So how many DVC'ers "wing it" as far as planning/activites go for their trips?

[WolfpackFan]

It depends upon the time of year. We don't eat a lot of TS meals (usually just a couple per trip), but for our upcoming Christmas trip I knew I would have to make ADR's way ahead of time. For times when the crowds are not as heavy, I don't even make ADR's. That is the extent of my planning. I really don't know ahead of time which parks we will go to which days (or even if we will go to parks some days). We just decide when we get there. Sometimes we don't even decide until we get to the bus stop and just get on the first bus that comes up. DW and myself were talking last night and I can see many trips in our future when we don't even bother going to the parks. Just spend the vacation relaxing around the resort.

 

[dianeschlicht]

When it is just us, we wing it except that we do get a few advanced dining ressies to make sure we get our favs.

When we have guests coming with, we tend to do a bit of planning. I'm thinking we will definitely need Tour Guide Mike for our upcoming trip. DBIL, DSIL and DN will be there only 3 days over a weekend, so it's going to take a bit of pre-planning!

 

[daisyduck123]

We always have a TS meal planned. We enjoy that time, to just sit, relax, & dine.

Otherwise, we're not planners. We usually don't know what park we're going to until the night before, or that morning.

Hi Denise!!! Checkout my countdown ticker!!

 

[WilsonFlyer]

I find this thread extremely intriguing. I see people planning things to death in the "Theme Parks" forum yet it seems (obviously from a VERY few posts) that DVC members aren't near the planners others seem to be. Maybe it's because we always know we're going "right back".

See? I knew I belonged in DVC.

 

[newbie72]

Hi all...can you please explain what Tour Guide Mickey is?

 

[ransom]

When travelling with others, we'll follow the best parks/days and make ADRs. We stick to the plan as much as possible, to give the best chance of a pleasant and complication-free trip for our guests as possible.

We make the same plans when it's just the two of us, but in that case, they're more guidelines than plans, really.

 

[CraftyMouse]

We usually do a 50/50 mix of planning and winging it. We usually schedule some meals and, perhaps, a tour. We come up with a rough guide of which park we'll go to each day, but don't plan our park days beyond that. We are also very flexible and if plans change or something comes up then we roll with it.

That said, we'll be going for New Year's week and the week after. We have scheduled dinner for New Year's Eve and plan to go to EPCOT that afternoon/night. Other than that I have planned NOTHING for that week. I know that the crowds are going to be crazy and we're just going to go with the flow. If we spend lots of time relaxing at the resort then that's fine.

The following week we've scheduled one meal per day, DD and DH will be doing the Segway tour and DH and DS will be doing the archery activity at Fort Wilderness. We'll probably come up with a rough idea of which park(s) each day, but nothing beyond that.

I used to plan a lot more than I do now. I have found, however, over many, many years of visits, that we have a much better time when we just go with the flow. We've been so many times, and our DVC membership allows us to go back regularly, so there isn't the pressure to see/do it all.

 

[newbie72]

Hi all...can you please explain what Tour Guide Mickey is?

 

[Mick West]

We use the Columbus method - pick a date and land on it! Our home resort is both the BCV & AKV - so our only "decision" prior to a trip is where we will stay! Usually it's one of these two but we've stayed in all. We go often enough that we have annual passes. We don't know all the little in's and out's - but we're pretty good at getting from point A to B. Also, we mostly eat counter service but wwhen we do decide on a nice sut down we generally get in with little wait.

I discovered last week that having some Disney knowledge really helps. Good friends are going Sat after Thanksgiving and they wanted us to look over their plans. WOW! An excel spreadsheet gone amuck! Dining plan purchased with ADR's that were practically impossible to make, transportatiuon wise. Staying at All Stars and had a character breakfast at CAPE MAY, and then going to MK. Had no idea no bus ran from resort to resort - all kinds of issues similiar to this. We got it all worked out for them - but it's still to much of a schedule for me!

 

[jfinke]

We usually just wing it. Even TS meals. We may call a couple of days ahead, but other than that... eh...

We have been enough and we go during low seasons that we can cram most everything and more in a 9 day trip.

 

[daisyduck123]

Hi all...can you please explain what Tour Guide Mickey is?

Tour Guide Mickey??? That is soo cute!!

Hi! I'll try & answer for you, although, I only know a little bit about "Tour Guide MIKE" from what my friend (who happens to be the OP) has told me.

TGM is a business run by Mike. You can subscribe to his vacation recommendations. He was a former castmember (I believe?) & he studies the traffic flow in the parks & recommends which park to do on which day.

 

[vascubaguy]

We book ADRs for dinner most nights but not every night. We wing most everything else. We do look at when the parks open and what's going on each day to get an idea of where we "might" go on particular days, but we do wing it.

Hard to believe that just 5 years ago we were commando-style. We'd be up hours before the parks opened and would get their to be in line for the opening and would stay until closing. It was exhausting. Now, we might roll out of bed at 9-10am and make our way to the parks.

DPs family are going with us for the first time since we've been DVC members (they've never stayed on-site) and they were complete surprised that we didn't have the days planned. They were expecting to get up at 5AM to get ready each day! We told them we'd just meet them in the parks. *LOL*

 

[abner1776]

For our trip a few weeks ago, we made our ADR's months in advance...and then prompty cancelled most of them when we got to WDW. It's just too hard to plan out our entire day and then....keep to it. I am a bean counter by profession but when I get to WDW I just want to roll with the punches and see where the day takes me.

I will advise people to cancel their ADR's if they are not going to use them, so as to not hold up the process at the restaurants especially on busy nights..we did.

 

[WaltEeyoreWorld]

My DW plans out trips down to the minute. Which parks we are going to do, the matching ADRs, what events she wants to see, what rides are must do, etc. I even think she planned on the animal migration patterns on the Savannah to pick the time to do the safari.

But then we get there and the plans go right out the window. We get up one morning and say, lets read this morning and go to the pool this afternoon and skip the parks. Or we get to a park and look around, ride one ride maybe and then decide that a Hot Fudge Sunday at Ghirardelli sounds better and off we go. I think we only made 2 of our prior planned ADRs last trip as we kept deciding something different then the plan.

We leave in 2 weeks for a week cruise followed by a week at OKW and this time we have plans. This is a eating vacation where we bought the deluxe dinning plan and picked the ADRs at the places I would never pay cash for. I know, that the money is spent either way but some how this makes it alright to go for the better restaurants. I think this time we may actually stick to our dinning plans but probably skip most everything else. Shhhhh though. Don't let me DW know.

 

[Anal Annie]

I am Anal Annie! So of course I plan!!

I usually have a list of all the park hours / EMH before we go so we decide which early openings and which late nights we're going to do. (It's a bit rough to try to stay late at MK and then do an early open at AK!!) So we do sorta have a plan for how we're going to work that out. We have learned to use the early openings to get in & get out - especially at Epcot and AK. We will go to early open at AK and hit Expedition Everest like 4 times and the safari & Kali River Rapids and then we can be done with AK and move on to a less crowded park. We do not generally walk all around the World Showcase at Epcot. We go to an early opening and hit TT, Soarin' & MS and then we can call Epcot done. The early openings pretty much guarantee crowds - but they ARE handy for the first couple of hours to get in a few rides.

Our exception to planning is that we only plan 2 or 3 TS meals for a week long trip and 1 for a shorter stay. We find we don't like having to having to be in a certain place at a certain time. Usually we plan a dinner for the Fantasmic package one night at like Mama Melrose or something. And we try to have dinner at Boma at least once... Other than that, we "wing" our meals depending on where we are & what we're doing.

 

[edk35]

We always have a TS meal planned. We enjoy that time, to just sit, relax, & dine.

Otherwise, we're not planners. We usually don't know what park we're going to until the night before, or that morning.

Hi Denise!!! Checkout my countdown ticker!!

Very cute I don't have one because I used up all my space. LOL

 

[edk35]

We book ADRs for dinner most nights but not every night. We wing most everything else. We do look at when the parks open and what's going on each day to get an idea of where we "might" go on particular days, but we do wing it.

Hard to believe that just 5 years ago we were commando-style. We'd be up hours before the parks opened and would get their to be in line for the opening and would stay until closing. It was exhausting. Now, we might roll out of bed at 9-10am and make our way to the parks.

DPs family are going with us for the first time since we've been DVC members (they've never stayed on-site) and they were complete surprised that we didn't have the days planned. They were expecting to get up at 5AM to get ready each day! We told them we'd just meet them in the parks. *LOL*

We used to be commando like that before DVC.....up early out late. No need to rush back to our small hotel room. NOW.....we have learned so slow down. However I do like to ge to the parks early and then head back for a break and go back some evenings. Since we are going in Nov. the weather is so much nicer....I have a feeling we will spend more time in the parks. Our summer trips are HOT but we seem to relax more by the pool.

 

[edk35]

Tour Guide Mickey??? That is soo cute!!

Hi! I'll try & answer for you, although, I only know a little bit about "Tour Guide MIKE" from what my friend (who happens to be the OP) has told me.

TGM is a business run by Mike. You can subscribe to his vacation recommendations. He was a former castmember (I believe?) & he studies the traffic flow in the parks & recommends which park to do on which day.

Yes that is PERFECT MISSY!!!!

 

[brianm27]

Plan?

Seriously, I live my real life by a plan every single day. I wing my vacation completely. AP's are the answer. Park-hopping baby. We just have at it. Always have. Wouldn't do it any other way.

We did make 3 ADR's (first time we've ever done this) for our Dec trip coming up simply because you just can't get a table anymore unless you have one. Hate it. I wish they'd do away with everything except walk-ins everywhere. I don't know what I want to eat next Thursday 6 months in advance any more than I know what I want to ride in what order at Epcot 2 weeks ahead of time.

AMEN!

 

[jekjones1558]

We almost NEVER do ADRs. I refuse to have my vacation schedule be dictated by meals. We try to avoid busy times. Our trip Dec. 28 - Jan. 6 will include some busy days. For these we have dinner ADRs. Our Dec. 2 - 9 trip will include CP and Cirque and I pre-reserved these in order to get seats.
The best vacations we have now are those when we come and go on the spur of the moment. I credit DVC for this freedom.