Itinerary or Sponatneous?

[epcotWSC]

We plan the days we'll be going to each park and the meals. That's it. I normally make a spreadsheet.
Breakfast, AM Location, Lunch, PM Location, Dinner

So it could be something like
Room, Epcot, Via Napoli, Epcot, Le Cellier

I split between AM & PM location for the days we'll split between two parks or something.

If we plan water parks, sometimes we'll decide not to go and instead go to the pool. Otherwise parks are usually set in stone since we usually dine at the parks we'll be going to.

When in the parks, I have a basic routine of what I'll be doing based on experience, otherwise it's pretty much just do whatever we feel like doing at the time. Sometimes it can depend on wait times. If a ride we like has a short wait we may ride it a few times before moving on to the next, where if it's a really long line, we'll just ride it once and maybe get a fast pass to come back later. Things of that nature.

 

[Pumbas Nakasak]

Fail to plan, Plan to fail.

 

[Alison1975]

The only planning I am doing is TS meals.. and even that bugs me.. I dont want to plan 6 months ahead what park I'll be in when. Prior trips we would have a lot less TS meals so it wasn't as much planning.

We have 8 people in our immediate group... so the only planning will be what park and what meal..

 

[minniemickeyfan]

I would say it depends.

On trips with just our family we don't usually plan much ahead of time but ADR's.

If we are bringing other people -grandparents, going this May with sister and family, then YES I have a plan. Otherwise some people can't decide what to do or where to eat. It's much easier to go with what we all planned than to wing it with larger groups.

 

[sbkline]

On my last trip to Disney World, I planned much of our trip very carefully. I had a spreadsheet, suggested times to ride rides, which parks to go to on which days, and everything I could think. I even had routes laid out to get fastpasses and get to rides early enough to get on them.

However, I found when those usual instances of "life happening" delayed my itinerary, I unfortunately found myself being mildly bitter at one of my favorite places to go. This was entirely my own fault and something I still am mildly ashamed of.

However, my girlfriend loves to gloat about how we had such a productive trip, got to see a ton of attractions and rides, and generally did more than we could have ever dreamed of doing. So, despite the pointless and mild bitterness my itinerary may have created when things didn't go to plan, it did help create a more successful and productive trip.

So, what do you do? Do you plan every step and moment? Do you just go with the flow? Throw a dart at a map of Disney World and go where it lands? Combine the two? Anything else?

According to my wife, I'm just as bad as you, as she always jokes about me having her bathroom breaks planned for her! :lol: But all joking aside, the truth is that my approach falls somewhere in between your approach vs totally winging it. The underlined portion is about where I am. I usually make ADRs 180 days out and thus, also plan which parks to be on based on those ADRs, and on EMH schedules. So I have a general plan for every day, as to which park we're going to (or what we're going if we're not going into the parks) and I may plan certain other activities for the evening portion of the day. But some evenings I leave up to spontanaeity. And once we get into the park, I am not nearly as organized in my plans as you are. I may have a general plan, such as start out in FantasyLand, AdventureLand, or TommorrowLand at the Magic Kingdom, or start out in DinoLand vs Africa at Animal Kingdom, etc. But I don't do spreadsheets or anything like that, or map out routes for fastpasses. I do, however, plan to hit the major rides first so as to beat the crowds, but other than that, alot of it is just doing whatever rides we are close to and available.

Last year, I decided to be alot less "scripted" so I opted not to do any ADRs except a two or three. I thought it would be nice to just decide as we go where to eat. There were some days that I was almost unable to get a ressie, but I managed to barely squeak by, and it gave me a chance to try some restaraunts that I never would have thought to try. For example on Wednesday or Thursday (or maybe it was even Friday, I don't remember), I called to book a ressie for Saturday night and none of my choices were available. One of the only available places was Sannaa, so I gave it a try. So it was kind of nice, for a change, not to have ressies planned ahead of time, but I barely managed to pull it off, and it was "regular" season. This year, we are going in Peak Easter season, so I knew better than to even try that this time! So I have had my ADRs all booked for quite some time now and we are going in 6 weeks. But on that particular trip, I really wanted to even try not planning our park days in advance and just deciding that morning where to go. But we have friends who were there at the same time and we were meeting up several times, so we had to have a plan of which parks we were doing.

But just as an example of my approach for this year, on Thursday of our trip, we are doing Magic Kingdom and eating supper at the Crystal Palace, with a midday break back at the hotel. Other than that, I don't have an ironclad plan of what order we are doing what rides, which land we are starting at, etc. We'll probably just get there and then decide where to start at. On Saturday, we are going to GatorLand, and having supper that evening at Chef Mickey's. The rest is kind of open. I thought we may go to the Florida Mall after GatorLand, but we may do something else instead. After supper, we may go back to the hotel for the night, spend the evening at Ft Wilderness, go into the Magic Kingdom, or maybe even go mini-golfing. So again, I do have a plan, but not a detailed plan for every single part of the day. Just the major highlights and then fill in the minor points as we go.

 

[darthspielberg]

Not planning anything can be a double-edged sword. It's great sometimes, but when I was with my family last March, sometimes we'd just stand around and not do anything. That drives me nuts. We are at DISNEY WORLD people, let's have some fun. Who cares if the lines are longer than a few mins. Let's ride rides or see shows. Standing around in front of Dumbo gets nothing done.

I say you need to map out what you MUST DO, but keep it loosey-goosey, and if something presents itself, feel free to go off the path and try it.

I intend to plan only my Dinner reservations in my next trip, except for a few rides I must, must, must hit (Haunted Mansion, Splash Mountain, Space Mountain, Everest, Tower, New Star Tours)

 

[foreverbelle]

We plan our meals, and we usually plan it around EMH's but other than that, we try to go with the flow and do what we want. So I suppose you can say I am a little bit of a planner and a little bit of a spontaneous sort of person. It works well for us.

 

[Lee]

Unless I'm going to be doing something that requires me to plan, like a tour or ticketed event, I plan nothing.
I refuse to have my leisure time managed like military maneuvers.:shrug:

 

[SeaCastle]

We'll make dining reservations and possibly plan which days we're visiting the parks when it comes to EMH and park hours, but everything else is "anything goes".

We refuse to wait in line for anythnig more than 40 minutes for an e-ticket in the busy season. In the off season we balk at anything under 25. Snobbish? Perhaps, but when you're spending all of that money on admission, wasting time waiting in line just isn't appealing for our wallets or patience.

And I should mention, that despite this picky strategy, we see nearly everything we want to (often times more than once), with ample time left over.

 

[Susan Savia]

The only thing we're sure of is that our first day is Epcot and our last day is Epcot and the 8 days in between are whatever and whenever.

 

[dave&di]

My DB and I have to plan, reasons as follows:
We can only visit WDW every 2 years (in England, so takes time to save up) so its crucial we see as much as we can.
We are only there for 7 days.
If we want to see Fantasmic, we need to know in advance what show we are booking dinner plan for, so this makes a difference to what park we go to that day, same applies to the Parades/fireworks, we don't want to miss any so schedule when and where we go.
We also always go to MNSSHP so obviously that has to be planned and booked beforehand.

I think it is just about being wise with your time, if you are local and can 'pop in' to WDW whenever the need takes you, then be spontaneous.

We enjoy planning the trip months in advance as it makes the vacation seem closer!

We are next there in 2012, 565 days away I have already worked out the arrival/departure dates, 5th-13th Sept, we have added in a sneaky 8th day!

 

[graphite1326]

I plan - incessantly - for the months before we go. I have spreadsheets and double check park hours and research menus for ADRs (TS for dinner), etc. But once we get there, I really don't follow everything planned. We use the ADRs as a general guide to where we need to be at dinnertime but aside from that let the kids moods and the weather dictate where we are on any given day. Part of the excitement for me is in the actual PLANNING - it helps me feel close to Disney. Once I'm there - the plans are not as important - since I am there!!

This is what I do. The spreadsheet is just a general plan, but I don't follow it to the letter. If, for example, we are in HS just rode ToT and heading for TGMR, I check the tip board and if the wait is too long, we change our plans and head to something else.

 

[plaz10]

Itinerary to an extent.

EMH and ADRs dictate where we go each day. The only rides that are scheduled are the first rides in the morning. EPCOT - go straight to Soarin, grab Fastpass and jump in standby. Then it's just whatever we feel like doing after that. DHS, one morning we hit up TSMM...one morning we hit up Hollywood Blvd. MK, one morning Space mt, one morning Splash. Those are the only planned rides. But meals are planned even if not ADR. There are certain earmarked places to eat, like "Lunch on Wednesday in World Showcase" and for us that usually means China, Japan, Mexico or Morocco (boyfriend loves gyros). But then we can see what we are feeling that day and just go for it.

I plan and plan until we get there, then I'm more lenient on plans because I'm too blissfully happy just to be in Disney to worry about wait times and long lines. It is just the best place on Earth!!! Only 3 months away!

 

[lilclerk]

I used to be a super planner but ditched it as of my second trip. I do make dining reservations But other than that, I just wander and go where I want. Park hoppers, a car and Lines help this greatly.

 

[Chevross]

I plan where I'm going to eat, which usually dictates what park I'm going to on that certain day. As for being in the park and planning what rides to ride first, nope, just randomly pick a ride I like and get in line.

 

[MKCP 1985]

Fail to plan, Plan to fail.

Fail to plan, plan to stand in queue and eat counter service.

On the other hand, overplanning means extra stress so don't overdo it.

Unless this is your one in a lifetime opportunity and you don't want to meet your maker without checking "Soarin" and "Toy Story Midway Mania" off the bucket list. :lookaroun

 

[Master Yoda]

Fail to plan, plan to stand in queue and eat counter service.

On the other hand, overplanning means extra stress so don't overdo it.

Unless this is your one in a lifetime opportunity and you don't want to meet your maker without checking "Soarin" and "Toy Story Midway Mania" off the bucket list. :lookaroun

So true. I saw a mom absolutely loose it near E:E one afternoon. Of of the kids of the family wanted to stop in the bathroom just past the fastpass machines. Dad said "OK" which was immediately followed by the mother shrieking "A bathroom stop is not in the schedule!!!!".

From that day on that response has been the answer to anyone in our party requesting a bathroom break.:lol:

 

[lukacseven]

It's been a while since I've been to WDW for a non-Marathon weekend visit. Typically for the Marathon, we like to plan at least what parks we're going to on which days, mostly because of packet pick-up. The races finish early enough that they don't interfere with a full day at the parks. We also try to schedule days based on priority seating and Extra Magic Hours. On the day of, we try to come up with a plan as to where we want to go first - what attractions to fast pass and which to use stand-by - usually on the bus on the way to the park. The iPhone apps are a great tool now because you can check wait times.

 

[JillC LI]

On our first trip I was a manic planner down to the order of the rides. Nowadays I'm still a manic planner, but once we arrive, I only stick with my plans of which parks to visit on which days and where to eat. For ride order, we kinda wing it based on our knowledge of which ones we need to hit early to avoid lines, and which FP machines we happen to be standing near. My husband still makes fun of me for being such a crazy planner, but truth be told, we all have a relaxed and fun time once we arrive BECAUSE of my planning.

 

[sbkline]

So true. I saw a mom absolutely loose it near E:E one afternoon. Of of the kids of the family wanted to stop in the bathroom just past the fastpass machines. Dad said "OK" which was immediately followed by the mother shrieking "A bathroom stop is not in the schedule!!!!".

From that day on that response has been the answer to anyone in our party requesting a bathroom break.:lol:

This so reminds me of my wife and I! :lol:

Sorry, but I have to tell this story. Myself, when I use the restroom, I'm generally in and out in a couple minutes tops. But my wife, typical woman that she is, whenever she goes to the restroom, I'm left wondering if there is a poker game going on in there, or if there is a secret back exit into the gift shop or what, because I don't see her for quite a while.
So when we're at WDW and I'm trying to gain the most ground that I can, the most frustrating thing in the world is getting de-railed by one of her eternal bathroom stops. One morning on our last trip, we were having a quick snack at Sunshine Seasons at Epcot, and my plan was to hit Living with the Land as soon as we were done, and then see how much we can get done in the park before midday break. So we're done eating and throwing our stuff away and I'm ready to head over to the boat ride when my wife comes up and tells me that she's taking our son to the bathroom. Oh great, now not only do I have to wait on her to take him to the bathroom, but she's going to have to make her inevitable eternal bathroom visit herself. :brick: So I'm sure she can see the annoyance on my face and I sarcastically say "okay, see you in 20 minutes!". I was waiting quite a while for her to come back and never saw her coming from the restrooms, and then I looked over to the line at the boatride and there she was with our son, waiting in line without me. And they did the boat ride together without me because she was mad at me for being mad at her. :ROFLOL: