Basic Disney question

[Carrie12345]

I haven't been to Disney World since 1993 or 4. I went with Girl Scouts. We had Park Hopper passes, stayed in a regular hotel, and just went wherever we wanted for 4 days. No major planning. It was great.

 

There's a slight possibility we might go as a family next year, or maybe the year after, but when I poke around online and see all of the planning people are doing, it makes me want to just stay home and rent a Disney movie.

 

Is all of that really necessary, or is it possible to just go, hang out, and have fun? I don't want to need a vacation from vacation planning!

[bettyandbob]

We stayed onsite. The only real planning I did was to figure out the best days to start in each park and which day to attend which park's fireworks ( some fireworks were earlier on different days and we didn't want to be up really late. This was late jan. in summer there's probably no flexibility in fireworks times because of daylight). And I made reservations for two sit down meals , one was tied to special seating for fire works and the other was my birthday.

 

Not a lot of planning. Went out together in the morning. Afternoon we split up . Oldest went wherever Disney transportation took him ( usually Epcot). Dh and youngest went to have nap time. Middle and I stayed in the park going on whatever roller coasters were available. We'd do dinner together at the room. Middle dc ad I would go ou together for fireworks on our own except for one show we did dinner and show thing.

[*Jen*]

If you are going during the slow season yes it is completely possible to go and not plan out everything.

 

We went last year in October. The only planning I did was to make sure we went to parks on the days that we had parades that we wanted to see and that we avoided Magic Kingdom on the days of Mickey's Halloween Party. I also had a basic plan for Magic Kingdom (Basic in that I knew that we were going straight to Space Mountain and then going to Fantasy Land) We also had an app for our phones that told us line wait times so that we wouldn't walk across the park to get to a ride that the kids wanted to go on and then have a long wait.

 

I also read up on how to use rider swtich passes and fast passes to our advantage. Other than that we just enjoyed our time and wondered at will. The parks were quiet enough that we easily did all the rides that we wanted to in one day at Magic Kingdom. We went back for a 2nd day just to re-ride a few favorites.

 

If you are going during the peak season, then having a plan in place will help you so you don't spend most of your day waiting in lines and only riding a few rides.

[Dmmetler]

Yes, that's pretty much how we do it-even when we're there over Christmas. We book onsite, and usually decide what parks to visit that day (often determined by Magic hours). We don't generally make reservations except for maybe one character meal-and that we do when we call Disney to book directly.

 

Having said that, DH doesn't do coasters at all, and the last time we went, DD was too short for them, so, for the most part, we weren't doing many of the super popular rides-and the few we were, we did fast passes for, did them in Magic hours, or both.

[sparrow]

We go in the off-season and the only planning I do is checking crowd calendars to decide which parks to avoid on what days. If a park's crowd is listed as a 6/10, I'm heading to the park that is 2/10. Easy peasy.

 

We also don't do character dinners or ADRs (advanced dinner reservations). We started out not doing character dinners because my daughter was very shy and all that attention on her would be a disaster. As for ADRs, I don't understand how people can know, a year out, what time they'll want to eat and what they'll be in the mood to eat. We just wing it, which is especially fun at the World Showcase in EPCOT :001_smile: .

 

We stay off-site, in Windsor Hills. We have a beautiful condo to stretch out and relax in. Really, our Disney vacations have been our most inexpensive and relaxing vacations. People look at me like I'm crazy when I tell them that, but it's totally true.

[whitestavern]

I think a basic plan is important. Sitting in long lines is no fun, neither is sitting in front of an attraction reading the park map while everyone decides if they want to do it. Having just an outline of a plan is key to avoiding that.

 

I plan what days to hit which parks (easywdw.com is great for this) so that you're touring the park with the least crowds each day. It's just more pleasant than being in a busier park. Having an idea of what attractions you want to do/see, as well as knowing when they should be seen is also important. There are one or two attractions in each park that should be done or Fastpassed as soon as possible after arriving at the park. Additionally, we like to have our meal reservations made ahead of time since we really like some of the restaurants at WDW. Eating at them is part of the "touring" for us. But that's about it. That kind of plan can be put together in a day or two of research.

[Mom0012]

We just got back from Disney and I'm one of the crazy planners. But, really, even though I had everything planned out, it wasn't that much work. I subscribed to www.touringplans.com for $10. I then looked at the days we wanted to go to Disney to see if the crowds were going to be reasonable. Once I knew they were good dates, I decided which parks we would go to on which day based on the crowd forecasts. Then, I made reservations at a sit-down restaurant at whatever park we were going to be at for the day. (I find it very helpful to have a nice long lunch break in the middle of the day.) The last thing I did was print out touring plans which basically tell you the order you should do things to avoid the crowds. As someone else said, if you are going off season, that really isn't very important.

 

I've been to Disney a lot and the reason I started doing so much planning was because I was tired of standing in lines for 40+ minutes, and feeling like we got to do very little for all the money we spent.

 

I do have to say that I usually like a busy vacation. In the past, I've been bored to death at home and a fast-paced vacation with lots planned really suited me. This year has been different, and I could have used a different kind of vacation, even though we did have a lot of fun. I wish I had made the vacation a couple of days longer so that we would have had some down time. 5 straight days at the parks after 16 hours of driving each way was a bit much for me this time around.

[ChristusG]

You can totally just wing it UNLESS you want some "sit down" (aka table service) meals. If you are fine with just quick, counter service, "fast food" type meals, then you can just go with no planning needed. The table service meals can fill up fast reservations are needed for that. If you are certain you want to see certain things (fireworks shows, parades, etc) some basic planning of which parks to do on which days will suffice. Of course, going on the off season is highly recommended.