Plan on Planning

As the new year develops and we near the end of winter and start thinking about spring and beyond, dreams of travel begin to form in people’s minds. Florida is currently the nation’s most visited state by other Americans at an estimated 61%. According to Visit Florida, the sunshine state had over 100 million visitors in 2022.

For Marzz and I, being recent transplants to Florida, we knew that we would have family and friends who would want to come and visit us in our new home. This is something we welcome and hope to continue to maintain our wonderful friendships. Having said that, as I have mentioned numerous times prior, there is planning involved (at least for me).

In our last blog we discussed planning to account for travel time. Whether that was traffic, getting through a security checkpoint, or simply walking from point A to point B. All of those hold true, but there is another aspect that I didn’t quite hit on, which are reservations.

According to TEA/AECOM, Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom Park had an estimated 12.7 million visitors in 2022: an in 83% increase from the previous 2020 study. Universal Orlando parks also had a stunning year, coming in second and third respectively. Universal’s Island of Adventure Park came in with 9.1 million, closely followed by Universal Studios Florida at 9 million.

Not that it should be of any surprise to anyone that the theme parks here in Central Florida garner a lot of visitors and seeing those numbers can be a sobering moment for anyone looking to share their vacation with those other millions of people.

What this adds up to for us is that planning becomes that much more important, and reservations can be a make or break it element of that planning.

From theme parks and hotels, to restaurants, and experiences, pretty much all of them accept reservations. This is good for you, but there’s a catch. As Morpheus might remind us, it is a system, therefore it has rules. Unlike the Matrix, generally speaking, these rules cannot be broken. To find out the specifics of how each destination may operate their reservation system, we recommend doing some online research first. All of the major destinations have websites that will explain how far in advance you can make reservations for dining, shows, and any other part of your vacation.

Study these rules and work them to your favor. This may mean waking up very early to book a reservation. For example, when we lived in California and wanted to book a reservation for a Disney World restaurant, we had to wake up and book at 3am PST in order to have a fighting chance to secure that dining reservation.

I say have a fighting chance, but more like, crossing your fingers and hoping for the best. Sometimes I feel like Vegas can give you better odds on a craps table than these places might give you, but like I said, these are the rules, and we must obey.

So again, learn how these systems work and make sure you plan. In the case of booking a reservation early in the morning, set your alarm with enough time to wake up, turn on your computer or device, and be coherent enough to book the correct location and date and time that you need. Some websites require you to create an account. If this is the case, do this in advance, so you save that time during the frenzy in the morning. You can also save payment options to your account, as most restaurants want a credit card on file to hold the reservation as well as process any cancelation or no-show fees that may apply. Get all of this information entered beforehand.

When the time comes to book your reservation, use website shortcuts to go directly to the page that you need to be on in order to book. Some websites will autofill certain fields. Use any and all tools available to you that will save you precious seconds.

Like any system that is meant to be “first come, first served”, there are always questions from users about whether or not it is truly fair. I wish I knew the answer, but I have to assume that it is first come, first served. If you have that mindset, it will set you up for success. Apply all of the things that we have been discussing and be as fast as you can to the finish. Once you hit submit, hopefully you get confirmation that you secured the reservation that you were seeking. If you should get an error or a message stating that the date and/or time are unavailable, don’t panic. Remain calm, and quickly start the process over. Perhaps make an adjustment to the date and/or time if you can. This reminds me of another good point, which is, to always have backup plans. You do not ever want to find yourself being those people standing in the middle of a walkway trying to figure out what you should do next because an attraction unexpectedly went down, or a restaurant closed for refurbishment ahead of time, or inclimate weather caused delays or cancelations of a show. All of these are real things that can happen, and you want to have backup plans, including the pre-planning stages while you’re still trying to book reservations.

Having said that, sometimes, you or a member of your group may be the cause of a change of plans. Regardless, if a change needs to happen and you don’t have an immediate backup plan, you should study the areas that you’ll be in. Whether that is a theme park, knowing what land you’re in, or what attractions, shows, or eateries are nearby. Or being at the beach, or in a downtown district, have an idea of other places nearby.

Back to booking early, some places may allow you to book months in advance. This really favors the planners, and you should be one of them. Booking months in advance, knowing that you have secured that coveted location for the birthday celebration or anniversary, will alleviate a lot of stress for you and allow you to focus on other elements of your trip.

Some locations may require a deposit, so be ready if this is the case. You may need to allocate funds for your trip, far ahead of time.

Those traveling with children, another thing to keep in mind are height requirements. If you’re planning something months out and your child is a half inch shy of the height requirement, you may be okay, or you may be running a risk of omitting a large number of rides that they’ll be able to partake in, so be careful. Obviously, you’ll have a much better idea on how quickly you think your child will grow, but still, something to keep in mind.

Another thing to watch out for are the opening and closing times for places. Depending on when a location closes and the next day’s location opens, may make a difference on the order in which you visit the theme parks. For example, Disney’s Animal Kingdom is rarely open after 7pm due to the animals and respecting sleep times for them. This means, any day in which you plan on visiting Animal Kingdom, you will essentially have your evening available. We recommend using this time to eat at a nearby resort hotel. Having a dinner reservation will allow you to park at that resort, so if you’re driving, this will help a lot. If you’re taking Disney’s bus transportation, still a great option. It also allows you to explore a location in which you might not have seen otherwise. Disney has nearly 30 hotels! Each one is unique and offers some amazing food and experiences. For anyone who has visited Disney World before, you may find it difficult on returning trips to book a new/different hotel because you had such a great time at the hotel on your last trip? I know we sometimes have this issue and therefore it makes it challenging to get to see other properties and this is a great way to achieve that.

If you’re not interested in dining options, choosing a location that closes early can make way for you to park hop, if your tickets allow for it, or I recommend an evening of relaxation. Go back to your room, have a drink, and just relax. This can go a long way, especially if you’ve packed your trip hour by hour like my family tends to do.

For anyone who dislikes planning, first, let me thank you for still reading this far. Second, no worries. I know plenty of people who wing it. They make it up as they go, and they’re happy with what they get. I envy this style in a way, I definitely need to plan things out. But if you’re one of those folks who can just go with the flow, then just know that others may be planning, so you may end up needing more than just a plan “B”, but perhaps all the way to a plan “Z”.

As always, thank you for visiting our blog. We hope to have some YouTube videos up again soon. With so many life changes going on for us, it has been difficult for us to post our videos, but we have been filming some things, and hope to share those with you soon. Best of luck and good times for your travel adventures and we hope we have helped in some small way.