Chapter 3: Planning for the trip Part 1
Ok now onto a bit of talk about planning for our trip.
I started planning for this trip back in late summer 2015. I just got the bug to go to WDW but purposefully planned it for 2 years in advance to give enough time to plan and save money. Aaron’s mom and step-dad along with his sister were originally going to go with us. His sister dropped out because she didn’t think she would really want to do theme parks as much as the plan was. She wanted to go to the beach, etc. Personally speaking I would do a separate trip for the beach. This trip was all theme parks so I got her not wanting to go. The in-laws dropped out last year due to stamina concerns. Their age (early 60s) was starting to catch up to them and they just didn’t think they wanted nor could do as much as we were planning. So 5 adults going eventually became 2 adults. This honestly worked out extremely well in the end.
I actually stumbled upon the DIS from a Pinterest post that I had pinned of a Disney blog. I have to say without a doubt the DIS was invaluable to my planning of my trip and I so appreciated all the information I learned along the way. Even as polarizing as one of the main hurricane threads was I still learned a lot of information about hurricanes that really helped us prepare for it as well as help us keep us calm simply by having more information.
So my early planning focused a lot on what types of attractions/rides/shows we may want to do as well as food planning.
On our last trip we just did Quick Service (QS) and this trip I wanted to do a bit of Table Service (TS). So I went through all and I do mean all the options available at all the Disney parks and Universal’s parks. I went and listed what was likely to be the meal I was most interested in as well as the prices to which I would update whenever I found out about a price increase. I showed this all to my husband as far as all the places and this really helped narrow down. Here is a sampling of what the meal list looked like:
As far as attractions I went through and color coded by FastPass+ (FP+) tiers, type of attractions (rides, shows, fireworks, walk-through, etc) and labeled each one with Must See (MS) or Time Permits (TP) as well as who actually wanted to see it-Mackenzie (M), Aaron (A); sometimes things that Aaron wasn’t considering a MS I just left it that way so my list would be easy enough for me to keep track of. This helped figure out what our plans were. Tons of flexibility but also ensuring we saw/did what we really wanted to do leaving wiggle room for things that we could do if we wanted to with timing. Here is a sampling of what the list looked like:
I also made a list of park hours and a schedule of what parks each day. Our trip isn’t one that I can use for future planning because of the hurricane but I did schedule the days so that we could take advantage (if we wanted to) the Extra Magic Hours (EMH). Here is a sampling of what the schedule looked like:
So part of my planning ended up me watching YouTube videos. I watched quite a bit of the DIS and of ‘The Tim Tracker’. When Oliver left the DIS
I found out later on about his YouTube channel ‘This Orlando Life’. The DIS videos are great. I do wish they would do more ride videos but that’s probably just not their cup of tea and that’s totally ok. I enjoy Ryno and Craig out and about and their dining talk.
So the ‘Tim Tracker’ is great for those who like videos on rides, who like a bit more (IMO at least) of describing of what this is and what that is. ‘The Tim Tracker’ does have normal everyday vlogs mixed in with their Disney and Universal vlogs so just be aware of that if you go to their page. ‘The Tim Tracker’ for a while now has been very careful about making their YouTube channel family friendly. A few months before we went on our trip Aaron joined in on watching videos with me but he really enjoyed ‘The Tim Tracker’ the most. I would have to say for out and about park experiences ‘The Tim Tracker’ is my favorite.
‘This Orlando Life’ with Oliver and his husband Spencer (ETA: at least I think Spencer is his husband, please correct me if I'm wrong though I would appreciate that
) frequently has JL aka JeniLynn (also from the DIS but she left before I knew who she really was). Now for me I wouldn’t say ‘This Orlando Life’ is completely family friendly. They have no qualms about getting alcohol for instance. But I really do enjoy them. They also do ride videos. For a bit more adult feel plus seeing some previous DISers ‘This Orlando Life’ is good for that.
I know it may not necessarily be considered planning but I created a YouTube playlist of some of the rides. You may consider doing that if you’re ok with seeing something before riding it sometimes I know people have mentioned doing this to ease someone’s concerns over the ride. The playlist also helps get you excited for your trip!! I will say I watched Happily Ever After (HEA) on YouTube when it first debuted and for me it only added to the feeling I got while watching it in person. Aaron opted to not watch it before actually seeing it in person.