Is spontaneity dead?

[Babywearingmama]

Thanks everyone. I was starting to doubt my approach. I totally get how planning is part of the fun. The kids are being surprised at Christmas with the trip, so they don't know yet. I would love to get their input once we tell them, but I was afraid it would be too late. I only have three ADRs. I am even debating doing FPP reservations. Or maybe I make them and if we change our minds we can just cancel them. I know what days we are going to what parks, and I have planned for breaks and some early/late days. Last time we were at Disney was 6 years ago, and I didn't have kids. I was preggo at the time, so I spent most of the trip caring for my 6 month old nephew and chilling. But I vividly remember my parents complaining that they couldn't get into any sit-down restaurants. (It was the week of Thanksgiving. I don't remember the crowds, but they do. The only ADR I had was for Thanksgiving dinner.) I want to make most of my FP reservations for the morning, so we could get back to the resort after or before lunch. Let the kiddos chill for a bit before we head back. No park hoppers for us.

 

[Dakota731]

You reschedule it up to 20 minutes before the actual reservation. I believe BoM calls it Bump and Run because they then later cancel the reservation all together.

So they have no intention of keeping the next reservation? That seems unfair to people trying to honestly book an ADR.
Wow no wonder there are a lot of available reservations for the last minute if people know how to work the system in that way. Seems like Disney should charge if you are waiting that late to change.

 

[DisneyWishes14]

Not at all. Pick the 3 FP+ you want, book any "must-do" ADR's (and, perhaps, keep them to a minimum) and go from there. We book no more than 1 ADR a day (and sometimes none). There's always food available at QS and you'd be surprised what you can find on the fly. We typically only plan half-days and leave the rest of the day to plan on the fly and discover things that aren't "plannable".

 

[DisneyMom93]

We are going to WDW in February. My DD is going to be 6, DS is going to be 3. I don't want to plan out my whole trip to the last second. I want the ability to let the kids have some choices and such. However, everything I read says, plan, plan, plan. Will I miss out on a bunch if I don't plan our whole day down to each minute?

We plan. With an Excel spreadsheet! But it's really for the ADRs and FPs. We have a general idea of what we want to do, but don't plan every minute. We know we have a FP for Frozen ride, and that we plan to head straight to Test Track one day and Soarin the other, etc, but other than that we didn't plan which ride we will do when... Although we did aim for FPs close to our ADR restaurant so we aren't running across the park to get to dinner, or make it in time for FP.

Our goal is to relax this time. Not stress and just enjoy being there!

 

[kagmypts]

With a 6 and 3 year old, I would plan your mornings out. Make rope drop, then use your FPs. Get your must-dos done early!

Then if everyone is still up for more, do the second-tier stuff or use the rolling 4th FP. That way you will have a mix of getting your must-dos done and going with the flow.

I would also just eat QS if you want more spontaneity. Honestly, a lot of the food is the same quality anyway. That way you aren't running around for ADRs every day, minus any special ones you want to do

This is great advice. I love planning, but our vacations are supposed to be relaxing! We plan very little. Before our trip, we decide which park(s) we will be going to on which day and book FP+. We don't make any ADRs because trying to decide what I want to eat 180 days from now is too much for me. Half the time I don't know what I want when it is meal time. We always have tons of fun and come back from Disney feeling refreshed!

As the poster above references, Rope Drop allows you to accomplish many things in a short amount of time. We rope drop on our early park days.

Thanks everyone. I was starting to doubt my approach. I totally get how planning is part of the fun. The kids are being surprised at Christmas with the trip, so they don't know yet. I would love to get their input once we tell them, but I was afraid it would be too late. I only have three ADRs. I am even debating doing FPP reservations. Or maybe I make them and if we change our minds we can just cancel them. I know what days we are going to what parks, and I have planned for breaks and some early/late days. Last time we were at Disney was 6 years ago, and I didn't have kids. I was preggo at the time, so I spent most of the trip caring for my 6 month old nephew and chilling. But I vividly remember my parents complaining that they couldn't get into any sit-down restaurants. (It was the week of Thanksgiving. I don't remember the crowds, but they do. The only ADR I had was for Thanksgiving dinner.) I want to make most of my FP reservations for the morning, so we could get back to the resort after or before lunch. Let the kiddos chill for a bit before we head back. No park hoppers for us.

Excellent strategy. That's how we tour, and I love it! If we want to call it an early day, we do.

My only piece of advice.... less can be more at Disney. The first year we went we wanted to squeeze every last cent out of our park tickets. On the last day, my youngest came completely unglued after we were at the park for an hour. The stimulation from the trip just caught up to him. Since that time, we have realized that just going to the park for a couple of hours (when everyone is rested and happy) is far better than trying to "force" a tired or overstimulated child back to the park at night.

Have fun. You will love it!

 

[jdh008]

I think there's still plenty of room for spontaneity. In fact, for me personally, I can't imagine one of my trips without it.

I like to split each of my days in the parks into two halves. During the first half, I decide which attractions to head to right at rope drop, have Fastpasses set up for the morning, and have a pretty decent idea of what I'd like to eat for lunch. Then, I'll take a break in the mid-afternoon out of the park, and when I go back into a park in the evening, I keep it spontaneous. I'll schedule additional Fastpasses for whatever is still available, head to the attractions that have low wait times, and grab snacks that simply smell or look good as I pass by them. Sometimes that means that I'll spend all evening on attractions, while other times, it's meant that I've just found myself a good seat on Main Street and a good treat to eat while I wait for fireworks.

I think it's a mix. Spontaneity isn't dead, and I find it to be an important part of an enjoyable WDW vacation, but certainly it behooves you to do at least a little bit of planning to get the most out of the trip.

 

[cindyfan]

Look to plan the basics and the "must-do's" for everyone. Like, what park each day and fast passes. Maybe a couple character meals that the kids really want to see.
also..... plan rest time into each day so that if they are tired you can just chill. If they are still full of energy... do something spontaneous that they choose!!
What is important is to make sure the "must-do's" for the kids are in the plans.... otherwise go with the flow!

 

[Mickey's Best Girl]

IMO the fact that you are a member of these boards gives you a head start.

You know the basics, like how beneficial rope drop is, eating at off times for smaller lines, the popular restaurants that are necessary to book at 180 days if you'd like to dine at them and the list goes on and on and on.

This information is all you need to be prepared and ahead of most of your co-vacationers. You do not have to have a plan to have a great vacation.

The only 'must' for me is to hit the park with AM EMH (and this trip FOP). That's it. I do book FPs based on where I think we'll be but if we miss them, we miss them. We don't adhere to a schedule while on vacation, I do enough of that in real life. Heck, some days we hop on the first bus that shows up at the resort.

One trip (before I was in the know) we had 'free' dining. We. Hated. It. Scheduling meals 180 out and having to be somewhere at a certain time once at WDW was an absolutely horrible experience for us. And a major learning experience as well.

Have a plan if that is what makes you comfortable. But be prepared to pitch it out the window when something bright and shiny strikes your fancy.

My .02

Now the disclaimer: we go annually therefore I don't have that WE MUST HIT EVERYTHING mentality because I know we'll be back at some point.

Enjoy your trip!!

 

[Shanti]

We are going to WDW in February. My DD is going to be 6, DS is going to be 3. I don't want to plan out my whole trip to the last second. I want the ability to let the kids have some choices and such. However, everything I read says, plan, plan, plan. Will I miss out on a bunch if I don't plan our whole day down to each minute?

Take the middle road. Plan a resort, a few restaurants, and your 3 FastPasses per park day. Play the rest by ear. You'll have a blast, more fun than if you planned nothing, and more fun than if you tried to follow a detailed script without your heart being in it.

 

[FCDub]

Plan now or wait in line later.
You will regret not planning, when your 3 and 6 year olds hit their limit and you have an hour wait to get food.

Sorry, this is just flat-out false. OP, you will not have to wait an hour to get food if you don't plan every second of your day. Will you be able to walk up to any restaurant and get an immediate seating? No (and with some restaurants, you will likely have no luck with walk-ups at all), but your family will not starve.

 

[ammag]

Nope...you just have to plan for it lol

 

[MickeyMinnieMom]

My two cents... it may be easy to say "Nope! You can still just not book anything and be spontaneous!" While I'm sure some do this and are happy with the results, I think it's more likely that there will be frustration and disappointment on the trip if at least SOME planning doesn't take place.

My thinking...

• I think that especially with a 3 and 6 yo, waiting in long lines will get old FAST!
• At least booking your 3 FP+/day ahead will guarantee you 3 rides with little to no wait
• Booking some ADRs gives a nice break in the day, and is a great way to meet some characters without a wait if you're so inclined
• Being up on hours, closures, new offerings, etc. really pays off for us every trip -- this takes time on my part, but has always been worth it to us

What we do after 20 trips:

• Book ADRs, FPs and possibly some special events/tours
• Have a general plan in mind for things like FoP that require a bit of a plan in my opinion
• Then in between reservations, play it by ear, using our knowledge of the parks, which rides get busiest soonest in the morning, etc.
• We're always willing to CHANGE plans on the fly if it's just not going to work for us once we're there. We've moved ADRs, moved FPs, taken longer midday breaks, skipped a rope drop later in the trip if we've done everything we wanted to, etc.

 

[bdiddy]

We very much just wing it other than knowing what park we are going to be in what day, where we are eating (if it's a table service) and fast passes but I completely let the kids lead on what they want to do. We went to Disneyland for the first time this summer and didn't see any of the shows or fireworks or parades because they opted for rides instead. We also skipped several rides in favor of second/third rides on their favorites. So there is definitely a happy medium.

I will say I know someone that went and literally planned nothing and know they tell everyone how much they hate Disneyworld because everything went wrong.

 

[Jays2013]

A few prior posters have mentioned this and I wanted to say it as well. Planning is important (IMO), but observation and being willing to throw the plans away if necessary can be important too, especially with little kids. One of my fondest memories from our last trip was when I was waiting with older son (who has special needs, so seems much younger than his brother) for my DH and YDS to get out of the Great Movie Ride. I don't even remember what was next on the docket but we had plans to move on immediately to something else.

Well, Goofy and handler came walking out from behind the ride, on their way to a meet-and-greet. My son's eyes lit up and he bounced to his feet. "Goofy! Goofy!" (Bear in mind that before this trip, we had no idea he loved Goofy or how much he'd adore the characters.)

What can you do? We followed Goofy. ODS waited so patiently in line for quite a while to meet him and those photos from the meet-and-greet are some of my favorites from the trip. We missed the next thing planned. You know what? I don't even remember what it was!

That same kid sometimes needs to just stop and dance to the music sometimes, or commune with a fountain. (Music and moving water: his favorites.) So sometimes we just need to stop and let him do that.

That said, I also cringe a little when people say they do everything their kids want and nothing they want. It's your vacation too. Make sure you have a few priorities for yourself.

 

[PSUGuy]

We grab our FP+ selections 60 plus days out, go to a non-EMH park at rope drop where we walk on a few rides before crowds build. Since we're big Food&Wine fans we hop to WS every day but Sat and that's when the spontaneity begins.

Bill From PA

 

[firefly_ris]

Not at all. Pick the 3 FP+ you want, book any "must-do" ADR's (and, perhaps, keep them to a minimum) and go from there. We book no more than 1 ADR a day (and sometimes none). There's always food available at QS and you'd be surprised what you can find on the fly. We typically only plan half-days and leave the rest of the day to plan on the fly and discover things that aren't "plannable".

I agree... I have a brief trip upcoming, without the kids this time. I wanted to make sure we got FPs for all the rides my kids are too small to do (basically all the "mountains", FoP, RnR, etc).... but I didn't plan any FPs until later in the afternoon because my husband doesn't want to be "commando". So 2 out of the three mornings are totally open and up to him if he feels like getting to a park right at opening or having a leisurely breakfast at the hotel. We'll probably end up at Epcot because that's the only park we don't have any FPs for, and Food and Wine is going on -- but if we decide we don't feel like it, or F&W looks too crowded to deal with, oh well. Then we hop to the park with the FPs later and stay in that park for the night, and see what we see.

We're there for 3 park days and I only have 2 ADRs booked, and I'm really still thinking about cancelling the 2nd one. My hope is to simply spend time with my husband at the parks without missing the headliners, and beyond that... just enjoy. I'm pretty sure it's going to be crowded, but it was crowded last time and we did just fine. I think if you have a knowledge of how the FP system and ADR system works, then it's much easier to be spontaneous because you already know you can use your 3 FPs then start grabbing a 4th and 5th on the go after that, ADRs do open up last minute (especially if you're not dead set on a particular restaurant), etc.... if you go in spontaneous AND clueless about how the system works, then I think it could be harder. But having knowledge before-hand and then winging it? I think that's still doable.

[edit] To add... our last trip was with the kids (they were 5,3 and 2 at the time) plus my parents. We had no ADRs at all for 5 park days. I did everybody's FPs ahead of time on the app, and we were early risers since my kids are up early anyway, so we got to the parks at or close to open. We did a ton of stuff in the mornings and saved FPs for later in the heat of the day (although it was Thanksgiving so not that hot). My mom snagged a last minute reservation at Rose & Crown one day by calling the dining line. That was it. It was very busy and crowded. We had a great trip and the kids did really well. I think just the early mornings were the key for us, so YMMV depending on how your kids are. So I think just worry about your 3 FPs and don't worry too much about the rest. And be willing to be flexible.

 

[PatMcDuck]

When I read posts like this, I GET it. And honestly you would love DL over WDW. You can wake up, and say what park should we go to first today? So much fun. And now they have Maxpass, which makes things a bit easier to get those same day FP.

I go to both WDW and DL each year, for different reasons, and being more spontaneous is one of the DL advantages.

 

[mindeola]

Plan a little to avoid lines and missing out on a place you really want to eat. No need to plan to the minute. We make one ADR a day. I do FP in the 11-2 range. Before and after that we do as we please.

 

[CyMcCord]

I plan to make changes almost the whole trip, using an app that lets me switch plans and re-optimize.

 

[Oneanne]

Lots of good advice here... I'm in the research/prepare camp, but don't over plan/book. Know what's available and where things are, be open to changing any plans you have made and just go with the flow. Have a wonderful trip!