Exact same reaction from my husband. Exact. After a year and a half of using Lines for our Disneyland APs and now gearing up for our first WDW trip, he still teases me about how much time I spend and how involved I get in staying up to date with not only the info, but the people too.
P.S. He will notice it when for the 2nd or 3rd time you are exiting an attraction after having only waited 10-20 minutes and there is now a 30-60 min wait for it. The very first time we used a plan this happened and my husband was in awe of the magic powers it seemed to possess.
I had been to WDW a couple of times as a kid but my husband had never been. When we (read: I) were planning our first trip as a family with our two littles, my husband thought I was insane to devote so much time/energy into our plans and would always tease me over how excited I got about our upcoming trip. In fact, he was dreading the trip!
Well, we were sitting down for dinner on our first night at WDW and my husband turns to me and says, āoh-my-godā¦can we MOVE here?!ā
Needless to say, he was far more invested when planning our second trip!
Please tell your dear husband that unless he plans to eat all his meals at counter service restaurants you MUST plan ahead. The nicer table service restaurants book up months in advanceā¦
Well Iām someones husband and I do the planning, my DW and DD x 2 all get it, it runs smooth as I plan the hell out of our trips. Weāve learned over the years that while thereās a plan we can change it if we want, so thereās no pressure to stick to it. However without, it would be chaos with long lines, missed attractions and bad temped meal times.
Out of all our breaks itās the only holiday we plan and due to pressure from DW and DDās I start planning for the annual trip as soon as we get back for the trip before. I admit to researching Disney and booking things piecemeal over the year and as sad as it is, it brightens my day when I do.
First thing I do when we arrive is stick āThe Planā on the refrigerator so everyone knows
By the way other husbands think Iām mad ā¦ go figure!
I just stumbled across the discussion forum recently myself. Your trip must be getting very close now. I hope you will post and let us know how wonderful it was!
I will definitely post a trip report. After all the planning, I will need something to occupy my time when I return home
The plans have so far come together nicely. Lots of nervous energy surrounding my FP bookingā¦ which was all done with ease and I had no problems at all.
My only other problem is that I had an accident 5 weeks ago and fractured my foot quite badly! Now that wasnāt exactly in my touring plan!!.. so, Iāve learned that you can plan as much as you like, but some things will still happen that you have little or no control over.
We are counting down nowā¦ 4 weeks and 6 days to go. Getting excited, and starting to look at packing lists etc. Double checking everythingā¦ hoping my foot will be much better by then. If not, Mobility Scooter it will be. Not the way I wanted to do itā¦ but Iām being optimistic and grateful that Iām healthy otherwise. I have just started walking with a "moon-bootā on, but may not be able to do the kind of distances that WDW requires in a day
These forums have provided me with the kind of knowledge and support in order to gather and sort out all the details I felt were necessary to be prepared. I had no idea when I started just how BIG the planning would become, or how much time it would take. But, I am so glad I have the knowledge. Im positive it will make the whole trip even more specialā¦ I would have wasted so much time looking at maps etc and deciding where to eat etc if I hadnāt done the research. Knowing what to expect is priceless. I intend to be flexible, and know that I have time to do this.
Hoping your trip planning goes well. You will find a lot of helpful people on here.
I love when you are the planning and tell people ābut you need to planā and they sluff it off. you get there and there is a huge mess and they say āWell I didnāt know?!?!ā That is when I say " I DID KNOW and you called me an idiot - so once you apologize Iāll get things back on track!!" - Literally just happened yesterday for something around home.
Anyway - YES we do plan - however I offer this. Plan but be flexible. We plan things - but are always flexible and change things if the situation merits it. We change dining and theme parks etc. I would say - if you are staying deluxe at US there is MINIMAL planning necessary. Get to HP asap and then enjoy the rest of the day.
I hope your foot is better and glad you are OK otherwise. I broke my middle toe the first day of our first trip 10 years ago. Rented an ECV and it went ok. Good enough to know I wanted to go back! The last time we went, 5 years ago, I did very little planning and we still had fun but missed out on a lot we would like to have done. This year, with help (thanks, liners and touring plans) hoping for the best trip ever! Iām hoping your trip is full of pixie dust and magical moments!
Mine is exactly the same way. He even gets a little frustrated with me when Iām in mid-planning frenzy mode. Like yours, he refuses to believe that anyone else on the planet puts this much time and effort into this, lol! But like I tell him, I enjoy the planning almost as much as the trip itself! Itās a kind of ātherapyā that distracts me from crappy days at work and other day-to-day frustrations, and it does, at the end, make for a very relaxed and worry-free trip.
Copied from a post I made in another similar thread:
"I find that you invest exactly as much of your time, energy, and letās be honestā¦ your nervous systemā¦ into planning a WDW trip as you want to. The vast majority of vacationers will never, ever hear about Touring Plans, or the DISboards, or Mousesavers, because they are not planners (and specifically obsessed planners). The majority go to WDW having at most checked a dog-eared paperback out of the library, or doing some cursory surfing of the web.
Weāre here because, in some sick way, we enjoy pouring over our plans, meticulously managing every micro-detail. We are the people who have to find every single easter egg in a video game. We are the people who stay up until 3am agonizing over our fantasy baseball lineups.
And when we do go, our plans are so well put together, itās like a magic trick. and you know what? I may put in twice as much effort into the planning, but when Iām at WDW, Iām the most laid back dad in the park. As I look around at the frantic scrambling, the meltdowns, the tears and bitter recriminations, my family and I just float along enjoying twice the rides with half the effort. THATāS the payoff."
THIS, more than any other thing, is the big takeaway from planning ahead as far as Iām concerned. I mentioned in my trip report, for every 1 family I saw happily interacting with each other, I saw 6 others flat out arguing. It was so sad to see.
In addition, as Iām sure itās been said, planning does not make you immune to problems, but rather allows you to better work through them. A great example is my first day when my magic bands werenāt working and I couldnāt get into the parks until after I talked to customer service. Had I gone in there āshooting from the hipā, thereās a good chance that would have completely become a snowball effect of frustration. But because I had planned for something like that to happen, it didnāt impact anything else in my trip, not even my āplanned start time.ā
The worst time I ever had at WDW was a day at HS where there wasnāt a whole lot to do late morning. Weād done all the must-dos and were just walking around and waiting for the next show. The family was used to a much faster pace and felt like we were wasting time with the pictures. It looked to them like I hadnāt planned anything and that frustrated all of us. In fact, I donāt think DH would go back to WDW if I didnāt have a plan. (notice I said āIā have a plan)
Cut them out now Seriously, I have an ultra picky hubby that doesnāt have the will to plan for Disney but he was SO appreciative the end of last year that he gave me Carte Blanche this year. Get your family-approved budget then, IMHO, Plan your ADRs (190-180 days out), if mealtimes to keep happy tummys are important, and get an idea of what is most important to them i.e. Coolest characters, rides, shows, ,and go from there for FPs (60 days out). Mostly have fun planning! It is A LOT and the schedule changes often so planning can go as little or long as you are committed to!
When I tell my non-Disney friends about planning so far out, they just donāt get it. But I point out that when you have meal reservations 180 days out, the kids canāt fight because one wanted pizza and one wanted Chinese and you picked pizza and now the other kid is mad and pouting. You donāt spend 20 minutes negotiating about a stop at a gift shop you are passing b/c the kids know that you scheduled the one they love best for later that day. You donāt have to worry about a kid who doesnāt want to ride Space Mountain while the others do and you have to wait around until the others get through the line, because you have a FPP to another attraction while the big kids ride Space. Planning to me makes WDW the most magical and an actual vacation as everything is taken care of, everyone knows their desires have been included in the plan, and everyone feels part of the vacation plan (even if they have to choose what they will feel like eating at Epcot 6 months from now!). Although I have to say that RD is still a hard sell to the older kids!!
My hubby is not a planner. At all. I made a proper bound book with turn by turn directions for our trip week roadtrip at Easter time. It also listed the exact order to pack the car with photos to show how to Tetris it all in so it fit, rest stops every two hours, public toilets for every town and every campsite. He has absolute trust in my planning after that experience. We ended up at our main destination a full 24 hours ahead of schedule and had an extra day to just relax and enjoy the gorgeous campsite before heading into the City for the event we were there for.
He was about incredulous about me planning for Disney 18 months out, even coming from Australia. He was also not certain about choosing his food six months in advance. He is highly unpredictable and spontaneous with no capacity for waiting patiently. All I had to do was point out that roughly half a million people will be in the Disney area around Christmas time and they will all want to eat at the same time. No more questions from him!
My hubby is a convertā¦his parents proposed a grandchildren trip to WDW. He agreed with the caveat that I be given total control of the planning reins! :-)