When flexibility is a must!

[bee]

Hi all! I simply love reading your trip reports and pre-trip reports and all of the planning threads. I like planning in general, especially planning travel, ESPECIALLY planning Disney travel! I love making color-coded spreadsheets and playing with travel dates to find the best deals and playing with the budget and well, it all feels like just playing to me!

However, DW and I have jobs that don't allow us to know a year or six months in advance when we will have a week off to go on vacation. We are both freelancers of sorts and can't know very far in advance if a huge opportunity is going to come up right in the middle of trip. So in our planning we must allow flexibility to make the most of our time at WDW and back at home.

My question is: if you're in a similar situation, what are some of the ways you keep your planning flexible? Here are a few of ours:

• Book flights on a carrier that allows changes without fees. We had success with Southwest when we had to delay our Disneymoon twice due to my work schedule.
• Book resorts directly through Disney to take advantage of their generous cancellation policy. We also never book packages since these are less flexible.
• Be open to different travel dates. For example, our one-year anniversary will be this October but we found excellent deals on resorts and flights in late September. If the September trip works out as far as time and work go, we'll do that instead and celebrate early.
• Buy travel insurance in case these methods fail and we have to cancel at the last minute.

For others, the answer may be driving to avoid high last-minute airfare (we don't have a car and to rent one and make the drive from NJ would be expensive and time-consuming).

What are some ways you stay flexible when planning a trip?

 

[Weather_Lady]

I think you've covered the best ways to maintain flexibility!

We can plan way ahead, but we've always had some reason (e.g., a family member in precarious health) why we might have to cancel at the last minute. We purchase travel insurance through TravelGuard to cover all non-refundable vacation expenses. (~$200 to cover a $4,000 cost, for example) If we buy it within a couple of weeks of our initial vacation deposit, we get "cancel for any reason" coverage. We've never had to use it, but it's worth it for us, just to know we won't lose anything if we have to change our plans.

 

[TXDisney]

I'd still pkan way in advance and get cancelation insurance for a few hundred dollars. Same with flights. Surely though there's gotta be a time of the year where it's easier to vavation, so if try and book then.