So I just love this one particular group of Disney folks, called Liners, which is from the touringplans.com website, and the app that goes with it, called Lines. They can get cranky now and then but seriously, they are swell, fun, and a fountain of information. Join Touringplans and the app comes with it.
There is also a forum that recently started and while I can't quite get into that as much (limited time for me, means the app is much more convenient). I really love the chat on the lines app as it is easy, and you can ask anything and someone helpful answers.
What the app helps with is planning your WDW vacation (there is also one for Disneyland but that is a whole different animal).
I put planning in bold for a reason. There are different schools of thought, and all valid.
1. PLAN! Plan hard, plan early, be thorough. Your vacation will be wonderful if it is completely planned with ever conceivable fun thing to do at Disney. PLAN.
2. Do not plan! It is vacation after all, and a time for relaxation.
3. The middle. Some of both numbers 1 and 2. I fall into this category, as do most folks.
Why neither one or two really work? Humans. Big, small, all humans are, well, human.
If every minute of every day are planned, then you will be let down and big time. There is absolutely no way that you can control other people. The adage of "whom can you control? ONLY yourself." is never more true here. You are going to a place with a lot of other people, all of whom have their own ideas of what they want to do, want to experience, want to see. And on their own time frame.
So other people go to WDW. Also, you can not control folks in your own group. Other adults in your group, and especially children. I have heard that folks plan so their children can experience the magic. This is a great idea! Just allow for unscheduled magic, bathroom breaks, meltdowns (leave and fast, start over later or another day), and any other randomness that can and will happen.
So planning is bad? Nooooo! Planning is good!
Let's visit what happens to the non planner, shall we? A family walks into Magic Kingdom after waiting in the bag check line, the scan your magic band line, and the park has been open for a couple of hours (no way will this family get up early on vacation. No. Way.) They pick up a park map. Folks are running by them like banshees, but not these folks, they are going to enjoy their vacation!
They pick a ride and head towards it. Oops. There is a 45 minute wait. But the kids really want to do this, so they get in line. They finally ride the ride (after getting frustrated watching folks cheat with something to do with the bands), and pick another. It is mildly far to walk, and after a bathroom break, and oops, it's lunch time, so time to eat, they hit that next ride. 60 minute wait.
This goes on, and is extremely frustrating. So perhaps the zero planning isn't so great either.
The middle? Figure out what kind of family you have and embrace it. Look at a few resources (books, websites, or blogs) to figure out what you are interested in. Not an early family under any circumstances? There are less popular rides which are lovely and swell, and don't have huge waits, in the afternoon. There is FastPassPlus (FPP) where you can cheat the lines on the popular rides (not really cheating, just preplanned, a little), for those rides or character meet and greets that you absolutely have to do. Yes, ideally, you can plan the FPP 60 days out (for those staying on Disney property), but truly, you can work the FPP around up until the day of (ok, so Anna and Elsa seem to defy gravity on that one, but everything else can be had within reason, if you look often enough). You use the three, and you can start to add an additional one, and then another, and so on. On my solo trip, I had seven FPP on one day and it was swell.
Also, put in completely non planned times in the mix. Figure out what you want to do during the vacation. The pool and swim. See other fancy resorts. Pick a park and see the shows. Do something that didn't work out on an earlier day that you missed. Sleep! It is loose people, and it is good.
Go early, and waits for popular stuff is less. Stay to the end, and most families have gone back to the hotel, and waits for popular stuff is less. If you want the middle part of the day, the most crowded, well, that is time for FPP, patience and finding the random Disney magic, as opposed to the popular Disney magic.
I will stop and address planning more in another post. Suffice to say, I tend to look at the lines chat mentioned above, a lot. Why? Because I obsessively plan? Nope. Because I find out so many tricks and nifty things that I didn't know to look for, or reservations which I really want to get, that I didn't know about. Disney has so many layers of fun and magic, plan even just a tiny bit, so that the frustration part doesn't overshadow the rest.
I love Disney. Just love it (or why else would I be writing this blog?). It is very, very swell. I laugh so very much there and even tear up at the sweetness. Good stuff. I bet you can find that sweet spot too.
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