Time and Money at Walt Disney World

HITTING THE WALL AT WALT DISNEY WORLD

Say you are following this site’s summer itinerary, and tomorrow is Wednesday.

You’ve had a wonderful time so far…but are starting to hit the wall.  Tomorrow is another early morning…and you don’t want to get up. 

It’s another scheduled sit-down dinner…and even though you are on the dining plan, and probably won’t be able to use the left-over sit-down credit, you just don’t want to be scheduled. 

You are thinking a sandwich and margarita by the pool, at exactly the time you choose, will do just fine.

Your family is showing signs of strain, too. 

Everything’s going great so far, but the whining is starting to grow, and the itinerary is beginning to be viewed as the enemy.

But you’ve spent all this money, and you can’t get any of it back.  What do you do?

HOW TO RECOVER FROM YOUR VACATION SO FAR

What you are trying to do is to have the overall best week.

If this means you have to skip some stuff, and take care of yourselves instead, then so be it.  Yes, you spent money that you can’t get back.  But your decision about tomorrow won’t get you that money back, either. 

Make the best decision at the moment that you can, focusing on the new costs of the new decisions.  You can’t change the impact of decisions you have already made…all you can do is make the best decisions for tomorrow.

And that decision is probably to take a day off.

A DISNEY WORLD VACATION, NOT A PRISON SENTENCE

These kinds of decisions are easier if you know you will be coming back. 

By the time you’ve seen a couple of the Walt Disney World theme parks, you’ll know whether or not you are gonna return.

If you will be returning to Walt Disney World…then the rest of the schedules just don’t matter that much. 

Whatever you might miss this time around, you can see next time.

If you are sure you won’t be coming back, the choices will feel a little harder.  This site has resources you can use to trim back you days—see The Comprehensive Guide to Rides for the best-loved rides by age group, and see the complementary page Rides that Might be Skipped for more help.

But what if you just need an unscheduled day off? And you don’t see any way out of missing some of Disney World’s best?

The cost of a decision is the difference between it and your next best alternative.  Think about how you feel now, and how you expect you might feel a month from now.  Use this to measure the gap between your options, and pick the one that promises the best feeling both tomorrow and later.

Walt Disney World is more like a backpacking trip than it is like a day at the beach.  A backpacking trip is work—you are carrying 20 to 60 pounds on your back, while walking 5 to 20 miles a day.  But it’s work in the service of fun.

That said, experienced backpackers on challenging treks build into their route plans some days off.

If the balance of your Walt Disney World trip gets wrong—too much work, too much schedule, too many deadlines, too many instructions—take a morning, a day off, or even more time off, and give yourself and your family a break!

It’s a vacation, not a prison sentence!

WALT DISNEY WORLD ITINERARY LINKS

• For itinerary design goals and the basic December Itinerary, see this
• For shorter and longer itineraries targeted at the same December week, see this
• For itineraries covering all the other parts of the year, see this
• To design your own itinerary, see this
• For rides that might be skipped, see this
• For a comprehensive guide to rides and attractions, see this

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