Nostalgia Piece... Can you remember planning WDW holidays without the internet?

[Kidd McFluff]

These days it seems that every holiday we book is done online and planned to perfection as we read every last bit of information, opinion, reviews, pictures, ride previews, trip reports etc. online.

I was booking our pre travel hotel today for a trip in August and automatically checked out the menu, checked the dibb for Gatwick hotel advice and reviews. I now know what I'll be eating at 7pm on the 24th August!

I remember planning a 2 week road trip around California, Arizona, and Nevada about 18 years ago without the help of the internet. We bought books, made phone calls and did much of our planning as we went along. Things were more spontaneous then and while we may have stayed in a couple of odd motels things were fine. Finding a place to eat was a case of walking around until we found somewhere that looked OK.

We had some great meals and found some interesting places. We managed to book hotels in different places for 12 nights. Hired a car, booked flights and planned our route (using a map).

Who else remembers planning epic journeys without the help of the WWW? How did we manage without The Dibb?

[Milpston]

I couldn’t imagine booking a holiday now with nothing more than 2 photographs in a brochure to go on 😂

[linder]

Our first wdw visit was done through a travel agent and we didn’t have a clue what to expect but I’m glad I couldn’t do research online because it made the holiday amazing seeing everything for the first time

[orlandoN21]

Lol... our first holiday WDW holiday was with Airtours and our son who was only 12 went free. No planning was done and we just went with the flow.

[Gaz Lear]

We planned everything from the free DVD that used to get delivered every year and before that the VHS

[Persnicketty]

1989, Air 2000, Gla to MCO via refueling stop at Bangor Maine. 2A, 1C, car, 2 weeks on I-drive in a grungy motel. Total cost, including 5 day WDW pass was around £1200.

Never once considered planning a single aspect :-)

And now, we have 12 month spreadsheets laid out.

[happytraveller]

I can remember it well. The first time I’d booked it was with virgin through my exes work holiday scheme. We stayed at the quality inn international then and I too got the planning video and would read every brochure I could for planning lol. I actually agree that it seemed more exciting and to a certain extent, your expectations were low but the anticipation was higher as you hadn’t built up expectations through other people’s trip reports and vlogs, so your experience was unique to you and only comparable to what you’d done before, not so and so holiday from elsewhere. As much as I love researching on the net (as a holiday addict I’m obsessed lol) I still miss those days when I didn’t know what to expect so much

[justus2again]

The first time we went waws in 1990 flew virgin from gatwick stopping at maine to refuel didn't know what to expect got lost so many times all we remember having was a map on the front of a coupon book to help us find the hotel we must have driven all over orlando before we found the hotel at 2 in the morning just wanted to come home we finally got our bearings after about 3 days it was magical we got tickets from the welcome meeting in the hotel i remember it being lots of empty land not like today where everything can be sorted before you go and we know the roads like the back of our hand but the magic dust still got me and we are still loving it just as much x

[Geordieprincess]

Our first family trip to Orlando I was 16 and while Mam and Dad booked the fly drive and picked up motels on the hoof, I was already showing signs of being an obsessive planner, bought the Unofficial Guide to Disney book and planned every day based on quietest days, headliners/ going to back of park first and touring in the opposite direction to most people.
For other holidays, pre-Tripadvisor I remember the travel agents having a “secret” book they kept under the counter called the Gazetteer which told you the truth they didn’t write in the brochures. Always checked that out before booking!

[Guest]

It’s a lot easier with the internet/mobile phones/sat nav. 😁 On our first trip after getting the hard sell at the Alamo counter we headed off down the 192 to find the office where we supposed to pick the keys up for the villa at Lindfields. I’d rented it from a guy at work and the directions were rubbish. Two hours later we were still driving up and down the 192. We gave up and found a hotel! Things looked better in the morning.