Planning without obsessing

The biggest way to get the most out of your Disney Vacation is to plan ahead to be sure you understand what you want to get from your vacation.  Followed closely by getting up early and getting to the parks before the crowds.  You can seriously get more done in the first hour the parks are open compared to the next three hours.

So the question of the day is how to plan without killing the fun.  Here are some tips

• Plan how your getting to Disney and if your driving have some ideas of towns that you would like to stop in if you need to split your drive up
• Pick out dining locations first and make Advanced Dining Reservations
• Hopping between parks is only a good idea if you are going to get up early as you will likely end up at your hotel in the afternoon for a nap (or a swim)
• Make a list of must do rides (be realistic you wont be able to do everything) so take a few minutes and look through a book that lists the rides and evaluate their value to you and your family.
• I always like to leave the last day unscheduled so that anything that we missed or realized might be a good idea we can get to or take the day to enjoy our favorites again.
• Plan how your going to get back

I am not a big fan of planning the order in which we ride everything but I do believe in studying the maps and understanding what is in each park and making sure that I don't get stuck somewhere and have to double back and waste my time.   Funny story at the end of a day my daughter (5 at the time) and I got stuck trying to figure out how to get out of the park while a parade was going on, it was late and my daughter was tired.  We could not figure out how to get out of adventure land and she thought we were going to get locked in the park.  It was a little stressful but at least it is a Disney memory she has not forgotten.

Planing is a fun way to make your Disney Trip a part of your entire year and to keep your kids involved and aware of what kind of planning it takes to make the trip happen.  My sister made fun of me for planning out all of our dinning reservations for our family trip (I had to get 8 people to each pick 2 restaurants and then work them all out for the time we were there).  However, when she went with her husband and they could not get in at most of the restaurants that they wanted to eat she told me how much she had wished I would have helped her for this trip.

Crystal Palace Dining

I love to have breakfast at the Crystal Palace and meet and greet with Eeyore and others.  The next trip I will be trying a new approach...  Breakfast before the park opens.  This is will be my third trip and I did not know that was possible.

So I am looking forward to castle pictures without a lot of people in front of them possibly some photopass photos.  Then getting around the park before everyone starts arriving.

I love getting photos of Eeyore and the gang.  This time I am considering doing something different than just picks, I definitely plan on making an autograph book so I can scrapbook them.  The signatures are so unique and artistic they make a wonderful addition to any project or page that you can think to use them.

I love Eeyore!

Disney Rewards Visa

Ok, so I am not a fan of credit cards but the Disney Rewards Visa has some definite benefits for the Disney Traveler.  So I decided to go online and sign up since I had over 500 days to our next trip (down to 440 now).  I activated my card yesterday only to get a letter in the mail today that if I spent $500 in the first 3 months I would get a $200 gift card.  So I was disappointed...  but I did not stop there I called and explained the situation and they applied the promotion to my card only down fall is my three months is over in like 3 weeks but I can work that out I will get a lot of money back and my husband's truck needs tires so should be ok.

Anyway the point of the story is always call and ask they can only say no.

UPDATE: I got my $50 dollar card but am still waiting on the $200 dollar one.

Large Disney Planning Binder

I have decided that I need a large Disney Planning binder as well as a small one for the park.  This larger binder will have items for the drive to Florida and at the hotel but will not be taken into the park.  It will also serve as a gathering place for planning materials.  My husband is not into planning this trip like I am so I may have to sneak in some planning opportunities so I decided to be ready to make that happen "spontaneously."

How do I plan to make that happen?  Well, print all the menus off for the restaurants I want to go to and have them on hand to sit down and look through while watching a movie (maybe even one of our Disney movies).

Other things to have in the binder will be park maps and ride lists, hotel maps.   I am still trying to decide where the best place is to stay.  I am planning to stay at Pop Culture since we can walk through the Art of Animation and get to enjoy the great themeing without the risk of not getting the free dining if its offered again. I am planning on booking a trip for 8 nights but then also booking a single night room only it might be fun to book that single nice at Art of Animation and enjoy the hotel that way.  (That might just work out well need to price that out...)

Definitely need driving directions, a list of Cracker Barrel Restaurants (planning to utilizes their audio book rental). Since we are going around Christmas I will have a shopping list of possible ideas so that would be a good discussion section.

I also plan to have a pocket folder to collect scrapbook materials during our stay.  Still thinking about how many pockets I want maybe one for each park as it might make it easier to scrapbook it later.

I truly believe that 60% of the fun is in the planning as you get to do it for many more days than you will be at the parks.

Sections to Create:

• Front Cover
• ICE info (in case of Emergency)
• Contact info of someone back home
• Medical Info (Policy Numbers, allergies)
• Credit Card Info (1-800 number account numbers)
• Driving 
• Directions to each stop
• Cracker Barrel list
• K-Love station listing
• Driving Games
• Hotels
• Confirmation Numbers
• Maps
• Dining
• Confirmation Numbers
• Menus
• Schedule
• Day by Day schedule
• Park crowd listing
• Touring plans
• Magic Kingdom
• Map
• Ride List
• Touring Plan
• Epcot
• Map
• Ride List
• Touring Plan
• Animal Kingdom
• Map
• Ride List
• Touring Plan
• Hollywood Studios
• Map
• Ride List
• Touring Plan
• Blizzard Beach
• Map
• Ride List 
• Typhoon Lagoon
• Map
• Ride List
• Downtown Disney
• Map
• Copy of Gift List
• Mousekeeping
• Pre-filled envelopes
• Gift List
• Names
• Gift Ideas
• Locations to purchase
• Misc
• Anything I don't have a place for
• Back Cover
• Spin Insert

Strollers and Disney

So I stumbled across some statements about strollers lately and it has added up to be enough to write about.

I read about the idea of purchasing a small stroller and shipping it to your hotel ahead of your arrival then handing it off to a family checking in on your way out of the resort.  Nice idea in theory but what really can it cost to rent a stroller or do you even really need one?  So you can rent a double for over $30 a day from Disney (no guarantee that you get one and you cant take it back to your hotel).  You can rent a double stroller from offsite for $75 a week.  That is all assuming you want to haul around a big stroller through the parks all the time.  Someone suggested getting 2 umbrella strollers instead of a double.

I also read about taking a stroller even if you did not have kids just to move your stuff around but ok, really how much stuff can you need in Disney if you don't have kids?  But I got curious...  You can buy a stroller from walmart.com for around $30 for a decent one with a bottom basket or cheaper on without a basket for $20.  You can buy a connector for two strollers from amazon here. So pick up two cheap strollers and the connector and for under $50 you got a double stroller with the added benefit if you only want to take one stroller one day you can or if you want to split up you can.  Or if the crowds are bad you can divide and conquer.

Couples and Disney

I thought I would make a quick update about a fireworks cruise some friends of mine went on for their anniversary.

The husband called ahead and planned a fireworks cruise and dinner from the California Grill.  They had a wonderful time.  They said they got there early and their meal came down a little after they did so the boat driver took them out almost 45 min early for their hour tour (so 1 hour and 45 min).  Not saying that would happen every time but sure would make me be early.  They drove around and saw the resorts and watched the water float parade then the fireworks.  Note that they both said how much they loved it so it was definitely something for both of them.  He told me about neat features like the water bridge and architecture of the resorts and she told me how romantic it was and how beautiful the how experience was.

The couple cautionary notes are ordering the meal was hard to get in touch with the restaurant I think he said it was the day before the cruise when he got to talk to the restaurant.  Also remember how I said they got there early and so did their food?  Well their food was there 30 min before they were supposed to leave so think carefully about what you order as it might sit around for a while.