Planning vs. Flexibility - How do you balance them?

[CeruleanMoon]

I have been to Disney in the past as a kid or as someone's guest, but this will be the first time I have ever planned a trip myself. I see two pieces of advice floating around and I can't figure out how to reconcile them.

If I need to get dining reservation 6 months out, and FP's 60 days out, how do I deal with unknowns like...the weather, how tired we might be, unexpected crowds, not knowing ahead of time when EMH might be, etc?

Like, for example, we want to visit one of the water parks. If I plan everything down to the hour (which it seems like people do!) then what do we do if it storms all day on our waterpark day and now we're stuck and can't switch it with another park day?

What if I pick the "wrong" days and end up missing all the EMH's?

What if we find out we've bitten off more than we can chew and just want to take a break day, somewhere where we hadn't planned for one?

 

[AngiTN]

We never book ADR in advance (well, never say never but it's very rare)
We book what looks good about an hour out from when we want to eat. Never gone hungry and never eat QS either.
We wake up in the morning and want to change parks, we do. We just hop on MDE, look for FP at the park we opt to hit that day and change them. Never found it to be a big issue at all. Other than FEA, we can get FP for what we want without issue. If we have FEA booked, that's the one time we stick to our plan.
I think people put way more emphasis on planning than it really takes. Especially the ADR part. We've not planned at 180 days period, much less worried with ADR then. And we've eaten at over 80% of the TS locations at Disney.

 

[HydroGuy]

Well, one way to balance them is to go to Disneyland Resort LOL!

At WDW, I plan space" into my WDW trips. Off days. Half off-days. Some park days with no ADR's.

But in general, you have little flexibility with regard to weather and crowds.

If you have enough days on your trip - with space in your schedule - it is possible to move some days around real time and still have a good time. You may not be able to get the hottest FP or the best ADR, but you can often get decent options the day before.

With regard to how tired you are, there are different types of advice you will get. Some folks claim to visit WDW and do it full throttle the whole time. I know that has never worked for us. I plan in an off-day every 3rd or 4th day to not just relax physically, but emotionally. Get away from the noise and motion and energy. That can be a day by the pool. Or some shopping in Disney Springs (I would never do that myself, but DW does and I go along ), see a movie, etc.

Also, try and figure out which nights will be your late nights - and try not to do an early start the next morning. Late nights are ones you dedicate maybe to seeing a major night time show. I try to plan for late nights on the evenings before a rest day.

 

[ArwenMarie]

You just do your best and go with it. Book any ADRs, book your FPs and make the best of it once you get there.

Be ok with missing some stuff if the plans change while you are there (weather, etc)

 

[AngiTN]

As for the getting too tired part, I do have a mantra that we can sleep at home but, there is still a limit to how hard we'll go. We do get up early at Disney, earlier than for work/school usually. It's cooler then, so it's a must. At least for DH. He hates getting up early but he hates heat more so he has to pick. We do take naps at Disney. He's always free to head back and rest anytime he wants

 

[beccasmom]

I think uber planning vs having a rough idea of your plans depends on a few factors. First, is this a first trip for someone in your group and what is the likelihood of return trips? When will you be visiting? What hours will the parks be open? How many days will you be there?

For the first-timers, what age groups and will hitting the highlights be enough? Visiting during a "slower" time (a relative term!) may help with regard to crowd levels, but be hindered somewhat by shorter park hours. Visiting during periods of "free dining" can be challenging with respect to eating at your first-choice restaurants without ADRs. We rarely make ADRs and have had success eating where we choose 75% of the time. But we've been visiting for many years and we're okay with counter service if our plans fall through, knowing we'll return. Alternately, I'm visiting in September on a short trip during free dining and we have ADRs lined up, but I'm visiting with folks who visit WDW rarely and want to try the great eateries available. So I never say never because every trip is so different. Maybe make a few ADRs and decide once you're there if you're comfortable with winging it or not. It really depends on whether your preferred spots are really tough to book.....Cinderella's Royal Table, Le Cellier, Be Our Guest.....I wouldn't leave those to chance or luck.

For every two days of park touring, try to work in a day (or morning or afternoon) of taking it easy....sleep in, take a nap, laze by the pool, head to a resort for a nice lunch, etc. It does help avoid total exhaustion and burnout. When it rains, everyone seems to go shopping, so maybe go in the opposite direction ! In my opinion, sketching out a rough schedule is not a bad idea, but leaving room for flexibility (and sore feet!) is important too. Just my two cents......everyone has a different Disney style and we're all visiting because we love WDW, so it's all good!

 

[prprincess]

You just do your best and go with it. Book any ADRs, book your FPs and make the best of it once you get there.

Be ok with missing some stuff if the plans change while you are there (weather, etc)

This is pretty much how I plan. I book what I can ahead of time, with the understanding that sometimes things change and that we'll have to make the best of any unexpected circumstances. If there is something that we absolutely have our heart set on doing, I'll do my best to try and arrange it, but if I can't score that beloved ADR or FP, it doesn't ruin our trip. For example, we dealt with a hurricane during our last trip, and made the best of it. In fact, it's been one of our best trips to date even though a ton of our plans were screwed up. A bad day at WDW, beats a good day at home!

Have a great trip!

 

[ZebraDomeCrazy]

We are huge planners, yet very flexible. Here's what works for us... we plan for months, but honestly I think that's half the fun of the trip! First we pick restaurants. Then we print park hours. We plan our parks for each day, usually giving ourselves a day off in the middle for down time, whether that's resort pool, or Disney Springs. Then we put in our restaurants, based on convenience to park days. We almost always open the parks, so we choose fast passes for later in the day, and do as many walk ons as we can early in the day. If it's too hot or rainy, we will move those fast passes for the evening, and go back to the resort in the afternoon. We check out the week's forecast upon check in, and use that planned day off to rearrange any plans like water parks. I like to know that I have my ADR's far in advance. We have gotten stuck without dinner before. With all that being said, once we are there, we become very flexible. As far as restaurants, we almost always end up hungry before our reservation time, but we just show up early, and they always get us in earlier. We also plan certain activities for the week that create relaxation. We take boat rides, even if they are round trip. We always check out other resorts, and have a cocktail or two. I think you have to understand that you're never going to be able to see or do it all! When you're ready for a break, Take It!

 

[DaniMoon]

For the most part we plan our mornings. We do rope drop and our ADRs are usually lunch. Back to the resort in the afternoon and the rest of the day is up in the air. I will be scheduling our fourth FP at the 2nd park if and when we decide what we want to do. I think rope drop lets us be flexible for a couple hours and then we usually use our FPs between 10:00 - 1:00.

I don't plan a lot of ADRs and rarely at 180 days out. If you are going during Free Dining, you will have a harder time getting ADRs (this has been my experience).

 

[Simba's Mom]

That's one thing we're struggling with. One thing we're able to do is book our ADRs within a week or so, maybe even the night before or not at all. That's one of the joys of doing TS at lunchtime, which we've always preferred, and being a party of two. A couple years ago we took our DGDs, DS, and DDIL, so party of 6. Boy, did we learn about why many reserve TS early. We kind of miss the "good ole' days of being flexible". I remember when they first allowed you to reserve Epcot restaurants a whole 3 days in advance (rather than have to use the screens at the park entrance). And to think we LIKED it!

 

[IrishNYC]

We book our ADRs and FPs, and go, regardless of the weather. Rain means less crowds, so to us that's a win. We don't stick to any solid plan in between those things, and just go with the flow.

 

[disneyvoice]

So what I do is plan, plan, plan in advance - I make every ADR we might possibly want and I get FP+ for everything we could want. That way I am comfortable that if we get there and want to go, Go, GO every day of our trip we are all set. However, realistically I know that we will not always want to be running through the parks from ride to ride like crazed Disney fans and we will need breaks from massive meals. If we are tired we will scrap plans for rope drop and will sleep in instead, and/or we will opt to leave the park early and relax back at the resort. Every evening we review the next day's dining plans and decide if we should cancel something - many times by mid vacation we feel completely STUFFED from so much rich food and opt to take a day or so where we don't do any TS meals and only eat VERY lightly. There are also times when we have plans to go to one park but we might feel like doing a different park instead - I don't sweat that, I just cancel any affected FP+ and ADRs.

I can honestly say we have NEVER had a WDW trip where we did everything as planned but we have loved every WDW trip we have taken. There have been many days at MK where we planned to hit every major ride as soon as possible but when we got there we decided it sounded more fun to hit the less popular rides and shows and just kind of take everything in as we walk around. There have been many times where we have been strolling through the shops and decide we would rather continue to look at everything as opposed to racing to a coveted FP+.

I have seen way too many irate wives/moms yelling and screaming at their husband/kids that they are going to "miss" the next thing she has planned while the rest of the family looks at her miserably. I have seen pre-teen aged kids CRYING while their mom screams at them that they are ruining the whole trip because they don't want to do the next thing she had planned. That's just not at all how I want to spend my time at WDW. If my husband or son is too tired to do something we have planned, we just cancel it. It is truly not the end of the world if you don't eat everywhere you wanted or if you miss a few rides. And that has been my theory all along - not just after we had been on numerous trips and had already seen and done everything. Some of our best WDW memories are from things that were NOT a part of our original plans.

 

[absolutmey]

I'm a big planner, but I'm also flexible like (ZebraDomeCrazy said); I think that you can find a nice balance. I know my family's MUSTs for each park and build a plan around ADRs and FPs. I'd have already looked at Park/EMH and crowd calendars to choose my days, so that's not a problem. If I pick the "wrong day" for a park, hey, we're still at WDW. And, like others have said, I build in time and space between reservations so we can go with the flow.
We're early risers/RDers too, so I think that helps with flexibility as does the age/stamina of your kids (or any of those in your party, for that matter). We went in 2014 when DS was 7 and then last year when he was 9 and I noticed a huge difference in how long he could hang, just in two years. We were actually able to do stuff after dinner last year!

 

[CeruleanMoon]

So, is it mostly recommended to use the EMH's? I was wondering if maybe the opposite might be true, making it so the parks were even more crowded on EMH days. I wasn't sure if I should be trying to avoid EMH parks or make sure I do them!

The ADR thing is really confusing me. It's hard to predict what kind of schedule will end up being "our style" when we aren't Disney vets yet! It encouraging to hear that ADR's might not be as necessary as I'd feared. I would prefer to have greater flexibility to choose that week or even that day! I don't mind picking one or two special places but the thought of planning out every meal was scaring me.

 

[Accident]

Your questions basically comes down to the advice of don't overplan.. Sure many plan to the hour but I'll guarantee you that don't do a lot of their plans..

The secret is to leave room for the unknown.. What adrs have to be gotten as soon as you can book them that your interested in? get those right away.. Do you know if your taking breaks? are you rope droppers? how much rest and relaxation do you want on your vacation? You've been so you ahv ea rough idea of when you start to slow down or wished you did it slower that day. for me it's day 3, I need to have day 3 be relaxed. That doesn't mean no park, it just means I'm sleeping in, I'll deal with food on that day where I can get in and am flexible with the schedule. It's also a day that if rain really ruined a previous day I can shift and try again..

I personally only book 1 and sometimes 2 adrs for this I know I want to do. then maybe I'll get 1 more for something new.. The rest I do on the fly,I find near midnight the night before is fruitful for hard adrs so I'll wait til the night before to book the next day as I'm there, I' know how we're feeling and I know what we are going to try to do the next day...

 

[Accident]

So, is it mostly recommended to use the EMH's? I was wondering if maybe the opposite might be true, making it so the parks were even more crowded on EMH days. I wasn't sure if I should be trying to avoid EMH parks or make sure I do them!

I don't plan around emh ever. If they happen to fall or we get done with a park and want to hop to another, we use them. For me it's where do I want to start and end, then fill in the middle days..

The ADR thing is really confusing me. It's hard to predict what kind of schedule will end up being "our style" when we aren't Disney vets yet! It encouraging to hear that ADR's might not be as necessary as I'd feared. I would prefer to have greater flexibility to choose that week or even that day! I don't mind picking one or two special places but the thought of planning out every meal was scaring me.

You do get it.. you don't know so you want to spread them around while you learn. We're not morning people so we've never scheduled a breakfast one. We tend to sleep in so lunch is generally when we adr and some things are better at dinner so we sprinkle them around. Start with making a list of where you want to eat, where you must eat and make a schedule of how to fit that in.

You are going to rebook some, you are going to need to shift days around if a fastpass is more important than the meal that day.. Just start with hard to get, must dos and as you get closer refine and adjust.

 

[CeruleanMoon]

Is there a penalty for canceling an ADR after a certain time? I see a lot of people mention booking ahead of time and then rearranging as needed later.

 

[ArielDreams]

I never book 180 days in advance for ADRs because I have yet to book our trips that far in advance. I've never had a problem getting ADRs and rearranging times (though we don't book any really hard to get restaurants or character meals). I usually book TS restaurants for dinner. We do rope drop at a park and that way aren't tied down until the evening. If we want to hop to another park or go back to the resort and rest, we do so before heading out to usually another park for dinner. This is pretty flexible and allows us to be spontaneous.

This trip we are planning to have a pretty tight schedule the 1st 3 days and then taking it easy the rest.

 

[bmahokie]

Here is the way we look at it: It is better to overplan, then back off those plans, than to underplan, and then face the possibility of NOT going on a ride you really wanted, or eating at a place you had your heart set on. But even with overplanning flexibility is the key. if you feel like you HAVE to do all you plan you will face misery. It aint' gonna' happen - how many days of your "normal" life can you plan minute by minute - or even hour by hour for that matter? Life happens and gets in the way - even at Disney.

Here is the mantra our family always says when we go to Disney: You CAN'T do it all. You can't ride every ride, you can't go to every show, you can't eat at every restaurant. So enjoy what you ARE doing in the moment - and don't fret about what you are NOT doing. Whatever you don't get to is always a reason to return! The great news is hey, if you didn't make it onto a ride you had your heart set on, or a place you really wanted to eat, then at least there are hundreds of other options in those regards. And maybe you'll do one of those and enjoy them even more - you might just find a hidden gem!

Having said that, if there is something you really want to do, then plan for it, and hope that it comes about. In fact, the family discussions we have while planning Disney trips are as much fun as the trip itself! Well, not really - but it's close!

 

[mkla2015]

I LOVE planning down to the hour- DH hates plans and is more go with the flow so we do a mix. I do plan months in advance... at 180 days out I book the must have restaurants which for us aren't many. At 60 days we book FP. After I have my ADRs and FP, I start planning my days out- what attractions to do with rough time estimates (morning, afternoon, evening). These plans change many times before our trip and once we are actually there, some of my plans go out the window.

One thing to keep in mind if you do plan, don't be upset when you can't stick to your plans. I have 2 young kids and if they want to ride dumbo 3 times in a row then we do it and forget whatever was planned.

We also love park hoppers. I think the flexibility is worth the cost.