planning your days months in advance.

[jothp]

We plan for which park we're doing on which day and which rides in that park are the priorities for that day. We book our FPs based on that.

If we're going for rope drop I usually plan out the first few rides that we should be able to do with relatively short queues before our first FP. We then tend to ride our first FP right at the end of the window and the 2nd at the beginning of the window giving us time before the 3rd FP to ride nearby things with short queues or to watch a show/have a snack. After the 3rd FP we play things by ear depending on what extra FP I can get.

If we are arriving later for an evening visit the plan is usually just to ride our 3 FP rides, mix in a few shows, eat and see the fireworks.

We tend to find that we stick fairly closely to the plans for the first 5 or 6 days and then start shuffling things around depending on what we are enjoying most on that particular trip or when things have gone wrong due to rides being down or weather etc. When plans do change we try to make new plans at least the day before and have always managed to switch FP around to something that works for us.

We find that by having plans we get up and get going much quicker in the morning and don't waste time working out what we want to do that day.

[cornishfrogboy]

We go in around 65 days.

Of the Orlando part of the vacation, I obviously know which nights I am in which Hotels and Villa.
I know that I will be in Universal/Islands on either side of our night in the RPR.
I know which day I will be visiting Discovery Cove.
I know which day I will be visiting Rainbow river.
I will know which day the wife is going horse riding.

I will know nothing more than that as I arrive in MCO from Cincinnati on 27 July.
I certainly have no clue as to where I will be eating that night as I leave the accommodation.
We decide which park or beach on any day either the night before.. or at breakfast on the morning.

Not visiting Disney, that is all the planning I need. I am on vacation and intend relaxing after the frantic Boston/NY/Dayton OH sightseeing first phase.. (and that needed very concise planning).

[Susethomasx]

Us too - planning is a big thing for us.

I can’t remember though on how I knew to plan the first time I went but each of our trips - and our next one too.

When I say ‘we’ I actually mean ‘me’ but everyone else chips in with their choices.

I’ll plan a particular park on a particular day, determine if rope drop is an option then plans FP+, food and rest around that. Nothing is ever immovable so if circumstances conspire to send us off in a different direction then we’ll go with it; my holiday is not the time to become a complete stickler!

On a related note, last year a good friend went to Orlando with her family for the first time and actively refused to plan. We’d been discussing our respective holidays coming up and I was advised that my efforts ‘sound like too much work’. So no FP+ at all or checking the busy day guides. Her and her family came back absolutely hating a couple of parks and vowing never to go again; which I thought was a shame.

[Shooby doo]

Alternatively:
Spend the best part of £10k, no pre-planning, no headliner FP available, just eat at what's left or wait 2 hours for a walk up... end of holiday are you still happy that you didn't plan anything ?
Or '16 Trip was ;literally your 3 pre-booked FP & then pick up the dregs, none of which you would class as headliners.
SD

[sam7]

We had never visited before last year with anything booked in advance - used to look the night before on the busy day guide and go from there, but this visit obviously fastpasses were now a thing - we were staying off site, so didn;t have to make dinner/meal reservations, so we booked fast passes for the first week and played the second by ear (decided the night before and booked any fastpasses then or on the day), worked great for us - feel we had the best of both worlds

[THE WIZARD]

The planning is all part of our holiday, and eating at our favourite restaurants is a big thing for us.
Having done it once without plannjng & not being able to eat when/ where we wanted or having to waste over an hour waiting to get on a ride or worse getting home n having someone say 'oh didnt you do so n so' cured us of that! I find those if us who do plan know how to be flexible & move stuff around to our advantage & we are grateful for those who dont plan as it leave a better chance for us to book what we want when. Each time we go we evolve how we 'do' WDW to our requirements & the weather - you do it the way that suits you.

[sha9]

The thought of going without a plan stresses me out more than anything. Every trip from the first one we’ve had some sort of itinerary so we didn’t waste time in the morning being indecisive. Now it’s a bit more detailed with FP slots and ADRs but I’d rather have it that way. Both can be cancelled or rescheduled if necessary. I have memories of wandering along I-Drive and round World Showcase hungry as we couldn’t agree on where to eat. ADRs take that stress away.

I don’t really get the issue with planning. It can always be changed and we’re in Disney World. It’s not like we’re being forced to do anything against our will! If you feel so strongly that you don’t want to do it then don’t. ADRs and FP can be picked up on the day if you look hard enough.

[fleurbie]

I think any hoilday that involves Actives you'd need a bit of a plan.
I can remember going to Milan and we wanted to see the last supper but couldn't as need to book in advance, in Rome I booked the under the colosseum tour in advance as booked up really quick and new York we could.t get tickets for the crown 2 months before as all gone!
If you just want a flop and plop holiday then probably ok just to leave it until your there. But I also research any holiday before I go as I have fear of missing out syndrome 😆

[Mexy02]

We decide which parks on which days so we can book the fastpasses and a meal if we want to try a restaurant . At the end if the day it’s our holiday so how we plan it is our choice . There is no right or wrong as it’s your holiday no one else’s .
As said with any holiday that requires activities you need a plan of some sort. Also, as in your case from what I’ve read , the more times you’ve been the less you really need so sort anything as you’ve probably seen it all unfortunately the average family probably only get to go once or twice.

[Bozza]

If you are a regular visitor, there really is no great need to plan. As I've written before, we were out in Florida in August 2017 for three weeks with no intention of going to WDW. On our last night at the Royal Pacific at Universal, we had a change of heart and so I booked the Beach Club for a week checking in the next day.

We turned up 10-11 hours after booking the hotel with no tickets, no ADRs and no fast passes. We made it up as we went along for that week, and still got to eat at some favourites as well as a few new places and also rode all the big attractions including FoP and 7DMT.

This year is more typical in that we booked up early (OKW originally, but changed to Beach Club recently) with free DDP. We made a few ADRs at 180 days and add one or two every now and again. We'll look to book some fastpasses on 60 days too.

However, I know when we're there, some of these plans will change and we'll shuffle things around a bit.

(We've just booked an add-on 3-night stay at the Contemporary but we still have our final week where we don't have a hotel or house or anything booked. We'll sort it out at some point.)