To the people who plan with sheets and binders please help.

[Disney fan sandra]

Is there anyone out there that would be willing to share your planning sheets or binder with me. Or even ideals for them. I bought the binder stuff, the paper, the software, and ink to complete this project and plan for my trip. It's a 10 day two adults only trip. I have started some of it right before my 100 day mark but life happened and I have not even gotten near my computer in weeks. I am now at the 40 day mark and panicking as I am an over planner on vacation and have not been to Disney since 2000. If anyone can help that would be great and thank you in advance.

 

[Alesia]

First, you need to choose which days you'll go to which parks. I recommend using the crowd calendars at easywdw.com

Then you'll want to make a touring plan, which is easier than you'd think. Start with the cheat sheets at easywdw.com and take out what doesn't appeal to you. That's pretty much it.

Finally you'll need to learn about Fastpass+. Reading the first 2 posts of this thread: http://www.disboards.com/threads/fa...ed-priorities-and-strategies-part-ii.3326057/ should give you the info that you need.

If you want to eat any table service meals, you'll need to work those into the plan and make ADRs as soon as you can.

 

[GatorMama]

My binder isn't pretty. Part of my OCD and anxiety (diagnosed, not just throwing terms around for fun) is that I can't make it permanent unless it really is PERMANENT. And in the right order and... Yeah... Binders and scrapbooking can be really hard for me but I enjoy it until I'm too anxious to keep going.

Anyway. It made sense TO ME to have a calendar filled in with projected activities. ADRs or other "unmovable" activities were printed and colored in. then I penciled in the order of other things we wanted to do around that.

Then I had a section on our resort reservation, including a "note" page where we wrote down what we wanted to do while we were there.

Then a section for each park and DS. I included maps in sheet protectors. A "notes" page for to-dos.

And I intended to put a budget spreadsheet in too but ended up just using my phone.

 

[missmun52]

I generally make a simple table in Microsoft word with one column for dates and park going down the side and breakfast/lunch/dinner/night time show & event at the top. I enter into this table the park we visit each day our meal plans and the night time event we are doing.

I will then print our touring plan for each day with our fast pass reservations incorporated in it. I use The cheet sheets from Josh as well as his crowd calendar.

 

[LetsTalkWDW]

Is there anyone out there that would be willing to share your planning sheets or binder with me. Or even ideals for them. I bought the binder stuff, the paper, the software, and ink to complete this project and plan for my trip. It's a 10 day two adults only trip. I have started some of it right before my 100 day mark but life happened and I have not even gotten near my computer in weeks. I am now at the 40 day mark and panicking as I am an over planner on vacation and have not been to Disney since 2000. If anyone can help that would be great and thank you in advance.

I just did a basic Excel spreadsheet to keep track. Note: Friday and Saturday had the same FP+, just in case we had bad weather at TL we could switch those days. I wouldn't sweat it too much. Also note: Didn't really need a FP+ for Figment, it's more or less a throw away.

 

[5Hfan]

This last trip I added a zippered pouch in the front of the binder, which worked well for extra pencil, highlighter, gift cards, party tickets etc.

 

[MarieKat]

I just printed off all my confirmations and put them in day by day order. I have a calendar of park hours for the week I'm there with the park that I'm visiting each day highlighted plus notes on dining or other plans. Then I have a park map and my touring plan together for each park, in the order I'm visiting. So, first is MK map and touring plan, next is Epcot map and touring plan, etc.. The binder starts with my flight information to Orlando and ends with my flight information for the trip home. When I'm there, at the end of each day, I'll take the top sheet and move it to the back so the next day's sheet is at the front.

In the front pockets I'm keeping gift cards, tip envelopes (filled) and other little things- postcard stamps and some note paper. There is a zip pocket for pens also.

I did not buy any special software, scrapbooking materials or other doo-dads yet I I think I'm pretty organized.

 

[Mikie]

I printed off a copy of all reservations (airline, hotel, list of ADR location/time/confirmation numbers).

Made an excel spreadsheet with a little chart for each day that could be printed to wallet size (I was traveling with extended family and wanted each group to have a copy, so I wasn't the only resource and on-site tour guide!) It listed our chosen park, FPs for the day, ADRs, notes about parade or fireworks or show times we may want to keep in mind. Park hours for our chosen park bolded, all other park hours listed too, in case we changed our minds.

Printed off the Cheat Sheets from Easy WDW and put notes on the back of any particular QS restaurants I thought we might want to aim for, little-known attractions/shows/hidden gems I had found out about during planning. You'd think it would be committed to memory after all the researching, but there's just SO MUCH there, it's easy to forget details.

Once at the resort, I put the resort activities schedule in the binder that listed poolside parties, evening movies, etc.

Photocopies of any gift cards and our credit cards in case of lost/stolen wallets that needed to be reported.

Memory Maker and Disney IT phone numbers - i had used these during planning and figured in case I ran into tech troubles on site, I'd want them handy. Luckily ddin't need them!

 

[CampbellzSoup]

Someone post theirs when their done!

Do you guys take these into the parks with you as well? I just kinda use the MDE app as a reference guide and go - but always interesting to learn new ways to approach things

 

[Happy_2_B]

If anyone can help that would be great and thank you in advance.

Sounds like time is limited. An good option IMHO is to buy a touringplans.com premium subscription (costs like 12 dollars I think), which gives you access to making online custom touring plans. You can add in your ADRs and FPP+s as well- and there is very little work involved on the customer's end. Just pick your park for a given day, add in your attractions, ADRs and FPP+s- and the computer software calculates everything out and presents a customized plan based on your input. You not only get a step-by-step plan- but a map with the numbered steps so you know where to go- and if you haven't been there for 15 years you might need a refresher of where everything is- plus it will show the location of all the things that did not exist 15 years ago. Once you get the hang of it, it takes maybe 10-15 minutes to do a whole day's worth of planning. You can then print them out, put them in your binder- and head out and enjoy your trip.

 

[kkendle]

Do people carry the binders around with them in the parks? Just wondering..that would get heavy. I use my phone for everything. I have evernote and keep notes there. I also screen shot plans for the day directly from the MDE app on my phone...then I can just pull up the screen shots and see all of our plans for the day. Extra notes etc and things I might want to do or see I make notes of in evernote.

 

[Happy_2_B]

Do people carry the binders around with them in the parks?

I carry that day's plan- just one piece of paper- and rely on the lines app from touringplans.com for the rest.

 

[jacksgirl]

I generally make a simple table in Microsoft word with one column for dates and park going down the side and breakfast/lunch/dinner/night time show & event at the top. I enter into this table the park we visit each day our meal plans and the night time event we are doing.

I will then print our touring plan for each day with our fast pass reservations incorporated in it. I use The cheet sheets from Josh as well as his crowd calendar.

This is what I do as well. Then I can tweak it as needed right up to trip time, and print it right before I go.

 

[gwek]

My first recent trip (2 years ago... first trip in 5 or so years), I brought a packet of notes with me, and even a pen so I could cross things off. These days -- our third annual November trip is in a few weeks, it's pretty much all in my head.

For two people, it shouldn't be too difficult, but what I did to prep each year (first year with my wife, second with my parents who came with us, this year with my cousin and his wife who are going) is prepared a spreadsheet that's basically "Attractions my daughter will want to see," which I went over to make sure we weren't missing anything. My goal is to make sure that everyone on the trip sees everything they want to see. Or at least that I plan to accommodate it. Sometimes plans go amiss, and that's life.

 

[bonest]

I used excel and am not fully done yet. But I try to be creative. Planning is part of the fun part for me.

 

[Hopelessly_Devoted]

This is much easier with Excel and a Printer.

 

[jtowntoflorida]

This isn't exactly responsive, but after being a binder carrier, on our last trip I made the transition to just keeping everything on my phone instead. On that trip, I took both and never got my binder out. I'm essentially using Google Keep as my "binder" now. I love it because there is a Google Keep Chrome App, so I'm still typing everything in on my computer and then bringing it up on the phone. I like Google Keep because as we complete activities, we check them off and they fall to the bottom of the list. That's super convenient for when we start modifying plans.

 

[smallworldnh]

I just did a basic Excel spreadsheet to keep track. Note: Friday and Saturday had the same FP+, just in case we had bad weather at TL we could switch those days. I wouldn't sweat it too much. Also note: Didn't really need a FP+ for Figment, it's more or less a throw away.

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I always do a spread sheet too but have not yet been since they implemented FP+. I love how you did this and I'm going to borrow your idea!

 

[ruthies12]

Someone post theirs when their done!

Do you guys take these into the parks with you as well? I just kinda use the MDE app as a reference guide and go - but always interesting to learn new ways to approach things

My binder goes on my trip with me, but not to the parks. I have each days plans, copy of park maps, etc. put in separate plastic sheet protectors, then I take what I need out each day and throw it in the diaper bag. I use my phone mostly to keep track of ADR's and FP each day BUT I don't completely trust technology and like to have a paper backup with confirmation numbers and times just in case.

Here's a pic, not super fancy, just a green binder that I stuck a picture in the front of that I had printed off of your Christmas thread, thanks for that!

 

[smallworldnh]

Do people carry the binders around with them in the parks? Just wondering..that would get heavy. I use my phone for everything. I have evernote and keep notes there. I also screen shot plans for the day directly from the MDE app on my phone...then I can just pull up the screen shots and see all of our plans for the day. Extra notes etc and things I might want to do or see I make notes of in evernote.

Not to go off on a different (but same) topic, but has anyone seen the episode of The Middle where they go to Disneyworld and Sue has to consult her big binder for every little thing and they don't end up doing very much? It was really funny because I could almost relate although I've never taken in anything that large!!