Plan Ahead or Go With the Flow?

Started by Tinkerhel1970, April 19, 2017, 01:01:13 PM

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Tinkerhel1970

I am visiting DLP in June for the fourth time with my hubby and our 17 year old daughter.  Our visit last year was a disaster mainly because of the awful weather and I'm determined that this year is a much better trip. Since I joined this forum I have read a lot of posts and am interested to find out what people think are the pros and cons of planning each day or just going with the flow. 
DLP June 2004 - Davy Crocketts Ranch
WDW December 2005
DLP May/June 2011 - Hotel Cheyenne
DLP May/June 2016 - Davy Crocketts Ranch
DLP June 2017 - Davy Crocketts Ranch
DLP September 2018 - Davy Crocketts Ranch
WDW November 2019

Dolph7800

A bit of both depending on how you like to do things. Personally, we go with the flow. We sometimes try to have a plan of what to do first, but more often than not that changes when you get there.

IMO, people get way too hung up in dining at Disney on the whole, panicking to reserve months in advance and planning each meal. We ate in the village each night, only pre-booking Cafe Mickey for the characters, and ate all where we wanted. The only place we wanted to eat for dinner in the park was in Agrabah and that was shut when we turned up just before 6pm so we went back to the village and got into La Grange when it opened. Although as a caveat we usually go out of season in Jan/Feb so June may be a different kettle of fish. But even so, there's still Vapiano's and Five Guys as well as Annette's, Rainforest and Planet Hollywoods which can be done without a booking (although not a good idea after the fireworks show, we found 5/6pm a reasonable time).

Rides wise, we wanted to make sure we got on everything we could, but you can't really plan that much until you know what the wait times are like at that time. Once you're there, you can gauge things a lot better and know when to go. A good plan to start with would be to get a Fastpass for a busy ride you want like Rataouille or Big Thunder Mountain each day as soon as it opens and fit everything in around that and the show/parade times. Just try and work through all the rides you want to do, and use the App to see what the queues are like, or ED92 on Twitter if you're into character meets. You can do a lot with a plan, but equally you can miss a walk-on, short queue or surprise meet if you're sticking rigidly to a schedule.

We used our last day as a greatest hits day as it was a half day before the train home, but made sure to queue up for TOT when the studios opened as the queue for that was long.

If you like planning, go for it as DLP is a place where you can plan everything to the nth degree if you wish, but don't be afraid of screwing it all up when you get there!


grovesie

We d a bit of both. When we stay we alternate parks and when there we go with the flow. The only part that is planned is the dinner, as the group consists of 7 people we need to book so that we can all be accommodated. If there were less of us we'd probably go with the flow, except if it was a busy time, ie xmas or Halloween etc

grovesie

Quote from: grovesie on April 19, 2017, 04:22:48 PM
We d a bit of both. When we stay we alternate parks and when there we go with the flow. The only part that is planned is the dinner, as the group consists of 7 people we need to book so that we can all be accommodated. If there were less of us we'd probably go with the flow, except if it was a busy time, ie xmas or Halloween etc

Remember that the offer of free dining makes a huge difference to the number of people using the Disney restaurants. We were at Disney over the February half term and Silver Spur were turning away anybody without a reservation.

Tinkerhel1970

Thank you very much for the comments, I think its going to be a bit of both and hopefully we'll have a much better trip than last year  :)
DLP June 2004 - Davy Crocketts Ranch
WDW December 2005
DLP May/June 2011 - Hotel Cheyenne
DLP May/June 2016 - Davy Crocketts Ranch
DLP June 2017 - Davy Crocketts Ranch
DLP September 2018 - Davy Crocketts Ranch
WDW November 2019