How do you go with the flow once in Orlando?

[HelenLime]

I’m starting to get a bit fretful about our trip to Orlando, which is a tad ridiculous!

I work FT in a pressurised environment and I have two children so my life is ruled by lists and plans.
Holidays are usually my (and my husbands ) respite from the more control freak aspects of my character. I love being able to shut-up my inner Monica-from-friends for a fortnight. It’s one of the best bits of a holiday for me. Is there a way to approach an Orlando trip with the required level of plan (we are offsite so no ADR but will book FPs) but still maintaining a zen-like state?

I’m enivisaging a situation where the children are jumping through the Epcot sprinklers having the time of their lives and I’m going purple and chewing off my arm because IF WE GO ON RIDE X NOW WE CAN FIT IT IN BEFORE OUR 11am FAST PASS

Anyone else a little bit Monica? How do you get the balance between genuine fun and marching around ensuring the fun is maximised?

[disney332]

You have to accept that Disney is a popular place. The headline rides in particular are very busy, and the queues if you have no prior reservation can be easily over 2 hours.

You could do Disney without planning and wing it. It would mean that you might queue a long time or miss the big rides altogether. But that is your choice.

Fastpass is a 1 hour slot, so stress tends to be removed when navigating your way round a park.

Many find the 1 hour slot, too much and wish it was shorter.

I would decide what you must do, what you would like to do and what you can miss.

Plans to meet objectives in Disney with the crowd levels currently are essential, this you have to accept.

Planning for Disney is no different to managing your 'in box'.

Disney332

[Mr Tom Morrow]

Disney 332 has summed it up perfectly in my view

A holiday is just that. I never view them as a military operation. To me it's about chilling out, having fun, not acting my age and finally not dying in a ditch over things.

We all manage our stress and expectations differently and I do chuckle when I see some people in WDW armed with reams of printed sheets and marshalling their families to hurry up and do this and do that. Plus you WILL have fun kids as we have paid a fortune for this holiday. Chill out Guys!

Holiday are like an office Bring Forward B/F system. Do what you can today and the rest will be done tomorrow or indeed later but it will be done all being well. If not hey ho.

Finally I worked in a horrendous pressurised job. If my in tray became overwhelmed I used to chuck the lot in a huge envelope and post it in the internal mail back to myself. Our system was so bad I got a 3 day breathing space.

[HelenLime]

Originally Posted by Mr Tom Morrow

We all manage our stress and expectations differently and I do chuckle when I see some people in WDW armed with reams of printed sheets and marshalling their families to hurry up and do this and do that. Plus you WILL have fun kids as we have paid a fortune for this holiday. Chill out Guys!

See more...

Yep this is what I want to avoid 😂

Thanks both - really appreciate the replies. I need find my own balance and as you both say, do what we can.

Luckily my husband is quite chilled and he has decreed that when the ‘canary in the mine’ (I.e. our 8 year old) starts whinging about being knackered then we decamp back to the hotel for a swim and a re-set. I just hope we are not back in the hotel by 10am every day 😆

[Tinkerbell]

When I booked this trip last May I, like the OP suddenly went into planning mode and the fear set in, what if we missed this, what if we are enjoying one ting and have to leave for another , you know what, so what

I’ve planned my ADRs a rough idea of what I’m doing each day and for the FPS well I’m of the attitude now, either I get them or I don’t . It’s a holiday. If we are enjoying one thing and it means missing another, hey ho, so what.

With just over 100 days to go I’m far more chilled than I was six months ago. I’m still tweaking ideas but nothing to stress about.

It’s a holiday. My daughter is actually the Monica in our family and she handed the organising over to me and is now very grateful that she’s just got to turn up.

[Lightyear]

I'm much the same, I do a lot of planning in my job and I like planning the holiday. Luckily you can only book 3 fastpasses in advance, so that gives loads of room, and I plan a half day at a time.

I book the same park for 2 or 3 days across the holiday, so I know if we don't get to something one day then it'll be there for us another day and modify as I go along. Don't stress about it.

[liz-paul]

My approach was to do lots of planning beforehand and we had a plan for each day. First week on site we had the park planned for each day along with GPS and ADRs. Other two weeks were off site and we had an idea for each day with some FPs booked. And then once we got there we largely stuck to the plan but I didn't hurry anyone along or get stressed if we missed a FP or changed our plans.

Maybe try somethingike that...

Also, in my experience family holidays always involve at least a little bit of stress and the odd argument. The key is to be able to brush them off and not beat yourself (or anyone else) up over it. I can say with confidence though that you'll have a great time whatever you do 😀

[Procrastinator]

It is tough, but i think you have to go there mentally prepared to put all your plans in the bin, miss the headline ride / show knowing you are not going to come back this holiday, but accepting it because you are all smilling and happy.

Tough to do and we made a mess of our first 2 days last time round. The kids just could not handle the heat, tiredness and excitement. Proper meltdowns and tears. Should have accepted defeat a lot earlier in the day than we did and it wasn't fun for any of us. But, lessons learnt.

[PPM]

We stay offsite

Our planning consists of getting FP at thirty day if possible for the headline rides, then once they are set we plan round them.
By plan, we list where we want to go and put them on a list stuck to the fridge door in the villa.
The Big ticket FPS are set in stone, so we put dates to them.
The rest we just pick out the night before, and have always managed to get FPs that evening.
Once we have been we score it off the list.

This allows us a lot of flexibility, we tend to do the FPS early and can sometimes get more at the park after we have used three.

Sometimes we get up and decide not to go to a the park we chose the night before.
As long as we have more days holiday left than parks left unscored on the list we are fine.

This allows us to take things as they come. It works well for us. Sorry it’s so long.

[Gryff]

We are always off site
On the trips we do Disney yes we book FP for every day of our tickets
But plans are very fluid so we tend to stick to the days we've got things like SDMT FOP TSM etc then work round that and yes we do cancel FP we don't need
My now grown up boys 2are married to girls who like me love a list spread sheet but know that it can be changed at the click of a button or and eraser other DIL takes each minute of each day as it happens
( she has autism and says she knows now how quickly it can go pear shaped hence her philosophy )