planning your days months in advance.

[sha9]

Originally Posted by 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.)

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Agreed. Our need to plan is related to our need to have a plan or we’d do nothing. We also want to be guaranteed certain rides and restaurants. If you’re happy enough to see what you can get on the day and willing to check MDE regularly you can still get headliners. We’ve managed to change FoP FP the day before and on the day on one occasion. We got our choice of times at Be Our Guest breakfast the day before we wanted to go last year.

[Burgmeister]

We haven't been since FP+ has been a thing so this year is a new experience. We have decided that we will visit the parks with morning EMH and have booked FPs for all of those parks to tie in with this. We can always change it if we want - you aren't absolutely tied in to these things.

The plan is to do the rope drops, do the FPs and then leave that particular park. Back to the hotel for a nap or swim during the hottest hours of the day and then we will decide which park to go to for the late afternoon/evening.

We only have QSDP so dining reservations aren't an issue to us. Having said that we do have a couple of BoG breakfasts booked (early for getting into Fantasyland early), a BoG lunch and a Pizzafari Family Dining dinner. Whilst I would like to do these it wouldn't upset me too much if we decided to cancel.

Can we stick to our plan? I have no idea. I am, by nature, an early riser but DD and DW are not that great with mornings so we may struggle after a few days. I'm pretty sure that DD will be more than willing to make the effort but DW may struggle. If she does then DD and I will probably carry on early and meet DW later (the benefits of Disney transport). I think that having the flexibility to be able to have an afternoon nap will be a great boon to make this plan work.

This plan is for our first 11 days when we are onsite. After that we have 10 days that will be more relaxing off-site

[Animagus]

I do plan our park days once the BDG is published so we have a rough idea of where we will be going on each day and to fit in parades, fireworks etc. I have only had QSDP once so no need to book in advance. We treated ourselves to two nicer meals so I only had those to sort at 180 days.
I book our FPs but have often altered them in advance or even on the day.

At Universal, it’s a very different story. We do have FOLP which helps, but we just go and ride whatever takes our fancy.

Try not to see it as a chore. I do think you need to do some planning for Disney (especially as a first timer) but don’t beat yourself up if something goes wrong and you need to alter the plan.

[lottiesmum0]

Originally Posted by Sew109

We do it but happy to cancel and change at any time

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This is us too

[rafjen]

We're onsite Disney first- These days are fairly unlikely to change much FP are booked ADRs sorted- I have flexibility/down time in the plans but unless there are major issues we'll prob stick to most of it. We finish at Universal with FOLP the joy here is no plan needed. I don't mind the planning its saves arguments on the day.

Weather you just have to work around. Our last trip we got a lot of rain- all day for a few days. It meant both our Epoct days got a bit rained out. We found other things to do which turned out to be just as much fun. We probably wouldn't have wandered around the aquarium or meet Baymax/Joy and Sadness otherwise. We have a great photo of us all soaked meeting Jasmine- usually only the kids would get in the character photos- but the effort it took trekking around world showcase in the rain meant everyone got a picture this time. Of course now its one of the highlights we talk about.
This trip world showcase is a more prominent part of the plan as a result but if we miss something due to plans needing to change we'll just adapt and maybe plan another trip.

Planning works for us but if you read some of the trip reports you'll see how often people change plans and adapt. My advice is plan enough to get an idea of which day which park and book some fast passes. You can change you plans later but having something booked gives you options.

[DisneyFoodie]

I love the planning! I would much rather allocate our time between the parks months in advance and change if there is a problem than try and agree what we feel like on the day and waste valuable time arguing about which park (and someone inevitably feeling annoyed that they didn’t get what they wanted).

Weather has never stopped our plans so far (put on a poncho and carry on) and the only illness we’ve had is when I tried mission space orange 😳

I can see it wouldn’t work for everyone but we love it!

[adreamisawish]

I plan for the mornings. Hit EMH usually and fast passes for soon after EMH finishes. After that the day is ours to explore whatever park we want to and pick further fast passes up as and when we can.

We don’t really have the stress of planning our days around where our ADR is as we’re on the QSDP and have only picked up 3 ADRS for places we really love.

I like to have things planned to an extent with making sure fast passes are sorted and we’re booked into our favourite places to sit and eat etc. Other than that it’s go with the flow.

[Conno]

Originally Posted by Westhamtillidie

Just thinking, planning every day of your holiday in advance around your MDE fast pass booking, do you think it works?

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If it didn't work, people wouldn't do it - and there wouldn't be so many forums dedicated to it.

[Johnsonsontour]

I do a rough plan every time based around the busy day guide.. As we stay in a Villa, we find that way we don't waste time deciding & know where we are heading.. It is just a 'guide' that can be changed based on tiredness, weather etc We just go to whatever restaurant takes our fancy when out driving though

[clochette]

I love the planning; it makes it seem as though the holiday lasts for longer. We are only QSDP so no meals to worry about, though I have booked a couple of slots at BOG and I have a rough idea of where I want to eat each day. If we choose to change our plans, that's absolutely find but we are a very indecisive family and would spend half the day trying to decide what to do if we didn't have a plan.