Micromanaging your holiday . . . .

[elliecjno1]

Hi all,

With my 60 day FP day approaching this week (and leaving me feeling extremely anxious!) its made me think, what do you all think of this new micromanagement system that seems to now be essential to get the most from your Disney trip?

I last went in 2013 stayed in a villa & bar my plan following the busy day guide, it was pretty relaxed, we rode all the rides we wanted bar TSMM & got the paper FP's

This year we have 5 days on site then 14 nights in a villa. The 5 days are only to give us a shot at the FP's we want! What a difference! Plotting the holiday based on the busy day guide, then based on that my DDP choices for the first 5 days & now my FP's. I'm finding it all very stressful & almost looking forward to getting the first 5 days of clock watching done to chill in the villa!

I think it'll take a few years for my BP to settle after this one

Don't get me wrong I LOVE Disney, I cant wait to get there & I LOVE a good plan but it all seems quite extreme to me now & has left me feeling stressed worrying if I've over looked something.

So purely just out of interest, is it just me or do you guys find it a similar experience now?

[Guest]

I've been to Disney a couple of times, first time 24 years ago with my mum and dad, then I took my kids about 10 years ago.

Both times there was no apps it was Q's and paper fast passes.

This time I'm going with my dad and also taking my kids and step kids. 7 of us... It feels like a military operation to get fast passes booked in and trying not to miss anything out.

I've enjoyed elements of it however the whole 60+ days, 30+ days, has been a bit of a drain, I wouldn't say it will take away from the experience but needing to know where I'm going to be in 30 days time and then looking on an app to find the key rides have already gone is a bit painful if that makes sense.

[Mr Tom Morrow]

I think it's as micro managed as you want it to be.
I agree the FP system does make you try and exploit the best opportunities but we don't get drawn in to the full on planning panic that lots seem to end up doing.

We adopt a chilled out approach, book our 3 x FP's and just enjoy the day. I cannot for the life of me understand people who plan every minute of every day a bit like the D Day landings. That's not a holiday in my view.

The next stage with Disney will be FP's for toilet stops.

[loves2plan]

I enjoy the planning and knowing that everything we want to do is booked. It means I feel more relaxed when on holiday. Now, if we want to spend a day at our resort and just an evening in the park, that we can still do all the headline rides with fastpasses, whereas the paper ones would normally have been long gone. No more rope drop and me rushing off to secure paper ones any more

I do prefer the qsdp to the DDP as I was never any good at guessing what time we might be ready to eat on a given day - normally I either got it too early so we weren't hungry, or too late so we were ravenous and starting to get a little tetchy. Qsdp allows us to just eat as and when we want, but I know it's not for everyone

[Niki Mouse]

When we went in 2016, I got up at 5am to do fastpasses. My husband thought I was mad... when we got to 7D and the que was 180mins and we walked on, he retracted his “mad” statement.

I’ve booked lots for upcoming trip , with the view that it should save a lot of time, however if we can’t make them can always cancel, not the end of the world

[JessBlu]

FP and restaurants for the first week, then tend to be a bit more relaxed the second week.

Don’t like it but what can you do?

[Guest]

This will be our 5th visit to the magic. I’ve said this time we are going to take a more relaxed approach. We intend to do everything we want to do but at a more relaxed pace. Lazy mornings at the villa and around the pool, leaving visiting the parks and attractions to later in the day.
See more of the area rather than spending all day in the parks. Our last visit my DW was up at daft o’clock in the morning attempting to book FP’s and the holiday was like a military operation, having to be a certain places for a specific window time. A more laid back approach for our next trip

[WhereIBelong]

It is an interesting question...

I have found that the planning and the preparing to plan and the fact that there is less spontaneity has drawn away the sheer joy at the magic that we experienced the first couple of times we went.

The now very busy nature of the parks, the long ride queues and the inability to just rock up at a restaurant and get a table takes away a bit of sparkle.

I'm glad we've had disney as the kids have grown up, but it is not the same "doing" the parks as it was "discovering" the parks.

[Lynda]

Our 60 day is up and I have only booked 4 fast passes and am not so sure we will use them, it depends where we are. I just can't get in to the today we are going to MK tomorrow we are going to AK. We don't always want to. We will take it as it comes as we are not big ride lovers and this will be our 25+++ visit.

[sha9]

It all depends on you and your party really. For us we need a bit of planning on holiday as we’d spend hours every day deciding what to do. It makes for a much more relaxing and enjoyable holiday for us and I don’t find the planning stressful in anyway.
It’s not actually new, it’s been around a few years now, and we’re now quite used to booking FP and ADRs but also tweaking them if necessary. We’ve rearranged whole days while over there so I still think there’s some flexibility.