Show me your "schedule" please

[augusta1]

Do you do a schedule for where you are going and when? Or do you just wing it day by day?
Do you start at one park and end at another?
Do you do Downtown Disney on a certain day?

I don't want to be exactly tied to a schedule. I want to be leisurely at all the parks but I do want to know what I am doing on what day. I was wondering if anyone could show me their schedule for the days they are there.
We will be there 9/10-9/17
Thanks!

 

[TinkBride]

I make an excel spreadsheet (yeah i am one of THOSE people....)

What I do, is I start with the park hours, show hours, parade times and EMH hours for the week I am going to be there. Then I add in my dining reservations.

Based off of that, I make my plan. I dont do the whole crowd level thing.

So on Monday, if I have a reservation at Teppan Edo at 5:30 and fantasmic is playing at 9 and that is the only time I can catch it that week, and DHS has EMH until midnight. I will make that day an Epcot World Showcase day. Since world showcase doesn't open until 11 - I will plan on sleeping in, going to WS, eating dinner, then riding the boat to DHS to view Fantasmic, after Fantasmic, I will spend the evening in DHS for EMH.

Then I kind of mold each day around that plan. DH and I park hop nearly everyday, but usually only once per day. I always take my reservations into consideration and try to make the park that my ressie is in my main park for that day, and then hop if need be to another park to catch a show I may not be able to catch another time.

I only plan which park I am going to for the day, beyond that I wing it once I am in the park. I believe that you need to prioritize your reservations, shows you want to see, and parade times. Beyond that everything else can be flexible to suit your priorities. If I can be in a park for EMH, then I try to, but it is not a priority for us.

I believe your starting point should be your dining reservations.

 

[TinkBride]

I should add that we always do Downtown Disney as a half day with AK. We usually only need to be in AK for about 3-4 hours to do everything we enjoy, then we usually grab lunch and head to DTD for the afternoon/evening.

 

[NickyNoodle]

We prefer not to park hop w/ our young children, so we use the crowd calendar to pick our park for each day.
After that, we have a general plan for how we tour each park.
For example, in MK I take the kids to Fantasyland and the slow-loading rides like Dumbo, while DH swings by SpaceMtn for fastpasses. We have a flexible idea of what we want to get done. Not commando, but not winging it.

We also plan our meals for 11 and 4:30 so we avoid long lines in the restaurants (for quick-service meals).

 

[MikeandReneePlus5]

Do you do a schedule for where you are going and when? Or do you just wing it day by day?
Do you start at one park and end at another?
Do you do Downtown Disney on a certain day?

I don't want to be exactly tied to a schedule. I want to be leisurely at all the parks but I do want to know what I am doing on what day. I was wondering if anyone could show me their schedule for the days they are there.
We will be there 9/10-9/17
Thanks!

Our next trip plan for parks and meals -

Friday
Arrive, DTD, Puck's

Saturday

EPCOT
Bakery / CS / La Hacienda for Illuminations
Midday break at BC

Sunday
MK
CRT / CS / Cali Grill for Wishes
Midday break at BC

Monday
AK (some hop to HS, some to GF for Tea)
Bakery / YY / Sci Fi and Tea

Tuesday
Resort Day
Cape May / Open / O'hana (hit Poly beach for Wishes)

Wednesday
HS hop to EPCOT, or hang at BC, or both
Bakery / 50sPT / Le Cellier

Thursday
AK hop to EPCOT, or hang at BC or both (may try and crash F! right around show time and see if we get in)
Bakery / CS / Via Napoli

Friday
MK then hop somewhere probably
Chef Mickey's / Plaza (early)

Saturday
leave

 

[mhconley]

I use an Excel spreadsheet, too. There is a lot of information in it including park hours, touring plans crowd estimates, best parks, parks to avoid, shows, dining credits used, etc.

I don't do touring plans but have a general idea what rides we want to do and which FP we need to get when, etc.

Martin

 

[MikeandReneePlus5]

I use an Excel spreadsheet, too. There is a lot of information in it including park hours, touring plans crowd estimates, best parks, parks to avoid, shows, dining credits used, etc.

This is the daily schedule that I built based on that info:


I don't do touring plans but have a general idea what rides we want to do and which FP we need to get when, etc.

Martin

I love it

 

[TinkBride]

Martin - my excel spreadsheet ends up looking a lot like your's.

 

[GiJohnsGirl]

I make an excel spreadsheet (yeah i am one of THOSE people....)

What I do, is I start with the park hours, show hours, parade times and EMH hours for the week I am going to be there. Then I add in my dining reservations.

Based off of that, I make my plan. I dont do the whole crowd level thing.

Then I kind of mold each day around that plan. DH and I park hop nearly everyday, but usually only once per day. I always take my reservations into consideration and try to make the park that my ressie is in my main park for that day, and then hop if need be to another park to catch a show I may not be able to catch another time.

I only plan which park I am going to for the day, beyond that I wing it once I am in the park. I believe that you need to prioritize your reservations, shows you want to see, and parade times. Beyond that everything else can be flexible to suit your priorities. If I can be in a park for EMH, then I try to, but it is not a priority for us.

I believe your starting point should be your dining reservations.

This is exactly how I do our trip

Our schedule is as follows:
Friday
Arrive around 12:00
Lunch at either Beaches and Cream or Big River Grille
Nap/Pool/Resort time
Spirit of Aloha dinner show 8

Saturday
Epcot
Lunch: CS
Dinner: Garden Grill @ 6:25
After Dinner get ready for Illuminations

Sunday
DHS
Lunch: Pizza Planet
Dinner: Brown Derby
Fantasmic
Then hit EMH at MK

Monday
MK
Midday parade (bc we skipped it last year) @ 3
Early dinner @ Narcosse's
Then back to MK for the parade and fireworks

Tuesday
MK
early lunch cs
Kouzzina @ 6ish (MNSSHP is this night and we are not going this year)
No stopping for mid day parade or anything b/c of the early day

Wednesday
Relaxed morning/late rising day
Typhoon Lagoon (leave by 5 to get ready for reservations)
Dinner at Sanaa

Thursday
Animal Kingdom [EMH]
late nap/refreshing time/clean up
'Ohana @ 8:25

Friday
Lunch @ Japan
Dinner @ Biergarten
[EMH]

Saturday
Golf
Lunch @ Earl of Sandwhich
DTD shopping
Dinner @ Ragalan Rd

Sunday
Breakfast @ the Wave
Then leave

 

[becauseisaid]

I make an excel spreadsheet (yeah i am one of THOSE people....) <snip>
I believe your starting point should be your dining reservations.

Yeah. What she said.

I am very much a planner and have several spreadsheets, actually, for our trip. However, I don't think that having a plan is diametrically opposed to being spontaneous. A schedule can be as loose or detailed as you like. My schedule is for determining which parks to be at for the day and where we'll be eating. (I plan on making as many ADRs as possible for nice air-conditioned comfort while we're there in October.)

 

[LaurenT]

Here's our schedule for our 2 week summer trip...
Mommy & Me ….The Sequel
Sat Arrive MCO at 6:04 pm.
Sun MK am (4.8) The Plaza 12:10 Conf# AK pm (7.3) open till 6 pm
Mon – Epcot (2.7) Leave for MCO at 1 pm to pick up Christine & Nora.
Garden Grill @ 7:10 pm
Tues – Blizzard Beach day 9 am – 6 pm 8 pm Spirit of Aloha
Wed – DHS (0.9) H&V @ 10:00 MK (4.9) open till 10 pm
Thurs – Epcot am (2.4) DHS for Fantasmic (5.5) dinner package 3:45 at Mama
Melrose
Fri – MK (4.5) Epcot pm (2.3) Via Napoli @ 7:00 pm
Sat – Typhoon Lagoon day Hoop De Doo at 5 pm (ft wilderness)
Sun – Animal Kingdom (3.8) 1900 Park Fare 4:55 PM Grand Floridian
Magic Kingdom pm (1.8)
Mon –Leave for MCO at 9:15 to drop off Christine and Nora. Hollywood Studios (2.0)
Sci-Fi 1:30 pm
Tues – MK (2.4) CRT 8:05 am Epcot (2.1) DTD (balloon?)
Wed – Animal Kingdom (2.8) Tusker House Breakfast 8:10 am
Thurs – Epcot (1.8) Teppan Edo @ 7:20 pm
Fri – Magic Kingdom (3.2) Crystal Palace 8:10 am
Sat – Depart for MCO at 6 am

 

[NNPMom]

Can I just tell you that I learned to use excel just to plan for Disney! We do Disney with four families- 8 adults and 7 kids all related- so without a plan it would never work. I always plan based on our dining reservations and which parks are open early or late. We usually also have to fit in special itinerary items such as golf, spa, etc.

One thing I think you should keep in mind is to "plan" your downtime! We actually put time at the pool or time that is "free" into the spreadsheet. What usually happens that day is that we all start out together in the morning, split up after lunch and then end up back at the hotel at various times depending on who stayed in the park or went to do something no one else was interested in.

On the rare occasion that i get there without the group we do wing it- but always based on dinner reservations!

Have fun!

 

[momtoejanda]

Spreadsheet here too......I thought there was something wrong with me...but apparently I am not alone

If you dont want to be that structured, I also print out:

http://wdwent.com/

It has all the show times, character locations, park hours, published and non published happenings etc....

I find this to be the most helpful info

 

[2Tiggies]

Martin - my excel spreadsheet ends up looking a lot like your's.

So does mine. Only difference is that mine runs the days from top to bottom and the itinerary across the page. Oh and I color coded my parks but that's because I like a splash of color

I also have other pages on the workbook - one for park hours for our stay and the other is on which is set to automatically keep count of our dining credits. I just enter the places we ate and the credits we used when we go back to the room at night and it keeps the balance for me.

I think no matter how you set out your itinerary, if it works for you and you can update it/follow it painlessly, it's a good one.

 

[Altoqueenkelly]

Another vote for the spreadsheet.

I have been to Disney enough times not to need a complete touring plan. I dont want to worry about park hoping with this trip (Mommy & DD4) So I have planned what park per day and all our ADR's, from there I have a basic idea of what EMH's we will attend and what rides we will do first (We are ropedrop people) and get FP's for. I dont want to plan every min of every day, that takes a lot of the "fun" and "flex" out of my trip. However, having a basic plan of where and when keeps the trip moving smoothly and avoids anxiety attacks

The spreadsheet is really great cuz it keeps all your information in one place.

 

[PoohsFan1]

I am very much a planner and have several spreadsheets, actually, for our trip. However, I don't think that having a plan is diametrically opposed to being spontaneous. A schedule can be as loose or detailed as you like. My schedule is for determining which parks to be at for the day and where we'll be eating. (I plan on making as many ADRs as possible for nice air-conditioned comfort while we're there in October.)

That is exactly how we go about our schedules. We make up a tentative schedule of where we want to be at on what day with ADRs to go along with those days. We have had it where we would wake up one morning and decide that on our off day, we really want to go to such and such park and then just adjust our dining plans to fit that, or we would decide that we don't want to do a park that day because we were late coming in from a park the night before. We are flexible with our plans, unless of course we have ADRs at hard to get restaurants like Le Cellier or CRT, then of course we keep to those schedules.

 

[d1gitman]

We print schedules out like this and laminate them together. One side is our itinerary, the other is a list of events each day that are of interest to us

This is how we budget

 

[TriSeb°o°]

I am among kindred spirits of the Excel kind ... we seem to gravitate to the same threads

1. Wait for the operating calendar
2. Select Parks/Day
3. Make ADRs at 180 Day Window
4. Book Flight
5. Fine Tune with Park Crowd Forecasts
6. Pepper with additional Upgrades (dessert party, etc.)
7. Decide on Special Moments (Disney Florist)
8. Hold Review Session with Traveling Party (if more than family)
9. Tweak Again
10. Scour DIS boards and News for any new events
11. Rinse and Repeat

Yes, I need Help, My DW knows it
I have been sharing my original Excel doc with anyone who PMs me and share the magic

 

[teach22180]

My chart is similar to the colorful one a couple of posts up from this one. I put the park hours and any reservations I've made. Other than that, I don't always know which parks I'll visit when. I don't do any dining plans, so I only have a couple TS reservations. I do usually know the morning parks because I want to be sure I get enough visits to TSM and Soarin and EE, but the evenings are more flexible. I'm a big fan of knowledge and flexibility going hand in hand!

 

[homedad]

I make a manual spreedsheet with best parks, worst park. Where we will be for every meal, with reservations listed, what parks we will visit in am and pm and when we will break. I have emh lists with all park opening and closing for the day. If I was only this oragized in our daily lives.