My wife and I went to Disney alone in March after a wedding in the Keys. We had a great time and without our 4 year old or additional family that we usually visit with we did EVERYTHING we wanted at the parks x10. It was so easy with just two adults and we did so much over the first four days that we were too tired to even go to a park the last day of the trip. While we had a great time and did lots of adult stuff (great meals, park hopping, etc) it just wasn't the same without our son in tow. There is definitely something missing for me as a dad to not have my son there and to see his joy of being in the parks.
Our next planned family trip to WDW is February of '17 and I am always excited to visit the parks again. However, a nice fortune with some free lodging has created the opportunity to go with my wife and son in October of '16. I am pumped to have this extra trip and as always have made it my goal to make the trip more efficient and fun filled than before rather than standing in line. I find great enjoyment in my planning and after the passing of my wife's grandfather have become the designated planner for our family which I love. Anybody else find satisfaction in this and want to share hints and strategies? I will share what I do below and hopefully others can pick up some helpful hints.
Pre-trip planning:
1. Once the dates are set for the trip I set up an Excel spreadsheet with all days of the trip listed including travel days. This helps me keep track of departure times and arrival times, reservations numbers, flight numbers, etc. I also keep track of all expenses for the trip on the spreadsheet.
2. I have had a ton of success using crowd calendars. Some people think they are worthless or not necessary but I think they are helpful. I use Kennythepirate and so far he has not let me down. I pull up the crowd calendar for the travel week and lay out several trip options for my family to review and decide what works best. For this upcoming trip I did 5,6, and 7 park day trips and we decided on a 6 day ticket without hopper option. A couple of the days will be half days or shorter days. I use the crowd calendar and group the days by green, yellow, and red and try to avoid parks on red coded days. So far it has never let me down.
3. I next book any dining options we want. This includes on-site and off-site dining using the WDW reservation system as well as Open Table. If we schedule the trip far enough in advance I set up the reservations the first day they are available. I add these reservations to my spreadsheets. Times for reservations take into account travel time, pre and post park time, and rest time.
4. I make sure to have tickets in hand within the 30 day window for FP+ booking since we always stay off-site. The trip I took with my wife in March I went so far as to wake up at midnight each night on the 30th day of the trip in order to get the best FP+. Crazy? Maybe. But, I did get every reservation I wanted. The FP+ are added to the Disney app on the phone which comes into play later. I also have strategies for booking FP+ but that is another conversation in itself.
5. I always make it a point to get to the parks at rope drop or soon after especially with small children. Much like businesses who operate on a two shift strategy, I find crowds at the parks tend to operate in the same way. The park is less crowded from 9-12 and from 4-close with the hours of 12-4 being busiest since both the morning and afternoon crowds are in the parks at the same time.
6. While in the parks I use time waiting in line to monitor wait times at various attractions and always have a strategy for the next ride as soon as we finish something. I combine this with FP+ reservations to make efficient use of walking across the parks as well as using lunch times, parades, and other special events to cut down on waiting in line. It's a constant operation for me but I have learned to convey all of this information to my family so they aren't burdened with knowing all the details but simply "go here" or "go there". It's more of a challenge with the larger group but it's part of the fun for me.
7. It's always a goal for me to figure out other tricks that cut down on waiting times. I am now observing wait times throughout the day to better anticipate when a ride has a reduced wait time and be there in line as the line is getting shorter and not simply reacting to a shorter wait time on the app. This is only coming from me observing wait times at various parks over numerous days and gaining a better understanding of how crowds move around the park over the course of a day. Again, probably overkill for most but I really enjoy the challenge.
I have heard unfortunate stories of people going to WDW and coming home disappointed because they spent all week standing in line. It's heart breaking because the parks can be so much fun with a little planning. Although I'm sure my process is much more detailed than most, I am always looking for a better way to build the proverbial mousetrap.
Anybody else do things like this and enjoy it?
Our next planned family trip to WDW is February of '17 and I am always excited to visit the parks again. However, a nice fortune with some free lodging has created the opportunity to go with my wife and son in October of '16. I am pumped to have this extra trip and as always have made it my goal to make the trip more efficient and fun filled than before rather than standing in line. I find great enjoyment in my planning and after the passing of my wife's grandfather have become the designated planner for our family which I love. Anybody else find satisfaction in this and want to share hints and strategies? I will share what I do below and hopefully others can pick up some helpful hints.
Pre-trip planning:
1. Once the dates are set for the trip I set up an Excel spreadsheet with all days of the trip listed including travel days. This helps me keep track of departure times and arrival times, reservations numbers, flight numbers, etc. I also keep track of all expenses for the trip on the spreadsheet.
2. I have had a ton of success using crowd calendars. Some people think they are worthless or not necessary but I think they are helpful. I use Kennythepirate and so far he has not let me down. I pull up the crowd calendar for the travel week and lay out several trip options for my family to review and decide what works best. For this upcoming trip I did 5,6, and 7 park day trips and we decided on a 6 day ticket without hopper option. A couple of the days will be half days or shorter days. I use the crowd calendar and group the days by green, yellow, and red and try to avoid parks on red coded days. So far it has never let me down.
3. I next book any dining options we want. This includes on-site and off-site dining using the WDW reservation system as well as Open Table. If we schedule the trip far enough in advance I set up the reservations the first day they are available. I add these reservations to my spreadsheets. Times for reservations take into account travel time, pre and post park time, and rest time.
4. I make sure to have tickets in hand within the 30 day window for FP+ booking since we always stay off-site. The trip I took with my wife in March I went so far as to wake up at midnight each night on the 30th day of the trip in order to get the best FP+. Crazy? Maybe. But, I did get every reservation I wanted. The FP+ are added to the Disney app on the phone which comes into play later. I also have strategies for booking FP+ but that is another conversation in itself.
5. I always make it a point to get to the parks at rope drop or soon after especially with small children. Much like businesses who operate on a two shift strategy, I find crowds at the parks tend to operate in the same way. The park is less crowded from 9-12 and from 4-close with the hours of 12-4 being busiest since both the morning and afternoon crowds are in the parks at the same time.
6. While in the parks I use time waiting in line to monitor wait times at various attractions and always have a strategy for the next ride as soon as we finish something. I combine this with FP+ reservations to make efficient use of walking across the parks as well as using lunch times, parades, and other special events to cut down on waiting in line. It's a constant operation for me but I have learned to convey all of this information to my family so they aren't burdened with knowing all the details but simply "go here" or "go there". It's more of a challenge with the larger group but it's part of the fun for me.
7. It's always a goal for me to figure out other tricks that cut down on waiting times. I am now observing wait times throughout the day to better anticipate when a ride has a reduced wait time and be there in line as the line is getting shorter and not simply reacting to a shorter wait time on the app. This is only coming from me observing wait times at various parks over numerous days and gaining a better understanding of how crowds move around the park over the course of a day. Again, probably overkill for most but I really enjoy the challenge.
I have heard unfortunate stories of people going to WDW and coming home disappointed because they spent all week standing in line. It's heart breaking because the parks can be so much fun with a little planning. Although I'm sure my process is much more detailed than most, I am always looking for a better way to build the proverbial mousetrap.
Anybody else do things like this and enjoy it?
I have the estimated crowd levels at the top of each day and at the bottom, I list all the park hours. I color code between quick service and table service dining, FP+, events like the halloween party or food & wine demos. I also color code the travel time from when we have to leave the resort to when we should get to the park. I even schedule time to rest at the resort. My husband tells everyone about my spreadsheet. Now when I get there, I don't follow half the plans on the spreadsheet but it helps me know when to schedule dining and fastpass selections. This trip, my husband wanted me to find time for him to have the Ohana bread pudding on 2 days as well as French Quarter beignets twice, in addition to the dining plan and the Food & Wine Festival kiosks. That's been fun especially since I scheduled the Halloween party last minute this trip. Now that I know which days will work for his requests, I'm waiting to see him actually eat that much!!!