We’ve already been over this. You simply volunteer your time planning the WDW vacations for OTHERS. You get the benefit of obsessing over every little detail, and but they ultimately have to suffer through it.
The advantage to this is that you can still get the pleasure of seeing them post photos of what is clearly faked happiness on Instagram.
I think there are different levels of planning. I feel like I am a Disney expert in training from all of the tips here. I know more about the ins and outs of planning than several of my local Disney TA friends. Not all though as there are some fantastic TAs out there.
I think there are then people who are informed enough to make ADRs before arrival, FPP for whatever they think sounds fun, and check park hours for the parade. These people think they planned their trip!
Then there are those that think they will just walk up and wait for a TS restaurant and have heard of fpp but may be misinformed about whether they are needed or “cost too much”. Those are the masses I think. And also those who may be most disappointed.
And then there are those like my SIL who took her 4 grandchildren to WDW in February over Presidents’ Day weekend, and they literally just drove up, parked, bought 3-day tickets at the window and wandered in. She had been to Epcot a few years before but never the other parks. I offered to help plan about a month out when she said they were going to go but she wasn’t sure which day they would start the parks so she said they’d be fine. They had a wonderful time and she said “I’m not sure why you always plan yours”. Not sure what all they did but I think it’s perspective. For her there was no stress about whether to do PPO BOG or EMM or get FPP for FOP at 2 or 245 or whether to RD at MK and then hop to HS for F!.
I love the planning. In fact, for every other trip we take I try to Disney plan and there just aren’t enough resources and forums and blog posts about the minutiae for a weekend trip to wherever 
On my last trip, I sorta did something like this (though without the insult at the end). I was trying to get my mom to the Ferry that goes to the TTC, now I KNEW there was only 1 and where it disembarked, but I had never boarded from MK before so I wasn’t sure where exactly to go (or if it was taking passengers).
At the time, there was was a massive wave of people currently disembarking and I was losing time to make the Spirit of Aloha show and had already made 2 major missteps in trying to get her to the poly (so we still didn’t really make it, but that’s a different story), and I was kinda freaking out a bit and went up to the counter that’s in the middle of the MK Gate area and flat out asked “How do I get to the Ferry?” The girls inside looked at me like I was playing a joke on them and said “It’s right behind us?”
Nodding, I said “right, but where do we board?” and at this point I figure they thought I was just flat out touched in the head, because they took the time to explain exactly where to go (and slowly too, I might add). Realizing my question must’ve sounded incredlbly stupid, I quickly explained that I never gone that way and just confirmed what they said and thanked them and dashed off. I’m sure there was plenty of “what…the…” expressions in the booth as soon as I left.
So while I do a lot of planning, there’s still times I’m just clueless. I’m one of those people who needs to maximize their time on vacation(relax? da heck’s that??) and planning definitely allows that. ANd even with planning, there’s still that sense of wonder that happens at Disney. You can do all the planning you want, there’s still surprises (like the Rain Parade I just learned about on my last trip. I had no idea that was a thing.)
This! We know what we’re missing out on and we try to fit in everything. Those who don’t can just rock up and enjoy what they do without ever thinking about the rest. They probably don’t get their money’s worth in terms of attractions etc, but they do in enjoyment.
Of course there are always those who turn up and stand in 2 hour lines all day and can’t get anything to eat because everywhere is too busy…
As someone who just took their first trip this year, it would never have dawned on me to plan my day by the hour if I had not come across this site nor to realize how important it was if we wanted to maximize our attraction time & minimize our wait times. (I cannot even picture what a different trip it would have been w/o TP!)
I imagine that’s relatively typical for most first time visitors since it’s of course pretty bizarre to treat going to an amusement park as if it’s a full scale invasion to be planned for. 
I’ve never spent 1/10 of the time planning for any other vacation that i spent planning for WDW.
I plan what park on what days and our three FP+ and sometimes an ADR. This will be the first trip we can make fourth FPs (and more) on the app (yay for not having to go to a kiosk!) This will be our fourth trip with our younger two and we have been pretty much tantrum/cry (except for the Spaceship Earth debacle) free for those trips because I let them lead the way for most of the day and go at their pace. We are also lucky enough to go for 10-14 days so we can take a more leisurely pace and enjoy flexibility. Friends who go to local amusement parks are used to long lines and the front of line passes do cost money, so I do think a lot of people think that’s how Disney is.
I have friends who ask for my advice and I always refer them to the Unofficial guide and will offer little bits of advice here or there, but I could go on and on and be overwhelming and would prefer to just guide them to find things out for themselves because I don’t want them coming back complaining to me 
I helped friends who went in April for the first time as parents…she knew nothing. Not that she needed an ADR for a princess breakfast (nor how much it would cost if they actually got one), not that fast passes were free, not that she could get more after using her first three, etc. I like to think I helped her a lot because they did actually do a lot in their MK and EP days. I don’t think they’d have done nearly as much if I hadn’t helped her out some. Now to test my knowledge for our first trip in December!
I fortunately have a good friend at work that plans the way I do for Disney - we both get the ‘it is not a vacation if you have to plan’ or ‘it is too much work’ but . . . we both love the planning part of it and we both don’t wait in line for hours to do things. She has 2 DDs 7 & 11 and while her husband might like to sleep a little later they go during school vacations and always do everything they want.
A Disney vacation isn’t ‘relaxing’ the way some other vacations might be - but so much FUN!
You can do it with less planning - but why would you want to LOL
I came to the realization after about a month of planning that my sleepyheads will not make rope drop. So, I mourned that for a few weeks and asked my hubby what time he thinks will be reasonable to expect him and my stepson to be able to get at the park so we will ALL be happy.
Now, planning everything for getting to the park at 10. Its still going to be Disneyworld. Watching the touring plan videos on navigating RD made me tear up a bit though.
I may have just swooned a little.
Far better still if you could be paid to do it.
Not that I know anything about that.
I know what you mean. I am in trouble in a few weeks in this regard. A certain frequent poster here has made it known that I am heavily responsible for many of the planning choices they have made and if they fail it’s on me
Have you even met yourself?!
profmatt [quote]
What are you talking about? The fantastic time is the planning.
After the planning comes the awful part. You have to go through the misery of travelling thousands of miles to Florida, walk for hours every day in oppressive heat and humidity, go on some rides that break down half the time and aren’t as good as the ones at Alton Towers, get overcharged for everything, until finally the merciful relief of going home and back to the normality of blissfully planning another trip.
If there was some way to do the planning without the misery of actually doing the trip I’d take it in a heartbeat. [/quote]
There is!
I can go instead of you. Sorted! Now where are you flying from?
Oh -that is so sad 
I have to say that on my last trip I went with my BF & the last day he just couldn’t cut it - 8am EMH - i left him in bed and he met me about 9:15 - no stamina
Sooo - I am going on Sept alone -I never thought I would like to go on vacation myself - but the thought of being able to do whatever I want and do ‘my’ Disney is now very exciting. He likes Disney - but doesn’t LOVE it! like I do, and I have a lot more vacation time than he does too LOL .
Yes!!! This is me too.
I love to plan, then once I’m there I look at the plan the night before and leave it. Never refer to it in the park.
I always Evaluate, not Optimise. The plan tells me what I can realistically do, not every step of the day. And I know it inside out so I don’t have to refer to it. Plenty of downtime built in to be able to wing it between FPs and other plannned events.
Sounds reasonable to me.
You wouldn’t want to. Thanks to a certain frequent poster, the trip will be awful. Treking around Wild Africa in the rain, going to Kona instead of Ohana, not getting a primo spot for the parade . . .
I can handle that. No problem!
Anyway we saved you from a huge mistake just yesterday, I believe.
I agree with you.
I know this is anathema on these forums, but I do NOT like having a plan and every minute planned out. I tried it in February because so many people swear by them. I was miserable after a couple of hours because there was no room for spontaneous things - at least without going online and putting it in and changing things all around. I threw that plan away and dumped the ones for the rest of the days in the recycle bin back at the resort.
Obviously I went in with the ADRs I want and either the FP+ I want or a plan to go without and a rough idea of an order for things, but if I saw a super short line for something I wanted to do…or the meerkats were being adorable…or I just needed to sit and BE after riding Flight of Passage to begin to process what I’d just experienced, I could do it. And it was an AWESOME trip where I got everything done I wanted to - including NRJ twice and FOP 3 times.