Does anyone else plan like this or am I crazy?

[madamszam]

There's a lot of shorthand but I'm curious what others do to layout their trips. Shaded columns are the sleep-in days

 

[reddog21]

 

[Dave006]

At first I panicked when I quickly scanned your spreadsheet image when I saw all the times. Then after a more careful review I don't think you are over planning your visit. It's not how we plan but how often do you go?

You have lot's a reference information and that is always helpful for a quick refresh all in 1 place.

Dave

 

[madamszam]

At first I panicked when I quickly scanned your spreadsheet image when I saw all the times. Then after a more careful review I don't think you are over planning your visit. It's not how we plan but how often do you go?

You have lot's a reference information and that is always helpful for a quick refresh all in 1 place.

Dave

Thanks! We haven't been in 5 years (Oct during Covid) so adjusting to the LL process. This will be my 13th or 14th trip over the decades. Doing our first split stay (BC then CR). Just booked our LL this morning so I'll probably be adding to my spread sheet.

 

[Minnie1222]

That looks like my study schedule when I was in school.

 

[zdad59]

Is it inappropriate to say I LOVE YOU !!

I detail plan as well. I keep a by hour, by day spreadsheet. Also sub sheets with Lightning Lane info, touring strategies, meal stops, etc.

Just started mine for our September trip...

Any chance I can get a copy of your template? (zdad67 at gmail dot com). I haven't laid out my Lightning Lane template yet, and yours looks near perfect.

 

[disneydreamer1980]

I do but then I don’t follow it when we get there lol

 

[Dave006]

I do but then I don’t follow it when we get there lol

It is better to have a plan and not need it because of all you preparedness than not have a plan available and really miss it once you get to WDW.

Dave

 

[madamszam]

Is it inappropriate to say I LOVE YOU !!

I detail plan as well. I keep a by hour, by day spreadsheet. Also sub sheets with Lightning Lane info, touring strategies, meal stops, etc.

Just started mine for our September trip...

Any chance I can get a copy of your template? (zdad67 at gmail dot com). I haven't laid out my Lightning Lane template yet, and yours looks near perfect.

Yeah I’ll send it over to you shortly. Haha And not inappropriate at all. My wife just rolled her eyes because it feeds my Disney ego

 

[MommaKetch]

I plan like this as well, especially to get my head wrapped around the various park hours/AH/EEH etc, and then whittle it down from there. Here is Spring Break 2024. Looking back, this is not how the day actually went. We were up early and went to bed early. Definitely did not go back in for EEH at Epcot.

For our upcoming trip, days are less structured. I have the week view locked down, and LL times/reservations noted, but other than that we will go with the flow.

 

[We’reAllMadHere]

Yup. I do that. Then we get to the park and my family or other circumstances blow it up.

Having 3-5 LL planned for the day does help to keep to a plan more than G+, which sometimes had us crisscrossing the parks.

 

[loves to dive]

Not us. I have a trip in 3 weeks and I have a resort booked. That's it. I have an AP so I did have to make park reservations (which I've done) but I just randomly pick those since all I have to do is tap into the park not stay there if I don't want to. I looked at the park hours maybe 2 weeks ago so don't even know if those have stayed the same or not. Don't remember which parks have the EE while I'm there, I'm staying at Dolphin so can use them if I want. In all fairness, I go at least twice a year, most of the time 3 or 4 times a year so I don't buy the LLs since if I don't ride something it's not big deal. We didn't pre-book the old free FPs when they were available and rarely even used them at all, or the even older paper FPs. The only ADR we have ever booked in advance is V&As and that was a week out. We do eat at TS restaurants but just book what is available the day of, usually do that mid-afternoon when we are back at the resort resting.

 

[ML_LovesDisney]

There's a lot of shorthand but I'm curious what others do to layout their trips. Shaded columns are the sleep-in days

View attachment 949071

My last trip's spreadsheet looks veryyyy similar to yours. I love overplanning and then you can adjust as needed when you get there if plans go awry. Looks great!

 

[kanerf]

I do use a spreadsheet, but not to that level of detail.

 

[WDW Traveler]

I usually do a spreadsheet too just to keep everything organized. I know with MDE pretty much everything is already there, but I like to see it all in one place. In the good old days of Fast Passes, I used to make a little handbook, so my husband could keep it in his pocket and he knew what we were doing lol

 

[mi*vida*loca]

I have a section in my notes app with our dates, ADRs/QS ideas, if we’re getting LLMP/LLSP with which ones we’d like and a loose park plan for first 1-2 hours.

Example I do for each day is the trip:

5/14 - DHS - pool break - MK (PM EMH)
Breakfast - Woody’s
Lunch - Primo Piatto/Bar Riva/Baseline Tap House/Ronto Roasters/Woody’s
Dinner - Victoria Falls/Mara
Fireworks viewing party - check in 8 pm
LLMP - Slinky, ToT, TSM - try for MMRR then get for MK starting at 5-6pm
RD - ToT, RnRC and MMRR

I then check park hours the day before to see if there’s any changes so we don’t miss RD or if shows have changed.

I also update park plans for the first 1-2 hours if we are duplicating a park depending on what we got done previously. We are doing 9 days so things change a lot depending on what we can get done each day.

 

[BrianL]

I do a spreadsheet too, though it's a bit looser than that. One thing that I do, is that I make a "pocket guide" printed out at card size that I can carry with me. I use a heavy stock paper and fold it, I can get two days per panel, plus a side with park hours, etc.

 

[goofyernmost]

One of the many reasons why I will not be returning to WDW is because of the absolute need for that kind of planning. Hell, I never worked that hard when was getting paid too. Not going to do that now. I made many trips over 35 years and never really had any plans to speak of. I went where I wanted as the mood hit me. I stayed offsite for the opportunity to experience something besides WDW. While I have occasionally had dinner in Epcot over the years, it was never planned ahead and I always had my appetite ruined by the prices.

The joy that I once had in going pretty much yearly was my lack of needing to be organized. I never set alarms. If I got up early enough for rope drop, I went to it. Turns out I only did it twice at MK and once at Epcot and that is because I misread the opening time and accidentally got to the Epcot entrance an hour before it opened.

For me going to WDW or any Disney Park was to let my inner child out and my inner child didn't plan that far ahead for anything. If someone really enjoys doing that planning, which I assume is the case here, then great. I'm sure it adds to your enjoyment. The opposite does that for me and that is something that one has a great difficulty finding that kind of spontaneity at WDW.

I will say that is really a tremendously impressive spreadsheet though. I would have run out of patience for doing it someplace during the first day.

 

[Uncle Coaster]

I do the bulk of my planning when I’m trying to decide where I am going in a vacation. I’ll have a spreadsheet of 4 or 5 potential options with the trips planned out and a budget for each.

When all is said and done (based on my personal travel style) Disney is usually the one with the least detailed step by step plan and is generally in the middle for price.

I then use the plan for the destination I choose as a general guide for my trip.

 

[bluezy]

I used to, but then I discovered the joy of not planning so much and trying to have a structured day. As many others have mentioned, whatever plan we had would usually be blown within an hour or two of arriving at the park. Now if we have a 7-day trip planned, we decide ahead of time which parks we plan to start at most days, schedule our LLs, and just go with the flow in between the LLs. We usually don't even have definite plans for the last 2 or 3 days of the trip and just decide what we want to do based on what we were able to accomplish earlier in the week. We rarely do TS meals, so we're free to eat wherever we feel like it and whenever we feel like it that day -- no need to schedule anything. While we still do *a lot* on our Disney trips, we've realized how much more relaxing the trips can be if we don't schedule ourselves for every minute of the day. That was just setting us up for failure.