How Regimental Are You..?....

I've NEVER had a plan. I was always with family when I was younger and Blondie the last few times. We let her rule the trip the last couple times.

That being said, this will be a very different trip. There are so many things I want to try and things I want to do that I have a plan. It's not planned to the minute by any means but each day has a specifics.

My loosey goosey days are Epcot. I do have FP+ planned but they are all together so we can get them done and go. For 2 of the 3 WS visits we are going "right" one day and "left" the other. The 1st day in Epcot we have dinner reservations so we will get there just after lunch and have a couple of appetizers on foot!

I think it is easier for us to do a free and easy trip because of 2 things,

1,We have been a lot of times and know our way around the parks.
2,It is just the two of us so no having to go at anyone elses pace or preferences.
3,We are not big on the fine dining so that free's up a lot of time spent sitting down we can do rides .
3b,We don't eat at regular "lunchtimes" so it generaly isn't so crowded when we eat.

We have a sit down family meal planned for every day. We will also utilize fast passes but beyond that it will be go as the kids want.

My mom and I look at the crowd calendar, from there we will decide what parks we are going to that day. Then we will pick which resturant we will be eating at. From there it's pretty much book fastpasses. After that it's just pretty much what we feel like doing at the time. Everyone will have must dos, but they usually revolve around food and we don't mind back tracking through the park if we missed something.

We're looking forward to our first trip (my wife went to WDW as a child, but it'll be my FIRST time!) and she has been rather amused at the amount of research and planning I've been doing. I've downloaded maps, menus, bought guide books, and done more cost analysis than is probably good for me. Attached is an example of an itinerary I made using MS-Publisher.

I check the park hours and crowd estimates, make the ADRs, plan a daily schedule including FastPasses for each day of our stay, recheck the hours and crowds, and modify the plans as needed.

Then I make sure everyone knows that anything can be changed up to the last minute except the ADRs, and even they can be changed a day in advance. I let them know that for some ADRs and FPs we can cancel what we've got but probably won't get another shot at those particular restaurants or attractions. And then we go with the flow.

I feel I've organised this holiday much like a military operation!!!! My mam has a laminated sheet of a running schedule of events on one side and on the other has show schedules on for whichever park we are doing at any time!!! We haven't kept to it all the time but most of it

So yeah I'm a planner!!! Haha

I also have made little reference cards for each park, with dining options and attractions. The only ADR we have is for crystal palace our first day at MK.

In the past we have gone completely unplanned... Where we don't even know what we're going to do that day until the morning after breakfast. But this year I have definitely done a lot more planning for this trip because of FP+ and also because I booked it so far in advance I'm doing it a lot for the fun of it. In the end though we are going to go with what we are feeling once we're there. Its our vacation and since we are pretty laid back generally we like to be that way on vacation as well. But some people aren't like us and thats what makes Disney so great. People with all different styles and personalities can go and have a blast

Well, I've always I don't do rigid scheduling because in all likelihood, I'd go insane! So in terms of parks, I look at the weather and plan accordingly. I want to make sure that Epcot and Magic Kingdom need to be sunny days. It's a bit much but those are my two favorite parks and I've been fortunate enough to have never visited them in the rain. Once in the parks, it's rides first and foremost. All I care about is getting at least one ride and ensuring myself I hit the headline attractions that interest me and/or the ones that I don't have a FP+ reservation for. The goal is to ride as many of the big ticket rides before 11 am, where the park begins to fill up. Then, after lunch, it's usually characters and shows and the rides I've got a FP+ reservation for. Then, it's rest, dinner and depending on my mood, I either leave the park and call it a night or shop and get some snacks before the nightmare entertainment and if applicable, characters I have not yet met that have evening schedules.

We look at the estimated schedule and EMH, we plan our parks for each day and then ADRs at off peak times, we always try to get breakfast in park before opening. We plan all our fp+ for between 10:30 and 12 after 12 we go with the show until night time activities

That sounds very similar to my plan, mine is so far untested but it's great to hear that some else thinks my way my only difference is I don't do breakfast so will be carrying snacks for around 10am ish...

My fiance dosent eat breakfast food, but getting in the park an hour early walking down an empty Main Street, discovery island, future world or hollywood bolivard is simply bliss, getting photos with the castle with no one in them.... Amazing, plus character breakfast are the best way to meet and greet, in air con with no wait times. Great.... Plus you can be at the front of the ropes for the lands while the rope droppers are still walking up main street, so we will be fast walking to 7 dwarfs mine train. Our plan is always to be winding down, doing shows and resort breaks and pools and water parks when everybody else is coming in to the parks

We are planning an ADR for Crystal Palace on our fourth day, early enough so we can get into the Magic Kingdom nice and early! I was going to book it for our first day at Magic Kingdom but decided against it so we would be able to focus on our 'must do' attractions, buy mickey ears, see Tink, etc... on our first day. I'm also NOT taking my Nikon DSLR and am instead paying for memory maker. I don't want to end up like I have on most previous trips, having hundreds of photos of my family and scenery and none of ME! I will have a smaller point and shoot camera with me (and my GoPro for video!) but will be going mostly to have fun, not to be a photographer. I'm there to play, not work.

I'm a planner, I plan to within an inch because I enjoy the planning however, I've never done a trip where we stick to the plan 100%, things get bumped and moved around at will and that's fine, my knickers certainly don't get twisted (I hope that saying has been heard of in the USA or I fear I might sound a bit naughty lol) I've been on trips in the past where we haven't planned at all and we miss stuff out cause we forgot about them till the end of the trip and then spend the last few days rushing to try and fit it all in.

OK, You must forgive me but I just binge-watched 8 hours of "Outlander" on Starz. So my brain is mostly in the 18th century Highlands right now. So when you (of all people) asked "How Regimental Are You..?" all I could think was that I wasn't wearing a kilt, and my husband doesn't usually indulge when he does.

On to your actual question!

I have a spreadsheet that I use to plan travel. Columns are days of the week, rows are bring down into breakfast, morning, lunch, afternoon, dinner, evening. I'll pop in travel details, which Park that we'll be at, ADRs, and special events. However other ADRs and Special event times I don't plan. I don't take a specific course in the Parks, rarely use a FastPass, our party splits up and people get to do what they like. I'm pretty relaxed once we get there, at least I like to think that I am. Others may disagree.

Geordon had a Scottish persona when we first stared doing Medieval reenactment, so he had several wool great kilts that we would pleat fold and wrap him in when we went to events. That's just a heck of a lot of wool when you're out camping in the summer so he switched personas to something easier to dress. LOL!

My father has a Mitchell tartan kilt I'm sure he'd lend to me, complete with the proper regalia. Not sure Disney security would be thrilled with the sgian dubh.

planning-wise; I haven't put meals on my spreadsheet yet. We plan on eating the bulk of our meals at the resort and don't want to be tied down to ADR times during our park explorations, with the exception of crystal palace and possibly biergarten.

One issue I am unsure of is travel times. I have estimated half an hour to travel back and forth from the resort to the parks. We plan on making rope drop every morning.

What my husband and I do (and this pushes his "schedule limit" ) is we try to visit the parks opposite of the EMH for resort guests. We also make a list of attractions by park - 1. must see. 2. would be nice to see. 3 don't care about.

This trip will be the first time we ever used a FP but we want to ride the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train and Test Track. so...we took advantage.

We do more planning for ADRs and what places we would like to eat or snacks we want to try than anything else.

Most of our trips, not just Disney are planned around food!!!

This is the way I plan as well...Can't twist my knickers if I am a Disney Commando!

Isn't that how everyone plans??

See, all our princesses must have the same royal thought process

I'm going to try something new with our April trip.....no planning! Excepting 1 ADR for Yak and Yeti. No spreadsheet, no binder, nothing!

You may pick up your jaws in 3....2.....1......

Welcome to my world

but.........................

why ?????????????????????????????

For me overplanning would kill my holiday ..
I enjoy the whole relaxed feel of a vacation without to much specific.We always spend an age pre-trip working out what we want to see do etc and just wing it around that.
Certain things do dictate where we go on certain days (EMH or specific events (SWW)) but other than that its all pretty flexible.
I can't imagine planning things down to the N'th degree (laminated and duplicated ) because all it takes is a late bus or an unexpected complication and its all out the window.
Whilst i would never go that far i do understand some people have to have this degree of routine and thats cool also.
My biggest worry for out trip next year is how the FP+ is going to affect our more laid back touring style.We have hardly ever used (or needed to use) the previous fastpass incarnation and hope the new set up doesn't skew the standby lines horribly.