Calling all wdw veterans who "just wing it!" I need help!...

[Octoberbaby]

Okay, I consider myself a very knowledgeable Disney vet... I have been over thirty times, but I've really lost count. So...why should I be worried, you ask? I have no idea! I've become SO used to HAVING to plan adrs and fp the last few years that it SCARES ME TO DEATH to go without a detailed plan. How do you guys do it? Can someone help me?! I WANT to go without soo many reservations and having to go from point a to b all minutes of the day. We have pretty much done everything at Disney, so just a few important rides at each park is ok. We are considering NOT rope dropping this time . I have decided to just keep my reservation for Ohana and Kona, but that is it . Any help with planning would be greatly appreciated! We will be there May 28- June 4th and will have 7 day hopper tickets.

 

[Canooknic]

Breathe!!!!! You'll be ok
We are more on the 'wing it' team and every trip has been great, I promise.

We are a family of 4 so all we do is list our must-do rides/shows and they are nonnegotiable, we make sure they are done and anything else is a bonus. I think for our upcoming trip we have about 10 things in total to get done in 14 days.
We then go through the restaurant list and each choose a few that we'd like to try and make ADR for those. Any other meal is either walk in or using OpenTable to find somewhere nearby.

We've been to Disney several times so as long as we get something it really doesn't matter where we eat on non-ADR days.
Some days we have to go to a specific park because we've booked FP, others we decide the evening before. Once we do our FPs we're free to do whatever so usually end up hopping to another park - usually our boys choice and we leave when they've had enough. Sometimes we're at the parks ropedrop tile close, soemtimes 10-3 and then they suggest a pretzel from Wetzels in DS so we go there and people watch.
It really is a lovely way to vacation (especially when you've been lucky enough to have seen it all) you will come back from vacation actually feeling like you had a vacation!!!

 

[Klayfish]

We haven't been to WDW 30 times, but over the past 10 years we've made 8 or 9 trips, including spending 50 days in the parks from June 2015 to June 2016, so we consider ourselves grizzled veterans. We do far, far less planning than most on this board (not saying it's better by any means, it's just what we do). We're very much wing it people. We don't stay on site, so I can't help you with the ADRs. However, we have completely stopped doing rope drop, we've found it's just not worth it for us. Again, not saying it's not worth it for anyone, just not for us. We'd rather get the extra sleep and/or have a nice breakfast at home than stand outside the gates for an hour. Just our opinion.

We definitely plan FP+. I think that's pretty important. Not a "must" by any means, because frankly we wind up changing probably 40% of all the FP+ we book...and frequently we change them on the fly while we're in the park that same day. Here's what we do, and it works for us....

About 45 days before our trip, my wife and I will grab a piece of 8x11 paper and list out all the days we're going to be at the parks. It's a very simple "calendar", just literally list each day of the week. We don't look at what park has EMH or anything like that, just list out the days. Then we decide what park we want to go to on a given day. There's no rhyme or reasoning behind it, except to try to give variation. We always start in MK, tradition for us. But after that, it's just rotational. We do get a "must do" list from the kids, and make sure we incorporate those rides, but that's a piece of cake. We'll list the park and then "AM" or "PM", as we rarely will spend morning to night in a park. We make sure that we have very few PM followed by AM days, so that we're not tiring ourselves out. We have one or two of those type days, but that's it. If it's an AM day in the park, the PM is listed as "freestyle". That simply means we'll decide what to do in the afternoon while we're eating lunch that day. And vice versa for PM days in the park. That whole process is done over a cup of coffee, so it takes maybe 30 minutes. Then we're done. When we hit the 30 day mark out, I spend 5 minutes on MDE to book my FP+. That's it. No other planning at all.

When we get to WDW, we always start on that plan...MK first. But often on a long trip, by day 4 or 5, the kids will ask to change plans because they want to go to HS tomorrow when we had Epcot penciled in. OK, no sweat. Hop on MDE that night and try to change my FP+. If I can change it to things they really want, we swap. If not, we keep plans as is. Like I said, we probably change 40% of our plans less than 24 hours out.

The freestyle time is awesome. No pressure, no running around, nothing. If we're in the park in the AM as planned, like I mentioned our PM plans will be made while we're sitting and eating lunch. Usually goes like this.... "So, what do you want to do this afternoon? How about heading to the water park, then go home for dinner and go out for dessert? Great, sounds awesome!!". Sometimes we're tired and decide to go home and chill. Sometimes we don't. Just depends how we feel.

We wouldn't vacation at WDW any other way. We did run ourselves ragged when we first started visiting and felt like we had to spend every waking moment going from point A to point B. Not anymore. We never intentionally just waste time, but we're in no rush either and we very much wing it.

Hope this helps.

 

[prprincess]

We wing it most of the time. We never do rope drop because we like to sleep in and leave when the parks close. We only do ADRs if we're on the meal plan, which is rare because half of our trips are onsite and the other half off. I don't know...we're just pretty laid back and are on vacation, so I think it's more of an attitude/mindset for us. If we don't get to do something, oh well--it doesn't break the trip and we know we'll be back anyway. So enjoy!!

 

[loves to dive]

We have always winged it and we've been going since the early 80s. My son has practically grown up at WDW, he started just shy of 3 and he's 36 now and still goes at least every other year, recently has started going every year and I go twice a year. For us, it's just being at the place so we aren't very ride centric. I never make FPs any earlier than the night before, more often than not the morning of or even while standing in line for a ride. If we want to ride something, we ride it and if that means standing in line for 30,40 or 50 minutes we do, we aren't in a hurry. If we want to ride something but the wait is too long even for us, we just move on, it's no big deal there is plenty else to do. We don't plan anything, we just go with it. We wake up in the morning and decide what park we want to go to and go from there. We make ADRs just by hopping on MDE while in the parks and finding what's available either in the park we are at, or at a certain time in a different park. We have always had park hoppers, now we both have APs, and don't hesitate to move on to another park. It's all about not being in a hurry for us. So the bus takes 30 minutes to get to another park, it's a nice time to relax and maybe book a FP at whatever park we are heading to. We don't open and close the parks, at least not on purpose. We may be up early and decide to go to a park and hit rope drop or we may be sitting around after supper and decide to head over to a park and ride whatever. We have been known to sit on a bench outside an area in WS in Epcot with a glass of wine or beer and just look at the details on the buildings and watch the people for a hour.

 

[Octoberbaby]

Breathe!!!!! You'll be ok
We are more on the 'wing it' team and every trip has been great, I promise.

We are a family of 4 so all we do is list our must-do rides/shows and they are nonnegotiable, we make sure they are done and anything else is a bonus. I think for our upcoming trip we have about 10 things in total to get done in 14 days.
We then go through the restaurant list and each choose a few that we'd like to try and make ADR for those. Any other meal is either walk in or using OpenTable to find somewhere nearby.

We've been to Disney several times so as long as we get something it really doesn't matter where we eat on non-ADR days.
Some days we have to go to a specific park because we've booked FP, others we decide the evening before. Once we do our FPs we're free to do whatever so usually end up hopping to another park - usually our boys choice and we leave when they've had enough. Sometimes we're at the parks ropedrop tile close, soemtimes 10-3 and then they suggest a pretzel from Wetzels in DS so we go there and people watch.
It really is a lovely way to vacation (especially when you've been lucky enough to have seen it all) you will come back from vacation actually feeling like you had a vacation!!!

Thank you for the reply! Do you wait to book your fast passes, or do you do those 60 days in advance? Fast passes are a big issue with me this time for some reason...I guess since we want more flexibility. My son is getting older, and I felt he was sort of irritated with me last time...even though he never said anything.

 

[Octoberbaby]

We have always winged it and we've been going since the early 80s. My son has practically grown up at WDW, he started just shy of 3 and he's 36 now and still goes at least every other year, recently has started going every year and I go twice a year. For us, it's just being at the place so we aren't very ride centric. I never make FPs any earlier than the night before, more often than not the morning of or even while standing in line for a ride. If we want to ride something, we ride it and if that means standing in line for 30,40 or 50 minutes we do, we aren't in a hurry. If we want to ride something but the wait is too long even for us, we just move on, it's no big deal there is plenty else to do. We don't plan anything, we just go with it. We wake up in the morning and decide what park we want to go to and go from there. We make ADRs just by hopping on MDE while in the parks and finding what's available either in the park we are at, or at a certain time in a different park. We have always had park hoppers, now we both have APs, and don't hesitate to move on to another park. It's all about not being in a hurry for us. So the bus takes 30 minutes to get to another park, it's a nice time to relax and maybe book a FP at whatever park we are heading to. We don't open and close the parks, at least not on purpose. We may be up early and decide to go to a park and hit rope drop or we may be sitting around after supper and decide to head over to a park and ride whatever. We have been known to sit on a bench outside an area in WS in Epcot with a glass of wine or beer and just look at the details on the buildings and watch the people for a hour.

Thank you! That sounds like what I am trying to do! How are the fp selections the night before or morning of? Are the major rides still available? Our must do rides are the three mountains at MK, Frozen and Soarin', ToT and RNR and EE, Kali, and Safari.

 

[JustinD]

We seldom have ADRs, so that really takes a load off of the planning. On our last trip, we had one ADR for lunch at BOG. We had to plan a couple days around being in that park on that day. (two families, one leaving to go to the beach one day, the other staying in the parks all week). It sort of sucked that this one ADR locked us in to a certain schedule.

We did make FP+ reservations for the entire week at the maximum allowed date. I stayed up late to ensure that we got the "best" ones. But, those can be removed.\

You may find that just dropping all the ADRs makes your trip less stressful. There are way fewer deadlines to meet that way.

I am a fan of rope-drop. Especially in the "off-season" when the days are shorter. I just like the fresh park in the morning, and there have been many afternoons when the fun grinds to a halt as EVERYONE in Florida seems to be in my park.

REMEMBER TO HAVE FUN.

 

[loves to dive]

Thank you! That sounds like what I am trying to do! How are the fp selections the night before or morning of? Are the major rides still available? Our must do rides are the three mountains at MK, Frozen and Soarin', ToT and RNR and EE, Kali, and Safari.

We never book FPs for Safari so I wouldn't know, oddly enough AK seems to be the one park we end up at rope drop. We have never done Frozen because I dislike the movie and am striking the ride. We actually enjoy the standby line at ToT but FPs are usually pretty easy to get, we have been known to get off it and get back in line, 5 times is our record. Don't ride RNR and Kali, RNR hurts both of us (son has permanent nerve damage in his spinal cord and I'm not young) and I refuse to ride anything that is going to make me wet. Everest is pretty easy to get FPs for but again, since we end up at AK at rope drop, if you ride Safari first thing, then EE is usually a walk on. Last time we rode Soarin we swore it was the last time we were riding Soarin. It was a spur of the moment thing on arrival day, we did standby for about 40 min. and both decided we didn't like the new version. BTMR is pretty easy to get a FP for if you don't care about the time. Again, for us, it's not about the rides and we really just wait in line if we want to ride it. For us, there is no must ride ride, we ride it or not, since we go often we know it will still be there next time, and if it's not (oh Norway I miss you) oh well.

 

[monorailsilver]

We don't do the dining plan and only book 2 ADRs and they are on non park days-arrival day and a day after 2 park days in a row.

As fas as fast passes, I haven't done that yet...next year...I think I will need a xanax!

 

[Soarin4us]

We've easily gotten FPs 24 hours in advance, except for 7DMT. My guys despise the forced-march feel of FP+, so we make some FPs for a loose plan, but we aren't tied to it. Everyone's happier without "Her Schedule."

 

[Klayfish]

Thank you! That sounds like what I am trying to do! How are the fp selections the night before or morning of? Are the major rides still available? Our must do rides are the three mountains at MK, Frozen and Soarin', ToT and RNR and EE, Kali, and Safari.

You very, very likely won't get any FP+ for FEA or 7DMT the night before. However, for the other rides aren't all that hard to get. You may not get exactly the time you want (though you should check back fairly often), but you should get something. We rarely have trouble getting the mountains at MK, ToT, EE, Kali or Safari. RnR is a bit hit and miss, but more often than not we can get it the night before, or even that day.

 

[Canooknic]

We've easily gotten FPs 24 hours in advance, except for 7DMT. My guys despise the forced-march feel of FP+, so we make some FPs for a loose plan, but we aren't tied to it. Everyone's happier without "Her Schedule."

This sounds very much like us. I booked our FPs at 60 days so we have a couple of days with the same must-do rides (eg 7DMT) and if we decide to go to HS instead of MK that day then we have our 'back up' day to do it so we cancel the first one and get what we can at HS

 

[GC&S]

We are semi wingers (if that's a word). We been there 20+ times. We make a few ADR's for the places we traditionally eat the night we get there and the night before we leave. DD always requests Garden Grill. We do some FP for our favorite rides (most of the time we end up changing or cancelling FPs during our trip). We usually are at the parks close to opening as we are early risers. Now that DD is older we stay until closing. We park hop so it's not unusual for us to do 2-3 parks in a day. We take swim breaks and also go check out other hotels (we had never seen the values before so last year checked those out). We know what we like, what we don't like, and we go from there. I do like planning so I'm usually the one with a semi plan but am pretty flexible if DH and DD have other plans.

 

[Accident]

Okay, I consider myself a very knowledgeable Disney vet... I have been over thirty times, but I've really lost count. So...why should I be worried, you ask? I have no idea! I've become SO used to HAVING to plan adrs and fp the last few years that it SCARES ME TO DEATH to go without a detailed plan. How do you guys do it? Can someone help me?! I WANT to go without soo many reservations and having to go from point a to b all minutes of the day. We have pretty much done everything at Disney, so just a few important rides at each park is ok. We are considering NOT rope dropping this time . I have decided to just keep my reservation for Ohana and Kona, but that is it . Any help with planning would be greatly appreciated! We will be there May 28- June 4th and will have 7 day hopper tickets.

you sound planned to me.. Place to sleep, you got the couple adrs you want to do at minimum and now your ready to go.

What might be missing is you should probably just randomly pick fastpasses at different parks for each day. You need to guess what you might want to do when. For us, we like to quickly get all the must dos out of the way, usually over the first 2 days. It also lets us just wander around, see what is different and then the rest of the trip is pretty much do whatever we want....

For fastpasses that you need to change, noon to 3pm is the time you will find a bunch of them but they might not be until the dinner to close time slots but they are there. Just start looking when you know you need them, and keep looking time to time. You did say only the must dos are important and generally that means a few hours at max if you don't get any so it's no big deal if you don't get any.

For adrs you might want to add, I find them plentiful the night before around 11-midnight but I also have good luck the same day especially as it gets closer to the time you want to eat. even if you get the wrong time, take it if you can do that time and then start to modify it to see if you can move it up. You'll be surprised how many adrs weren't available for your time but you could modify them for your time. There seems to be something in the system for adrs and fastpasses that you can't get them within 15 minutes so make sure you look a little sooner. I think disney just assumes you can't get to the adr in 15 minutes so they don't let you get one at that time.

The rest is whatever you feel like doing when you feel like doing it. Set an alarm for the time you don't want to sleep past. So if you want to sleep in and not still be alseep in the afternoon, give yourself an 11 or noon alarm. I rarely hit that time but some days I'm tired enough that I could sleep the day..

 

[huskies90]

With several trips a year for the last 12 years, I consider myself a vet. Over time, I've gone from an uber planner to a wing it guy. Contrary to most on this board and those with enough experience/knowledge to be dangerous, I believe the changes to dining and the FP+ system actually make it easier to wing it. With the new cancelation policies - charging for noshows, we almost never have an issue getting an ADR and if we don't have one, we usually don't have an issue doing a walk up. There are some exceptions and of course if there is a restaurant you really want by all means book it in advance (like Be Our Guest). Same is true with FP+. The system is turning over all the time especially on the same day as folks change and cancel FPs. We rarely have a problem waking up, deciding what parks we want go to and booking a few FP's that day. Again, if there is an attraction that is high your list, book it in advance. But with the exception of Frozen and to a lesser extent 7DMT, I am always able to get them. Add in years of knowledge of Disney and crowd flow, and winging it is easy especially since we know if we don't do something this trip, we catch it next time. That being said, if there is something new in the parks - like this summer's Avatar or ROL, I will be sure to do some planning to get to experience them.

 

[Beer Me]

Some planning, some winging it but I don't find the planning part stressful at all.

Contrary to the way planning is often characterized on this and other boards I think planning a Disney vacation is easier than just about any kind of vacation except maybe an all inclusive resort. It can all be done with one app. Planning for many other types of vacations require multiple sources and all kinds of logistics. It can take weeks to work out the details. In contrast our last Disney trip was entirely booked and planned in less than 30 minutes while lying in bed with an iPad.

Obviously this only applies to those with some experience and knowledge of wdw. I understand how first time visitors can be overwhelmed. Another caveat, if you absolutely must book one of the handful of hard to get ADRs or FPs for a particular time you may have to work for them a bit. I'm usually happy with what I get without setting my hair on fire (i have gotten things like BOG and 7dmt FP without any trouble).

We are planning a trip for this summer. This process is: Pick a resort and book it. Buy the park tickets you want. Make a rough outline of which parks you will visit each day. Make a few ADRs (at 180 days if you wish) and FPs (at 60 days if you wish) around this outline. If you are inside of 180 or even 60 days it's no big deal. There will still be plenty of options. We have planned trips about 5 weeks in advance and got everything we wanted.

The key is that none of this is set in stone. Once we get there we may move or cancel ADRs or change our minds about what we are doing that day but I like to have them scheduled as a default.

 

[piccolopat]

We generally book all of our FP+ for the morning so we are free to do whatever strikes our fancy (and has reasonable lines) for the rest of the day. We try to do everything in an area and then move on to minimize going back and forth the parks. If we book lunch ADRs, they are usually early (before noon) and planned around where our last FP+ will be. We also book dinner ADRs, also early to avoid crowds. We like the air conditioned breaks the sit down eating gives us and this approach has meant less stress for us.

 

[tlmadden73]

You aren't "winging" it as much as you think if you've been there 30 times. Your experience and knowledge of parks and times to realistically do things will help immensely.

You'll be doing so many veteran tricks without even knowing it .. so you'll be sorta planning anyway on the fly.

Here is what I do to "wing it" ..
Plan all Fast Passes in the morning .. and have them ALL physically near each other (as much as you can) .. giving you enough time to maybe do 1-2 rides in between them. I think FP+ makes it easier to "wing" it too because you can guarantee 3 rides that will have minimal wait time.

Then that leaves your afternoon open and flexible to "wing" it. Then "wing" it by getting 4th, 5th or 6th fast passes for whatever is available to where you want to go immediately next. Or just do standby. Or just check out some shows .. whatever you feel like doing THAT day.
It works pretty well for me (though I have preschool kids that don't care what we do or don't do).

I mean you know better than to just try standby on a major ride in the middle of the afternoon. You know not to try and hit certain restaurants at peak times. You know to try and hit rides during the night shows (I mean .. you've seen them all, right?)

And then just "plan" ahead. Don't go looking for a meal after everyone is hungry (because there may be long waits) ..

 

[glassslippergirl]

I've never planned a trip in detail and always have a good time. These days, here's what we do in terms of planning.

• We know what parks we want to go to on which days. Sometimes I consult a crowd calendar, but more likely than not, it's the park we WANT to go to that day.
• I make FPs at the 30 day mark and I adjust them over the next few weeks (I'd rather go back to legacy FP and skip this step of planning, but that's not going to happen. The FPs ensure that we will ride certain rides that we want).
• If we have PH, I make FPs for the first park we plan to go to unless there is a really good reason not to. That way, we can go to whatever park the spirit moves us to go to in the evening and maybe get a FP or two for there.
• We limit ourselves to just one, maybe two, ADRs. The rest of the meals are CS or off-property. Sometimes we just get a bunch of snacks and share, making for some of our most memorable meal experiences.
• Once in the park, we may choose a spontaneous adventure, like the time we decided to go on all the trails in AK or when we got a times guide and went to see all the street entertainment in MK or holiday storytellers in Epcot.