I love to plan too but what if?

[SuprDav]

I'm a planner to the extreme and I enjoy doing it whether we're going to Disney or anywhere else. I do wonder though how a trip to WDW would work out if on a whim, say a week prior (or less), you just log onto disneyworld.com or called up the reservation number, book a package and as we say in the South "load up and go"? I do realize that ADRs would be impossible but that too could be some of the fun possibly. Sometimes I think that we as a family need to do more of those type of spontaneous type things. I'm not saying that I ever would do this but it could be fun. Any of you ever tried it?

 

[englanddg]

I think there is a fine line between planning and overplanning, at least when it comes to me and my daughter. I should mention that I had the Deluxe Dining Plan each trip.

My first trip in 2010 was largely this way. I only made 3 ADRs for the trip (2 weeks at CBR). Those being an early dinner at Royal Table on the first day, Dinner at Akershus 7 days in, and Royal Table on the last day.

We had a blast, and while I couldn't get in everywhere I wanted to try, like Le Cellier (I checked almost every day and whenever I walked past the seating podium in case there had been a cancellation or missed reservation). But, we got into most places I without a hitch.

In 2011, I did another 2 weeks at CBR, and booked a few more ADRs (I was determined to do Le Cellier this time). Again, Royal Table on the first and last days, BBB on the last night, Brown Derby with Illuminations Package. I expected when we arrived we would have a similar experience, but I don't know if it was due to the Free Dining Package push in the earlier part of that year, or what, but my daughter and I had lots of trouble getting into Table Service restaurants...even if we were willing to wait for a while.

So, fast forward another year to this past trip in 2012, and I was a planning fanatic. This was for two reasons. Each of the previous trips, I'd left with quite a few meal credits left over, and so I wanted to be more efficient. The second was my experience having trouble getting into Table Service in 2011. So, I booked 2 ADRs a day, and sometimes more (but, normally Lunch and Dinner). I was excited going into the trip with my now 7 year old, but for us, this planning measure on my part was a huge mistake.

We like to just take the parks as we go, and at a whim. All this planning had railroaded us into going to certain parks on certain days, regardless of weather or our respective moods and interests, or forced us to park hop (which we do normally anyway, so it's not the hopping that's bad, it's that we are now FORCED to by the ADR). This meant that, while we ate a lot of wonderful food this past trip, we missed a lot of our normal things.

Looking forward to my trip next year, I think I'm going to dial it back some. There still are things that pretty much require an ADR (especially since I go in mid-late August), so I will still have them...

I still haven't found that sweet spot, and maybe I never will, but overly regimented planning really sapped something out of our last trip, so I'm not going that route again.

 

[minnielaw]

I have never done it myself...being too much of an obsessive planner....but a good friend of mine did it.

She and her husband were trying to adopt and on their way to the hospital in another state, the mom changed her mind and decided she wanted to keep the baby. My friend was, obviously, devastated and decided she wanted to go to her "happy place" WDW. She called AAA to try to book a room and when she told the customer service rep she was going the next day, they said they couldn't book trips on that short a notice. So, she called WDW directly and booked a room at a Value (All Star Sports or Music, I think). She seemed to have a wonderful time and did not complain of any inconvenience.

With that being said, she is also a WDW veteran and knows her way around and most of the tricks. I am not sure I could give up all the planning that I love...however, if I had a sudden, unexpected vacation pop up...I would definitely go to WDW on the drop of a hat!!

 

[SuprDav]

I'm starting to think that ADRs only serve to cut down on your time spent in the parks. At several of the places we've had a res, we always show up somewhat early for our seating and wait anyway. I could live with a 5 day trip and enjoy more quick service meals that fit when and where we want to eat and maybe slip in one or 2 sit down dinners where we can.

 

[RedBaron]

I did go on a whim (well sort of). 2 years ago we were all set with our ADR's and our hotel reservations (thank goodness offsite at a Marriott since they accept cancellations/changes 48 hours out without charge, and we were driving so no airplane reservations to worry about) and my son and I suddenly came down with pink eye and I got a sinus infection to boot. There was no way I could travel and we rescheduled with the hotel for 2 weeks later. Obviously we did not have our ADR's anymore, nor did I bother to try to get new ones since I figured it was useless. We ended up having a great time and eating counter service which was just fine. If eating at a sit down restaurant is a must for you, then maybe it wont work out, but it worked out good for us.

 

[Susan Savia]

We sorta did that. Two weeks ago we talked about how much the Halloween party would be. We read all about it, looked at past videos, pictures online etc. By the end of the day, we'd booked our offsite, bought our party tickets and we leave in a week now. Never done that before. Its usually the annual trip, with a whole year to figure things out. We stopped doing ADRs long time ago. They took too much time out of our day. If we get hungry we find a counter service or a snack and move on. We do get a nice dinner once we leave the park.

 

[EvilQueen-T]

let me preface this with...we only live ~2.5 hours away from wdw so we drive not fly...but we've decided as little as 1 day prior and gone for a single day and 2 days prior once for a fri-sun. but we've booked a few weeks or almost a year in advance as well. for short time frames we usually book whatever onsite room we could get the least expensive but sometimes we will just book one of our favorite resorts if available. we have our favorites but always check out what deals are running and don't mind trying a new resort. the biggest difference with the last minute trip that i notice is how flexible you have to be about dining options. sometimes we go knowing we'll only do quick serve. other times we'll still book a dinner or two at a table service venue depending on what's available but with that said we like going to venues at the resorts or at the boardwalk to eat over the park options as a norm for table service meals. otherwise i find the trip itself to run like any other disney trip. i can't comment on how it would be if you had to book airfare.

 

[luv]

I've taken trip a week out. I've decided to go and left the same day.

It's just as fun.

And you might be surprised to find out how many ADRs you can get last-minute. Wouldn't count on Chef Mickey or Garden Grill, but there are tons. If you aren't too picky, you can eat very well. Go to the Disney site and put in a date and select breakfast or dinner and see what pops up.

 

[SuprDav]

Yes, I could live without the table service meals. I have had some good ones there and some that were nothing special. I think there are plenty of really good quick service locations all over the World and eating QS allows you to stay where ever you're having fun at and eat when you're ready. How can anyone know 6 months ahead of time how hungry they will be at a certain time of day?

 

[Justin Doggett]

I have a trip planned down there in less then 2 weeks just booked my reservation yesterday i have a 5 day magic your way ticket for me and my gf this is her first time and my first time i remember going lol. I will post a trip report day by day while im down there. Ive done enough research in 2 weeks to know how to get the most out of my stay. Im trying not to plan anything other then my room and which park were going to on each day. I think it will be great not having such a planned out vacation and it will seem longer.

 

[drp4video]

IN 2009 my daughter kept saying she was going on spring break from college with her friends. None of them had any money so that plan fell through. She was itching to go somewhere but I had really not financially planned for a trip at that time, so with 6 days to break I called WDW, used my disney visa points for the room and we still had days left on our 10 day non-expirational hoppers (we don't do AP's anymore), so off we went. I also used frequent flyer miles for me, so all it cost was one plane ticket and food (I never count food as we have to eat wherever we are, and we split meals a lot at WW). I do rent a car. We were there for 5 days and because it was the first week in March it was not as crowded as summer or Christmas/New Years when we usually went. It was so much fun. We actually we able to get table service at two restaurants. We usually don't do more than two a trip as we would rather not take too much time eating. It was a great trip.

 

[Monty]

Spontaneous can work if you manage your expectations.

ADRs are not impossible, people cancel as late as 48 hours ahead of their booking. It never hurts to check, but be prepared to eat QS if necessary. Everything else except tours are no problem whether you plan more than six months ahead or the day before [Nextgen may change that a bit]. Even tours can be booked on fairly short notice.