stop raining on my spectromagic parade

[shadonjenon]

I talked with my dc husband tonight. They have a timeshare off disney property and go every year. Well when they heard that we wanted to go this year they offered for us to stay at their timeshare. The catch was that we would have to committ to sitting through one of those presentations. No offence to anyone who owns a timeshare or who may enjoy those presentions. But its just not our cup o tea. Pressure selling has never been my thing. Anyway, i talked to him and told him that we had already booked our trip and since it was our first visit we really wanted to stay on property. I told him about all the planning that i was doing with the dis site and planning books. Well he made it seem like i was waisting my time. As a "disney vet" his claim to fame is that they have never gone with a plan and have always gotten to do everything that they wanted too. And besides becase we are "disney newees" we are over estimateing the amount of touring that we are gonna be able to handle. He thinks we are gonna clapes into a heap by day 3 and forget about those adr. I've been working so hard and i beleive that its gonna pay off but he's got me thinking that maybe i have bitten off more than i can chew

 

[GISELLEROL]

not my cup of tea either, but I might consider it one day I heard the discounts are great. but dont get down your gonna have a great time.

 

[msteddom]

Well I'm a Disney vet too and I think it is just plain stupid to go without a plan. And you can tell him I said that! I even have a rough plan of what I want to do when I head down to Disneyland for a few hours. You are spending thousands on this vacation. How else are you going to ensure that you experience everything you want to?


Melissa

 

[MelanieC]

I agree with you, it's not my cup of tea! Trust me, all of us "crazy" DIS board nuts love staying onsite, love going to parks for many days. We go for two weeks at a time, Stay onsite, eat almost 2 sit down restaurants a day and we don't collapse after 3 days. Our first trip was in 1995 when my DD was 4, we went for 8 days. My son has gone with us since he was 18 months old. We love it!

Don't let him rain on your parade. You know you, and I believe you will have the vacation of your dreams because you found the DIS and have learned ways to make your vacation the best possible. Keep up the great work.

 

[Becky2005]

I think you will do great with your planning! Even if you are a Disney newbie...planning you will be prepared, even if things don't work 100%

I had never been before but planned several years before our first trip, had ADR's made, etc... Everything was a breeze because I planned things. The only glitch in the plan was that I got seperated from my family in a storm at Downtown Disney (and we were supposed to be seeing La Nouba), so had to change our plans due to the security officer getting us tickets for a different night.

We went on the Premium plan, in the middle of July and managed to do all we had planned and didn't fizzle out (too much) but I had built in breaks and things too.

We managed to get Parasailing, horseback riding, fishing, 2 tours, La Nouba in along with going to all 4 parks, eating a couple sit-down meals every day (did most the character meals) and lived to tell. This was because I had planned it as best I could with never having gone before. I know I made some mistakes but next time I can plan better but certainly felt I did pretty good for never having gone and did the planning (I had several CM's thought I had been there before since I seemed to know things and were surprised when I told them it was my first visit!)

We were there 7 days.

 

[graciespeaks]

We are planning our 1rst trip to WDW in Oct. and I am so excited that we are staying on site! I just think it will make everything better!!
I too am a planner, planner, planner and have written down the most important things to us to see, and if after we do these things, AND have our breaks we can add more in, BUT everytime I mention my "planning" to a couple of my co-workers they act as though I am making the trip harder and I am trying to do it all. But I am doing just the opposite by having sort of a short list of things we really want to do and anything else is just extra.
Some people just want to be the the "one in the know".
I think you are doing the right thing by staying on site, follow your heart!

 

[southernbella]

I went in March to WDW with myself, DH, 2 DD's, MIL & FIL. My BIL & SIL, 4 kids & friends went at the same time. Also, other BIL, SSIL, & 2 DD's went for half of the time. I & SIL with 4 DS's planned. My SIL with 2 DD's didn't plan. We (Me & SIL #1) had a great time, met up with the groups when we were supposed to, always got in the restaurant we wanted with little to no wait, & got to ride pretty much everything we wanted to do.

SIl with 2 DD's is still complaining about the trip & vows not to go back if she can help it (my poor nieces ). They stayed at Port Orleans. They got to do about half of the shows & rides the rest of us did (they NEVER used Fastpasses). They called me throwing a hissy fit because they could get a table at Ohana's with no reservations on one of the busiest nights of the week right before the fireworks. (I swear I am going to bit my tongue off one day trying not to say I told you so!)

Keep planning. You will be so glad you did. It really ill take stress off of you. Hope you have a great trip! Be sure to write a trip report when you get back. Sbella

 

[Antonia]

NEVER sit through one of those timeshare presentations - especially your first time to WDW. It will make you want to kill the person doing the TS presentation.

Stay on site, go with all your planning and you will be so happy. It always works for us! Have a great trip!!!

 

[bobcat]

Anyone who fails to plan ... FAILS! I have heard from so many people that hate WDW because of the crowds, heat, Mickey wasn't available, you fill in the blanks. The common denominator, they didn't plan or do any research. WDW is a huge place with more activities than you could possible do even in a month so the only smart thing to do is research, figure out what your family wants to do and then plan how you are going to make it work.

You are on the right track and I wouldn't even be suprised that when you get back and let your friend know about all the wonderful things you experienced and did that they will be amazed. You might even know things that they as vetrens that don't plan have no clue about.

 

[mking624]

I agree with not sitting in the timeshare presentations...and definitely not on your first trip.

As for planning, every person is different. My husband and I rarely go with a plan. Allwe do is figure out when evening EMH are and go with that. This year we have free dining so we made 5 ADRs...and honestly we're feeling overwhelmed by that now. Not that we're not going to enjoy it...I know we will. But we're so used to just doing what we want (no plan to be anywhere) and MAYBE 1 or 2 ADRs. This guuy is obviously one of those people who have the same mentality is me...that plans just don't really work for him. And that's ok. They don't work for everyone (I disagree with the blanket statement that anyone who fails to plan fails...true for some, but most definitely not true for ALL visitors). By the looks of it, you're the type of person who DOES like to plan...and that's ok too. Once you go on your trip, you'll know how you'll want to plan it different or the same...or at all (and I'm not talking about planning your hotel reservation and tix). But what your dc husband is forgetting is that what works for him won't always work for someone else. I know mine & my dh's way of vacationing at WDW (or most places) doesn't work for everyone. Nor does someone else's way of vacationing always work for us. Just do what you're comfortable with...and ignore him.

 

[SnwflkCts]

Right on about INSISTING you not sit thru a timeshare presentation ... save that for another time maybe .... after you get the WDW Fever and MUST GO BACK !!!

I am barely above NEWBIE stage (went first time last FEB) and PLANNED PLANNED PLANNED ... always understanding we might not hit everything! My DH is NOT a planner at all ... but days to visit which parks were decided, and rides were mulled over and ADRs made -- and it made it so much easier. As most will tell you just don't get too disappointed if there are any glitches ... plan on ... but remain flexible! (Ha Ha - hard to do for us obsessive people!)

Planning is definately NOT a waste of time. I was really prepared ... and yet everything still seemed so magical!

PS: Once we hit the parks my DH turned into the best guide arranging how would get thru all the "lands" and also became the King of Fast Pass!!

 

[DisneyHoneyMoon]

Ugh, good plan not sitting through the timeshare presentation. My wife and I sat through one for a free vacation, some free movie tickets and a gift certificate one time. Before we went in we gameplanned and said, no matter what, we will just say no. It was REALLY hard to say no. We love vacations in general, not just Disney (although that seems to be where we always go). I like vacations specifically because it gives us something to do together instead of sitting at home and watching tv. They really played on those emotions pretty strongly in the presentation. Finally though we were able to get out after quite a few weak moments where we almost bought in (they were telling us that there were all these one-time deals where if you bought today, you could get them). Well, I got home and checked them out on the internet and I found them for resale on the internet for less than half the price (This was not DVC).

One day we'd like to buy a time-share, but we'd like to do it on our time, not after getting pressured to because we used them for a free stay.

DisneyHoneyMoon

 

[GarrettJD]

Planning is definitley worth it, especially if you're a newbie. For our first trip to WDW, I planeed for a couple of years, and obsessed over every detail. When we finally got to WDW, I was able to navigate the parks like a pro despite my only previous visit being 19 years earlier as a child. My GF Nikkie, who left all the planning to me (and still does ) was amazed at how we were able to avoid crowds and waits-- and this was in June. We had a great trip that wouldn't be possible if we were just to "wing it."

However, I've found that the planning required for our trips has decreased each year, and, now that we're WDW veterans about to make our fourth trip in 4 years, very little planning is required. We know what we want to do, and I did plan out "which park which day" and our ADRs, but beyond that, our days are pretty flexible as far as what particular attractions and shows we see that day.

 

[smileyk8]

I sort of agree that there's a limit to how much you can plan disney trips. It's not always ideal to plan out say a whole week of exactly where you'll go and eat due to weather and perhaps being just worn out! What we tend to do is put together options for each day e.g. on tuesday if EMH is MK and E is listed as busy- we'll say that we'll either go to AK or DS and decide the night before.

I would say the most important thing is to make some sort of calender that lists the EMH and different sites light vs heavy crowds to see where to avoid. Despite this we always do everything we plan, but maybe not in the order we expected. Go ahead and plan anyway- it's more fun that way!