Why dont people plan?

[revdon64]

It's those kinds of "inexperienced visitor" stories that inspired me to help a friend plan his WDW trip for November. He and his DW have adopted their granddaughter and they haven't taken a vacation in seventeen years, so they decided to surprise the 6y/o with a Disney trip. Fortunately for him, they called me first. I walked them through making their room ressies, recommended good restaurants, introduced them to planning sites, and talked about planning their FPs when its time. He then went ahead and booked Poly Club level and has used the concierge service to do everything else - lazy bum.

 

[ruthies12]

People ask me for advice and help planning lots. When I actually start trying to help though they seem so annoyed by how involved it gets. Like I think they expect me to just say "Make sure to ride Thunder Mountain and Peter Pan" but when I start trying to help them pick some ADRs and give them time lines and stuff they kinda check out. I could talk Disney all day. If you don't love it though I think it's in one ear out the other.

This is exactly what happens to me too! I really hate it when people ask me for advice and tell me their trip is in a few weeks. It's pretty much too late to help them at that point. And I always have to try to just hit the highlights, give too much info and it all gets lost.

The other problem is that stuff directly from Disney isn't always clear. For example, I had a friend who was going and when I told her she could save money by taking in water bottles to the parks she told me that they were getting the refillable mugs with their meal plan so they were all set. It was fortunate that I cleared that up for her or they would have been carrying their mugs around that first day needlessly.

I finally have one friend who has listened to me and I'm soooo happy! She told me last month "I want to take the grandkids to Disney next year, what do I need to do?" Finally, someone I can actually help!

 

[RustManFan]

You can also plan your vacation through a travel agent that will fill you in on all that you need to know while others will simply make the travel and accomodation reservations.

If a travel agent is making reservations then the traveler may think the trip is all in their hands and that they personally don't have anything else to think about or plan.

 

[hallen4]

I think a good part of the reason for this happening is because when you get a Disney "planning" DVD and go through the whole thing, they make a lot of it sound like there is no urgency to booking Dining reservations or Fastpasses. For someone that has never been to Disney before, they may think after seeing the Disney DVD and looking through Disney's website that it is a convenience to be able to book at 180 days or 60 days, but not a necessity. Disney makes it out like you have a wonderful relaxing vacation ahead of you. Unfortunately most people just get railroaded once they step into the parks and figure out that they are stuck eating chicken nuggets every day and going on It's a Small World until their ears bleed. I truly feel sorry for them sometimes and try to give slight suggestions when I hear people talking about their trip if it is misinformation, but it really is a project planning a Disney trip (one I love and hate hahaha).

 

[21stamps]

I don't think annual travelers need to be on these boards to have a wonderful time. I know plenty who aren't. Myself included until recently.

Booking this far in advance has been a double edged sword (and the only reason for booking 8 months in advance was the cruise portion).

It's great to have so much time to plan, compared to previous trips. But, it's become almost an addiction on the planning and I log in here everyday. I almost wish that I never would have started lol. But, I have learned some great useful info here...and am now trying to make sure I know more- so my trip can be "even more magical than the last". That equals to- more stress. I know that I will never be a spreadsheet planner, but I definitely overplan, with or without all of the 3rd party Disney sites. Maybe those people are fine without knowing every tiny detail, and just paying attention to Disney's own website.

The FP+ and ADRs confuse me, Disney sends that out, so I don't know how they missed that.

 

[Skywise]

It's not a matter of planning - The problem is they don't REALIZE the scope of the problem. Most families have gone to theme parks many a time (like me) and have a tried and tested strategy but it doesn't apply to Disney at all! When I was a kid at the library I'd see all the Disney trip planning books and I couldn't fathom what kind of clueless people would need AN ENTIRE BOOK to plan a trip to a theme park?! Ok, maybe you wanted to squeeze out every penny of value you had paid for and maximize hitting every ride but that still seemed like a lot of overkill to me.

My first time at DisneyWorld I was on a solo trip. I thought I HAD planned things out because I had pulled up a map online and figured out what rides I wanted to ride and when and knew when the fireworks show was and knew the MSEP was just before that. Food? Ehh... I'll figure that out when I get there as I'm sure they have lots of good stuff there and being an efficient business there shouldn't be too long of a wait to get food. Boom I was READY to go! Right? Ooooh no.

I did hit the rides I wanted to hit but that was only a small subset of the rides available. I didn't know about fastpass at all.

What I didn't realize was how near capacity everything was going to be. I'm not just talking about the rides but the restaurants and dining options. I started thinking about food and like your typical theme park goer figured I'd just grab whatever sounded good at the time. Of course everything was packed at the QS and then I'm passing by all these nice restaurants that I didn't even think about (There's like, y'know, ONE nice restaurant at your typical theme park) and asking for seating and, of course, they've been booked for weeks.

Then I'm over at Liberty Town trying to head down to Pirates and suddenly the streets are being roped off and everyone's sitting down and I'm trying to figure out what's going on and realize there's an AFTERNOON parade. (Whoa I didn't know they had that)

Scrounge around Adventureland after Pirates and start thinking about dinner... golly, shouldn't there be restaurants or something in Adventureland? Make my way back to main street and hit up the Crystal Palace. Sorry sir, we're full up... finally end up grabbing a hot dog at Casey's and after coming out of that restaurant its dusk and people are sitting on the sidewalks all along main street and the hub and I realize they're already grabbing spots for the MSEP and then, THEN my dear friends, is when I realize... I'm am WAY outta my league here!

I end up grabbing a spot at the liberty town bridge from the castle and catch the MSEP from there and start pushing my way towards main street for an awesome view of the fireworks and it's crowded, of course and I'm in front of the CP trying to push my way to main street and I'm hearing music and I'm thinking the fireworks are starting and I realize there's cartoons playing on the castle. *** is THAT?!?! I end up catching most of the Celebrate the Magic show and then try to push my way back to main street except it's already packed. At that point I'm figuring I shoulda just stayed where I was at for the CTM show and head back there and, of course it's a packed spot now and I finally manage to worm my way to the hub and to catch about half the show.

Head over to tomorrowland to ride space mountain (it was on the list dontcha know) and coming back from tomorrowland I see they're doing another run of celebrate the magic... Well that would've been helpful had I known that I coulda skipped the crowds...

Then I'm just walking around main street taking pictures and am working my way out and get to the meet and greet space in front of the train station and am dead center taking shots of main street when some CM walks by me with a rope and to force me onto the sidewalk and I'm trying to figure out why when it hits me they're doing a SECOND run of the MSEP and I happen to be in a perfect spot for it. So I just stayed there until it came through. Awesome. I did about 10% of what was actually possible at the MK but it was still a reasonably decent day.

So I head back to the resort (did I mention I was staying at the Contemporary?) and I'm starving and I figure I'll just grab some dinner at the restaurant there. Oh, it's closed. Huh, I'll check the other resorts here for... hey, there's a cool restaurant at the Polynesian... and one at the Grand Floridian... And a dinner show! And I missed the water parade from the contemporary! Geez no wonder people need a book to plan their trip at Disney!

I ended up having a last call drink at the Wave bar (Magical Star Cocktail, of course, gimme a drink with a glo-cube in it!) and some chips out of the vending machine and began planning for my next trip....

 

[RedAngie]

I can totally understand!!! I have a friend who is going in August of this summer and yes... they have been to WDW before a couple of times. I told them about the Welcome Show at Magic Kingdom and the Star Wars fireworks as a "must see"....she didn't know about those two events!!!!

And what's wrong with that? One person's "must see" is another person's "couldn't care less." I've been to WDW plenty of times and never knew about those events until I heard them mentioned here. If I happen to catch them, fine, but I'm not going out of my way to plan for them.

 

[thksphoenicians]

I think a lot of it simply comes down to people not having the time or inclination to plan.

On my first trip to Disney in 1993, my Mom had made reservations for character meals, the Spirit of Aloha dinner show, etc. After she passed away, my Dad and I spent a lot of our subsequent visits standing in line and eating whatever QS was nearby. But I still had a great time!

DH and I took my Dad to WDW this year and he really enjoyed our more organized touring style. However, even with the enhanced online planning/reservation system available now, if the planning was left entirely up to Dad he'd probably still skip it.

 

[runwad]

I don't even bother saying too much to newbies now. They look at me like I'm half off my rocker. I figure they'll either go and hate it and never be back, or want to go back and finally want my help. If you've never been it's not like anything you can imagine. Sometimes you just have to live and learn.

 

[ArwenMarie]

My theory is the word "Resort" throws people off as in "The Walt Disney World Resort" (not individual hotels) Resort implies a place of relaxation and leisure.

 

[Jennasis]

To be fair...sometimes you overhear folks who "don't know" and they might be me and DH just goofing around. Like when we're in the monorail line talking about getting off at Hogwarts...

 

[21stamps]

I think most people, who are spending the kind of money required on a Disney vacation, do in fact check out the website and MDE. All of that info is provided for you.

No matter what your destination, Disney or otherwise, most people check out "things to do" "restaurants" etc ahead of time.

You CAN plan a trip off of disneyworld.go.com - and you can have a wonderful time on that trip. Recently I've been a little envious of people who do that.. They think I'm absolutely crazy for planning as detailed as I am for this trip.lol.

 

[Eeyore's My Favorite]

How the heck to locals, AP'ers etc go to WDW any more? When I had AP's we would decide on a couple days notice to go, sometimes the night before. It wasn't a problem with the old FP system.

We usually have no trouble getting the FPs we want if we are driving over for the day. we decided to go last Friday/Saturday & got a great deal on the WL & got the FPs for the MK we wanted on Thursday nite & even switched them around when we got there. We didn't make dining reservations this time though.

 

[Magpie]

I got lucky... my first trip to Disney was in 2005 and I picked up The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World and read it cover to cover before we got there. Why? Because when I was a kid I used to go into travel agencies and lie, telling them we were planning a Disney trip and my mum had asked me to pick up some brochures. I always got the BEST books that way (bit fat ones intended for serious trip planning), and I used to read them cover to cover, knowing perfectly well that we were never going to go to Disney. So, the 2005 trip was the fulfillment of a childhood wish, and I just wanted to spend some time before the trip dreaming again, like I used to when I was a kid.

Naturally, we followed the touring plans in the back of the book and had a terrific time. And since then, it's just been a matter of adapting to the changes as they come along (though I no longer buy UnOfficial Guides).

And I think I got especially lucky with regards to the way Disney World has trained me to plan all my other, non-Disney vacations.

First Universal trip? I planned it like a Disney trip! In retrospect, I overplanned, but hey - a little overplanning never hurt anyone. And even though the Wizarding World had just opened, we were still able to see and do everything we wanted and dodge almost all the crowds, too.

First trip overseas (to London)? I planned it like a Disney trip! No standing around asking each other, "What do we do now?" No confusion over the subways. No crowds. We knew where we were going and when we should be there, and how to get there, too. Tickets and accommodation all purchased in advance. My daughter had been once before with her grandma and her one request was, "Can we see Madame Tussaud's?" Because when they'd tried to go, the line to get tickets had been all the way to the end of the block and Grandma wasn't having any of that. I did some research, figured out the lowest crowd days and how to get there for opening. We had a terrific time!

Basically, Disney has taught me how to plan a successful vacation. I think my whole family has benefited because of it. No matter where we go, I'll plan it like a Disney trip.

(Important caveat - no battle plan ever survives intact. Every plan I've ever made, has had to be adapted on the fly. But being prepared, and knowing what's going on, makes being flexible and spontaneous SO much easier. )

 

[Disneytam]

On our last trip in March I was waiting to go through a FP entry with a visibly upset woman in front of me that wanted to go through as well but didn't have a FP. The poor CM was trying to explain to her that she had to have a FP and she kept insisting that he should give her one. He told her she would have to go back to the front of the park to customer service and that they could help her. When she stormed away I told the CM that I felt really bad for him and that I thought he handled it well. He thanked me and said he has nightmares over this exact thing and that he thought by now it would be getting better but so many guests just don't know.

 

[21stamps]

On our last trip in March I was waiting to go through a FP entry with a visibly upset woman in front of me that wanted to go through as well but didn't have a FP. The poor CM was trying to explain to her that she had to have a FP and she kept insisting that he should give her one. He told her she would have to go back to the front of the park to customer service and that they could help her. When she stormed away I told the CM that I felt really bad for him and that I thought he handled it well. He thanked me and said he has nightmares over this exact thing and that he thought by now it would be getting better but so many guests just don't know.

That's just a very naive person. Almost every theme park in America has a fast pass line.

 

[Maistre Gracey]

How the heck to locals, AP'ers etc go to WDW any more? When I had AP's we would decide on a couple days notice to go, sometimes the night before. It wasn't a problem with the old FP system.

We moved to Orlando last year from Connecticut... It was a rude awakening. We have tried to get 'Ohana reservations more times than I can count. It just doesn't happen. We can get some ADR's, but as previously mentioned it's usually a very late dinner (fortunately that works for us).
Fast passes?? Forget about it.

MG

 

[Maistre Gracey]

It's those kinds of "inexperienced visitor" stories that inspired me to help a friend plan his WDW trip for November. He and his DW have adopted their granddaughter and they haven't taken a vacation in seventeen years, so they decided to surprise the 6y/o with a Disney trip. Fortunately for him, they called me first. I walked them through making their room ressies, recommended good restaurants, introduced them to planning sites, and talked about planning their FPs when its time. He then went ahead and booked Poly Club level and has used the concierge service to do everything else - lazy bum.

Lazy bum?? I hope you're joking.

MG

 

[absolutmey]

People ask me for advice and help planning lots. When I actually start trying to help though they seem so annoyed by how involved it gets. Like I think they expect me to just say "Make sure to ride Thunder Mountain and Peter Pan" but when I start trying to help them pick some ADRs and give them time lines and stuff they kinda check out. I could talk Disney all day. If you don't love it though I think it's in one ear out the other.

You're right. This is the reason why I'm in charge of our upcoming trip. I tried to sit down with MiL, FiL and DH and discuss the trip before our ADR date. They glazed over in about 10 minutes and just said "We trust you. Plan it". All FiL said was, "I don't want to stand in a lot of long lines". I started to go into FP and he just flapped his hand in the air! LOL

 

[lady_hlh]

Lazy bum?? I hope you're joking.

MG

Maybe he means lucky bum. I would love to have the concierge at the Poly do all my planning plus stay club level there.