Frustrated!

[Lovetherodent]

As the "travel supervisor," I also found the reservation system frustrating. I liked to hit a park early and hop when I felt it was crowded or I'd hit the attractions I wanted. I also stayed at the boardwalk so I could have lunch in Epcot. That can't happen anymore either.

 

[Betty Rohrer]

I think that's part of the issue for us...committing to two parks- with kids who may not want to get up and get moving- and having to scan into the first park before we can hop. We are okay with the later in the day plans. We've chosen dining and know where we want to be at night, as we all prefer parks at night and pools during the day. Thanks for your response!

another way to look at it with your kids. would they be checking in after 2 make their park reservations for your second park planned. if wanted then you could all hop to another park if wanted. you guys do not have to have same park reservations to start the day. have the kids start their day where you are going to hop to as it sounds like they join you later in the day

 

[xlsm]

Thanks so much...
Typically we LOVE planning for trips. Its harder now as you not only commit to dining ( which we love to do) but parks, with "kids" who are now four years older than our last trip and who say they ( rightly) don't know what they want on a given day. A full park day, or only a few hours, etc.

I didn't realize you could switch your park option the day off- or that dining changes were now only two hours in advance. THANK YOU- those are game changers, especially changing the parks. I had heard that people needed to go over to the first park, scan in then leave and head to their second park...

I totally get it. I was a spreadsheet planner who loved FP+ because I could tour efficiently and clear half the park by lunch.
Now sometimes I don't even get to a park until well after opening and I go to Starbucks and wander around for half an hour before ever getting in line for a ride. I go solo quite a bit (heading down there Monday!), so that ramps up the freedom even more. But when you're taking the family, the extra pressure of feeling like you're in charge of everyone's happiness can really drag you down. I learned to let go (mostly, LOL!!) and allow for more spontaneous fun. But that did not come easily to me!! I still get caught up in it sometimes.

My kids are 17 and 19 and the only thing they knew they wanted to do was eat at a couple of specific restaurants. Most days they slept in and met up with us later. Usually for the aforementioned food, LOL!!

While I long for the days of no park reservations and park hopping at any time (this one hurts the most for me!!), we have adjusted to it and found ways to make it work for us.

If you aren't able to change park reservations, you do technically have to go tap into your reserved park before heading to the new one, but you should be able to rearrange things if they decide to roll up after you've already park hopped.

Unless you're annoyed with your kids, and then you can just make them go ahead and go to the first park for revenge

Going with my kids now is great because I still get that special time with them, but I also get special time WITHOUT them. My husband and I have so much fun hanging out and just enjoying being together at our favorite place, and then at dinner we can all gather back together and talk about our day. It spreads the magic around a little more.

I really do hope you have an amazing time!!

 

[Elephantay]

Another potential tip if it won't up your stress level, the parks that book up first are MK and HS (even though it has been becoming much less frequent lately). Since I like flexibility, I'll usually book those for the majority of the days because it is easier to switch to Epcot or AK the day of/before.

GREAT tip- thank you!

 

[mikedoyleblogger]

This upcoming trip will be our first one since booking a park is required. We have had so much trouble with this! Typically, we book our dining, knowing if it's in a park we'd have to be there for that, if nothing else.
We like to get up early or take it slow based on how we feel, but have always had a plan for the day. This park reservation rule has had us go over and over our plans so many times and it feels so stressful. We've had to go through each park and decide what we want to do to determine how long or how many periods of time ( mornings, afternoons, evenings) we want to be there. Then there's the unknown of boarding groups and LL availability.
We have PH+ tickets, 4 adults ( well, two 19 year olds)...
Am I missing something? Making it harder than it needs to be somehow? Is anyone else feeling this?!?
Any advice would be welcome

No, you’re not missing anything. My partner and I also have a multiple parks a day/sometimes we do different things from each other for half the day style of doing WDW, and the necessity for park reservations just dampened that badly. What I will say is if—and it’s an expensive if—you upgrade your family to APs, you can take advantage of Passholder Afternoon Entry which allows APs to enter any park after 2pm with no park reservations (except for MK on Saturdays and Sundays which will still require reservations.) That would allow everyone to come together in the evening for ADRs with no need to worry that you might not all be able to get same-day 2nd park reservations—since, with the noted MK exception, you won’t need them at all. This has kind of given my partner and me back our old WDW vacation style. Not a cheap option though.

 

[Elephantay]

I think the easiest thing would be to think of it as one park a day with a backup. If I book an ADR I'm only booking it because I'm spending that day or half that day at that park and want that specific experience (like Blue Bayou or Coral Reef). Otherwise we don't book ADRs, we mobile order.

We absolutely love mobile order because it allows you to order when you're in line and eat when you get hungry. It gives us so much more flexibility because then the rides come first. We check wait time and area and then just choose the area we're going to spend some time in.

Our plan is which park, then the rides we absolutely must ride at that park, and then any area we need to shop in (ie DL Pooh Corner for me), then the backup park we'll head to if it gets too crowded or we get bored.

Everything else is flexible so I think doing ADRs first might be what's causing your stress.

Actually the ADR's are fine, because we know where we want to be at night/late afternoon. We love park nights! It's having to figure out what we want to do earlier in the day, because we need to book that park. Hearing we can most likely switch on that day is a game changer!

 

[Elephantay]

another way to look at it with your kids. would they be checking in after 2 make their park reservations for your second park planned. if wanted then you could all hop to another park if wanted. you guys do not have to have same park reservations to start the day. have the kids start their day where you are going to hop to as it sounds like they join you later in the day

I'm still hoping for some early family time and at least know on two days we are getting going early ( TL and AK)....we've never gone to a park without them
Enjoy your little ones people!

 

[Elephantay]

I totally get it. I was a spreadsheet planner who loved FP+ because I could tour efficiently and clear half the park by lunch.
Now sometimes I don't even get to a park until well after opening and I go to Starbucks and wander around for half an hour before ever getting in line for a ride. I go solo quite a bit (heading down there Monday!), so that ramps up the freedom even more. But when you're taking the family, the extra pressure of feeling like you're in charge of everyone's happiness can really drag you down. I learned to let go (mostly, LOL!!) and allow for more spontaneous fun. But that did not come easily to me!! I still get caught up in it sometimes.

My kids are 17 and 19 and the only thing they knew they wanted to do was eat at a couple of specific restaurants. Most days they slept in and met up with us later. Usually for the aforementioned food, LOL!!

While I long for the days of no park reservations and park hopping at any time (this one hurts the most for me!!), we have adjusted to it and found ways to make it work for us.

If you aren't able to change park reservations, you do technically have to go tap into your reserved park before heading to the new one, but you should be able to rearrange things if they decide to roll up after you've already park hopped.

Unless you're annoyed with your kids, and then you can just make them go ahead and go to the first park for revenge

Going with my kids now is great because I still get that special time with them, but I also get special time WITHOUT them. My husband and I have so much fun hanging out and just enjoying being together at our favorite place, and then at dinner we can all gather back together and talk about our day. It spreads the magic around a little more.

I really do hope you have an amazing time!!

Thanks- I miss them already!
My "must-do's" this trip are nostalgic and cause eye rolls but I'm hoping they will enjoy it all too.

 

[Elephantay]

No, you’re not missing anything. My partner and I also have a multiple parks a day/sometimes we do different things from each other for half the day style of doing WDW, and the necessity for park reservations just dampened that badly. What I will say is if—and it’s an expensive if—you upgrade your family to APs, you can take advantage of Passholder Afternoon Entry which allows APs to enter any park after 2pm with no park reservations (except for MK on Saturdays and Sundays which will still require reservations.) That would allow everyone to come together in the evening for ADRs with no need to worry that you might not all be able to get same-day 2nd park reservations—since, with the noted MK exception, you won’t need them at all. This has kind of given my partner and me back our old WDW vacation style. Not a cheap option though.

We considered this but we won't have a chance to return again this year....

But wait! What on earth are same day second park reservations? We need to do that too?? We can't just hop?

 

[mikedoyleblogger]

We considered this but we won't have a chance to return again this year....

But wait! What on earth are same day second park reservations? We need to do that too?? We can't just hop?

No, my bad. I don’t know why I wrote that. You definitely don’t need to make reservations to hop.

 

[Elephantay]

No, my bad. I don’t know why I wrote that. You definitely don’t need to make reservations to hop.

Whew! You got me there

 

[DeluxePrincess]

With everyone being an adult, just chill. When my kids were little, I stressed about making everything perfect for them. Now that they are grown, they decide what they want to do and I let them do their own thing. DH and I relax and take it slow. It’s a great feeling.

 

[Elephantay]

With everyone being an adult, just chill. When my kids were little, I stressed about making everything perfect for them. Now that they are grown, they decide what they want to do and I let them do their own thing. DH and I relax and take it slow. It’s a great feeling.

Yes now that we realize we aren't locked in, we all feel better about it!