Where to start planning/ADRs (prob a daft question)

[BlondeViki]

Our ADR window opens in March cool1 and we've finally got a few guidebooks together, in various states of read and not yet read!

We have 14 nights in Florida and the 14 day 'ultimate' Disney ticket.

I have a blank spreadsheet in front of me and I'm just wondering where to start? How do you go about it?

I have a list of things we'd like to do, like Tusker House breakfast, Cirque du Soleil, a couple of days at Universal...etc but given I figure you need to know which park you are going to be at to plan ADRs, I am just baffled by where to begin!

Sorry if this should be really obvious, but if anyone has any tips on how to begin to allocate 'things to do' to each day, I'd be really grateful.

All I had done so far is flag up 2 or poss 3 non-park 'rest' days which I've just evenly spaced throughout the 2 weeks! But even that might not be the most sensible plan, and I'd be grateful to know what others do about this too

 

[ChipnDaleRule]

I have a few websites that i refer a lot to one being www.allears.net and the other being http://www.easywdw.com/calendar/may-...rowd-calendar (Just find your month on the right)
The best place to start is day 1 and just go day by day(sorry to state the obvious),and remember for the first few days you will be up very early, then by week two you will be well into Disney time.

Be prepared to do about 20 different spreadsheets before you finally decide, but for me thats half the fun. Enjoy planning

 

[dixonsontour]

I draw up a list of restaurants I want to go to.

Then decide what park what day. I use touringplans.com. Costs a few $ to subscribe but gives you a best park each day and all the parade times, extra magic hours etc.

Then fit the restaurants into the plan.

Do any early 8am character breakfasts early in the trip when you will be up early due to time difference.

Common sense like don't plan a late night and then a crack of dawn adr the next day.

Maybe plan a few 2 credit shows or meals or book a meal at DTD for your universal days.

Post your plan here for opinions if you want

 

[disneyholic family]

first off - i don't do 'rest days'...
we go to the parks every day - but never for the entire day..

ok...

so....

what do i do....

i create a calendar with the dates we're going to be there..

the most important thing to put in the calendar (for me) is when the EMH days are....since we NEVER go to any park on a day when it has EMH, i have to have that information in the calendar to know which park i can go to on any given day..

so, now the calendar indicates for example (these days change so you have to check the hours on the disney site to make sure you have these correct), that MK has EMH on Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday - so that means i can only go to MK on Mon, Wed, and Saturday...
and Epcot has EMH on Tuesday and Friday (so i won't go to Epcot on these days)
and DHS has EMH on Monday and Saturday (so i won't go to DHS on these days)
and AK has EMH on Monday and Wednesday (so i won't go to AK on these days)

so now, based on the above hours i figure out which park i'll be in on each day... but as i said, the EMH hours can change, so you have to find out from the official hours what the EMH will be for the time you're there...

so for example, last August, when the above EMH hours were in effect, during the two weeks we were there, we went to the parks as follows:
Tues Aug 16 - AK
Wed Aug 17 - MK
Thurs Aug 18 - Epcot
Fri Aug 19 - DHS

and so on....

within the two weeks we also fit in two mornings for waterparks (BB and TL)
we did the waterparks the second week we were there...

and we did one morning at universal (just to see harry potter - we were back at WDW by 1:30 PM)

anyway, that's how we do it...

so then based on what park we were going to be in, i made all the ADRs...

on days i wasn't sure which park i'd be in (waterpark day or universal day), i made ADRs outside the parks (e.g. 1900 park fare at GF and whispering canyon cafe at WL)...

 

[UKDEB]

My starting point is the same as Beth's. Ordinarily, I'd never plan to go to a park on EMH days (way too busy) so that's the most critical information for me. Like she says, they can (and often do) change, so you need to keep checking right up until the last minute. The same applies to park hours.

You'll want to check the dates of any special events you'd like to attend, such as Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party, Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party, Star Wars Weekends, together with dates and timings of the evening entertainment and fireworks. IllumiNations at Epcot, for example, is shown every night of the year (weather permitting), but that's not true of the other options.

Arm yourself with a list of restaurants you'd like to try and, once you've got an idea of where you're going to be and when, you can start to work out the best fit.

As others have said, the jet lag will have you awake at the crack of dawn in the first few days, at least, so it's wise to plan for early mornings at the parks, leaving the evening parades and fireworks until later in the trip. As you've worked out, it's a good idea to intersperse the less frenetic activities with the park ones, but it doesn't necessarily have to be full days. With the passes you've got, you have the luxury of being able to head to a water park in the morning, say, then a park in the evening. We always enjoy our evenings better when we've taken a break back at our accommodation to freshen up. We tend to slot one of our shopping trips in at the start as we like to buy new clothes to wear.

If you're anything like me, you'll find there's lots of jiggling, shuffling and starting over, but that's all part of the fun!

 

[VailaTigger]

Not a daft question at all! It's a daunting prospect...

I start with a blank spreadsheet too, then I use the 'busy day' guides to pick a park each day which is quiet. I then take some of these out to give us 'rest' days, and keep at least 2 visits to each park in the planner. Once I know roughly where I'm going to be on each day, I pick restaurants that I'd like to visit at those locations, or near by. I look at the menus online (on allears I think) and work with that.

I will fine tune this plan once the park hours and EMH hours are posted, and then make my ADRs for each day.

However, I don't feel the need to rigidly stick to the plan once I'm there, if something else crops up which would make me change it around a little. With 14 day Ultimate passes you can hop off to the parks whenever you like, and more than one in each day if you want.

Even on the 'rest' days we end up at DTD or at some of the other Disney resorts taking a look around! If we feel 'rested' enough we may even pick a park and head off!

Happy planning!!!!

 

[wayneg]

We also create a calender, add EMH's(to avoid) then fill in things that we have planned, DISmeet, DS's birthday meal, Hoop Dee Doo, Drinks around the world, picking up relatives from airport etc. most these fit themselves in there is not a lot of choice for them.
From here we just keep adding things like a day at Port Canaveral has to be a Saturday as we want to see the new Disney Fantasy. We have 3 or 4 character meals so we spead them out as much as poss.
Probably as we have done it so many times our itinery just builds itself

 

[BlondeViki]

Thanks so much! This definitely helps.

I wouldn't have even thought to consider the EMH days, and if I had I'd have thought to *go* on those days to make the most of the time! Having done a bit more reading about today after your comments, I see why that's the worst idea now!

Even just putting in the EMH days has begun to make a small plan take shape, though I see what you're saying about them changing, so I'll keep an eye on them.

I have paid for Touring Plans, it works out about £4 so I thought it was worth it, even at a brief glance the site looks very useful.

I also saw that Cirque doesn't run on Mondays or Sundays, so that's another thing to think about. We'll want to be somewhere near DTD on the day that we see that, and not be too tired as I think we're going to the later showing. Not sure where we're eating that night, so many good choices around there! OH is drooling over a few menus.

VailaTigger, I can't believe it's coming around so quickly! I still think it's great we're having our honeymoon's at the same time Hope your plans are coming along better than mine!

 

[flortlebap]

I got a blank piece of paper and made a table, blank, with 14 days, divided into morning, afternoon and evening.

I then write on another piece of paper all my must dos with times and cut them out into little squares that fit on the table. . I then place them on the chart, cross referencing with show times, park hours, EMH and crowd calendars, and shuffle the paper round until I have an itinerary that works!

Good luck

 

[VailaTigger]

VailaTigger, I can't believe it's coming around so quickly! I still think it's great we're having our honeymoon's at the same time Hope your plans are coming along better than mine!

I know!! It's fab, isn't it? I have a framework itinerary in place, basically so that I can make ADRs in March, I'll finalise it a bit more after that. I'm not too worried about sticking to a rigid timetable, with it being our honeymoon and just the two of us (no kids) we're hoping just to be able to chill a bit too. I'll take all my information with me, so that it's to hand if we need it, and then we can be a bit more flexible with what we do each day too. September is relatively quiet, so not so much crowd-dodging to do!

It is coming around fast, isn't it? It's not long now till our honeymoons, but my wedding is 11 weeks away!

 

[BlondeViki]

It is coming around fast, isn't it? It's not long now till our honeymoons, but my wedding is 11 weeks away!

11 weeks?! Is that April? Can't believe you'll be sorting out your ADRs in the month before your wedding!! Are the wedding plans all on track?

I'm still about 20/21 weeks off my wedding so I'm still *quite* calm but I have to be as there's still LOADS to sort out - not least payiing for it all!!

 

[VailaTigger]

12th of April

We pretty much know where we want to book for our ADRs, and I'll do it once our booking window opens. I have my 12 digit number to link them all to my hotel booking, but if that doesn't work, I don't mind, I'll do one a day

After the wedding I'll have more to do - like change the name on my passport (and ALL the other places ) but there isn't too much still to do before the wedding. A few payments to do, and we have meetings at the Castle with our co-ordinator and photographer on Sunday. Unless that throws us a curve ball, I think all the other things we need to do are under way or booked in to our diaries...

Hope your wedding plans are coming along too!