When do you stop tinkering with the plans?

I also think last minute changes can be super fun! My favorite was in Feb when I was able to get an 8am BOG breakfast, for DH and I, as we were pulling into the MK parking lot at about 7:15am for an 8am park opening. I even preordered our meals on the fly, so we walked right in. It was the last day of our 6 day trip so we had no real agenda other than fun.
 
Guess I'm odd. I just make the reservations and unless something comes up that necessitates a change, I don't mess with it. At all. Months and months go by. I think it's so silly to make dining reservations 6 months in advance. It's crazy, really.
 


So my 'tinkering' (I prefer to call it 'fine tuning') ends after I've completed that day at the World. Really, I spend the last night doing any final massages to the touring plan, then print it off (yes, I bring a laptop and a printer on my vacation!). The next day, I'm still working the times and changing things up as extra time becomes available or a ride is down or a ride suddenly has no line up. So, yeah, the final product is always changing.
 
We stop adjusting our plans when we check out of our resort. We often change parks and FPs day off, change ADRs or cancel and order in. We have a 17 day trip coming in December and a general plan, but basically I will see when I can get FOP and SDD. then we will pick what parks we go to when, the only set days are first day, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. We hop a lot so we make plans on the fly. But we are only two travelers so it is a little easier for us to do this.
 


Did you make a deliberate decision to stop, or do you just feel done?

I have been fully packed for about 3 weeks now. I could literally grab our passports and walk out the door now. I’m not sure whether I should be proud or ashamed of that!
so after the fp's sixty day out I started to get frustrated with the mde site because the fp's were as always overwhelming but after two days of tinkering with it and finally busting through with the checkin online that was frozen forever I was just done with the site mentally. so now that fp's were mostly complete and the emm of mk and dhs were set awhile ago, i was just mentally tired of that website. if the website was working properly and efficiently i may actually have fun with it but i'm not and it's not so just done and looking forward to packing and i enjoy more time reading the disunplugged boards / posts then being on their site. and listening to the podcasts. i may have to readjust a week prior unfortunately because i have family working on property and their schedules come out the week before so they may say meet at on this day or this meal because they're off work or working and they want me to stop in. i'm actually quite concerned about that part! a last minute change because of their schedule.
 
We arrive in WDW in 2 weeks, for a 4 week, multi-family vacation that I have been planning for over a year.

I have had ADRs and FPs booker from the day I was able, but I am finding that I am still tinkering with our plans, with 2 weeks to go. Is this normal? I feel like everything should be locked in by now, but I don’t know if that is realistic. Maybe I won’t stop until I’m actually on the plane on the way home!

I do understand that our trip is longer than most, and we have 4 other families to work around too. However, I can’t spend every minute of the next 2 weeks second guessing myself. How do you know when it’s time to stop tinkering with the plans? We are doing a bunch of tours but there will always be more tours, dessert parties and restaurants that we could do, and I’m finding it hard to just stop and be happy with what is already arranged.

Wow! 4 weeks?? How awesome is that?!?

I’ve found that when we’re there, due to weather, family moods and preferences, we tweak slightly as we go. So as others have said, I’m never done until the trip is over.
 
A couple months out we stop tinkering with resorts, dates, etc...
but my wife never stops tinkering with Fast passes and ADRs... i expect an unexpected ADR to fall into her lap and find my self spending more $ on food than i had planned.
 
Last Nov I made FP+ plans for a party of 11, wifey and I at Board Walk and daughters, sons in law and 5 grand kids from 5 to 15 yrs of age in a house with pool off site. The morning we were to go to MK I was having my morning coffee and cigar on the bench near Atlantic Dance as I reviewed what was on our schedule. To my horror I saw that Disney had added an hour to park hours, opening at 8 am. This royally screwed up my plans as we all met for RD at every park, my FP+ choices were made with the assumption that we'd walk on a few before needing FPs. No way was that crew was going to gather themselves and get to RD before 8 am even if any of them could be reached by phone or text at 6:15 which was about when I made the discovery.

So... from now on I'll be watching park hours and such like a hawk to make last minute adjustments if needed. I have no idea when Disney added the hour and folks at the DIS tell me such can happen at any time. It's just wifey and I in 20 some days so we can respond in time if this happens this year but at least 5 of last Nov's crew are looking to join us in Nov 2019 so I'll be tinkering away then.

Bill From PA
 
Once I make the plans (180 days out for ADRs, 60 days out for FP+). Then I'm done. I've already planned everything up to that point as to which ADRs to get on which days, which parks to visit on specific days with FP+, that sort of thing. So once it's done, it's done.
 
I plan and plan up until about the 45 day mark. then for some reason I shut down completely for the next few weeks. Then when it hits the one week mark I start to review my plans and tweak it a little. 5 more days till I make our FPs!!!
 
I'm 48 days out, and still tinkering a bit. I'm not happy with my AK day at all. But, I scored an FOP fp that I will not give up, and so I'm trying to work my other things around that and my adr at TH because it's a lot of walking back and forth between those 2 things and they are one after the other. My other days are all pretty much set, I'm not doing a ride by ride at this certain time plan, just a general 'this morning we'll be here in this area' thing... so we'll tweak as we go. :)
 
Ha. I'm the same way. I did have to make some changes when they posted the official times for stuff like the Move It Shake It Dance Party (which is only scheduled a couple weeks ahead).

I basically had to convince myself that my plans were as perfect as they were gonna be.

And, of course, plans changed once we were in the parks. All good though. We'd get somewhere "too early" and could fit a ride in before restaurants opened, before shows started, or before FPs were active.

Or we'd stop to do Penny Press or trade Pins.

By the time our final day was here, we had done everything in Magic Kingdom (that we had planned to do). So, we rerode rides and went to a Character lunch.
 
When we go to bed at the end of that day, I figure the plans for that day are pretty well over, and I quit changing them. LOL
Seriously, I never stop.
I agree. May 2017, we were changing dining plans the night before. I think we changed things up to the night before we left.
 
Im constantly tinkering my plans...even up until the day before AND the day of! No joke! I never stop. Its quite fun changing plans. Besides, Disney changes park hours all the time. So sometimes I change because of Disney (its Disney's fault). :teeth:
 

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