How spontaneous are you?

[TikiGoddess]

Hi, my name is Kathy, and I LOVE planning WDW trips.

I love putting everything on a spreadsheet -- schedule, park hours, ADRs, EMH hours, budget, etc.

But I think I need to pull back when it comes to what parks we go to on what days. I'd like to be able to get up in the morning, ask the kids where they want to go, and go there. But with having to schedule ADRs, take EMH crowds into consideration... you sort of do need a basic plan.

So the question is: how much do you plan what parks you are going to visit? Do you have a set schedule in mind when you get there, a loose idea, or fly by the seat of your pants?

Kathy

[alaMode]

that's part of the fun for me...

BUT, I always leave 1-2 days open for being spontaneous (in a planned-out kind of way!)

[Dsnygirl]

Hi Kathy!

I'm like you -- I LOVE the planning part -- no spreadsheets, but I have my days planned for what park based on their hours/shows, and then that helps me plan out where we want to eat and when... sometimes I'll even make a list of what rides we want to prioritize.

But -- what I find is that when we get there, although we usually stick to the plan as far as what parks we're going to go to, from that point on "the plan" gets followed more loosely.

If we're exhausted one morning and need to skip an ADR, or we cover more ground at a park than we thought and want to head somewhere else and that ends up changing a dining ADR -- we just go with the flow day to day sometimes.

I think I plan so much because it helps pass the time until our trip, and lets me virtually be there once in awhile while I'm planning... but once we're there, it's more relaxed and our plans are "more of a set of guidelines than actual rules"

Your trip must be coming up soon -- I hope you guys have a wonderful time!!

[IrishMickey]

We plan out the parks based on where we want to eat, when we have our ADR's then we do whatever we want at that park. I print out a schedule of all my resi numbers and away we go. My DH always makes fun of me saying that I need to be more "go with the flow", but he likes that we have a mini set plan for our trips. We visit Disneyland every summer and that is when we just do what we want! but the World is just to big for that, Yeah Mickey!

[faline]

I keep a somewhat loose plan of which park we plan to be at on what day and anything that I have specifically scheduled such as tours or dining reservations. However, it is always subject to change based on how we're feeling in any given day!

[RedSoxFan]

We don't usually have set plans. We go with the flow. Our last visit, on the spur of the moment, DH and DS (16 at the time) did the Dive Quest on 24 hours notice. DS was in heaven with that event.

[Fastpasssteve]

Honey - My spreadsheet is color-coded by Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, Park Hours including EMH, special events, evening activities, and what fireworks we're watching which night.

I'm a firm believer in planning which parks on which days, planning as many ADR's as possible. If you need to cancel one or two along the way, no biggie. It's not as if they won't be able to fill my table at 'Ohana!

However, I do not program which attractions to see first, second, or first. What we do and the order in which we do it is my form of sponteneity...but we won't be late for that lunch ADR! I also leave some latitude for evening activities...such as Jellyrolls or Raglan Road or late night Animal watching at the Animal Kingdom Lodge with nightvision goggles.

[ryca1dreams]

I keep a somewhat loose plan of which park we plan to be at on what day and anything that I have specifically scheduled such as tours or dining reservations. However, it is always subject to change based on how we're feeling in any given day!

I do the same thing. I basically just plan what park(s) we will be in at what part of the day and any ADRs. Then I let it go. Of course, even that little planning can change, just like you said.

In my "real" life, I'm not much like that. That's why we escape to the world of Disney, right?

[Belster]

I LOVE to plan as well. We mostly decide where we are going based on EMH..but do not have to stick to it. The only two things I am a stickler on are, no blowing off ADR's and getting up early...we must get to the parks early.

[buzznwoodysmom]

I am normally a big time planner. I plan, plan, plan as much as I can as far out as I can. However, we are going to be arriving in about a week and this was a very spur of the moment trip, just booked a room a few days ago, and we are going with no plans. I did book a few must have ADRs, but this time we don't care what park we go to on what day. We don't care what the EMHs are, and we'll just have meals as we go. If we can get an ADR then great, if we can't then we'll just have a CS meal. I have to admit as much of a super planner as I am it feels so great to just let it go! I bet we'll have the trip of a lifetime.

However, I must admit that since we go fairly often I've found that on each trip I have been letting some of the planning go. I think at this point we've done it all already many, many times, and we know we'll be back to do it all again many, many more. I don't feel the need to "get it all in" as much as I used to.

[divinedi]

We generally do counter service meals, saves some money and to be honest, I don't like sitting there for that long, takes up too much time from the parks! Therefore, I have to admit, other than the Keys to the Kingdom tour, and LaNouba the last time we went, there was no plan, we basically get up in the morning, and go wherever we feel like. Althouth since Fantasmic is only on a few nights now, and we do sometimes like to do the EMH, that takes a bit of planning, but nothing major. We like to take it easy, it's vacation afterall, and we've been there a few times, and will go again for sure, so no need to worry about getting to everything!

[Goofy Texan]

I go with planning out our first 1/2 day in each park. After that I have a basic schedule available - what parks are green, date-specific events, and so on. So, the second half of the week is much looser. I hate the thought of getting to the end of the week and realizing I missed out some things I didn't want to miss out on!

We only go every 2 to 3 years, which means we don't need to do everything, but we still want to do a lot. Disney is a "doing" vacation. It costs too much to go to Disney and just relax. I can do that at home.

[ransam]

i'm kind of inbetween. I love the planning aspect of the trip. I generally know before i go what park i'm going to each day.
but i am pretty easy once i get to the park to be talked into going to a different park.

[Dsnygirl]

However, I must admit that since we go fairly often I've found that on each trip I have been letting some of the planning go. I think at this point we've done it all already many, many times, and we know we'll be back to do it all again many, many more. I don't feel the need to "get it all in" as much as I used to.

We are just the same as you on this one now... and I always tell my DH that as long as you promise me we'll be back, I'll never get stressed over what we haven't done. I've seen too many families go into 'melt-down mode' over trying to get to everything and they're exhausted and tired and cranky -- so we've gotten ALOT better at knowing what the "don't want to miss" things are for us and our girls, what the "it's okay if we don't see it this year" things are and letting go of any set-in-stone schedule once we arrive. To be able to relax more & more each trip has been the biggest enjoyment of being able to go more often than we thought we'd be going!

[Katzateer]

I love the planning and plan all the meals and what we are going to do on a sheet and make a copy for me to keep in the room and one for my purse (in case it gets misplaced).

Then when we are in WDW we just do the days as they come. If the weather isn't great or we don't feel like the food plans for the day, we change it that morning.

I think about 1/3 of our planned schedule is actually what we do but I don't get stressed because I know we have it when we want it.

If I have some place we really want to eat I make 2 reservations and then cancel one when we get there so we don't miss it.

[Dragongirlx]

I generally plan the 1st four days of our visit so we can cover MK, Epcot, AK and HS. After that it all depends on where we have ADRs and what we are feeling like that morning. I always leave a few days without ADRs so we can just decide where to go without having to leave to go to a reservation but I do plan the ADRs so we can get in all the table service restaurants we want to try.
That said I have spreadsheets for ADRS, packing, what new things we want to try and I will probably think up a few more before we leave.

[mjm12000]

I love the planning I start months before and work on a complete schedule on a spreadsheet covering hours of each park, show times ,refurbs extra magic hours. I even do details of what rides in what order and what fast passes etc complete with map print outs with the rides in numbered ordered and highlighted. I have done this for every trip and it works out amazingly and I usually manage to do everything. Now last trip I did two weeks ago, I still did the entire plan but as I have been so many times now and have done all the rides and shows I decided to only use my spreadsheet as a reference and decided to go where ever the day took me and ride what ever ride I felt like in whatever order it happened to be in ... and to be honest it was the most relaxing vacation I have ever had, I took naps when I was tired, hung out at the pool when I got tired of the crowds, waited for 2 hours in the stand by line up for space mountain just cause I have never done it before and it was all great. Now had I been on my first trip or with someone else who had not been before I still would have done my normal commando attack of the parks but I think from now on I will play it a little more relaxed and use my plans as a reference to know hours and show times but beyond that I will let the magic take me where ever it takes me and learn to love just being there.

[Pirate Granny]

I'm a kindred spirit to FASTPASSSTEVE...and I have three spreadsheets already going for the trips coming up...although waiting to finalize the one in March until the hours are announced and we are already discussing what ADR's we'd like to have.

[CleveRocks]

I love PREPARING for trips by researching and asking questions, but we never PLAN a minute of our trips. Well, for a week-long trip we'll plan one or two ADRs for character meals.

But we HATE the idea of sticking to a plan for a vacation. During those 1 or 2 days we have ADRs, my wife and I are both SOOOOO unhappy that we have to be somewhere at a certain time. We really hate it.

We both work in stressful professions, and add to that with two kids and sports and Scouts, and our lives are planned down to the minute. So when we're on vacation, we like to just hang loose.

For a Disney vacation, I make printouts of park hours including Extra Magic Hours and parade/fireworks hours, but that's just so we know what's possible.

This next paragraph will make all you super-planners faint.

Wanna know how we decide which park to go to on which day? We ask our kids. We ask them that morning, or at the very very earliest we ask them at bedtime the night before. We've been there 3 times in the past 5 years, starting when they were 5 and 2.5 ... even at that age, we let them decide. Now, of course we have some control, such as making allowances for EMH, but otherwise the kids are in control.

But before our first trip, I read every book, every website, every blog, and asked every question on every message board I could find ... I developed an encyclopedic knowledge of all relevant WDW info, so from our first day I knew how to figure out what would be best to do no matter what situation we found ourselves in.

And we do the same with other trips, as well. We just got back last night from 9 days in Niagara Falls and Toronto. We had hotel reservations, of course, but beyond that, we had no plans for what to do on each day. Of course, I studied up and knew what we wanted to accomplish, but seriously, we gave ZERO thought to what day for what thing, or what thing to do first or last, and so on.

And just like with our Disney trips, we had a great time, we didn't miss a thing, and we were laid-back and relaxed the entire time.

[Fangorn]

I love PREPARING for trips by researching and asking questions, but we never PLAN a minute of our trips.

I like the distinction here, and I'm in complete agreement. I want to know what my options are for a given trip so I research the park hours, EMH and special events. I will even put together the most 'elegant' solution for seeing and doing everything (I do strategic planning for a living so that comes naturally). But we have never actually followed that solution. Once we're on property, the "plan" is merely a vague suggestion and a schedule of possibilities.

For instance, showings of Fantasmic are a limited resource, so if we want to see it, we need to know the dates and times available. That might dictate that we go to DHS on Thursday (one of the days they usually have Fantasmic), but then again, maybe not. It all depends.

There are a few things we schedule -Illuminations on our first evening, a tour perhaps, and a dinner at 'Ohana with our son who lives in Orlando. But those are more about family and tradition than they are about our vacation.

For us, being prepared is important. Planning every waking moment: a really disturbing thought.

Steve