Park Planning

disneydave2003

<font color=navy>Just likes to know how things wor
Joined
Feb 3, 2003
Looks like my girlfriend and I will be going in September or Oct. I've been reading various sites for park information and there is alot of it :teeth: I want to know about rides and shows and what days may be the busiest but I don't want to plan out every second of every day. How do you plan for your stay? Do you research on the internet or with books? What guide books would you recommend, if any? Should I just stick with the sites like these boards, Disney, Deb site and Mousesaver? I take the train into work so I have time to read up on disney in the morning!

thanks-
disneydave2003:jester:
 
Get the Birnbaums book...Disney 2003 and Disney w/o children. Some of the info is redundant...but it's a good start...and a good read for on the train.

my FI and I have purchased the books every year since 1999...whether we are headed to disney or not!
 
My favorite guidebook is the Passporter. We have bought them for the past few vacations but in September I bought the deluxe. The deluxe version is a 3 ring binder and each year you can you buy refills with updated information and insert it into the binder instead of having to buy a new book every year. The passporter comes with folders to keep information in and worksheets for resort information and keeping track of priority seating information. I think the Passporter provides alot of information including maps or theme parks and resorts.

We also buy Birnbaum's (it is the official WDW guidebook) but I don't think there is as much information as there is in the Passporter.

Have fun planning!
 
Originally posted by cinmell
We also buy Birnbaum's (it is the official WDW guidebook) but I don't think there is as much information as there is in the Passporter.

See...I learned something new today! Where can you find this Passporter? Any Barnes and Noble or Walden books?

Thanks cinmell!
 


Hi stinkerbelle,

I ordered mine at passporter.com but I have seen the regular version of the passporter in bookstores such as Barnes & Noble and Borders and I think Amazon.com has them as well. So far, I've only seen the deluxe and refills at the passporter site. :D
 
I would have to say that The Unofficial Guide to Disney World is the best.

Birnbaums is official so you get the disney line all the time, the passporter I have never used, but it sounds excellent.

But, pound for pound, the Unofficial guide is the best IMHO.

Why? Because it is objective and tells you what you really need to know. It gives you real plans to beat the rush at the parks, avoid crowds, avoid attractions that need to be avoided, etc. It ranks rides through vast reader and vacationer polls, tells you what restaurants are good and which are poor value. It is just a superior guide.

Where Birnbaum tells you "Dumbo is a favorite ride for all ages, a true disney classic" The Unofficial Guide tells you "Dumbo is a very slow loading yet highly popular ride, don't even try getting on it mid-day, you have to be there very early in the day or very late." No one here can disagree with that advice, it's true. (BTW I am paraphrasing, don't have the books right in front of me).

Good luck....

BTW- if you want to keep some disney innocence get Birnbaums, if you want to have the most fun for your time spent get The Unofficial Guide.
 
Although I've never taken a lot at the Passporter, I do like both the Unofficial Guide and Birnbaum's.

Birnbaum's is a more colorful, to the point, easy to read guide. I think their section on Disney resorts is nicer.

Unofficial is a much larger (unillustrated) book with all sorts of hints and opinions. It really is a fun read if you love to "plan". And no one can beat their section on Disney restaurants.

Have fun!
 


OK, I'll take the middle of the road--I usually buy both the Unofficial Guide (which is my #1 pick without question) AND the Birnbaum's book :D

The Unofficial guide is great, and I won't go into further detail. But, if memory serves, most recent version was published just before the return of Early Entry. So I don't believe you will find reliable info regarding days to visit individual parks. But don't let that sour you. In most other regards, it's invaluable.

The Birnbaum's guide is the "official" guide to WDW, so it tends to give you more of the company line as Matty said. But I still found a lot of valuable info, and the color layout / photos makes it easier to discuss specifics with your traveling companions.

Check out the web site: www.tourguidemike.com

This site is fairly new and still a bit disorganized, but if you really dig, you'll find a lot of other valuable tips. My main beef with this site is that it gives you the impression that by plugging in a lot of your trip info, it will create a custom itinerary for you. That's not really true. You can tell it which parks, attractions, restaurants you want to visit and it will help you put that info into a managable agenda format. It will also give you recommended visitation times for specific attractions. So, in a roundabout way, it does to what is promised.

But, it's not as simple as saying "I want to ride TOT, Star Tours and Indy Jones on Tuesday, with lunch at H&V", and you suddenly get a minute-by-minute schedule for your day.

To actually answer your planning question, I typically split our trip into half-day blocks. With a toddler son that needs a nap, it's a forgone conclusion that we have to return to the hotel around 1pm daily. So, I'll plan on a specific park visit for the morning and another for the late-afternoon/evening. That gives me enough info to make Priority Seating, and ensure that we hit all of the parades / night shows that we really want to see.

I will typically educate myself with regard to the best touring plans (eg. at the MK, Fantasyland first in the am, and so on), but that's nothing that I put in writing.

If you're going in September / October, the crowds should be very managable. Using FastPass, you shouldn't have any problems at all with ride wait times.

As you're trying to make a final decision, make sure the weather is a part of your considerations. We have visited WDW twice in late September, and now know that it's just too warm and humid for us. Both trips the temps hit the 90s and the humidity was HIGH. It's also hurricane season, so the chance of rain is that much higher.

The later you go into October, the more temperate it will be. I hope I'm not coming across as a "wimp", but the reality is it's a whole lot more comfortable walking around for a week in 80 degree temps than it is in 90 degree temps.
 

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