I believe flexibility is key in order to have the best Disney World vacation possible. I am a planner when it comes to our Disney vacations (really with all of our vacations in general) because I want to get the most out of the vacation that we can. As much as I feel good planning is important to getting the most out of a DIsney World vacation, I learned very early on that you still need to be flexible, especially if you have kids.
I remember one of the first vacations that I went all out from a planning perspective and felt I had the “perfect” plan; we may have done about half of what was planned. I remember how frustrated and disappointed I was getting when things were not going as planned. The reason for my frustration was because I felt I planned well enough for everyone to be able to do what they wanted. What I didn’t realize is that things can change between planning for the vacation and actually being on vacation. When you throw kids into the mix, things can change very quickly, and some decisions are made on the fly. From that point on, I knew that I had to be flexible and know there was always a good chance that things would change.
Luckily, I’m pretty easy going with things, so even though I do still enjoy planning our vacations very much, I realize that the plan is always a work in progress all the way through the entire vacation. Over the years, I’ve come to embrace this as some changes turned out to be of great benefit. For instance, our last trip was in August 2019, and as normal, I had our trip planned out pretty extensively–which parks on which days, fast passes, dining, etc. Then, we found out that we may have had the chance to be one of the first people to see the new Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge because of a preview they were doing for Annual Passholders, which we were at the time.
Not all of our family are huge Star Wars fans. However, this was a rare opportunity for something like that to be happening at the exact time we were going to Disney World, so I gladly changed fast passes and dining around to be able to attend the preview. It was definitely worth making all of the changes as everyone enjoyed their time at Galaxy’s Edge and had a blast on the new Millenium Falcon ride.
It costs a lot to go to Disney World, and I totally understand wanting to get your worth out of what you’re paying. Further, I feel very strongly that you have to plan to help make sure you are getting the most out of your vacation. However, remember to stay flexible during the entire process, or as a wise turtle suggests, go with the flow. You may find that you have an even better vacation than you previously thought.
