Staying on script when executing your Disney plans

[starjazz]

So, last week, we had a predicament. We had planned our first MK day on Tue, AK on Wed, and second MK day on Thu. However, Tue night we checked weather, and it seemed pretty obvious that it was gonna rain Thu afternoon into the evening. We prefer longer days at MK, especially when compared to AK, so we were torn on whether to change the Wed/Thu plans around. It meant going from most recommended to least recommended parks, which was very scary for me. My gut was saying, stick with the script. But the rest of the fam really wanted the nice weather for MK, so we went for the switch.

Early on Wed, our 2nd MK day, I thought for sure we'd made the wrong call. Our plan to start in Frontierland was a disaster. BTMRR, Splash and Pirates all broken down. By lunch, we'd done 2 rides. Compared to our scripted first MK day, this was not going well. On our first MK day, we'd gotten done with Mine Train 3 times before 9 am, so it was quite a bit different.

However, after lunch, we hit Tom Sawyer Island. I did some FP modifications, and we got an all day FP to the series of rides if the one you have an FP for is broken down, and by the time we got back from Tom Sawyer Island, we got on a roll. The rest of the day went so well, and we ended by getting a last Mine Train ride right before Wishes, and then caught our second Wishes show from right behind the castle (awesome!). The day ended great.

Moving AK didn't matter much either. I modified the FPs. We slept in, and got to the park by about 9:30. It was cloudy, and cooler, and the animals much have loved it because everything was out for us. Giraffes were blocking our road on Safari - so cool to be so close. The elephants were out, the lions were out. Tigers, gorillas and hippos were RIGHT by the glass. It was just awesome. Park closed at 5:00 pm, and the bad weather hit, so it was just perfect timing.

Moral of the story was that the script works REALLY well when you're on it. But, learning how to wing it for a couple days was valuable experience as well, and for us it worked out.

 

[jrt1176]

I don't go as gung ho as most...

I pick a park and have a loose plan. Of course, with FP+ I have a rough idea of where I will be going, but it's still open ended.

We relaxed a lot and played a lot of things by ear or made last minute decisions. We did everything we wanted and did them multiple times.

I know it's different for everyone, but I saw so many trying to "knock out" things as if they were on some kind of quest. I'll admit, I had that mindset somewhat for MK the first day and my niece and I basically did! But, we had a week for the vacation, so we really took our time after the 2nd day and it was very enjoyable.

I did rope drop one day, but we basically used it to "knock out" some autographs! Then she had BBB and CRT...

I guess my moral is to do what you want; it's your vacation. But, make sure you stop and smell the roses.

 

[ArielSRL]

I've been pondering this. I've never scripted our Disney trips like I have this upcoming one....but it seems you almost have to these days. However, I am traveling with my mom (she would stick to schedule), my dad (never sticks to schedule), DS 4.5 and DS 2 (who usually cause the schedule to just go out the window). I have no idea how it's going to go. I am leaving some room for changes some days but our MK days are fairly tight. Good thing is, we always go back eventually...so I'm not too worried if we miss something, but I will hate for the schedule to be messed up for no good reason. Hopefully I'm not pulling my hair out mid-trip...lol.

Thanks for sharing!

 

[lindsmom]

Our daily plan gets written in pencil. With a big eraser available. Lol.

I try to designate a list of what each person in our group wants most to do, and we prioritize those. After that, what we get done is bonus.

 

[Nancyg56]

Our daily plan gets written in pencil. With a big eraser available. Lol.

I try to designate a list of what each person in our group wants most to do, and we prioritize those. After that, what we get done is bonus.

This is how we roll. I have never understood the mindset that the "script" is the boss. We have a loose plan in place, know what each member of the family finds important and if we manage that we are golden. Anything else we do is frosting on our cake. We toss the plan whenever something better comes up. I just managed to get on the Mine Train when we went in December. Our last two trips, the ones that I was up at midnight to make sure we had those coveted FP for, we ended up skipping this attraction because we were doing other things. No one missed the attraction because they were having a good time elsewhere.

 

[Disneylover99]

The only thing that causes me to stick to the script, are hard to get ADR's. That's why my favourite trips tend to be the ones with zero ADR's. I move my fp's and park days around without a second thought.

 

[Accident]

We generally go for at least a week. I don't do too many adrs and my script is basically what parks we have fastpasses for but we'll don't really care if we change it. Sometimes you just wake up and feel like doing something else. We do try to get all the must dos early in the trip in case there is any weather or situation where it gets canceled and then we can try again another day.

 

[acwsmom]

I'm a planner and keep a spreadsheet going to track everything. But in all honesty, once we get there, I usually tend to throw it out. We usually stick to the plan to get through our FPs, but once those are done, we just randomly pick another park to hop to (usually based on wait times I see in different apps). My family loves that we have a general plan but they also love that we are comfortable letting go of the plan if we're just not feeling it that day. I think a difference for us, though, is that we go so much. So we're pretty relaxed when we get there and just enjoy being there. If we could only be there once every few years, I'd probably be more strict on the plan.

 

[caliope]

This is how we roll. I have never understood the mindset that the "script" is the boss. We have a loose plan in place, know what each member of the family finds important and if we manage that we are golden. Anything else we do is frosting on our cake. We toss the plan whenever something better comes up. I just managed to get on the Mine Train when we went in December. Our last two trips, the ones that I was up at midnight to make sure we had those coveted FP for, we ended up skipping this attraction because we were doing other things. No one missed the attraction because they were having a good time elsewhere.

This is exactly how we do it too. We like having a general idea of what we want to see and do, but nothing is set in stone and we love the flexibility of being able to change if something else grabs our attention. We've even cancelled what others may consider hard to get ADRs (CRT, BOG) because they no longer fit into our plans once we arrived at the resort.

 

[showers2flowers]

Yes! It's the best advice I got (and got it here, of course!) before our first trip. We always have a loose plan (hard not to in the era of FP+), but we are willing to modify or even just rip that sucker to shreds if it's not working for us or if something better presents itself. Now when friends ask me about planning, I always say, "have an outline and a willingness to be flexible, and don't be afraid to change it up on the fly!" Invariably, my friends who return from WDW miserable have gone too far to one extreme--either they overplanned and self-destructed when life deviated from the script, or they did no research or planning and were disappointed when they were unable to do the things that were most important to them to start with.

 

[hsmamato2]

Our plan to start in Frontierland was a disaster. BTMRR, Splash and Pirates all broken down.
However, after lunch, we hit Tom Sawyer Island. I did some FP modifications, and we got an all day FP to the series of rides if the one you have an FP for is broken down, and by the time we got back from Tom Sawyer Island, we got on a roll.

Wait.... did you have FP+ to the closed rides before you started your day? Or did you make them after you saw they were closed,and then got FP for later on,that would work if they opened up later in the day? Is that a 'thing'? I am curious!

 

[starjazz]

We had the FP+ for the closed rides before the day started. If your time for FP hits, and the ride is down, they give you an all day FP for a set of replacement attractions.

 

[starjazz]

One other thing that we found about staying on script is that it GREATLY reduced our walking. On our MK day that was totally scripted, we walked about 7-8 miles. On our unscripted MK day it was close to 11 miles, and we got less done. Again, I'm not suggesting that you don't smell the roses along the way, just pointing out some differences we experienced. Both ways worked for us.

 

[ArielSRL]

One other thing that we found about staying on script is that it GREATLY reduced our walking. On our MK day that was totally scripted, we walked about 7-8 miles. On our unscripted MK day it was close to 11 miles, and we got less done. Again, I'm not suggesting that you don't smell the roses along the way, just pointing out some differences we experienced. Both ways worked for us.

This!! My mom has a hard time walking (sometimes she gets a scooter, sometimes not) so we try our best not to criss-cross at all, so a good plan is necessary for us to get done what we want, efficiently. Also, because we only go every few years or more, we want to get as much done as we can, and having a plan helps with that. However, I try to be a flexible as I have to be with two young children. But they tend to do better sticking with regular meal, nap and bedtimes, and having a good plan helps with that, as well.

 

[Tomh]

We have a plan, and it is usually fairly detailed, at least for our mornings, BUT . . . I am always open to changing plans if things don't work out. Sometimes the weather, sometimes we just get tired and sleep in, what ever. I am very willing to change the plans around on the fly when the situation warrants it.

 

[hart6066]

When you go at a super crowded time (we always go the week after Christmas) it is much more difficult to wing it. We generally like to have a really good plan down and followed until lunch and then do as we please. I think if you go during one of the high level crowd times, changing plans last minute is really risky unless you are OK with just sort of soaking up the ambience.

 

[GillianP1301]

I love having a daily plan with activities by the hour, but I almost never follow it. I do it just for the fun of something to do while I wait for my trip. I follow it loosely, for the most part, but the specific details get shuffled all around. I find that having a really detailed plan makes it a lot easier for me to wing it because I know how long attractions take, I know where things are and how long it takes to get to them, etc... If I didn't have that information, I would not know what to do when the first part of my plan falls off the rails and I would end up wasting a ton of time.