Why Planning Matters at Disney? - Justine Fellows

I recently helped a friend plan a trip to Disney World. It was her family's first time to the world with her husband and three young children. She is the ultimate procrastinator, understandably though, she leads a busy city life with a large family. I helped her with the basics- hotels, park passes, to dining plan or not to dining plan. I pushed her to make some basic park decisions and dining reservations with no luck. I sent emails with nice links. Lead her to books I recommended. Nothing. Finally I took it upon myself to make her a nice little plan complete with dining reservations - I was so worried that they wouldn't be able to get into any restaurants at a reasonable time, they wouldn't know which parks to visit and their first Disney experience would be horrible.

 It's so hard for a planner to help a non-planner. For any other trip I can let go- but not for Disney. I can't seem to get across to my friends how a little planning goes a long way. They think I'm rigid, obsessive compulsive, a bit loony. Until they get there.

I always wonder about how people who have never been to Disney must picture it. I assume they've seen the photos on the website but obviously these are pretty limited. Based on the website pictures alone, I have to imagine they think everyone is happy, it's clean, there are always balloons in the daytime and fireworks at night. Based on pictures, a monorail takes you everywhere and the castle is always nearby, so close that you can touch it. The online Disney World is amazing, no waits, perfect skies, perfect temperatures, healthy grandparents, lots of hand holding. No wonder my friends think they don't need to plan. It's simple, wake up, eat with Mickey, ride some rides, carry balloon, eat dinner with a princess, watch fireworks, sleep.

Don't get me wrong- I obviously love Disney but that ain't Disney, as my friend soon found out.

Here are some statistics- Covering 47 square miles, Walt Disney World Resort is about the size of San Francisco or two Manhattan islands. There are four major theme parks- Magic Kingdom Epcot, Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios,  two water parks, Downtown Disney, two miniature golf courses, a Boardwalk area, over 32 resorts, 99 holes of world class golf, more than 230 buses, 12 monorails, a lot of boats and over 54,000 employees. I can go on and on.

There are so many options, so many choices, so much that over stimulates that I often see adults and kids alike melt down. Instead of beating the crowds to the early hour park, non-planners argue over which park to go to and then join the masses. Instead of relaxing by the pool and enjoying an afternoon nap, non-planners tear through maps and guide books trying to figure out which direction to turn. Non-planners find themselves eating in their third or fourth restaurant choice at 4pm or 9pm.

OK, I'm probably preaching to the choir, but let me clarify two things. Planning does not take the place of spontaneity - spontaneity happens everywhere in Disney. Let's boogey over to the Spaceship Earth ride and try to catch a show before dinner, let's exit this way and ride the monorail, let's grab a cold one in United Kingdom while the kids shop in the toy store. Once your in a park, once you've found your way spontaneity will find you! Two, planning is not a burden- it can take just a few hours and will allow your family to make decisions together leading up to the excitement of the trip. You only need some basics- which parks on what days, where should we eat- let's make reservations and you are good to go.

When my friend returned from Disney she called me and the first words out of her mouth were in the form of an apology, "Oh my gosh, I so didn't get it, next time your planning the whole thing!"

Our Very Own Amazing Race: Puerto Rico - Justine Fellows

Hardcore travel fans are an unusual bunch. What sets us apart is often our love of planning, dreaming and absolute obsession with creating the perfect trip. We also love the feeling that unexpected surprises may be around every corner. Travel brings us the ability to enjoy all of our passions from outdoor activities to savoring new foods, from enjoying family moments to tackling new experiences. Traveling with children doesn't have to quell this passion; in fact, I would argue that involving the kids truly enhances your understanding of each other and memories together. 

My family absolutely loves to watch the Amazing Race, a reality show that features teams of two racing around the world to reach amazing destinations, or “pit stops”. The ultimate goal, after many weeks of travel and eliminated teams, is to make it to the final three groups, racing home for one million dollars. The show involves travel, puzzle solving, out of the ordinary foods, and facing one’s fears- often in the form of heights. Our family constantly talks about wanting to run the race- would we be good at it? Which family member would do what task? What travel tips we would know that could help us along the way? In fact, pretending to play the race has come in handy when dealing with unexpected airport delays or lost luggage, we just say, “This happened once on Amazing Race, what would they do?”

After spending some time this summer putting together an holiday trip to Puerto Rico I quickly realized that sitting still just wasn’t going to work for someone like me. I needed to know everything about the island – beaches, customs, foods, events, the language, best places to visit and more. As I began my research and started sharing information with my daughters, my youngest popped the question, “Mom, can’t you make this into the amazing race?” And in my mind I thought, “Hell yah I can!”

And so it began…

Step one, we have a nice condo on the beach, a rental car and plane tickets…what do we need to make this into a race? The answer…adventures, funky foods and help from the locals. I started with the adventures. We were heading to Rincon, Puerto Rico, and after some research I was able to find a wonderful young couple who own a vacation planning business for the area - http://www.rinconvacations.com/. I knew immediately that I had found a good match when the owner called to talk about my needs and wasn’t thrown off by my mention of planning the Amazing Race. Within just a few days of emails back and forth we had booked the following:

·         A two hour horseback ride on the beach through an almond tree forest

·         A four hour eco-tour complete with six ziplines, a 70 foot repel, and a boat ride into a cave (complete with fruit bats)

·         A snorkel trip through  mangrove groves followed by a swim in a bioluminescent bay

·         A private chef to teach my two daughters how to cook Puerto Rican dishes (and yes, I am brilliant, two hours of babysitting with a full meal to boot!). 

In Puerto Rico these were all very reasonably priced, but if cost is a factor, it was easy to be creative and find free options including snorkeling, surfing, public beaches and more.

So now I had my adventures…but how in the heck was I going to reproduce the race? Probably the most important piece of the show is the envelopes. The teams are always running towards clue boxes where they have to retrieve a distinct looking envelope with and even more distinct pull tear. Inside were the clues that involved road blocks, fast forwards and detours. I knew that I could spend a chunk of time creating these, but with some searching online I came across this little gem of a website: http://www.chicaandjo.com/2010/07/05/amazing-race-party/ and rejoiced in the fact that I had just gained about ten hours of time! The site gave me beautiful templates that fit perfectly into the tear envelopes complete with a link to buy them.

So now the fun began – my forte – planning! I started “Disney style” with a nice big spreadsheet. I then entered out our travel time, some meals at restaurants I knew that I wanted to try, the four booked adventures and some down time. Each day involved between 2-5 different envelopes with clues, the most were on travel days when it helped to keep the kids amused during the “boring” parts. Some were individual tasks and some involved different variations on teams.

My detours, fast forwards and road blocks included:

• Finding facts about Puerto Rico in the airport bookstore
• Splitting up into teams to get two separate lists of groceries
• Finding shells and sea glass
• Completing the four adventures
•  Serving Mom and Dad dinner after a cooking lesson
• Tasting a different food – plantains, roasted pork on the side of the road, empanadillas, coconut
• Writing down Spanish words, facts about Puerto Rico and what they had learned

And much more…

Here’s what we found out:

·         Including the directions, grocery list, confirmation numbers and contact information on the cards made our lives really easy! The girls ripped open an envelope and everything we needed was inside and we were ready to go

·         The kids not only loved it but the race actually eliminated complaints and fear. They took it seriously and did what they needed to finish the tasks. My youngest who hates being sticky didn’t even mention four hours covered in sand and salt. My oldest conquered snorkeling because she was determined to complete the road block.

·         Travel time to our destinations became fun. The excitement of the race made the time in the car part of the adventure. The kids helped with maps, and used our iPhone GPS to follow where we were going.

·         Even people who didn’t know the Amazing Race were happy to help us. I had to do a lot of “clue distribution” which usually meant slipping a clue to a random person – security guard in the airport, flight attendant, horse-back guide. I just said “we are playing a game would you please give this to the girls” and they were happy, sometimes elated to participate. The excited JetBlue flight attendant actually delivered the clue in the big basket of snacks.

·         The girls knew that the race wasn’t real but they pretended it was. They never even questioned it. When plans didn’t work out or we decided to skip something there were no complaints.

So the moral of the story- throw a little planning magic and travel passion into your family trip and you will get many returns! I find great joy in organizing, planning and dreaming, so this was a perfect challenge for me. Amazing Race made our trip into an adventure we will never forget.