who had completely winged it? with children.

[Jennytoon]

I know it might seem incredible given things I have written elsewhere, but we actually did this the first time we came with our kids in 2009. We had a timeshare vacation planned that we discovered had been banked out (clerical error) a week before we were supposed to show up. They gave us an entire week's worth of extra points to make up for it, but at that point we were running out of summertime and Orlando had great availability on two weeks' notice.

We drove from MA and went for two weeks in mid-August (medium crowds), with kids 8, 5, 1. No ADRs (we couldn't afford it anyway), stayed off site, brought all our snacks into the park except for one day we got lemon ice cups. Learned about FP- our first day there. Decided on parks the night before and arrived at opening although not quite RD every day because we knew we'd have to be out of the parks by 1 latest so our younger two could nap / rest. We had the awesomest time. It was so amazing that I was terrified when we went back two years later that it wouldn't even get close to living up to my shining memory.

 

[biondagirl]

We have ALWAYS winged it. My kids were both there when they were a year old all the way up to their current ages (8 and almost 12). We book the hotel, tix and get a quick service meal plan. Every thing else is winged. We may have had a general idea of what park we wanted to go to, but nothing definite. We have never had a bad time.

This year will be different. When we last went in 2012, we were not part of the testing group for FP+, so we had the paper fast passes. This will be the first year we have to plan things and I am dreading it. I know it'll all work out and be a fabulous trip, but this trip will definitely be different for us.