Touring plans/traditions

[Mrspeaks]

Curious how others like to plan their trips. What does your touring plan look like? How do pick what parks on what days? How many days would you go to the parks on a 7 day trip? Do you plan a park for arrival day or have an arrival day tradition? What are some of your favorite or must dos?

We have been fortunate to travel to WDW once a year for the past 5 years and am starting to plan our fall trip. Thought hearing others trips would help build my excitement and maybe give me some new ideas!

 

[PSUGuy]

We arrive at Board Walk around 10 am mid week usually and after checking in we'll head to Epcot to enjoy a liquid breakfast as shown below. Our FP+ choices are timed to have us in Soarin' before noon then the Land & Spaceship Earth. As we go for Food&Wine, we're hitting the food kiosks after that. I use various crowd calendars to decide when to go where, avoiding EMH parks. We park hop every day of our 9 or 10 day stays, skipping WS on Sat afternoons as locals flock there during F&W, opting for a pool day then off to Raglan Road.

Bill From PA

 

[Tiggerlover91]

Curious how others like to plan their trips. What does your touring plan look like? How do pick what parks on what days? How many days would you go to the parks on a 7 day trip? Do you plan a park for arrival day or have an arrival day tradition? What are some of your favorite or must dos?

We have been fortunate to travel to WDW once a year for the past 5 years and am starting to plan our fall trip. Thought hearing others trips would help build my excitement and maybe give me some new ideas!

Even though my family lives in FL, we don't visit Disney every year. Income tax refund or not, it's just not financially sound for us to do so. We visit every 4 years and it works out quite nicely that way. We always leave super early Sunday mornings putting us in Disney around 11am or 12 noon their time. Tradition is to check in and see if they will let us into our room, which they typically do and then head to AK for our first park. We always do 4 days and we don't hop and since we're leaving when we do on Sunday, AK is the park I'd rather spend a 1/2 day in. I love the park, but only have about 3 rides I really enjoy, so that works for us. The character greets are great in that park too and that's where we seem to get THE most of them! Our next day is MK and we rope drop everyday. My family are early risers vacation or not, so it works well for us. Next day is EPCOT and last day is MK again. We always take 2 days in MK as I split it up by lands making it easier to navigate with FPs. This year we're spending 5 days in Disney instead of 4 which will give us a full day to hang out in Disney Springs. We will also get 2 full days in MK instead of 1 1/2 because of that extra day. It used to be to RD MK on our last day, stay till about noon and head home. Now we can stay a little later, maybe till about 2 and head back to the hotel so son can go swimming and then offsite for dinner!

Character greets are a BIG favorite for son and myself so we make sure do to a couple in each park. I'm going to FP at least 4 of them on our MK days, 1 in EPCOT and one in AK for sure. If we come upon others where lines aren't too bad, we will wait it out!

 

[Tazzik]

For us, we usually avoid the parks on arrival day. We went to a park on the first day of our first trip, and it was a disaster. Now, we just do a later morning flight, arriving some time in the afternoon. We check in, go grocery shopping, and possibly hit the pool if we have time. Then, it's typically 2 days on, 1 day off for the rest of the trip. However, I count water park days as off days, since they tend to be less stressful than the regular parks. Depending on the year, we might add Universal or Seaworld days as well, but we'd likely have 5 days at Disney parks on a 7 day trip. We also almost always hit a park on our final day, assuming we could get a return flight in the 6pm range. Hitting our favorite rides one last time, then going mini-golfing on the way to the airport has become our new tradition.

 

[PrincessWithABlaster]

I used to use crowd calendars to determine which park which day but abandoned that this year. We haven't in the past done a park on arrival day because we try to conserve the kids energy for vacation by getting a late morning departure flight, dinner at the resort (swimming if time and weather permit), and early to bed. But this year we may rethink that and leave earlier since the kids are now all school age.

I do touring plans in touring plans. It's very convenient, easy, gives me walking times and full experience times. I'm struggling with being repetitive though. This will be our fifth trip and I feel like there is a way that the plans work for my family but I would like to do things differently to avoid a 'been there done that' feeling but I keep finding that the reason the TPs were the way they were was because they worked that way.

Traditions for us are dinners at CP and CRT (we try to switch up the other restaurants). I'm not sure what else we do qualifies yet.

We would do 5 park days on a 7 day trip but one of our goals has been to not get our kids too overtired. That's becoming a little less of a concern.

 

[SaintsManiac]

We base our days off of hard ticket events/tours and certain FPs we want to do. I don't use crowd calendars anymore.

We go to the parks every day. We prefer to come in later and get a fresh start the next day, rather than take an early flight in. It's getting too difficult for us to manage those 6am flights!

On our last day we like to hit a park in the morning. It was MK the last 2 trips, but we decided to try Epcot next time for a more low key last day.

 

[JETSDAD]

I take a look at both KtP and TP for crowd calendars but just as an overall idea....that way I know about events and such going on that may impact crowds. I avoid AM EMH and avoid MK on non-party days during those seasons but don't have any specific park orders that we need to follow each trip. If there are rides with hard to get FP's we will typically be sure to put at least one day for that park near the end of the stay. MK and EPCOT are the easiest for FP's right now so they are at the beginning of the trip. We do change it up often though and rework our schedules however we are feeling while we are there. We hit the parks every day that we are there....I don't see a need to not go to a park while we are at Disney and we have been timing our trips to allow for AP's so there is no additional cost for us to go to the park.

 

[The13thLetter]

I feel like every trip has been a bit different. DW and I had gone the first few years just the 2 of us and she is a teacher so we would go for a 4 night long weekend and it would be wall to wall action (parks everyday open to close). This last trip was with our 20 week old (I only mention his exact age because I am a big proponent that this trip can work for the littlest of kiddos) so things were a bit different. We flew in late night and just checked in, unpacked, and headed to bed. Then we did all the parks with a mix of breaks during the day/heading back to the park at night, or no break and heading back to the hotel early. No matter how different the trip is though there are a couple of things we do every time (Art Smith's at DS and drink around the world at Epcot come to mind). I will say though, our next trip this August is going to be our longest one yet (8 nights!). Our plan is to fly out late morning on Friday, have dinner at Ohana Friday night, then Saturday will be a resort/pool day for everyone (parents and in laws coming this trip) and then DW and I are going to go out alone to a park for a ride or 2 (a drink or 2 haha) and dinner since we are annual passholders and now have several babysitters . I am very excited for this plan. We used to cram as much in as we could because we were spending money on the trip, only had a few days, and wanted to get the most out of it. However, after our last trip with DS which was a bit more relaxed, I realize as of now that is the way to go for us. When DS (and hopefully his sibling at some point) get older and can do full days at the parks that might change, but for now I like the idea of easing into the trip, especially if you arrive on a weekend and want to avoid a busy park day.

And just some quick input on which parks which days; usually if we are drinking around the world or going to an epcot festival, I will try to do epcot during the week and during the beginning of the trip. as for the other parks, i usually like to pick the park that is open the latest because after the nighttime shows the parks do thin out and there can be an hour or 2 of smaller crowds (although with DS this last trip that didnt really matter haha).

 

[PplMover]

Curious how others like to plan their trips. What does your touring plan look like? How do pick what parks on what days? How many days would you go to the parks on a 7 day trip? Do you plan a park for arrival day or have an arrival day tradition? What are some of your favorite or must dos?

We have been fortunate to travel to WDW once a year for the past 5 years and am starting to plan our fall trip. Thought hearing others trips would help build my excitement and maybe give me some new ideas!

We travel every year as well (from NY)... ideally stay at Y&B- we use two travel days- with 7 full days to enjoy. The first travel day we fly in at night and go eat at ESPN zone. We start the trip with Space Mtn and end the trip with Space Mtn. We get a 6 day pass and use day 4 as a pool/disney spring/resort hop day. Recent & future trips- The rest is based on when we get fast passes for FoP & Slinky Dog and dining reservations. For table service- we go back to Le Cellier each trip, but then try one thing new- sometimes we do dining plan/sometimes we don't. Depends when we go- if they offer the 'free' dining, we take it since we utilize it fully/make it worth it.

Depending on your age(s)- I'd recommend one drinking afternoon/night- start EPCOT and end around boardwalk the day before your non-park day.

Lol I can go on, but not sure what else you're interested in (we're planning our next trip now)

 

[PplMover]

I used to use crowd calendars to determine which park which day but abandoned that this year. We haven't in the past done a park on arrival day because we try to conserve the kids energy for vacation by getting a late morning departure flight, dinner at the resort (swimming if time and weather permit), and early to bed. But this year we may rethink that and leave earlier since the kids are now all school age.

I do touring plans in touring plans. It's very convenient, easy, gives me walking times and full experience times. I'm struggling with being repetitive though. This will be our fifth trip and I feel like there is a way that the plans work for my family but I would like to do things differently to avoid a 'been there done that' feeling but I keep finding that the reason the TPs were the way they were was because they worked that way.

Traditions for us are dinners at CP and CRT (we try to switch up the other restaurants). I'm not sure what else we do qualifies yet.

We would do 5 park days on a 7 day trip but one of our goals has been to not get our kids too overtired. That's becoming a little less of a concern.

Those crowd calendars do not work anymore unfortunately. It's just busy busy busy now

 

[Klayfish]

Curious how others like to plan their trips. What does your touring plan look like? How do pick what parks on what days? How many days would you go to the parks on a 7 day trip? Do you plan a park for arrival day or have an arrival day tradition? What are some of your favorite or must dos?

Here is what our touring plan looks like: ????????????????????

Yep, that's it. We are not planners. Everyone has their own style, but we refuse to have a "plan" or "schedule" that we must stick to. Our lives at home are very much planned and scheduled, so we want to get as far away from that as we can while on vacation. We would be utterly miserable if we had a spreadsheet or a hard schedule we had to stick to. How do we pick what parks on what days? Seriously, we go to whatever park we want on whatever day we want. Crowd calendars are a joke, we don't even waste time glancing at them. We truly just pick parks at random. Mostly, it's by rotation...A,B,C,D,A,B,C,D and so on. We do take advantage of booking as many FP+ in advance as we can, which for us is at 30 days (we're offsite and AP). However, even those wind up getting changed pretty often the morning of. We really like to go where the day takes us. We get off a ride and say "What next?" I'll then jump on MDE and get a FP+ for it. When we're ready to leave, we leave.

How many days would we go to the parks on a 7 day trip? All 7. Again, each to their own, but the concept of a "rest day" escapes us. Doesn't make any sense. We're not there for the hotel or a hotel pool (no matter how fancy it is, it's still just a pool). We're there for WDW. I'm not at all saying we do rope drop to park close. In fact, we NEVER rope drop and we rarely close the park. However, we hit a park every day. It could be from 10am-5pm, or 4pm to 10pm, or 11am to 3pm or whatever we decide. Our summer trips are really long, over two weeks, and we're in a park every day. That also includes the 2 water parks, so we have 6 parks to rotate through.

Arrival day tradition is always start in MK. No matter how many times I've done it, there is nothing like walking under the train station and out onto Main Street. Still gives me goose bumps.

 

[The13thLetter]

Here is what our touring plan looks like: ????????????????????

Yep, that's it. We are not planners. Everyone has their own style, but we refuse to have a "plan" or "schedule" that we must stick to. Our lives at home are very much planned and scheduled, so we want to get as far away from that as we can while on vacation. We would be utterly miserable if we had a spreadsheet or a hard schedule we had to stick to. How do we pick what parks on what days? Seriously, we go to whatever park we want on whatever day we want. Crowd calendars are a joke, we don't even waste time glancing at them. We truly just pick parks at random. Mostly, it's by rotation...A,B,C,D,A,B,C,D and so on. We do take advantage of booking as many FP+ in advance as we can, which for us is at 30 days (we're offsite and AP). However, even those wind up getting changed pretty often the morning of. We really like to go where the day takes us. We get off a ride and say "What next?" I'll then jump on MDE and get a FP+ for it. When we're ready to leave, we leave.

How many days would we go to the parks on a 7 day trip? All 7. Again, each to their own, but the concept of a "rest day" escapes us. Doesn't make any sense. We're not there for the hotel or a hotel pool (no matter how fancy it is, it's still just a pool). We're there for WDW. I'm not at all saying we do rope drop to park close. In fact, we NEVER rope drop and we rarely close the park. However, we hit a park every day. It could be from 10am-5pm, or 4pm to 10pm, or 11am to 3pm or whatever we decide. Our summer trips are really long, over two weeks, and we're in a park every day. That also includes the 2 water parks, so we have 6 parks to rotate through.

Arrival day tradition is always start in MK. No matter how many times I've done it, there is nothing like walking under the train station and out onto Main Street. Still gives me goose bumps.

This actually sounds awesome and terrifying at the same time. How large of a group do you usually travel in? Did you always do it this way even when the kiddos were younger? Do you ever end up missing out on something you really wanted to do because of the "no-plan" plan?

Sorry for all the questions but I do like the sound of that

 

[Klayfish]

This actually sounds awesome and terrifying at the same time. How large of a group do you usually travel in? Did you always do it this way even when the kiddos were younger? Do you ever end up missing out on something you really wanted to do because of the "no-plan" plan?

Sorry for all the questions but I do like the sound of that

We're a family of 5. Yes, we have always done it this way. Again, I completely respect and understand that some people love to uber-plan and that's great for them. But the thought of a spreadsheet or rigid schedule when I'm trying to relax and have fun turns my stomach. I seriously probably would refuse to go. Even when the kids were younger, we did this. The one major difference between then and now is the FP+ system. In the old paper FP+ days, doing rope drop was almost a necessity for the "big" rides, such as TSMM. So while we still did things on a whim, we would show up at the park before it opened. Now, with the new FP+ system and MDE, rope drop is completely and totally unnecessary. There's nothing wrong with doing it, if that's your thing. But we get up at 4am at home, we have no desire to set an alarm clock on vacation. And we don't have to. We can get as much done as a rope dropper, using FP+.

Here's a little more detail about how we do things. Like I said, being offsite and AP limits us to 30 days out for FP+. Not only that, it limits us to having just 7 days worth of FP+ in any 30 day period. Our summer trips are 17 park days. Around 45 days out or so, DW and I will go to Dunkin' Donuts and get a cup of coffee. We bring an 8x11 sheet of paper and come up with an extremely loose schedule of parks, only so we can get FP+ at the 30 day mark. It would look something like this: Arrival day is always MK, it's tradition. Then from there, we just rotate parks in no particular order and for no particular reason. Just make sure we get a decent balance. However, we know it's just a very rough draft anyway, so it doesn't matter. It takes us less than 30 minutes total. That's the full extent of our planning. Then I'll grab FP+ for days 1-7 at the 30 day mark. I can't book day 8 until we're finished day 1, due to the rule I mentioned above...so most of our trip is done with FP+ booked 6 days out or less. Once we're down there, we fly by the seat of our pants. If we wake up on day 6 and we had Epcot "scheduled", the kids may say "We don't want to go to Epcot today, we want to go back to HS". OK, no problem. We drop our Epcot FP+ and pick up HS. Doing the refresh strategy here is a lifesaver and really lets us have this flexibility. We then head to HS and have fun. After we use our FP+, we ask what they want to do next. If they want another attraction, I grab a FP+ for it. If they're done, we leave.

No, we really haven't missed out on much. Refresh works fantastic and we can get pretty much any attraction we want at pretty much any time. I guess if there's one "downside" is that sometimes we do criss-cross the parks a bit. But it doesn't happen all that often, and I'd rather do that then be stuck with a schedule.

We love doing it this way. No pressure, no worries about getting somewhere at a specific time, no waking up early, no rushing, but we still get to do all the things we want.

 

[The13thLetter]

We're a family of 5. Yes, we have always done it this way. Again, I completely respect and understand that some people love to uber-plan and that's great for them. But the thought of a spreadsheet or rigid schedule when I'm trying to relax and have fun turns my stomach. I seriously probably would refuse to go. Even when the kids were younger, we did this. The one major difference between then and now is the FP+ system. In the old paper FP+ days, doing rope drop was almost a necessity for the "big" rides, such as TSMM. So while we still did things on a whim, we would show up at the park before it opened. Now, with the new FP+ system and MDE, rope drop is completely and totally unnecessary. There's nothing wrong with doing it, if that's your thing. But we get up at 4am at home, we have no desire to set an alarm clock on vacation. And we don't have to. We can get as much done as a rope dropper, using FP+.

Here's a little more detail about how we do things. Like I said, being offsite and AP limits us to 30 days out for FP+. Not only that, it limits us to having just 7 days worth of FP+ in any 30 day period. Our summer trips are 17 park days. Around 45 days out or so, DW and I will go to Dunkin' Donuts and get a cup of coffee. We bring an 8x11 sheet of paper and come up with an extremely loose schedule of parks, only so we can get FP+ at the 30 day mark. It would look something like this: Arrival day is always MK, it's tradition. Then from there, we just rotate parks in no particular order and for no particular reason. Just make sure we get a decent balance. However, we know it's just a very rough draft anyway, so it doesn't matter. It takes us less than 30 minutes total. That's the full extent of our planning. Then I'll grab FP+ for days 1-7 at the 30 day mark. I can't book day 8 until we're finished day 1, due to the rule I mentioned above...so most of our trip is done with FP+ booked 6 days out or less. Once we're down there, we fly by the seat of our pants. If we wake up on day 6 and we had Epcot "scheduled", the kids may say "We don't want to go to Epcot today, we want to go back to HS". OK, no problem. We drop our Epcot FP+ and pick up HS. Doing the refresh strategy here is a lifesaver and really lets us have this flexibility. We then head to HS and have fun. After we use our FP+, we ask what they want to do next. If they want another attraction, I grab a FP+ for it. If they're done, we leave.

No, we really haven't missed out on much. Refresh works fantastic and we can get pretty much any attraction we want at pretty much any time. I guess if there's one "downside" is that sometimes we do criss-cross the parks a bit. But it doesn't happen all that often, and I'd rather do that then be stuck with a schedule.

We love doing it this way. No pressure, no worries about getting somewhere at a specific time, no waking up early, no rushing, but we still get to do all the things we want.

I do like to make a plan but becoming passholders this year really opened up our options to be a bit more flexible. I still end up making a plan with ADRs and FPs ahead of time (to be honest it gets me excited for the upcoming trip even when its months and months away) but we do usually end up moving things around quite a bit, even after we get there, so I think there is probably a good middle ground somewhere in between our 2 planning types. This next trip however both my parents and DW's parents are coming so if I don't have a plan in place you may find me at the bottom of seven seas lagoon