How do you carry your itinerary with you around the parks?

[LadyD]

OMG!! You're my soul mate!! My family always teases me for my excel spreadsheet, I couldn't survive a trip without it! Mine is also color coded, and includes each days plans with notes at the bottom.

The first trip my wife and I took together, she gave me so much grief about my spreadsheet leading up to the trip. Then she experienced it in action. After that vacation she said it was the smoothest, best, most productive trip to WDW she had ever been on. She is now a full convert to the spreadsheet and actively looks forward to me making it each trip and says she doesn’t know how she survived before it.

 

[North of Mouse]

Wow, went back and read a lot of these posts and am truly shocked at how many people plan their vacations nearly from minute to minute!
Schedules are so much a part of our lives anyway that can't imagine taking them on vacation with me.
We totally relax, and most days plan as we go with a few ADRs and FPs. What about needing a snack (unplanned) a different attraction you're passing that you want to look into, a need to an unplanned rest - yikes, that would totally mess up your schedule!

But, that's to each their own, and we'll all just carry on! We take 3-4 vacations a year, so can't imagine planning so much in advance.

Think we've actually seen several uber planners when we're there. It's like "no, Bobby, we cannot stop and see that now, we have to be at 'such n such' in 10 minutes" And yes, we've heard actual conversations like that!!

But, like anything pertaining to our own families, we each make our own rules/plans. Some people cannot operate without detailed plans. I have a friend like that, but thankfully lives in another state!!

 

[Dan Murphy]

Pete, Steve, Craig, Ryno

Who are they?

 

[SaintsManiac]

Wow, went back and read a lot of these posts and am truly shocked at how many people plan their vacations nearly from minute to minute!
Schedules are so much a part of our lives anyway that can't imagine taking them on vacation with me.
We totally relax, and most days plan as we go with a few ADRs and FPs. What about needing a snack (unplanned) a different attraction you're passing that you want to look into, a need to an unplanned rest - yikes, that would totally mess up your schedule!

But, that's to each their own, and we'll all just carry on! We take 3-4 vacations a year, so can't imagine planning so much in advance.

Think we've actually seen several uber planners when we're there. It's like "no, Bobby, we cannot stop and see that now, we have to be at 'such n such' in 10 minutes" And yes, we've heard actual conversations like that!!

But, like anything pertaining to our own families, we each make our own rules/plans. Some people cannot operate without detailed plans. I have a friend like that, but thankfully lives in another state!!

Maybe I missed something, but I don't see anyone saying they plan every minute.

 

[SaintsManiac]

Who are they?

DIS Unplugged

 

[Dan Murphy]

DIS Unplugged

Ahhh, I see. I never listen to it.

Thanks.

 

[KenHutch]

Well I am IT, its all in my head.

 

[ArielSRL]

I use touring plans so I have that on my phone bc I have the app. But I also print out a copy and keep it in my crossbody.

 

[DSLRuser]

My Disney Experience app takes care of most of it. but I do print my 1 page excell sheet with everything planned at a glance for the week. we leave it on the night stand...so when the kids ask, what are we doing tomorrow...i can just point to the paper. dont carry it with me to the parks.

 

[Mamapapa]

The first trip my wife and I took together, she gave me so much grief about my spreadsheet leading up to the trip. Then she experienced it in action. After that vacation she said it was the smoothest, best, most productive trip to WDW she had ever been on. She is now a full convert to the spreadsheet and actively looks forward to me making it each trip and says she doesn’t know how she survived before it.

I just clicked on the link in your signature to see your wedding TR. Gorgeous!! You guys are an adorable couple! And I'm glad she saw the light and you were able to convert her to the amazingness of spreadsheet trip planning!!

 

[TheSouthernBelle]

I'm just curious what others do as far as referring to their itinerary throughout their trip. Do you have a digital version on your phone? Do you print out a hard copy and carry around with you? If you have a hard copy, what size is it and how do you keep it from getting worn/ripped from constantly referring to it? I have a couple ideas of what I might do, but I'm interested in hearing/seeing what others do. Feel free to post pics if you have any!

ETA: Personally, I am a very visual and tactile person so I like the idea of having a physical itinerary to refer to. I'm a graphic designer so it's fun for me to create a cool layout and have it laid out exactly how I want to. I'm trying to figure out the best way to do that. I want to be able to have enough room for notes here and there throughout the days, so it can't be too small. I might get a little half size notebook of some sort to add pages and keep in my backpack. Not really sure if what I'm imagining even exists!

We put the screenshot of our days itinerary from the MDE app as the locked screen on my phone, my 11 year old taught me that so I don't have to unlock it and eat up battery to see it. However the organizer in me also makes a fancy spreadsheet that I put in my trip binder and keep in our hotel room just in case!!

 

[Chris Connelly]

I too do not have many Disney passionate friends. My husband goes along with a smile. He laughs with us and doesn't complain about the cost. But he doesn't care so much about it all. My kids love it but they are teens and so busy quite often. i swear if we see Pete, Steve, Craig, Ryno etc in the park my kids and myself might freak out as if they were pop stars.

I worry that I may too embarrass myself if I ever see them in the parks. That would be a painful experience for my family to endure, but it is what it is. Haha not sure I would want to meet them with that in mind.

 

[jsmla]

For me it's just a plan, not some immutable mandate. Now that I'm mostly solo I have zero problems dumping all or parts of it if something better comes along. I'm constantly fiddling with mine. Last week I changed dining and FP reservations that I'd made way back when because an ADR or Brunch at the Top opened up. If FP for Toy Story opens up I'll be changing some more. I just prefer to have something in place, it doesn't mean I'm married to it.

To be fair though, I'm not really a fly by the seat of my pants kind of person.

 

[PennyInPink]

We will be a family of 5 adults. Some are newbies. Some have crappy phones. Some just are not into apps they have to pay attention to. We won't be all together all the time except at ADR and Fastpass times. So, I am creating credit card size cards with necessary details. Each day is a different color. They will be laminated. Each card will have, on one side;
1.What the park of the day is
2.What time to be at the bus stop (we have 2 rooms. I dont care when you go to bed, or when you get up. But you'd better be ready for rope drop)
3.What the first 3 Fastpasses are
4.What time the park closes.
The other side has the ADR details. Ex: Biergarden, 6:15 pm, Germany Pavillion.
When i showed my son a mockup to see how it would look, he loved the idea. Said THIS he can understand. But everyone will still have the MDE app for wait times, etc.

 

[tinkerhon]

Maybe I missed something, but I don't see anyone saying they plan every minute.

This - also wanted to add that in addition to the fact that we LOVE to plan, we GET to relax because of the planning - we never have to scramble to an attraction, or wonder where we are going to have dinner - (we just go with the flow normally for bfast and lunch- ( tho we MUST our Satuli !)

 

[teachmedis]

I plan it out 6 months in advance. Yes, even ride order and fastpass times. Then I obsess over it daily for 179 days. I pretty much have it memorized after that.

This is me. I also have it on my phone and write it in a small notebook. I review it each morning before I leave and then usually find I don't take it out again . Unless I'm changing things up on the fly.

 

[SaintsManiac]

Does anyone else bring a little notebook and make notes during the trip? We always recap our day when we get back to the hotel. We enjoy talking about it and helps for future planning.

 

[jsmla]

Does anyone else bring a little notebook and make notes during the trip? We always recap our day when we get back to the hotel. We enjoy talking about it and helps for future planning.

I usually carry a Moleskine. I'll use the notes app on my phone if going bagless.

 

[Laura's Dad]

I use the Touringplans Lines app and do a personalized touring plan that I check off as I complete each step to adjust my time that I have walking/in-line, etc. This helps me immensely.

My wife does a laminated trifold from a single sheet of cardstock that list her steps, times, and showtimes. It works well for her.

 

[Chris Connelly]

I was just looking at the details for the Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party (we're booked for the 16th Oct) and I got a cold chill run down my spine as we hadn't taken the MNSSHP dates into account when planning our trip. I was horrified that we had planned our trip and already made dining reservations and Bibbity Bobbity Boutique reservations, etc according to these plans and they could be torpedoed by such a rookie mistake. The thing is that we love riding the rides at Magic Kingdom during the fireworks as its so quiet and we love seeing them from Dumbo. LUCKILY all our days at MK fall on days that the party is not on.

Would've been fun coming up with plans to get around that problem though.