[JENNY536]

How do you plan out your trip? My DS and I are going in May of next year. He does'nt know yet and I'm not sure how to "Spring" it on him. I plan on using Quicksilver to take us to and from PC. Last year when we went the travel agent did all the what days what parks. We had the Prince and Princess plan and she booked what days we saw what shows so it made things alot easier. But how do you plan out your trip? We didn't hit the parks the first day we just hung out at the hotel and went to Downtown Disney. I don't want to be overhelmed and miss something. Although I may be freaking out for nothing. It's just this trip will be completely different than the last one. We are not driving this time and I'm gonna use the dining option. Help please..............


Thanks
Jen

[Ready2Go]

I like getting the maps to the parks, sitting down with my boys and plan out what we would like to do. This can go out the window when we get there but it helps pass the time and build the excitement for our trip.

Here are some links that we use to look around and plan:

MK Virtual Walk around:
http://www.wdwvirtualvisit.com/rr.htm

Maps of Parks:

http://www.wdisneyw.co.uk/mkmap.html

http://www.wdisneyw.co.uk/epcotmap.html

http://www.wdisneyw.co.uk/mgmmap.html

http://www.wdisneyw.co.uk/akmap.html


Link to home of links above with other helpful info.

http://www.wdisneyw.co.uk/parks.html

[DisneyTeacher]

I start with a really basic plan and try to keep it simple. I look at Extra Magic Hours and try to hit some of those but not all of them. We try to get to MK for early entry, we can get some much done there before 11 am, even in the busy summer months. After lunch in the parks we take a break at our resort then hit a non-EMH park for the evening. We book a dinner ADR so we know we will have some place to eat each night.

At 90 days out I book our ADRs and once official park hours come out I move what I need to move and make a final plan. I don't follow all the on-line best days--they're not always right. We just make a plan and go with an open mind. Last summer we were in the MK on a Saturday and walked on almost every ride in the middle of July.

Plan, plan, plan but be ready to be flexable once you get there. We cancel some ADRs and book others, we change what parks for which days, and we try to take the time to soak up some magic and just lets things happen.

[Maria]

Jenny, we are also going next May and my DS and DD do not know that we are going either. We were going to tell them around Christmas but deceide to wait till around Feburary, because there is so much going on around the hoildays. We are staying at All Stars Movies, hopefully staying in the Herbie building. ( My kids love Herbie) I brought little Herbie cars at Walmart and we plan on having a scavenger (sp)hunt and clues to have them guess that we are going to WDW and Herbie is one of the clues.

I Love Birnbaum's WDW guide book to help us plan our days.

[mrspooky]

My problem with planning, especially with the new dining plan, is that Disney wants you to book 90 days in advance for dining and special events, but does not give you the park hours and EMH until 60 days before. It is very annoying to me.

[JENNY536]

Originally Posted by Maria

Jenny, we are also going next May and my DS and DD do not know that we are going either. We were going to tell them around Christmas but deceide to wait till around Feburary, because there is so much going on around the hoildays. We are staying at All Stars Movies, hopefully staying in the Herbie building. ( My kids love Herbie) I brought little Herbie cars at Walmart and we plan on having a scavenger (sp)hunt and clues to have them guess that we are going to WDW and Herbie is one of the clues.

I Love Birnbaum's WDW guide book to help us plan our days.

That is a really good idea about the scavenger hunt. I was thinking of not telling him at all till we get down there and picked up in a towncar. I thought he'd get a kick out of seeing our name on a sign at the Airport. But I'm sure when we get on the plan he'll figure it out. I'm not much of a "Park" planner per say. We kinda did what the travel agent had for shows and just walked around wherever. Although it was a great idea doing Animal Kingdom on Sunday. And have the Extra Magic Hours was great. They were testing that out when we were they last year in May. Well atleast the staying open later. That was great casue we hit rides that are normally full. Maybe I should buy him one of those create your own t-shirts from The Disney Store online and put something like Shhhhhhhhh.....its a surprise Walt Disney World Trip May 2006. What do you think?


Thanks

Jen

[Maria]

Originally Posted by JENNY536

Maybe I should buy him one of those create Shhhhhhhhh.....its a surprise Walt Disney World Trip May 2006. What do you think?:

That is a cute idea. I love it I also thought we should not tell the kids till we got to the airport but part of the fun is their excitment before we go, plus I do not know how I could have 3 or 4 suitcases laying around without them seeing them What ever you deceide to do have fun planning!!!!!!!

[lovemysons]

I try to plan our days around what the unofficial guide says, around our favorite things to do, and our favorite places to eat. I also wind up changing things around once the park hours come out, and I also plan around parades!

[tinkerbell]

I don't normally do much planning except for picking a date, and a resort (often subject to change) I use Mouseketrips ..they are the best :) .. we are flexable with meals and times so we often do walk-ups instead of ADR's. We take off to a park as soon as we get checked in ..seldom spending much time in the room or at the resort.

[JENNY536]

I can't be that detailed to plan our trip from attraction to attraction. We just figure out the night before what rides we want to go on the next day and go on that ride. I gues I'm gonna really need to give this some more thought. So are the numbers correct for how many vistors they have per day per park?



Thanks
Jen

[quakercub]

Other than planning which resort we're staying at, we don't do a lot of advanced planning. Since there are only 2 of us, we've never found that ADR's are necessary. (also we go during the off-season). This time (hopefully January 2006), we're doing a bit more planning ahead since I'm going to rent an ECV for our entire stay to keep from getting to the parks too late to get one. As for the parks, we always begin and end our trips with EPCOT, a very special place for both of us. Other than that, we usually decide the night before or at the beginning of the day where we want to go. Well, we do decide ahead of times which parks we want to concentrate on. Last time, we spent most of our time at MK and EPCOT. This time we'll probably concentrate more on MGM and AK.

This is just a very long way of saying that we plan some, but don't like to be too rigid.

[ajriek]

The last time down to WDW we had 4 day hoppers and did a park a day. Plus visited my parents at DTD one evening. That for us was way over the top. This trip is 7 day hoppers, anything, any park, any time. Way more relaxed and enjoyable this time around.

[JENNY536]

The Park Hoppers are great! Last trip we visited atleast 2 or 3 parks every day.


Jen