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

[ead79]

We plan our trips. I love the planning part, which is half the fun for me. So we do make plans, make ADR's, etc. But now that we've been to WDW so many times, if we decide to ditch the plan for something else, then nobody minds. As others have said, if a ride has a crazy long line, then we skip it for that day. If we're too exhausted to see Illuminations, we head back to the resort. For me plans are fun, but it's not fun when you're too hungry/tired/etc. to enjoy your plan anymore. That's when flexibility comes in for us.

 

[DVC Mike]

We wing everything EXCEPT the restaurants! Dining out is a # 1 priority each trip. Everything else is up for grabs.

Same with me. I make ADRs for every night and that's it. No other plans. We definitely "wing it".

 

[ILuvMulan]

Hi all...I am new and not up on all of the abbreviations, could someone tell me what TGM stands for?
Thanks.

Thanks for asking that I had no idea!!

BTW, I am a planner. We are not even doing the parks on our next trip and I already have almost every moment planned... heck for that matter we don't even have reservations yet, can't book those until next month.

 

[DenverVal]

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.

OMG, we are like two peas in a pod - you vacation the same way I do! The fave rides and restaurants are a bit different, but other than that! I stick the park hours on a spreadsheet and enter the few ADRs/MVMCP/member get-togethers and everything else is blank. One sheet, and when DH asks what time AK closes because he wants to ride EE, I can tell him.

I hate planning my vacations around food, so I just don't. I have tried a number of the TS restaurants, but I'm pretty much done with that. Once my kids hit "adult" status, it got expensive. Generally I am good with counter service, and we hit the local Winn Dixie the first day and bring "home" a load of breakfast foods. I don't mind making breakfast, and it's much more relaxed to have it in our room rather than the noisy, crowded counter service restaurants. One trip, we were carting the groceries to the room, my DD ahead of me carrying the carton of 36 eggs. I heard a guest coming from the opposite direction commenting on how insane that many eggs was... doing the math: 2 eggs x 4 people x 8 days = not enough eggs. So who's crazy? Do I want to make another trip? Noooooo. I'm on vacation. Of course we had croissants and ham and cheese and muffins, milk and juice to round it all out, so maybe it did look like we were moving in.

 

[OneMoreTry]

I like to make several meal reservations so we have them if we want them and can cancel if we don't.

But park plans depend on weather, our energy level (and that of all our kids) and what we feel like doing at the moment, which is frequently sitting around when we're on vacation. It's hard to work our trips around numerous reservations and still relax and enjoy.

Ironically, the less we plan -- the better the trip. Up to a point that is. We have to make the room ressies as early as possible. The next trip we make I will reserve Liberty Tree for dinner and maybe Le Cellier. Since we're staying at AKV I'll also reserve one or two meals there. But we will probably cancel at least 2 of those -- so the non-planners can have a table at the last moment.

I would also like to go see La Nouba one night if DW would like to also.

As you can tell, by the time we get there I'll prbably have the whole thing planned in spite of my best intentions -- it's my curse.

 

[MiaSRN62]

Count me in as a winger !

 

[TosaTrio]

We try to plan one or two things we have not done before (a tour or ADR) and we keep those. We plan something special for our daughter each trip. In September we booked one of the pirate - treasure hunt cruises and our next trip I think we will plan tea at the GF. We don't like being tied down to dining...We find our vacation begins to revolve around eating, though we do make sure we hit a Character meal at least once (maybe twice) a trip. Once we have done them all we will probably scale back on those. Since we don't do the DDP, we stick to TS for an early lunch to save money. Many times we just walk up and see what they have got. Hit or miss, we really don't care because if it was important we would have made an ADR. We generally look at the weather the night before and plan our day accordingly. We are MUCH more relaxed with our vacations since we know we will be back!

 

[Sarahtink]

The first two times we went I planned so much and we did so much we were wiped by the end of the week! On our honeymoon at AKL a hurricaine interrupted the plans and everything went out the window ... the next time we came back (for a long 4 day weekend in early December) we had no plans at all and it was very relaxing ... then I slipped back to planning mode for our next trip with friends (one of which had never been before). We finally wised up and bought DVC ... since then we have gone to VB at which we had no plans other than DH wanting to kayak, which he did. Our next trip to AKV this coming July will be moderately planned ... we are hosting close family friends and none of them have been before ... plan on making dining reservations for dinner most nights (although not all) for the five of us ... but that is it ... we can wing it re what to do at which parks ... will let our friends' daughter (who is graduating high school this coming June) choose what she wants to do each day, with a "planned" down day or two at the resort ... having DVC membership has definitely changed how I and DH view our trips ... what a pleasure! I can anticipate just the two of us going for a week and not even hitting all the parks now (or any?) ...

 

[Coach81]

This past summer we anticipated heavier crowds, so we had a family meeting, and I asked everyone to list the 4 or 5 rides/attractions that they wanted to do the most; I put them all together and made a "hit chart" to make sure that we hit those at least.

Not only did we hit all of those more than one time, we basically did all the other things that we wanted to do as well...-at our own pace.

We plan on doing this from now on as we are going to head to Disney at least twice a year in the forseeable future.

I don't think we will ever truly "wing it" in the sense of just showing up and going with the flow, but we have come a long way from our "commando" days of years ago...

We now take Disney at a much easier, relaxed pace with our DVC. We love it!!!

Good luck with all your future trips!

 

[Kathi OD]

We generally only plan ADRs ahead of time. However, last trip we planned several activities that we had never done, but knew would need reservations before we got to WDW.

For our upcoming trip we're back to just the ADRs plan.

 

[Chellymouse]

We're 50/50 now that we have DVC. We are also frequent visitors to see the "Big Mouse" and we do call for our ADRs ahead of time so that we can eat where we'd like. We also purchase tours and parties ahead of time, but other than that we wing it. Our commando days are over because we are able to go more often and it's not...well we have to do everything because we don't know when we'll be back! DVC!! Since we've become members, we have several trips planned at a time so it's nice. I went in Aug, DH and I are doing the countdown now (43 more days! ) and we are returning in Aug. for my graduation "present"....our big joke is...you've just finished grad school, what are you going to do now? Why go to WDW of course! We invited our friends to join us in Aug. and they are looking forward to it. We may plan a little more for that trip because they are newbies, but that's the only reason!

 

[perpetualplanner]

Just returned from our most recent trip and besides planning ADR's and noting park opening and closings I did NO planning. It became the joke of the trip with "What did you do to her??" Of course, no one knew what to do because I wasn't telling them what was on the "schedule". We played bus roulette several times and had a great time!! Even spent one day just hanging at the pool. I usually only plan what parks/what days but this time it seemed too much - probably because this trip was a reward for having run the Chicago Marathon and everything was clouded by that.

I think I like these no planning trips!!

 

[minnierealtor]

We went to Disney for 5 days around Columbus Day weekend and had decided to get the DP. I spent days deciding what TS places we wanted to eat at on what day. We arrived and ended up canceling at least 3 because we wanted to just wing it. This was probably the last time we will do the DP as a family because it requires to much planning and then the vacation becomes all about the food. I like the idea of asking what rides or attractions are important and making sure you hit those and if you can get to the other things then you are doing great. I have to say that during the F&W festival I could have stayed at Epcot the entire time and sampled every day. Then it was all about the food!! and wine and beer. The beauty of DVC and the AP.

 

[drag n' fly]

This will be our first non-commando unplanned trip. Of course it took me 8 months to plan this unplanned trip! We have one day planned at mgm, 3 adr's and then the rest is winging it. We want to enjoy concierge, the pool and the resort, do some minigolfing etc!

 

[OneMoreTry]

W.... This was probably the last time we will do the DP as a family because it requires to much planning and then the vacation becomes all about the food. ......

DP seemed like a slave-master. DMIL said she would never bug DFIL to go out to eat EVER AGAIN!!! When all said and done, I'm glad I did it once so I could hit several restaurants I'd never eaten at and not pay a fortune, but I agree with the realtor that I don't think I'll ever do it again.

 

[edk35]

These were fun to read. Thanks everyone.

 

[rbuzzotta]

We ALWAYS wing it now. We spend 2 weeks at OKW in the summer and then a few weekends here and there throughout the year. We no longer are park commandos and actually did not step foot in a theme park for 2 1/2 years!!!!

 

[Buckeye Fan]

...I'm a planner and a winger! We generally fly, so we don't have a car to go off property. With that said, we have a trip scheduled April 11 - 18. Because this is one of the busiest times of the year, I will definitely be a planner for this trip. It will prevent us from having to wait hours to eat lunch/dinner. For our summer trip, I won't plan as much. It's not as critical, and sometimes it is just nice to be able to wing it. If we're hungry at 2:00, we eat at 2:00, without worrying that we have reservations over here at 5:30 and may not be hungry!

 

[beezerdave]

We do a combination. We'll plan for a few special meals or events (like the Illuminations cruise we did last time) and for anything new in the parks we'd like to see. All other activities and park visits depend on weather or how lazy or not lazy we're feeling. In the parks the same thing. We plan on hitting our faves first (either riding or FP) an then go where we feel like. No more commando for us!

 

[allshookup]

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.

ITA!!! We tend to purchase APs now whether we plan on going once that year or not. APs give us the flexibility to come & go without feeling like we have to get a full day out of our park tickets & being able to purchase the TIW card is a fantastic savings for us. However, we tend to sleep in, laze around & go to the parks later in the day, (especially in August when the heat is brutal) so I will try to plan around evening EMHs so we can ride some of the more popular rides without too much of a wait & I usually plan an ADR for whatever park we plan to be in. Other than that, we just roam the parks with no particular destination in mind & we always make sure we spend at least one day by the pool/resort doing absolutely nothing.

My daughter and I did this once time ...the night we all arrived this past summer. My dh and the boys went to Typhoon Lagoon and we didn't want to go. We went to the bus stop and did just that. We hopped an EC bus.....did like three things....then took the monorail to MK and had a blast for about 3 hours. It was great.

My DH & DS went miniature golfing a few weeks ago so 14 y/o DD & I decided to hit Epcot for a few hours & meet them later. We road a few rides & walked around the F&W snacking. It was amazing how much we got done in just a few hours with just the 2 of us. Having that mother/daughter free time together is precious!

DP seemed like a slave-master. DMIL said she would never bug DFIL to go out to eat EVER AGAIN!!! When all said and done, I'm glad I did it once so I could hit several restaurants I'd never eaten at and not pay a fortune, but I agree with the realtor that I don't think I'll ever do it again.

That is so true! We did the DDP twice. First time we got it free (before becoming DVC members) & I hated it even when it was free. Just way too much food & planning. DH loved the DDP & wanted to purchase it (when they started including DVC members) & after that trip he said, "You're right, that was just way too much eating!" Now we just buy donuts/pastries & coffee for the mornings, have a big sit-down meal for lunch or dinner and we grab light snack or sandwich if we're hungry. Much less stress that way!