A bit Overwhelmed!

[Joy Peace]

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?

Well I am done venting now. Thanks for reading my crazy breakdown.

Good night to you all, sleep tight:snore: and dont let those nasty bed bugs bite-yuck!

Joy

 

[CAPTAIN HOOK]

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

 

[DisneyWales]

We tend to "wing it"

But we lucky enough to go at least once a year so i guess its not that important for us.

What the major issue i find with planning is you never know what's going to be busy on any one day.

What i tend to do when planning is to plan the core stuff.

So i pick all the shows i wanna see, i.e. all the stuff that only shows a set number of times each day. I find thats a good place to start, that way you can see where you need to spend more time. Then i pick what i want to eat, so ill do a rough dining plan (but i never book until the day or two before) We have our favorite restaurants, but they tend to be the quieter ones.

Then as for attractions, well we always wind them, see what's busy on the day and so on.

My only advice is, if you really want to do Sorin' get a fastpass as soon as you enter EPCOT. Same for Test Track, these are the only two attractions that i now find the fast passes go real quick, and the wait times just to some unpleasant lengths. Sometimes Rockin Rollercoaster can get a little silly and weather depending so can splash, but generally we find everything else, most of the time has a manageable wait time of about 20mins or so. But again there are things that can make the parks busier than "normal'

Either way im sure you will have a great time, even if you plan it down to the last minute, or just throw the panning guides away and just get lost in the magic.

 

[goofy0101]

Yes, if you're stressed out with the planning then just back off on it for a bit. As Captain Hook said, planning should be nearly half the fun. I'm the planner in our group and I absolutely love it. We're going to be down there in a few days and I had our plans laid out months ago. Just a couple of days ago we ended up adding one more person and that threw all the ADR's off track - but I loved it 'cause I got to do the planning all over again!

Just let everything you've done incubate for a while then come back to it later and see what you think. Unless you're going at a really busy time, don't try to plan every single ride and attraction; have a general idea of where you want to go and what you want to do then just let it happen.

Have fun!

 

[kybred72]

Deep breathe!

First, your budget will determine which property you stay at. I think everyone on here will agree that an on property resort is the way to go! Choose from Value, Moderate and Deluxe resorts. Once you've narrowed it down to a couple of resorts, I'd recommend researching the resorts amenities, location and reading reviews to help make your final decision.

As for planning your days in the parks, nowadays you do have to plan in advance if you want to sit down and eat a table service meal. Due to the popularity of the Dining Plan. Look at menus online and again read reviews of restaurants you're considering. The way we approach it is to make your dining ressie and then plan park visits around where we'll be eating.

Other things to consider on planning your days at the parks...dates and times for Special Events (like SpectroMagic, Illuminations, etc) and parks offering EMH. Some people steer clear of the parks offering EMH, we however, hop over to the park for the Evening EMH.

It can be overwhelming for sure :dazzle: but fun at the same time! :sohappy: have fun!

 

[amandagibbins]

yes do it by budget and taste you can view the menus @ www.allears.net because you are advised to pre book i have fussy eaters so this comes in handy for me i can look a head instead of standing looking at menus getting wound up at the parks.you can plan,plan,plan but i think once you have got everthing booked and your dollars ready just go with the flow because whatever you read in the books so is several other million people:wave: good luck and enjoy

 

[DisneyWales]

The way we approach it is to make your dining ressie and then plan park visits around where we'll be eating.

Some people steer clear of the parks offering EMH, we however, hop over to the park for the Evening EMH.
D

Two very good points, i guess where you wanna/can eat is gonna help decide where you eat, also we ALWAYS steer clear of EMH, but then i dont like the parks when their super busy.

Used to hate it in Sept when they would only run Wishes twice a week, one of those was EMH, NIGHTMARE, put me off EMH forever.

 

[Disneyfanman]

When people ask me, I always offer the same few pieces of advice:

1) Use Touringplans.com to determine your schedule of parks to visit (They make pretty accurate recommendations about the busiest and slowest parks on any particular day)

2) Don't make full day visits for more than two consecutive days to avoid "hitting the wall". Instead, plan a half day or go shopping at DTD, or do a water park, or take a day off. Your feet will thank you later. The parks are huge, and this is especially important if the heat is 80F or higher.

3) Make your Advanced Dining Reservations as early as possible (up to 180 days out) so that you can secure the best time slots. You can make multiple reservations and skip the ones that you don't want. There is no penaltiy except for a few restaurants. I always tell people to budget for one nice sit down restaurant every day to take a rest break as well as eat. The food at WDW is really pretty good, but expensive. It's much better and cheaper than at six flags or cedar fair though.

4) Plan to see all three fireworks shows, even if it means park hopping. They are a wonderful way to end each day.

5) Use the touring plans in the Guide Books to plan on hitting the 3-5 busiest attractions in each park as early as possible. After that you can relax and enjoy your day (except for the busiest times of the year). The busiest attractions have 5-10 minute waits at open, and many times hit 90-120 minutes later in the day.

6) Be at the park 30 minutes before open for most days.

7) Don't try and see everything in every park. It can't be done, and doing less usually means enjoying yourself more. At Disney, it's the atmosphere as much as the attractions that leave you wanting to go back!

8) Shopping is part of the fun. Don't skip the themed shops, even if it's just to look.

9) The parades are great if you like that sort of thing. If not, it's a great time to hit attractions.

10) The last hour open is often a "walk-on" for many attractions.

 

[tooltime]

the best advice i got from these fine folks is just slow it down when the vacation starts, don't follow any plan too close as you'll be making a lot of adjustments, and that's ok. just slow it down and enjoy, don't rush it. if you miss an adr, fine, there will be something else special nearby.

 

[JDM]

I completely know what you mean! I'm a compulsive planner myself.

Last year, we went on our first trip as a family. (My daughter's first time and my wife and I hadn't been for decades)
We bought the Unofficial Guide and devoured it. We also--and this is very important--sought the advice and assistance of a travel agent. (She actually recommended the Unofficial Guide, as well, but we had already purchased it)

The Guide has many really great tips. But be aware....depending on when you're going, the guide tends to overstate the hectic nature of things in many cases--and this is a good thing!!

Use it to get an idea of your "must-see" rides and your "must-eat" restaurants (if any). Use the tips on Extra Magic park hours, whether you're on-site or not. Definitely use the hotel pages.

Also, Allears.net is a great site for hotels and restaurant recommendations.

Understand that unless you are planning 6-7 days in the parks (which most of us could never do), you won't see everything. Understand also that that is perfectly okay. All rides are NOT created equal and even Disney has some clunkers. (gasp! sacrilege!!)

Read it, research it, digest it....then take step back and don't be afraid to start eliminating (or at least prioritizing). It sounds like you are (like me) not able to go very often, so make sure you do the essentials. But don't sweat what you miss. We had a plan ready in case of emergency, but mostly we winged it. And you know what? it worked out fine.

And (another sacrilege) don't worry about the food. It's fine wherever you go. It ultimately doesn't really matter where you eat as long as you find something appealing on the menu. Don't fall for restaurant over-hype. Go where you can walk in or easily get reservations. (the exception to this are character meals--definitely reserve those way ahead)

Feel free to send me a private message if you'd like further details on what we did on our trip.

Most importantly...HAVE FUN!

 

[Master Yoda]

First step....assume the lotus position and breath deeply and relax.

Do not look at your trip as a hole break it into little parts. Remember these words..."How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time."

Ok are you relaxed yet?

Bite one-Decide when you are going and for how long. Once you know when you are going and for how long there are a couple of resources that you use to determine which park to go to on what day. I'll get to those a little later.

Bite two- Decide what you are looking for in your vacation. Do you want a vacation or a Disney vacation. A vacation would mean sleeping late and lot of down time basically just relaxing and going with the flow. A Disney vacation would be designed around doing as much as possible in the parks at resorts which requires a fair bit of scheduling and getting up early. You can do both you just have to plan accordingly.

Bite three-Decide which resort you want to go to. Your budget will be the predominate factor in this choice followed by what you intend to use your resort for. I have stayed in every level of resort at WDW and quite honestly I have always received a very high level of service regardless of weather I was spending $50 a night at a value or $300 a night at AKL so service is not an issue. If all you plan to do is get out early, get back late and sleep in the room then there is no real need to throw down for a nice resort. However if you would like a TS restaurant, nice pools, fully themed grounds and some extra amenities then you will want to look at the moderates or the deluxe resorts. My own personal preference is Port Orleans Riverside, which is a moderate resort. It has the perfect balance of theming and amenities without breaking the bank.

Bite four-Now that you know when you are going and where you are staying you can decide what you will be doing. The easiest way I have found to do this is decide which park to go to on which days. For that decision I will refer you to Touringplans.com and in particular their crowd calender. From that plan simply look for which park will be the least busy on a particular day. If you have purchased the unofficial guide you can access all areas of the site.

Bite five-Once you know where you are going you can decide on your dinning. Simply pick the places that are in the park you are at or at a very close by resort. For example if you are at MK you can do breakfast at the Kona cafe at the poly and then maybe dinner at Crystal Palace.

Bite six-Lastly you can look at what you want to do in each park. Do not try and do everything unless you can really handle going full tilt commando mode. This is where the vacation or Disney vacation decision will really come into play. For each park pick out a top 5 and then a list of secondary targets. Make a plan to hit your top 5 and hit the secondary targets in between but be prepared to walk past one if need be.

Bite seven-Contact Kingdom Konsultants and have them book everything for you. It will not cost you a dime and they will take so much pressure of of you. I have been booking my own Disney reservations for years and tried KK a couple of years ago and I can not imagine going back to doing it myself ever again.

Did anyone see that elephant that was just here?

A few other things to add.

Remember you are there to have fun. Do not kill yourself trying to fit in every last thing that WDW has to offer. Take time to stop and smell the roses. If you can get to the parks early (1/2 or more before opening) you will have a much easier time getting a lot done. I have no idea how active you are but it is a good idea to start walking well before your trip to get in "park shape". You will walk more at WDW than you could possibly imagine. I have heard distances floating around of about 8 to 10 miles of walking per day. I know that this is a lot to digest but you are dong the right thing by planning. You would be surprised how many people throw down thousands of dollars on a Disney trip and their wealth of Disney knowledge consists of "It is near Orlando right?".

 

[Nemo14]

My advise is to listen to Master Yoda! :sohappy:




but steer clear of the KoolAid

 

[sbkline]

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

 

[Pooh'sBuddy]

You have some good concepts: "fun not frustrating" and "perfect as can be." Your vacation will be. You will be prepared and educated when the time comes to make decisions by reading your guides and keeping up with these forums. Our friends and we will be planning this weekend for our trip. :sohappy:

jer

 

[Nemo14]

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

How about a little KoolAid to wash those down? :lookaroun

 

[H20Babie]

As for which resort to stay at, if you want on property, try this resort wizard: http://hotels.about.com/cs/disneyworld/l/blwiz_wdw01.htm

It asks you 15 questions, and then based on your answers, gives you the 5 closest matches. It's pretty neat, and I've often recommended it to first timers who get overwhelmed by the resorts.

 

[rshell68]

That quiz is kind of neat. I need to bookmark that so I can share when people ask me what hotel to stay at. I am the office Disney-go-to person. Thanks!

 

[daliseurat]

I'll simplify it.

Yes, for parts of your trip you can just wing it and have a great time. No matter where you are you will find amazing stuff to do and fun places to eat.

Where you can't wing it:

Where you stay, and where you eat a sit down meal.

Follow Master Yoda's advice on what type of vacation you want. For me, where I stay is simple. I plan to sleep there, nothing else. So it is foolish for me to stay anywhere but an all-star or pop-century resort as they are the cheapest. But, they are still lots of fun and have great food courts and pools. If I want to hang around my hotel, I'd opt for something better, which leaves you with a lot more choices. Your husband will probably be happy with whatever you choose.

As for dining, unfortunately you do need to think ahead if you want a character meal or any table service meal. Everyone reserves so far in advance that it can be difficult (not impossible) to wing it. Since you've got all the research, just make a wish list of places to dine and start calling. I personally find that having one table service meal a day helps to slow us down and relax. Also, we try to have one really nice meal somewhere on a day we aren't going back to the park after we eat so we can take our time and really enjoy it.

Other than that, you can certainly wing it. Just go to whatever park has your dining in it, or whatever park has whatever nighttime event you want to see. Mostly, it's only the Magic Kingdom that doesn't do it night parade every night, so that's the only park you really need to plan for.

 

[ilovejr71292]

Tip: if there is something you really want to ride and the wait is long, see if they have a single rider line. That is, if you don't mind being split up. You get through a lot quicker.

 

[jt04]

2 rules

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.