How Early is Too Early to Plan??? - TR Link Added - 12/29

[eandesmom]

I really don't have too much substantial to add, but I thought I'd share this little surprise we received at the end of last week... Our first Mickey Mail for this trip. We got a small pamphlet that tells us all we need to know about My Magic + and how perfect and excellent it is in every imaginable way!

Any mickey mail is good in my book but they are going a bit overboard. I got 2 of these magnets for upcoming stays, another mailer telling me when ADR day was close, an email on actual ADR day, an email and mailer on actual FP+ booking day. Not to mention the fact 4 total magic bands for my upcoming 2 visits.

Ok, I'm not really that jaded about the whole My Magic + thing. I do love doing all the advanced planning for our trips, but I always try to make it a somewhat loose plan with some backup options because we ALWAYS end up calling audibles once we're on property. As convenient as the ability to change FP+ times/attractions may or may not be, I'm not looking forward to spending time screwing around on my phone to make changes. Because in this age of smart phones... DW and I are the only 2 among our group who even have one. And from my past experience with Disney websites and apps, I'm 100% confident that I could run to Soarin', grab a legacy FP and be back over at Test Track faster than I could change an FP with my phone. I've got long legs and fat fingers. I know my strengths and limitations!

You'd be surprised, the phone thing worked really well most of the time for us and far faster than sprinting across the park. If you have afternoon/evening FP's less of an issue to change day of, if they are morning ones...do it the night before. Plus there are kiosks anyone can use.

I know I haven't talked a lot about our Disneyland plans. Quite frankly, they have taken a backseat to our Disney World trip. As it stands right now, I'll be at a conference in San Diego that will finish up around noon on 1/13. I'd like to do a little bit of sightseeing around San Diego... possibly either on Saturday 1/10 if we arrive early enough, or right after the conference ends. I'm also hoping to have some time to see a few sights around LA if we can work it in. Our main plan is to head to Disneyland and spend a few nights there. I think we're going to plan to head to the parks on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday of that week and fly back home on Saturday. Our plan right now is to stay at the Disneyland Hotel.

We've never been to Disneyland, so this is an entirely new experience, but we are excited about the opportunity to do this. From those of you who have gone, is 3 days enough time, or should we try to get another half day in either on Tuesday afternoon or Saturday morning? We are definitely Disney World veterans and know we will be going back there repeatedly, but Disneyland is an entirely new experience for us. I used to get out to the PNW a couple of times a year for my old job, but aside from that DW nor I, either one, have been to the west coast. We have just a few days to work with and would love to see some things other than our conference hotel in San Diego, and the Disneyland parks, but this is likely our one chance to go to Disneyland so we definitely want to capitalize on our opportunity to explore Walt's park. [/COLOR][/SIZE]

I think 3 days is enough, especially if they are full days. The parks are smaller. You may not get everything but you will get a lot!

 

[Leshaface]

Yay for Disney Mail! I actually like looking at the magnet every time I go to the fridge. Gets me excited knowing a trip is coming up!

I think 3 days is perfect. I wouldn't stress about getting that half day. Otherwise, if you really don't feel like being in San Diego for the rest of that Tuesday, you could definitely spend half the day at DTD and just walking around.

 

[MEK]

Mickey Mail

And from my past experience with Disney websites and apps, I'm 100% confident that I could run to Soarin', grab a legacy FP and be back over at Test Track faster than I could change an FP with my phone. I've got long legs and fat fingers. I know my strengths and limitations!

Ain't that the truth!!!!!


I did actually change some FP's times on my phone last trip but I had plenty of time to do it while Denny was driving. Otherwise it drives me crazy because its SLOW, but part of that may be because my phone is old and despite keeping up with the iPhone upgrades it just ain't what it used to be.

Yay for Mickey Mail. Since I have been there like 4 times this year I just wish they wouldn't send me that stuff at all. I feel like its a waste of money, but if I hadn't been for awhile I would be excited to get it. I wish there was a way you could indicate - Don't send.

Still keeping my fingers crossed for a discount for you.

And yay for an update!

 

[LuvEeyore]

Would love to get some Mickey Mail. Also...it is never too early to plan!! I am in early stages of planning at Jan 2015 trip... haven't started a trippie yet.
Will I?

 

[afwdwfan]

Wow, I had no clue Disney was sending out pamphlets with all the My Magic information. I mean, it makes sense, they have to educate people somehow. And, hey, Mickey Mail is Mickey Mail...

If only it did educate. It really is more like propaganda. Beautiful pictures of the resort, and some brief descriptions about My Magic +.

Those imporatant dates are a good thing to have handy, too. Otherwise, you could end up like me and call Disney Tech Support, because your Fastpass reservation page isn't showing up, only to be told you're 61 days out rather than 60.

Yeah... I've done that with the ADR window before.

I have to agree with on the worries over how easy it'll be to change Fastpasses. I think it'll be possible, it just might no be quick and painless. You'll have to go in with a lot patience.

That's my issue with it. But on the bright side, I won't have to worry about changing more than 3 in a day!

Can't help you any with the Disneyland planning, but I would think if you plan well and monopolize on Fastpasses and early entry to the parks through the resorts, you could get all the big things done in 3 days. I mean, if you're not set on riding attractions you can on here, like Soarin' and TSMM, that are pretty much identical to each than I don't see why not.

Yeah, that is definitely our plan. The highlights for us will obviously be Carsland and the other unique attractions. I'm thinking things like Soarin and Star Tours can be skipped. We'll still likely do TSMM though, because we all love it.

The problem here is that those machines are now covered and you can no longer get FP's that way. You either have to do on your phone or they have a line you can get in (they were 20 deep when we passed them a couple weeks ago) to get the FP+ time or change one.

I know, I know... I'll be making any changes we have via phone. At least we can be walking to something else or standing in line while we mess with it rather than stuck in a ticked off crowd.

I love that Dumbo thing...I have two of them on my fridge.

Only 2?

I wish I had advice on DL. I've got to start researching it myself as we are going next year and skipping DW.

Skipping DW? As in you're not going to go there next year at all???

Any mickey mail is good in my book but they are going a bit overboard. I got 2 of these magnets for upcoming stays, another mailer telling me when ADR day was close, an email on actual ADR day, an email and mailer on actual FP+ booking day. Not to mention the fact 4 total magic bands for my upcoming 2 visits.

It is definitely one of those things that kind of makes you smile to see it in the mail, but yeah, that's a little bit of overkill.

You'd be surprised, the phone thing worked really well most of the time for us and far faster than sprinting across the park. If you have afternoon/evening FP's less of an issue to change day of, if they are morning ones...do it the night before. Plus there are kiosks anyone can use.

I just hope the app works well. I know last trip I was trying to change some ADR's and had a horrible time doing that through their old app. And I ended up ditching the free wifi and using my 4G because the signal was stronger and more consistent, but at the same time that limited my ability to use my data indoors in some cases.

Our strategy right now is likely going to be to book afternoon FP+. We'll just plan to get to the parks before it gets crowded, take a break, then go to either the same or a different park using FP+ in the afternoon/evening.

I think 3 days is enough, especially if they are full days. The parks are smaller. You may not get everything but you will get a lot!

That's kind of what I was thinking. Thanks!

Yay for Disney Mail! I actually like looking at the magnet every time I go to the fridge. Gets me excited knowing a trip is coming up!

True. But all the dates on it are so far away!

I think 3 days is perfect. I wouldn't stress about getting that half day. Otherwise, if you really don't feel like being in San Diego for the rest of that Tuesday, you could definitely spend half the day at DTD and just walking around.

Thanks! I'm kind of hoping to do some sightseeing in the LA/Anaheim area that afternoon if it works out, and then a dinner at DTD... maybe.

Ain't that the truth!!!!!

See, you know where I'm coming from!

I did actually change some FP's times on my phone last trip but I had plenty of time to do it while Denny was driving. Otherwise it drives me crazy because its SLOW, but part of that may be because my phone is old and despite keeping up with the iPhone upgrades it just ain't what it used to be.

This is my concern. If it works smoothly and quickly, I'll be ok with it. But if it turns out to be a multi-step, slow PITA to change FP+ for the whole group, I'm going to get really frustrated, really quickly.

Yay for Mickey Mail. Since I have been there like 4 times this year I just wish they wouldn't send me that stuff at all. I feel like its a waste of money, but if I hadn't been for awhile I would be excited to get it. I wish there was a way you could indicate - Don't send.

You know... I thought the whole purpose of My Magic + / FP+ was so that they could track your theme park habits???? Therefore shouldn't they know you've been X number of times this year and already have a half dozen Magic Bands????

Still keeping my fingers crossed for a discount for you.

And yay for an update!

Thanks!

Would love to get some Mickey Mail. Also...it is never too early to plan!! I am in early stages of planning at Jan 2015 trip... haven't started a trippie yet.
Will I?

No. I'm always "planning a trip." Even if there isn't an actual trip planned. Jan 2015 will be here quick! You'd better get moving!!!

 

[KatMark]

Skipping DW? As in you're not going to go there next year at all???

Yep, skipping it all of next year. We are doing a two week trip to Phoenix/Disneyland/Vegas (hopefully in April) and then ten days on Marco Island in September or October.

 

[afwdwfan]

A request for help...

DW and I have been trying to get our accounts set up on My Disney Experience. As it stands, DW and I are the only 2 in our travel party with Disney accounts. The rest are non - e-mail accounts that are controlled by me.

I invited DW and she can log in and see her reservation information, but I am the only other member of our travel party that she can see in her friends list. How, if even possible, do we set it up so that she can also see the kids and her parents in her friends list??? We've been tinkering with it the past 3 or 4 days and can't figure it out. I'm assuming that unless they show up in her friends list, she wouldn't be able to do any FP+ for them???

Definitely not a good start to win me over on this new system.

 

[eandesmom]

You need to call and they can link her to the rest of the profiles. As long as they all stay managed by you it will work fine but you'll have to call to do it.

 

[afwdwfan]

You need to call and they can link her to the rest of the profiles. As long as they all stay managed by you it will work fine but you'll have to call to do it.

Ok, thank you! I'm glad to see that it can be done, but a little disappointed that it involves having to call them to do it.

This whole thing could be a little more user friendly. I honestly don't see how someone who doesn't frequent a site like this could figure out some of the details like that.

 

[amandaw]

Yay! for Mickey Mail! I wish Run Disney would have sent me a cute little magnet with important dates.

Wish I had info/advice on DLR but we've never been able to venture out there. I am hoping to remedy that in the next few years though.

 

[afwdwfan]

Yay! for Mickey Mail! I wish Run Disney would have sent me a cute little magnet with important dates.

I definitely like the magnet. It is far more useful than the rest of it!

Wish I had info/advice on DLR but we've never been able to venture out there. I am hoping to remedy that in the next few years though.

I know the feeling. We've never been able to go before, but things are kind of falling into place to make it almost something we can't not do.

 

[afwdwfan]

Tentative Park and ADR Plans

Ok, DW and I have been thinking some things through, and we’ve got a bit of a game plan in place for our trip. I just want to say that my dislike for My Magic +/My Disney Experience keeps growing. I don’t find the website to be terribly user friendly, and the deeper I get into it, the more I wonder how people who don’t come to a place like the Disboards for information can have any idea what they’re doing/need to do. They tell you to log in to do all these wonderful things but they don’t explain the details about how to use it or how to manage the friends and family lists well at all. I appreciate Cynthia answering my question over the weekend. I never got around to calling in yet, but as it turns out, I was able to find a thread just this morning that explained how to allow DW to access the accounts I control through the website. It is a bit of a multi-step process, but I’m sure it was still quicker than calling in for help. I can log in from DW’s account and it looks like everything is there. I guess we won’t know for sure if she’ll be able to book and change everyone’s FP+ until our window opens though.


I also want MiL to be able to access the account for the Memory Maker part of it, so I think this weekend I’m going to try to set her up with her own account and send her an invitation from both my account and DW’s and get her set up so that she can at least see everything.


We’ve got a tentative list of park days and ADRs that we’ll likely try to book. I really wanted to try to do a Tusker House breakfast, but we really don’t want to eat a breakfast in a park unless it is before RD. We also want to take a little more leisurely pace and not go quite as commando as I would normally tend to do on our park days. MiL and FiL will definitely want a little more leisurely pace. Because of that, we are avoiding morning EMH’s and our only morning that will start before 9 am will be an early breakfast in MK.


Obviously no ADR’s have been made yet, or can be made until June, so this is subject to (and most likely will) change one or twenty times. I’m also just going by historic park schedules, so if they change EMH days or post some different park hours as Disney releases the schedule, that could affect our day to day plans. It certainly has the last 2 times I’ve planned a trip.


So as it stands right now, here is our rough, rough draft itinerary… just because I’ve got Disney on the brain and I'm kind of excited to get it typed out. I thought about doing some kind of teaser game where I ask you all to guess where we're going or where we're eating on a given day while I slowly reveal each days' plans, but since I'm sure I'll be changing things at some point anyway, we'll just lay it all out there and make wholesale changes rather than try to keep track minor tweaks.

• 12/13 – We'll leave the evening of the 12th driving all night to arrive at Art of Animation around noon. I'll drive the whole way, so hopefully everyone else will get some sleep. We'll hang around the resort and pool most of the afternoon and then go to Hollywood Studios that evening for maybe 1 or 2 FP+ attractions and either Osborne Lights or Fantasmic! Hopefully the lights don’t go away…
  
  
  
• 12/14 – Pre Ropedrop ADR at Cinderella’s Royal Table on Dining Plan. Mid-day break then head to EPCOT. Hope to get a Candlelight Processional package for Garden Grill that we’ll pay out of pocket. We'll use CP as our replacement church on this Sunday.
  
  
  
• 12/15 – Morning at MK. Maybe lunch at BOG? Afternoon break followed by dinner at Chef Mickey on the Dining Plan and then a return to MK for MSEP and Wishes.
  
  
  
• 12/16 - Morning at Animal Kingdom. We’ll take a long afternoon break then head to MK for MVMCP. I’m thinking an early dinner ADR for either Crystal Palace or Be Our Guest.
  
  
  
• 12/17 – Morning at Hollywood Studios with lunch at 50’s Prime Time. We’ll allow for a leisurely afternoon either in DHS or back at the resort with flexibility to also go elsewhere if we choose. We’ll probably spend the evening back at the Studios for either the Osborne Lights or Fantasmic! We’ve done both on the same night in the past, and it works, but since we’re trying to take it at an easier pace I’d like to do them separately. It always feels rushed watching the lights come on and then heading over to catch the second Fantasmic! I’d rather have more time to just hang out on the Streets of America.
  
  
  
• 12/18 – Morning at EPCOT with a lunch at Via Napoli out of pocket. This will be an EPCOT day, so we may or may not take a break, but will end the day here. We could watch Illuminations if we elect not to stay for it when we do the Candlelight Processional. Potentially, this could be a date night for DW and I… send the kids with MiL and FiL while we duck out the backdoor of EPCOT and go to Yachtsman.
  
  
  
• 12/19 – Our last day. We’ll spend the day at MK with another potential opportunity for lunch at BOG. We’ll end our trip with a visit to our favorite resort and a dinner at Whispering Canyon before we hit the road. We'll plan to drive a couple of hours that evening and then drive home the following day.

I had kind of toyed around with where to put Whispering Canyon and I had about 2 different plans in place depending on whether we would end up switching resorts or not. Those plans morphed into this, which I feel good about regardless of wherever we might end up staying. At least until I look at it again, see something I don’t like, scrap it and start over from scratch.




As for our Disneyland trip... I still need to start doing some homework there to start planning for it. The idea of flying to California and meeting us out there for the Disneyland portion of our trip was mentioned this weekend to my Mom and Dad, who if you read my last TR, took us to Disney World in 2012. I think they're seriously considering it. And in case you're wondering, I wasn't the one who suggested it to them. It was DW.

 

[KatMark]

I was seriously on this update. I think you picked every single restaurant that we don't like. Although, we've never done Cindy's castle or Crystal Palace for dinner (I did just read a TR where they didn't like the food).

I think you every day plans sound great.

We had a hard time when Mary and I tried to get Mark in our plans and just ended up leaving him out. We don't let him make any of the plans anyway.

You did see the announcement that they are going to increase the number of Fastpasses you can get at some point and be able to get them at other parks besides just one park on a day? There has been no announcement of when this will take effect.

 

[afwdwfan]

I was seriously on this update. I think you picked every single restaurant that we don't like. Although, we've never done Cindy's castle or Crystal Palace for dinner (I did just read a TR where they didn't like the food).

Now you see why I keep saying I'll like it if you don't!

We've never done the castle either. I'd like to do BOG, but we kind of want to load up on character meals since we'll be on the Dining Plan. I can see why CP food might be bad though. Buffets can be so hit or miss. We'd be going more for the characters than the food anyway. Heck, between now and June we might even flip flop the Cinderella breakfast and CP/BOG dinner...

I think you every day plans sound great.

Thanks

We had a hard time when Mary and I tried to get Mark in our plans and just ended up leaving him out. We don't let him make any of the plans anyway.

Poor guy. He seems to have fun anyway at least.

You did see the announcement that they are going to increase the number of Fastpasses you can get at some point and be able to get them at other parks besides just one park on a day? There has been no announcement of when this will take effect.

I saw that. I was going to comment a little bit about it, but I've got plenty of time to wait and see what the new FP+ policy will be before I decide what my strategy is going to be. I was going to plan on just booking FP+ for our afternoon/evening parks, but this new tweak *might* change that depending on what they do with it. I'm happy to hear we might be able to get more than 3 though!

 

[momabbate]

Your plan looks good to me. It also reminds me how much nicer others are. I told my DD, Elizabeth, last trip (2011), and my hubby, Chris, this coming trip, if you can't keep up with me you can sleep in or swim and we can meet up when your ready. Not sure if I would really leave them behind, but Elizabeth got up each morning and never complained.

Your ptr came up last night when Chris asked if I had a ptr going. I laughed. Told him about your title saying that it never is to early to start planning. Then went on to say with our trip being on hold I have nothing to talk about.

Good idea to do MK prerope breakfast. I can't wait to hear if you stay with CRT. I am thinking BOG for lunch. The menu sounds better.(ok the Braised Pork looks to good to pass up.) ino

Im excited for your trip. 8 more months. Can't wait to hear the changes. I make plans but will change them a million times before the trip, then change them during the trip. My family just goes along with it all.

 

[afwdwfan]

Your plan looks good to me. It also reminds me how much nicer others are. I told my DD, Elizabeth, last trip (2011), and my hubby, Chris, this coming trip, if you can't keep up with me you can sleep in or swim and we can meet up when your ready. Not sure if I would really leave them behind, but Elizabeth got up each morning and never complained.

Oh, come on... don't give me too much credit. Once I'm there commando mode will kick in. I'm sure there will be at least one afternoon that I basically tell everyone to have fun napping or at the pool, I'll be at DHS riding rock n rollercoaster and I'll catch up with you later!

And I say that because that is exactly what happened at least once on each of our last 2 trips.

Your ptr came up last night when Chris asked if I had a ptr going. I laughed. Told him about your title saying that it never is to early to start planning. Then went on to say with our trip being on hold I have nothing to talk about.

Well, to be fair, I've had this thing going for a long time with nothing of substance to talk about until recently. Never a bad thing just to get ideas written out and get some feedback to think about. Even though I plan a lot of things on spreadsheets, they don't talk back or point out some detail I'm overlooking!

Good idea to do MK prerope breakfast. I can't wait to hear if you stay with CRT. I am thinking BOG for lunch. The menu sounds better.(ok the Braised Pork looks to good to pass up.) ino

We loved BOG lunch last time. We'll definitely try to work it in, but it is just a question of which day.

I definitely want to do CRT, but Kathy has me second guessing it now... I'm thinking we might just do dinner there and breakfast at CP. We might just not worry about doing a BOG dinner this trip. I think the kids will enjoy the character dining more anyway.

Im excited for your trip. 8 more months. Can't wait to hear the changes. I make plans but will change them a million times before the trip, then change them during the trip. My family just goes along with it all.

8 months??????? Wow, when you put it that way it seems like forever.
I know our plans will change as the time approaches. DW always just pretty much goes along with what I come up with. She's seen the benefits of hitting RD and getting things done so she doesn't really even question me anymore.

 

[MEK]

I have to agree that setting up the actually accounts is so weird. Fortunately my Mac remembers the account and I can get in fairly easily. Sometimes I just head there through my Dvc account. I finally got my son's name deleted from an account. For the longest time Disney thought I was my son Brian and it was driving me CRAZY!

Your plans look great! Cynthia and I have a breakfast planned at Cindy's and I am SO excited because this will be my first time eating in the castle!

I think I need to give Whispering Canyon another try. It's been forever since I've eaten there.

 

[Disney9.9.10]

Congrats on booking!! AoA is so pretty and your kids will love it. We stayed at that time in December last trip and loved it, it is a really nice time to go. Waiting for discounts to come out is such a pain! That's where we are right now too. It would be nice to have all of the information so that you can make final decisions. You've got some great restaurant choices too - lots of fun and interactive restaurants for the kids to enjoy

 

[jedijill]

Your plans are starting to come together nicely. I hate the new FP+system....it's so refreshing that I don't have to deal with it at DL.

Jill in CO

 

[DaveinFallsChurch]

Great first draft for your park days and ADR! Although, if you're like me these things change about a 100 times during the planning phase.

When the time comes, don't forget to make FP+ reservations for BOG lunch! Could save you a lot of time!