Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Planning for the World

I have been wondering how many of you Disney goers out there do your planning. Some people are really into the details. They plan everything ahead with which park on what day and so on. Some 180 days in advance with spreadsheets and binders full of Disney information. Then there are others that don’t make any concrete reservations, they just go where the wind takes them. They don’t have any sort of plans set.

As for myself I am a Disney neurotic planner. I have to make sure that I have all my dates, ADR’s and plans set in place. I like to figure out which parks we want to start out in and then proceed to where our dinner reservations will be. That will help to decide where we will most likely start and end the day. I love eating at the Table Service restaurants in WDW so I take the time to figure out where everyone wants to eat to coordinate the times we can get for our Advance Dining Reservations. It always good to have backups to where you want to dine in case your first choice is booked up.

I then create a spreadsheet that has the confirmation numbers, time of events, parks to avoid and park hours to keep with me. I don’t go verbatim to the plan but I like to have an idea of what is the best way to maximize our fun and time at Disney.

Touring Plans.com is a great resource to use when planning your trip. They give you crowd calendars and tips to let you know what parks are less crowded each day of your vacation. It really saves you a lot of your valuable time. You can also pick up The Unofficial Guide which in my opinion is the best guidebook about Walt Disney World and traveling.

I would love to hear from all of you in the Disney committee on how you go about with you planning. Are you a planner or a wing it kind of person?

2 comments:

larmstrong24 said...

I am definitely committed to the spreadsheet method and making my dining reservations a head of time. As a matter of fact, I'm usually planning my dining 9 months ahead, so I'm sure to know what really want when I log on to make the reservations! I guess I'm a nuerotic planner too! I learned the hard way when the Disney Dining plan first came out. Here I was staying at a deluxe resort, and I couldn't get any dining reservations because the restaurants were all booked. Lesson Learned!

Unknown said...

I'm with you. I always check tourinplans.com and allears.net, along with Disney.com to choose my dates. I've been my family's planner for years and have a decent spreadsheet template. I am using a travel agent for part of our trip this time but I still like using the online system to make my own ADRs. I don't stress about the 180 days out, unless it is something really big, like Chef Mickey's for my daughter's first birthday.