Hardest part of planning?

[eliza61nyc]

What do you find the most frustrating part of planning a Disney vacation?
Is it the Fast pass selection process, making ADR's, picking park days? or some thing else.

We don't have any "must" do restaurants at the world so usually we concentrate on Fastpass selection. Once I get those, every thing else is gravy

 

[awoogala]

That I cannot do fp+ until 60 days out, but have to hope my meals/parks line up to what I can get, since those start at 180 days out. I'd rather start with fp+, then work meals around it.

 

[wedenterprises]

That I cannot do fp+ until 60 days out, but have to hope my meals/parks line up to what I can get, since those start at 180 days out. I'd rather start with fp+, then work meals around it.

Good point, these should match up. FP 180 days out would be most excellent.

 

[Snake]

Lets see, the entire fast pass system altogether? Thats where all this trouble started. Trying to go certain days of the week, only now also try to avoid the early magic hours an/or special early hour events that every park has that ruins rope drop AND trying coincide that with FP selections. Remembering to avoid MK during Halloween an Christmas parties as well.

 

[DoleWhipDrea]

For me it’s all the necessary pre-planning. I moved from the west coast and was a former Disneyland Resort AP for many years. My husband and I enjoyed the freedom of spontaneity - if our day freed up early, we would just get in the car and go. For WDW everything has to be pre-planned. Having to watch the calendar to make fastpass and ADR selections so far in advance feels ridiculous to me when I can’t even know what the park hours will be. I like planning trips to a certain extent, but by pre-planning the entire vacation you lose a certain percentage of what makes a vacation enjoyable.

I feel even worse for the tourists who find out too late...you should do some research before planning a vacation anywhere, but the amount of specifics one needs to know for WDW (coupled with the fussy My Disney Experience App & website) makes it challenging for new visitors.

 

[ninjaprincesst]

I actually love planning each step puts me that much closer to my trip, my biggest gripe is that dining ADR come before fastpass, it seems like it would be easier to plan out if you could make the fastpasses first. I also as Weather Lady said hate that they keep changing park hour until the last minute.

 

[HouCuseChickie]

I absolutely love the planning process and don't look at that part as a hassle, but I'm like that with pretty much all vacation planning. It's not all magic and pixie dust for me though.

My hassles fall into similar vein as @Weather_Lady and @ninjaprincesst . I don't remember much about the planning before we started bringing the kids, but in the days of those early kid trips, calendars were pretty reliable, and information was accessible at a fairly early date. Park hours were also longer, evening EMH was more common, and when evening EMH did happen...it was usually 3 hours extra after regular park hours. So, it was easier to make everything we wanted to do fit into the calendar and I didn't have many fears of things changing come trip time. Last family trip, they changed hours on us several times within the month (in one case, the week of) leading up to the trip and also flipped around EMH on several parks when we were less than a month out. Maybe it's more of a gripe than a hassle, but when you have to book dining 6 months out and FPs 2 months out, it feels like a slap in the face to guests to go shifting stuff like this so close to travel dates. So, the hassle is debating with yourself if you should totally restructure your trip because Disney fails to respect the work that goes into planning a trip around this system they've developed with more limited park hours or finding peace with what you planned before they messed with things and just going with it.

 

[Minnesota disney fan]

We don't pre plan all of our 9 days at WDW. I just do 4 days, one at each park, and plan ADR's and fp's. The last several days, I look for hard to get fp's and tag them. We usually go to MK twice and AK twice, so I know to set up some fp's if they are available. We don't stick to them like glue. Most of the time I cancel them and we do what we want. It's fun on the first 4 days with planning, and also a lot of fun just winging it the rest of the time. If we feel like doing an attraction again, we just go to the park that I set up earlier with fp's. I have been successful in getting fp's and adr's the same day or next day.
That way, we get the adr's and fp's we really want, and have the flexibility of doing what we want for the rest of the time. Works for us

 

[Queen of the WDW Scene]

I'm curious if anyone has gone on other vacations and went through a tour company?
You know even more than 180 days out where you are going and what day and where you are eating etc.
I had booked a Europe trip in September and wasn't going until May and knew my entire itinerary when I booked.
I booked an Oahu trip in November for the following July and knew my entire itinerary when I booked.
I guess I just will never understand the argument of "I don't know what park I want to go to that far out" and "I don't know what I want to eat that far out".
I also don't get the "there's too much to research" argument. I certainly didn't book my other trips without first looking at the hotels, restaurants, attractions etc that were in the itinerary to ensure they appealed to me.

 

[m steve]

FP+ is the most stressful, I think. Every year Disney seems to allow 60 day privileges to more and more offsite guests. This, of course, means that Disney resort guests face more competition when their FP+ windows open. The tier system, especially this year's awful tier structure at DHS, very much reduces the value of FP+. Like many previous posters, though, I do enjoy assembling all the different parts of a Disney vacation.

 

[Roakor]

What do you find the most frustrating part of planning a Disney vacation?
Is it the Fast pass selection process, making ADR's, picking park days? or some thing else.

We don't have any "must" do restaurants at the world so usually we concentrate on Fastpass selection. Once I get those, every thing else is gravy

hardest part is waiting for the departure date...

 

[ninjaprincesst]

FP+ is the most stressful, I think. Every year Disney seems to allow 60 day privileges to more and more offsite guests. This, of course, means that Disney resort guests face more competition when their FP+ windows open. The tier system, especially this year's awful tier structure at DHS, very much reduces the value of FP+. Like many previous posters, though, I do enjoy assembling all the different parts of a Disney vacation.

Me too, but it is really challenging trying to , for example. rope drop SWGE but still make your fastpass as early as possible in the day so you might have a shot at getting more. But I still enjoy it.