Step 1: Pick Your Theme Parks

Walt Disney World Resort Theme Parks

In Walt Disney World Resort, Orlando there are four major theme parks to choose from. They are Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Disney’s Hollywood Studios, and Disney’s Animal Kingdom. Outside the four main parks are two Disney Water Parks which are Typhoon Lagoon and Blizzard Beach.

Within the Walt Disney World Resort you will also find other exciting attractions, shopping, dining, and entertainment areas spread throughout the Resort. They are Disney’s Boardwalk, Downtown Disney, and Disney’s Wide World of Sports Complex. These are great places to take a break from the busy parks and still provide great fun for an entire family of all ages.

Alot of people like to pay a visit to these locations the day they arrive at the Resort and the last day before they leave. It’s a nice way to have fun on half days after you check into your Hotel, or to just relax and take a break from all that excitemnet from the Parks on your last day before you leave.

Disneyland Resort Theme Parks

If your traveling to Disneyland Resort California then you will have the option of choosing Disneyland Park and Disney’s California Adventure. Also within the Resort is Downtown Disney that’s full of shops, dining, and entertainment to serve as a break from the parks.

Step 1…

Quickly browse through the Parks, download the maps and get a good feel for the attractions, entertainment, and events. Once you have a good feel for the parks your now ready to begin…

A. Draw two lines down the center of a sheet of paper making three columns. On the first column write attractions. On the second column write entertainment. On the third column write dining and shopping. Make a copy for each person that will be going on vacation with you.

Give everyone who will be going on vacation one of the blank lists you just made. Now have each person go to this site and browse through each Park and write in the appropiate column what they really want to see, hear, and experiance while they are at the Parks. There really is no such thing as too much at this point, just make sure everyone writes down all of their favorites and has fun with this step.

B. Now have everyone go back over their list and quickly mark next to each thing an A, B, or C in each column.

A stands for things you must experience.
B stands for things you really want to experience but you could live without them.
C stands for things you would like to experience but next to A and B they’re an easy trade off.

Now go next to each item and write the initials of each park next to each item.

C. Now get a new sheet of paper and make a Master List by creating a column for each park within the Disney World or Disneyland Resort. Simply draw a line down the paper making the right number of columns needed. Now, gather everyones list and write down the name of each item on their list in the appropriate Park column.You only need to write the name of the item once for each Park.

Example: If John’s list has Space Mountain on it and next to it I see MK; I know to write Space Mountain in the Magic Kingdom section of my new list. I will then keep writing down everything on John’s list in the appropriate Park column until it’s done. Then if Mary has Space Mountain on her list too I don’t have to write down Space Mountain again because it’s already on the Master List. I can skip that a move onto the next item. So if every item is already on the list I dont have to transfer anything. I only have to write in the columns anything new for each Park.

Once all the items are transferred onto the Master List it’s now time to see what the must see items are. With the Master list in front of you starting with the first item find that same item on everyone else’s list and write on your Master List how many A’s, B’s, or C’s are next to that item.

Example: If Space Mountain is on the Master List then that means that at least one person voted for it. So you will then look on everyone’s list for Space Mountain and the add up how many A’s, B’s, or C’s there are and write them next to Space Mountain on the Master List like this…

A2, B1 C1 Space Mountain - this means there were 2 A’s, 1 B, and 1 C.

After your done transfering all the totals of A, B, C’s for each item in each Park you can fing out which Parks are the best of the best.

Now take out a seperate sheet of paper and title it Theme Park Totals. Write all the Theme parks down giving each one it’s own line. Now go over your Master List and for each theme park add up how many A’s and write theme on the Theme Park Totals List after the appropriate Theme Park. Then go back to that same Park and get the totals for B’s and C’s and write them down next to the A’s. Now repeat this process for each Park until all the totals are transferred to the Theme Park Totals List.

You can now see which Park is King of your Disney Vacation. The one with the most A’s wins. Write a number 1 next to that Park. To get your final three Parks simply choose the one with the second largest amount of A’s and B’s then the third etc. The C’s will serve as a backup if for some reason you dont want to wait in long lines or cant visit a particular attraction for whatever reason.

So you should now have your Big Three Theme Parks.

You can now use your Master List and Theme Park Totals List as the final authority on your Disney vacation in case people in your group are tempted to veer off to another Park this will maintain your focus on whats really important to everyone. Remember A,s and B’s are the focus and C’s are backup.

So you have an even clearer idea of what Parks are absolutely must sees on your vacation. If you’re taking a three day vacation then you may want to do one Theme Park per day depending on what Parks you choose and what attractions you want to see. Some parks take longer then others to fully experience everything on your list so for now this step is to give you a general idea of what parks you want to see the most.

Once you set your budget and plan your vacation dates then you will set this step in stone and decide exactly what Parks you will go to for sure. But nothing comes out exactly as we plan does it? No. So you will want to remain flexible as people will change their minds or something might grab your attention that you didn’t notice before.

The further along you go on the planning process the more clarity you will get and this will give you piece of mind and help you have the most magical and worry free Disney vacation possible.

Your plan serves as a flexible guide that will keep you on a ruff track that as you veer off here and there it will serve as a light to bring you back and remind you of where you want to be and what is most important to you and your family.

After you choose which Parks you want to see the most then move on to step two and look at the Disney’s exciting Special Events to see when’s the best time to go. So here’s the list of Disney Parks, browse through each one now and begin step one.