Planning your holiday

[michelle8671]

Ok, I'm on a roll now.
Is it really necessary to plan your whole holiday?
We are spending a fortnight (2 weeks) in a private villa near WDW.
I have planned the 1st 5 days, visiting the parks on the days I have read are the quietest, and plan a day of rest with a dinner show that evening. After that we were just going to play it by ear and have a vote each day on what everyone wants to do, revisit the favourites etc, or go back and see things we may have missed.
Do you think this is a good idea or should we plan each and every day?

 

[Kerryc]

We never plan, we may have a few dates set aside but we just get up and decide what to do. I suppose you can't do this if it is your first trip as you have to make sure you fit everything in. But seeing as this is our 3rd time we done everything once, only visiting disney for one day, have 14 day flex ticket and will spend most of our time at universal/IOA.

 

[michelle8671]

How I wish I had time to do half of whats on offer
We decided to concentrate on just WDW as we knew it would be impossible to fit it all in.
I read about people who have planned each day and it sounds difficult!!
I want o spend a day in each different park then go back to favourites or see things we missed.
Is 1 day enough for a shopping trip? as well as a rest?
Hopefully we will make it back again and see the other attractions like Universal, sea world etc.

Michelle

 

[Kerryc]

depends how much shopping you want to do, we spent about a week shopping last year!!! the malls take forever they are massive!! first time we went i was absolutely exhausted, but last year we took it a bit more easier. Couldn't settle round the pool though, we wanted to be off doing stuff all the time!

 

[michelle8671]

I think I would like more time shopping but kids find it boring!!!
Plus I hear of all the horor stories of bring back to much over the limit for customs.
Is it true everything is so much cheaper that over here? trainers, brand name gear etc?

 

[Kerryc]

Yeah loads cheaper, I got a pair of adidas trainers for $12!! When we go there are the thanksgiving sales and all the shops have massive sales with 80% off!!! I got my mum a Donna Karen mohair scarf last year reduced from $100 to $10 it was awesome!!

 

[michelle8671]

Wow, maybe we ought to try and fit in another shopping day or two!!!
My DS's 15 & 14 will only wear brand names and they are so expensive over here.
DD 11 is now getting fussy about who makes her clothes.
Thanks for answering all my questions, I have to sign off now but will be back again tomorrow.

These boards are so good, and so informative..

 

[JohnnySharp2]

We stay in a private villa too.

Having been many times for us we tend to have a good idea for the first couple of days only and then the rest we just see how we go.
If we made a real plan for the whole stay we would only change it several times so I have never really seen the point.
Especially as we do not spend each day at Disney or Universal.

We have to a degree changed that for next August when we go for 3 weeks as the early part of the holiday we are going to Fort Lauderdale and Miami (after our first night at the Hyatt Airport Hotel).
Generally though although I think planning is all part of the fun we do not really plan ahead too much.

The 'real' planning for us is booking the villa sorting attraction tickets etc

 

[disneyholic family]

i think that's a good idea....planning for the first week and then playing it by ear for the second....and if you want to make any reservations, you could make them the day before and that will be plenty of time....
and since i see you're there in January, you can probably even walk into restaurants if you go a bit before the rush....e.g., if you're at MGM and decide you want to eat at the Prime Time, if you go there at 11:30 for lunch, you'll most likely be seated right away...
we were even able to do that in July....

 

[michelle8671]

Its one of the reasons we chose Jan / feb, I don't think I would enjoy it quite so much if it was crowded or unbearable hot. Not used to the heat being from the UK.
I'd love to hear from anyone who's been to DLP & WDW we love DLP but is it so different, I understand the size difference

 

[Obi Wan Kenobi]

I plan and control my day to day life work-wise all the time.
the LAST thing that I want is to have my vacation treated the same.
A holiday to me is just that, a break from the norm, so no planning ahead of time, no WDW route march or schedule, one year we stayed at Carribean Beach and did not visit WDW at all.

I get up, decide where I want to go for breakfast (normally the waffle House for the Cheese N eggs) then we decide where to spend the next few hours.

Thye only set thing for our vacation is the mall time for the wife and Sunday football and a beer for me

 

[michelle8671]

I feel the same, too much planning would stop it being a holiday, but this is our 1st time so I want to see as much as possible, hence a day at each park, 1 days rest / shopping and then the other 9 days we will decide together possible the night before.

 

[Obi Wan Kenobi]

You will find with Epcot and Magic Kingdom that onbe day will not be enough, especially if its busy.

Make sure your first ever trip to WDW starts with Magic kingdom. I am sure all on here will tell you how emotional and wonderful it is that your first park starts with the walk up Main street towards the castle.

 

[carolfoy]

ITA Obi, you HAVE to start at the MK, its the only way, as for the rest of the planning, we have a 'loose guide' for what we want to do but will chop and change according to the weather for water parks, shopping etc, I've booked 3 ADRs this year so will make the effort to be in those particular parks for those days as I can't see the point in hopping from ,say, MK to Epcot just for a meal when we'll want a day in epcot anyway.

 

[AlanUK]

We always make quite a detailed plan with each day broken down into sections for Breakfast/Luch/Dinner with morning/afternoon/evening activities. That is half of the fun of going to Disney for us though DW particularly ebjoys it and our plan will go through several revisions before we finally settle on the final version.

Having done all this work prior to going though we usuall find ourselves going 'off plan' by the second week as we change things around depending on the weather and what we have particularly enjoyed.

It's nice to have the initial structure to start with though

 

[Soprano]

I never make a plan. To be honest I find it a little weird that people do, but each to their own. Thanks to this site, I will be avoiding the parks on Extra Magic Hour days, I guess I am taking a mini plan. Or something.

 

[JohnnySharp2]

I think we all have our own ideas, I always each time start some sort of detailed plan for each day - and then think why bother, we will only change it anyway, hence we do not look past the first couple of days.
I do agree though that planning is part of the fun.

 

[michelle8671]

We are staying off site in a villa for 14 days. I chose the parks according to this sites list of quieter days. This is my plan
Day1 Sunday Magic Kingdom
Day 2 Monday Epcot
Day 3 Tuesday Disney Studios or Blzzard Beach (Depending on weather)
Day 3 Wednesday Animal Kingdom
Day 4 Thursday Blizzard Beach or Disney Studios (Depending on weather)
Day 5 Friday Shopping and Dinner Show
Day 6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13 Go back to favourites and see things we missed.

Not very detailed but hopefully we should cover most things. May want to slip in another shopping day. Depends if I use up all my £145.00 allowance on Day 5

 

[carolfoy]

Its definately a good start Michelle, as long as you know some parks are definately more than 1 day (we usually get the best part of 3 days for epcot! - my son spends hours in innoventions) and you can switch according to weather, have you actually booked any dinner show? which one? and have you booked any character meals, please let us know so we can share your excitement!

 

[AlanUK]

Looks like a good start

Do you have any plans on where you are going to eat??