Why I am changing my touring plans to lessen the load

[kniquy]

We have been anxiously planning our upcoming April trip for over 2.5 years. Why you ask? -- well we took our boys when they were 9 and left our then 18 month old DD with her grandparents - she had a great time and we had a wonderful one on one trip with our boys. Fast forward - she is 4 and we are in the thick of our planning for her first trip - everyone else it will be their 3rd or 4th trip. I have been going nuts trying to plan every second of our 7 day trip, just to make sure we see and do everything.

We are just about 4 months away - ADR have been made and we are happy with our selection and may even cancel some at Epcot - with all the wonderful outdoor kitchens it is tough to sit in a restaurant with great options all around the "world".

I have been looking at my touring plans - pretty much every second of every day is plotted out with us hitting pretty much every ride at all the parks and I hate it!!! I want to have time to just grab a snack and have time to go through the shops, have time to stop at the photopass photographers and soak up our first trip with our daughter. I realized i am trying to accomplish too much and I will be stressed trying to hit everything. I have been sorting through our touring plans and removing some rides that will be nice to hit, but not must do's for her first trip. I am a drill Sargent at home when it comes to getting up and ready for school and when we are wrapping up things for the evening to go to bed. I do not want this trip to feel like our lives are at home. I want us to see and really experience WDW in the eyes of my daughters first visit- she is not going to care if she misses Astro orbiter, but will likely love to stop and eat her first Mickey Ice Cream. I don't want to take away her joy by rushing us through our days.

I don't know what hit me to make me look at our trip differently. Perhaps it has been reading many posts here of peoples trip reports -- seeing that unexpected things occur - bad weather, ride closures, people getting sick -- I don't want to be disappointed in our trip, so i am changing my expectations and taking it down a few notches. I think it has already released some of the trip planning stress for me.

 

[kj2mom]

I think expectations are everything when going into a trip, especially one that costs a pretty penny. I am a planner as well and try to make sure we get the important things in but I also set my expectations realistically at having fun together as a family. We are making memories and I want those memories to be great not that mom was stressed out because we were 5 minutes later to a ride than she had scheduled. Our last trip I did the stay up every night for a week until midnight to get our FP+ and by the third day of our trip we were changing them all based on what rides the kids loved the best and what they decided they wanted to change. I was okay with it, it was what they wanted.

I will say when I started reading your post I was afraid when I got to the see and do everything part. Really, it is hardly possible (sure I know people do it but realistically it is hard depending on how long the trip is) and to expect that is going to start the trip off on the wrong foot. I was soo happy to keep reading and honestly you still have months to continue on with your new way of thinking and my guess is it will result in a fantastic trip! Some of which you planned months prior, some you decided the night before and some you might even decide to do the very second you do it. Planning is a large percentage of the fun for me but really just the excitement the kids feel when there makes nothing else important!

 

[jaysmom4285]

I think you've made a very wise decision and one that will greatly improve the quality of your trip. Trying to plan out every minute never works anyway - attractions go off line, wait times are longer than you expected, people want to stop for snacks and bathroom breaks that aren't in the schedule. It is a pretty well accepted fact that you just can't do everything during one trip. You're right to focus on your daughter and to allow time for her just to experience things she comes across without having to run from one place to another. If you can just go with the flow and let her enjoy herself, you'll have a good time, too. She'll never miss the fact that maybe she didn't get to do Peter Pan or the Laugh Floor. She'll just remember the experiences she did have and that she ate a Mickey bar while watching a parade or stopped to watch some street performers that fascinated her. Make plans to do a few things that are important to you and that you think will be memorable for her, and let the rest of it just happen.

 

[OhThePain]

We don't have kids, so I guess consider this an outsiders perspective. I know things will be much different when we do have kids and bring them.

One of our favorite things to do in WDW (and everywhere else basically) is to people watch. You learn a lot by just sitting back and observing those around you. You can tell the difference between those who do what you originally planned to do by scheduling every moment of every day and those who loosen the reins a bit. The people who try to schedule every moment are the same ones who are constantly looking at their watches or phones, getting frustrated in lines, kids looking miserable, parents looking miserable, yelling, fighting, tantrums, etc. They are the people who are missing out in the moment, because they are worried about 15 minutes from now. Same could be said about the people who have never been to WDW and do absolutely no planning at all. I can't see that leading to an enjoyable and memorable (at least positively memorable) trip. Things go wrong. Crowd calendars are not always right. People are impulsive and sometimes they just want to do something that isn't planned. Eat something. Buy something. Use a restroom. Take a break. Take a left instead of going right. You need to leave some room for those natural impulses.

Now again, we don't have kids, so I know the way we do WDW is different than a lot of other people. We typically just book a dinner ADR and our FP+ and let the rest of the day unfold as it will. We still take afternoon breaks when we want or even call it an early night if we are exhausted. We hang out by the pool to relax a little. We have never not done something we didn't want to do. Every ride, every show, every Mickey ice cream bar (although I prefer the ice cream sandwiches myself). We don't do hoppers anymore and we don't plan around EMH.

I guess what I am saying is that there is a way to achieve your ultimate goal of everyone having an awesome, magical experience without having every waking moment planned out.

 

[loves to dive]

Good for you, I'm thinking you are going to have a much more stress free trip. I'm not an over planner ever, if I'm going somewhere new I'll do research on the place to see what's available and to think about what I might want to do but otherwise, we pretty much go by the seat of our pants pretty much every where we go and that includes Disney. The fact is there is no way you are going to see and do everything there is to see and do, heck we have been going nigh on to 34 years at least once every other year, the last 10 years once a year and the last 3 or 4 years, multiple times a year and we still haven't seen and done everything there is to do. We are very much stop and smell the roses type of people, the most fun we usually have on a road trip is getting lost. My Daddy used to be the worst at it, no sense of direction (irony here was he was a navigator in the Navy during WWII, amazing the plane didn't get lost) we would go down the wrong road and Mama and Daddy would look at each other and shrug and just say, well I always wondered what was down that road. Made for some very interesting trips. I do the same thing with my honey and son, it's actually become a family joke. I'm known for the fact that I get easily distracted and will just stop and look at something out of the blue. My son and I once spent a hour on a bench outside the Italy pavillion at Epcot just looking up at the statues on the top of the buildings and trying to figure out what they were.

 

[dwheaton]

I'm taking a similar approach with our trip next month. I over-planned our last trip, and it just didn't go as well as I wanted. I was too nervous about missing something and didn't just appreciate that we were there. My main goal for our next trip is just to enjoy it and relax a lot.

 

[kniquy]

I was too nervous about missing something and didn't just appreciate that we were there. My main goal for our next trip is just to enjoy it and relax a lot.

I think that is what is causing this change of heart. I don't want to look back on the trip and feel that we just went from one ride to the next without taking in the sights and sounds of the parks and resorts.

I love vacations in order to relax and reconnect with the family, it is tough to do this at WDW, but i want to just sit and watch the kids play at the resort pool and then head back to the park later in the day. This is really making me look forward to the trip vs stressing about every detail.

 

[OhThePain]

I love vacations in order to relax and reconnect with the family, it is tough to do this at WDW...

I strongly disagree with the idea that you cannot relax and reconnect with family while at WDW. I mean yes, there is a lot of hustle and bustle while at WDW, but there are ways to fit in the down time (like sitting and watching the kids play in the pool for mid-day breaks). Also, not many vacations put you in position to be close with your family/party for most of the time you are away. Whether you are on the bus or on line for a ride or walking or eating, you are with your family, talking, reconnecting. The vacations that are more hustle and bustle tend to be like that and people rarely seem to notice. It's the "relaxing trips" like cruises or all-inclusives where you are lucky if you eat dinner together (one person is at the spa, another is sitting in the sun, the kids are off at the kids clubs, this one is here, that one there and no one is really together most of the time).

 

[wdw&sonny]

Counterpoint: It's OK to overplan, just don't over do.

While at home on the computer, I plan every moment, then replan it. It's fun. And I have learned from many trips that it is far better to have a plan and abort than to not have the plan. The more you plan, the more familiar you are with options. Then when the ride goes down, it rains or someone is tired, you are not stressed...you will just alter the plan. Furthermore, if you don't plan for a four year old, she is likely to be content doing very little. Disney is too expensive for that.
But, with that said, you need to know your limits, your kid's limits etc. We go commando all morning, then slow down. We take afternoon breaks, relax by the pool...talk about our favorite attractions, talk about dinner, the evening...

 

[CrazyHare]

We went in Aug and tried to do as much as we could. I had a full plan and we really just went from one thing to the next on my plan. We had a good time. But my daughter kept asking to do the Tomorrowland Speedway and we just couldn’t stop. And I honestly felt bad after we got home. In the moment, it was hard to pull myself out of the schedule.

We also upgraded to annual passes that trip. So we went back in Nov and did a much slower trip. We still booked 3 fast passes. We made few dining reservations. We detoured to do the things we passed we wanted to do. If we could find a 4+ fast pass for something we wanted to do, we did that.

Both trips were fun. But being able to stop and do something that catches our eye was wonderful. I’m sure we will tour with more unscheduled time in our next trips. Some of it was that we realized we will never be able to do everything. It took the pressure off to have a perfect trip. And I know going more often helps keep the pressure off us also.

 

[IrishNYC]

I think you're smart to cut back on your plans.

For our first family trip I planned almost every minute of every day. While we had fun, it wasn't mentally relaxing at all. For our next trip I planned our ADRs and FPs, and left the rest to chance. We all had fun. We even did a spontaneous day at MK where we added a day to our tickets that morning, and did absolutely no FPs for the day, and we had so much fun. DD and DH rode BTMRR 3 times in a row while I people watched and wandered nearby. I changed ADRs on the fly, didn't pull our my touring plans once. I feel like once you're familiar with the parks, and you have your FPs well-scheduled, you don't need to plan everything in between anymore, because the timing will work itself out, and if you miss something, oh well.

 

[Mac30188]

My 2 cents...

Know what is important to you and prioritize that. Know what is not important to you and be prepared to let it go if an impromptu opportunity or family requested change arises. If you start following your plan knowing that some items will get changed, you will be much more accepting of it when it happens.

Disney should be about having fun with what you are doing. It should never be about worrying about what you did not get to do. You will never do it all and there will always be stuff for next time.

Not sure if my silly obvious advice helps, but if you mentally accept those two items it makes the trip significantly more enjoyable.

 

[cgdisney]

Just returned from taking my granddaughter ( 3 1/2 years)on her first trip . I am used to going with my daughter every year, and she is now 32. I had FP booked and meals planned. Walked into Epcot on our first night with a FRozen FP and she asked Where’s Mickey? We never used one FP in the whole trip. Saw Mickey every day and had more fun than I thought was possible . Go with the flow and enjoy

 

[disneycountrygirl]

We are here right now, and I created plans beforehand for every day that we were here with the knowledge that we could abandon or skip anything. I found that I ended up remaking the plans from my cell phone on the fly almost every day because generally we'd have two days in each park, and we would deviate very far from the plan the first day...or park hop to an entirely different park than we planned on going to, so I would create a new personalized plan for the second day just to make sure we had a checklist of everything we wanted to see and then secondarily to ensure that it was actually possible to actually get in all of those things timewise. Plus it was kind of fun clicking the word "done" after we did that ride/attraction. We found we only used and followed the plans for probably 40% of her trip. Use it to benefit you, and if it's providing no benefit drop it. And no it's very likely that all your pre-made plans will go by the wayside once you're here. Lol.

 

[GPC0321]

Walked into Epcot on our first night with a FRozen FP and she asked Where’s Mickey?

Sounds like a girl who has her priorities in order. Love it!

 

[MickeyWaffles]

We have always taken a more go with the flow approach. We have a rough plan for the day built around FP but we adjust things if needed. And you never know what will catch a 4yo’s eye and interest them. We love the spontaneity of Disney vacations and some of our best memories are from unplanned moments.

I think you are wise to cut back your must do’s and be a little flexible. Having a plan is great! I just wouldn’t be a total stickler.

 

[TiffanyA]

I had a meltdown one year over being late for our Teppan Edo ADR while my son was picking a pearl with his grandfather - who he gets to see only once a year. After my husband talked me off a ledge, I had a minor epiphany. Are we going so we can stick to a plan? Or are we going so that we can spend time together and enjoy each others' company? Once I had that in perspective, I knew things had to change because my priorities were all messed up.

Great choice OP!

 

[bumbershoot]

I have such a different perspective.

she is not going to care if she misses Astro orbiter, but will likely love to stop and eat her first Mickey Ice Cream.

I so disagree. The concept of putting some ice cream over a ride boggles my mind. We go to the store and buy GOOD ice cream to eat back at the villa, and we don’t waste money or time on mockeybvars. The unique parts of Disney ( Astro orbiter) are far more important than sugar.

This is from the perspective of one who found out in the early years of my son and Disneyland that he cannot have anything based on corn syrup, and Mickey bars have that. One of those would have messed him up, and and kind have destroyed the next two hours of our day.

But even to put a safe Haagen Dasz bar over a ride is just madness to me. The kiddo can get ice cream *anywhere*. Ride the ride.

And I f a kid decides to tantrum over a mickey bar, it’s a sign they needed real food about an hour ago.

You can tell the difference between those who do what you originally planned to do by scheduling every moment of every day and those who loosen the reins a bit.

You actually cannot. You think you can from your preconceptions, but by watching 10 minutes of someone’s life you can tell very little.

The people who try to schedule every moment are the same ones who are constantly looking at their watches or phones, getting frustrated in lines, kids looking miserable, parents looking miserable, yelling, fighting, tantrums, etc

Nope. Disagree 100%.

No one is immune to any of those things. And being like that while I’m line for POTC doesn’t mean they’ll be like that 25 minutes later while walking to HM. You’re seeing a blip in time, with tons of time leading up to that moment that you aren’t privy to.

People watching is fun but it’s a wildly inaccurate science. Have fun making up the stories about those people but never think you know what’s going on with them.

I don't want to look back on the trip and feel that we just went from one ride to the next without taking in the sights and sounds of the parks and resorts.

Plans make it easier to take in s&s. Stopping after every ride or ill conceived Mickey bar to get out the map and consult with the children or adults who don’t know the parks will tank you right out of enjoyment mode. And cause less enjoyment.

And I have learned from many trips that it is far better to have a plan and abort than to not have the plan.

Yes.

The more you plan, the more familiar you are with options. Then when the ride goes down, it rains or someone is tired, you are not stressed...you will just alter the plan.

Absolutely.

I had a meltdown one year over being late for our Teppan Edo ADR while my son was picking a pearl with his grandfather - who he gets to see only once a year.

Were you hungry? Sounds like YOU needed to eat. Food is important even when others in your party forget. An early meltdown of my family’s involved an argument between husband and 3 year old. Child was telling us what he wanted and husband was disagreeing. I suddenly realized it was approaching. 9pm and we hadn’t eaten since lunch. I told them both to zip it and ran to an open QS to get food into everyone. DS was quite angry bc the thing he wanted to do was so important (yeah, he was 3...nope, you don’t know what’s best here), but he did eat and before he could say “yum” after his food he fell asleep, very important plan entirely forgotten.

Food is important. Planning for food is important. Getting a pearl out of some poor oyster is an experience, but food is actually important, and I would assume you were bringing his grandfather with you all.



Plans are good. Good attitude about plans are GOOD. I think a lot of time it’s the women doing the planning, and if something goes wrong it’s easy to blame ourselves. And if we had a plan, that means the plan is bad. Meh.



Our trips with solid plans have gone soooo much better overall than our trips without plans. Even the trips where I had to pretend there were no plans, because my brother was making fun of me, were better. (Done by it being me to come up with the “idea” every time that darned map got pulled out) Only once you’ve been there *several* times can you truly start winging it with a strong possibility of success. But by the time you’ve been there several times, you aren’t winging it anymore.

 

[Mickey's Best Girl]

During our first trip I realized at midday on day 2 that I was so focused getting myself and DD to the next attraction that I didn’t see anything around us, I didn’t notice any of the details that make Disney Disney, the things that brought me back with my DD 20 years after my parents introduced me to WDW.

We were missing the magic.

It was at that point I pitched everything. Absolutely everything. And we haven’t had a plan since. We even avoid ADRs because I don’t want anything dictating what we do while we are on vacation.

I know some folks swear by plans, even timed touring plans and that works great for them. The thought of vacationing that way stresses me out. I personally think you made a great choice by dialing it back.

Have a great trip

 

[ArwenMarie]

The concept of putting some ice cream over a ride boggles my mind. We go to the store and buy GOOD ice cream to eat back at the villa, and we don’t waste money or time on mockeybvars. The unique parts of Disney ( Astro orbiter) are far more important than sugar.

This is from the perspective of one who found out in the early years of my son and Disneyland that he cannot have anything based on corn syrup, and Mickey bars have that. One of those would have messed him up, and and kind have destroyed the next two hours of our day.

But even to put a safe Haagen Dasz bar over a ride is just madness to me. The kiddo can get ice cream *anywhere*. Ride the ride.

And if a kid decides to tantrum over a mickey bar, it’s a sign they needed real food about an hour ago.

Where did the OP say anything about their child having a tantrum over a Mickey Bar?