some more, change... repeat.

Planning for Universal: Book at the Hard Rock. Done.

 

[JessBadger]

The one reservation I cared about getting was Be Our Guest for dinner the night of my parents anniversary. I was up at the crack of dawn and they didn't have dinner listed at all. I called as soon as they were open, and they didn't have anything either. I checked back the next two days and suddenly they were there, but were all booked up. It has been the most disheartening part of the planning so far. We are staying offsite so I knew it might be harder for us, but it is frustrating to no end. Now I am trying to figure out our back up and am not real pleased with any of our options. I don't know how people do these trips over and over, the planning started a year out and while I enjoy the planning, this part is the worst. It's also making me way more worried about FP reservations.

 

[LSUmiss]

I find the planning easier when it’s just me & DH & DS b/c we go often so I know the must dos. But we recently went with extended family & I found it so cumbersome. We brought my MIL & it was her first trip in 40 years so it was basically her first trip. But that’s when I noticed the ridiculous planning the most. We didn’t want her to miss anything but that meant that we were scheduled most of the day. Between that & the crowd (and her own mobility issues), I feel like she wasn’t able to just take in what it’s like to just BE in WDW.

 

[disneyinthespringtime]

The one reservation I cared about getting was Be Our Guest for dinner the night of my parents anniversary. I was up at the crack of dawn and they didn't have dinner listed at all. I called as soon as they were open, and they didn't have anything either. I checked back the next two days and suddenly they were there, but were all booked up. It has been the most disheartening part of the planning so far. We are staying offsite so I knew it might be harder for us, but it is frustrating to no end. Now I am trying to figure out our back up and am not real pleased with any of our options. I don't know how people do these trips over and over, the planning started a year out and while I enjoy the planning, this part is the worst. It's also making me way more worried about FP reservations.

Have you tried the reservation finder on touring plan’s website? We have gotten multiple BOG ADRs that way for lunch at least.

 

[hereforthechurros]

I find the planning easier when it’s just me & DH & DS b/c we go often so I know the must dos. But we recently went with extended family & I found it so cumbersome. We brought my MIL & it was her first trip in 40 years so it was basically her first trip. But that’s when I noticed the ridiculous planning the most. We didn’t want her to miss anything but that meant that we were scheduled most of the day. Between that & the crowd (and her own mobility issues), I feel like she wasn’t able to just take in what it’s like to just BE in WDW.

Wow I could have written this post. My sisters and mom wanted to join us on a trip so I spent hours upon hours making the trip perfect so they wouldn’t miss anything... instead it was just go go go. I wanted to make sure they saw almost everything and got their money’s worth. My mom said afterwards she wishes we could have slowed things down by 50%! We only had 3 park days, we didn’t have the luxury of slowing down haha.

 

[cindernat]

I'm a planner so I don't mind (although even I think it's gotten to a ridiculous level).

I just feel sorry for people who either don't like planning or do a spontaneous trip, or can't plan for whatever reason (ie: the older demographic who aren't comfortable with MDE/websites, etc).

 

[Monykalyn]

Maybe because we had/have multiple trips (parties of 2-5) but I don't plan much anymore. Even over NY found everything easily that suited us a few days up to day of easily (only thing I booked in advance was FoP and our NYE dinner) but that was party of 2-suspect it is much easier for smaller parties.

Unless you must have a hard to get ADR at exact time on exact day then most will pop up eventually. Booked trip last week 18 days prior to leaving-thought I wanted a BoG dinner on my bday-one popped up a couple days before trip (thanks to a reservation -free-finder site) but ultimately didn't take it. Had CRT pop up on Dec 30th (day of-as we were sifting through dinner options)-but didn't take it either. Totally get that most people won't want to wing it when it comes to some experiences, but being flexible on most things means you don't have to plan so far in advance either. The few exceptions: CRT, BoG and Cali grill for certain days/times, FoP at 60+ days. Everything else is available at 30 days most times-may not always be at your optimal time-but that is usually modified fairly easily closer to trip (as everyone else modifies plans LOL).

comfortable with MDE

the more comfortable you are with MDE and refresh option and modifying the less strict you have to be on planning. At least for parties of 4 and less

So yes, you can go and not plan every day 180+ in advance and still see and experience plenty!

 

[Tiki_Sara]

We didn’t plan anything for our first WDW trip. Booked hotel on day of arrival, bought tickets at MK gate on first day, no ADRs and didn’t even find out Fastpasses existed til we had waited 90 minutes for Jungle Cruise and worked out something was going on in that other line. And you know what, we had an absolutely fabulous time and I really don’t feel like we could have had a better experience if we had planned every minute

Fast forward to our return visit scheduled in Feb ‘19 and I am already stressing out about whether to do a BoG dinner reservation or a HEA desert party on one night, whether we will get FoP fastpasses and if whether we should do this, that or the other. Don’t get me wrong, I am enjoying the planning and reading the trip reports to get ideas, watching Disney vlogs etc is great BUT I’m not sure if it will make for a better trip than when we just turned up with zero plans. I suppose we will see...

 

[Upatnoon]

I landed an RCI exchange for a week at SSR about a week out for our spring break trip. Made no FPs until the night before we headed to the parks. Made no ADRs. Had a great time.

Just because you can plan doesn't mean you have to. There is a lot of FOMO out there in planning a Disney trip, but you can have a great time without all the planning stress just as well as running around with a spreadsheet detailing every minute. (I've seen people doing this)

 

[disneyinthespringtime]

I think it is much less of a big deal for repeat visitors to plan heavily as they have been there before and will go again if they miss something.

If you are planning a one and done trip it is a lot more important so you can prioritize what you do since there is no way to do it all - at least without a long trip. If you are one and done plus going for 10+ days then again you have a lot more wiggle room to wing things since you can get in multiple Park days.

 

[bluejasmine]

It kinda is but I enjoy it for the most part, the tricky part for me is the FP... Restaurants I start the moment I book so that's not a biggie, and its actually nice to know you have it all settled way before hand, altho I end up changing it a hundred times...

My 24 yr old son on the other hand thinks its nuts

 

[NY Pirate Princess]

The only thing worse than the rabid planning I put into our trips...Me, right now, with no Disney until 2020.

 

[Mickey's Best Girl]

Bananas indeed!

I agree with pp, I don’t even know what I’ll have for dinner tonight never mind 6 months from now.

On that note we no longer make ADRs unless it’s a party night as those are the only nights we know we’ll be at MK for certain.

We also miss or change at least 75% of our FPs for the same reason.

We’re a “wing it” duo. IMO planning is for real life, not my vacation.

 

[Tigger in a kilt]

I started a part-time post-grad degree at the same time as we booked this upcoming trip to WDW. I swear that I have done more “studying” for this trip than I have for my course!

 

[SarahC97]

I get a lot of enjoyment out of planning the trip -- it adds to the build up. But, it is a little ridiculous. I have friends that know nothing about planning Disney vacations that are taking their kids for the first time this summer. I kind of feel like all the advance planning means that people who don't know what they're doing get the shaft.

 

[KelNChrisKYDis]

I get a lot of enjoyment out of planning the trip -- it adds to the build up. But, it is a little ridiculous. I have friends that know nothing about planning Disney vacations that are taking their kids for the first time this summer. I kind of feel like all the advance planning means that people who don't know what they're doing get the shaft.

When we took our first trip in 2015, I had no clue what I was doing. I didn't make but 1 or 2 ADR's (and they were for places like Raglan Road and Bongos, nothing around the parks) and didn't even make our Fast Past reservations until about 40 days out because I didn't realize it was a "big deal". We were a little shocked when we got to Magic Kingdom and tried to eat at The Plaza and they said it was a 2 hour wait... zoinks! But we still managed to have a great time. We didn't do much table service (Crystal Palace for an early lunch, walked in at Coral Reef, etc.) but we still had a great time. The crowds were very manageable and the weather was warm, but we handled it. I guess my point being we didn't know what we were doing and we had such a great time that we decided to go back again in 2016 and 2017 and now 2018. You don't have to be an expert to have a great time. Of course, this was 3 years ago and the wait times have gotten so much worse...

 

[sponica]

I haven't been to Disneyworld yet and am thinking about a trip this summer. I haven't decided how much I need to plan. If I don't do all of this will I still have a good time?
I wasn't expecting to eat in full service restaurants and am okay with that - but after reading through some of the posts I wonder if I am missing out.

Honestly if you're not planning on eating TS, you're fine. Even if you want to eat TS, you can usually find someplace (especially at Epcot) that morning. For my first 3 trips I only did one TS meal total (and that was because my nana wanted to have dinner at Garden Grill). Now is different because my husband likes TS dinners....

 

[KenHutch]

One of my jobs is a Project Manager so I really like the planning. I read a lot of people have trouble with reservations because of park hours so before our last trip I got a little creative. I researched the park hours for every park going back 5 years and built a spreadsheet. This gives me a fair idea on park hours, Disney is fairly predictable. Based on that I pick what park for what days and at 180 days I make my ADR's. Is it perfect? No I have gotten burned by unexpected EMH's that packed one park or another but overall it works. And I am wondering if other posters here have noticed the same thing I have. When I am running a long network scan I occupy myself by checking ADR availability. Lately I have noticed a lot more ADR's out there for upcoming months. Not for everything BoG for example but I checked on a lot of other 2 credit restaurants and found if I was flexible that there are virtually no places I cannot get into with short notice.

 

[rentayenta]

Dining reservations at 180 days out.
FP at 60 days out.

You don't know what park you will be in on what day. I made a lot of dining reservations, mostly dinners.
Not until I made my FP reservations did I know what park I would be at.

It's bananas. Lots of speculation and zigging and zagging.
It all works out in the end, but dang.

I agree.

This will be our first trip in nearly 6 years; last trip FP+ wasn't even a thing.

Toy Story Land will be open.

I know where we want to eat but this FP thing is blowing my mind.

DH doesn't have his employee AP blockout dates yet.

I feel kinda nuts.