Wing it or plan every minute? What do you do?

[DVC4bestvacations]

We have always gone with our flow when vacation at WDW. We have never had an issue with dinner without ADR. Note: We belong to Tables in Wonderland.

What do you do and Why?

 

[Pooh Lover]

OK, I have to say that all you "wingers" have me twitching just a tad. If I didn't have ADRs, I probably would cancel my trip...LOL. I've had nightmares where I forgot to make my ADRs. We usually know in advance what park we are going to each day, often determined by our ADRs. Beyond that, we don't plan the what and when in each park as long as it all gets done by week's end.

 

[eddiemcgarrigle]

A mixture of both to be honest. Parks to be visited and ADRs but everything else is decided upon on the day.

 

[lazyboy97o]

Wing it. I don't know what I want for dinner tonight, why would I force myself into a schedule on my vacation?

 

[jlsHouston]

I make a ton of ADR's and decide what parks when unless I got the park hopper add on, and then we get to WDW and we change things around to suit what is really happening. I could go without planning a thing except character dining..I have to do some character dining. I don't know why I just love character dining. I prefer breakfast character dining too, it just starts my day off perfectly..

 

[GoalieGirl16]

I think I am a hybrid girl. Keep in mind it has been more than a decade since I have been to WDW but when I was working down there the whole family came down twice a year minimum. We found that picking 3 to 4 things we really wanted to see or do and filling in the rest of the time with whatever struck our fancy made for fun and relatively stress free trips. We usually had 1 or 2 ADRs during the the stay and those counted toward the day's "must dos" I really hope to take that approach on the great wedding and honeymoon adventure.

 

[Britt]

So glad to see I'm not the only one to play it by ear

We just make a few ADRs and plan which day we'll be at each park based off the crowd calendar.

I think if go crazy if Josh wanted to micromanage!

 

[DisneyFan381]

We always try to take advantage of PM EMH at Epcot and MK. Other than that, we wing it. No ADRs or DDP either.

 

[zurgandfriend]

Not every minute but if you fail to plan then plan to fail.

 

[lunchbox1175]

I make a ton of ADR's and decide what parks when unless I got the park hopper add on, and then we get to WDW and we change things around to suit what is really happening. I could go without planning a thing except character dining..I have to do some character dining. I don't know why I just love character dining. I prefer breakfast character dining too, it just starts my day off perfectly..

Same here, make a ton of ADR's cancel when we decide to do something else, but our trip is bascially, get there and "what do you want to do first?", then after that its wing it for the rest of the trip.

 

[DisneyAubs]

I plan my ADRs as early as possible. I'm trying to eat at every restaurant on property, so I need to know there is availability where I need it. As far as touring the park goes...eh, I'm somewhere in the middle. I can be go with the flow as far as what park on what day, but I do have a general order I do things in. Once upon a time it was to minimize wait times, avoid crowds, etc... but now it is just tradition. it feels strange to not do things in a certain order (or at least not visit certain lands in a particular order).

 

[HM Spectre]

Making ADRs is a must for me... sure, you can get in without an ADR a lot of the time but there's always the possibility that something doesn't work out and you're stuck scrambling for a different place to eat or waiting for a while. No thanks. Other than that, I plan what day to go to what park, coordinate that with ADRs so that we're relatively close to where we're eating and that's it. Everything else we just go with the flow!

 

[pixiesteno]

Okay with the first couple of trips as an adult we were very structured, very, very structured. Then in Feb of 2008 in the middle of the month I decided that I had enough of cold, dreary, snowy weather and I call WDW travel and booked a trip 12 days out for DSIL & I. We were so, so, so "fly by the seat of our pants" on that trip and we had a ball! It is was the first time I used ME and the internal transportation, so much less stress than a rental vehicle. Since that time we have become less and less structured about our trips. Yes, there are a whole bunch of lists and "have to rememebers" prior to the trip - what to pack in the RV, do we have all of the necessary equipment for the RV, check all tires, lugs, axel grease, planning for dinners on the road, etc. But once we hit property, it's set up camp and wing it. Yes, I will probably make some ADRs at the 180 day window but probably only two or three at most. We have had APs for every trip since 2009 so we just wake up and go, "hmm... which park today?" If we get there and then decide to change no a big deal we hop the transportation and go. We only move the truck while on property to go to DTD or gas station. We are staying longer this trip so it might involve a trip to the grocery store but we'll see.

 

[BigRedDad]

After booking the trip, we wing it. There is too much impromptu things going on to schedule a trip. I do not even schedule meals any more. I hate having to be somewhere when something else is going on. There has never been a time I could not walk up to the restaurant I want to eat at and get in. Of course, this is not the Castle or Le Calier's.

 

[bmarkelon]

We also do a combo of both but are planners more than wingers. We book all of our ADRs, with 3 little ones I am not taking a chance on not getting those tables that we desire and we pick our park for the day (with some flexibility on if and which park we hit in the afternoon/evening). As far as every minute, no...we all know which rides/attractions we'd like to hit in each park but we wing what our attack plan is on the days we are there.

 

[SAV]

The most we'll plan out is which parks based on the crowd calendars and we do QS meals so no ADR's are required, with one exception. We do have one TS meal in DHS since the QS is awful, so I guess I do plan that meal out with an ADR.

Otherwise, we go commando all day and figure it out based on how things are going that day. Prior knowledge from past visit's is what we lean on the most.

 

[nc_disneyfreak]

We always start planning our next trip about a week or so after we get back lol...The things we plan the most for are our ADRs. Usually Sci Fi Dine In, Trex or Rainforest and then one other one. As far as the parks go, as soon as the hours come out for when we go, we will plan those according to Extra Magic Hours...Of course while were there, things come up and change a little, but we always have some sort of a "backbone" to go by. I second everybodys opinion that planning all this stuff months before our trip only adds to the fun!! 470 days to go!

 

[nolatron]

We don't get park hoppers so we first plan which day to go each park. We'll plan this based on park hours and EMH's (we actually avoid EMH days). We'll then plan and book our dinner ADR's according to that. If necessary to accommodate an available ADR time we'll swap a park to another day.

But other that we pretty much just go with the flow.