Anyone else feeling this? After having to cancel our perfectly planned and coordinated “once in a lifetime” trip scheduled for June, my family wants to aim for Christmas 2021. I spent soooo many hours planning the June trip (did I mention that it was a perfect plan?) and now I feel unable to muster up the same enthusiasm for researching and planning. Is this fear? Lack of definite info about future logistics? Depresssion from lost trip? Planning this one feels so different and I hope to get some momentum going so I can get excited and get a plan going.
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Yep. We had our May 2020 trip all set and ready to go, FP’s ADRs and everything. Pushed it back to Oct 2020 and then cancelled that as well. We are booked for the week after Thanksgiving 2021 and I’m just not excited to plan. I’m not sure what anything will look like or what will have returned at that point. I also don’t want to put too much effort into it since there is always chance that could get cancelled as well. We have tickets that we have to use, otherwise I would probably forget the whole thing.
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I think it is hard to plan when you don’t know what December will look like! Hard to plan for multiple scenarios.
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I’m in your boat as well…had the once in a lifetime trip trip planned Sept 2020…so many hours of planning. Booking first week of December 2021, now…trying to look at it as a combo of:
1-I’ve already learned all the things I can and most of that isn’t wasted for new trip planning, and
2-so much is still unknown that I’m just going to book our DVC rentals and wait on everything else…seems there isn’t much else to plan right now as there was with last trip.
So, I’m cautiously optimistic…that my lack of current Disney planning means I’m in a good place for 2021 trip! 
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I agree part of what is making the planning not fun is not knowing what will be available! We had a really fun plan with extras we don’t normally do…they haven’t even started to be offered again yet! Some of the lack of enthusiasm may just be 2020 fatigue…knowing you may need to cancel…hopefully the vaccine will mean plans can continue…fingers crossed!!!
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We are hoping for Christmas 2021 too.
As soon as I can I’ll book our DVC home resort for as many nights as I can with our points, (without borrowing).
But I know we can’t go until we’ve all had the vaccine. DH and I will be fine. The boys are both early twenties, so it could be Fall before they get vaccinated. And until they’ve had it I doubt we can get travel insurance which means I can’t book flights either. And will insurance cover us anyway if we can’t fly?
I can’t get excited for it. I have a feeling it won’t happen. But somehow I need to start thinking about it.
We don’t have enough points for the whole stay, do I book direct myself, do I ask a TA (US based) to book for me and maybe get a room discount? If I get a package I can’t get extra days on the tickets to cover the DVC stay. if I book U.K. tickets myself will they allow me to change them (the small print doesn’t cover the “you can apply the value of the tickets to future ones” clause)? So many questions which I need to think about.
I’m supposed to be the planner, I love planning, but I honestly don’t know where to start. I think my Liner status should be revoked. 
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Me as well. I had the perfect trip planned for this Dec, every last meal reservation was perfectly optimized. I’m supposed to be booking our make up in 2 days and I can’t even get my rooms figured out, let alone planning around park reservations. For the first time ever I’m actually dreading planning for fear of having to cancel again, especially with my points already rolled over from the previous year.
I hope we all find a way to find that magic again. Getting back on the bike so to speak. I’m going to do the rip the band-aid off approach. It’s the only way I know how to.
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I think it’s all of the unknowns- will Fast Passes be back? Will you have to wear masks? Will new rides and new restaurants be open? I bet once you get closer to your trip and things are more definite, your enthusiasm will return!
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We’ve got a trip booked for late March 2021 (3rd reschedule for 2020’s spring break trip) and I’m feeling very meh about it. Not sure we’ll even go, and questionable crowds/lines/policies if we do. At the 60 day mark is when we lose free changes to our flights, so I guess we have to commit or cancel in about a month.
I had a beautiful tripped planned for June 2020. Color-coded spreadsheet, all the perfect ADR’s, ideal FP’s, matching t-shirts, even a plan to surprise the kids with the news on the way to the airport. It was PERFECT. Until it wasn’t, and we pushed it out to July. Just until things calmed down a little… Oh dear, things seem to be worse, let’s push it to January 2021. Me oh my, things have turned CRAPTASTICAL, let’s push to, May 2021? Maybe? (Note: I am coming from New York, where it’s been craptastical all along, it just seems extra crappy lately and the travel restrictions are wildly prohibitive of even leaving your living room.)
I would go ahead and book May, just to have something to look forward to, except it’s not just my family, it’s also my sister’s family, and she can’t schedule vacation time that far out. So we are in limbo, and I am wallowing in disappointment. Because over the last few days I’ve been slowly cancelling things in dribs and drabs. First the flights, then the dining reservations, then the Magical Express, and finally, reluctantly, the hotel. Because without a place to sleep it’s real, and we’re really not going.
Ironically, Disney has been doing a fantastic job trying to hype me up for this doomed vacation. They’ve been e-mailing me daily with tantalizing little teasers of restaurants to try, activities that are still offered, rides we simply must do. And it’s killing me inside.
The first trip was planned meticulously. The second trip basically repurposed the first, with some minor tweaks in times and reservations. The third was far more loosey-goosey, with much less planned out and no touring plans whatsoever. The fourth? I’ll believe it when I am physically in the air on my way to Florida. In the meantime, I’m using the considerable knowledge I’ve gleaned from newsletters, blogs, videos, and largely this forum to trust that when the time comes I can pull a great trip together on the fly. But in the meantime I’m in the same sad, self-pitying little boat. I think you have plenty of time to get your mojo back though. Next Christmas is a lifetime away!
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I hear you! We had an amazing trip planned for the beginning of May 2020, I had all of the FP’s and ADR’s all set. It was an amazing plan, staying at the Boardwalk, I was finally going to HDDR, DS and I had an after hours party, I was surprising DD with a breakfast in the castle, it was going to be amazing.
I REALLY want to go back, but not until COVID is under control. Our favorite evening of our last trip was the HEA fireworks dessert party. It was so nice to be able to sit down, relax and have a great view. I can’t imagine going back without seeing the fireworks. I’m worried with all of the staff that has been cut, and the enormous list of attractions and experiences that are closed many things may never be the same, and my heart actually hurts a little thinking about that.
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After cancelling our December trip with an upgrade to a bounceback offer at POFQ to Gran Destino, really good ADRs that I had to work to get, I find myself unable to commit to plane tickets for April. DS is not willing to have money tied up in a voucher if we end up feeling that it is safer to cancel, DD’s family has not committed to plane tickets. I have sketched out possible dining, but it feels futile. We are splurging with Yacht Club, don’t want to cancel, but just feels so unsure.
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My attempt at helping you get through the funk…
DON’T LET 2020 WIN!!! It can take our freedoms, and in some cases our common sense, but don’t let it take our planning pride!!
We can’t operate in fear of disappointment or else we can never get better! Start slow and build up to it if you have to… but take control!!
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That was said in my best Braveheart voice btw. I pulled out all the stops.
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Yes. I had that perfect dream trip planned for May. We rescheduled for August, then for December. Then slowly, the December trip kept getting “downgraded.” For example, first we decided that my mom and my in-laws would sit that one out. Then we said maybe we won’t do Universal. Then we shortened our stay. Then we made fewer days in the parks. Ultimately we only spent three full days in Orlando, only visiting Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios. The “upgrade” for this trip was that we stayed on property at the ft wilderness cabins rather than our usual off property resort, because I felt it was safer. Our tickets from the May trip were not refunded, they were only given a longer “use by” date. So we used two of those tickets. We all, including my in laws and mother, have four park tickets left. We’re hoping to go in September 2021 right before the tickets expire.
I had a hard time planning the small December trip. I did it very last minute, creating a touring plan just days before we left. I didn’t even pack until the day we left. Now, I have to plan the rest of the broken trip for September and frankly I don’t want to! My kids asked me today if we could start planning. We don’t know what September is going to look like. I’ve seen timelines from “experts” that say maybe by late summer/fall we can see something that looks like normal. A lot of the precautions that Disney was taking that made me feel okay going a couple weeks ago, are starting to fade out, and maybe in September I’ll be okay with that and maybe I will not be. Maybe it will still be too risky to take our parents. So it’s a combination of not knowing what will be available and also not knowing what I will be comfortable with or the risks at that time.
I also have to admit that this whole thing has gotten me (as well as so many others) very depressed and anxious. It’s a struggle to have interest in most things. I have to admit, those three days in Orlando were the happiest most carefree days I’ve had at least since March. I thought it would recharge me, but when we came home it all just returned back to how it was. Our state is not on heavy lockdown, but we still don’t go far past our living room. I really hope it’s true that we are near the end of this and we can have joy again, and have confidence in seeking that joy as well!
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I totally get it! I love to plan. I’m wrapping up a fake TP for an 14 day itinerary for all the parks right now. Sadly, doing this has shown me that by the end of day 2 at each park you’ve done everything they currently offer. (Even now at the busiest time of the holiday season!)
I’m just doing the TPs now to check TPs accuracy. I’ve been pretty pleased with how accurate the estimated / predicted waits have been this month.
I did start planning another fake WDW TP for Dec 2021 acting as if everything was “normal” and RotR BGs were gone. It’s been fun remembering you can’t typically do all of the attractions in a park in a single day when it’s fully operational. For me it’s like trying to solve a puzzle…"Can I do 12 attractions (no fast pass), 2 Character meetings, 1 show, 1 TS meal and 1 QS meal with a 15 minute break about every 70 - 80 minutes in the park’s operating hours?) 
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Yes! So much this. Had a perfect trip planned over the July 4th holiday, longest ever on site stay complete with a rest day in the middle of the week- which I never do, and was quite looking forward to 
Moved to Dec, then April, and unless I can get vaccinated in Feb/Mar, likely I will have to move it again a 3rd time to end of June or July. I think the uncertainty of the vaccination rollout is contributing to my lack of planning mojo- I don’t want to jinx myself. I also feel like by the time my next trip arrives I might have to re-learn how everything works again- it certainly changed a ton between each of my previous dates. I hope that it gets better for all of us as we get closer to our trip dates!
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Your research and planning for the first trip won’t go to waste at all. Things will be different but a lot will still be the same. You already know how early you have to plan certain things, for example. Even though those timelines have changed, you know so much more than someone who thinks they can just show up at WDW and get into all the attractions and restaurants, for example. I imagine that your enthusiasm for planning the trip will come back once the pandemic starts to subside.
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There’s not much you can do to plan ahead right now. No fast passes, no dining reservations until 60 days. Pick a place to stay and a touring plan, you’re done.
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Thanks for all of your thoughtful responses! I am feeling much more optimistic today and have gotten the ball rolling with travel dates and hotel plans. I look forward to more collaborations with all of you. Happy New Year!
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