Is planning all that important? Really?

[Grim Grinner]

I've been to WDW many times, although probably not as much as you kind folks. However, I've not had to go through the trouble of planning. I wing it, in a theme park experienced way. Maybe it is just the times of year that I go, but somehow things always seem to work my way. My wife an I consider it part of Disney's magic.

My last trip I went on every ride except for the Goofy Coaster, saw every show, and ate like a pig at all of the resturants I wanted to. I was picked for a number of shows, and had never had to wait in line more than 15 minutes.

From my personal experience, I think that having general knowledge of the parks and what each attraction offers will make more planning obsolete. My friends joke that I attune to theme and thrill parks and can automatically choose the optimum course.

In my history of going to Disney, I only had long waits at 20K Under the Sea and Mr. Toad's Wild Ride. Had a close call at Winnie the Pooh, but me made the 15 minute deadline.

 

[dopey]

grimmy, if you planned, you could have made it on goofy's barnstormer.

if winging it works for you, why change?

but i know some people who didn't plan their wdw trips and wasted valuable time trying to figure out what to do.

for me, planning adds a great deal of excitement to the experience. i go through the travel guides like i'm plotting the invasion of normandy.

at the same time, i'm willing to quickly abandon those plans if something comes up.

maybe you should write a wdw travel guide that explains how you do it. i'm sure i'd buy it. heck, i own all the other ones.

 

[Grim Grinner]

Trust me, I've been wanting to write a guidebook for most of the parks I've been to. However most of it is common sense. I figure that everyone who's taken the initiative to find a cool board like this one (kudos to the WDWMagic team), already had the park memorized. Anyone who has dreamed about going to Disney, probably doesn't even need to plan.

When going, as soon as you get in, as a Cast Member about checking into which night is the one when the Magic Kingdom stays open late. Other than this little scheduling snag, everything else is done on the fly.

When going to the Magic Kingdom, I normally head to Adventureland first. Most people herd like cattle right into Tommorrowland or Fantasyland. In the early mornings Adventureland is a ghost town. The only people I ever saw were the ones running through to get to Splash Mountain. This lets me seek out Pirates, the Tiki Room and a nice Orange/Pineapple slushie drink. I normally get all the way to fantasyland until I reach a crowd. That's where I meet the crowd as they begin to rove around the park. Fantasyland can get a little hairy, but once you bear through it, Tommorrowland is generally clear.

It's all a matter of having a general dislike of people. I try to stay away from them, and as such I instinctively find a way to avoid the brainnumbingly painful/hot lines. Nothing's worse than seeing two people joined at the mouth in the line ahead of you, and two screaming kids kicking you in the backs of your legs....

 

[DisneyFreak]

I'm the same as you Dopey. My wife and I plan everything out in advance. We do this so we make sure we don't miss or forget the things we absolutly want to see and do.

My Sister and her husband don't have any sort of plan and do a lot of backtracking and end up wasting a lot of time and miss some things. When we go down there with them it just drives my wife and I crazy

 

[dopey]

grimmy (i hope you don't mind me calling you that; it reminds me of the dog in the old cartoon, "mother goose and grimm"), that's funny what you wrote about disliking people at wdw.

i used to think that anybody who liked wdw was ok. but then i started reading posts here by mr. lightbeer.

disneyfreak, god bless ya. if i went to wdw with some of my clueless relatives, there would be a death in the family.

 

[Grim Grinner]

How long to you stay then...

Depending on how long you stay, it may affect your decisions. I always stay 7-9 days. I normally appear in either early April (before Easter) or early October (The 13th this year).

Hopefully the new Aladdin ride will not draw too many people to Adventureland in the morning.

 

[Grim Grinner]

I don't mind being called Grimmy. It brings back childhood memories of a life-sized Grim Reaper my mom would put in the window for Halloween. It worked really well, so that kids never trick or treated at our house. They were too scared!

My feelings (sorry if I offend any of my fellow Disney enthusiasts here) are that the parks would be a significantly better if it were not for the average tourist who digests the park as if it were junkfood.

The average person I bump into there thinks nothing of littering, knowing that some poor sod will have to pick it up. I'm annoyed at the kids who won't stop kicking me when I'm in line. I'm even more annøyed when the parents cannot be bothered to stop them!?!

Do I fight back, or become obnoxious? No. I simply avoid people. When it comes to a park that can house several million, it because an art of the impossible.

I pity the average visitor who cares not for the park, and the hard work and love that goes into it. Everyone just runs from ride to ride. For me, WDW has the makings of dreams. It's a very special place for me and my family.

Call me brash or arrogant, I don't care. When people trample on a perceptable fragment of my childhood, I get upset. It's bad enough that some of my favorite rides are gone... but that is a rant for another day....

 

[Tramp]

Originally posted by Grim Grinner

Call me brash or arrogant, I don't care.

Dear Brash or Arrogant....

when you write your book revealing all your secrets and shortcuts to make WDW touring plan-free, you can be assured that millions of people will see to it that your book becomes obsolete within days.

and if you think you have it bad dealing with people...just imagine how i feel as a dog....constantly getting shooed away or kicked....well...i say... on them!

 

[Herbie53]

Everyone in my family knows exactly what they want out of our vacation, and just how to get it. So we go about our business without much fuss or bother. The closest thing we do to planning is trying to aviod crowds. But even that is never more than a few common sense strategies implimented on the hop.

Personally I think the more concerned you are with getting your money's worth, the more sure you can be that you won't. It's a vacation. Go with the flow!

 

[Disney_Freak:oþ]

Personally,I think planning is half the fun! You get to look at and talk about all the exciting things there are to do. But of course,
as soon as you get there,you usually run to the first thing you see...But it's still fun to plan

 

[markymark]

No.

 

[Seano846]

[
It's all a matter of having a general dislike of people. I try to stay away from them, and as such I instinctively find a way to avoid the brainnumbingly painful/hot lines. Nothing's worse than seeing two people joined at the mouth in the line ahead of you, and two screaming kids kicking you in the backs of your legs.... [/B][/QUOTE]

Sounds like he has run into litebeer a few times at WDW[/B]

 

[Grim Grinner]

It might have been LtBeer...

I get the distinct impression that Mr. Ltbeer is from the UK. If so, there is a minute chance that his family was behind me when I saw Fantasmic, where a britsh-accented couple let their toddler wipe snot on the back of my shirt and neck. I was trying to be nice and just ignore the humiliation. My wife on the other hand, yelled at the kid, who didn't even notice her.

In the end, I awoke the next day sick as a dog, and had to spend 4 days of my Disney honeymoon quite ill.

I fear people... they cause me pain...

On an uplifting note: There was an adorable little girl in the haunted mansion who was growling at the scary pictures to show she wasn't afraid. My wife and I still joke about how cute that was. If I was her parents, that would have been priceless to catch on camcorder...

I guess some people aren't too bad...

I used to be indecisive, and now I am not sure.

 

[DisneyPhD]

I think if it's your first time there, you should do some planning. But once you've got the experience down you can wing it. My wife and I usually just take the first bus that comes along and go from there. We've been on all the rides at least once and know which ones we don't want to miss and which ones we can skip if the line is huge. We were devistated the year we went to go on Pirates and it was down for rehab. But we got over it and we were back on it the next year. The only things we plan are which restarants we'll try this time.

 

[Dizknee_Phreek]

I also say first timers should definately plan! and probably 2nd and 3rd timers....but once you know each and every crevice of the parks by heart, i think that's when you can wing it easily! i've been 13 times, so my family and i has done pretty much everything. there are a few things that i haven't done, and so the next time, i must do...such as Food Rocks (i saw it when it was still Kitchen Kabaret) and Body Wars. seems like there was something else, but i can't remember what. anyway, my family still plans to a certain extent...like we'll get on the WDW website and see how long the parks are staying open to give us an idea of the crowds and what park we should visit on which days...that sort of thing. other than that, there's really no need to plan. we're not all that rushed anymore to do something, seeing as we've already done what we want to do several times. so for us, it's a little of both...planning and winging.

Grim, your story of the girl in HM reminded me of a time when me and dad rode HM...there was a little boy with his grandparents right in front of us, and the whole time they were standing in line, the little boy kept telling his grandpa to not be scared. once the all got in the big stretching room, the boy just couldn't take it and almost knocked my dad and i down as he ran out the door and crashed to the floor crying and screaming. his grandparents went out after him, and i saw the cast member showing them the exit. i felt so sorry for that kid! i know exactly how it is to be little and going on HM. first time i went on it i was in the 2nd grade, and my parents made me get on it (note to parents, please don't make your kids get on a ride they don't want to ride...it has the possibility of scarring them for a few years...i know this by experience) being a shy kid and not one to make a big scene, i just buried my face in my dad's arm and cried the whole way through. i refused to ride it years after that...until my parents had enough and forced me once again to ride it. i've ridden it every trip since then!