Does anybody still "wing it"?

[Danno0209]

Just curious if anyone else out there still goes without a set schedule for every day? I see all this stuff about booking FP+ and dining 180 days out...just seems crazy to me to be able to know where you want to be everyday of your trip that far out. I feel if I wanted to be set to such a schedule I'd just stay home and work haha. Sure I may make reservations for dining but it won't be until I'm there and a day or two out. Maybe I'm crazy but just wanted to get some people's opinions and see how everyone else does it.

 

[Minnesota disney fan]

That's my worry. I feel from what I've been reading on here, they're making it so you HAVE to plan every minute of your trip ahead of time. I don't like the thought of that but I guess I'll have to come to terms with it. Thinking this trip I'll try minimal planning and see how it goes. Thinking completely winging it is out of the question.

You can make your 3 fp's for each day, deciding where you might be. You don't have to go to that park and you don't have to use them. We found last year that we didn't use most of our fast passes anyway. We were surprised by that. So you can go with the flow. You don't have to use the fp's at all if you don't want to. We used ours for the 3 or 4 must do's and then let the others go. We also get 10 day with hoppers too. I think this year will be much more fun to wing it most of the time have fun

 

[NeedMoreMickey]

The trip is just two of us and we are going for 4nights in October, mostly going to wing it this trip. We have ADR for the first night and the last night but nothing else. We have decided that this trip is going to be a slow down and enjoy everything trip, people watch, take our time eating, etc. The only rides that I really want to go on are Toy Story and 7 Dwarfs and we have our FP set up. Other then that it will be take our time and see what is available.

 

[R W B]

I despise the fact that if we want anything good we have to schedule a FP+ 60 days out. Booking ADRs 180 days out was bad enough. I hate having to stick to a schedule while I'm on vacation. I just want to relax and "wing it". I still have fun and still enjoy the trips but I just wish we didn't have to plan as much for each day.

Winging it would stress me out. I love planning.

Planning and having a schedule stresses me out!

 

[xmlguy]

I plan the overall trip as best as I can to allow me to have the maximum amount of flexibility for the daily details to do what I want, when I want to do it, in flexible coordination with anyone that's sharing the experience with me.

I take my flexibility to the extreme. I coordinate my vacations to be about 3-4 weeks long, during a low season period, with a premium annual pass. I schedule two vacations 11 mos. apart to be used during the valid one year period of the pass. So I basically get about 40-60 days out of the pass, which is less than $20/day. I always have a car. I visit the parks for shorter lengths of time each day than most people, on average, but I think I enjoy it more that way. I see everything that I want to see as much as I want to see it. I spend a lot less than average too, since I stay off-property and mostly live like a local..

I spend quite a bit of time doing non-Disney park things too. Frankly, I think families that go to WDW and Universal without taking their kids to KSC have their priorities askew. A KSC trip is easily worth many years worth of science/tech education and motivation for kids. Seeing night launches of the Space Shuttle and other missions were very special events for me, particularly since I got to personally meet NASA Astronaut Story Musgrave at one launch.

 

[Chernaboggles]

I plan the overall trip as best as I can to allow me to have the maximum amount of flexibility for the daily details to do what I want, when I want to do it, in flexible coordination with anyone that's sharing the experience with me.

I take my flexibility to the extreme. I coordinate my vacations to be about 3-4 weeks long, during a low season period, with a premium annual pass. I schedule two vacations 11 mos. apart to be used during the valid one year period of the pass. So I basically get about 40-60 days out of the pass, which is less than $20/day. I always have a car. I visit the parks for shorter lengths of time each day than most people, on average, but I think I enjoy it more that way. I see everything that I want to see as much as I want to see it. I spend a lot less than average too, since I stay off-property and mostly live like a local..

I spend quite a bit of time doing non-Disney park things too. Frankly, I think families that go to WDW and Universal without taking their kids to KSC have their priorities askew. A KSC trip is easily worth many years worth of science/tech education and motivation for kids. Seeing night launches of the Space Shuttle and other missions were very special events for me, particularly since I got to personally meet NASA Astronaut Story Musgrave at one launch.

It's great if you can do it, but the ability to be away from home that long is very unusual. Most people have a week or two of vacation per year and have to schedule it around job obligations and children's schooling. Telling families with kids that their "priorities are askew" if they can't (or don't want to) cram an additional destination into a relatively short, already busy vacation is a little harsh. The vacation you're describing is a Central Florida vacation, one where you go into it intending to see a variety of things in the area. That's a completely different trip than a Walt Disney World vacation, which is a specific type of experience, usually of limited duration and centered around Disney parks and property.

 

[TXDisney]

I think it depends on how many days you're there if you have the luxury of winging it. For instance our last trip was just my wife and I and we planned everything bc we did nice dinners every night which decided what park we'd go to that day and we were only there for 4.5 days. Our next trip we are going on 11-29-12/5 and with a group so not real nice dinners means we will wing it

 

[Lee]

Winging it.
I will not plan beyond (maybe) which park I may go to on a given day. Likely not even that.

 

[The Mighty Tim]

Last trip (September 2015), the only WDW things booked in advance were the Undiscovered Future World Tour and a single ADR. The rest, we winged it. Didn't even book any FP+ - not even while we were there.

The approach was largely successful, but next time a few FPs might be in order, since we were unable to get on to rides such as the Dwarf Mine Train and Kilimanjaro Safaris without waiting for a long time.

I should point out that we did have some offsite trips and events planned in advance though.

 

[bugsbunny]

At this point, I don't see how its even possible to pull it off with great success like you could 10 years ago. Everything is PLAN PLAN PLAN now and I think its only a matter of time before you have to schedule your bathroom breaks 30 days ahead of time through the app.

If you want to miss out on dining and don't mind waiting in line, then you can certainly wing it. I use to love to be able to just do the day rather than feel like I was following a bus schedule.

 

[xmlguy]

It's great if you can do it, but the ability to be away from home that long is very unusual. Most people have a week or two of vacation per year and have to schedule it around job obligations and children's schooling.

You don't have to go to WDW for 3-4 weeks like I do in order to make the AP a better value for most people who can schedule 2 vacations 11 months apart. A regular annual pass is $654 per adult. Buying two of 3-day park hoppers is more expensive than that for the tickets alone, without the parking and AP discount benefits. Most families do go for 3 or more days, and most everyone can use the discounts. So don't dismiss the strategy just because of how I use it. Most families can save a lot of money and spend more time at the parks when they do have the vacation time available, and with this strategy the cost of the parks is the same for two 3-4 week vacations as for two 3-day ones. That's not including food, lodging, and incidentals, of course, but those are entirely discretionary expenses where frugality can become a major incentive to cut the daily costs to more affordable levels.

The main reasons I suggest this strategy is because (1) I've personally used it many times to save a ton of money, and (2) the main reason my family on the west-coast couldn't afford to go to WDW when I was a kid was because it was too expensive. As an adult, I learned how to go to WDW for a much lower daily cost by using this strategy. A lot more families may be able to afford a WDW vacation using this strategy if they knew about it. It's one of the only ways to reduce the park cost under $20/day/ppn.

Telling families with kids that their "priorities are askew" if they can't (or don't want to) cram an additional destination into a relatively short, already busy vacation is a little harsh. The vacation you're describing is a Central Florida vacation, one where you go into it intending to see a variety of things in the area. That's a completely different trip than a Walt Disney World vacation, which is a specific type of experience, usually of limited duration and centered around Disney parks and property.

I'll assume that they should be able to deal with it..

 

[Chernaboggles]

You don't have to go to WDW for 3-4 weeks like I do in order to make the AP a better value for most people who can schedule 2 vacations 11 months apart. A regular annual pass is $654 per adult. Buying two of 3-day park hoppers is more expensive than that for the tickets alone, without the parking and AP discount benefits. Most families do go for 3 or more days, and most everyone can use the discounts. So don't dismiss the strategy just because of how I use it.

I'm not dismissing the strategy, we use it ourselves and it's great. It's just not practical for most families. In my experience, having done both types of trip, WDW is very much a "time is money" sort of place. If you have a lot of time, you spend less money and can wing it in terms of planning. For the shorter resort type stays, you end up paying for convenience and need to plan the days more carefully.

 

[Graham9]

We know where are going each day, but we have a few days as empty, so we can do what we feel like at the time. However, we don't like to map out specific things on each day (beyond restaurant reservations) as we like to do what the mood/weather/crowds take us. Having to decide what you are doing 60 days out is a grind and has taken a severe crimp on our pixie-dust.

 

[Hrudey3032]

Just curious if anyone else out there still goes without a set schedule for every day? I see all this stuff about booking FP+ and dining 180 days out...just seems crazy to me to be able to know where you want to be everyday of your trip that far out. I feel if I wanted to be set to such a schedule I'd just stay home and work haha. Sure I may make reservations for dining but it won't be until I'm there and a day or two out. Maybe I'm crazy but just wanted to get some people's opinions and see how everyone else does it.

The only planning I do is what days we go to the parks by looking at the times available during our trip. We do not plan where we go once entering the park or even if we are taking the monorail,boat or bus.

 

[JimJam]

Other than the occasional dining reservation, I love to wing it. It's a lot more free/ less stressful. You're not running for time, you can take it easy and do whatever feels right.