How do you decide who plans?

In my experience, one person steps up because no one else has taken the responsibility and if said person doesn't it won't get done. That is of course exclusive of those situations where one person just volunteers to do the planning from the onset because they enjoy doing so.

We've always travelled with friends who have much more Disney experience than us and were more than happy to assume the planning responsibilities. Our next trip may be with first timers who will be looking to us (me) to show them the ropes.

I've had similar experiences to LIFL -- someone ends up shouldering the burden when nobody else wants to do so. This is mostly because it's really hard to "split the work" when planning a Disney trip. It's usually easier when one person takes into account everyone's likes and dislikes and just plans for everything. But I can see why it would seem one-sided.

Tony -- Are you bringing newbies with you?!

That sounds like fun! Traveling with people who aren't "Disney veterans" is always a blast. It's like seeing your favorite place through new eyes.

Unfortunately, even when we travel in a big group, I end up doing most of the planning. Not all, but most. It seems that everyone else is content to go along with most of my suggestions, or they don't want to be the one who makes the decision that no one else will agree to. So I tend to end up as the "social planner". In fact, because of the things that I've planned in the past, many of my Disney friends almost automatically expect that we do so-and-so on the trip because I would have arranged it based on past habits (such as a dinner at Boma).

On this upcoming trip at the end of April, I already have made plans for breakfast and dinner already, and one other activity, on behalf of the group. I basically got everyone's schedules, and they let me arrange everything else.

Not only that, we already made a couple of arrangements already on some of the plans we have for our August trip as well! Everyone in our travel group waited for me to decide if we will do the extra Breakfast/Dessert reception during the pin event (we end up doing the Dessert reception only).

So to answer your question on who decide who plans, it is predominantly ME!

Zz.

When Jan and I go with friends and family, Jan plans the dates we can all fit in. Once we get there, and are all settled in, everyone does their own thing. Works out just fine for all.
Joe

Zapperz, I'm pretty sure I'd trust you, too! What are some of your other "traditions," and how many people do you usually travel with?

Joe -- That sounds really nice and relaxing. I think that as long as everyone knows WDW well and has a family/other people to spend time with, letting everyone do their own thing might work out best.

This is a no brainer in our house, I do the planning! I have a crazy amount of fun planning for vacations and my husband knows enough to just stay out of my way!!!

I'm trying to be a little more laid back in my planning this year though, it's working with varying degrees of success.

The first time we went to Disney World (with friends), nobody did much planning and we spent half of our time standing around asking each other what we should do next. And everyone responded, I don't know, what do you want to do? We didn't have a clue where things were or how to get there. We had no ADRs. We wasted half our trip wondering what to do next.

Now, I do all the planning, mainly because if I didn't, we'd STILL spend half our vacation standing around asking each other what we should do next. Of course, I ask everyone about attractions they especially want to experience and restaurants they really want to try. But even with their input, the best thing about doing all the planning is that I get to have things my way!

I do all of the planning and I love it. We went with friends on our last trip and it was hard not to be so controlling though, I kept asking them for input but they actually wanted me to do everything. My husband does like to sit down and go over everything with me.

I ask for input on where my family wants to stay and what restaurants they want to visit. I also consider what characters they want to see so I can plan character meals. Then I go crazy planning everything. I try to leave some things open on the last two days so we can revisit whatever park they want to see again.

I enjoyed the planning of our trip, and wouldn't mind going through the process again.

I'm a control freak, so I always end up doing all the planning and putting it all together. I love to figure out the hotels, ADRs, what parks, what days....OMG. I love it! It makes me so excited!

This is why it's so important to have a captain of the trip IMO! (I am NOT the captain btw. )

OMG I THINK WE WERE SEPARATED AT BIRTH!

Triplets separated at birth. Me too!