to plan or not to plan...

[Suz36]

This question is for all the hyper-planners out there, like myself. Have you ever been able to take a trip where you did not hyper-plan every moment? With my type A personality, I have planned every moment of our past 3 trips to Disney, but I am able to relax a bit when it actually comes down to it, the plan is just a guide. With our upcoming trip, I'd really like to just go with the flow, but I don't know if I can!! Please help boost my confidence, tell me I can do this!

[LandFan]

I don't know if I can help you with that - I think that planning it all is half the fun! DH and DMom love that I plan it all too. They totally trust me and know that I do a good job so they are totally fine with whatever I want to do.

At the same time, when we get there, I do only use it as a guide. I am fine when things don't happen that way and we take it one thing at a time.

So, for me, to not plan would take away from my fun because it is like a big puzzle to me and I like trying to make the pieces fit the best they possibly can. It also makes the time go faster and I know that DH and DMom appreciate it!

Sorry - I don't think I helped you at all:(

[TwinniesNMeLoveWDW]

Well, I don't know if I can give you any advice on this since I also plan EVERYTHING beforehand as well. But I just get so excited when I finally make the decision that we're going back, and I have a lot of fun doing more research and putting together the itineraries.

I went to WDW with my daughters as a single mom for several years, and we always planned out the trips from sunup to sundown, to the minute. Then after I got married and my husband went with us, I had to drastically change how we plan. He is a sleep in, sit back with a beer, eat, and nap kind of person on vacation. So now when he goes, I have to fit in some relaxing time into our go-go-go mentality.

If you are able to be flexible once you actually get to WDW and don't get too stressed out if anything throws a glitch into your plans, then I don't think you have anything to worry about. You're on vacation after all! And hey, there are a lot worse things you could be doing than uberplanning your next WDW trip! (Like planning a trip to Universal ;) - JK!)

[DisneyFr33k]

I'm a planner to - but to a certain degree. I plan out where we are eating, make ADR's and plan what day we do what park. But once we are there, I let the family decide what we are going to do first/last etc. We have our favorites, as we've visited almost every year. So we don't feel like we are missing out too much if we rearrange things a bit.

Don't feel bad about planning - as was said above, that is most of the fun and creates a blissful anticipation!

[Dream'nDisney]

I LOVE planning! It is more than half the fun for me. We too are trying to be more relaxed this trip, but part of that is having some things planned (I believe). We have several dining reservations, and have scheduled a restaurant on two different nights so as to allow for some flexibility. We will just cancel one of them as soon as we decide which one we don't want.... or maybe we will use both?? Just going to wing it. We all like to talk about what we each want to see/ride before hand. That way no one will be disappointed. Other than that, I have a calendar marking what days are EMH's and at what parks, and it also has our ADR's so we can refer to the calendar at our resort and decide what we want to do on any given day. Good luck!

[rubato]

This question is for all the hyper-planners out there, like myself. Have you ever been able to take a trip where you did not hyper-plan every moment? With my type A personality, I have planned every moment of our past 3 trips to Disney, but I am able to relax a bit when it actually comes down to it, the plan is just a guide. With our upcoming trip, I'd really like to just go with the flow, but I don't know if I can!! Please help boost my confidence, tell me I can do this!


I'm also a planner, but once it's planned, just go with the flow. I know that even if we divert from my plan, we'll still have a ball. This time, on our Feb. DW trip, I'm not planning as much.

Last fall, I let a friend of my husbands plan our trip to Paris. He lives in Germany and said he'd take care of everything. It was the hardest thing I had ever done to just say "Okay, whatever you think". He screwed up a bunch of stuff, but we still had fun. How can you not in Paris?:D

[Dulcee]

I plan dinners annnnd thats about it. I'm in the minority here but if we're in WDW for a week I'd far rather wake up and decide where to go in the morning then panic when I fall behind schedule..

[mrsgaribaldi]

We don't plan much. 1 or 2 Adrs, maybe. A special event if it's that time of year. We check out the EMHs to see which ones are at night. That's about all.:mickey:

[DANAM]

I agree with others planning is half the fun for me but back to our question. Do you think you can handle it? I am really obsessed, I mean excel spreadsheets and all and I can't do it. Our first trip with the kids I tried it and NEVER AGAIN!!!

[madandmaksmom]

LOL...I thought I was the only one who creates Excel spreadsheets. If the hotel caught fire, I'd grab my kids and then my Disney binder:secret:
I am totally addicted to the planning and get extremely crazy if we get off "the plan".

However, a couple of years ago I went with one of my best friends and our kids for a 'girl' trip. I am a total park commando and figure sleeping is what you do on the plane. She is more laid back than I am (but still a general planner) and wanted a less crazy pace. So, I bit my lip, sucked it up in the name of friendship, abandoned my spreadsheets, and just went with the flow. The only must-be-on-time things we did were meals.

You know what? That trip is easily in my top 2 best times at WDW. We let the kids guide us--usually what they saw is what we did. It was insane, running from ride to ride, catching cabs to dinner because we lost track of time, etc. But...I got the chance to do things I never would have put on our itenerary otherwise. For example, I never would have taken the horse/wagon ride at FW, but thanks to a 5-year old's horse obsession, we did it and ended up somehow at the Chip and Dale campfire where the kids had the best time ever. We still laugh so hard about this trip!

Just give it a try once. Have a general plan, but allow for spontenaity. You might just end up with some of your best memories yet :thumbsup:.

(But I still have spreadsheets for June. Once a planner, always a planner.)

[cmsizzlin]

I think you need to plan the essentials like travel/accomodations just for sanity purposes. But I also think a plan for tackling the parks is good and can be used as a guide. If you want to eat at certain places, than ADR's are important especially for character meals. I don't believe that every minute you spend on vacation should be planned so carefully and every minute counted but that is just me. I know people need to plan every aspect to be comfortable but flying by the seat of your pants can be exciting and fun also.

[tmosier]

With our upcoming trip, I'd really like to just go with the flow, but I don't know if I can!! Please help boost my confidence, tell me I can do this!

Don't do it!! I'm a type A as well ( :thumbsup:) so I understand your pain--- especially when a Disney vacation can be so costly! Stick with making a loose plan--- what if you set out to Disney without a plan (AAHHH!!), get stressed out, crash and burn then and make everybody miserable? It sounds like you use your plan in a healthy way (using it as a guide rather than as a commando must-follow-to-the-minute list) so I say plan, plan, plan but use it as a guide like you have been.

[Dopey's Girl]

I'm not a planner. I usually have a few ADR's and that is about it. I'm a big fan of get to the bus stop and see which bus comes first type gal. We have been doing that for years, and have the best time. You never really know what kind of fun you are going to run into when you do it that way!

I just don't like feeling so scheduled, which is why I don't even have ADR's for every day. I have been so many times the last few years, that there are very few things I would be crushed if I didn't see, plus I have hopper passes, so if I decide I want to see something, I go there. Not planning also helps if I get to a park, and all the planners had the same idea. I just get on another bus and head to another park!

[DawsonAR]

I would go crazy if I didn't plan. I have fun with the planning and it makes me relax that things will go well. I also create excel spreadsheets for the trip. This year I do have one day where I didn't book ADR's at all. I'm a little freaked out about it. I know we can do counter service, but it doesn't feel complete. I hope I don't lose to much sleep over it.....:mickey: