Ah, Friends.

Ok, so the new year is upon us and folks are planning various trips.  Folks have just come back from various trips.  I want to plan a trip!  Ok, I sort of have already, but it is still in the seriously iffy stage, as not sure I can convince my dear husband that we need to go back quite this soon.  But it is planned!  I am an advance planner and then when I get to WDW, I take those plans and use them for framework, and let some stuff go.  It is so very nice for me to not have to think on vacation about where to eat, or which ride to go, which has the shortest lines.

A friend is planning right now, her family's trip to Universal, with Disney tacked on the latter part of the trip.  Her aversion to planning this particular trip really makes me want to just run with the trip and then present her with an itinerary but alas.  I will refrain.  It isn't her first rodeo with Orlando and all of it's offerings, and she will be swell (but get on it already!)

Two other friends just recently went, in the last two weeks.  Two totally different experiences, same week to go.  Both friends are crowd averse (though who isn't?).

Friend A, planned.  She got with another good friend who showed her the basics (get the guide books!  Read the websites! Create a touring plan!) and she ran with it.  She took her three kids and her husband and they had a marvelous time.

NOTE:  To have a touring plan, does NOT mean you have to follow the touring plan to the letter.  Not even close.  Just gives you a basic touring plan to roll with, with historical data to support which ride to ride and when.  If you want to ride a certain ride over and over, do it!!!  Basic plan.  Custom plan (optimize!), either way, it is nice to have some knowledge of where to go and when, so you aren't roaming lost and end up at a favorite ride at the same time as 47 thousand of your friends and neighbors and have to wait in a super long line.

Friend B, didn't plan so much.  She thought if you bought the tickets, the package, it was all good, right?  Before the trip, she got with Friend A, and other planner friends, and they helped her out with obtaining fast passes for rides, and some advanced dinner reservations.  She was resistant to the idea that she had to plan a vacation.  She went and did not have as good of a time as friend B.  She stressed while she was there about what to do and when.  Not before, but during the trip.  It didn't help that she got sick half way through the vacation (though she did have her parents there to assist, she stressed that they wouldn't know what to do).

The end result?  Planning before, even a little, reduces or even eliminates the need for stress during the vacation.

Go to the beach?  Just reserve some bikes ahead of time and maybe make a dinner reservation. Go skiing, you better bet that there is some pre-planning going on.  WDW is no different.  It is a big vacation, that needs a bit of vacation planning.  Plan ahead of time and the actual trip is so very easy!  Ok, well, stuff happens, like illness or sleep deprivation or ?, but the framework of a trip is set, you have room for the stuff that happens.