Cowboy Steve
Well-Known Member
Just how obsessive and disruptive to normal daily life is your pre-trip planning regiment? Being an analytical and compulsive planner, it was only natural that I would start to get a little carried away with the planning stages of our trips. Each trip my planning gets a little more involved. I'm sure I am an entry-level Disney pre-planner so I'm looking forward to what other folks do to organize and plan their trips! As we only can afford to come, at most, once a year, I try to make sure we maximize our experience!
Disney vacations are a family tradition for us. We first visited WDW in 1972 - I was 6 and my sister was 2. We lost count of the early visits, but we figure we are at around 14 visits - including 3 visits since 2011 (this year will make 4). Our recent return to Disney vacations was my mother's idea. She enjoys vacationing with my sister and I. And since we love to plan the vacation, she just sits back and let's us handle the planning. All the recent trips have been between Thanksgiving and Christmas - with the last 2 being the week after Thanksgiving. This year's trip will be the same time. We have learned a lot from those recent trips!
Mom always wanted to see the parks decorated for the Holidays, so in 2011 she planted the idea of going in December. Turns out we loved that trip sooo much, we have returned during that time period every trip since!
STEP ONE - Resort selection. In 2011 we stayed at the Port Orleans - French Quarter and LOVED it! We returned in 2012 and stayed there again. In 2014 we wanted to try something new and selected Coronado Springs. We didn't care for that location only because of the distance we were from the food court, front desk, store etc. For this year's stay we started our trip planning by making a 'short list' of new resorts we wanted to try. I, of course, made a spreadsheet. Complete with links to the various resorts:
After a long and somewhat exhaustive 'family meeting', we selected our resort for this year: Caribbean Beach Resort! Our first choice was going to be our first time at a Deluxe Resort - the Wilderness Lodge. But, after finding out the pool area would be closed during our trip, we decided to go with option 2 - CBR. We are rarely at the hotel, so it was hard to justify the cost of the Deluxe Resorts... but with a full 'rest day' scheduled in the middle of our stay, we thought we would try one. A day to rest around the pool is just what the doctor ordered on an 8 day trip! Since the pool at WL was going to be OOS, we opted to go back to a moderate resort. We went with a 'Preferred' room so we could be close to the main buildings (pool, food court, store, etc).
So... how nutso am I? My next post (if there is interest) will cover the current 12 tab spreadsheet and the lengths we went to selecting TS meals and making reservations for the trip!
Please! Share your pre-planning process! Please let me know I'm not alone... lol
Disney vacations are a family tradition for us. We first visited WDW in 1972 - I was 6 and my sister was 2. We lost count of the early visits, but we figure we are at around 14 visits - including 3 visits since 2011 (this year will make 4). Our recent return to Disney vacations was my mother's idea. She enjoys vacationing with my sister and I. And since we love to plan the vacation, she just sits back and let's us handle the planning. All the recent trips have been between Thanksgiving and Christmas - with the last 2 being the week after Thanksgiving. This year's trip will be the same time. We have learned a lot from those recent trips!
Mom always wanted to see the parks decorated for the Holidays, so in 2011 she planted the idea of going in December. Turns out we loved that trip sooo much, we have returned during that time period every trip since!
STEP ONE - Resort selection. In 2011 we stayed at the Port Orleans - French Quarter and LOVED it! We returned in 2012 and stayed there again. In 2014 we wanted to try something new and selected Coronado Springs. We didn't care for that location only because of the distance we were from the food court, front desk, store etc. For this year's stay we started our trip planning by making a 'short list' of new resorts we wanted to try. I, of course, made a spreadsheet. Complete with links to the various resorts:
After a long and somewhat exhaustive 'family meeting', we selected our resort for this year: Caribbean Beach Resort! Our first choice was going to be our first time at a Deluxe Resort - the Wilderness Lodge. But, after finding out the pool area would be closed during our trip, we decided to go with option 2 - CBR. We are rarely at the hotel, so it was hard to justify the cost of the Deluxe Resorts... but with a full 'rest day' scheduled in the middle of our stay, we thought we would try one. A day to rest around the pool is just what the doctor ordered on an 8 day trip! Since the pool at WL was going to be OOS, we opted to go back to a moderate resort. We went with a 'Preferred' room so we could be close to the main buildings (pool, food court, store, etc).
So... how nutso am I? My next post (if there is interest) will cover the current 12 tab spreadsheet and the lengths we went to selecting TS meals and making reservations for the trip!
Please! Share your pre-planning process! Please let me know I'm not alone... lol
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(Even though I don't plan much at all for WDW, I like seeing how other people approach their itineraries.)
