Before I retired down here to Central Florida, one of my favorite things to do was to plan our Walt Disney World vacations. I mean I LOVED to plan those trips. To me, and maybe many of you, planning a WDW trip can almost be as much fun as the trip itself. Am I right? Gathering the family together to talk about what restaurants everyone wanted to eat at and mapping out a park strategy were wonderful times that never failed to get the wife and kids into that magical Disney spirit.
I know that today there are so many different planning tools that can be used and so much great information (like that on AllEars.net) to help with the planning. Also, considering the number of folks who come to AllEars every day for information I know the idea of planning is still a major part of most peoples WDW experience.
_________________________
“How Do You Plan Your WDW Vacations”
One of the things I did was first create a task list of things to do and a timeline as to when they needed to be done. That was always created as a Word document. As the family agreed on restaurants and dates that info would be added to the document. Also, flight, car rental, breakfast, lunch and dinner reservation numbers, hotel confirmation information and all kinds of phone numbers went into that document. From that I would create a schedule with all pertinent information for each day. When done, everyone in the family got a copy of that Bachand Family Vacation Plan.
I use to get a fair amount of good natured ribbing about the document, but when we were in WDW the “BFVP” was well used and saved a lot of confusion and indecision. Now the one thing I want to point out is that I did not over plan. The plan was basically a guide and we frequently changed things for any number of reasons. But having a sheet of with confirmation numbers and phone numbers made it easy to change dining reservations when needed.
_________________________
OK, I’ve told you how I planned, now it’s your turn to let me know what you do to plan your WDW trips.
You could win an AllEars® baseball cap. I will take all the names of those who post a comment (see below) with your list within the next couple weeks, and I will put them in a hat and randomly draw the name of the lucky winner. The only rules are that you must reside in the US, be 18 years old or older and you must provide your email address so I can contact you should you win.
All comments must be posted no later than Sunday, November 21, 2010 in order to be eligible to win the baseball cap. The winner of the AllEars® baseball cap will be announced shortly thereafter.
To make things a bit easier for you can just copy and paste the following into the Post A Comment section below and add your information:
_________________________
“How Do You Plan Your WDW Vacations”
Your comments:
NOTE: When you comment it is now necessary to enter the word “blog” (without the quotations) in a box that’s located just below the “Comments” box.
_________________________
In the coming weeks I will blog on more “favorite” things to do in Walt Disney World. Also, let me know if you have any suggestions as to other things you would like to see “top lists” of. I’m open to any and all suggestions. So far readers have suggested I blog on Favorite Disney snacks, deserts and characters. Great ideas! What do you think? Based on the number of comments, I think you all agree that these are fun to do.
And the winner is: the winner of the AllEars® baseball cap for commenting on my “Favorite WDW Song” blog is: Josh Weiss from New York. Congratulations to Josh and “thank you” to everyone who took the time to share their “Favorite WDW Song” and all the loyal AlllEars® readers!
I also want to comment on last weeks blog: I must admit that I really enjoyed reading each and every one of the comments that your all posted. Everyone’s “Magical Moments” were very, very special! I urge anyone who hasn’t read all the comment to do so. Thanks to all who took the time to comments. It’s much appreciated!
Did you know AllEars® has a huge area called Rate and Review where you can share your dining reviews with fellow readers? Check it out!
Finally, be one of the first people to hear when my newest blogs go live on AllEars.net by joining “DisneyMike’s World” Facebook group.
Well, that’s all for now. As my good friend says, “see ya real soon”…DizneyMike
Hey, see this little green button? Well, it allows you to share this blog with your family and friends quite easily. Give it a try; it’s pretty neat!
I start my WDW planning by calling Member Services. Have to have a room first right? Once I secure a room at AKV at 11 months out I start thinking about what we’re going to do this trip and which DVC resort is the best choice. At 7 mos out I make the change, or stick with what I have depending. We always try for the concierge rooms at AKV and don’t switch if we get one.
After that I plan my dining reservations around which park has Evening Extra Magic Hours. I use my Passporter Tour Guide and the message boards at passporter.com to help with decisions.
I also make sure I look at the crowd calendar at touringplans.com to make decisions about what park to visit in the mornings.
I’ve done some spur of the moment trips recently, book on Thursday and leave on Monday–so the online dining booking has been amazing and the crowd calendars were invaluable the week of Thanksgiving!
Our (my) planning for WDW vacations has changed significantly over the years. When our 2 kids were small, I invested a lot of time in determining which parks to go to on which days and where we would eat while there. Things like park hours, parade times, etc., were all part of the process. It all started with a color-coded spreadhseet that showed where we should be when, etc. Of course, like other folks above, the ribbing from everyone was intense until they realized, while in the park, that it all made sense.
Now that we are (almost) empty nesters, we don’t require nearly as much structure in our trips as we used to. In fact, now we wait until the mood strikes us (or we get an offer we can’t refuse). We look at the Disney website and find the best deal (usually free dining) and book at most a few months ahead of time, along with the required flights.
Once we know when we will be there, out comes the spreadsheet and we look to see what restaurants we haven’t been to and try to book those. There are very few that we have little interest in trying, so that goes fairy quickly. Being just the 2 of us, an early or late dinner is never an issue so we always find something, even if the trip is only a few weeks away.
The nest step is determining what resort we want to get our vacation massages at. That’s a ritual we won’t give up anytime soon…
Once we know where we will have our sit-down ADR’s, we make the obvious choices on what parks to visit based on where we are eating, but after that, it’s usually more of “what do we feel like doing today?”. Having done both, a relaxed WDW vacation is much better than the “commando” version we used to do with the kids and friends.
We are going in December for the first time this year. We can’t wait to see the World in all of it’s Holiday glory!
How do I plan my Vacation?
Very good question!
Well I must say that I make all the planing with my mom. Th first thing is decide a date…for example we already schedule our next trip, but how is next year we have to wait until last week of february to visit my travel agent in order to book flights and hotel (this is the problem that you face when you live in other country far far away from the Mouse!)
Meanwhile we already choose the Hotel. We visited all the Value Resorts so we choose the one that my mom loves the most (is a battle that I always loose), but we always have a plan B in case to find a great opportunity in a moderate Hotel.
Suppose that we are a month away from our trip, so I search for the EMH Morning and Evening, so we don’t need to think during the trip, we just enjoy. There is always some plan changes, but are the least.
With all the information I make an excel with the schedule. For example we usually go to Animal Kingdom and visit other park or Downtown Disney in the same day, or the first day we go to the mall…
Hi Mike,
I am definitely the spreadsheet tyrant in our family but then again everyone is stressed if they don’t know where we’re going and what we’re doing. I’ve heard my brother in law say numerous times – what does the spreadsheet say we’re doing today?
I start by saving a new copy of my much loved and much used spreadsheet template for Disney which records each days activities and meals(Parks, Hours, EMH’s, Special Events, Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner ADR’s and any other activities). I put as much information on it as soon as I can get it (sometimes I have to wait for the exact park hours but I’ve been doing this for 8 years sometimes multiple times a year and I pretty much know which days the EMH’s will be).
We gather the family together (8 of us) to do a poll on restaurant choices then 180 days in I start booking – I’ve called daily from a campsite before when we hadn’t booked our rooms yet. Sometimes our restaurants are booked before our rooms in WDW or our flights on JetBlue out of Syracuse. We try and book everything as early as possible to take advantage of the good deals.
I continously update the spreadsheet with ADR’s and insert tabs with menus for each restaurant as All Ears updates them – I check every week for revisions.
I have planned many Disney vacations for others because I find that stresses a lot of people out and I love it – too bad I couldn’t make a career out of it!
We have had to adjust our pace for our upcoming trip from our usual frantic pace to a slower more relaxed pace. The spreadsheet has had to be flexible, allowing for more resting time so everyone can enjoy our trip. We’ll still know where we’re going and where and when we’re eating but there’s a lot more wiggle room.
I’m just glad all 8 of us are able to go together again. We’re a family and it wouldn’t be the same if it wasn’t all of us.
Wendy
Wow, this is so much fun — I see I’m not the only one who plans obsessively!
First, we make the resort reservations as soon as the desired special offer is available.
Like you Mike, I create a timeline — usually in chart form. I never even show it to other family members lest I get the good natured ribbing but they know it exists and are always happy to go wherever I lead. I put the time line together about a week before the 180 day mark so I can be ready to make the reservations for table service meals. I keep the charts from previous visits and try to learn from them — if I remember my son was really tired at a particular sit down meal, then I schedule a rest day or short day at that point in the schedule, or make the reservation earlier or later, etc.
Because of my son’s school schedule — they never start before Labor Day — we go at the very end of summer when it is pretty quiet in the parks. As a result, we find we don’t need touring plans.
I routinely read this site, I might grab the latest “Unofficial Guide” and generally keep up to date on happenings in the World so I know what we might want to do on our next visit.
I once read an article about “happiness research.” There are experts in this field and one of the observations they made about people who report high levels of happiness is that they pick an event in the future (vacation or sporting event, etc.). They spend a lot of time thinking about it and planning it, and then afterwards they put a special memento or photo where they can see it and be reminded of their special event. So I think we are definitely on to something here!
“How Do You Plan Your WDW Vacations”
I have a 2-sided template that I developed years ago. I have the following sections: MK, Studios, AK, EPCOT, MISC, MEALS.
For the parks, I list which days or part of day we are visiting based on fireworks, extra magic hours, etc. I list operating hours. I then list “must sees” and info on snack eateries, etc. If I’ve read particularly useful information (usually on this site!), for instance, where to stand for a certain parade, I also list that info here. For Misc., I might list info on our hotel (usually Wilderness Lodge), Celebration, mini golf, hospital/pharmacies, etc. Under Meals, I list every reservation, time and reservation #. By having this 2-sided, I can easily fold it in quarters and keep it in a pocket (I use a higher grade paper so it doesn’t wilt in case of inclement weather). I use different fonts, bolds, etc., so I know headings but also pertinent information. I also have a separate sheet with instructions on driving from airport to snack places to hotel. I’ve started doing this for non-Disney trips as well, and it really does help. I actualy have 2 Disney lists–one for regular season and one for the holidays. I don’t think I could go to WDW without it now as it has shown to be a life-saver many times.
Like many others I LOVE the planning of our WDW trips – we live in the UK so only go every 4 years ish so the planning just builds the anticipation. I will admit we (DH and three teenage boys) are ‘comando’ tourers so I do plan every day in detail. I always get the new edition of ‘Unoffical Guide..’ and subscribe to their website so I can create custom touring plans. I am an avid AllEars reader and keep notes of anything I want to incorporate into our visits. I use a spreadsheet that records EVERYTHING and this gets slowly refined right up to departure. As we arrive late PM having left home over 24 hours earlier, the first full day is always spent at a waterpark. Then it’s into the plan for the next 14 days – then we go to the beach for a week and sleep whilst DH recovers from another of Juli’s ‘SAS missions’ (For the non-UK readers the SAS is like the Navy Seals – I think)
I love planning my trips to Disney. I love choosing the resort, the restaurants, booking the flight/planning the driving route and everything else that goes into planning the trip.
Once I get to Disney though, I like to go with the flow. I like to do as little planning as possible and do what I want to do when I want to do it. I have learned that sometimes not planning has lead to the best trips. On my last trip, we decided to stay and extra day and spent the day in Downtown Disney doing things we never would have done otherwise. It ended up being the highlight of our trip.
Our plan starts with our dates, booking the hotel, then planning which park to visit each day based on entertainment offerings and EMH (which we try to avoid!) Once we know the parks, we can decide on restaurants, and ADRs are always made at the 180 day mark. I play the watching and waiting game with the flights, until I find a good deal and go ahead and book. This is the point when it really sinks in for me that we’re actually going back! I then work on the daily schedule (I tend to overplan, but am always flexible when we’re there), reworking it numerous times over the months leading up to the trip (which drives DH crazy!) There’s also the ongoing to-do list for little things like pins, pressed pennies, Mousekeeping tip envelopes, etc. And of course the shopping list that grows longer and longer as the trip approaches! I definitely agree the planning is almost as fun as the trip itself! I usually have in mind when our next 2-3 trips will be, based on birthdays and special events that we’d like to experience. I can’t end a trip without knowing when we will be returning, so that I can get started on planning as soon as we’ve unpacked!
Wow after reading alot of the comments it really makes you realize how lucky you are when you live in Florida and can be an annual passholder and go anytime. Our planning sometimes is as simple as sitting in the family room in the morning after breakfast on a weekend and saying hey do you want to go to Disney today? Of course the answer is always yes and off we go. We are lucky!
We always look forward to the planning as much as the trips themselves – it just gives us this great feeling that we are going back again!!! 29 days to go, but I wish it was sooner. We like to start with the hotel. We love all Disney hotels, so this is a difficult decision for us. We like every vacation to feel different, so we plan accordingly. Once the hotel reservation is in place, we start planning our table service reservations. We always include some old favorites and at least one new dining experience. After that, we plan our first afternoon at the World. The first immersion is really important for a start of a great vacation! Also, we make sure we enjoy the resort. We did not do that at first, but we find that a lot of our most memorable good time memories come from hanging out at our resort. Beyond that, we take it one day at the time. Too much planning causes too much stress.
As we drive home from the World, we start talking about booking our next trip… Between trips, we read all AllEars blogs daily :). Good work!
I’m the “Disney Nut” in the family and neighborhood. I make all the arrangements and plan our daily schedules. Last year 18 of us visited. Recently one of my neighbors was stressing out as her daughter(5yrs old)is Princess obsessed and knew they needed their first Disney trip. She handed over her charge card and I made reservations, ADRs and even Bibbity Bobbity Boutique within 2 hours everything was booked!
14 days till our first Christmas time trip!
Susie in Boston
The first thing that I plan out for a disney vacaton is picking out all the places that we are going to eat and what time. Next we make plans for the flight and after that we choose the hotel. we always choose a value resort. since are dates are always the same we don’t worry about that.
Mike,
I love planning our WDW vacations. I get a yellow mini-legal pad and write down all of our reservation info. Looking at park hours and EMH’s, I make a rough draft chart of where we should be when. Then we talk about restaurants and vote on those. (This next time my parents are going with us, so I let my Dad make most of the dining suggestions.) Then after making the ADR’s I record it all on my little pad. The pad for the next trip is right in front of me here at the computer. Also whenever I read a tip I like from AllEars I write it on my pad. The pad is the first thing I put in my backpack every day at WDW. I look forward to reading everyone’s comments so that I can possibly add them to my little pad also. Thanks!
When planning I look at the time of year, who I am traveling with and how many days we will have ‘on the ground’.
We get the regular Dining Plan and the next plan to get into place is which restaurants on which days and then phone for ADR’s always being ready to switch up days if we can get that ever elusive booking at Le Cellier. We always try at least one new (to us) restaurant after some researching menus. Then it is picking out either a tour or a special party, depending on the time of year.
I don’t do touring plans in the park, I have always found that plans only work if you can be sure of crowd levels.
All the ADR’s, tours etc are written down on a 3×5 card with the confirmation numbers, one for each day pack. After that it is all about counting down the days!
I love the planning for a trip and start by buying a copy of “The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World”. Then I make a small, portable notebook with all of the pertinent information I need, confirmation numbers, shopping list, packing list, everything. It’s really helpful to have all of it in one place.
Once my DH and myself know what weeks we have for vacation for the year, the 1st thing I look at is airfare. Once I book that, then the rest is so easy. Make my Hotel Reservation. At the 180 day point, my dining reservations are in place. If we want to do a tour(will be doing the Keys to the Kingdom at Easter time), that gets booked also.
We then start the usual, what Park 1st. What ride etc, Once my Magical Express Mickey Mail comes, get the clothes put aside and pick up any little necessaries, then pack. The count down is on until it it Travel Day. When it is time to start heading back home, the wheels in my head start spinning for the next trip
How Do You Plan Your WDW Vacations
I always start planning by looking at Park Hours and then making dining reservations. Then, I compose a spreadsheet with all of my ADR’s, park hours, and shows/parades I don’t want to miss. Then, to make it easier to travel, I made color-coded laminated index cards that are on a little ring to take with me. I keep these in my shoulder bag and they have all of my reservation numbers, parks and hours, as well as best routes of transportation to and from parks/resorts. This has been a lifesaver for us, as there is usually a larger group and everyone has their own set of cards. Like you, Mike, the planning for the trip is just as much fun (almost) as the trip itself! 14 days and counting until I’m back….
Hi Mike,
I’m the planner at my house and my husband just tags along when we are at DW. I do make a “not to miss” schedule of attractions at each park and I do call ahead and make my restaurant ressies as soon as I’m 180 days out. I have always come to allears since it began and have used this site millions of times I’m sure! I’m looking forward to my Dec trip in 18 days and meeting you Mike on Dec 4th at the Studios!
When I was a teacher I always made my students(who were going to DW), a list that I called “Disney Cathy’s Tips” so they wouldn’t miss any special attractions. The parents always appreciated this list. If it was the child’s first trip to DW the first grade teacher who was another Disney fan and myself would always give the child a few Disney Dollars.
Our trips to WDW are usually booked well over a year before we visit and as soon as the booking is confirmed, we start counting down the days (currently we are on 30 days of a countdown that started at 372 days!) We always do MK on day one and then base our plans on morning EMH. We also plan all our table service dining and book as soon as the 180 day window opens. I scour the net for disney news and ready any guide book I can get my hands on despite visiting several times already. This year’s plan was finalised at 180 days and life would be very dull without a regular moment of disney dreaming. Sometimes I wish I could pause time as soon as 100 days kicks in as the holiday will be here before we know it!!
“How Do You Plan Your WDW Vacations”
We decide on a date, book up and wait….
Our first full day is spent in Magic Kingdom, we never rush as the park isn’t going anywhere. We never plan a route, just go with the flow.
All of the Disney Parks are visited at least twice on our trips (15 days). We are there for the rope drop and usually we are one of the last to leave. Having a nap in the afternoon is NEVER done.
We do book some dining in advance but we don’t let food dictate our trip.
That’s about as much planning we do. I see some groups of people who are so stressed by ‘things not going to plan’.
WDW is meant to be enjoyed and we do.
Thanks for sharing your plans and another great blog.