Overwhelmed.

[LisaRenee]

Hi Everyone! So we are booked for Nov 20 -25th this year! I haven't been to Disney for over ten years, and it's a little overwhelming all the changes. Before that used to go almost every year and be a planning pro. But now i'm not even sure where to begin. With the reservations and the changes to fast pass i'm really confused. Where do I begin, what can I be doing now before I know the parks schedules and waiting to have the dinning period open for reservations. I'm so excited but can't figure out were to put my planning efforts this far out.

Any ideas, thanks for the help.

Lisa :mickey:

[ThanxForNoticin]

There's no question it can be overwhelming. There have been so many changes in the last 10 years. We tend to focus on just a few things, especially some milestone dates. As a start, I'd recommend:

- if you are staying onsite for this trip, find out the date that is 60 days before your arrival, and 180 days before your arrival. Those might be important.
- at 180 days (if you are ready), you can make your dining reservations for your entire trip.
- at 60 days (if you are ready - and I'd recommend you be ready!), you can make your fast passes for your entire trip. REMEMBER - you must have park passes before you make fast passes. If there are multiple folks in your travel party, they will all need to purchase their passes prior to making fast passes. You'll need to decide how many days you'll be spending in a park.
- if you have not done so yet, create a My Disney Experience account. That's where all your important information will be stored - like your park passes, room reservation, friends traveling with you, etc).

There are obviously other details you'll need to focus on as you lead up to your trip, but these are some of the most important. At some point, you'll need to lay out your expected "wants" for the trip - restaurants, fast pass attractions, etc. You can lay those out on a calendar to see what makes sense for your trip, and then be ready to get online (or call) for reservations the morning of the dates you determine above.

I expect you'll have many other recommendations later on this post. Some folks have this all down to a science!! One thing I can tell you - it might be overwhelming now, but once you have your arrangements settled, it'll be more relaxing when you arrive in November! Have a great trip.

[deedee73]

Before our trip last year it had been 11 long years bw our trips. I totally understand what you are saying. Not only is it overwhelming, you feel anxious that if you miss something your entire trip hangs in the balance. The good news is you know you need a solid plan which is light years ahead of most visitors.

After you determine your dining date (180 days) and your FP date (60 or 30 days), I would highly recommend creating your my Disney account and becoming familiar with the site. Also adding the app to your smartphone will also help. While they are similar they do have slightly different screens and layouts. Also when one freezes up (and it happens often) it has happened that the other is operating fine. This is important on those ADR dining and FP dates. Link all your tickets (if not a package) and create your family and friends list.

After that, start determining your park days and ADR lists. I personally make lists during the down time of restaurants to revisit or try, absolute rides for each park and yes, snacks that I dont want to skip. I can honestly say it was very difficult to go from little plans to over planning but it did make the park visit smoother. In some ways I missed the spontaneity but it was nice not to think what should we do next...it was already figured out.

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[MNNHFLTX]

You've gotten some good advice, Lisa. Don't stress about the end result too much--enjoy each memory as it comes and if you don't get to see each and every attraction, just use that as a reason to come back!

[Imalismom]

Everyone has pretty much answered your questions...

Your 180 days out date is May 24, 2019 and your 60 day our date is September 21, 2019 if that helps.

[Cinderelley]

First off, relax. You will have a great trip regardless of whether you are a super-planner or you go and just wing it.
I am going at the beginning of November. We haven't hit any important dates yet, so you have plenty of time to relax and enjoy the planning.
1) Sign up for My Disney Experience. You will also want whomever else is going to sign up, but if they are anything like the rest of my family, they won't do it right away. If you will be doing the majority of the planning, you should do it right away. The rest of them need to have it done by 61 days before your trip if you are staying in a Disney hotel. If you are staying offsite, they need to have it done by 31 days before your trip.
2) The second thing I do is make a spreadsheet. I will do it on a computer or just write it out on a piece of paper. I put the dates across the top and the parks, breakfast, lunch, dinner, 3 fastpass spots and extras along the side. Intercot has a section on when to visit that lists the busiest days for each park. I use that and mark out those days on my sheet, so that I know which parks to avoid that day. That way I don't even have to wait for Disney to put their calendar up. Hopefully the link will work.
http://www.intercot.com/infocentral/weather/whentovisit.asp
3) Then I plan which park I am visiting on which day based on which spots don't have an x in them.
4) Once I know which park I am visiting on which day, I figure out which dining reservations I want. I find My Disney Experience to be helpful with this. I can look and see what restaurants are in the park I will be in and what their menu is. I can also get an idea of how much money each meal will cost in order to know how much money to save for the trip. Since I have it all written down, I can quickly get my dining reservations at the 180 day mark. You don't need to have everyone's My Disney Experience account connected to do this, but if they are connected, they will be able to see the reservations. You can start booking your dining reservations online earlier than you can if you call into Disney.
5) If there are any extras I want, such as Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party, I list it under the day I will be attending.
6) You can book 3 fastpasses starting at 60 days if you are staying in a Disney hotel or 30 days if you are staying off site. If your My Disney Experience account is connected with everyone else's, you can make their fastpasses for them also. The fastpasses all have to be in the same park. I stay in the same park the whole day. Some people like to park hop, so you have to decide if you want all the fastpasses in the morning and try to get more after you used those three, or if you want to book them in the second park to guarantee you have rides you can get onto there.
7) If you are staying onsite, you can personalize your Magicbands on your My Disney Experience. I believe you can do it up to 10 days before your trip, but I'm not certain at all about that. The Magicbands will be shipped to your house.
That is just how I do it. Others have their own system. It just helps me to break down this huge conglomerate of things to do into smaller doable portions by date.

[texas211]

Good news, you can get more booze than you have ever been able to get before. Makes dealing w/ the trip easier once you are there.

It'll work out fine. You'll have a great time! Good luck!

[faline]

You've already gotten great advice from the other posters.

Just take it one step at a time and, before you know it, your entire plan will come together for you!! Do plan on parks being busier than you remember and, for those rides which fall outside your fastpass availability, plan on spending longer times in stand-by lines than you might remember.

[LisaRenee]

Thanks, everybody!

[Cinderelley]

I was just wondering how your planning is going.

[texas211]

Have you gone full dark side. Do you have family vacation shirts made up yet?

[LisaRenee]

We have made all of our ADR and I"m working on planning out the fast passes. Sept 21 is that date.

We haven't ordered any t-shirts but will be attending the MVMCP on the 21st of Nov and have talked about what to wear to that. HA! We are staying at Coronado Springs for the first time and are excited about that. Thanks, everyone your advice really helped.

[Cinderelley]

Glad it is all coming together for you. You're going to have a great time.

[PopPhan]

I missed this post when it was first put up....

I have a spreadsheet for each trip I make with tabs for:


Costs - Tickets, Room(s), Flights, etc.
Expenditures - Each charge to the room/MB+ detailed
Day Planner - By park and day with listings for 'special events', parades, fireworks, etc. and list FP+ reservations under park and day
Characters - Listing of (known) character meets and locations per park I hightlight the ones I have already gotten pics with
EMH Attractions - Listing the EMH rides and attractions for each park, by Morning or Evening EMH availability
FastPass+ - List of ALL current FP+ attractions/rides with Tier level, park, and area of the park broken down
Ride Photos - Listing of all rides with "on ride" photos, by park


I update it before every trip and keep with my trip 'momentos' afterward.

The first 2 tabs show my '**** retentive' side - cataloging everything - but I was caught, a long time ago, overspending by not tracking everything. Learned my lesson!!! LOL

Hope you have a great trip!!!

[baldburke]

Sign up for MDE. Use it on your computer to plan (it's easier to look at there than your phone). In addition to booking meals and FP+, you can also do your DME, room preferences and link a card to your magic bands. Download the app too. That way it's easy to see how your days line up and then when you get onsite it shouldn't be as traumatic. Don't for get to use your phone while onsite to easily make ressie adjustments and add fast passes as able each day. Good luck!