Second hand trip reports?

[moesy4]

I am making somewhat a sweeping generalization, but I am assuming if you are on this board you are generally not the type to jump into a two hour line for 7dmt midday, wander in at 11 am without a plan, or walk up to try to get a table at crt at 6 pm. But clearly looking at the wait times each day, there are a good chunk of people that do this!

I love reading trip reports on here, but I would love to hear "trip reports" from people who do the above and what their impressions were? Have you had these scenarios maybe on previous trips pre disboards or have heard secondhand from someone theor trip stories? I would love to hear them below!

 

[moesy4]

I will start with a condensed version of my own...we stopped at disney two days post cruise 2 years ago, just after fp+ came out. Our friends like disney so they handled this part of the trip. We were using an old non expiring ticket and passes from a cm.
In hindsight, we were so oop clueless. We went to dtd on a Friday night and did walk up to t rex. 2 hour wait with two pregnant ladies and a 4 year old...super fun.

The next day was Saturday we strolled in around 11 am. With no fast passes. On mlk Jr weekend. On a night with emh until 3 am which we couldn't stay for if we wanted bc we were staying off site. And we park hopped twice. I remember riding pirates twice, tomorrowland speedway once, and watching indiana jones. We may have done more, but not much. Dh almost got in a fistfight with a cm over the chaos that was wishes.
The next day was ak. We again, wandered over around 10 and met the cm's husband that was getting us in. He didn't realize the system had changed and we had to wait until he got a hold of his wife who was working cp at the time, go back home, and pick up the correct cards. This took total about 2 hours. We finally got in at noon. Of course, no fp, so I know we did the flights of wonder and it's tough to be a bug, which terrified my son. We got caught in the parade trying to leave, our off site shuttle took almost an hour to show up, and traffic to the airport almost made us miss our flight.

Dh swore never again. This is, hopefully, our redemption trip. We didn't know any better and honestly, I still had a great time....ds loved it and we had fun with friends.

 

[Accident]

There is a lot of people here that aren't the obsessive planners. The way I look at it is there is no plan, no clue and there is we've been there a lot so we just research and keep up with current affairs for an informed but minimal planned trip.

I barely make it into a park before 11am, I'm probably still sleeping. I may get into a 2 hour line, it depends how I feel that day and what the weather is like and if there is air conditioning.. I could rest somewhere for an hour in a/c or spend a little more time and get a ride for my wait and cooling off.. This was before I moved here this year and i just have to say I still do it the same way here.. The type that gets 1-3 fastpasses total for new things or things I just want to ride, maybe 1 or 2 adrs and then you have a vacation, sleep in, casually stroll around where you feel like being that day.. leave early when you aren't having fun or want somewhere else. forget to leave and stay there until your told where the exit is (disney never tells you to leave, just where the exit is and very strongly if you try to go the other way).

This is sometimes referred to as commando if you want to do some forum searches to look for discussions as there have been many on this topic.

So the events and recent trip reports from me are linked below.

 

[buzznina]

We rather close the park then open it and can accomplish everything we need plus some. We usually arrive around 10-10:30 but we already have our FP's for the day. We only do 1 or 2 TS per trip, because they take to much time out of the day, so most park days we do not have an ADR to worry about.
Years ago, I would have everything planned out and thought people without a detailed touring plan were missing out. Then we did a last minute trip where all I did was plan the park days to have FPs and that was it. It was the best and most relaxing trip we had and we have not used a tour plan since and when we got back I deleted my spreadsheets and tour plans off my PC No longer believe that you have to have a detailed plan and be there at RD to enjoy yourself.

 

[Nancyg56]

A lot of folks here are not obsessive trip planners. The only plannign I do is park days, and those can change on a dime, ADR's which seldom change, and FP. I am a terrible FP strategist, I just pick three I want and hope I get to them.

I start on one end and move around from attraction to attraction, skip the ones with losing lines, unless I am bamboozled but an error in the estimated time. FOr my family, the trip is not just about the parks, so as long as we have a good time, we are good. I refuse to stress over a plan.

 

[crazylady]

I did this on my first trip with kids. We had had such a great week crowd wise, we impulsively decided to go to EPCOT on our off day. We strolled in around 4:00 to massive crowds. Apparently, it was Thurs of the marathon weekend. Who knew there was a marathon at Disney??? We stopped in Mexico and weren't able to get a table. The CM told me all of the restaurants were booked. I believed her and didn't think to verify the info. Kids and husband were hungry and crabby. We left and ate at UNOs. It was totally a waste of a ticket.

 

[Corbinator]

I'll bite. This is my fourth trip, husband's second, and our children's first. The time husband and I went together was pre-kids. We had day tickets for MK and EP. Stayed offsite at a nice hotel with a free breakfast. Waltzed up at about 10am with nothing packed except id's and cash. Got lots of character photos, wandered around, but I can't for the life of me remember any rides we went on. That's quite a lt of money for zero ride planning. We just didn't feel like riding the little kid rides though I am positive if we were with our kids they would see that differently!! Test track was new and broke down while we were on it. Ate all qs in the parks except once on the boardwalk at ESPN. Spent the rest of our time resort hopping and shopping at Downtown Disney. Honestly, we crashed the pool at GF because we took the DVC tour and we were you could try the pools out under that excuse. We loved the resorts, the lakes, the atmosphere...and couldn't wait to come back. This time my husband's priority is rides...mine is meals...and the kids will be surprised. It is possible to have a fun last minute trip without fp+ or ADRs but you don't end up remembering it very well. Does that help?