LaughinPlace289 said:
I planned. I planned a lot for our trip 6/3-6/10. A neighbor and her family were at WDW the same week. We stayed at Pop, they stayed at ASMovies.
We had vastly different experiences. They didn't plan.
They didn't want to do the dining plan, we did. They ended up driving off site twice a day for meals to save money. We enjoyed lots of great meals in the parks and at the resorts and were completely immersed in Disney the whole time. Their cost for the dining plan would have been $480 for the nights they stayed at disney. Their food costs for those same 6 days? $500 with NO table service meals at all. Had they taken time to look at menus and consider their families needs, they may have ended up actually saving money and enjoying their trip more.
They didn't decide what park they were going to until they woke up each morning of their trip. I used TGM's green days as my guide to touring. They didn't even look at the park hours sheet to see who had EMH.
They waited in lines all week long. We used fast passes constantly and waited in 2 lines in 7 days! They didn't "understand" fast passes so they just ignored them. (Waiting 90 minutes to ride Peter Pan??, hitting fantasy land between 11-1pm?? ugh) If she'd even looked at the info on the park map, she'd have saved tons of time in lines.
They waited in lines for characters' autographs. She said they waited over an hour for the princesses in toontown. We scheduled Character meals and saw 5 princesses in about 30 minutes and enjoyed lunch! (Back to the lack of research on the dining plan!)
They didn't want to use disney busses because the lines seemed long the first day they arrived. So they drove every day. They said it took them about an hour to get to the park gates from their hotel room. We used disney busses exclusively and it never took us more than 45 minutes from room door to park gate (including waiting and transit). What they didnt' realize is that a bus holds a lot of people and they are almost constantly arriving at the resort to take you to the parks. (especially at the value resorts!)
So, if you were in doubt whether you are planning too much, I'd say you can't really overplan! But you can absolutely underplan!!!! I didn't find knowing "too" much was a concern. Maybe because I didn't have totally astronomical expections. I knew the value resort rooms would be comparable in size and quality to a motel. I was pleasantly surprised that they were so clean, the resort was spotless. I loved the mousekeeper's daily posing of the stuffed animals we left in the room. They even posed the soap so it looked like Mickey was standing up. Their attention to detail exceeded our expectations. Our little doses of pixie dust were just as unexpected and wonderful as if I had been clueless (maybe moreso because I knew that it's not something that normally happens like when a CM grabbed my dd's autograph book and made sure she got Pluto's autograph even though Goofy had come to relieve him. ( all because she heard my child sigh and say, I guess we'll have to get in line another day, mommy, we already met Goofy- she wasn't whining, just matter of fact) )We got some great photos of both Pluto and Goofy playing with my dd. If I didn't really know that's not how it happened, I would not have been as pleased with the interaction.
I think that a lot of the restaurant disappointment comes with the prices at Disney. If service was slow at a terrific steak place at home, we'd still enjoy the steak. Maybe not tell people about it, but we'd enjoy our meal. If service is slow at Le Cellier and you are spending $200+ for dinner for 2 a/2 c, you are going to be more critical of the meal and you'll tell people to not bother. Or if character interaction isn't great at a breakfast buffet, you'll pass that on because you just spent almost $100 for a little fruit and some lukewarm scrambled eggs and greasy bacon. Had you spent $30, you'd just let it go.
I just read on another forum that the food at Boma was tasteless and bad. Turns out, they'd had a bad day with their child being injured and no one was feeling very good. That totally can color your entire experience. So was the food tasteless? or did this family just not really feel much like eating because of the day they had? I try to take most reviews with a grain of salt.
Dh and I were lucky enough to visit WDW every other year for a number of years. Since our honeymoon in 2004, we have not had the chance to go back due to traveling to other places such as Vegas, Caribbean, a cruise etc. We are hoping to get to WDW in 2007! Either way, DISing helps me to relive the magic through everyone else's visits to the world! I love seeing pictures, reading reviews and hearing stories about everyone's trips. So for me, it only makes it that much more special when we get there again!
