Magic Kingdom experiences two partial closures in the last week of the year for capacity

The thing is, Gonch, you've been saying for years that Disney is moving toward a "plan everything" direction, and we're saying that it's still just "plan a few things," as it always has been. The thing that has changed is the efficiency of it all (largely because it's electronic), but most of the wins come for Disney in that they can use their mountain of data to get their resource allocation right, and tweak FP distribution to "guide" guests toward certain attractions. Fortunately, these all have the side effect of improving overall guest experience.

I think part of what Gonch has been saying is that if Disney knows you have a Fastpass for Pirates at 10 am, a Fastpass for Soarin' at 4pm, and a dinner reservation at Le Cellier at 6pm, you're likely hitting Magic Kingdom for a few hours and spending the rest of the day at Epcot. So while you may not have explicitly planned out your day, you've effectively planned out your day.

Well, except you can't split your FP's across two parks. :)

That's what I get trying to post while watching Judge Judy. :)

I usually don't like people putting words in my mouth - except when they say something better than I would have.

Slithernoggin's last line sums it up perfectly...and we've talked through it before.

I never said you'd plan every minute - in fact, I often tried to repeat that point. That was always assumed by those that don't get it. Obviously, breathing room has to be built in. But much like Brian compares Disney planning to any vacation planning, I compare a Disney itinerary to any vacataion itinerary.

You have bulletpoints. That's an itinerary. At some point you've hit enough points that your day is efectively preplanned. Seriously, who doesn't do this in general anyway - especially on a (relatively) expensive vacation?

Whether you need to or not, Disney still encourages prebooking things. It's all over their website.

Book a meal or two. and you know which park you're in for the day. Book three fastpasses and now you have a total of five bulletpoints. Have a show you want to see? There are showtimes...that you have to plan around the five reservations you already have...essentially boxing you into limited (and pre-planned) decision making. Another attraction or two you didn't get FastPass for? Well, squeeze those in between everything else that has a time attached.

All Disney really has to do is slip in another bullet point or three (perhaps show reservations and another FastPass) and, like it or not, you've effectively planned your day.

And I still love the idea of preplanned suggestion itineraries based on your preferences and demographic. Imagine an option to get more reserved times if you pick one of Disney's suggested itineraries (which would of course have some clever name making it sound like a fun bonus option rather than a schedule of sorts) - so much potential. But I digress...

It feels like "plan a few things" but it's not. It only takes Disney sort of 'encouraging' you to plan a few things to be enough to make the rest happen. Perhaps that's where I tended to miss the mark (at least in the current incarnation)?

It only takes pushing a few dominoes to make them all fall...plus, it's a sweet spot. It's enough planning to make the "make sure do everything" crowd feel like they're doing everything while still being little enough to make the "I just like to go hang and do my thing" crowd feel like they're doing their thing.

If you're on an annual pass or a frequent visitor, you likely get the FastPasses and chill or bail or whatever. If you're a once or twice or whatever the average is visitor, you're likly going to have things that are "must have" well beyond the reservations available and you easily fall into the effectively preplanned crowd.