HOW do you all actually PLAN? About This Page:

[liz109]

I just returned from DL and everytime I ate I kept thinking of those on the board that actually plan all their meals. It was just me DH, DS12 and DS6 and we did everything sporadically I couldn't imagine being on a timed plan. And then throw an eating schedule into it!

How in the world do you all do it. And, did everything actually go as planned?

[Tink and co.]

We don't plan much for DLR. If we want to enjoy a table service meal (and we typically do at least one), we schedule an early lunch or the latest brunch time (that's when we're the hungriest). We just operate around that. We've been so many times, that we don't feel too upset if we miss something.
When we go to WDW, we definately have a plan, but are flexible. We found WDW very frustrating without some sort of plan.
I'm such a good planner, everything always goes without a hitch.

[ndwiley]

Our families use the tools and advice on Disney, Passporter and Allears, and others. We start gettogethers a few months ahead (we drive from Oklahoma). We can't wait to plan our trip from stops along the way, meals, approximate budget for: fuel, food, hotels, etc. We check menus and extra magic hours to plan our dining reservations. We store our info. in an expandable folder. We look forward to planning and exploring which part of the US we will experience and well as the wonderful WDW.

[chezp]

We love our meals and trying out new places, so yes, we do plan our trips around our meals at Disney. We've never found doing that to be any trouble.

[dworldluver]

We plan around the extra magic hours - our meals are important for the most part (other than when all 19 go) We have spent the last two months planning for the upcoming trip. There are some "must do" meals so they were booked in advance. A few of the meals we will see the concierge about after we check in and a few we will play by ear and get in if we are in the park, decide and they have an opening. We plan a flexible plan and we have always been able to accomplish everything. No matter when we go or how many days we are there we get to each park at least once as well as downtown.
I have only gone once in the last 10 years where we haven't planned and it was more frustrating and fractured for us. I guess for some people it works. I thought we could do it other than the 2 meals we had booked in advance but we spent the first day asking each other "where should we go next" and so that evening we went through everything planned called dining services and did our 4 parks in the 3 days we had remaining without much thought or where do we go from here and where should we eat times

[bradbeckyk]

We couldn't function without planning. The hardest part was when we invited friends and family from the Orlando area to eat with us. They always seemed not to be too concerned with changing their minds at the last min. I think by planning we are able to make the best out of the limited time we do have at WDW. We also fixed the problem with friends and family members who changed their minds at the last min. We just started to tell them we will meet them after we eat.

I also think that without planning we end up missing more and getting more warnout.

[HeatherD]

DLR is so very different from WDW, though we are not huge planners for either. With DLR, we do a couple of things:
- make any PS we need (priority seating)
- decide which park, which day
- get mental idea of what to hit first

With WDW, we do much the same thing, but it's on a bigger scale:
- Make ADRs (much sooner that DLR)
- Research EMHs and park hours
- Decide at least when we hit each park the first time (this next trip, we are leaving 2 days open for "whatever" we decide)
- Make a schedule, so I don't have to constantly look things up (a single spreadsheet with hours, parade/firework times)

DLR doesn't need all that, simply because if you change your mind, it doesn't affect your day that much. You can slip into the other park and still run back over for a dinner at the other without much work. So, it's not that hard to imagine "planning" around meals and such, just like you would do at home if you had reservations. We are mostly CS people, liking the ability to just decide at the moment what to do. But there are a few things we do, so in those cases we adjust our day accordingly.

[Willowwind]

I plan about the same way as HeatherD for my trips. I decided which park on which day, then where to eat, then roughly which way around the park we'll be going to get to the meals on time.

However, last week at Disneyland we didn't end up using a single one of our reservations when they were scheduled. We showed up at two p;aces 2 hours early to see if we could get in then and were able to. Others we just changed our minds and hoped for a walk in. I think we were pretty lucky to get n where we wanted when we were ready to eat rather than having to wait for our reservations.

[WDWJAMBA]

I lead with my stomach! Dining is a huge part of the fun of Disney for me. Part of the magic IS the great food I'm eating. It's never been a problem for us at all. :

[bradbeckyk]

Originally Posted by WDWJAMBA

I lead with my stomach! Dining is a huge part of the fun of Disney for me. Part of the magic IS the great food I'm eating. It's never been a problem for us at all. :

I think its funny when we go on vacation we talk about what were going to eat for supper while eating dinner There are sooooooooooooooo many great places to eat at WDW compared to DL (That has to do with the size of everything of course.) you have to plan well in advance because you might not get reservations. We had friends who always went to DL and one year they went to WDW and came back complaining about how bad the food was. I'll be Paul Harvey and tell you "The rest of the story". Before they went my DW sat down with them and told them they needed to make reservation at the better restaurants in order to get in. They laughed at her and commented about how they never felt led to plan that far out; see who knows they might feel like eating somewhere else that day. Low and behold they went down and did just that and they ended up eating fast service the whole time no wonder they were not impressed with the food.

Brad

[graysbeach]

Originally Posted by bradbeckyk

They laughed at her and commented about how they never felt led to plan that far out; see who knows they might feel like eating somewhere else that day. Low and behold they went down and did just that and they ended up eating fast service the whole time no wonder they were not impressed with the food.

Brad

I couldn't agree more ! Infact my sister in law was with us in May 08 for her first trip and couldn't understand why I made such a big deal about ADR's. Now this time for DEC 09 she has done a 180 and is so apologetic and wanting to be in on all the planning as she realized when they actually accompanied us to and ADR the meal was incredible with many healthy choices ( she loves fish ,veggies salad etc... ) and the chef came out and talked to her about an egg allergy in the family . All the while ( when out on their own ) they had counter service fast food ( because they couldn't get in anywhere at a decent time for 2 little kids ) which she didn't really enjoy for EVERY meal.

[Tonichelle]

Unless we're wanting to have the trip be about the meals we don't even ADR WDW (which bugs me, so I got to do it my way this last time!) when Erin and I went to DLR in 06 we didn't know anything about ADRs or PS or whatever... and we did just fine with table services and CSs

[graysbeach]

I also have never had any trouble with priority seating ( PS ) at Disneyland. WDW has been another story - for the past few years we have had to make ADR in order to assure being able to get in to our favorite places at a decent time for us. The new dining plans have made table services more popular than ever.

[liz109]

I guess we're just big "spur of the moment" people. Sure, the food is probably good at some of the restraunts, but not good enough to plan my day around it.

I'm an organized planner at work. No surprises there. However, in my own personal life, I think I hate being organized LOL!

It did not bother me that we couldn't get top not reservations at POTC or any other table service at DL. I didn't go for the food.

[Dobby]

My mom and sister think I'm crazy for going over the menues, etc. But for me, trying the restaurants is part of the Disney magic. I live in a town with 3 tiny, short order restaurants, that all serve the same thing. No ambience at all. So I'm excited about seeing as much of these places as I can.