How to Plan a Trip to Disneyland with a Day-by-Day Guide

So you’re planning a Disneyland vacation? Awesome! I’m going to show you exactly how to plan a trip by using my day-by-day guide.

To better help with Disney Park planning, every Tuesday morning, I’m going to post a short post with a tip (or tips) related to strategy, planning or budgeting. So welcome to the very first Disney Tip Tuesday! I’m super excited to say that I’m going to Disneyland this September, so what better way to start off this series than to show you exactly how I plan every single one of my Disney vacations?

I’ve used this method for years and tons of Disney trips, and I have to say, it really works. What I like about my planning method is that it provides a great guideline to what I’ll be doing during the trip, but still allows for lots of variation in case I change my mind on what I want to do when I get there.

I’ve developed a super easy to use spreadsheet that shows you exactly how to plan a trip to Disneyland using my day-by-day guide. The guide breaks down each vacation day by the hour, so I have a visual representation of where we’ll be and what we’ll be doing at any given point during the trip.

I feel like this helps avoid certain chaos, namely indecision. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gone to Disneyland and everyone is so excited, we get there early in the morning, and then . . . INDECISION. No one can agree on where to go first. Or, even worse, no one has much of a preference and we sort of end up standing around forever trying to figure out what to do. Indecision or disagreements waste your park time and can cause stress, which is exactly what my planning method avoids.

So my tip is this: Use the spreadsheet I’ve created to plan your trip. I promise it’s totally easy and customizable to you. There is one for Disneyland and one for Walt Disney World. Let me know in the comments below if you want your free download and I will send it to you!

I like to color code each item so it’s visually easier to clarify what we’ll be doing each day. I feel like this helps me see things better and I’m not just looking at a bunch of squares with text in them.

Don’t worry if you aren’t sure exactly what rides or attractions you want to do. As you can see from my example, I just block out very general times and places so I have an idea of what’s happening and when. And I can easily move things around if I change my mind.

I’ll be posting a more descriptive article about how I determine when to do specific rides or attractions within each day or block of park time in a later post. But for today, my Disney tip is to use my vacation planner, and know that you won’t be wasting time and money trying to figure out where to go when you should really be relaxing and having a blast!

Be sure to follow me on Instagram @everafterreport and Subscribe to get my FREE Travel Planner!

 

P.S. Did I mention we’re going to celebrate the 60^th Diamond Anniversary of Disneyland? It’s the second time I’ve gone with my entire extended family which is my parents, my husband, my sister and brother-in-law, and my 92-year-old Grandma. 92! You go, Grandma!