A bit Overwhelmed!

[RiversideBunny]

Simpify. Keep It Simple.

There are only 4 things that you need to plan now.

1. When to go. When can you get there?
Avoid July and August and major holidays if possible.

2. Where to stay. Easy one. What is your budget? Pop Century or Polynesian, or somewhere in between, like POR.

3. Park Hopper tickets or not? Yes, if you want flexibility and the budget allows for it. Park Hopper tickets help you relax. You don't have to plan so much.

4. Special Dining reservations- Is there a particular sit down restaurant that you want to be sure to get in, like maybe Chef Mickeys, etc. If so make an ADR for it.
Don't get carried away trying to plan every meal; do the rest of them when you get there, or as you go along before leaving.

That's all. Keep it simple.
If you put too many constants into the equation then you won't be able to handle the variables.

Good luck. Have fun.

 

[DisneyMusician2]

The real advantage is the park hopper. Planning becomes twice as difficult without it! Then you can hop to a park for dinner you may not necessarily be at during the day.

 

[PintoColvig]

My advice:

• Go at the slowest, least crowded time of the year as possible
• Go for the longest time possible

The lower the crowds the more casual your touring can be while still seeing the maximum number of attractions. Good or bad, those slower times are becoming fewer and farther between. Perhaps January and February are your best bets.

To really "see" WDW, you need at least six or seven days, IMO. MK and Epcot are easily 2+ days each to see the bulk of what they have to offer. DHS and AK can take a day each. Throw in shopping, relaxing at the pool, a waterpark, etc. and you have a full week. Even then, do not expect to see it all. I've stayed for ten days before and still didn't see every attraction that I intended to see. In fact, it is a good excuse to plan a follow up trip.

 

[celticdog]

Use the "Extra Magic Hours" especially in the evening.

Always get to the parks early and leave or have lunch reservations for when it gets crowded.

Unfortunately I have to disagree with these "2 rules".

We aviod the EMH days like the plague. I do all my planning and touring around and away from any EMH day. I found those to be more crowded than non-EMH days.

We never get up early and never get to a park before 11:00 am. We do, however, stay until the very end. CMs are usually pushing out with brooms. We always skip lunch and have a long sit down dinners instead. It's good for re-charging.

Our vacations are relaxing. We don't do full on assualts of the parks. We sleep in, we have long breakfasts and dinners. We stop for snacks. We also go in less busier times of year. Just to put it in perspective, last September, we had only a 15 min. wait for Soarin' at 1:00pm. Our longest wait was actually Peter Pan at 45 min. for some strange reason.

Follow Master Yoda's advice. It is a good strategic planning method.

 

[sublimesting]

Calm down. I don't know how long you are going but it is quite easy to see and do everything despite what people may say. We go every year and in 6 days see and do every show and attraction that interests us (which is the vast vast majority of DW).

Here's a tip: at night the parks thin out considerably. Last year we went during 4th of July. We arrived the Saturday before at 6 pm(we drove). That evening we rode every single ride in the Magic Kingdom, including 5 times on POC. Within 4 days we rode all rides and saw all attractions in all 4 parks, day 5 hot typhoon lagoon (in the evening pleasure island including Cirque and dancing and shopping), Day 6 (Blizzard beach and in the evening another prk).....we stayed for 10 days and actually got bored as we rode everything tons of times!

Here's another tip: if you manage fast pass well and don't mind walking you'll never wait more than 10 minutes for anything ever. Here's how to do it: Grab a fast pass for a busy ride such as Splash Mountain (fast pass gives you a time to return depending on how many were gven out...you have a 1 hour window), then while waiting for the time to come back ride rides with short lines. Now here is the trick: As soon as you can grab another fast pass for a major ride...even if you have to walk to the other side of the park to grab it. Then ride the first fast pass ride. repeat this process. Soon Fastpasses will start overlapping and you can pretty much hop on one ride, hit a small lied ride, hop on another FP ride....

 

[PintoColvig]

Calm down. I don't know how long you are going but it is quite easy to see and do everything despite what people may say. We go every year and in 6 days see and do every show and attraction that interests us (which is the vast vast majority of DW).

Here's a tip: at night the parks thin out considerably. Last year we went during 4th of July. We arrived the Saturday before at 6 pm(we drove). That evening we rode every single ride in the Magic Kingdom, including 5 times on POC. Within 4 days we rode all rides and saw all attractions in all 4 parks, day 5 hot typhoon lagoon (in the evening pleasure island including Cirque and dancing and shopping), Day 6 (Blizzard beach and in the evening another prk).....we stayed for 10 days and actually got bored as we rode everything tons of times!

Every single ride in the MK plus over 40 minutes on PotC, eh? Yeah, right. It takes at least 10 hours to do all the attractions there. If you interested in really doing all the rides, try the Ultimate MK Touring Plan at http://www.touringplans.com/tp2/UG2_index.php?PageID=96.

 

[wdwmomof3]

Sounds like you're going into Over Planning Hyper Drive.

Take a step back, sit down and chill out with a glass of wine (or a cup of tea if you must) and look at your plans again later.

Ask your husband for his input - if its all left to you then your either going to burn out before you get to WDW, or having arrived, every little thing that goes wrong will be your fault and lead to major rows.

Planning a trip is nearly half the fun. Involve EVERYONE

Great advice

 

[sublimesting]

Every single ride in the MK plus over 40 minutes on PotC, eh? Yeah, right. It takes at least 10 hours to do all the attractions there. If you interested in really doing all the rides, try the Ultimate MK Touring Plan at http://www.touringplans.com/tp2/UG2_index.php?PageID=96.

Wrong. If there are no lines and you walk right onto everything with zero wait. Think about how long these rides are...if there is no wait, and counting walking each ride will take about 10 minutes tops. In 10 hours with no one at the MK, I bet I could get in all the attractions and shows and ride 50 rides and eat cause the DW and I rule like that...we do it commando style if need be. Plus HM was closed. And I didn't ride Aladin or Dumbo cause I'm 30 and of course didn't do things like Donald's Boat....I did walk thru Mickey and Minnie's house though. How do you get 10 hours? Sorry to burst your bubble but we did every single show attraction and ride and stopped to watch every single performer we saw at all 4 parks, hit both waterparks, rode horses at Fort Wilderness and even wasted our time at DisneyQuest (which I don't like) spent $1,500 shopping, and rerode our favs multiple times in 7 days over 4th of July....by day 10 we were exhausted and actually bored.

 

[PintoColvig]

Wrong. If there are no lines and you walk right onto everything with zero wait. Think about how long these rides are...if there is no wait, and counting walking each ride will take about 10 minutes tops. In 10 hours with no one at the MK, I bet I could get in all the attractions and shows and ride 50 rides and eat cause the DW and I rule like that...we do it commando style if need be. Plus HM was closed. And I didn't ride Aladin or Dumbo cause I'm 30 and of course didn't do things like Donald's Boat....I did walk thru Mickey and Minnie's house though. How do you get 10 hours? Sorry to burst your bubble but we did every single show attraction and ride and stopped to watch every single performer we saw at all 4 parks, hit both waterparks, rode horses at Fort Wilderness and even wasted our time at DisneyQuest (which I don't like) spent $1,500 shopping, and rerode our favs multiple times in 7 days over 4th of July....by day 10 we were exhausted and actually bored.

And one more time for good measure....

 

[nibblesandbits]

Good luck and follow Master Yoda's tips and I think you'll be fine. Don't stress yourself, you're planning a vacation...it's supposed to be relaxing. The things I plan:
-hotel (usually a value...don't need the other ammenities)
-how many days I want to go to the parks
-will I want to purchase a park hopper (most often times, yes. This is one of the best things you can buy)
-which parks on which days (I avoid EMH parks...or, since I'll have a park hopper, I'll visit those parks during Evening EMH after the main park closes and I also look at touringplans.com and look at their crowd calendar)
-if I would like to eat at a sit down restuarant, which ones will I choose (I usually pick one in the park I'll be at that day or at a resort that's close to the park)
-do I want to go to a water park, Pleasure Island, or Downtown Disney and when would it fit in my schedule best.
-contact a travel agent, especially one who mainly deals in Disney vacations. They can help you along in anything you might be missing. (Kingdom Konsultants on here are great!)

The things I don't suggest, there is no need to have a set schedule of what attractions to visit when. Best suggestion, find the must sees that you have to do and make sure you do those, then if you pass by something that you think could be interesting, go on in. Just know, that you cannot by any means, see everything.

In all, don't stress too much and have a magical trip! :wave:

 

[fizzle75]

As many people here can tell you, from reading my previous posts, I have tended in the past to be a theme park commando, and very and rigid in how I do WDW. Like you, I tend to think of it in terms of "you never know when we'll be able to go back, so I want to experience everything I can". And, in the past, I have sought viewed WDW almost as a checklist of things to do to make sure I do it all. At the Magic Kingdom, I would view almost every attraction and ride as a must do just to feel like I sufficiently did the park. It was hard for me to conceive of spending all that money and driving all the way down there to NOT do everything...or almost everything...in each park. So I would drag my poor wife to the Magic Kingdom at 9 AM and stay there until 9 or 10 PM, blitzkrieging through the park like a Nazi Panzer Division.

This would totally wear my wife out and, while we still both had fun, she wasn't enjoying it as much because I was "dragging her around" as she puts it, and I wasn't having as much fun because I didn't feel like she was having fun. Plus, I was starting to realize how much less fun it is when you view it as a checklist instead of just going and having a good time.

So I have resolved, on our upcoming April trip, to be much more relaxed and take things at a slower pace. For the Magic Kingdom, we have come up with a list of 15 attractions that we MUST do. We may do some outside that list if we feel like it, but instead of going through the park map and checking off the rides that we still haven't done, we're just gonna make sure we do these 15. And instead of spending the entire day and night at each park, with Epcot and Magic Kingdom, we have more than one day planned at those two parks and plan to do partial days on each. Animal Kingdom, we generally spend all day at, from approximately park open until 4 PM or so. Hollywood Studios we'll arrive at at park opening time and stay until Fantasmic. So a long day at that park, but there are also much fewer attractions to try to hit, and alot of sit down attractions, so we can go at a much slower pace than at Magic Kingdom, and give us both time to relax and just enjoy the scenery.

So I totally know where you're coming from, because when I get into full blown vacation planning mode, I have so many things that I want to do and I try to cram everything into the itinerary. But doing it that way, I started to feel like we were just rushing from one thing to the next just to say we did it, rather than just enjoying things. So, from my experience and based on my own plan for this year's trip, schedule some time just to lounge around the resort...or at least leave one or two open slots on your itinerary to decide on the fly what you want to do at that moment.

And one more thing...if you bring any pringles on your trip with you, make sure you hide them from Mousekeeping...or put a note on the cans telling Mousekeeping to keep their grubby hands off them. :lookaroun

Dude, I am SO proud of you right now!:sohappy:

The first step to recovery is admitting you have a problem!

By the way...the Pringles are gone and they aren't coming back! You need to deal with it , move on and learn to live your life without them. I know it still hurts but I promise you that life goes on without the Pringles.:animwink:

 

[sbkline]

By the way...the Pringles are gone and they aren't coming back! You need to deal with it , move on and learn to live your life without them. I know it still hurts but I promise you that life goes on without the Pringles.:animwink:

Perhaps you don't realize the real reason why I want to set aside more time for the resort this time around; I intend to return to POR in April and thouroughly search the place until I find those pringles. I think that the Mousekeeping staff is holding them captive somewhere and I'm confident that they're still alive. I will NOT give up hope!

 

[Monty]

And one more thing...if you bring any pringles on your trip with you, make sure you hide them from Mousekeeping...or put a note on the cans telling Mousekeeping to keep their grubby hands off them. :lookaroun

Or just go through and lick each and every chip... :slurp:


:lookaroun

 

[fizzle75]

Perhaps you don't realize the real reason why I want to set aside more time for the resort this time around; I intend to return to POR in April and thouroughly search the place until I find those pringles. I think that the Mousekeeping staff is holding them captive somewhere and I'm confident that they're still alive. I will NOT give up hope!

Maybe we can team up and organize a reconnaissance mission.:lol:

See, that's one more reason why you need to bring your son on vacation...he can squeeze into much tighter spots than we can, he would be perfect for a reconnaissance mission.:animwink:

 

[figmentmom]

How does one not :hammer:with the planning of their trip. There is far too many choices for someone who has never been. (i went as a kid with my parents but they made all the decisions) Where do we stay, where do we eat, what is the best way to navigate the parks, what rides do we ride first, what attractions should we see, what park do we visit on what day.

It seems like an awful lot. I know we will not see everything or do everything for that matter. But, still I fill the need to try because, Lord only knows when we'll be back! :shrug: I guess I just want this to be as perfect as it can be. My husband and I have never done something like this together before and it is his very first time to WDW. I am excited but just dont want to make the wrong decisions.

I have read both the Unoffical guide and Passporters. I even bought Birnbaums for couples. I am signed up on every WDW internet site that I can think of. You would think that I would be able to narrow the choices. My husband says he dosent care where we sleep or where we eat, so he has left all the decision making up to me.:brick:uugh! This should be fun not frustrating. Maybe I am over thinking it. Is it possible to wing it and go with the flow and still have a great time?

Joy

You are suffering from information overload! :lol: I know you want to be prepared, and have the best experience possible, but it's a VACATION, not a quest!

Select the rides/attractions you MOST want to experience in each park, and see those first (or get fastpasses for them, if they're available). That done, stroll around the parks and enjoy watching all those families running frantically from place to place, checking their watches and shouting, "Three more rides before lunch, Mabel! Now HUSTLE!!!" :ROFLOL: Eat when you're hungry, not when your schedule SAYS you are. Sure, make SOME definite plans, but if they go a bit awry, so what?

Relax and have a great trip! :wave:

 

[mousefan1972]

I am a firm believer that trip planning should be fun. Personally, I love it. (as if you guys couldn't tell that about me.... ) If it is stressing you out, try doing a little bit at a time, and as others have mentioned, enlist the help of your family. Invest in a good guide book (my fave is The Unofficial Guide), take a deep breath, and you'll be fine.

 

[photoflight]

You're over-thinking it, I think. The first time my GF and I went (I'd been to WDW once in the 80s I have to admit) I'd read a little in the "unofficial guide" but otherwise did NO prep. We went and did what looked like fun, and we had a terrific time.

Is it possible to do what we did and regret not doing things there because we didn't plan it, or didn't know about it? SURE - but we relaxed, enjoyed the place, and have been back several times. We still haven't seen absolutely everything, but each trip is as good as the last and I don't think we've had any regrets.

 

[jt04]

Unfortunately I have to disagree with these "2 rules".

We aviod the EMH days like the plague. I do all my planning and touring around and away from any EMH day. I found those to be more crowded than non-EMH days.

We never get up early and never get to a park before 11:00 am. We do, however, stay until the very end. CMs are usually pushing out with brooms. We always skip lunch and have a long sit down dinners instead. It's good for re-charging.

Our vacations are relaxing. We don't do full on assualts of the parks. We sleep in, we have long breakfasts and dinners. We stop for snacks. We also go in less busier times of year. Just to put it in perspective, last September, we had only a 15 min. wait for Soarin' at 1:00pm. Our longest wait was actually Peter Pan at 45 min. for some strange reason.

Follow Master Yoda's advice. It is a good strategic planning method.

^ ^This is good advice for an experienced visitor, but if you have NEVER been my advice is to get to the parks early to get oriented and ride the more popular attractions (if you are interested in that). Then leave and go rest/recreate when the crowds get heavy. Don't fight the crowds, it is not worth it. I still highly recommend EMH in the evening if you can handle it. You can ride many of the moderately popular rides with no lines and almost always the popular rides towards closing are walk on. Have fun.

 

[Joy Peace]

Thanks everyone! I am over my breakdown now that I have finally chosen where to stay. I think after making the ADRs I will let it sit for a while then pick up where I left off closer to the arrival date. Thanks for listening.

Joy

 

[Hammer1310]

The above posters are absolutely right about avoiding EMH days, but the nights themselves are just great at the right time of year. When MK has it's evening EMH, spend the day at AK and then go to MK in time to get your wristband and watch everyone leave. Well....not everyone, but you get the drift. Also, we try to catch Wishes and Spectro either early or late in the trip but not every night we are at the MK. Use some of those nights to ride SM, HM, POTC and BTMRR as many times as you want while the fireworks and parades are in full swing. In Jan-Feb when Wishes or Spectro is going on, those attractions are ghost-towns. We walked onto BTMRR last week and the CM operating the ride was inviting people to stay on the ride if no-one was waiting for their row at the end of the ride.
We did it on this trip at Epcot during ROE too. It makes TT a bit easier to get into but somehow people still flock to Soarin'.....for some reason. We were also the only people seated in our ride vehicle in Ellen's Energy Adventure (What? I hadn't ridden it in a long time, gimme a break!).