Die-Hard Fans Say This Is the New Key to Success for Your Next Disney Vacation

Great expectations lead to disappointment, and it’s hard to set your sights low when a Walt Disney World vacation is on the horizon. For five decades, The Most Magical Place on Earth has grown Guests accustomed to a caliber of perfection that other theme parks have yet to match. With record crowds, delectable dining options, immersive attractions, and beloved Cast Members, Disney is a hub for high expectations, especially for die-hard fans.

But even the pristine Park had to adjust when a pandemic swept the globe in 2020. With no road map for restructuring Disney Park practices to accommodate a social-distancing world, Disney made some structural shifts that Guests weren’t entirely happy about.

Implementing a reservation system, eliminating the dining plan, and doing away with the FastPass system were all attempts at curtailing crowds. Still, their lingering presence changed how Disney Guests plan their trips.

Itineraries are an Extreme Sport

For Disney Guests who have been the masterminds planning family trips for years, crafting a Disney itinerary has been a significant part of the fun. But with all the COVID-19 changes at Walt Disney World, Disney fans have expressed frustration with how the planning has evolved.

While equal numbers of fans would say the high-tech ride and reservation booking features are upgrades, others have felt the tech-heavy planning has cheapened the Disney magic. When the most popular theme Park in the world has thousands glued to their phones competing for a Genie+ reservation, accomplishing a Disney itinerary is like an extreme sport.

On Reddit and in a related article on USA Today, lifelong Disney enthusiasts are revolutionizing Disney vacation planning—-with no plans. Even fanatics who used to thrive in the months (or years) leading up to a Disney trip are tossing out their itineraries and swapping them with laid-back, free-flowing plans.

On Reddit, Disney Guest u/Squacamole sourced the crowd for reassurance that her decision to take a freeform Disney approach was a sound one:

We will just do it the old fashioned way and wait in line. (I do know about the virtual queue for Tron and Guardians and that is the only thing I’m really planning at this point… trying to get into those virtual queues). I’m a type A person so it is extremely difficult for me to seriously go with the flow and not plan anything, and part of me is now internally panicking about it. We arrive Monday 😬.

Absolutely zero planning. Tell me it will be OK.
byu/Squacamole inWaltDisneyWorld

A New Way to Do Disney

With over 100 replies like this one from u/theFormerRelic, the original poster got support from fellow Disney lovers:

I never plan and that’s why I always have fun. I never have a list or agenda of things I absolutely must do. I just relax and go where the day takes me and I never regret it. You’re good!

A fellow retired planner, u/Aviaja_Apache, asserted the Disney grass is greener this way:

You’ll be fine. We used to plan every single minute of our day, now we just wing it and found we have so much more fun. The most fun times for us are during the littlest things, like stopping for some drinks on Hollywood blvd and talking while enjoying the scenery etc. You miss so much when you’re running from place to place while following a schedule.

An Annual Passholder, u/RallyXFan, added to the thread with the no-planning benefits:

Winging it is the best. It helps that we are pass holders and go every month or so. We’ll schedule some meals and maybe have one or two things we really want to do. But otherwise we see where life takes us. Takes all the stress out of it.

With Genie+, Lightning Lanes, Individual Lightning Lanes, and Virtual Queues to navigate, the verdict is in: plans are out. According to these die-hard Disney fans, flexibility is the key to a successful Disney trip in an age where it’s most tempting to plan your trip to the last Dole Whip.